Plant life history and functional characteristics play an important role in determining the invasive potential of plant species and have implications for management approaches. We studied the distribution of 24 alien plant taxa in a protected area in relation to different land-uses by applying ordination analyses and generalized linear models. Taxa richness is best explained by the presence of built-up areas, followed by residential areas, marshlands, and agricultural lands with semi-natural formations. The diversity of land-use within the grid cell proved to be an important explanatory factor, being the only significant variable explaining the richness of wood perennials and vines. The richness of annual herbs and seed-dispersed taxa is explained by a similar set of variables, with the exception of residential areas. The richness of invasive species is explained only by agricultural land and the diversity of land-use. The richness of taxa with predominant vegetative dispersal is best explained by built-up, marshland, and seminatural areas along with land-use diversity. When we consider only the presence of plant groups within grid cells, the results are similar. The results of similar studies may provide an important tool for defining sustainable practices and overall conservation management in protected areas. Globalization of biodiversity is one of the consequences of the ongoing human influence on ecological patterns and processes. Alien plant species, especially invasive ones, are considered one of the greatest threats to both biodiversity and human society. In Europe, invasive plants have been shown to have particularly strong negative impacts on ecosystems, surpassing even the harm caused by invasive animals . AlthougTo halt the loss of biodiversity, a number of different conservation tools have been developed. Protected areas aim to preserve biodiversity within specific geographic boundaries, along with the terrestrial or marine landscape and the human actions that have shaped that diversity throughout history, by applying appropriate conservation management. In order to standardize management objectives worldwide, the IUCN proposed to assign protected areas to different categories  accordinStudies have shown that all management categories can be affected by the pressure represented by alien plant species. The highest number of sites with alien species problems has been reported for categories II, IV, and V . While cWhile inventories of alien species within protected areas can serve as an indicator of the state of the protected area , additioIn this study, we aim to identify patterns of occurrence of alien species  based oConyza (C. sumatrensis (Retz.) E.Walker, C. canadensis (L.) Cronquist, and C.bonariensis (L.) Cronquist), followed by Aster squamatus (Spreng.) Hieron. and Robinia pseudoacacia L. with 175 and 148 occurrences, respectively. Although C. sumatrensis is the most widely distributed species in the study area, we decided to consider it only at the genus level due to difficulties in identification at later stages and similarities in life history and ecology.A total of 24 alien taxa were recorded with 992 occurrences altogether . The larRobinia pseudoacacia, Helianthus tuberosus L., Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle, and Erigeron annuus (L.) Desf, with the first species being the most numerous in the study area (Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch., Passiflora caerulea L., Phyllostachys sp., Ligustrum lucidum W.T.Aiton, Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) L’Hér. Ex Vent., and Cortaderia selloana (Schult. & Schult.f.) Asch. & Graebn., are also cultivated in gardens, and their occurrence in nature is probably the result of escapes. This trend is supported by the analysis of distance to private homes and, to some extent, distance to tourist facilities .The unconstrained analysis DCA,  left genp = 0.014), followed by marshland , coast  and built-up areas . However, when adjusted p-values are considered, only the marshland land-use category shows statistical significance.The constrained analysis CCA,  right anWe found that the richness in the different categories is distributed differently over the study area . RichnesThe land-use values did not show high collinearity and were, therefore, all used for model fitting. Land-use diversity at both accuracy levels showed a high correlation, so it was included in the models individually. Taxa richness is best explained by the presence of built-up areas along with residential areas, marshlands, and agricultural lands with semi-natural formations such as grasslands and hedgerows . An impoIf we consider only the presence of plant groups within the grid cells, the results are similar. The presence of woody perennials and vines is only well explained by the diversity of land-use within the grid cell . PresencHabitat heterogeneity and niche partitioning are among the most important factors impacting taxa richness ,43,44 anIn general, we observed that cells with more diverse land-use support the highest number of aliens in the study area. In the study area, agriculture is the most prevalent land-use within the landscape park (IUCN category V), while (anthropogenic) coastal wetlands and natural areas—consisting of sub-Mediterranean forest fragments and natural coast—dominate in the two nature reserves (IUCN IV category). Agriculture proved to be an important factor influencing the occurrence of alien species. The results show that the diversity of annual taxa and taxa spread mainly by seeds is promoted by agriculture. A particular significance for the occurrence of annual alien taxa was attributed to the cover of field crops and olive groves. To ensure proper production of agricultural crops, farmers must adopt suitable ways to control weeds on agricultural land. The primary role of protected areas is conservation of biodiversity richness and processes, thus agricultural practices should follow rules that ensure favourable conditions for the environment and the conservation of biodiversity. This is particularly important as we have found that agriculture is a major factor explaining the occurrence of invasive species. However, the role of protected areas consists also in achieving socio-cultural objectives, aimed at sustainable development . An examSenecio inaequidens DC., Lonicera japonica Thunb., Helianthus tuberosus). Others, such as Aster squamatus, are still considered at lower risk, as non-invasive species. However, due to their environmental engineering abilities, they may pose a potential threat to native species and habitats in the projected climate changes [Coastal wetlands are also subject to problems resulting from the spread of alien species, leading to species loss and a reduction in functional diversity . The imp changes . This isAmorpha fruticosa, Ailanthus altissima). However, our results did not show a major correlation between the diversity of alien species or their occurrence within this land-use category.Other coastal habitats, like sand dunes and rocky shores, have been shown to be under pressure due to the spread of alien plant species as well . In StruAs we postulated, the least impacted areas are the more pristine areas dominated by sub-Mediterranean forest stands and flysch cliffs along the natural shoreline. In general, forest stands are considered to be less susceptible to invasion by aliens than other habitats . HoweverPassiflora caerulea, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Ligustrum lucidum) or have been intentionally introduced (Phyllostachys sp.). Due to projected climate changes, the spread of some of these taxa should be carefully monitored because they have been identified as problematic invasive species in warmer areas of the world [Paspalum dilatatum Poir.), management of public lands  plays an important role in their introduction, establishment, and continued spread [Land-use diversity was the only significant variable explaining the diversity of woody, vine, and invasive species in the models. In the previous chapter, we have already emphasised that different land-uses can influence the distribution of plant groups based on different traits. In addition, the spread of alien species is accelerated in fragmented landscapes, especially when major portions of such areas consist of disturbed or man-made habitats ,56,57. The world ,33. For d spread .As the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation, protected areas should be at the forefront of the fight against biological invasions. Protection in itself will not reduce the threat of alien species, therefore, in-situ conservation of biodiversity by detecting and controlling the spread of alien species should be prioritized in protected areas’ management plans. Raising awareness of alien species issues should be in the focus of their conservation efforts. Because of their high standing in society, protected-area managers should take advantage of this to promote activities aimed at improving the implementation of conservation measures by local inhabitants and other users of the services provided by the area, including visitors . This isThe Strunjan Landscape Park is a protected area situated in the south-western part of Slovenia on the eastern Adriatic coast . It comp2 [The Strunjan Peninsula is characterized by a hilly landscape where agricultural land and farmhouses form a mosaic landscape, which has developed due to favorable natural conditions such as the submediterranean climate and leeward aspect, that allowed humans to settle and develop traditional economic activities in the area. Agriculture shaped the cultural landscape of the Strunjan Peninsula and has maintained a significant impact on the landscape. In the last decades, the coverage of traditional agricultural land decreased, and practices shifted from non-permanent towards permanent plantations  that are presently a predominant element in the area. The importance of traditional agriculture is decreasing as it no longer represents the main source of income for the area’s inhabitants, thus making it less appealing for the new inhabitants. The consequences of such changes are reflected in the abandonment and overgrowth of agricultural lands and in the loss of landscape elements and diversity. Despite being one of the most populated protected areas in Slovenia with a population density ranging from 112 to 336 inhabitants per km2 , only a A second, economically important activity in the area is tourism. The location of the park is very favorable for touristic activities due to good transport infrastructure, proximity to major coastal towns and the attractive seascape. Each year the park is visited by approximately 300,000 visitors, concentrated in the summer season . The 18 Conyza spp.). We determined invasive status based on the register of invasive species in the Republic of Slovenia . Because plant life history and functional traits play an important role in determining the invasive potential of plant species [We collected data on the occurrence of all naturalized or supposedly escaped alien plant species within the boundaries of the protected area between 2017 and 2020. Occurrences of individuals or groups of individuals were recorded using a GPS device (Garmin) in WGS84 coordinate systems and subsequently projected to coordinate system D96TM. Taxonomic status was determined based on regional and European floras ,69,70,71 species , and hav species , we focuAgricultural holdings and use unit (GERK) provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia (2020) and the Land cadastre provided by the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (2019). Missing information was supplemented by additional fieldwork in 2020 and interpretation of digital orthophotos at a 1:5000 scale . Spatial data were obtained and further completed in D96TM national coordinate systems. We compiled two accuracy levels of land-use data . We calculated the distance of taxa occurrence to private homes and tourist facilities using the ‘Near’ tool. The extent of land-use was calculated by summing the areas of each polygon within the grid cell using the ‘Zonal Statistics as Table’ tool. The land-use in each cell was then expressed as a percentage. We also calculated the number of different land-use categories per grid cell. We considered both levels of accuracy in all land-use calculations.Distances to private homes and tourist facilities were visualized using boxplots from the R package ‘ggplot2’ . Only tap and adjusted p values using pseudo-F statistics and significance calculated using the permuted data. Results of all statistical analyses were considered significant if the probability of the null hypothesis was less than 0.05.Ordination analyses were performed using Canoco v. 5  . UnconstTo understand the distribution of alien taxa in the studied area, we calculated generalized linear models (GLM) using land-use data as predictors. Collinearity of predictors was assessed by calculating Pearson correlation coefficients. GLMs with Poisson distribution and log linkage were fitted to examine the relationship between predictor variables and taxa richness, while presence–absence data were examined using GLMs with binomial distribution and logit linkage. We fitted GLMs that included all predictors and included only statistically significant predictors from the first model. Models were compared on the basis of AIC value. Correlations and GLMs were calculated using the R package ‘stats’ .


As the living standard of people rises, quality and safety traits of agricultural plants have received growing attentions by consumers and breeders alike. Quality traits are known as traits that offer better appearance, flavor, taste, nutrition, longer shelf life and less damage to plant products, while safety traits can be defined as plant traits that are directly or indirectly linked to human health, such as the content of antioxidant compounds in horticultural products. Typical quality and safety traits include, but are not limited to, appearance, texture, taste, flavor and aroma of plant products; nutritional, anti-nutritional or allergic component contents; uptake, accumulation and degradation of exogenous toxic substances by plants; synthesis and transformation of endogenous harmful substances in plants; post-harvest quality change and shelf life. Some quality and safety traits are more closely related to the environment or human activities, such as the accumulation of heavy metals, antibiotic residues and the novel artificial nanoparticles in plants. Tremendous efforts are being put into breeding programs to synergistically improve quality and safety traits, which, however, are in some cases impeded by the trade-offs among target traits. For example, plants may contain certain components, for instance, stone cells, anti-nutritional factors and allergens, which are beneficial to their own but unfavorable for human consumption or detrimental to health  and dietary fiber. Tea plant has huge health benefits and economic values. Tea contains many secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, theanine and alkaloids, which play many health benefits in human body  and fruit firmness based on hyperspectral images and deep learning regression, which offers a new solution for non-destructive assessment of cherry tomato fruit quality .Accurate acquisition of the phenotypic data is prerequisite for trait improvement. The past decades have witnessed big progress in phenotyping techniques and methods, covering a wide range of traits from morphological, biochemical to the physiological levels. For example, advanced mathematical algorithm such as Elliptic Fourier equation was employed in precise and comprehensive quantification of fruit shape in cucurbit crops , recombinant inbred lines (RILs) or double haploids (DHs); genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on natural populations; and faster approaches using bulked-segregant analysis sequencing (BSA-seq) or quantitative trait locus sequencing (QTL-seq) have been mostly applied. For example, a locus strongly associated with firmness and harvest date of fruit was identified in apple by GWAS and the causal gene was found to encode the transcription factor NAC18.1. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were found in both the CDS and promoter regions of NAC18.1, leading to the differential ripening programs among the apple accessions  and “M4-7” (yellow stigma), Lv et al. detected two stable QTLs (SC2.1 and SC8.1) related to stigma color. Apart from melon, the formation mechanism and determinants of fruit quality in cucumber was reviewed by Zhang et al. highlighting the importance of integrating the methods of traditional breeding, molecular markers and bio-technologies. Other than quality traits, studies on diseases resistances of cucumber were summarized by Miao et al., where recent discoveries on the inheritance, molecular markers and QTL mapping of various diseases were reviewed, which sheds lights on the strategy for resistance breeding in this crop.As the genomic technologies burst in the recent decades, genetic dissection of a large number of quality and safety traits have become feasible in many horticultural plants, which solidifies the basis of genetic improvement of the traits. Particularly, pedigree-based genetic mapping using bi-parental populations such as second filial generation  genes in tea. In pepper, 158 carotenoid cleavage oxygenase (CCO) genes were identified by Yao et al. and 10 CONSTANS-like (COL) genes were characteized by Huang et al. and Wang et al. reported the identification of 32 terpene synthases (TPS) genes in Cymbidium faberi. In short, the elucidation of genetic architectures of many important quality and safety traits and the systemic identification of gene families responsible for the trait regulation have laid a foundation for breeding-by-molecular-design.The completeness of genome sequencing in many horticultural plants have allowed genome-wide identification of genes involve in quality and safety traits. Integrative biology features the integration and intersection of multiple disciplines to study the laws of living organisms at the systems level  have great diversity among populations of Brassica wild species  and aquaporin  genes were upregulated by selenite while transporter genes SULTR1;1 and SULTR2;1 were responsive to selenate. Using tissue culture and transcriptomic profiling, Chen et al. showed that activated carbon promoted the development of peony roots into seedlings by stimulating the processes of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and biosynthesis of stratum cutin and suberin. In addition to omics, research paradigm integrating physiological, biochemical and molecular biological methods are also widely used. For example, exogenous application of 5-Aminolevulinic acid and melatonin enhanced the nutritional quality and changed mature period in tomato  and baby mustard , respectively. Zhu et al. employed high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis, comparative transcriptome sequencing and transient expression assay to investigate the regulation of floral pigmentation in orchids. CkCHS-1, CkDFR, and CkANS were identified as putative key genes regulating floral coloration. Another study by Wen et al. analyzed CcERF2, an ethylene-inducible transcription factor that preferentially expressed in the placenta of pepper fruit. Silencing CcERF2 reduced the content of capsaicinoids in pepper, suggesting that the gene involved in the regulation of capsaicinoids biosynthetic pathway. In a review article, Wang et al. summarized the recent research on the evolution and biological functions of the S1-bZIP transcription factors in plants, highlighting their role as signaling hubs through dimerization with cofactors to coordinate the expression of downstream genes. Undoubtedly, integrative biology approaches have been critical for understanding how the many quality and safety traits are determined in horticultural plants.A typical example of integrative biological study of quality and safety traits in horticultural plants is the dissection and manipulation of the bitterness trait in cucumber. Through large-scale phenotyping and genetic mapping, genomic regions governing fruit and leaf bitterness were delimited. Further facilitated by biochemical and molecular approaches, nine genes involved in the cucurbitacin C biosynthesis pathway were identified, and two transcription factors, Bl and Bt, were ultimately determined as the causal gene of leaf and fruit bitterness, respectively  phenotyping of quality and safety traits is generally more difficult; and (2) many of these traits are governed by multiple genes that are more prone to be affected by the environment. In order to accelerate the improvement of these traits, the research community may need to first fully digest and utilize the recent fundamental discoveries in the biology of quality and safety traits in horticultural plants. Particular attentions may be paid to latest research progresses in the innovative phenotyping techniques, exploration of genetic variations, important genes/QTLs that were identified as controlling the interested traits, molecular markers that were developed to tag the target traits, and the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying traits formation. In addition, In summary, the series of researches here describe the latest progresses on quality and safety traits studies in horticultural crops and highlight the combination of phenotyping and genetic methods in this field. In the future, researches on plant quality and safety traits will benefit more from integrative or systems biology strategies to achieve the goal of comprehensively understanding the gene-gene network and the gene-environment interaction. More specifically, focuses will be on: (1) unifying phenomics and genomics to identify the genes controlling traits of interest, which can manifest the power of both high-throughput phenotyping and genotyping technologies; (2) unifying bioinformatics, bioengineering and synthetic biology to design new routes for genetic manipulation; (3) combining traditional and modernized breeding techniques such as marker-assisted backcrossing (MAB), marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARC) and genomic selection (GS) for more efficient and precise development of new varieties with desired traits. Such multi-dimensional efforts are expected to solidify the theoretical foundation as well as provide rich genetic resources for the improvement of quality and safety traits in horticultural plants.All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


Individuals with rectal cancer require a number of pretreatment investigations, often require multidisciplinary treatment, and require ongoing follow-ups after treatment is completed. Due to the complexity of treatments, large variations in practice patterns and outcomes have been identified. At present, few comprehensive, population-level data sets are available for assessing interventions and outcomes in this group.Our study aims to create a comprehensive database of individuals with rectal cancer who have been treated in a single-payer, universal health care system. This database will provide an excellent resource that investigators can use to study variations in the delivery of care to and real-world outcomes of this population.The Ontario Rectal Cancer Cohort database will include comprehensive details about the management and outcomes of individuals with rectal cancer who have been diagnosed in Ontario, Canada (population: 14.6 million), between 2010 and 2019. Linked administrative data sets will be used to construct this comprehensive database. Individual and care provider characteristics, investigations, treatments, follow-ups, and outcomes will be derived and linked. Surgical pathology details, including the stage of disease, histopathology characteristics, and the quality of surgical excision, will be included. Ethics approval for this study was obtained through the Queen’s University Health Sciences and Affiliated Teaching Hospitals Research Ethics Board.Approximately 20,000 individuals who meet the inclusion criteria for this study have been identified. Data analysis is ongoing, with an expected completion date of March 2023. This study was funded through the Canadian Institute of Health Research Operating Grant.The Ontario Rectal Cancer Cohort will include a comprehensive data set of individuals with rectal cancer who received care within a single-payer, universal health care system. This cohort will be used to determine factors associated with regional variability and adherence to recommended care, and it will allow for an assessment of a number of understudied areas within the delivery of rectal cancer treatment.RR1-10.2196/38874 Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in Ontario, Canada, with approximately 9000 cases per year . OntarioThe real-world impact of variations in patterns of care and adherence to recommended treatments is an important aspect of determining the effectiveness of a cancer care system. Individuals with rectal cancer in Ontario have an estimated 5-year survival rate of approximately 70% , but subThe management of individuals with rectal cancer often requires several diagnostic tests, the use of multidisciplinary teams during the delivery of multimodality treatment, and ongoing surveillance for identifying recurrent or metastatic disease. With this level of complexity, the fragmentation of care can occur , and incThere are a number of strategies for assessing the delivery and outcomes of rectal cancer care at a population level. The limitations of many of these approaches are the lack of detailed histopathology data, the inability to assess surgical quality, the discontinuity of care, and high rates of loss to follow-up. The ability to overcome these limitations would substantially improve the ability to assess the real-world effectiveness of cancer care systems and identify the impact of variations in care and/or adherence to recommended care on survival and other important outcomes.The objective of the Ontario Rectal Cancer Cohort (OntaReCC) is to create a comprehensive clinical-pathological database of individuals who are diagnosed with rectal cancer in Ontario. This database will allow investigators to assess practice patterns, adherence to recommended care, and outcomes within this population. This protocol describes the methods used to establish this database.Ontario is Canada’s most populous province (estimated population of 14.6 million in 2019) and is a large and diverse region. The province includes large metropolitan areas, as well as sparsely populated rural communities. The demographics of Ontario residents include a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, a large number of first- and second-generation Canadians, and indigenous populations .Residents of Ontario are eligible for a government-run, universal, single-payer health insurance plan . This plan covers the costs of physician visits, diagnostic investigations, hospital stays, surgical services, and cancer services (including radiation therapy and chemotherapy). Ontario routinely collects clinical and demographic data, as well as other health care–related data, within a number of linked administrative databases.International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), codes for rectal cancer (ICD-10 20.9). The OCR captures incident cancer cases through mandatory reporting and is estimated to include >95% of newly diagnosed cancer cases, in which >94% of colorectal cancers were microscopically confirmed [Individuals who were diagnosed with rectal cancer between 2010 and 2019 were identified through the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR) by using the onfirmed ,7. IndivThe OntaReCC combines data from a number of provincially maintained administrative data sets with data from histopathology reports that are made available through the OCR. A full listing of the administrative data sets can be found in These data sets provide comprehensive data on individual characteristics , diagnostic details , and treatment details. In addition, health care provider details and institution details are captured within these data sets. By using the abovementioned data sets, we will be able to derive important factors or characteristics, including the completeness of preoperative investigations; the type, extent, and completeness of treatments ; treating clinician characteristics (volumes and practice setting) and institution characteristics ; and cancer-related outcomes .Ontario Cancer RegistryThe Ontario Cancer Registry is the provincial database of information for all Ontario residents who have been diagnosed with cancer (incidence) or have died from cancer . Data are collected from hospitals, regional cancer centers, pathology reports, and death certificates and cover the entire province of Ontario.Cancer Activity Level Reporting databaseThe data elements constitute patient-level activities within the cancer system that focus on radiation and systemic therapy services and outpatient oncology clinic visits. The data set contains clinical, patient-level data.Canadian Institute of Health Information-Discharge Abstract Database (CIHI-DAD)The CIHI-DAD captures administrative, clinical, and demographic information on hospital discharges . This includes demographic, administrative, and clinical data for inpatient discharges (including surgery) and day surgery interventions.Ontario Drug Benefit programThe Ontario Drug Benefit program provides drug benefits for all adults aged 65 years and older and those receiving social assistance in Ontario. Pharmacists submit claims for each prescribed drug that is covered under the Ontario Drug Benefit formulary. These claims form the basis of the data set.Symptom Management DatabaseThis database contains data that are used to improve symptom management and collaborative palliative care planning through the earlier identification, documentation, and communication of patient symptoms and performance status.Registered Persons DatabaseA listing of all persons who are insured under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan. The data are used to ensure that individuals in other data sources are identified correctly and to support analyses by demographic groups and geography.Histopathology reports were requested from the OCR for individuals who were undergoing biopsy, local excision/polypectomy, or major surgical excision for rectal cancer during the study dates. Cancer Care and Epidemiology at the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute has established processes for abstracting comprehensive details from these types of reports -10. ThesQuality of reportingSynoptic reportCompleteness of reportingQuality of excisionIntactness of the mesorectum Margin status Nodal harvest (≥12)HistologyAdenocarcinoma and its variantsDegree of differentiationLymphovascular invasion and perineural invasionStage of diseaseTumor stage, nodal stage, and metastatic disease (if applicable)Neoadjuvant treatment responseComplete response, partial response, or no response (if applicable)Mutations and immunohistochemistryBRAF and KRAS gene statusMicrosatellite instability and mismatch repair proteinsThe proposed cohort will contain a number of exposure and outcome variables that are pertinent to a wide range of research questions. Potential exposures include those related to individuals, the circumstances of the cancer diagnosis, health care providers, the institutions where care was delivered, the regions, and the nature and extent of treatments, as summarized in Ethics approval for this research was obtained through the Queen’s University Health Research Ethics Board . A number of potential issues were addressed, including how personal health information will be used, the necessity for the linkage of personal health information with other information, and how the linkage would be completed. In addition, we identified potential harms and how they would be mitigated by using previously developed data confidentiality and privacy protocols, via appropriate data handling and curating, via the use of encryption, and via storage on a restricted server behind a firewall. The study will take place at the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute – Cancer Care Epidemiology, which has undergone previous external audits pertaining to data curation and security.We identified approximately 20,062 individuals with a new diagnosis of rectal cancer during the study period. After exclusions, 10,957 unique individuals underwent curative intent surgical resection, while 7980 did not . The aveThe overall objective of the OntaReCC is to provide a comprehensive data set of individuals diagnosed with rectal cancer in Ontario, and it will include details on the complete cancer journey (from diagnosis to death). This data set will allow investigators to assess the real-world, population-level outcomes of these individuals and allow for an assessment of the performance of the cancer system. A number of research themes will be explored by using the OntaReCC database, including (1) the regional variability in the delivery of care and outcomes, (2) the predictors and impact of adherence to recommended care, and (3) assessments of other understudied areas of rectal cancer care.Regional variability in survival following the treatment of colorectal cancer has been reported by the Cancer System Quality Index . This reCancer Care Ontario has developed recommendations for the care of individuals with rectal cancer . These rPractice patterns and outcomes of understudied aspects of rectal cancer care will be assessed, including the treatment of early rectal cancer and end-of-life care.The OntaReCC will provide an opportunity to explore the practice patterns and outcomes of individuals with early-stage rectal cancer. Although major surgical resection remains the standard of care for many individuals undergoing curative-intent rectal cancer surgery, these procedures have the potential for significant morbidities and poor functional results. In addition, a number of individuals will be required to undergo a permanent colostomy as an outcome of these procedures. Consequently, there has been great interest in avoiding major resection, especially for individuals with early-stage disease. Local excision/polypectomy has been proposed as an adequate alternative for carefully selected individuals ,25. SomeThe type and delivery of care for individuals in their last month of life have been inadequately studied for those with rectal cancer. Our group has assessed potentially aggressive treatments, symptom burden, and the utilization of palliative care services for other disease sites -29. ThesAs described above, the OntaReCC database will have a near-complete capture of incident rectal cancer cases in Ontario during the study period. Unlike the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program around 30% capture) % capture, the OCRAlthough the proposed cohort will allow for a comprehensive assessment of individuals with rectal cancer, limitations to such population health research exist. First, the reasons behind treatment decisions and patient preferences are unknown. Nonadherence or variations in care may be partially explained by an individual refusing aspects of care or preferring nonstandard approaches, which will not be captured. Second, we will be unable to capture the reasons behind delays in treatment or care, which could be related to nonmodifiable factors. Third, we will not have access to detailed diagnostic radiology reports. This will limit our ability to assess the pretreatment stage of disease (which is primarily determined through magnetic resonance imaging) and the ability to fully capture the development of metastatic disease. Our data set will identify metastatic disease that is either treated  or documented within applicable linked data sets. Finally, a number of potentially pertinent patient characteristics are not captured well within the available data sets, including individuals’ level of education, employment status, race/ethnicity, obesity, and alcohol or cigarette use.The OntaReCC will provide a comprehensive and complete assessment of the care and outcomes of individuals diagnosed with rectal cancer in Ontario. The data set will be an important resource in evaluating the real-world management and outcomes of individuals with rectal cancer. In doing so, we will be able to identify opportunities for improving the delivery of cancer care to this group of individuals.


