Pathological Evidence Exploration in Deep Retinal Image Diagnosis

Though deep learning has shown successful performance in classifying the label and severity stage of certain disease, most of them give few evidence on how to make prediction. Here, we propose to exploit the interpretability of deep learning application in medical diagnosis. Inspired by Koch's Postulates, a well-known strategy in medical research to identify the property of pathogen, we define a pathological descriptor that can be extracted from the activated neurons of a diabetic retinopathy detector. To visualize the symptom and feature encoded in this descriptor, we propose a GAN based method to synthesize pathological retinal image given the descriptor and a binary vessel segmentation. Besides, with this descriptor, we can arbitrarily manipulate the position and quantity of lesions. As verified by a panel of 5 licensed ophthalmologists, our synthesized images carry the symptoms that are directly related to diabetic retinopathy diagnosis. The panel survey also shows that our generated images is both qualitatively and quantitatively superior to existing methods.Comment: to appear in AAAI (2019). The first two authors contributed equally to the paper. Corresponding Author: Feng L

Sini San inhibits breast cancer cell migration and angiogenesis via the HIF 1 /VEGF pathway

Purpose: To investigate the effects of Sini San (SNS) on breast cancer (BC), and the mechanism of action.Methods: MDA-MB-231 and SK-BR-3 cells were used as breast cancer cell models. Cell viability, migration, and invasion were determined by CCK-8, Transwell and wound healing assays, respectively. SNS mechanism of action and its anti-cancer effect were investigated by network pharmacological analysis, and further verified by Immunoblot.Results: Sini San inhibited the proliferation of the breast cancer (BC) cells., and also suppressed the migration as well as the invasion of BC cells, and also restrained the angiogenesis of BC cells. In performing the network pharmacological analysis of Sini Powder in the treatment of BC, 337 drugdisease targets were obtained. PPI network was established through String, and GO and KEGG enrichment analysis was performed on the target sites. KEGG analysis showed that genes were enriched in HIF-1 and VEGF pathways.Conclusion: Sini San suppressed cell migration as well as angiogenesis via the HIF-1 /VEGF pathway&nbsp

Mechanism Underlying Bonding Water Film Effect on Rheological Parameters

From experiments on bonding water of different slurries and the analysis of flow curves, the bilinear fluid model has been improved. The results showed that the rheological parameters correspond to physical processes at different stages of shear strain. As shear rate increases, slurries evolve from high-viscosity Bingham fluids to low-viscosity Bingham fluids. Specific surface area determines the number of edge-to-face arrangements; mineral composition influences the binding strength of each edge-to-face arrangement; and the volume fraction of particles regulates the distance between clay particles and number of edge-to-face arrangements

Tranquilizing and Allaying Excitement Needling Method Affects BDNF and SYP Expression in Hippocampus

Sleep disorder is a state of sleep loss caused by various reasons, which leads to a series of changes, such as emotion, learning and memory, and immune function. “Tranquilizing and allaying excitement” was widely used in clinical treatment of insomnia; however, the mechanism was still not very clear. We randomly divided rats into three groups: control group, sleep deprivation group, and acupuncture treatment group. We observed BDNF and SYP expression in hippocampus in these three groups. Both protein contents and mRNA contents of BDNF and SYP were measured by western blot, immunohistochemistry, and RT-PCR analysis. The sleep deprivation model was established using modified multiple platform sleep deprivation method (MMPM). Our study explored the BDNF and SYP abnormality in hippocampus caused by sleep deprivation and “tranquilizing and allaying excitement” intervention regulated the abnormal expression of BDNF and SYP caused by sleep deprivation on the short run and the long run. Our study provided a molecular evidence that “tranquilizing and allaying excitement” treatment in rats with sleep disorder affects learning and memory ability

Adiponectin improves coronary no-reflow injury by protecting the endothelium in rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

To determine the effect of adiponectin (APN) on the coronary no-reflow (NR) injury in rats with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), 80 male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with a high-sugar-high-fat diet to build a T2DM model. Rats received vehicle or APN in the last week and then were subjected to myocardial ischemia reperfusion (MI/R) injury. Endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation of the thoracic aorta was significantly decreased and serum levels of endothelin-1 (ET-1), intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) were noticably increased in T2DM rats compared with rats without T2DM. Serum APN was positively correlated with the endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, but negatively correlated with the serum level of ET-1. Treatment with APN improved T2DM-induced endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, recovered cardiac function, and decreased both NR size and the levels of ET-1, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1. Hypoadiponectinemia was associated with the aggravation of coronary NR in T2DM rats. APN could alleviate coronary NR injury in T2DM rats by protecting the endothelium and improving microcirculation

Evaluation of the Ecological Quality of the Taishan Region Based on Landsat Series of Satellite Images

