An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Neuronal And Haemodynamic Responses To Stress From Simultaneous Recordings Of Optical Topography And EEG Signals

Physiological studies had been done extensively by researchers in evaluating human stress using Electroencephalogram (EEG). However, the usage of Optical Topography (OT) to evaluate the human stress is still a new field. EEG has been an established measuring device for stress through the electrical response arising from neuronal activities. On the other hand, the haemodynamic response due to stress has yet been studied. This project analyses the simultaneous recordings of the EEG and OT in response to mental stress. Data was recorded from 12 subjects that underwent tasks based on Montreal Imaging Stress Task in order to invoke mental stress. The EEG and OT datasets were analysed through the power spectrum and oxyhaemoglobin level respectively. The alpha power band has been found to be lower in the control session compared to the stress sessions. While for the OT, the oxyhaemoglobin level has been higher in the control session compared to the stress sessions. The results are then used for correlation with the data from the OT. From the correlation result obtained, it showed little significant relationship between the neuron and haemodynamic response due to stress

Co-gasification of woody biomass and chicken manure: Syngas production, biochar reutilization, and cost-benefit analysis

The management and disposal of livestock manure has become one of the top environmental issues at a global scale in line with the tremendous growth of poultry industry over the past decades. In this work, a potential alternative method for the disposal of chicken manure from Singapore local hen layer farms was studied. Gasification was proposed as the green technology to convert chicken manure into clean energy. Through gasification experiments in a 10 kW fixed bed downdraft gasifier, it was found that chicken manure was indeed a compatible feedstock for gasification in the presence of wood waste. The co-gasification of 30 wt% chicken manure and 70 wt% wood waste produced syngas of comparable quality to that of gasification of pure wood waste, with a syngas lower heating value (LHV) of 5.23 MJ/Nm3 and 4.68 MJ/Nm3, respectively. Furthermore, the capability of the gasification derived biochar in the removal of an emerging contaminant (artificial sweetener such as Acesulfame, Saccharin and Cyclamate) via adsorption was also conducted in the second part of this study. The results showed that the biochar was effective in the removal of the contaminant and the mechanism of adsorption of artificial sweetener by biochar was postulated to be likely via electrostatic interaction as well as specific interaction. Finally, we conducted a cost-benefit analysis for the deployment of a gasification system in a hen layer farm using a Monte Carlo simulation model

Treatment selection for tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma

AbstractBackgroundThe optimal treatment for tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate long-term treatment outcomes of patients with tonsillar SCC, in order to aid in appropriate treatment selection.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective chart review of 105 patients with curatively treated tonsillar SCC between January 1996 and December 2005. Forty-three patients (41.0%) underwent primary surgery with or without adjuvant therapy (primary surgery group), and 62 patients (59.0%) were treated with radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy (RT/CRT, organ preservation group). Twenty patients (19%) received tumor tonsillectomy before definitive RT/CRT and were grouped into the organ preservation group.ResultsNo significant differences were observed between the primary surgery and organ preservation groups in terms of local control (p = 0.212), regional control (p = 0.684), distant metastasis (p = 0.627), 5-year disease-specific survival (DSS, p = 0.774), and overall survival rates (OS, p = 0.667). The rates of major complication (p = 0.216), long-term dependency on feeding tubes (p = 0.876), and tracheostomy (p = 0.401) were also similar. Advanced T classification (T3–4) was the only factor associated with significantly worse DSS (p = 0.007) and OS (p = 0.012). However, there was also no difference in final treatment outcomes in T3–4 patients regardless of whether they were treated with primary surgery or RT/CRT. In the organ preservation group, tumor tonsillectomy before RT/CRT did not improve local control (p = 0.520) or other treatment outcomes, including 5-year DSS (p = 0.707) and OS (p = 0.745).ConclusionBoth primary surgery and RT/CRT organ preservation are effective treatments for tonsillar SCC. Single modality treatment, either surgery or RT/CRT, can typically be provided for stage I–II diseases. Although RT/CRT organ preservation is used more frequently for stage III–IV tonsillar SCC in recent years, primary surgery combined with adjuvant therapy still achieves equivalent outcomes. Multidisciplinary pretreatment counseling and the facilities and personnel available are therefore important for decision-making. In addition, if RT/CRT organ preservation is selected as the primary treatment, tumor tonsillectomy is not indicated

Comparative Geochemistry of 234Th, 210Pb, and 210Po: A Case Study in the Hung-Tsai Trough off Southwestern Taiwan

Detailed profiles of dissolved and particulate 234Th, 210Pb, and 210Po activities at three stations in the Hung-Tsai Trough off south western Taiwan were determined. The total 234Th activ ity is 20 ~ 25% deficientfrom its secular equilibrium in the entire water column. Except for an evident excess of 210Po at some depths in the mixed layer and in the pycnocline layer, total 210Po activity is also lower than total 210Pb activity. As a result of atmospheric deposition, 210Pb is about 25% in excess of its parent, 226Ra, through out the water column of the Hung-Tsai Trough. The ratios of the distribution coefficients of 234Th, 210Pb, and 210Po show that the order of particle affinity is Po > Th ~ Pb in the mixed layer and bottom layer, whereas the order changes, due to particlere generation, into Th > Pb > Po in the pycnocline layer of the Hung-Tsai Trough

Bmi-1 Regulates Snail Expression and Promotes Metastasis Ability in Head and Neck Squamous Cancer-Derived ALDH1 Positive Cells

