Functional and effective connectivity analysis of drug-resistant epilepsy: a resting-state fMRI analysis

ObjectiveEpilepsy is considered as a neural network disorder. Seizure activity in epilepsy may disturb brain networks and damage brain functions. We propose using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data to characterize connectivity patterns in drug-resistant epilepsy.MethodsThis study enrolled 47 participants, including 28 with drug-resistant epilepsy and 19 healthy controls. Functional and effective connectivity was employed to assess drug-resistant epilepsy patients within resting state networks. The resting state functional connectivity (FC) analysis was performed to assess connectivity between each patient and healthy controls within the default mode network (DMN) and the dorsal attention network (DAN). In addition, dynamic causal modeling was used to compute effective connectivity (EC). Finally, a statistical analysis was performed to evaluate our findings.ResultsThe FC analysis revealed significant connectivity changes in patients giving 64.3% (18/28) and 78.6% (22/28) for DMN and DAN, respectively. Statistical analysis of FC was significant between the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral inferior parietal cortex for DMN. For DAN, it was significant between the left and the right intraparietal sulcus and the frontal eye field. For the DMN, the patient group showed significant EC connectivity in the right inferior parietal cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex for the DMN. There was also bilateral connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, as well as between the left and right inferior parietal cortex. For DAN, patients showed significant connectivity in the right frontal eye field and the right intraparietal sulcus. Bilateral connectivity was also found between the left frontal eye field and the left intraparietal sulcus, as well as between the right frontal eye field and the right intraparietal sulcus. The statistical analysis of the EC revealed a significant result in the medial prefrontal cortex and the right intraparietal cortex for the DMN. The DAN was found significant in the left frontal eye field, as well as the left and right intraparietal sulcus.ConclusionOur results provide preliminary evidence to support that the combination of functional and effective connectivity analysis of rs-fMRI can aid in diagnosing epilepsy in the DMN and DAN networks

Coating of manganese functional polyetheretherketone implants for osseous interface integration

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been used extensively in biomedical engineering and it is highly desirable for PEEK implant to possess the ability to promote cell growth and significant osteogenic properties and consequently stimulate bone regeneration. In this study, a manganese modified PEEK implant (PEEK-PDA-Mn) was fabricated via polydopamine chemical treatment. The results showed that manganese was successfully immobilized on PEEK surface, and the surface roughness and hydrophilicity significantly improved after surface modification. Cell experiments in vitro demonstrated that the PEEK-PDA-Mn possesses superior cytocompatibility in cell adhesion and spread. Moreover, the osteogenic properties of PEEK-PDA-Mn were proved by the increased expression of osteogenic genes, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and mineralization in vitro. Further rat femoral condyle defect model was utilized to assess bone formation ability of different PEEK implants in vivo. The results revealed that the PEEK-PDA-Mn group promoted bone tissue regeneration in defect area. Taken together, the simple immersing method can modify the surface of PEEK, giving outstanding biocompatibility and enhanced bone tissue regeneration ability to the modified PEEK, which could be applied as an orthopedic implant in clinical

A radiomics based method for prediction of prostate cancer Gleason score using enlarged region of interest

Abstract Background Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancers in men worldwide, and its timely diagnosis and treatment are becoming increasingly important. MRI is in increasing use to diagnose cancer and to distinguish between non-clinically significant and clinically significant PCa, leading to more precise diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of this study is to present a radiomics-based method for determining the Gleason score (GS) for PCa using tumour heterogeneity on multiparametric MRI (mp-MRI). Methods Twenty-six patients with biopsy-proven PCa were included in this study. The quantitative T2 values, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and signal enhancement rates (α) were calculated using multi-echo T2 images, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI), for the annotated region of interests (ROI). After texture feature analysis, ROI range expansion and feature filtering was performed. Then obtained data were put into support vector machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and other classifiers for binary classification. Results The highest classification accuracy was 73.96% for distinguishing between clinically significant (Gleason 3 + 4 and above) and non-significant cancers (Gleason 3 + 3) and 83.72% for distinguishing between Gleason 3 + 4 from Gleason 4 + 3 and above, which was achieved using initial ROIs drawn by the radiologists. The accuracy improved when using expanded ROIs to 80.67% using SVM and 88.42% using Bayesian classification for distinguishing between clinically significant and non-significant cancers and Gleason 3 + 4 from Gleason 4 + 3 and above, respectively. Conclusions Our results indicate the research significance and value of this study for determining the GS for prostate cancer using the expansion of the ROI region

ZrB2 powders with low oxygen content: Synthesis and characterization

A two-step reduction route is proposed for well-dispersed submicrometer ZrB2 powder synthesis with low oxygen content. The second synthesis step can reduce the oxygen content apparently, whereas presents minor adverse effects on particle size and dispersion of ZrB2 powders. The samples were mainly characterized by an oxygen-nitrogen analyzer and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). It can be determined that the adsorbed oxygen constitutes a low proportion of total oxygen content based on the release profile of oxygen and nitrogen contents. Besides, the oxygen content calculated based on XRD characterization is significantly lower than the total oxygen content measured by impulse-thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the lattice constants were determined according to XRD patterns as being higher than the calculated theoretical values based on the First-Principles, indicating that a portion of oxygen remains in ZrB2 powders in the form of interstitial impurity atoms.</p