The deterioration of ecological environment has seriously restricted regional sustainable development. Taishan region is one of the ecological protection and restoration of life community of mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands in China. Its ecological quality changes are directly related to the overall layout of ecological restoration and protection projects. In this study, the Taishan region of China was taken as study area, and the grade change, spatial distribution, and spatial temporal fluctuation of the ecological environment quality were quantified. Based on the ENVI platform, the Landsat series of three images of the Taishan region in 2005, 2013, and 2017 serve as the data source, and the remote sensing ecological index model (RSEI) was used. According to the change characteristics of land use types, the driving factors of ecological environmental quality change were analyzed. The results showed that: (1) The area ratio of the ecological environment quality above the middle level was in order from large to small: 2005 (97.37%) > 2017 (91.46%) > 2013 (84.64%). (2) The overall quality of the ecological environment declined during the period of 2005-2013. (3) The overall change ranges from 2013 to 2017 are smaller than those from 2005 to 2013. The area of the deteriorating area decreased by 44.90%, and the area of the constant area and the area of the area that improved increased by 16.17% and 28.72%, respectively. During 2013-2017, the general trend is getting better and better. The improved areas were mainly concentrated in the main urban areas (Taishan District, Daiyue District), eastern Ningyang County, and western Xintai City. The research results can provide a scientific basis for the scientific evaluation of the ecological environment quality during the development and construction of the region, and have important value in the design and application of the ecological environment quality optimization path

The impact of modifiable health metrics on mortality for older adults with low cognitive function

ObjectivesCognitive impairment has emerged as a major contributing factor to mortality for older adults. Identifying the strong modifiable health metrics against mortality is of high priority, especially in this high-risk population.MethodsThis population-based study used data of US adults aged≥60 years old from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2014 cycles. De-identified data for participants who completed cognitive function test were extracted. Mortality data was obtained by linking to the 2019 public-use linked mortality file.ResultsParticipants with low global cognition had higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR = 1.46; 95%CI, 1.04–2.05). The highest prevalence of ideal level of health metrics was observed for sleep duration (54.36% vs. 62.37%), and the lowest was noted for blood pressure (12.06% vs. 21.25%) for participants with low and average to high global cognition, respectively. Ideal status of physical activity and diet quality were significantly associated with all-cause mortality among participants with low global cognition (HR = 0.48, 95%CI: 0.28–0.82; HR = 0.63, 95%CI: 0.43–0.95). The corresponding population-attributable fractions were 26.58 and 15.90%, respectively.ConclusionLow cognitive function was associated with increased risk of all-cause death for older adults. Attainment of healthy metrics, especially sufficient physical activity, consuming healthy diet and being never smoked, provided strong protection against death risk

Personal Involvement Moderates Message Framing Effects on Food Safety Education among Medical University Students in Chongqing, China.

This study explored whether the efficacy of food safety education interventions can be increased by message framing among medical university students, and demonstrated the role of personal involvement within the message recipient in moderating framed effects. A cross-sectional study of food safety message framing was conducted among medical university students (randomly selected 1353 participants). An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Ordered multivariate logistic regression were utilised in the data analyses. The present study showed significant differences in acceptance between the gain- and loss-framed groups ( < 0.001). Participants with higher personal involvement had higher acceptance than those with low personal involvement in gain- and loss-framed message models ( < 0.001). The acceptance of participants who were concerned about their health condition was higher than those who were neutral regarding their health condition ( < 0.001) and participants who suffered a food safety incident had higher acceptance than those who did not ( < 0.05). This study portrayed the selection preference of message framing on food safety education among medical university students in southwest China. Participants exposed to loss-framed messages had higher message acceptance than those exposed to gain-framed messages. Personal involvement may affect the food safety message framing. Public health advocates and professionals can use framed messages as a strategy to enhance intervention efficacy in the process of food safety education

Effects of Goal-Framed Messages on Mental Health Education Among Medical University Students: Moderating Role of Personal Involvement.

Mental health problem among university students is an emerging public health issue, and mental health education has always been the focus of attention for universities. However, limited attention has been paid to the effect of students' acceptance of health messages. Previous studies have found that message framing plays a key role in the process of responding to health-promoting messages. In this backdrop, the study aimed to examine the effects of goal-framed messages on mental health education among medical university students and investigate the moderating role of personal involvement. A cross-sectional study was conducted on medical university students. An online self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and ordinal logistic regression were used for data analysis. Results showed significant differences in message acceptance between the gain- and loss-framed groups ( < 0.001). Participants with high personal involvement had higher message acceptance than those with low personal involvement in gain- and loss-framed message models ( < 0.05). Specifically, participants who related to roommates with high intimacy had higher message acceptance than those who related to roommates generally ( < 0.05). Participants who were concerned about their health condition had higher message acceptance than those who were neutral about their health condition ( < 0.001). Evidence of advantages of gain- over loss-framed messages on mental health among medical university students was found. The hypothesis that personal involvement with a health issue affects the acceptance of message framing was supported. Public health advocates can use framed message as a strategy to improve the efficacy of intervention in mental health education