Magnetoencephalography-based approaches to epilepsy classification

Epilepsy is a chronic central nervous system disorder characterized by recurrent seizures. Not only does epilepsy severely affect the daily life of the patient, but the risk of premature death in patients with epilepsy is three times higher than that of the normal population. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive, high temporal and spatial resolution electrophysiological data that provides a valid basis for epilepsy diagnosis, and used in clinical practice to locate epileptic foci in patients with epilepsy. It has been shown that MEG helps to identify MRI-negative epilepsy, contributes to clinical decision-making in recurrent seizures after previous epilepsy surgery, that interictal MEG can provide additional localization information than scalp EEG, and complete excision of the stimulation area defined by the MEG has prognostic significance for postoperative seizure control. However, due to the complexity of the MEG signal, it is often difficult to identify subtle but critical changes in MEG through visual inspection, opening up an important area of research for biomedical engineers to investigate and implement intelligent algorithms for epilepsy recognition. At the same time, the use of manual markers requires significant time and labor costs, necessitating the development and use of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems that use classifiers to automatically identify abnormal activity. In this review, we discuss in detail the results of applying various different feature extraction methods on MEG signals with different classifiers for epilepsy detection, subtype determination, and laterality classification. Finally, we also briefly look at the prospects of using MEG for epilepsy-assisted localization (spike detection, high-frequency oscillation detection) due to the unique advantages of MEG for functional area localization in epilepsy, and discuss the limitation of current research status and suggestions for future research. Overall, it is hoped that our review will facilitate the reader to quickly gain a general understanding of the problem of MEG-based epilepsy classification and provide ideas and directions for subsequent research

ACRYLONITRILE HAS DISTINCT HORMETIC EFFECTS ON ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE ACTIVITY IN MOUSE BRAIN AND BLOOD THAT ARE MODULATED BY ETHANOL

Acrylonitrile(AN) is a neurotoxin both in animals and humans, but its effects on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity remain controversial. This study aimed to determine the dose-response effects of AN on AChE activity and the modulatory role of ethanol pretreatment. A total of 144 Kunming mice were randomly divided into 18 groups: nine groups received 5% ethanol in their drinking water, and the remaining nine groups received regular tap water. One week later, both the ethanol and tap water only groups were given an intraperitoneal injection of AN at the following doses: 0 (control), 0.156, 0.3125, 0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 mg AN/kg body weight. AChE activity was determined on whole blood and brain 24 h later. Blood AChE activity was higher in AN-injected mice than in controls at all doses. AChE activity in blood increased in a dose-dependent manner, peaking at 0.156 mg/kg, after which a gradual decrease ensued, displaying a β-typed dose-response relationship. In contrast, brain AChE activity, following a single AN injection, was consistently lower than in control mice, and continued to fall up to a dose of 0.313 mg/kg, and thereafter increased gradually with higher doses. Mice receiving a 20 mg/kg dose of AN exhibited AChE brain activity indistinguishable from that of control mice, demonstrating a typical U-typed dose-response relationship. The activity of AChE in the blood and brain of the AN + ethanol-treated groups displayed a shift to the right, and the magnitude of the decrease in AChE activity induced by AN was attenuated relative to the AN-only group. These results suggest that AN affects AChE activity in both mouse blood and brain in a hormetic manner. Pretreatment with ethanol modifies the effect of AN on AChE, indicating that parent AN has a more prominent role than its metabolites in modulating enzyme activity

PGK1 is a Potential Survival Biomarker and Invasion Promoter by Regulating the HIF-1α–Mediated Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Process in Breast Cancer

Background/Aims: Glycolysis, a multi-step enzymatic reaction, is considered to be the root of cancer development and progression. The aim of this study is to figure out which glycolysis enzyme participates in the progression of breast cancer and its possible mechanisms. Materials: We firstly screened out PGK1 by performing an RT-PCR array of glycolysis-related genes in three paired breast cancer samples, and further investigated PGK1 using TCGA and our own database. The effect and mechanism of PGK1 on cell invasion was further explored both in vitro and using patient samples. Results: PGK1 was most upregulated in T3N0 with distant metastases compared to those with no metastases. In the TCGA database, high PGK1 expression predicted poor overall survival (OS) in breast cancer and some other cancers (P< 0.001). In the validation cohort, high PGK1 expression was significantly correlated with larger tumor size (P=0.011) and advanced TNM stage (P=0.033), and PGK1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for OS and disease free survival (DFS) in both univariate and multivariate regression analyses (P< 0.05). Functional studies indicated that knockdown of PGK1 expression significantly inhibited invasion and reversed the epithelial-mesenchymal transition process in breast cancer cells (P< 0.05). Mechanistically, PGK1 increased HRE luciferase activity in a dose-dependent manner, while silencing PGK1 expression decreased HRE activity. Conclusion: High PGK1 expression was associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer, because PGK1 and HIF-1α formed a positive feed-forward loop and thus stimulated breast cancer progression and metastases. Based on these results, PGK1 may serve as a promising biomarker and target therapy for breast cancer

Thermodynamic characteristics of L-arginine oscillating system catalyzed by tetraazamacrocyclic nickel(II) complex