The pain regulation of endokinin A/B or endokinin C/D on chimeric peptide MCRT in mice

The present study focused on the interactive pain regulation of endokinin A/B (EKA/B, the common C-terminal decapeptide in EKA and EKB) or endokinin C/D (EKC/D, the common C-terminal duodecapeptide in EKC and EKD) on chimeric peptide MCRT (YPFPFRTic-NH2, based on YPFP-NH2 and PFRTic-NH2) at supraspinal level in mice. Results demonstrated that the co-injection of nanomolar EKA/B and MCRT showed moderate regulation, while 30 pmol EKA/B had no effect on MCRT. The combination of EKC/D and MCRT produced enhancive antinociception, which was nearly equal to the sum of mathematical value of single EKC/D and MCRT. Mechanism studies revealed that pre-injected naloxone attenuated the combination significantly with the equivalent analgesic effects of EKC/D alone, suggesting that EKC/D and MCRT might act on two totally independent pathways. Moreover, based on the above results and previous reports, we made two reasonable hypotheses to explain the cocktail-induced analgesia, which potentially pave the way to explore the respective regulatory mechanisms of EKA/B, EKC/D and MCRT and better understand the complicated pain regulation of NK1 and Îź opioid receptors, as follows: (1) MCRT and endomorphin-1 possibly activated different Îź subtypes; (2) Picomolar EKA/B might motivate the endogenous NPFF system after NK1 activation.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Diatom taxa and assemblages for establishing nutrient criteria of lakes with anthropogenic hydrologic alteration

Stressor-response models offer guidance for concentration-based nutrient criteria in lakes under human intervention. Diatom-based statistics from biological responses were incorporated to derive taxon-specific and community-level change points (thresholds) of phosphorous and nitrogen in 77 Yangtze floodplain lakes. Diatom metrics relating with conductivity were adopted as response variables, since conductivity explained the maximum variation (38.1%) in diatom assemblages via Bootstrapped regression trees. Nonparametric change-point analysis and Threshold Indicator Taxa ANalysis showed threshold responses of diatom community structure at 0.05-0.08 mg TP/L in connected lakes and 0.02-0.04 mgTP/L in isolated lakes. Distinct community change points of sensitive diatoms occurred at 0.96-1.63 mgTN/L in connected lakes and 0.52-0.63 mgTN/L in isolated lakes. Diatom community structures of tolerant taxa were substantially altered beyond 0.22-0.23 mg/L in connected lakes and 0.52-0.69 mg NOx/L in isolated lakes. Hydrological river-lake connectivity differed significantly in ecological nutrient criteria with more TN/TP criteria and less NOx criteria in connected lakes. Given the ecological significance and biological integrity, diatom-based statistics can provide more reliable change points (thresholds) for nutrient criteria than Chl alpha-nutrient relationships. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Historical records of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon deposition in a shallow eutrophic lake: Impacts of sources and sedimentological conditions

Jedinice specijalnih snaga vojske osposobljene su za vođenje osjetljivih specijalnih operacija, uključujući nekonvencionalno ratovanje, protuterorizam, izravne akcije i strateške izviđačke misije. Mnoge jedinstvene vještine i sposobnosti koje posjeduju pripadnici u jedinicama specijalnih snaga imaju potencijalnu primjenu u operacijama domovinske sigurnosti. Specijalne snage čine posebno opremljene, uvježbane i organizirane manje jedinice koje nastupaju onda kada je problem previše kompleksan za konvencionalne snage. Pripadnici specijalnih snaga fizički moraju biti iznimno dobro pripremljeni kako bi mogli izdržati napore kojima su izloženi pri obavljanju svojih zadaća, kao i zbog lakšeg nošenja sa stresom. Pripadnik specijalnih snaga mora imati visoko razvijene funkcionalne sposobnosti, aerobne i anaerobne, mišićnu izdržljivost, snagu, brzinu i koordinaciju

CDCA5 overexpression is an Indicator of poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

Abstract Background Accurate and early prognosis of disease is essential to clinical decision making, particularly in diseases, such as HCC, that are typically diagnosed at a late stage in the course of disease and therefore carry a poor prognosis. CDCA5 is a cell cycle regulatory protein that has shown prognostic value in several cancers. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 178 patients with HCC treated with curative liver resection between September 2009 and September 2012 at Nanchong Central Hospital in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China. Patients were screened for their CDCA5 expression levels and assigned to either the high or low expression group. Patient demographics, comorbidities, clinicopathologic data, such as tumor microvascular invasion status and size, and long-term outcomes were compared between the two groups. The effect of CDCA5 on the proliferation of liver cancer cells was analyzed using in vitro and in vivo assays. Results The present study found that increased CDCA5 expression was associated with increased tumor diameter and microvascular invasion in HCC. It was also found that CDCA5 overexpression may be associated with liver cancer cells. Additionally, this study confirmed that CDCA5 expression was increased in HCC tissue versus normal liver tissue, that CDCA5 expression was associated with decreased survival and that CDCA5 knockdown using shRNA led to cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. Conclusions These findings suggest that CDCA5 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma