Decreased Interleukin-4 Release from the Neurons of the Locus Coeruleus in Response to Immobilization Stress

It has been demonstrated that immobilization (IMO) stress affects neuroimmune systems followed by alterations of physiology and behavior. Interleukin-4 (IL-4), an anti-inflammatory cytokine, is known to regulate inflammation caused by immune challenge but the effect of IMO on modulation of IL-4 expression in the brain has not been assessed yet. Here, it was demonstrated that IL-4 was produced by noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC) of the brain and release of IL-4 was reduced in response to IMO. It was observed that IMO groups were more anxious than nontreated groups. Acute IMO (2 h/day, once) stimulated secretion of plasma corticosterone and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the LC whereas these increments were diminished in exposure to chronic stress (2 h/day, 21 consecutive days). Glucocorticoid receptor (GR), TH, and IL-4-expressing cells were localized in identical neurons of the LC, indicating that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal- (HPA-) axis and sympathetic-adrenal-medullary- (SAM-) axis might be involved in IL-4 secretion in the stress response. Accordingly, it was concluded that stress-induced decline of IL-4 concentration from LC neurons may be related to anxiety-like behavior and an inverse relationship exists between IL-4 secretion and HPA/SAM-axes activation

Learning-based Image Scale Estimation for Quantitative Visual Inspection of Civil Structures

The number of assets of civil infrastructure (e.g., bridges or roads) have been increasing to meet the demands of growing populations around the world. However, they degrade over time due to environmental factors and must be maintained and monitored to ensure the safety of its users. The increasing number of infrastructure assets which deteriorate over time is fast outpacing the rate at which they are inspected and rehabilitated. Currently, the main mode of structure condition assessment is visual inspection, where human inspectors manually identify, classify, track, and measure, as needed, deterioration over time to make assessments of a structure’s overall condition. However, the current process is highly time consuming, expensive, and subject to the inspector’s judgement and expertise, which could lead to inconsistent assessments of a given structure when surveyed by several different inspectors over a period of time. As a result, there is a clear need for the current inspection process to be improved in terms of efficiency and consistency. Developments in computer vision algorithms, vision sensors, sensing platforms, and high-performance computing have shown promise in improving the current inspection processes to enable consistent and rapid structural assessments. Recent work often involves rapid collection and/or analysis of imagery captured from personnel or mobile data collection platforms (e.g., smart phones, unmanned aerial or ground vehicles) to detect and classify visual features (e.g., structural components or deterioration). These works often involve the use of advanced image processing or computer vision algorithms such as convolutional neural networks to detect and/or classify regions of interest. However, a major shortfall of vision-based inspection is the inability to deduce physical measurements (e.g., mm or cm) from the collected images. The lack of an image scale (e.g., pixel/mm) on 2D images does not permit quantitative inspection. To address this challenge, a learning-based scale estimation technique is proposed. The underlying assumption is that the surface texture of structures, captured in images, contains enough information to estimate scale for each corresponding image (e.g., pixel/mm). This permits the training of a regression model to establish the relationship between surface textures in images and their scales. A convolutional neural network was trained to extract scale-related features from textures captured in images. The trained model is used to estimate scales for all images captured from surfaces of a structure with similar textures in subsequent inspections. The capability of the proposed technique was demonstrated using data collected from surface textures of three different structures. An average scale estimation error, from images of each structure, is less than 15%, which is acceptable in typical visual inspection settings. The source code and data are available from a data repository (GitHub)

High-resolution, reconfigurable printing of liquid metals with three-dimensional structures

We report an unconventional approach for high-resolution, reconfigurable 3D printing using liquid metals for stretchable, 3D integrations. A minimum line width of 1.9 ??m can be reliably formed using direct printing, and printed patterns can be reconfigured into diverse 3D structures with maintaining pristine resolutions. This reconfiguration can be performed multiple times, and it also generates a thin oxide interface that can be effective in preventing the spontaneous penetration of gallium atoms into different metal layers while preserving electrical properties under ambient conditions. Moreover, these free-standing features can be encapsulated with stretchable, conformal passivations. We demonstrate applications in the form of a reconfigurable antenna, which is tunable by changing geometeries, and reversibly movable interconnections used as mechanical switches. The free-standing 3D structure of electrodes is also advantageous for minimizing the number and space between interconnections, which is important for achieving higher integrations, as demonstrated in an array of microLEDs

A New Application of the Astrometric Method to Break Severe Degeneracies in Binary Microlensing Events