Junctional epithelium (JE) is a vital epithelial component which forms an attachment to the tooth surface at the gingival sulcus by the adhesion of protein complexes from its basal layer. Disruption of the JE is associated with the development of gingivitis, periodontal disease, and alveolar bone loss. Odontogenic ameloblast-associated (ODAM) is comprised of a signal peptide and an ODAM protein with 12 putative glycosylation sites. It is expressed during odontogenesis by maturation stage ameloblasts and is incorporated into the enamel matrix during the formation of outer and surface layer enamel. ODAM, as a secreted protein which is accumulated at the interface between basal lamina and enamel, mediates the adhesion of the JE to the tooth surface; and is involved with extracellular signalling of WNT and ARHGEF5-RhoA, as well as intracellular signalling of BMP-2-BMPR-IB-ODAM. ODAM is also found to be highly expressed in salivary glands and appears to have implications for the regulation of formation, repair, and regeneration of the JE. Bioinformatics and research data have identified the anti-cancer properties of ODAM, indicating its potential both as a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target. Understanding the biology of ODAM will help to design therapeutic strategies for periodontal and dental disorders. Junctional epithelium (JE) essentially consists of stratified squamous nonkeratinized epithelium and forms an epithelial component of the dentogingival junction, which attaches the gingiva to the tooth surface and is involved in defence against gram-negative anaerobic bacteria infection. During the progression of gingivitis to periodontitis, the JE becomes progressively compromised over time, migrates apically and forms pocket epithelium, leading to impaired physical barriers against periodontal infection. The JE represents an important component for periodontal tissue regeneration. Formation of the JE from cells of the reduced enamel epithelium begins during tooth eruption to the oral cavity, where the JE fuses with the oral epithelium to form the primary JE, which is subsequently replaced by a JE derived from the gingival epithelium . The JE Odontogenic ameloblast-associated protein (ODAM), also referred to as APIN, is expressed in the JE as an enamel-related gene , which aUnder pathological conditions of periodontitis and peri-implantitis, ODAM is considered a potential biomarker of disease. The research found that following the loss of JE attachment caused by diseases, ODAM expression was absent in JE, and ODAM was detected in gingival crevicular fluid . As the Here we review the molecular structure, expression, and role of ODAM in odontogenesis, regeneration of JE, and periodontal diseases. We also discuss putative binding partners of ODAM as an intracellular molecule or as an extracellular secreted factor. Understanding the role of ODAM will facilitate the regeneration of impaired JE, which is highly important to the treatment of periodontal diseases.Multiple sequence alignment analysis results show that human ODAM has substantial sequence identity or similarity to mouse, rat, dog and bovine ODAM , indicatMolecular structure analysis revealed that human ODAM is comprised of a signal peptide (amino acid residues 1–15) and an ODAM protein (amino acid residues 16–279) with 12 putative glycosylation sites at amino acid residues 115, 119, 244, 249, 250, 251, 255, 256, 261, 263, 273, and 275 respectively . SecondaGene expression studies showed that ODAM consistently is found to be expressed within the JE , in cellGenevisible®- based bioinformatics analyses revealed that ODAM mRNA expression was high in the labial salivary gland, minor salivary gland, gingiva, salivary gland, mouth , and parotid glands in human tissues ; While iODAM interacts with various molecules as an intracellular protein and binds to an unknown receptor as a predicted secreted factor. In ameloblasts, intracellular ODAM was found to interact with bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) receptor type-IB (BMPR-IB) via the C-terminus of ODAM, resulting in increased ODAM phosphorylation induced by BMP-2 via MAPKs . This suInterestingly, ODAM was detected extracellularly in the atypical BL, which formulates the attachment of matured ameloblasts and JE cells to the tooth . As a prODAM is one of five ameloblast-secreted proteins , and is Interestingly, a patient with a loss-of-function mutation of SPARC related modular calcium binding 2 (SMOC2) - a secreted matricellular protein - was found to have dental and skeletal abnormalities, including oligodontia, microdontia, tooth root anomalies, alveolar bone hypoplasia, and skeletal deformities . Whilst The potential role of single nucleotide variants of ODAM, MMP20, and AMELX in the development of dental fluorosis was recently investigated using DNA sequencing. Results from this study indicated rs1514392 of ODAM, did not have a significant effect on the severity of dental fluorosis between populations, whilst rs1784418 of MMP20 was significantly associated with susceptibility to dental fluorosis . Given tJE is interposed between the depth of the gingival sulcus and mineralized tissues of the tooth surface, where it is attached by the epithelial attachment. The JE is covered by biofilm and the deepest layer undergoes continuous and rapid cell division to aid in the protective function of the JE against periodontal disease. The expression of ODAM in JE has stimulated further interest of its role in maintaining the integrity of the JE. ODAM was shown to be expressed throughout the JE and is thought to play an important role at the cell-tooth interface, both during formation and regeneration of the JE . ODAM waODAM is postulated to be an inhibitor of cancer onset and progression, whilst its potential as a therapeutic target and biomarker remains incompletely characterized. Initially, ODAM was found in calcifying epithelial odontogenic tumour-associated amyloid . ODAM waProper adhesion of the JE to the tooth surface is crucial for maintaining periodontal health by sealing the periodontal tissues and preventing their infection by bacteria from the oral cavity . Impairm


Peritoneal dialysis (PD) represents the dialysis modality of choice for pediatric patients with end-stage kidney disease. Indeed, compared with hemodialysis (HD), it offers many advantages, including more flexibility, reduction of the risk of hospital-acquired infections, preservation of residual kidney function, and a better quality of life. However, despite these positive aspects, PD may be associated with several long-term complications that may impair both patient’s general health and PD adequacy. In this view, chronic inflammation, caused by different factors, has a detrimental impact on the structure and function of the peritoneal membrane, leading to sclerosis and consequent PD failure both in adults and children. Although several studies investigated the complex pathogenic pathways underlying peritoneal membrane alterations, these processes remain still to explore. Understanding these mechanisms may provide novel approaches to improve the clinical outcome of pediatric PD patients through the identification of subjects at high risk of complications and the implementation of personalized interventions. In this review, we discuss the main experimental and clinical experiences exploring the potentiality of the proteomic analysis of peritoneal fluids and extracellular vesicles as a source of novel biomarkers in pediatric peritoneal dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) represents the preferred dialysis modality for pediatric patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) . Indeed,In the light of the dynamic conditions of PM and its potential structural and functional changes, there is a need for reliable biomarkers to improve the clinical outcome of PD patients, identifying the ones at high risk of complications and guiding personalized intervention. The research of novel biomarkers is of great interest in the nephrology field since they can increase our knowledge of pathological mechanisms. Their implementation in the clinical practice could improve patient management or outcome prediction accuracy .In the last decades, the characterization of biomarkers and the possibility of extending their use have been explored in different settings of kidney diseases, both in adults and children . This prA step forward has been represented by the application of proteomics to urinary-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosomes, which represent a promising source of non-invasive biomarkers. In this regard, PD may be considered an ideal setting to explore these potentialities offered by these new approaches since peritoneal dialysis effluent (PDE) appears as a potential source of biomolecules for clinical application  Table 1Table 1. The proteome is the entire set of proteins expressed in a defined biological sample. Protein analysis of complex samples is conducted with different combined techniques like mass spectrometry (MS) , two-dimIn the same way, Zavvos et al. in 2017, examined PDE by searching for potential biomarkers to predict or confirm EPS, intending to stratify at-risk patients and make an earlier diagnosis . They peAs stated above, PDE represents an important basin of potential clinical biomarkers that could be useful for foreseeing individual risk of evolving PM fibrosis. It is well-known that cells communicate information via the secretion of soluble elements or by direct interaction. Furthermore, all cell types discharge membrane-derived vesicles that can exert their effect on both surrounding and distant cells . AccordiTechnological improvement of the last decades has led to new horizons thanks to the availability of new scientific resources. Proteomics and machine learning approaches, such as the ability to isolate and analyze EVs, are enhancing our knowledge in bio-molecular science in a stunning manner. In particular, the application of proteomic analysis to EVs allows the identification of a high number of biomarkers and helps us in discovering hidden physiological and pathological mechanisms . In PD, On the other hand, many issues stay still open and could be the objects of future studies on the topic. So, all the molecules proposed as biomarkers should be validated in larger populations, also to evaluate their correlations with hard clinical outcomes, such as PD failure and EPS development. Similarly, the possibility of translating the knowledge about the new biomarkers into effective tools to guide the clinical management of PD patients in the context of precision medicine remains to explore.Certainly, further improvements in technology with the development of less costly devices, shorter analysis time, and the increased maximum number of processing samples will probably encourage more prospective studies with larger populations. These will lead us to a step forward in the knowledge of biomolecular mechanisms of PM and our approach and strategy to PD pathology and complications in pediatrics.


