C/EBPα-p30 protein induces expression of the oncogenic long non-coding RNA UCA1 in acute myeloid leukemia

Accumulating evidences indicate that different long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) might play a relevant role in tumorigenesis, with their expression and function already associated to cancer development and progression. CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α (CEBPA) is a critical regulator of myeloid differentiation whose inactivation contributes to the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Mutations in C/EBPα occur in around 10% of AML cases, leading to the expression of a 30-kDa dominant negative isoform (C/EBPα-p30). In this study, we identified the oncogenic urothelial carcinoma associated 1 (UCA1) lncRNA as a novel target of the C/EBPα-p30. We show that wild-type C/EBPα and C/EBPα-p30 isoform can bind the UCA1 promoter but have opposite effects on UCA1 expression. While wild-type C/EBPα represses, C/EBPα-p30 can induce UCA1 transcription. Notably, we also show that UCA1 expression increases in cytogenetically normal AML cases carrying biallelic CEBPA mutations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that UCA1 sustains proliferation of AML cells by repressing the expression of the cell cycle regulator p27kip1. Thus, we identified, for the first time, an oncogenic lncRNA functioning in concert with the dominant negative isoform of C/EBPα in AML

Trans-nasal endoscopic and intra-oral combined approach for odontogenic cysts

Maxillary cysts are a common finding in maxillofacial surgery, dentistry and otolaryngology. Treatment is surgical; a traditional approach includes Caldwell-Luc and other intra-oral approaches. In this article, we analyse the outcomes of 9 patients operated on using a combined intra-oral and trans-nasal approach to the aforementioned disease. Although the number of patients is small, the good results of this study suggest that the combined approach might be a reliable treatment option

Subspace Energy Monitoring for Anomaly Detection @Sensor or @Edge

The amount of data generated by distributed monitoring systems that can be exploited for anomaly detection, along with real time, bandwidth, and scalability requirements leads to the abandonment of centralized approaches in favor of processing closer to where data are generated. This increases the interest in algorithms coping with the limited computational resources of gateways or sensor nodes. We here propose two dual and lightweight methods for anomaly detection based on generalized spectral analysis. We monitor the signal energy laying along with the principal and anti-principal signal subspaces, and call for an anomaly when such energy changes significantly with respect to normal conditions. A streaming approach for the online estimation of the needed subspaces is also proposed. The methods are tested by applying them to synthetic data and real-world sensor readings. The synthetic setting is used for design space exploration and highlights the tradeoff between accuracy and computational cost. The real-world example deals with structural health monitoring and shows how, despite the extremely low computations costs, our methods are able to detect permanent and transient anomalies that would classically be detected by full spectral analysis

To hear or not to hear: Sound Availability Modulates Sensory-Motor Integration

When we walk in place with our eyes closed after a few minutes of walking on a treadmill, we experience an unintentional forward body displacement (drift), called the sensory-motor aftereffect. Initially, this effect was thought to be due to the mismatch experienced during treadmill walking between the visual (absence of optic flow signaling body steadiness) and proprioceptive (muscle spindles firing signaling body displacement) information. Recently, the persistence of this effect has been shown even in the absence of vision, suggesting that other information, such as the sound of steps, could play a role. To test this hypothesis, six cochlear-implanted individuals were recruited and their forward drift was measured before (Control phase) and after (Post Exercise phase) walking on a treadmill while having their cochlear system turned on and turned off. The relevance in testing cochlear-implanted individuals was that when their system is turned off, they perceive total silence, even eliminating the sounds normally obtained from bone conduction. Results showed the absence of the aftereffect when the system was turned off, underlining the fundamental role played by sounds in the control of action and breaking new ground in the use of interactive sound feedback in motor learning and motor development

Frequency reallocation based on cochlear place frequencies in cochlear implants: a pilot study

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate speech perception outcomes after a frequency reallocation performed through the creation of an anatomically based map obtained with Otoplan®, a tablet-based software that allows the cochlear duct length to be calculated starting from CT images. Methods: Ten postlingually deafened patients who underwent cochlear implantation with MED-EL company devices from 2015 to 2019 in the Tertiary referral center University Hospital of Verona have been included in a retrospective study. The postoperative CT scans were evaluated with Otoplan®; the position of the intracochlear electrodes was obtained, an anatomical mapping was carried out and then it was submitted to the patients. All patients underwent pure tonal and speech audiometry before and after the reallocation and the audiological results were processed considering the Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT), the Speech Awareness Threshold (SAT) and the Pure Tone Average (PTA). The differences in the PTA, SAT and SRT values before and after the reallocation were determined. The results were statistically processed using the software Stata with a significance value of α < 0.05. Results: The mean values of SRT (61.25 dB versus 51.25 dB) and SAT (49 dB versus 41 dB) were significantly lower (p: 0.02 and p: 0.04, respectively) after the reallocation. No significant difference was found between PTA values (41.5 dB versus 39.25 dB; p: 0.18). Conclusions: Our preliminary results demonstrate better speech discrimination and rapid adaptation in implanted postlingually deaf patients after anatomic mapping and subsequent frequency reallocation