When a source star is microlensed by one stellar component of a widely separated binary stellar components, after finishing the lensing event, the event induced by the other binary star can be additionally detected. In this paper, we investigate whether the close/wide degeneracies in binary lensing events can be resolved by detecting the additional centroid shift of the source images induced by the secondary binary star in wide binary lensing events. From this investigation, we find that if the source star passes close to the Einstein ring of the secondary companion, the degeneracy can be easily resolved by using future astrometric follow-up observations with high astrometric precision. We determine the probability of detecting the additional centroid shift in binary lensing events with high magnification. From this, we find that the degeneracy of binary lensing events with a separation of $\lesssim 20.0$ AU can be resolved with a significant efficiency. We also estimate the waiting time for the detection of the additional centroid shift in wide binary lensing events. We find that for typical Galactic lensing events with a separation of $\lesssim 20.0$ AU, the additional centroid shift can be detected within 100 days, and thus the degeneracy of those events can be sufficiently broken within a year.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Ap

The Relationship between the Progression of Kyphosis in Stable Thoracolumbar Fractures and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings

Study DesignRetrospective study.PurposeTo investigate the relation between the progression of kyphotic deformity and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in conservatively treated stable thoracolumbar fractures.Overview of LiteratureWhen treated conservatively, excessive progression of kyphotic deformity and vertebral compression can emerge during follow-up. We sought to identify predictors of vertebral body deformation using MR images.MethodsThe presence in MR images of anterior longitudinal ligament (AL) or posterior longitudinal ligament (PL) injury, superior or inferior endplate disruption, superior or inferior disc injury in fractured vertebral bodies, the existence of low signal intensity on T2 weighted images, and bone edema of intravertebral bodies were assessed.ResultsThe presence of superior endplate disruption and a higher level of bone edema were found to cause the progressions of kyphotic angle (KA), wedge angle (WA), and anterior vertebral compression (AVC) rate. When AL or superior disc injury was observed, only KA increased meaningfully. When low signal intensity was present on T2 weighted images WA and AVC increased significantly, but PL injury, inferior endplate disruption, and inferior disc injury showed no notable correlation with kyphotic deformity progression. The risk factors found to be associated with an increase of KA to >5° were AL injury, superior endplate disruption, superior disc injury, and a bone edema level of over 1/3, and their associated risks versus no injury cases were 14.1, 3.7, 6.8, and 10.4-fold, respectively.ConclusionsAL injury, superior endplate and disc injury, or a high level of bone edema, were critical factors that determine kyphotic deformity progression

Genome shotgun sequencing and development of microsatellite markers for gerbera (Gerbera hybrida H.) by 454 GS-FLX

The objective of this research was to develop and characterize microsatellite markers for gerbera. We used shotgun sequencing with Roche 454 GS-FLX Titanium technology to identify microsatellite loci in gerbera genomic DNA (Gerbera hybrida). The total length of non-redundant sequences obtained was 22,527,019 bp, which consisted of 3,085 contigs and 28,249 singletons. We assembled 61,958 reads into 3,085 contigs, of which 114 (3.70%) contained microsatellite repeats. The average G+C content was 39.3%. Functional annotation to known sequences yielded 14.7% unigenes in the ‘Raon’ cultivar. Analysis of the gerbera genome DNA (‘Raon’) general library showed that sequences of (AT), (AG), (AAG) and (AAT) repeats appeared most often, whereas (AC), (AAC) and (ACC) were the least frequent. Primer pairs were designed for 80 loci. Only eight primer pairs produced reproducible polymorphic bands in the 28 gerbera accessions analyzed. A total of 30 alleles were identified from the eight polymorphic SSR loci, with two to eight alleles per locus (average level of 3.75). These markers will be useful for investigating genetic diversity and differentiation in gerbera. Keywords: Genetic diversity, genomics, microsatellite isolation, pyrosequencing, SSRs. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7388-7396, 10 April, 201

Postanesthetic torsade de pointes in a patient with unrecognized long QT syndrome -A case report-

Torsade de pointes (TdP) is a devastating form of polymorphic ventricular arrhythmia associated with corrected QT (QTc) interval prolongation. TdP usually terminates spontaneously but frequently recurs and may degenerate to ventricular fibrillation. The present report describes a case of TdP in a patient being transferred to the postanesthetic care unit following an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy. The patient had undergone open heart surgery 1 week before. Retrospective electrocardiogram analysis revealed the patient had QTc and Tpeak-Tend interval prolongation that had gone unrecognized. We believe TdP may have been induced by accentuation of sympathetic nervous system during emergence from general anesthesia