We assessed the attachment to parents and peers (through IPPA), alexithymia (through TAS-20), peritraumatic distress symptoms due to COVID-19 (through CPDI), and IA (through IAT). The results showed that the relationship between the attachment to mothers and IA was partially mediated by alexithymia and by the serial mediation of alexithymia and peritraumatic distress, whereas the influence of the attachment to fathers on IA was fully mediated by peritraumatic distress. The direct effects of the attachment to peers on alexithymia, peritraumatic distress, and IA were all significant, as were the indirect paths via the simple mediation of both alexithymia and peritraumatic distress and the multiple serial mediation of alexithymia and peritraumatic distress. Our findings suggested that the relationship between attachment, alexithymia, and psychopathological risk is dynamic in predicting IA during the pandemic among young adult university students and that the different attachment figures exert a peculiar contribution to these processes.The literature focused on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adult university students’ mental health shows a significant increase in psychopathological symptoms and Internet Addiction (IA). The key role played by attachment and alexithymia has also been suggested, but no study has explored the possible dynamic relationship between these variables. We recruited a sample of  Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the restrictive measures taken worldwide to reduce its dramatic spread  have had a significant impact on the daily routine of people, resulting in a worrying increase in psychopathological symptoms among the general population ,4. DespiIn this scenario, university students have been one of the most vulnerable populations with respect to the negative effect of the pandemic on both the psychopathological risk ,16 and IA longitudinal study by Zhao et al.  has undeAmong relational influences, the quality of attachment to parents and peer groups has been suggested to have a central risk and/or protective contribution to the effects of stressful life events on young adult university students’ psychological well-being ,55, as wFrom the beginning of the pandemic, the research focused on the individual variables that may link to a higher vulnerability in response to the pandemic and its related restrictions has evidenced the key role played by alexithymic traits ,77. AlexA growing body of research focused on university students’ psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic has evidenced a worrying increase in peritraumatic distress symptoms ,21 and IWe recognize that studies using longitudinal research designs represent the elective methodology for assessing causal relationships between variables . NeverthBased on these premises and literature gaps, this study aimed to verify: (a) the possible sex differences in the levels of peritraumatic distress symptoms, alexithymia, and IA. Based on the previous literature , we hypon = 578 university students. The participating universities were selected based on the researchers’ affiliations . All the participants lived in Rome. The sample was recruited online. Specifically, a recruitment message was posted on the researcher’s Facebook page and via notices posted on online psychology research websites. No compensation was provided for the participants. After obtaining the university students’ written informed consent, each subject completed self-report instruments (described below) through an anonymous online survey. First, the participants completed an ad hoc questionnaire assessing inclusion/exclusion criteria , and relevant sociodemographic variables . Moreover, the participants were asked to recall and report their estimated hours per day spent online for leisure activities/entertainment and study/academic activities before the pandemic and the hours per day spent online since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, self-report instruments for the assessment of attachment to parents and peers, alexithymia, peritraumatic distress symptoms due to COVID-19, and IA were administered.The study was conducted between 15 November 2020 and 15 March 2021, during the Italian second wave of COVID-19. Before its start, the study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology at Sapienza University of Rome (protocol N. 809/2020), in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. We recruited For the assessment of the variables under study, all the emerging adult university students who agreed to take part in the study filled out the following self-report questionnaires: the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) ,94, the p < 0.001), the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess the possible change between the recall of the estimated average hours per day spent online before the pandemic and the average hours per day spent online from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic by young adult university students for leisure activities/entertainment and academic activities. To verify the possible differences between males and females in peritraumatic distress symptoms, alexithymia, and IA, multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were conducted, with young adult university students’ sex as the independent variable and the scores of IPPA, TAS, CPDI, and IA as the dependent variables. Then, to determine the initial correlations between the study variables, Pearson’s correlation analyses were carried out. Based on the significant correlations and the theoretical model, mediation analyses were performed to verify whether young adult university students’ alexithymia and peritraumatic distress levels simply and serially mediated the effect of, respectively, attachment to mothers, fathers, and peers on IA, while controlling for significant covariates. We used Hayes’s [First, preliminary statistical analyses were conducted . Then, given the ordinal level of the measurement of the time spent online by university students before and from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the not-normal distribution of the variables (Shapiro–Wilk test =  Hayes’s  PROCESS n = 42); who had mental and/or physical diagnoses (n = 35); who were following a psychological and/or psychiatric treatment (n = 27); and who had not completed the assessment procedure (n = 49). The final sample consisted of N = 410 young adult university students , living in Italy. Most of them (74.1%) were in intact family groups. Sixty-two point two percent of the young adult university students were single, 81.5% lived with family members, and most often (37.6%) reported a household income between EUR 55,001 and 75,000 per year. For the aim of this study, we excluded university students who were not aged between 19 and 25 years . At the same time, the median of the time spent online for study/academic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic was statistically significantly higher than the median of time spent online for academic activities before the COVID-19 pandemic . The results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that the median of the time spent online by young adult university students on leisure activities/entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly higher than those spent before the COVID-19 pandemic . The results of the univariate effects, as reported in p < 0.001). Conversely, there were no significant differences in the levels of alexithymia and IA between the male and female young adults .The results of the MANOVA showed an overall significant difference between males and females . Moreover, both the CPDI and the TAS scores were more significantly and negatively associated with the IPPA scores than with each other .Based on the significant correlations, we carried out mediation analyses to explore whether the young adult university students’ levels of alexithymia and their levels of peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19 separately and serially mediated the relationship between the attachment to their mothers, fathers, and peers and the levels of IA. The university students’ age and sex significantly correlated to many of the study variables and were included as covariates in the mediation analyses. Moreover, given the significant increase that we found in time spent online since the beginning of the pandemic for both leisure activities/entertainment and study/academic activities, we also included these variables as covariates. Finally, for each mediation model we considered, respectively, the young adults’ attachment to their mothers, fathers, and peers as additional covariates. As can be seen in Regarding the indirect effects, The recent literature that has been interested in investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adult university students’ psychological well-being has reported a worrying increase in psychopathological symptoms ,21 and IThe results of the descriptive statistics on psychological variables showed that approximately 55% of the sample had a moderate level of peritraumatic distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 21.5% of them reported severe distress. These rates of prevalence are in line with the study by Jiménez et al.  on a samOur last aim was to explore the complex relationship between the study variables. Overall, our results confirmed our starting hypotheses. Specifically, our preliminary correlational analyses found significant associations between IA and young adult university students’ peritraumatic distress symptoms, attachment to parents and peers, and alexithymia. Moreover, the attachment quality was significantly associated with alexithymia and peritraumatic distress, which in turn were associated with each other, supporting the possibility of a complex interplay between them. The results of the subsequent mediation analyses went further in this direction. Specifically, regarding direct effects, we found that young adult university students’ peritraumatic distress symptoms were significantly associated with IA levels. In this context, previous studies have defined IA as a maladaptive strategy used by the individual to cope with the psychopathological symptoms resulting from stressful life events . CoherenThere are a number of limitations to this study. Indeed, the absence of a pre-pandemic assessment and the cross-sectional nature of the study design implies the need to treat with caution the effects that we assumed to be a result of COVID-19. Consequently, further studies using longitudinal design should test the prospective associations that we found. Moreover, we used self-report instruments for the assessment of the young adult university students’ attachment to parents and peers, alexithymia, peritraumatic distress symptoms, and IA. Although we chose instruments that are validated and extensively used in this field, evaluating the young adults’ perceptions of their own psychological functioning may produce biased results. Subsequent studies should therefore use more robust assessment tools in studying these processes. Finally, a convenience sampling technique was used for data collection, limiting the generalizability of our findings. Despite the above limitations, this is the first study that explored the dynamic relationships between young adult university students’ attachment to parents and peers, alexithymia, peritraumatic distress, and IA, evidencing a complex reality on the basis of the different attachment figures. Moreover, we found a high proportion of young adult university students who exceeded the clinical cutoff scores for TAS-20, CPDI, and IAT, supporting the importance of implementing studies on this population to further increase the knowledge on the etiopathogenetic factors and to prevent the short- and long-term consequences.The results of this study suggest that prevention and intervention programs focused on the promotion of supportive relationships between young adult university students and parents and peers may help young adults in facing COVID-19, preventing its impact on mental health and IA. The restrictions resulting from the pandemic have resulted in the necessity to promote online interventions among university students . In thisOverall, the pandemic involved a profound redefinition not only of the way of social life but also of academic life, which changed from its traditional face-to-face learning to online learning, significantly increasing the time required to spend online for educational activities. These changes resulted in a higher risk of IA as well as lower satisfaction related to online learning, which in turn increased the risk of IA . In lineOur study has added new evidence on the key role played by young adult university students’ attachment to parents and peers, alexithymia, and peritraumatic distress symptoms in predicting IA during the COVID-19 pandemic. A complex relationship between these variables has also been shown, which varied depending on the specific attachment figure. In particular, our findings have evidenced the specific contributions played by the quality of the relationship with mothers, fathers, and peers in predicting levels of IA during the pandemic directly and/or via alexithymia and the peritraumatic distress symptoms resulting from COVID-19. Interestingly, our results suggested that young adult university students with an insecure attachment to peers are at a higher risk for the negative consequences of the pandemic. This could be due to the fact that they are more likely to substitute their attachment to a material object and to their difficulties in coping with negative emotions, as well as to the subsequent higher psychopathological symptoms that the pandemic has, in turn, exacerbated. As a result, they may tend to excessively use the internet as a strategy to cope with the psychopathological sufferance underlying these difficulties.


Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major healthcare burden that takes a toll on the quality of life of many patients. Emerging evidence indicates that a substantial proportion of these patients carry a genetic defect that contributes to their disease. Any effort to reduce the percentage of patients with a diagnosis of nephropathy heading towards kidney replacement therapies should therefore be encouraged. Besides early genetic screenings and registries, in vitro systems that mimic the complexity and pathophysiological aspects of the disease could advance the screening for targeted and personalized therapies. In this regard, the use of patient-derived cell lines, as well as the generation of disease-specific cell lines via gene editing and stem cell technologies, have significantly improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying inherited kidney diseases. Furthermore, organs-on-chip technology holds great potential as it can emulate tissue and organ functions that are not found in other, more simple, in vitro models. The personalized nature of the chips, together with physiologically relevant read-outs, provide new opportunities for patient-specific assessment, as well as personalized strategies for treatment. In this review, we summarize the major kidney-on-chip (KOC) configurations and present the most recent studies on the in vitro representation of genetic kidney diseases using KOC-driven strategies. Genetic kidney diseases are a major cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) development and account for the majority of pediatric cases and ~ 10% of adult cases in need of kidney replacement therapy . HoweverPKHD1 gene, of which mutations cause polycystic kidney disease (PKD), and through in vitro testing of patient-derived cells were able to find ciliary defects in these cells, which were not detected earlier [The kidney is a complex organ, home to multiple cell types with specific roles and functionalities. Their coordinated activity enables the clearance of metabolic waste products and balancing fluid and blood electrolytes. The nephron, the functional unit of the kidney, is comprised of different structural segments, each with its own assigned function. Every segment is susceptible to genetic mutations, with the majority of the genetic kidney disorders manifesting as glomerulopathies and tubulopathies. These disorders result in an overall malfunction of the kidney with life-threatening consequences. Although next-generation sequencing technologies can promote the clinical understanding of these genetic kidney diseases by providing guidance for molecular diagnostics and personalized treatment, this alone will not suffice. The combination of next-generation sequencing data and appropriate disease modeling will most likely provide a detailed vision of the complex genetic etiology. This was previously shown in a study where researchers found a variant of the  earlier .C. elegans to rodents and in vitro patient-derived cell culturing, have contributed to the identification of novel genetic causes, new therapeutic targets, and to the development of new treatments. For a better overview of these models, we guide the reader to the work of Molinari et al. [The development of disease models to understand the mechanisms of human genetic kidney disorders is of great interest. However, meeting the specificities of each disorder when proposing a model is not a trivial task. A plethora of disease models, ranging from zebrafish and i et al. .Although the ease of manipulation of in vitro cellular models allows the straightforward dissection of disease molecular mechanisms, the complexity of in vivo  models supports the study of multiple cell interactions and tissue homeostasis in a (patho)physiologic context. Nevertheless, animal models do not fully genocopy or phenocopy human disease due to interspecies differences. They are too physiologically complex for a minimal reconstruction approach. The heterogeneity and the low frequency of certain kidney disorders prompt for the quest of more accurate and human patient-specific disease models . With thhttps://www.erknet.org), covers patients with rare kidney diseases, provides epidemiological and therapeutic management information, and includes patient cohorts for clinical research [A large number of human genetic diseases > 150) that affect kidney development or kidney tissue maintenance lead to functional and structural defects 50 that a. The ranresearch . The in-research .Fig. 1Ovfaux representation of an otherwise dynamic and highly responsive biological system. Moreover, since these cell lines cannot be generated from every single patient, they are solely a representation of one specific patient, and the extrapolation to a population of distinct and unique individuals is limited.Several disease models  for inherited kidney diseases have been developed to identify aberrant pathways and novel therapeutic targets, or as drug screening and testing platforms . DeviatiUsing gene editing tools, such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR/Cas) technology, a candidate mutation can be precisely introduced in healthy cells, allowing a fast and easy generation of mutation-specific diseased cells, paving the way toward precision medicine . An examThe discovery of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) has been instrumental for the growth of the in vitro disease modeling field –21. ThesKidney-derived cells from hiPSCs and adult stem cells (ASCs) can also be cultured as 3D self-organized multi-cellular structures, known as organoids, which offer a more in vivo-like representation of the cellular heterogeneity resulting in a superior disease model when compared to 2D cell culture. ASCs isolated from kidney tissue and/or urine were used to generate tubuloids, organoids recapitulating the adult kidney tubular epithelium. These tubuloids have then been thought to be included in a biobank in which different patient-derived tubuloids can be used for the study of inherited kidney tubulopathies , 29. IncOrgans-on-chip, also known as microphysiological systems, merge multiple research fields aiming to recapitulate key functional aspects of organs and tissues. The fundamental principle is to culture cells under fluid dynamic conditions rather than in 2D static culture plates or 3D inert matrices, thereby mimicking the biomechanical stimulation and the movement of fluids that occur within the body. The OOC field has experienced significant advances as it develops concurrently with and incorporates methods for growth and maturation of cells, fast and efficient genome editing methods, high-throughput screening, intricate 3D bioprinting, sophisticated sensors, controlled microfluidics, and microfabrication.There is a wide variety of configurations, usually adapted to a specific application and organ particularities. However, all OOC have five defining characteristics: (1) the architectural arrangement of tissue-replicate, (2) the culture of multiple cell types to capture cellular interactions, (3) the integration of mechanical cues in the form of flow  and stretch (pulsatile blood flow), (4) sensing, and (5) drug stimulation or delivery.The building blocks to develop the most trivial OOC configuration refer to the cells that will populate the chip, the compartmentalization  of the device and the fluid dynamics through the compartments Fig. . With thOwing to the increased demand for these advanced models, standardized, user-friendly, and ready-to-use alternatives are now available, proving that upscaling and high(er)-throughput are achievable. Looking through the lens of specific context of use, for instance, the study of genetic kidney dysfunctionality related to a particular nephron segment, researchers can opt for customizable platforms. For both commercial Fig.  and custmicro features [The micrometrical characteristics of OOC devices involve practical difficulties. For tailored devices, the design, manufacturing, and assembly are highly technical and laborious efforts that require facilities and techniques that may not be available for all research groups. Outsourcing the fabrication solves the matter, but increases the costs of the devices. The commercially available alternatives are ready to use. Moreover, training is often provided by the suppliers, easing their acceptance in the field. However, the commercial systems are not customizable and parameters, such as flow directionalities and rates, are fixed and inherent to the chip. Lastly, it is noteworthy that the readouts of OOC are restricted by the reduced number of cells and the limited access to the channels. The majority of the results are limited to imaging techniques, such as immunohistological stainings and permeability of fluorescently labeled molecules, omitting futher genetic and/or molecular cellular analyses. Increased surface areas within the chip would allow further cellular characterization, but forfeit the features –46.The goal of kidney-on-chip (KOC) studies is to provide a platform for a faithful replication of the key kidney functions. The integration of specific mechanical (flow) and microenvironmental (extracellular matrix) cues should aid in the preservation of the geno- and phenotype of the cells and the associated functional performance, thus recreating the pathophysiology of the disease. A “one size fits all” perspective on KOC would limit the applicability of the system and may not represent the disease, or the individual patient, well enough. Nevertheless, not all studies incorporate the latter, mainly due to patient variability and difficulties in securing enough material to establish the models. In part, this can be attributed to the limited and fragmented interactions between KOC researchers and clinicians, or a lack of understanding of the disease to be studied in the KOC, and its potential clinical implications. These disconnections delay the development of robust, validated, and standardized models that can be applied across laboratories, research institutes, hospitals, and  companies. The assembly of collaborative and multidisciplinary teams would facilitate the establishment of such models. Recently, the newly established European Organ-on-Chip Society released a roadmap of OOC development that emphasizes the context needs, initiatives, and specific actions to promote OOC adoption across disciplines. Additionally, the harmonization and interconnection of local databases would generate a worldwide library of models, following the example of ERKNet .. [This review highlights the first studies that have incorporated genetically compromised kidney cells in a KOC system in an attempt to establish a disease model and evaluate drug efficacy. Interestingly, the reviewed articles focus on a specific function of the kidney, and, thus, attempt to replicate a specific region of the nephron, rather than the whole unit. Several in vitro cell models that depict different genetic kidney diseases are available and have been extensively reviewed by Bondue et al. , howeverOrganoPlates® enable high-throughput studies, the system is limited by the use of collagen I in the intermediate channel  and bidirectional flows achieved by a 2D rocker. In a similar approach, Iampietro et al. used a microfluidic device to study urine-derived AS podocytes. It was proven that the permeability of diseased podocyte–endothelial cell co-cultures was higher than their healthy counterparts [APOL1) high-risk genotypes (HRGs) G1 and G2 [APOL1 HGR mutations are known for increasing the risk of kidney-related diseases affecting podocyte activity. Under perfusion in the chip, the HRG podocytes exhibited pathological phenotypes, such as altered cytoskeleton and increased permeability [The first function of the nephron is blood filtration in the renal corpuscle and occurs when solute-laden blood passes across the glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) composed of podocytes, the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) and endothelial cells. On-chip replicas of the GFB have been proposed based on the use of podocytes and endothelial glomerular cells, and their innate ability to secrete the GBM components . Petrosyterparts . The sam1 and G2 . APOL1 Heability . The syseability  and glomeability  models hNPSH1, NPSH2 and WT1) and cell morphology [Flow shear stress (FSS) has been used to maintain podocyte maturation. Yang et al. proved that the combination of FSS and retinoic acid relented podocyte dedifferentiation, by characterizing the expression of maturation markers , suggesting that apical microvilli are the main mechanotransducers of these cells. Naik et al. have recently developed a 3D microfluidic model in which PT cells were genetically engineered to display the phenotype of Lowe syndrome/Dent disease. In this study, PT cells (HK-2 OCR–/–) cultured in the KOC showed shorter cilia when compared to healthy PT cells, which was solved when treated with siRNA. Similarly, the diseased cells showed increased collagen secretion, as seen in Lowe syndrome patients [After the initial filtrate is formed, secretion and reabsorption of solutes occurs in the proximal tubule (PT) . PTECs fpatients .Another important function of the PT is the activation of vitamin D, important for the reabsorption of calcium . This PTA different approach for perfusable channels was pursued by the Lewis group . By mean+–Cl– cotransporter and Na+K+–ATPase. A successful analysis of the Na+ reabsorption on the chip supported the evidence that the beforementioned genetic alterations could be investigated further in this setup. The results proved that cells exposed to FSS showed better Na+ reabsorption, tighter cell junctions, more acetylated tubulin expression, and larger cell heights with more microvilli on the apical side, when compared to the static controls [Distal tubule (DT) possesses unique electrolyte transporters and, unlike the PT, the microvilli are smaller and less dense resulting in a wider lumen –74. To ocontrols . Moreove+ [The collecting duct (CD) is the final segment of the nephron and allows urine to be excreted as waste. The main process in this segment is the reabsorption of water and Na+ . To date+ . They es+ .In the last few years, a substantial number of attempts to develop KOC have been proposed, including conceptual approaches based on computational models . NeverthKidney-on-chip emerges as a powerful tool for the in vitro representation of kidney function as it provides a much-needed dynamic platform for disease modeling and drug testing. From glomerulus to distal tubule, researchers have successfully proposed models for the nephron’s segments focusing on the replication of exchange barriers. Despite promising results and a technology readily and commercially available, the current approaches fall short when mimicking genetic diseases. Novel protocols for harvesting primary cells and differentiation of hiPSCs into individual kidney cell types, combined with gene editing, would shape our understanding of the kidney (patho-)physiology and aid in the development of novel therapies. A step towards the personalized approach has been taken. Accelerating the process is a matter of unifying efforts and strengthening the dialogue between biologists, engineers, geneticists, clinicians, and patients, early in the development of the models. Taken together, the unique capabilities of OOC technology can be used to develop new in vitro models of human genetic disease models.


