Evaluation of the brain activation induced by functional electrical stimulation and voluntary contraction using functional magnetic resonance imaging

BACKGROUND: To observe brain activation induced by functional electrical stimulation, voluntary contraction, and the combination of both using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHODS: Nineteen healthy young men were enrolled in the study. We employed a typical block design that consisted of three sessions: voluntary contraction only, functional electrical stimulation (FES)-induced wrist extension, and finally simultaneous voluntary and FES-induced movement. MRI acquisition was performed on a 3.0 T MR system. To investigate activation in each session, one-sample t-tests were performed after correcting for false discovery rate (FDR; p < 0.05). To compare FES-induced movement and combined contraction, a two-sample t-test was performed using a contrast map (p < 0.01). RESULTS: In the voluntary contraction alone condition, brain activation was observed in the contralateral primary motor cortex (MI), thalamus, bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA), primary sensory cortex (SI), secondary somatosensory motor cortex (SII), caudate, and cerebellum (mainly ipsilateral). During FES-induced wrist movement, brain activation was observed in the contralateral MI, SI, SMA, thalamus, ipsilateral SII, and cerebellum. During FES-induced movement combined with voluntary contraction, brain activation was found in the contralateral MI, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), SMA, ipsilateral cerebellum, bilateral SII, and SI. The activated brain regions (number of voxels) of the MI, SI, cerebellum, and SMA were largest during voluntary contraction alone and smallest during FES alone. SII-activated brain regions were largest during voluntary contraction combined with FES and smallest during FES contraction alone. The brain activation extent (maximum t score) of the MI, SI, and SII was largest during voluntary contraction alone and smallest during FES alone. The brain activation extent of the cerebellum and SMA during voluntary contraction alone was similar during FES combined with voluntary contraction; however, cerebellum and SMA activation during FES movement alone was smaller than that of voluntary contraction alone or voluntary contraction combined with FES. Between FES movement alone and combined contraction, activated regions and extent due to combined contraction was significantly higher than that of FES movement alone in the ipsilateral cerebellum and the contralateral MI and SI. CONCLUSIONS: Voluntary contraction combined with FES may be more effective for brain activation than FES-only movements for rehabilitation therapy. In addition, voluntary effort is the most important factor in the therapeutic process

Large tubular colonic duplication in an adult treated with a small midline incision

Tubular colonic duplication presenting in adults is rare and difficult to diagnose preoperatively. Only a few cases have been reported in the literature. We report a case of a 29-year-old lady presenting with a long history of chronic constipation, abdominal mass and repeated episodes of abdominal pain. The abdominal-pelvic computed tomography scan showed segmental bowel wall thickening thought to be small bowel, and dilatation with stasis of intraluminal content. The provisional diagnosis was small bowel duplication. She was scheduled for single port laparoscopic resection. However, a T-shaped tubular colonic duplication at sigmoid colon was found intraoperatively. Resection of the large T-shaped tubular colonic duplication containing multiple impacted large fecaloma and primary anastomosis was performed. There was no perioperative complication. We report, herein, the case of a T-shaped tubular colonic duplication at sigmoid colon in an adult who was successfully treated through mini-laparotomy assisted by single port laparoscopic surgery

Actin Cytoskeleton and Golgi Involvement in Barley stripe mosaic virus Movement and Cell Wall Localization of Triple Gene Block Proteins.

Barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV) induces massive actin filament thickening at the infection front of infected Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. To determine the mechanisms leading to actin remodeling, fluorescent protein fusions of the BSMV triple gene block (TGB) proteins were coexpressed in cells with the actin marker DsRed: Talin. TGB ectopic expression experiments revealed that TGB3 is a major elicitor of filament thickening, that TGB2 resulted in formation of intermediate DsRed:Talin filaments, and that TGB1 alone had no obvious effects on actin filament structure. Latrunculin B (LatB) treatments retarded BSMV cell-to-cell movement, disrupted actin filament organization, and dramatically decreased the proportion of paired TGB3 foci appearing at the cell wall (CW). BSMV infection of transgenic plants tagged with GFP-KDEL exhibited membrane proliferation and vesicle formation that were especially evident around the nucleus. Similar membrane proliferation occurred in plants expressing TGB2 and/or TGB3, and DsRed: Talin fluorescence in these plants colocalized with the ER vesicles. TGB3 also associated with the Golgi apparatus and overlapped with cortical vesicles appearing at the cell periphery. Brefeldin A treatments disrupted Golgi and also altered vesicles at the CW, but failed to interfere with TGB CW localization. Our results indicate that actin cytoskeleton interactions are important in BSMV cell-to-cell movement and for CW localization of TGB3

