76 research outputs found
An anti-interleukin-2 receptor drug attenuates thelper 1 lymphocytes-mediated inflammation in an acute model of endotoxin-induced uveitis
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory efficacy of Daclizumab, an anti-interleukin-2 receptor
drug, in an experimental uveitis model upon a subcutaneous injection of lipopolysaccharide into Lewis rats, a valuable
model for ocular acute inflammatory processes. The integrity of the blood-aqueous barrier was assessed 24 h after
endotoxin-induced uveitis by evaluating two parameters: cell count and protein concentration in aqueous humors. The
histopathology of all the ocular structures (cornea, lens, sclera, choroid, retina, uvea, and anterior and posterior chambers)
was also considered. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of the aqueous humor samples were performed to quantify the
levels of the different chemokine and cytokine proteins. Similarly, a biochemical analysis of oxidative stress-related markers
was also assessed. The inflammation observed in the anterior chamber of the eyes when Daclizumab was administered with
endotoxin was largely prevented since the aqueous humor protein concentration substantially lowered concomitantly with
a significant reduction in the uveal and vitreous histopathological grading. Th1 lymphocytes-related cytokines, such as
Interleukin-2 and Interferon-c, also significantly reduced with related anti-oxidant systems recovery. Daclizumab treatment
in endotoxin-induced uveitis reduced Th1 lymphocytes-related cytokines, such as Interleukin-2 and Interferon gamma, by
about 60–70% and presented a preventive role in endotoxin-induced oxidative stress. This antioxidant protective effect of
Daclizumab may be related to several of the observed Daclizumab effects in our study, including IL-6 cytokine regulatory
properties and a substantial concomitant drop in INFc. Concurrently, Daclizumab treatment triggered a significant
reduction in both the uveal histopathological grading and protein concentration in aqueous humors, but not in cellular
infiltration
Sublittoral soft bottom communities and diversity of Mejillones Bay in northern Chile (Humboldt Current upwelling system)
The macrozoobenthos of Mejillones Bay (23°S; Humboldt Current) was quantitatively investigated over a 7-year period from austral summer 1995/1996 to winter 2002. About 78 van Veen grab samples taken at six stations (5, 10, 20 m depth) provided the basis for the analysis of the distribution of 60 species and 28 families of benthic invertebrates, as well as of their abundance and biomass. Mean abundance (2,119 individuals m-2) was in the same order compared to a previous investigation; mean biomass (966 g formalin wet mass m-2), however, exceeded prior estimations mainly due to the dominance of the bivalve Aulacomya ater. About 43% of the taxa inhabited the complete depth range. Mean taxonomic Shannon diversity (H', Log e) was 1.54 ± 0.58 with a maximum at 20 m (1.95 ± 0.33); evenness increased with depth. The fauna was numerically dominated by carnivorous gastropods, polychaetes and crustaceans (48%). About 15% of the species were suspensivorous, 13% sedimentivorous, 11% detritivorous, 7% omnivorous and 6% herbivorous. Cluster analyses showed a significant difference between the shallow and the deeper stations. Gammarid amphipods and the polychaete family Nephtyidae characterized the 5-mzone, the molluscs Aulacomya ater, Mitrella unifasciata and gammarids the intermediate zone, while the gastropod Nassarius gayi and the polychaete family Nereidae were most prominent at the deeper stations. The communities of the three depth zones did not appear to be limited by hypoxia during non-El Niño conditions. Therefore, no typical change in community structure occurred during El Niño 1997–1998, in contrast to what was observed for deeper faunal assemblages and hypoxic bays elsewhere in the coastal Humboldt Current system
CNNs for automatic glaucoma assessment using fundus images: an extensive validation
Background
Most current algorithms for automatic glaucoma assessment using fundus images rely on handcrafted features based on segmentation, which are affected by the performance of the chosen segmentation method and the extracted features. Among other characteristics, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are known because of their ability to learn highly discriminative features from raw pixel intensities.
Methods
In this paper, we employed five different ImageNet-trained models (VGG16, VGG19, InceptionV3, ResNet50 and Xception) for automatic glaucoma assessment using fundus images. Results from an extensive validation using cross-validation and cross-testing strategies were compared with previous works in the literature.
Results
Using five public databases (1707 images), an average AUC of 0.9605 with a 95% confidence interval of 95.92–97.07%, an average specificity of 0.8580 and an average sensitivity of 0.9346 were obtained after using the Xception architecture, significantly improving the performance of other state-of-the-art works. Moreover, a new clinical database, ACRIMA, has been made publicly available, containing 705 labelled images. It is composed of 396 glaucomatous images and 309 normal images, which means, the largest public database for glaucoma diagnosis. The high specificity and sensitivity obtained from the proposed approach are supported by an extensive validation using not only the cross-validation strategy but also the cross-testing validation on, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, all publicly available glaucoma-labelled databases.
Conclusions
These results suggest that using ImageNet-trained models is a robust alternative for automatic glaucoma screening system. All images, CNN weights and software used to fine-tune and test the five CNNs are publicly available, which could be used as a testbed for further comparisons
AnalogĂa entre lo mĂstico y cultural en “el reino de este mundo” de alejo carpentier
The purpose of this article was to analyze the work of the Kingdom of this world "by Alejo Carpentier, from the analogy of the mystical and cultural. Which resulted in the mystical experience lived, are cultural elements that exist within human existence to express in one way or another, certain ways to achieve a state of spirituality that allows the connection with the other world on the earthly plane. Hence, the ways to achieve such an experience will depend on that state of interiority that man and his culture in function of that need seeks to permeate his soul. The present work was methodologically enriched in the hermeneutics of Ricoeur , likewise it relied on the method of mystical analysis, through the theoretical postulates of Mercia Eliade and Jacob Boehme.El presente artĂculo tuvo como finalidad analizar la obra el Reino de este mundo” de Alejo Carpentier, desde la analogĂa de lo mĂstico y cultural. Lo cual tuvo como resultado que la experiencia mĂstica vivida, constituyen elementos culturales que dentro de la existencia humana subsisten para expresar de manera u otra, ciertas vĂas para alcanzar un estado de espiritualidad que le permite la conexiĂłn con el otro mundo en el plano terrenal. De allĂ que las vĂas para alcanzar tal experiencia dependerán de ese estado de interioridad que el hombre y su cultura en funciĂłn de esa necesidad busca compenetrar su alma. El presente trabajo se enmarĂł metodolĂłgicamente en la hermenĂ©utica de Ricoeur asĂ mismo se apoyĂł en el mĂ©todo de análisis mĂstico, mediante los postulados teĂłricos de Mercia Eliade y Jacob Boehme
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