Comparing synthetic refocusing to deconvolution for the extraction of neuronal calcium transients from light fields

Significance: Light-field microscopy (LFM) enables fast, light-efficient, volumetric imaging of neuronal activity with calcium indicators. Calcium transients differ in temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and spatial confinement when extracted from volumes reconstructed by different algorithms. Aim: We evaluated the capabilities and limitations of two light-field reconstruction algorithms for calcium fluorescence imaging. Approach: We acquired light-field image series from neurons either bulk-labeled or filled intracellularly with the red-emitting calcium dye CaSiR-1 in acute mouse brain slices. We compared the tSNR and spatial onfinement of calcium signals extracted from volumes reconstructed with synthetic refocusing and Richardson-Lucy 3D deconvolution with and without total variation regularization. Results: Both synthetic refocusing and Richardson-Lucy deconvolution resolved calcium signals from single cells and neuronal dendrites in three dimensions. Increasing deconvolution iteration number improved spatial confinement but reduced tSNR compared to synthetic refocusing. Volumetric light-field imaging did not decrease calcium signal tSNR compared to interleaved, widefield image series acquired in matched planes. Conclusions: LFM enables high-volume rate, volumetric imaging of calcium transients in single cells (bulk-labeled), somata and dendrites (intracellular loaded). The trade-offs identified for tSNR, spatial confinement, and computational cost indicate which of synthetic refocusing or deconvolution can better realize the scientific requirements of future LFM calcium imaging applications

The Effectiveness of Moxibustion: An Overview During 10 Years

Moxibustion has been used to treat various types of disease. However, there is still insufficient evidence regarding its effectiveness. This study was performed to summarize and evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion. A search was performed for all randomized controlled trials in PubMed between January 1998 and July 2008 with no language restriction. The results yielded 47 trials in which six moxibustion types were applied to 36 diseases ranging from breech presentation to digestive disorders. Moxibustion was compared to three types of control group: general care, Oriental medical therapies or waiting list. Moxibustion was superior to the control in 14 out of 54 control groups in 46 studies. There were no significant differences among groups in 7 studies, and the outcome direction was not determined in 33 studies. Seven studies were included in a meta-analysis. Moxibustion was more effective than medication in two ulcerative colitis studies (relative risk (95% CI), 2.20 (1.37, 3.52), P = .001, I2 = 0%). Overall, our results did not support the effectiveness of moxibustion in specific diseases due to the limited number and low quality of the studies and inadequate use of controls. In order to provide appropriate evidence regarding the effectiveness of moxibustion, more rigorous clinical trials using appropriate controls are warranted

Example-Guided Style-Consistent Image Synthesis from Semantic Labeling

Example-guided image synthesis aims to synthesize an image from a semantic label map and an exemplary image indicating style. We use the term “style” in this problem to refer to implicit characteristics of images, for example: in portraits “style” includes gender, racial identity, age, hairstyle; in full body pictures it includes clothing; in street scenes it refers to weather and time of day and such like. A semantic label map in these cases indicates facial expres- sion, full body pose, or scene segmentation. We propose a solution to the example-guided image synthesis problem us- ing conditional generative adversarial networks with style consistency. Our key contributions are (i) a novel style consistency discriminator to determine whether a pair of im- ages are consistent in style; (ii) an adaptive semantic con- sistency loss; and (iii) a training data sampling strategy, for synthesizing style-consistent results to the exemplar. We demonstrate the efficiency of our method on face, dance and street view synthesis tasks

Mechanical Properties of Dissimilar A356/SAPH440 Lap Joints by the Friction Stir Spot Welding and Self-Piercing Riveting

Aluminum alloy A356-T6 and automotive steel sheet SAPH440 were joined using friction stir spot welding and self-piercing riveting. The maximum tensile shear strength values in weld joints were approximately 3.5 kN at a rotation speed of 500 rpm and plunge depth of 1.0 mm. It was confirmed that the intermetallic compound layer of weld joints below 9.23 m did not exceed the permissible thickness 10 m of Al–Fe joints. The self-piercing riveting joints exhibited maximum tensile- shear strength of 7.9 kN, which was higher than that of the weld joints. However, during the riveting process, cracking appeared in the joint on the aluminum side, which was caused by lack of ductility of cast aluminum. In addition, it was observed that the cracks on the aluminum side were getting larger, as the radius of the lower mold increased.Алюминиевый сплав А356-Т6 и автомобильную листовую сталь SAPH440 соединяли с помощью точечной ротационной сварки трением и самопробивной клепки. Максимальный предел прочности на сдвиг при растяжении для сварных соединений составлял примерно 3,5 кН при скорости вращения 500 об/мин и глубине проникновения 1,0 мм. Доказано, что слой интерметаллидов сварных соединений толщиной менее 9,23 мкм не превышал допустимый уровень в 10 мкм для соединений Al–Fe. Клепаные соединения имели предел прочности 7,9 кН в отличие от сварных соединений. Однако при клепке на алюминии появлялись трещины ввиду низкой пластичности литого материала, при этом трещины подрастали по мере увеличения радиуса нижней формы

