Newton Like Iterative Method without Derivative for Solving Nonlinear Equations Based on Dynamical Systems

The iterative problem of solving nonlinear equations is studied. A new Newton like iterative method with adjustable parameters is designed based on the dynamic system theory. In order to avoid the derivative function in the iterative scheme, the difference quotient is used instead of the derivative. Different from the existing methods, the difference quotient scheme in this paper has higher accuracy. Thus, the new iterative method is suitable for a wider range of initial values. Finally, several numerical examples are given to verify the practicability and superiority of the method.Comment: 7pages,under revie

Histologic and functional outcomes of small intestine submucosa-regenerated bladder tissue

BACKGROUND: Intestinal bladder augmentation has more disadvantages. One of the most promising alternative methods is tissue engineering in combination with surgical construction. Small intestine submucosa (SIS) is commonly used materials in tissue engineer. The aim of this study is determine the histologic and functional characteristics of SIS as bladder wall replacement in a rabbit augmentation model. METHODS: 18 New Zealand adult male rabbits, weight 2.5 ± 0.5Kg, were used in this study. The rabbits were divided into 3 groups of 6 based on the number of days post-operative (A, 4 weeks; B, 12 weeks; C, 24 weeks). All of the animals underwent urodynamic testing under anesthesia before cystoplasty with SIS patch. The cystometrograms were repeated 4, 12, and 24 weeks after surgery with the same method. SIS-regenerated bladder strips (10 × 3 × 3 mm) and normal bladder strips (10 × 3 × 3 mm) from the same bladder were obtained at 4, 12, and 24 weeks for in vitro detrusor strip study. The frequency and amplitude of the strip over 15 min was recorded. The regenerated tissue and normal tissue underwent histologic and immunocytochemical analysis. The results were quantified as optical density (OD) values. RESULTS: Histologically, the SIS-regenerated bladders of group C (24 weeks post-operation) resembled normal bladder in that all 3 layers (mucosa with submucosa, smooth muscle, and serosa) were present. In the in vitro detrusor strip study, there were no significant differences in autorhythmicity and contractility between regenerated and normal tissues in group C (p > 0.05). Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that the quantity of A-actin grew to a normal level. Urodynamic testing showed that compliance remained stable in all groups post-operatively, and the volume increased 24 weeks post-operatively. CONCLUSION: Regenerated tissue has similar histologic and functional characteristics. SIS seems to be a viable material in the reconstruction of the rabbit urinary bladder

Current Applications and Future Directions of Bioengineering Approaches for Bladder Augmentation and Reconstruction

End-stage neurogenic bladder usually results in the insufficiency of upper urinary tract, requiring bladder augmentation with intestinal tissue. To avoid complications of augmentation cystoplasty, tissue-engineering technique could offer a new approach to bladder reconstruction. This work reviews the current state of bioengineering progress and barriers in bladder augmentation or reconstruction and proposes an innovative method to address the obstacles of bladder augmentation. The ideal tissue-engineered bladder has the characteristics of high biocompatibility, compliance, and specialized urothelium to protect the upper urinary tract and prevent extravasation of urine. Despite that many reports have demonstrated that bioengineered bladder possessed a similar structure to native bladder, few large animal experiments, and clinical applications have been performed successfully. The lack of satisfactory outcomes over the past decades may have become an important factor hindering the development in this field. More studies should be warranted to promote the use of tissue-engineered bladders in clinical practice

Existence of multiple positive solutions for a class of infinite-point singular p-Laplacian fractional differential equation with singular source terms

Based on properties of Green’s function and by Avery–Peterson fixed point theorem, the existence of multiple positive solutions are obtained for singular p-Laplacian fractional differential equation with infinite-point boundary conditions, and an example is given to demonstrate the validity of our main results

A bibliometric profile of optogenetics: quantitative and qualitative analyses

IntroductionOptogenetics is a rapidly developing field combining optics and genetics, with promising applications in neuroscience and beyond. However, there is currently a lack of bibliometric analyses examining publications in this area.MethodPublications on optogenetics were gathered from the Web of Science Core Collection Database. A quantitative analysis was conducted to gain insights into the annual scientific output, and distribution of authors, journals, subject categories, countries, and institutions. Additionally, qualitative analysis, such as co-occurrence network analysis, thematic analysis, and theme evolution, were performed to identify the main areas and trends of optogenetics articles.ResultsA total of 6,824 publications were included for analysis. The number of articles has rapidly grown since 2010, with an annual growth rate of 52.82%. Deisseroth K, Boyden ES, and Hegemann P were the most prolific contributors to the field. The United States contributed the most articles (3,051 articles), followed by China (623 articles). A majority of optogenetics-related articles are published in high-quality journals, including NATURE, SCIENCE, and CELL. These articles mainly belong to four subjects: neurosciences, biochemistry and molecular biology, neuroimaging, and materials science. Co-occurrence keyword network analysis identified three clusters: optogenetic components and techniques, optogenetics and neural circuitry, optogenetics and disease.ConclusionThe results suggest that optogenetics research is flourishing, focusing on optogenetic techniques and their applications in neural circuitry exploration and disease intervention. Optogenetics is expected to remain a hot topic in various fields in the future