Low-power fixed-point compressed sensing decoder with support oracle

Approaches for reconstructing signals encoded with Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques, and based on Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are receiving increasing interest in the literature. In a recent work, a new DNN-based method named Trained CS with Support Oracle (TCSSO) is introduced, relying the signal reconstruction on the two separate tasks of support identification and measurements decoding. The aim of this paper is to improve the TCSSO framework by considering actual implementations using a finite-precision hardware. Solutions with low memory footprint and low computation requirements by employing fixed-point notation and by reducing the number of bits employed are considered. Results using synthetic electrocardiogram (ECG) signals as a case study show that this approach, even when used in a constrained-resources scenario, still outperform current state-of-art CS approaches

The protympanum, protiniculum and subtensor recess: an endoscopic morphological anatomy study

Objectives: An anatomical study was performed to describe the endoscopic anatomy and variations of the protympanum, including classification of the protiniculum and subtensor recess. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of video recordings of cadaveric dissections and surgical procedures, which included visualisation of the protympanum, across 4 tertiary university referral centres over a 16-month period. A total of 97 ears were used in the analysis. Results: A quadrangular conformation of the protympanum was seen in 60 per cent of ears and a triangular conformation in 40 per cent. The protiniculum was type A (ridge) in 58 per cent, type B (bridge) in 23 per cent and type C (absent) in 19 per cent. The subtensor recess was type A (absent) in 30 per cent, type B (shallow) in 48 per cent and type C (deep) in 22 per cent. Conclusion: The protympanum is an area that has been ignored for many years because of difficulties in visualising it with an operating microscope. However, modern endoscopic equipment has changed this, providing detailed anatomical knowledge fundamental to ensuring the safety of endoscopic surgical procedures in the region

Role of endoscopy in lateral skull base approaches to the petrous apex

Objective: The aim of this article is to study the role and advantages of combined microscopic/endoscopic procedures or exclusive endoscopic approaches in the treatment of petrous apex pathologies. Methods: The study was designed as a retrospective case series analysis. We included patients affected by pathologies of the petrous apex, who underwent microscopic/endoscopic-assisted or exclusive endoscopic procedures. Patient and pathology characteristics and surgical data (focusing on the involvement of the internal carotid artery (ICA) and facial nerve by the disease) were collected. Residual disease, detected through the endoscopic check, and the feasibility of endoscopic residual tumor removal were also evaluated. Finally, facial nerve and hearing functions were assessed pre- and postoperatively. Results: The records of 75 patients undergoing lateral skull base surgery for petrous apex lesions, from May 2009 to March 2019, were collected. In 17 out of 75 patients, an exclusive endoscopic procedure was possible. The remaining 58 patients underwent a combined microscopic/endoscopic approach. In 15 cases, residual disease was found and removed endoscopically at the end of the microscopic procedure; in eight cases, the residual disease was medial and/or inferior to the horizontal segment of the ICA, while in two cases, it was located in the fundus of the internal auditory canal. In five cases, it involved the labyrinthine segment of the facial nerve. Conclusion: Petrous apex surgery remains a traditional microscopic-based surgery, but the recent advent of endoscopic surgery has permitted an improvement in radicality minimizing the manipulation of neurovascular structures

Deep Neural Oracles for Short-Window Optimized Compressed Sensing of Biosignals

The recovery of sparse signals given their linear mapping on lower-dimensional spaces can be partitioned into a support estimation phase and a coefficient estimation phase. We propose to estimate the support with an oracle based on a deep neural network trained jointly with the linear mapping at the encoder. The divination of the oracle is then used to estimate the coefficients by pseudo-inversion. This architecture allows the definition of an encoding-decoding scheme with state-of-the-art recovery capabilities when applied to biological signals such as ECG and EEG, thus allowing extremely low-complex encoders. As an additional feature, oracle-based recovery is able to self-assess, by indicating with remarkable accuracy chunks of signals that may have been reconstructed with a non-satisfactory quality. This self-assessment capability is unique in the CS literature and paves the way for further improvements depending on the requirements of the specific application. As an example, our scheme is able to satisfyingly compress by a factor of 2.67 an ECG or EEG signal with a complexity equivalent to only 24 signed sums per processed sample

Discovering middle ear anatomy by transcanal endoscopic ear surgery: A dissection manual

The middle ear is located in the center of the temporal bone and bears a highly complex anatomy. The recently introduced exclusively endoscopic transcanal approach to the middle ear is a minimally invasive technique sparing the bone and mucosa of the mastoid bone, since the middle ear is accessed through the external auditory canal. This emerging method has several advantages over the traditional (microscopic) approaches to the middle ear such as the panoramic wide-angle views of the anatomy, the possibility to approach and magnify tiny structures, and the possibility of looking around the corner using angled endoscopes. The cadaveric dissection method presented here consists of an overview on the technical requirements and a precise description of a step-by-step protocol to discover the anatomy of the middle ear. Each step and anatomical structure is carefully described in order to provide a comprehensive guide to endoscopic ear anatomy. In our opinion, this is particularly important to any novice in endoscopic ear surgery as it provides thorough anatomical knowledge and may improve surgical skills