626-632A novel oscillating system with L-arginine (Arg) as organic substrate, catalyzed by a tetraazamacrocyclic nickel(II) complex (NiL(ClO4)2, (L: 5,5,7,12,12,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazabutadecacyclo-7,14-diene) is reported for the first time. The system has been quantitatively characterized by kinetic parameters, including the rate constants (kin, kp), the apparent activation energies (Ein, Ep), the pre-exponential constants (Ain, Ap), and the thermodynamic functions (∆Hin, ∆Gin, ∆Sin, ∆Hp, ∆Gp, ∆Sp). The results indicate that the NiL(ClO4)2 can catalyze the Arg oscillating reaction, exhibiting features of irreversible thermodynamics as shown by the negative entropy of the oscillating system. Further, the two active groups of the Arg oscillating system can be activated at higher acidity. A possible mechanism is also proposed for the Arg oscillating system catalyzed by NiL(ClO4)2

A Modified Blasingame Production Analysis Method for Vertical Wells Considering the Quadratic Gradient Term

Fluid flow in actual oil reservoirs is consistent with material balance, which should be described by the nonlinear governing equation, including the quadratic gradient term (QGT). Nonetheless, the widely-used Blasingame production decline analysis (BPDA) is established based on the conventional governing equation neglecting the QGT, which leads to some errors in the interpretation of production data under some conditions, such as wells producing at a large drawdown pressure. This work extends BPDA to incorporate the effect of the QGT by modifying material balance time and normalized rate functions. The step-by-step procedure for the proposed production decline analysis (PPDA) is presented and compared with that for BPDA. The simulated cases for various production scenarios are used to validate PPDA. A field case is employed to show the applicability of PPDA in practice. Comparisons between the results obtained by BPDA and PPDA are analyzed in detail. It is found that BPDA overestimates the permeability and original oil-in-place, while PPDA works well. Compared with BPDA, PPDA can be employed to obtain more accurate original oil-in-place and reservoir properties, especially when wells produce at a large drawdown pressure

Cafestol and Kahweol: A Review on Their Bioactivities and Pharmacological Properties

Cafestol and kahweol are natural diterpenes extracted from coffee beans. In addition to the effect of raising serum lipid, in vitro and in vivo experimental results have revealed that the two diterpenes demonstrate multiple potential pharmacological actions such as anti-inflammation, hepatoprotective, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, and anti-osteoclastogenesis activities. The most relevant mechanisms involved are down-regulating inflammation mediators, increasing glutathione (GSH), inducing apoptosis of tumor cells and anti-angiogenesis. Cafestol and kahweol show similar biological activities but not exactly the same, which might due to the presence of one conjugated double bond on the furan ring of the latter. This review aims to summarize the pharmacological properties and the underlying mechanisms of cafestol-type diterpenoids, which show their potential as functional food and multi-target alternative medicine

Lattice Boltzmann Model for Gas Flow through Tight Porous Media with Multiple Mechanisms

In the development of tight gas reservoirs, gas flow through porous media usually takes place deep underground with multiple mechanisms, including gas slippage and stress sensitivity of permeability and porosity. However, little work has been done to simultaneously incorporate these mechanisms in the lattice Boltzmann model for simulating gas flow through porous media. This paper presents a lattice Boltzmann model for gas flow through porous media with a consideration of these effects. The apparent permeability and porosity are calculated based on the intrinsic permeability, intrinsic porosity, permeability modulus, porosity sensitivity exponent, and pressure. Gas flow in a two-dimensional channel filled with a homogeneous porous medium is simulated to validate the present model. Simulation results reveal that gas slippage can enhance the flow rate in tight porous media, while stress sensitivity of permeability and porosity reduces the flow rate. The simulation results of gas flow in a porous medium with different mineral components show that the gas slippage and stress sensitivity of permeability and porosity not only affect the global velocity magnitude, but also have an effect on the flow field. In addition, gas flow in a porous medium with fractures is also investigated. It is found that the fractures along the pressure-gradient direction significantly enhance the total flow rate, while the fractures perpendicular to the pressure-gradient direction have little effect on the global permeability of the porous medium. For the porous medium without fractures, the gas-slippage effect is a major influence factor on the global permeability, especially under low pressure; for the porous medium with fractures, the stress-sensitivity effect plays a more important role in gas flow

Microbial colonization induces histone acetylation critical for inherited gut-germline-neural signaling.

The gut-neural axis plays a critical role in the control of several physiological processes, including the communication of signals from the microbiome to the nervous system, which affects learning, memory, and behavior. However, the pathways involved in gut-neural signaling of gut-governed behaviors remain unclear. We found that the intestinal distension caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces histone H4 Lys8 acetylation (H4K8ac) in the germline of Caenorhabditis elegans, which is required for both a bacterial aversion behavior and its transmission to the next generation. We show that induction of H4K8ac in the germline is essential for bacterial aversion and that a 14-3-3 chaperone protein family member, PAR-5, is required for H4K8ac. Our findings highlight a role for H4K8ac in the germline not only in the intergenerational transmission of pathogen avoidance but also in the transmission of pathogenic cues that travel through the gut-neural axis to control the aversive behavior