Recent studies suggest that ALDH1 is a putative marker for HNSCC-derived cancer stem cells. However, the regulation mechanisms that maintain the stemness and metastatic capability of HNSCC-ALDH1+ cells remain unclear. Initially, HNSCC-ALDH1+ cells from HNSCC patient showed cancer stemness properties, and high expression of Bmi1 and Snail. Functionally, tumorigenic properties of HNSCC-ALDH1+ cells could be downregulated by knockdown of Bmi-1. Overexpression of Bmi-1 altered in expression property ALDH1− cells to that of ALDH1+ cells. Furthermore, knockdown of Bmi-1 enhanced the radiosensitivity of radiation-treated HNSCC-ALDH1+ cells. Moreover, overexpression of Bmi-1 in HNSCC-ALDH1− cells increased tumor volume and number of pulmonary metastatic lesions by xenotransplant assay. Importantly, knock-down of Bmi1 in HNSCC-ALDH1+ cells significantly decreased distant metastases in the lungs. Clinically, coexpression of Bmi-1/Snail/ALDH1 predicted the worst prognosis in HNSCC patients. Collectively, our data suggested that Bmi-1 plays a key role in regulating Snail expression and cancer stemness properties of HNSCC-ALDH1+ cells

Efficacy of a Computerized Sensor System for Evaluation and Training of Dizzy Patients

Patients with vestibular hypofunction often experience dizziness and unsteadiness while moving their heads. Appropriate sensors can effectively detect a patient’s dynamic visual acuity and associated body balance control. Forty-one vestibular-deficit patients and 10 normal individuals were invited to participate in this study. Questionnaires, clinical assessment scales and objective measures were evaluated on participants’ first visits. After 12 sessions of training, all scales were evaluated again on vestibular-deficit patients. The computerized system was composed of sensors, including a gyro and strain gauges, data acquisition accessories and LabVIEW software. Results revealed that the system could effectively distinguish normal subjects from subjects with vestibular deficits. In addition, after a rehabilitation program, subjects’ subjective and objective performances were significantly improved. Based on our results, we concluded that the present system, which uses a gyro and strain gauges, may provide an effective method for assessing and treating vestibular-deficit patients

Stem Cell-Based Neuroprotective and Neurorestorative Strategies

Stem cells, a special subset of cells derived from embryo or adult tissues, are known to present the characteristics of self-renewal, multiple lineages of differentiation, high plastic capability, and long-term maintenance. Recent reports have further suggested that neural stem cells (NSCs) derived from the adult hippocampal and subventricular regions possess the utilizing potential to develop the transplantation strategies and to screen the candidate agents for neurogenesis, neuroprotection, and neuroplasticity in neurodegenerative diseases. In this article, we review the roles of NSCs and other stem cells in neuroprotective and neurorestorative therapies for neurological and psychiatric diseases. We show the evidences that NSCs play the key roles involved in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative disorders, including depression, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Moreover, the potential and possible utilities of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), reprogramming from adult fibroblasts with ectopic expression of four embryonic genes, are also reviewed and further discussed. An understanding of the biophysiology of stem cells could help us elucidate the pathogenicity and develop new treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. In contrast to cell transplantation therapies, the application of stem cells can further provide a platform for drug discovery and small molecular testing, including Chinese herbal medicines. In addition, the high-throughput stem cell-based systems can be used to elucidate the mechanisms of neuroprotective candidates in translation medical research for neurodegenerative diseases

Oct-4 Expression Maintained Cancer Stem-Like Properties in Lung Cancer-Derived CD133-Positive Cells

CD133 (prominin-1), a 5-transmembrane glycoprotein, has recently been considered to be an important marker that represents the subset population of cancer stem-like cells. Herein we report the isolation of CD133-positive cells (LC-CD133+) and CD133-negative cells (LC-CD133−) from tissue samples of ten patients with non-small cell lung cancer (LC) and five LC cell lines. LC-CD133+ displayed higher Oct-4 expressions with the ability to self-renew and may represent a reservoir with proliferative potential for generating lung cancer cells. Furthermore, LC-CD133+, unlike LC-CD133−, highly co-expressed the multiple drug-resistant marker ABCG2 and showed significant resistance to chemotherapy agents (i.e., cisplatin, etoposide, doxorubicin, and paclitaxel) and radiotherapy. The treatment of Oct-4 siRNA with lentiviral vector can specifically block the capability of LC-CD133+ to form spheres and can further facilitate LC-CD133+ to differentiate into LC-CD133−. In addition, knock-down of Oct-4 expression in LC-CD133+ can significantly inhibit the abilities of tumor invasion and colony formation, and increase apoptotic activities of caspase 3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Finally, in vitro and in vivo studies further confirm that the treatment effect of chemoradiotherapy for LC-CD133+ can be improved by the treatment of Oct-4 siRNA. In conclusion, we demonstrated that Oct-4 expression plays a crucial role in maintaining the self-renewing, cancer stem-like, and chemoradioresistant properties of LC-CD133+. Future research is warranted regarding the up-regulated expression of Oct-4 in LC-CD133+ and malignant lung cancer

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

MicroRNAs and intellectual disability (ID) in Down syndrome, X-linked ID and Fragile X syndrome

Intellectual disability (ID) is one of the many features manifested in various genetic syndromes leading to deficits in cognitive function among affected individuals. ID is a feature affected by polygenes and multiple environmental factors. It leads to a broad spectrum of affected clinical and behavioral characteristics among patients. Until now, the causative mechanism of ID is unknown and the progression of the condition is poorly understood. Advancement in technology and research had identified various genetic abnormalities and defects as the potential cause of ID. However, the link between these abnormalities with ID is remained inconclusive and the roles of many newly discovered genetic components such as non-coding RNAs have not been thoroughly investigated. In this review, we aim to consolidate and assimilate the latest development and findings on a class of small non-coding RNAs known as microRNAs (miRNAs) involvement in ID development and progression with special focus on Down syndrome (DS) and X-linked ID (XLID) [including Fragile X syndrome (FXS)]