Reconstruction of respiratory patterns from electrocardiographic signals

Presently there is lack of a reliable method for monitoring the respiratory cycles in ambulatory patients. Knowledge of respiratory pattern is useful in many clinical situations. With the ECG signal being the most frequently monitored biomedical signal, it is essential to extract the respiratory waveform from ordinary ECG tracings. Such a technique would permit reliable detection of respiratory efforts in healthy and diseased patients. Here, the authors present the result of a pilot study in which the ECG signals from lead II (LL+:RA-) and a modified chest lead I (V1+:LA-) were used to derive the respiration waveforms from the mean electrical axis of the heart. The ECG-derived respiratory patterns compared favorably with those obtained from airflow measurements

The use of multiple molecular markers as predictors of the clinical prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer

AbstractSerum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is most commonly used as a prognostic biomarker for evaluating curatively resected colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, but it has a low sensitivity and specificity. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential genetic markers in CRC patients using membrane array. Fifty CRC patients were enrolled and mRNA expression in their tissues were analyzed using membrane array analysis. Seven genes were analyzed in this study, including ATP2A2, GLUT1, MMP13, MAGE-A2, MAGE-A7, MAGE-A8, and MAGE-A12. Correlations between the results of the membrane array and the clinicopathological features of these CRC patients were then evaluated. The results show that the overexpression of any three or four of these seven genes is correlated with tumor invasion depth, lymphatic invasion, advanced stage, and postoperative recurrence (all p < 0.005). Furthermore, the expression of any four genes was more significantly correlated with clinicopathological characteristics than the expression of only two or three genes. The combination of multiple molecular markers and the membrane array method might be useful for predicting postoperative relapse in CRC patients

MetaSquare: An integrated metadatabase of 16S rRNA gene amplicon for microbiome taxonomic classification

MOTIVATION: Taxonomic classification of 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon is an efficient and economic approach in microbiome analysis. 16S rRNA sequence databases like SILVA, RDP, EzBioCloud and HOMD used in downstream bioinformatic pipelines have limitations on either the sequence redundancy or the delay on new sequence recruitment. To improve the 16S rRNA gene-based taxonomic classification, we merged these widely used databases and a collection of novel sequences systemically into an integrated resource. RESULTS: MetaSquare version 1.0 is an integrated 16S rRNA sequence database. It is composed of more than 6 million sequences and improves taxonomic classification resolution on both long-read and short-read methods. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: Accessible at https://hub.docker.com/r/lsbnb/metasquare_db and https://github.com/lsbnb/MetaSquare. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

BANet: Blur-aware Attention Networks for Dynamic Scene Deblurring

Image motion blur usually results from moving objects or camera shakes. Such blur is generally directional and non-uniform. Previous research efforts attempt to solve non-uniform blur by using self-recurrent multi-scale or multi-patch architectures accompanying with self-attention. However, using self-recurrent frameworks typically leads to a longer inference time, while inter-pixel or inter-channel self-attention may cause excessive memory usage. This paper proposes blur-aware attention networks (BANet) that accomplish accurate and efficient deblurring via a single forward pass. Our BANet utilizes region-based self-attention with multi-kernel strip pooling to disentangle blur patterns of different degrees and with cascaded parallel dilated convolution to aggregate multi-scale content features. Extensive experimental results on the GoPro and HIDE benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed BANet performs favorably against the state-of-the-art in blurred image restoration and can provide deblurred results in real-time

The crystal structure of the DNase domain of colicin E7 in complex with its inhibitor Im7 protein

AbstractBackground: Colicin E7 (ColE7) is one of the bacterial toxins classified as a DNase-type E-group colicin. The cytotoxic activity of a colicin in a colicin-producing cell can be counteracted by binding of the colicin to a highly specific immunity protein. This biological event is a good model system for the investigation of protein recognition.Results: The crystal structure of a one-to-one complex between the DNase domain of colicin E7 and its cognate immunity protein Im7 has been determined at 2.3 Å resolution. Im7 in the complex is a varied four-helix bundle that is identical to the structure previously determined for uncomplexed Im7. The structure of the DNase domain of ColE7 displays a novel α/β fold and contains a Zn2+ ion bound to three histidine residues and one water molecule in a distorted tetrahedron geometry. Im7 has a V-shaped structure, extending two arms to clamp the DNase domain of ColE7. One arm (α1∗–loop12–α2∗; where ∗ represents helices in Im7) is located in the region that displays the greatest sequence variation among members of the immunity proteins in the same subfamily. This arm mainly uses acidic sidechains to interact with the basic sidechains in the DNase domain of ColE7. The other arm (loop 23–α3∗–loop 34) is more conserved and it interacts not only with the sidechain but also with the mainchain atoms of the DNase domain of ColE7.Conclusions: The protein interfaces between the DNase domain of ColE7 and Im7 are charge-complementary and charge interactions contribute significantly to the tight and specific binding between the two proteins. The more variable arm in Im7 dominates the binding specificity of the immunity protein to its cognate colicin. Biological and structural data suggest that the DNase active site for ColE7 is probably near the metal-binding site

Sequence Variants of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-Gamma Gene and the Clinical Courses of Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease

Background. PPAR-single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reportedly play an important role in determining metabolic risk among diverse population. Whether PPAR-SNPs affect the clinical courses in ESRD patients is unknown. Methods. From a multicenter cohort, we identified 698 patients with prevalent ESRD between 2002 and 2003, and other 782 healthy subjects as control. Two PPAR-SNPs, Pro12Ala (rs1801282) and C161T (rs3856806), were genotyped and their association with ESRD was examined. Both groups were prospectively followed until 2007, and the predictability of genotypes for the long-term survival of ESRD patients was analyzed. Results. After multivariable-adjusted regression, GG genotype of Pro12Ala was significantly more likely to associate with ESRD ( &lt; 0.001) among patients with non-diabetes-related ESRD. Cox&apos;s proportional hazard regression showed that both Pro12Ala and C161T polymorphisms were significant predictors of mortality in ESRD patients with DM (Pro12Ala: GG versus other genotypes, hazard ratio [HR] &lt;0.01; &lt; 0.001; for C161T, CC versus TT genotypes, HR 2.86; &lt; 0.001; CT versus TT genotypes, HR 1.93; &lt; 0.001). Conclusion. This is the first and largest study to evaluate PPAR-SNPs in ESRD patients. Further mechanistic study is needed to elucidate the role of PPAR-among ESRD patients

Effects of Lung Expansion Therapy on Lung Function in Patients with Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation

Common complications in PMV include changes in the airway clearance mechanism, pulmonary function, and respiratory muscle strength, as well as chest radiological changes such as atelectasis. Lung expansion therapy which includes IPPB and PEEP prevents and treats pulmonary atelectasis and improves lung compliance. Our study presented that patients with PMV have improvements in lung volume and oxygenation after receiving IPPB therapy. The combination of IPPB and PEEP therapy also results in increase in respiratory muscle strength. The application of IPPB facilitates the homogeneous gas distribution in the lung and results in recruitment of collapsed alveoli. PEEP therapy may reduce risk of respiratory muscle fatigue by preventing premature airway collapse during expiration. The physiologic effects of IPPB and PEEP may result in enhancement of pulmonary function and thus increase the possibility of successful weaning from mechanical ventilator during weaning process. For patients with PMV who were under the risk of atelectasis, the application of IPPB may be considered as a supplement therapy for the enhancement of weaning outcome during their stay in the hospital

Visual Attention Performances and Related Cerebral Microstructural Integrity Among Subjects With Subjective Cognitive Decline and Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objective: To compare visual attention performances and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) between subjects with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to discover neuronal substrates related to visual attention performances.Methods: Thirty-nine subjects with SCD and 15 with MCI, diagnosed following neuropsychological tests and conventional brain magnetic resonance imaging, were recruited. All subjects were further examined by the Conners Continuous Performance Test 3 (CPT3) and DTI including fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD), in which group comparisons and stepwise linear regression were made.Results: Subjects with MCI had a worse performance in all retrieval indices of verbal/nonverbal memory tests than those with SCD in the context of comparable general cognition and demographic status. In the CPT3, subjects with MCI had a significant longer hit reaction time (HRT) by univariate but not multivariate comparisons. Further analysis suggested that a longer HRT across all interstimuli intervals and at the point of fourth to sixth blocks were noted among MCI subjects. In DTI evaluations, FA value within the left forceps major was the only hotspot with significant between-group differences after the Bonferroni correction of FA and MD values. On the basis that HRT had significant inverse correlations with FA value within the genu of the corpus callosum and left forceps minor, regression analysis was conducted, showing HRT was best predicted by the FA value within the left forceps minor. Area under receiver operative characteristic curve was 0.70; the optimum cut-off for HRT was 515.8 ms, with a sensitivity of 85% but specificity of 47%.Conclusions: Our report suggested that impaired sustained attention and vigilance to be an early cognitive marker in differentiating MCI from SCD, where MCI subjects had a longer HRT across all interstimuli intervals and more profoundly in later blocks. FA measures appeared to be more sensitive DTI parameters than MD values in detecting microstructural changes between SCD and MCI. The role of the anterior interhemispheric fibers in sustained attention implementation during visual signal detection task was highlighted

Managing cardiac arrest with refractory ventricular fibrillation in the emergency department: Conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation versus extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation

AbstractAimRefractory ventricular fibrillation, resistant to conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), is a life threatening rhythm encountered in the emergency department. Although previous reports suggest the use of extracorporeal CPR can improve the clinical outcomes in patients with prolonged cardiac arrest, the effectiveness of this novel strategy for refractory ventricular fibrillation is not known. We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of patients with refractory ventricular fibrillation managed with conventional CPR or extracorporeal CPR in our institution.MethodThis is a retrospective chart review study from an emergency department in a tertiary referral medical center. We identified 209 patients presenting with cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation between September 2011 and September 2013. Of these, 60 patients were enrolled with ventricular fibrillation refractory to resuscitation for more than 10min. The clinical outcome of patients with ventricular fibrillation received either conventional CPR, including defibrillation, chest compression, and resuscitative medication (C-CPR, n=40) or CPR plus extracorporeal CPR (E-CPR, n=20) were compared.ResultsThe overall survival rate was 35%, and 18.3% of patients were discharged with good neurological function. The mean duration of CPR was longer in the E-CPR group than in the C-CPR group (69.90±49.6min vs 34.3±17.7min, p=0.0001). Patients receiving E-CPR had significantly higher rates of sustained return of spontaneous circulation (95.0% vs 47.5%, p=0.0009), and good neurological function at discharge (40.0% vs 7.5%, p=0.0067). The survival rate in the E-CPR group was higher (50% vs 27.5%, p=0.1512) at discharge and (50% vs 20%, p=0. 0998) at 1 year after discharge.ConclusionsThe management of refractory ventricular fibrillation in the emergency department remains challenging, as evidenced by an overall survival rate of 35% in this study. Patients with refractory ventricular fibrillation receiving E-CPR had a trend toward higher survival rates and significantly improved neurological outcomes than those receiving C-CPR

Does Long-Term Use of Silver Nanoparticles Have Persistent Inhibitory Effect on H. pylori Based on Mongolian Gerbil’s Model?

It is urgent to find alternative agents due to increasing failure rate of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication. The study surveyed the long-term effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) on H. pylori based on Mongolian gerbil's model