Zoom-in-Net: Deep Mining Lesions for Diabetic Retinopathy Detection

We propose a convolution neural network based algorithm for simultaneously diagnosing diabetic retinopathy and highlighting suspicious regions. Our contributions are two folds: 1) a network termed Zoom-in-Net which mimics the zoom-in process of a clinician to examine the retinal images. Trained with only image-level supervisions, Zoomin-Net can generate attention maps which highlight suspicious regions, and predicts the disease level accurately based on both the whole image and its high resolution suspicious patches. 2) Only four bounding boxes generated from the automatically learned attention maps are enough to cover 80% of the lesions labeled by an experienced ophthalmologist, which shows good localization ability of the attention maps. By clustering features at high response locations on the attention maps, we discover meaningful clusters which contain potential lesions in diabetic retinopathy. Experiments show that our algorithm outperform the state-of-the-art methods on two datasets, EyePACS and Messidor.Comment: accepted by MICCAI 201

Impact of Morbid Obesity on Left Ventricular Assist Device Support and Heart Transplantation

Morbidly obese patients requiring LVAD support encounter higher postoperative complications and wait longer for heart transplantation, however heart transplant and graft survival is comparable. Our study suggests that carefully selected morbidly obese patients should undergo LVAD placement and heart transplantation. However, our study was limited by a very small sample size and by the biases inherent to a retrospective data analysis

Fatty-acid uptake in prostate cancer cells using dynamic microfluidic raman technology

It is known that intake of dietary fatty acid (FA) is strongly correlated with prostate cancer progression but is highly dependent on the type of FAs. High levels of palmitic acid (PA) or arachidonic acid (AA) can stimulate the progression of cancer. In this study, a unique experimental set-up consisting of a Raman microscope, coupled with a commercial shear-flow microfluidic system is used to monitor fatty acid uptake by prostate cancer (PC-3) cells in real-time at the single cell level. Uptake of deuterated PA, deuterated AA, and the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were monitored using this new system, while complementary flow cytometry experiments using Nile red staining, were also conducted for the validation of the cellular lipid uptake. Using this novel experimental system, we show that DHA and EPA have inhibitory effects on the uptake of PA and AA by PC-3 cells

COVID-19 Pandemic: Do Learning Motivation and Learning Self-Efficacy Exist among Higher Vocational College Students?

COVID-19 first appeared in the first quarter of 2020 and spread rapidly throughout the world. Now, schools in China have resumed face-to-face teaching on campus, but the COVID-19 Pandemic still impacts normal teaching activities and student psychology. This quantitative research revealed the levels of learning motivation and learning self-efficacy among higher vocational college students. This study also investigated whether these variables vary according to students' gender, hometown, family structure and field of study. In addition, this research examined the relationship between students' learning motivation and learning self-efficacy. The sample for the survey was 1018 students from a public higher vocational college in Shandong Province. The research collected data via two surveys, the Learning Motivation Scale (LMS) designed by Tian and Pan (2006) and the Learning Self-Efficacy Scale (LSS) designed by Liang (2000). The research used percentages, means, standard deviations, independent group t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient to analyze the data. The results revealed that higher vocational college students' learning motivation and learning self-efficacy scores were above the median score of the two scales. The study found that learning motivation did not vary according to students' gender, field of study or family structure. However, students from different hometowns showed a significant difference in their learning self-efficacy but no significant difference in their learning motivation. Finally, the researchers discovered a significant positive correlation between learning motivation and learning self-efficacy

A Comparative Analysis Between the Juvenile Justice Process of Bangladesh and China

Juvenile delinquency is an issue of concern all over the world. It has long been an issue of discussion throughout the world among the legal scholars, psychologists, and world leaders. Many international conventions and treaties, therefore, are still in action to deal with the problem. These legal guidelines are set as the standard of the rights for the juveniles or children who come in contact or conflict with the law. The pattern of the delinquency, the definition of activities as delinquency and crimes and other associated issues are not equal in all the countries of the world. Western countries are clearly ahead in establishing a more liberal justice system for the juveniles than other countries. Some Asian countries are also concerned with the issue and continuously striving to change their system as per the guidelines of the international legal instruments. China has also undergone a considerable headway in the present years in reducing the delinquency adopting new measures in this regard. Bangladesh, on the other hand, enacted a new legal framework replacing the old one to create a more congenial environment for the juveniles. As a result, the juvenile justice system in both of these countries is achieving new dimensions. A comparative study between these two countries reveals that there are some differences in the ways of dealing with the juveniles who come in the contact or conflict with the law. China’s juvenile justice system is mostly criminal in nature where argumentative ways of prosecution are prevalent. On the other hand, seemingly the process of Bangladesh is more favourable for the juveniles. Both of these countries emphasise on the rehabilitation process while China has formally established that their means of handling juveniles will primarily be through the education followed by the punishment. Both of these countries need to establish many specialized treatment centres so that the juveniles can be rehabilitated properly under necessary supervision. Chinese Procuratorate system is also a good one that works like a circuit breaker in stopping mass and whimsical arrest of juveniles by police officers. This study, however, is based on content analysis and was conducted between January 2018 to March 2018.Keywords: Criminal justice system, international legal instruments, Beijing rules, comparison, dissimilaritie

Developing an Online Critical Care Electroencephalography Curriculum for Epilepsy and Neurophysiology Fellows

Purpose: This project aims to create an Electroencephalography (EEG) curriculum that synthesizes the teachings of current publications and faculty expertise within a single digital platform. The goal is to remedy the unmet need for a centralized resource for learners to use when learning EEG interpretation. Methods: The target learner population is epilepsy and neurophysiology fellows. The platform will be accessible from any computer, tablet, or phone, allowing for mobile, self-paced learning to take place. To date, the curriculum outline has been designed with extensive literature review and collaboration from other institutions, and two pilot modules have been completed using the story-board platform Articulate. Data about efficacy and usefulness will be collected via learner feedback forms when the program goes live. Results and Conclusions: We anticipate that fellows will appreciate the streamlined approach to learning high-yield topics in EEG interpretation. The hope is that the platform will save users time currently spent sifting through textbooks and publications because it incorporates a conglomerate of resources, including qualitative input from experts across the country. That time, in turn, can be spent with more targeted interactions with their teachers (the platform serves as a complement to the existing face-to-face instruction). Learning activities for progress-evaluation will be embedded within each module of the platform with the goal of allowing learners to self-identify areas of improvement to help focus studying efforts. Further results and conclusions will be recorded and updated as progress continues to be made

Higher vocational college students’ learning burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study in China

This study examines students’ levels of learning burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning burnout levels were also investigated about students’ gender, hometown, family member structure, and field of major. The study employs a random sampling survey method, with 1,098 students from a public higher vocational college in Shandong Province, China. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 26. The results found that 71.5% of students are at a moderate burnout level, 27.0% are at a low level, and only 1.5% are at a high level, and there was no high level of learning burnout on a single item during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data showed that the levels of learning burnout of male students, students who live in town, non-only child students, and students majoring in science and engineering were higher than the other group of students. There was a statistically significant difference in the level of student learning burnout by gender, but not in the variables of hometown, family structure, or field of major. Although studies show that students’ learning burnout level is not affected by COVID-19, students generally have learning burnout. Therefore, three strategies were also put forward to reduce students' learning burnout from school

Emerging Antimicrobial Research against Superbugs: Perspectives from a Polymer Laboratory

Infectious diseases caused by drug-resistant microorganisms have become a major contributor for human morbidity and mortality. To overcome such threats, we have developed various antimicrobial agents using natural product derivatives and metallopolymers. Abundant biomass such as resin acids can be utilized to prepare cationic polymers for inhibiting a variety of bacteria. These polymers have been used in solution as well as surfaces as antimicrobial materials with low cytotoxicity. In addition, a class of charged metallopolymers have been developed to kill superbugs such as MRSA

Cloning, expression and purification of cold adapted acetate kinase from Shewanella species AS-11

A psychrotrophic bacterium, Shewanella sp. AS-11 was isolated from a buccinid (shell) Neobuccinum living in the Antarctic ice-covered sea. An open reading frame of 1203 bp, coding for acetate kinase gene, called ack, was amplified, cloned into the expression vector, pETY-16b, and the enzyme was overproduced by using T7 system in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). After extraction of crude recombinant acetate kinase, the desired enzyme was able to be purified on a Blue Sepharose CL-6B and Super-Q affinity column chromatography. The molecular mass of the enzyme is about 86 kDa, which is associated with two monomers. In respect of pH, the enzyme was stable between 6 to 8 and maximum activity was obtained at 7.5. The purified enzyme was stable at 30°C but ligand bound enzyme was stable at 40°C. The structural comparison to mesophilic and thermophilic acetate kinases demonstrates that the psychrophilic one contains lower number of salt bridges and cation-pi interaction. So, it can be suggested that the enzyme is cold adapted with thermolabile and flexible structure.Keywords: Acetate kinase, thermolabile, cold adapted, flexible, activityAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7454-7463, 10 April, 201