Understanding the fate of plastics in the environment is of critical importance for the quantitative assessment of the biological impacts of plastic waste. Specially, there is a need to analyze in more detail the reputed longevity of plastics in the context of plastic degradation through oxidation and fragmentation reactions. Photo-oxidation of plastic debris by solar UV radiation (UVR) makes material prone to subsequent fragmentation. The fragments generated following oxidation and subsequent exposure to mechanical stresses include secondary micro- or nanoparticles, an emerging class of pollutants. The paper discusses the UV-driven photo-oxidation process, identifying relevant knowledge gaps and uncertainties. Serious gaps in knowledge exist concerning the wavelength sensitivity and the dose-response of the photo-fragmentation process. Given the heterogeneity of natural UV irradiance varying from no exposure in sediments to full UV exposure of floating, beach litter or air-borne plastics, it is argued that the rates of UV-driven degradation/fragmentation will also vary dramatically between different locations and environmental niches. Biological phenomena such as biofouling will further modulate the exposure of plastics to UV radiation, while potentially also contributing to degradation and/or fragmentation of plastics independent of solar UVR. Reductions in solar UVR in many regions, consequent to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol and its Amendments for protecting stratospheric ozone, will have consequences for global UV-driven plastic degradation in a heterogeneous manner across different geographic and environmental zones. The interacting effects of global warming, stratospheric ozone and UV radiation are projected to increase UV irradiance at the surface in localized areas, mainly because of decreased cloud cover. Given the complexity and uncertainty of future environmental conditions, this currently precludes reliable quantitative predictions of plastic persistence on a global scale.  The presence of plastic materials in the environment represents a particular concern given their inherent recalcitrance. Their environmental persistence, together with potential fragmentation into Micro- and possibly nanoplastic (NP) particles, may pose both short- and long-term risks to the environment and human health . ComprehProminent among the various challenges towards an improved understanding of the environmental fate of MPs, is the incomplete knowledge of degradation and fragmentation of plastic waste, especially in aqueous environments . This knThe Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and its scientific assessments by the Environmental Effects Assessment Panel of UNEP, have direct relevance for managing plastic pollution. From one perspective, the implementation of the Montreal Protocol has resulted in a global reduction in the photo-oxidation and subsequent generation of MPs and NPs from plastic debris. Large increases in the amount of solar UVR reaching the earth’s surface (due to further deterioration of the stratospheric ozone layer) were avoided by the implementation of the Montreal Protocol   and in a5 to 106 particles) per sq. cm of surface area of the plastic  lowePhoto-assisted fragmentation is, however, likely to occur in seawater with those plastics already pre-weathered in air, land or beach . To date5.Given the potential for significant changes in terrestrial solar UVR with ongoing and potential future changes in the stratospheric ozone layer and in the global climate, , it is rSpectral sensitivity data for plastics are available but limited to radiation-dependent oxidative changes such as discoloration, changes in the average molecular weight and mechanical integrity of weathered plastics . These gBoth photo-assisted and purely mechanical generation of MPs contribute to the abundance of secondary MPs in the environment. However, there are no good criteria to identify the fractional contribution of each of these to the pool of MPs quantified in abundance studies. Nevertheless, qualitatively, large increases in the amount of UVR avoided by the implementation of the Montreal Protocol . Solar UVR penetration depths can vary considerably between different natural waters .The atmosphere. This is typically the most intense UVR environment experienced by MPs. The amount of UVR present in the atmosphere is well understood both in theory and via measurements, as well as in spectral detail. Exposure duration is typically limited to a few weeks, depending on particle size.Beaches and other secondary land sediments. As with landfills, the penetration of UVR is limited to the surface layers, with depths comparable to typical grain sizes, e.g. order of a few millimetres . HoweverThe five UVR environments are all disparate, and plastics will be exposed to different levels of UVR, different temperatures, different levels of access to atmospheric oxygen, and different levels of mechanical stress. Therefore, the persistence of plastics is a relative process, influenced by location-specific environmental conditions.8.2 and H2O within the cell , whereas most plastics end up in the anaerobic benthic sediment (In comparison to photo-degradation, which is a well-documented , both ththe cell . The envsediment . Thus, aAspergillus sp. and Lysinibacillus sp. Thus, it remains to be shown whether exposure to solar UVR in the natural environment is substantial enough to enhance biodegradation. In fact, the reverse may be more likely; photo-degradation may expedite biofilm formation, leading to faster sinking of debris to the marine bottom anaerobic sediment where degradation is likely minimal.Although not a prerequisite for biodegradation, it is of interest to consider the role of photodegradation in facilitating the biological breakdown of plastic debris in the environment. There may be potential synergy between photo-degradation and biodegradation, due to the development of an oxygenated, hydrophilic surface layer on plastic debris due to photo-oxidation . FurtherGammarus duebeni fragments pristine polyethylene microplastics on a time scale of hours (Purely mechanical fragmentation of ingested plastic material is an interesting source of MPs and NPs . Dawson of hours . In factof hours , aquaticof hours  or daphnof hours . Thus, bof hours , althoug9.UVR facilitated photo-oxidation drives the degradation of plastic debris, rendering it prone to subsequent fragmentation by mechanical stress. In the ocean, fragmentation is also driven by hydrodynamic forces, for example, in the beach ‘slush’ zone where waves break. While such forces can also fragment un-oxidized plastics, oxidative weathering makes common plastics weaker and more susceptible to fragmentation. While the qualitative features of this process are recognized, there are large gaps in knowledge, including the wavelength sensitivity and the dose-response functions for both oxidation and fragmentation processes. This lack of information coupled with the heterogeneity of the environment and the variability in plastic composition, which in turn affect rates of oxidative fragmentation, has precluded reliable quantitative models of plastic persistence being developed, especially at the global scale.Given the primacy of solar UVR in weathering and fragmentation of plastics, the decrease in ground-level UV radiation consequent to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol plays a key role in determining plastic persistence. The “world avoided” refers to the success of the Montreal Protocol in avoiding high UV-B irradiances . The avo


Hyperspectral imaging can simultaneously acquire spectral and spatial information of the samples and is, therefore, widely applied in the non-destructive detection of grain quality. Supervised learning is the mainstream method of hyperspectral imaging for pixel-level detection of mildew in corn kernels, which requires a large number of training samples to establish the prediction or classification models. This paper presents an unsupervised redundant co-clustering algorithm (FCM-SC) based on multi-center fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering and spectral clustering (SC), which can effectively detect non-uniformly distributed mildew in corn kernels. This algorithm first carries out fuzzy c-means clustering of sample features, extracts redundant cluster centers, merges the cluster centers by spectral clustering, and finally finds the category of corresponding cluster centers for each sample. It effectively solves the problems of the poor ability of the traditional fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm to classify the data with complex structure distribution and the complex calculation of the traditional spectral clustering algorithm. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm could describe the complex structure of mildew distribution in corn kernels and exhibits higher stability, better anti-interference ability, generalization ability, and accuracy than the supervised classification model. Corn is one of the three main grain crops in the world, and its quality plays a critical role in food security. However, due to its high original moisture, large embryo and strong hygroscopicity, corn kernels are susceptible to mildew during storage and transport, which seriously affects their quality and poses threats to the health of humans and animals . TherefoMost traditional detection methods for corn kernel mildew include artificial sensory evaluation and physicochemical analyses ,3. ArtifMoreover, computer vision heavily depends on external visual acquisition equipment and image processing technology, which are vulnerable to environmental factors. The electronic nose lacks stability and applicability. Hyperspectral remote sensing is an emerging interdisciplinary approach ,10,11. BTherefore, it is urgent to study the classification algorithm based on unsupervised learning. However, mildew distribution in corn kernels is usually non-uniform, and the existing unsupervised classification algorithms face two significant problems for pixel-level detection of corn kernel mildew. First, the data with complex structures cannot be well classified. For example, prototype-based clustering algorithms, such as K-means, can only well classify clumpy data. Second, the vast computational cost is unsuitable for rapid online detection applications. Traditional nonlinear clustering algorithms, such as spectral clustering, are based on the similarity matrix for data classification to the realize pixel-level