Monitoring Coastal Chlorophyll-a Concentrations in Coastal Areas Using Machine Learning Models

Harmful algal blooms have negatively affected the aquaculture industry and aquatic ecosystems globally. Remote sensing using satellite sensor systems has been applied on large spatial scales with high temporal resolutions for effective monitoring of harmful algal blooms in coastal waters. However, oceanic color satellites have limitations, such as low spatial resolution of sensor systems and the optical complexity of coastal waters. In this study, bands 1 to 4, obtained from Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager satellite images, were used to evaluate the performance of empirical ocean chlorophyll algorithms using machine learning techniques. Artificial neural network and support vector machine techniques were used to develop an optimal chlorophyll-a model. Four-band, four-band-ratio, and mixed reflectance datasets were tested to select the appropriate input dataset for estimating chlorophyll-a concentration using the two machine learning models. While the ocean chlorophyll algorithm application on Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager showed relatively low performance, the machine learning methods showed improved performance during both the training and validation steps. The artificial neural network and support vector machine demonstrated a similar level of prediction accuracy. Overall, the support vector machine showed slightly superior performance to that of the artificial neural network during the validation step. This study provides practical information about effective monitoring systems for coastal algal blooms

Distribution and antimicrobial resistance profiles of bacterial species in stray cats, hospital-admitted cats, and veterinary staff in South Korea

Antimicrobial resistance is becoming increasingly important in both human and veterinary medicine. According to the One Health concept, an important step is to monitor the resistance patterns of pathogenic bacteria. In this study, the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and trends of bacteria isolated from stray cats, hospital-admitted cats, and veterinary staff in South Korea between 2017 and 2018 were investigated. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of different antibiotics for Staphylococcus spp., Enterobacteriaceae, and Enterococcus spp. were determined to establish representatives of different antibiotic classes relevant for treatment or surveillance. For Coagulase-positive and Coagulase-negative Staphylococci, resistance to fluoroquinolones was below 13%, but resistance to ampicillin and penicillin was high (20–88%). A total of 9.5, 12.1, and 40.3% of staphylococcal isolates from stray cats, hospital-admitted cats, and veterinary staff, respectively, were confirmed to be mecA positive. For Enterobacteriaceae, resistance to carbapenems, fluoroquinolones, and 3rd generation cephalosporins was low (0–11.1%). The Enterococcus spp. isolates showed no resistance to vancomycin. The antimicrobial resistance rates of the Staphylococcus spp. and Enterobacteriaceae isolates from stray cats were usually lower than those of isolates from hospital-admitted cats and veterinary staff, but the Enterococcus spp. isolates revealed the opposite. Thus, the antimicrobial resistance varied across bacterial species according to the source from which they were isolated. Resistance to critically important compounds were low. However, the presence of antimicrobial resistance in cat isolates is of both public health and animal health concern.This work was supported by a grant from the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Z-1543081-2017-18-03) and the Cooperative Research Program of Center for Companion Animal Research Jung et al. BMC Veterinary Research (2020) 16:109 Page 12 of 14 (Project No. PJ013985022019) of Rural Development Administration, South Korea. The funding bodies played no role in the design of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript

Lung Metastasis from an Immature Teratoma of the Nasal Cavity Masquerading as Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung

We report a case of small cell lung cancer that turned out to be a metastatic teratoma from the nasal cavity rather than a new primary cancer. A 54-year-old woman was diagnosed with an immature teratoma of the nasal cavity with a predominant neuroblastomatous component. Small cell lung cancer was detected by bronchoscopic biopsy 21 months later, and it was treated with concurrent radiochemotherapy as if it had been a new primary cancer. Since a recurrent tumor containing fat-like density grew slowly on the serial chest CT scans after achieving complete response, we reached the conclusion that the small undifferentiated cells could be metastatic neuroblastomatous components from the immature teratoma of the nasal cavity

Pseudoaneurysm of the popliteal artery mimicking tumorous condition

Diagnosing pseudoaneurysms of the popliteal artery is usually straightforward in physical examinations and imaging findings. However, when a pseudoaneurysm shows a soft tissue mass with adjacent osseous change, it can mimic a bone tumor or a soft tissue sarcoma. We present a case of a 65-year-old man who had a pseudoaneurysm of the popliteal artery showing soft tissue mass and insinuating into the intramedullary cavity of the tibia. This presented case emphasizes the importance of considering pseudoaneurysms in the differential diagnosis of an apparent soft tissue mass with pressure erosion in adjacent bone