人乳头瘤病毒衣壳蛋白C末端结构臂具有免疫原性并参与病毒—宿主细胞的相互作用

文章简介宫颈癌是全球女性第二大常见恶性肿瘤,人乳头瘤病毒(HPV)是导致女性宫颈癌发生的主要原因。HPV型别众多,主要的高危型型别种类多达15种,且型别间免疫血清交叉保护能力极低,目前国际上已上市的预防性多价HPV疫苗均不能为接种者提供完全保护。长期以来,高分辨率HPV的病毒结构信息的缺乏限制了对HPV病毒的组装模式和感染机制的深入理解,进国家自然科学基金；美国国立卫生院(NIH)基金的资助

Estimated HIV Incidence in the United States, 2006–2009

Background The estimated number of new HIV infections in the United States reflects the leading edge of the epidemic. Previously, CDC estimated HIV incidence in the United States in 2006 as 56,300 (95% CI: 48,200–64,500). We updated the 2006 estimate and calculated incidence for 2007–2009 using improved methodology. Methodology We estimated incidence using incidence surveillance data from 16 states and 2 cities and a modification of our previously described stratified extrapolation method based on a sample survey approach with multiple imputation, stratification, and extrapolation to account for missing data and heterogeneity of HIV testing behavior among population groups. Principal Findings Estimated HIV incidence among persons aged 13 years and older was 48,600 (95% CI: 42,400–54,700) in 2006, 56,000 (95% CI: 49,100–62,900) in 2007, 47,800 (95% CI: 41,800–53,800) in 2008 and 48,100 (95% CI: 42,200–54,000) in 2009. From 2006 to 2009 incidence did not change significantly overall or among specific race/ethnicity or risk groups. However, there was a 21% (95% CI:1.9%–39.8%; p = 0.017) increase in incidence for people aged 13–29 years, driven by a 34% (95% CI: 8.4%–60.4%) increase in young men who have sex with men (MSM). There was a 48% increase among young black/African American MSM (12.3%–83.0%; p<0.001). Among people aged 13–29, only MSM experienced significant increases in incidence, and among 13–29 year-old MSM, incidence increased significantly among young, black/African American MSM. In 2009, MSM accounted for 61% of new infections, heterosexual contact 27%, injection drug use (IDU) 9%, and MSM/IDU 3%. Conclusions/Significance Overall, HIV incidence in the United States was relatively stable 2006–2009; however, among young MSM, particularly black/African American MSM, incidence increased. HIV continues to be a major public health burden, disproportionately affecting several populations in the United States, especially MSM and racial and ethnic minorities. Expanded, improved, and targeted prevention is necessary to reduce HIV incidence

Modulatory effect of ginseng total saponins on dopamine release and tyrosine hydroxylase gene expression induced by nicotine in the mouse

Abstract Several studies have demonstrated that behavioral activation induced by psychostimulants is prevented by ginseng total saponin (GTS), which has been known to act on the central dopaminergic system. In an attempt to investigate whether the effect of GTS is through its inhibitory action on the elevated dopaminergic transmission, we examined the effect of GTS on nicotine-induced dopamine (DA) release in the nucleus accumbens (NA) of freely moving rats using in vivo microdialysis. Systemic injection of nicotine (3 mg/kg; i.p.) produced a mild increase in extracellular DA of dialysates samples in the NA (132 913% over basal levels at the peak). GTS (100 mg/kg; i.p.) had no effect on resting levels of extracelluar DA. However, an increase in accumbens DA release produced by systemic nicotine was completely blocked by systemic pre-treatment with GTS (100 mg/kg; i.p.). In addition, the effect of GTS on nicotine-induced tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and immediate early gene expression in ventral tegmental area (VTA) or NA regions was examined. A single injection of nicotine increased TH mRNA level at VTA region. GTS, which did not affect the basal TH mRNA expression, attenuated nicotine-induced TH mRNA expression. Nicotine slightly increased both c-fos and c-jun mRNA level and GTS, which did not affect the basal c-fos and c-jun mRNA expression, further enhanced nicotine-induced c-fos and c-jun mRNA level at both VTA and NA regions. Our results suggest that GTS may have an inhibitory action against nicotine-induced DA release in NA region and TH mRNA expression in VTA region. GTS may exert an potentiative effect on both c-fos and c-jun mRNA expression at NA region through inhibiting the release of DA in NA