classification and require the calculation of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the data matrix, which is very large and proportional to the sample size. To achieve pixel-level hyperspectral image classification of corn kernel mildew, this paper proposes an unsupervised co-clustering algorithm based on multi-center fuzzy clustering (FCM) and spectral clustering (SC). The motivation of the algorithm is that FCM can accurately extract data prototypes, and SC can better describe the distribution of the data structure. This algorithm processes the samples by multi-center fuzzy clustering to describe the distribution of mildew in corn kernels, and then merges the obtained cluster centers by spectral clustering, which can not only maintain the nonlinear structure of redundant cluster centers, but also greatly reduce the computational cost.The proposed algorithm has two scientific contributions. First, we proposed a co-clustering algorithm that combines fuzzy and spectral clustering to classify the structural hyperspectral image data. Since fuzzy clustering can accurately extract data prototypes and spectral clustering can better describe the distribution of data structure, it can better solve the problems of high dimensionality, noise, and nonlinearity faced by hyperspectral image classification. Second, the current corn kernel mildew detection with hyperspectral images is mainly based on supervised classification methods, such as partial least squares and support vector machines. These methods require large training samples, and their performance heavily depends on the quality of the training samples. In this paper, the unsupervised co-clustering algorithm was used for the first time to achieve good results in detecting corn kernel mildew, which provides a feasible solution for later research on grain quality based on hyperspectral image technology. The experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm can not only describe the complex structure of mildew distribution in corn kernels but also possesses strong stability, anti-interference ability, generalization ability, and high accuracy relative to the supervised prediction or classification models.Corn kernel itself has certain amounts of spores and endospores. Endospores are the dormant form of bacteria, and spores are produced by mildew, which can also produce mildew under natural conditions. The corn kernel samples used in this study were purchased from a farmer’s market in Shanxi Province. Corn kernel samples were placed in a constant temperature (28 °C) and humidity (90%) experimental box for cultivation. After eight days, the samples produced varying amounts of mildew. Then, 60 corn kernels were randomly selected as the experimental materials, arranged into a 6 × 10 matrix on the detection board.The hyperspectral image data acquisition system is shown in The data acquisition process by the hyperspectral imaging system is inevitably interfered with by environmental factors, such as noise, background, and dispersive light . The noiThe calculation formula of MSC is as follows:In this formula, The fuzzy clustering algorithm is one of the current research hotspots in the image segmentation technology. Since fuzzy clustering can accurately extract data prototypes and spectral clustering can better describe the distribution of data structure, an unsupervised classification algorithm is proposed to solve the classification problem in the pixel-level hyperspectral image data of corn kernel mildew. By allowing By solving the objective function, The objective function is solved in two steps to reduce the complexity. First, we used a fuzzy clustering algorithm to handle the preprocessed corn kernel mildew hyperspectral image data, extracted the cluster centers as the next input data, and then used spectral clustering to merge the cluster centers. The schematic diagram of the proposed co-clustering algorithm is shown in The scattering phenomenon will occur in collecting spectral data due to the unique morphology of corn kernel surfaces, such as surface granularity and irregularity. To avoid the influence of corn kernel shape and contour on the spectral data and improve the recognition accuracy, the SNV and MSC algorithms were adopted to preprocess the hyperspectral image data of corn kernel mildew. Before the pretreatment, the noises of the front and back bands are considerable during hyperspectral image acquisition, which will harm the post-processing procedures. In the experiment, noisy bands were removed, 168 bands between 450 nm and 900 nm were retained, then SNV and MSC were used for the pretreatment. The two-dimensional (2D) Gabor wavelet is a Fourier transform whose window function is the Gaussian kernel function . It has Splitting it by the real and imaginary parts gives the following equations:When performing 2D Gabor wavelets, the primary 2D Gabor wavelet parameters Gabor features are extracted from the image on eight directions Hyperspectral data usually contain spectral bands with redundant and multicollinearity information. Therefore, feature selection of the preprocessed spectral data is critical for improving the model accuracy and reducing the modeling time and complexity. Principal component analysis (PCA)  is the mIn this paper, 94% of the information was retained by PCA. As shown in Most noises and redundant data have been removed after pretreatment and feature selection, and the feature data can be obtained after dimension reduction. With the wavelength extracted from PCA as the feature data, the classification model is established and verified by the proposed co-clustering algorithm. The detection algorithm for the hyperspectral image of corn kernel mildew is shown in The predefined parameters for the co-clustering algorithm include the number for the first and final clustering and the sigma value in the spectral clustering. In order to better describe the distribution of mildew, all data were finally divided into two categories, namely the mildew part and the non-mildew part. Therefore, the final cluster number was set as 2, and the sigma value in spectral clustering was set to 0.5. As for the number of the first clustering, two factors, namely clustering accuracy and computational cost, were considered. Several experiments were designed for in-depth analysis, as shown in In addition to accuracy (CR), we combined the normalized mutual information (NMI) and RAND index (RI) to verify the performance of the algorithm jointly. As for the evaluation standards, CR evaluates the efficacy of the clustering by comparing the clustering results with real tag matches; RI is to match the correct and matching error log to evaluate the data; while NMI is mainly different from these two evaluation standards, as it introduces the maximum likelihood estimation and calculation of mutual information and finally normalizes the results.Currently, most detection methods for corn kernel mildew by hyperspectral image technology only utilize the spectral features and do not take advantage of image features simultaneously acquired by the hyperspectral technology. Hence, we attempted to conduct experiments from two perspectives, including detection only with spectral features and detection with both spectral and image features. First, the spectral features were clustered, and the clustering results are presented in Second, detection experiments with both spectral and image features are conducted. The above results demonstrate that the proposed unsupervised clustering algorithm has excellent performance in the hyperspectral image classification of corn kernel mildew. Currently, supervised classification algorithms are mostly used. We compared the proposed algorithm and the currently used supervised clustering algorithms, namely linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM). Classification results of SVM and LDA in corn kernel mildew hyperspectral image data  are shown in As shown in The experimental results prove that traditional unsupervised clustering methods cannot perform well regarding corn mildew detection. The reason may be that the similarity measure cannot measure the complex data structure well. The supervised classification method is based on a particular training set, and the classification effect is better than that of the traditional unsupervised clustering method. However, the results of the supervised classification method depend on the accuracy of the labels of the prediction set, and the process is complicated. The co-clustering method proposed in this paper can provide more stable and excellent performance to overcome these problems.The excellent performance of FCM-MC may be attributed to two factors. First, after using the FCM algorithm to cluster the feature data, noises are discarded, and the obtained cluster centers can also better represent the characteristics of the data itself.Second, the spectral clustering algorithm can cluster in any shape of the sample space and converge to the optimal global solution, and at the same time, the computational complexity of spectral clustering is significantly reduced after the FCM clustering.This paper proposes a new corn kernel mildew detection method using hyperspectral imaging. First, SNV and MSC are used for preprocessing to remove the hyperspectral image data with high noise. Then, Gabor features are extracted, and PCA is applied to select the features of the preprocessed data. Finally, an unsupervised clustering algorithm is proposed for pixel-level classification for the first time. The proposed algorithm adopts multi-center fuzzy clustering to describe the distribution of corn kernel mildew and then merges the cluster centers by spectral clustering, which can not only maintain the nonlinear structure of redundant cluster centers but also significantly reduces the computational cost. The experimental results suggest that the proposed algorithm can describe the complex structure of corn kernel mildew distribution with high stability, anti-interference ability, generalization ability, and accuracy compared with the supervised prediction or classification models. At present, the process of redundant clustering and spectral clustering in the algorithm in this paper was carried out in separate stages, which belong to a two-stage clustering algorithm. In the future, we will start from the hyperspectral image characteristics of the corn mildew mechanism and combine redundant and spectral clustering to make the clustering process cooperate to improve the robustness and convergence of the algorithm.