Upper urinary dilatation and treatment of 26 patients with diabetes insipidus: A single-center retrospective study

ObjectiveTo describe the urinary tract characteristics of diabetes insipidus (DI) patients with upper urinary tract dilatation (UUTD) using the video-urodynamic recordings (VUDS), UUTD and all urinary tract dysfunction (AUTD) systems, and to summarize the experience in the treatment of DI with UUTD.MethodsThis retrospective study analyzed clinical data from 26 patients with DI, including micturition diary, water deprivation tests, imaging data and management. The UUTD and AUTD systems were used to evaluate the urinary tract characteristics. All patients were required to undergo VUDS, neurophysiologic tests to confirm the presence of neurogenic bladder (NB).ResultsVUDS showed that the mean values for bladder capacity and bladder compliance were 575.0 ± 135.1 ml and 51.5 ± 33.6 cmH2O in DI patients, and 42.3% (11/26) had a post-void residual >100 ml. NB was present in 6 (23.1%) of 26 DI patients with UUTD, and enterocystoplasty was recommended for two patients with poor bladder capacity, compliance and renal impairment. For the 24 remaining patients, medication combined with individualized and appropriate bladder management, including intermittent catheterization, indwelling catheter and regular voiding, achieved satisfactory results. High serum creatinine decreased from 248.0 ± 115.8 μmoI/L to 177.4 ± 92.8 μmoI/L in 12 patients from a population with a median of 108.1 μmoI/L (IQR: 79.9-206.5 μmoI/L). Forty-four dilated ureters showed significant improvement in the UUTD grade, and the median grade of 52 UUTD ureters decreased from 3 to 2.ConclusionBladder distension, trabeculation and decreased or absent sensations were common features for DI patients with UUTD. Individualized therapy by medication combined with appropriate bladder management can improve UUTD and renal function in DI patients

Intravesical Electrical Stimulation Improves Abnormal Prefrontal Brain Activity in Patients With Underactive Bladder: A Possible Central Mechanism

Purpose The aim of this study was to explore the mechanisms of central brain action in patients with neurogenic underactive bladder (UAB) treated with intravesical electrical stimulation (IVES). Methods We prospectively recruited patients with neurogenic UAB who chose to receive IVES treatment and healthy subjects (HS). At baseline, the following data were obtained: a 72-hour voiding diary; measurements of postvoid residual urine (PVR), voiding efficiency (VE) and first sensation of bladder filling (FS); American Urological Association Symptom Index Quality of Life (AUA-SI-QOL) scores, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy scans of the prefrontal cortex in the voiding stage. All UAB patients were re-evaluated for these indices after completing 4 weeks of IVES. A >50% improvement in PVR was defined as successful IVES treatment. Prefrontal activity was analyzed using the NIRS_KIT software, corrected with the false discovery rate (P<0.05). Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 22.0, and P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Eighteen UAB patients and 16 HS were included. IVES treatment was successful in 11 UAB patients and failed in 7. The PVR, VE, 24-hour clean intermittent catheterization, FS volume, and AUA-SI-QOL scores of the UAB group significantly improved after successful IVES treatment. BA9 (right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]) and BA10 (right frontal pole) were significantly activated after successful IVES, and no significant difference was found between the successful group and HS group after IVES. Before IVES, BA10 (right frontal pole) was significantly deactivated in the failed group compared with the successful group. Conclusions The possible central mechanism of IVES treatment for neurogenic UAB is that IVES reactivates the right DLPFC and right frontal pole

DPL: Decoupled Prompt Learning for Vision-Language Models

Prompt learning has emerged as an efficient and effective approach for transferring foundational Vision-Language Models (e.g., CLIP) to downstream tasks. However, current methods tend to overfit to seen categories, thereby limiting their generalization ability for unseen classes. In this paper, we propose a new method, Decoupled Prompt Learning (DPL), which reformulates the attention in prompt learning to alleviate this problem. Specifically, we theoretically investigate the collaborative process between prompts and instances (i.e., image patches/text tokens) by reformulating the original self-attention into four separate sub-processes. Through detailed analysis, we observe that certain sub-processes can be strengthened to bolster robustness and generalizability by some approximation techniques. Furthermore, we introduce language-conditioned textual prompting based on decoupled attention to naturally preserve the generalization of text input. Our approach is flexible for both visual and textual modalities, making it easily extendable to multi-modal prompt learning. By combining the proposed techniques, our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on three representative benchmarks encompassing 15 image recognition datasets, while maintaining parameter-efficient. Moreover, our DPL does not rely on any auxiliary regularization task or extra training data, further demonstrating its remarkable generalization ability.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 8 table