Heralded phase-contrast imaging using an orbital angular momentum phase-filter

We utilise the position and orbital angular momentum (OAM) correlations between the signal and idler photons generated in the down-conversion process to obtain ghost images of a phase object. By using an OAM phase filter, which is non-local with respect to the object, the images exhibit isotropic edge-enhancement. This imaging technique is the first demonstration of a full-field, phase-contrast imaging system with non-local edge enhancement, and enables imaging of phase objects using significantly fewer photons than standard phase-contrast imaging techniques

Residual characteristics of HCHs and DDTs in soil and dust of some parks in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The residual characteristics of HCHs and DDTs in park soils and dusts in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia were determined by GC-ECD to evaluate their potential pollution risk. The residual concentrations of total HCHs and DDTs in the park soil samples were ranged in 11.36-53.14 ng·g-1 and 11.96-24.70 ng·g-1 while it was ranged in 32.28-92.68 ng·g-1 and 13.45-24.41 ng·g-1 in the park dust samples, respectively. We have studied the ratio of α-HCH/γ-HCH in order to determine pollution sources which may come from either technical HCHs or lindane. The study revealed that concentration of DDTs in soil has direct correlation on usage rate of the dicofol and technical DDT in the sampling area. The soil pollution assessments based on the single pollution index of HCHs and DDTs indicated that Ulaanbaatar city’s park soil and dust were not polluted with these compounds.The single pollution index of HCHs reached to 1.85 in A park dust samples，indicating the park dust environment was potentially polluted. DOI: http://doi.dx.org/10.5564/mjc.v15i0.315 Mongolian Journal of Chemistry 15 (41), 2014, p15-2

A two-amino-acid substitution in the transcription factor RORγt disrupts its function in T_H17 differentiation but not in thymocyte development

The transcription factor RORγt regulates differentiation of the T_H17 subset of helper T cells, thymic T cell development and lymph-node genesis. Although elimination of RORγt prevents T_H17 cell–mediated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), it also disrupts thymocyte development, which could lead to lethal thymic lymphoma. Here we identified a two-amino-acid substitution in RORγt (RORγt^M) that 'preferentially' disrupted T_H17 differentiation but not thymocyte development. Mice expressing RORγt^M were resistant to EAE associated with defective T_H17 differentiation but maintained normal thymocyte development and normal lymph-node genesis, except for Peyer's patches. RORγt^M showed less ubiquitination at Lys69 that was selectively required for T_H17 differentiation but not T cell development. This study will inform the development of treatments that selectively target T_H17 cell–mediated autoimmunity but do not affect thymocyte development or induce lymphoma

Semi-supervised Optimal Transport with Self-paced Ensemble for Cross-hospital Sepsis Early Detection

The utilization of computer technology to solve problems in medical scenarios has attracted considerable attention in recent years, which still has great potential and space for exploration. Among them, machine learning has been widely used in the prediction, diagnosis and even treatment of Sepsis. However, state-of-the-art methods require large amounts of labeled medical data for supervised learning. In real-world applications, the lack of labeled data will cause enormous obstacles if one hospital wants to deploy a new Sepsis detection system. Different from the supervised learning setting, we need to use known information (e.g., from another hospital with rich labeled data) to help build a model with acceptable performance, i.e., transfer learning. In this paper, we propose a semi-supervised optimal transport with self-paced ensemble framework for Sepsis early detection, called SPSSOT, to transfer knowledge from the other that has rich labeled data. In SPSSOT, we first extract the same clinical indicators from the source domain (e.g., hospital with rich labeled data) and the target domain (e.g., hospital with little labeled data), then we combine the semi-supervised domain adaptation based on optimal transport theory with self-paced under-sampling to avoid a negative transfer possibly caused by covariate shift and class imbalance. On the whole, SPSSOT is an end-to-end transfer learning method for Sepsis early detection which can automatically select suitable samples from two domains respectively according to the number of iterations and align feature space of two domains. Extensive experiments on two open clinical datasets demonstrate that comparing with other methods, our proposed SPSSOT, can significantly improve the AUC values with only 1% labeled data in the target domain in two transfer learning scenarios, MIMIC $rightarrow$ Challenge and Challenge $rightarrow$ MIMIC.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

A two-amino-acid substitution in the transcription factor RORγt disrupts its function in T_H17 differentiation but not in thymocyte development

