Localization Accuracy of Ultrasound-Actuated Needle with Color Doppler Imaging

An ultrasonic needle-actuating device for tissue biopsy and regional anaesthesia offers enhanced needle visibility with color Doppler imaging. However, its specific performance is not yet fully determined. This work investigated the influence on needle visibility of the insertion angle and drive voltage, as well as determined the accuracy and agreement of needle tip localization by comparing color Doppler measurements with paired photographic and B-mode ultrasound measurements. Needle tip accuracy measurements in a gelatin phantom gave a regression trend, where the slope of trend is 0.8808; coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.8877; bias is −0.50 mm; and the 95% limits of agreement are from −1.31 to 0.31 mm when comparing color Doppler with photographic measurements. When comparing the color Doppler with B-mode ultrasound measurements, the slope of the regression trend is 1.0179; R2 is 0.9651; bias is −0.16 mm; and the 95% limits of agreement are from −1.935 to 1.605 mm. The results demonstrate the accuracy of this technique and its potential for application to biopsy and ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia

Case report: A novel 10.8-kb deletion identified in the β-globin gene through the long-read sequencing technology in a Chinese family with abnormal hemoglobin testing results

BackgroundThalassemia is a common inherited hemoglobin disorder caused by a deficiency of one or more globin subunits. Substitution variants and deletions in the HBB gene are the major causes of β-thalassemia, of which large fragment deletions are rare and difficult to be detected by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods.Case reportIn this study, we reported a 26-year-old Han Chinese man, whose routine blood parameters were found to be abnormal. Hemoglobin testing was performed on the proband and his family members, of whom only the proband's mother had normal parameters. The comprehensive analysis of thalassemia alleles (CATSA, a long-read sequencing-based approach) was performed to identify the causative variants. We finally found a novel 10.8-kb deletion including the β-globin (HBB) gene (Chr11:5216601-5227407, GRch38/hg38) of the proband and his father and brother, which were consistent with their hemoglobin testing results. The copy number and exact breakpoints of the deletion were confirmed by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) and gap-polymerase chain reaction (Gap-PCR) as well as Sanger sequencing, respectively.ConclusionWith this novel large deletion found in the HBB gene in China, we expand the genotype spectrum of β-thalassemia and show the advantages of long-read sequencing (LRS) for comprehensive and precise detection of thalassemia variants

The Impact of Chronic Heat Stress on the Growth, Survival, Feeding, and Differential Gene Expression in the Sea Urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius

To explore the impact of chronic heat stress on commercial echinoderms, the present study assessed the effects of chronic high temperature on the growth, survival, feeding, and differential gene expression in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius cultured in northern Yellow Sea in China. One suitable seawater condition (20°C) and one laboratory-controlled high temperature condition (25°C) were set up. After 28 days incubation, our results showed that: (1) The specific growth, survival, and ingestion rates of S. intermedius reared under high temperature (25°C) decreased compared to those reared under optimal temperature (20°C) conditions; (2) comparative transcriptome analysis identified 2,125 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in S. intermedius reared under high temperature (25°C) compared to those subjected to optimal temperature condition (20°C), which included 1,015 upregulated and 1,100 downregulated genes. The accuracy of the transcriptome profiles was verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Further Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways analyses revealed that these DEGs mainly enriched the functional categories of ribosome, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, and prion diseases. A total of 732 temperature-induced expressed genes, such as ATP5, heat shock protein 70, and heat shock protein 90, were identified as candidates that were closely correlated with heat resistance in S. intermedius. Differentially expressed transcription factors (TFs), such as AP-1, Fos, CREB, and ZNF, were also identified as potential regulators that regulate the molecular network that was associated with responses to heat stress in sea urchins. Observations in the present study provide additional information that improves our understanding of the molecular mechanism of temperate echinoid species in response to heat stress, as well as theoretical basis for the molecular-assisted breeding of heat-resistant sea urchins

Integrated microRNA-mRNA analysis provides new insights into gonad coloration in the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius

Comparative microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA transcriptome analyses were performed on Strongylocentrotus intermedius of the same sex with significant gonadal color differences. The results indicated that 1) the color of female gonads was generally superior to that of males. 2) Comparative and integrated miRNA and mRNA transcriptome analyses identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) in female and male individuals with significant gonadal color differences. Common and sex-specific DEGs and “DEM-DEG” pairs involved in carotenoid absorption, accumulation, and transformation were identified as candidates correlated with gonad coloration in S. intermedius. Collectively, the results from this study have enriched our knowledge of the process of sea urchin gonad coloration and should provide additional clues for increasing the gonad quality of commercial sea urchins from molecular and metabolic aspects

Kosmos-2.5: A Multimodal Literate Model

We present Kosmos-2.5, a multimodal literate model for machine reading of text-intensive images. Pre-trained on large-scale text-intensive images, Kosmos-2.5 excels in two distinct yet cooperative transcription tasks: (1) generating spatially-aware text blocks, where each block of text is assigned its spatial coordinates within the image, and (2) producing structured text output that captures styles and structures into the markdown format. This unified multimodal literate capability is achieved through a shared Transformer architecture, task-specific prompts, and flexible text representations. We evaluate Kosmos-2.5 on end-to-end document-level text recognition and image-to-markdown text generation. Furthermore, the model can be readily adapted for any text-intensive image understanding task with different prompts through supervised fine-tuning, making it a general-purpose tool for real-world applications involving text-rich images. This work also paves the way for the future scaling of multimodal large language models

A Modified 2D Multiresolution Hybrid Algorithm for Ultrasound Strain Imaging

Ultrasound elastography is an imaging modality to evaluate elastic properties of soft tissue. Recently, 1D quasi-static elastography method has been commercialized by some companies. However, its performance is still limited on high strain level. In order to improve the precision of estimation during high compression, some algorithms have been proposed to expand the 1D window to a 2D window for avoiding the side-slipping. But they are usually more computationally expensive. In this paper, we proposed a modified 2D multiresolution hybrid method for displacement estimation, which can offer an efficient strain imaging with stable and accurate results. A FEM phantom with a stiffer circular inclusion is simulated for testing the algorithm. The elastographic contrast-to-noise rate (CNRe) is calculated for quantitatively comparing the performance of the proposed algorithm with conventional 1D elastography using phase zero estimation and the 1D elastography using downsampled (d-s) baseband signals. Results show that the proposed method is robust and performs similarly as other algorithms in low strain but is superior when high level strain is applied. Particularly, the CNRe of our algorithm is 15 times higher than original method under 4% strain level. Furthermore, the execution time of our algorithm is five times faster than other algorithms

Efficacy Estimation of Microbubble-Assisted Local Sonothrombolysis Using a Catheter with a Series of Miniature Transducers

Intravascular ultrasound has good prospects for clinical applications in sonothrombolysis. The catheter-based side-looking intravascular ultrasound thrombolysis (e.g., Ekosonic catheters) used in clinical studies has a high frequency (2 MHz). The lower-frequency ultrasound requires a larger-diameter transducer. In our study, we designed and manufactured a small ultrasound-based prototype catheter that can emit a lower frequency ultrasound (1.1 MHz). In order to evaluate the safety and efficacy of local low-frequency ultrasound-enhanced thrombolysis, a microbubble (MB) was introduced to augment thrombolysis effect of locally delivered low-intensity ultrasound. The results demonstrated that combination of ultrasound and MB realized higher clot lysis than urokinase-only treatment (17.0% ± 1.2% vs. 14.9% ± 2.7%) under optimal ultrasound settings of 1.1 MHz, 0.414 MPa, 4.89 W/cm2, 5% duty cycle and MB concentration of 60 μg/mL. When urokinase was added, the fibrinolysis accelerated by MB and ultrasound resulted in a further increased thrombolysis rate that was more than two times than that of urokinase alone (36.7% ± 5.5% vs. 14.9% ± 2.7%). However, a great quantity of ultrasound energy was required to achieve substantial clot lysis without MB, leading to the situation that temperature accumulated inside the clot became harmful. We suggest that MB-assisted local sonothrombolysis be considered as adjuvant therapy of thrombolytic agents