The transcription factor RORγt regulates differentiation of the T_H17 subset of helper T cells, thymic T cell development and lymph-node genesis. Although elimination of RORγt prevents T_H17 cell–mediated experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), it also disrupts thymocyte development, which could lead to lethal thymic lymphoma. Here we identified a two-amino-acid substitution in RORγt (RORγt^M) that 'preferentially' disrupted T_H17 differentiation but not thymocyte development. Mice expressing RORγt^M were resistant to EAE associated with defective T_H17 differentiation but maintained normal thymocyte development and normal lymph-node genesis, except for Peyer's patches. RORγt^M showed less ubiquitination at Lys69 that was selectively required for T_H17 differentiation but not T cell development. This study will inform the development of treatments that selectively target T_H17 cell–mediated autoimmunity but do not affect thymocyte development or induce lymphoma

Presynaptic density determined by SV2A PET is closely associated with postsynaptic metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 availability and independent of amyloid pathology in early cognitive impairment

INTRODUCTION: Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) is involved in regulating integrative brain function and synaptic transmission. Aberrant mGluR5 signaling and relevant synaptic failure play a key role in the pathophysiological mechanism of Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS: Ten cognitively impaired (CI) individuals and 10 healthy controls (HCs) underwent 18FSynVesT-1 and 18FPSS232 positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance to assess synaptic density and mGluR5 availability. The associations between mGluR5 availability and synaptic density were examined. A mediation analysis was performed to investigate the possible mediating effects of mGluR5 availability and synaptic loss on the relationship between amyloid deposition and cognition. RESULTS: CI patients exhibited lower mGluR5 availability and synaptic density in the medial temporal lobe than HCs. Regional synaptic density was closely associated with regional mGluR5 availability. mGluR5 availability and synaptic loss partially mediated the relationship between amyloid deposition and cognition. CONCLUSIONS: Reductions in mGluR5 availability and synaptic density exhibit similar spatial patterns in AD and are closely linked. Highlights - Cognitively impaired patients exhibited lower mGluR5 availability and synaptic density in the medial temporal lobe than HCs. - Reductions in mGluR5 availability and synaptic density exhibit similar spatial patterns in AD. - Regional synaptic density was closely associated with regional mGluR5 availability. - mGluR5 availability and synaptic loss partially mediated the relationship between amyloid deposition and global cognition. - With further research, modulating mGluR5 availability might be a potential therapeutic strategy for improving synaptic function in AD

Effects of hesperidin on the histological structure, oxidative stress, and apoptosis in the liver and kidney induced by NiCl2

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hesperidin on the liver and kidney dysfunctions induced by nickel. The mice were divided into six groups: nickel treatment with 80 mg/kg, 160 mg/kg, 320 mg/kg hesperidin groups, 0.5% CMC-Na group, nickel group, and blank control group. Histopathological techniques, biochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and the TUNEL method were used to study the changes in structure, functions, oxidative injuries, and apoptosis of the liver and kidney. The results showed that hesperidin could alleviate the weight loss and histological injuries of the liver and kidney induced by nickel, and increase the levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alanine aminotransferase (GPT), glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) in liver and blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr) and N-acetylglucosidase (NAG) in kidney. In addition, hesperidin could increase the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in the liver and kidney, decrease the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and inhibit cell apoptosis. It is suggested that hesperidin could help inhibit the toxic effect of nickel on the liver and kidney

A New Approach for Accurate Prediction of Liquid Loading of Directional Gas Wells in Transition Flow or Turbulent Flow

Current common models for calculating continuous liquid-carrying critical gas velocity are established based on vertical wells and laminar flow without considering the influence of deviation angle and Reynolds number on liquid-carrying. With the increase of the directional well in transition flow or turbulent flow, the current common models cannot accurately predict the critical gas velocity of these wells. So we built a new model to predict continuous liquid-carrying critical gas velocity for directional well in transition flow or turbulent flow. It is shown from sensitivity analysis that the correction coefficient is mainly influenced by Reynolds number and deviation angle. With the increase of Reynolds number, the critical liquid-carrying gas velocity increases first and then decreases. And with the increase of deviation angle, the critical liquid-carrying gas velocity gradually decreases. It is indicated from the case calculation analysis that the calculation error of this new model is less than 10%, where accuracy is much higher than those of current common models. It is demonstrated that the continuous liquid-carrying critical gas velocity of directional well in transition flow or turbulent flow can be predicted accurately by using this new model