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Abstract Image quality assessment (IQA) has become a hot issue in the area of image processing, which aims to evaluate image quality automatically by a metric being consistent with subjective evaluation. The first stage of conventional IQA model design is the quality-aware feature selection. Taking advantages of early visual feature, Phase congruency (PC) operates in frequency domain to measure local structures such as edges, corners, lines, etc., by computing the local amplitudes and local energies in multiple scales. Conventional local PC features are calculated with log-Gabor-based filtrations in several orientations, and usually combined with other features for IQA model design. Generally, a directional filter is sensitive to the changes on specific direction, and insensitive to other directions. This leads to multi-directional calculation and much time consumption in practical applications. Recently, researchers suggested that spatially circular symmetric filters, such as gradient magnitude (GM) and Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG), are highly efficient quality features and hence have been widely used in various IQA model designs. With the odd-symmetric and even-symmetric properties of GM and LoG operators, the two features are a suitable pair for PC compositions and can be computed uniformly by a Gaussian function with one scale factor. In this regard, we propose to combine GM and LoG signals to construct a new PC model with non-directional property. With ability to catch different types of distortions, the proposed PC feature can be promoted to a full-reference IQA model simply with average pooling or standard deviation pooling, and shows state-of-the-art performance compared with existing methods. Furthermore, our proposed PC algorithm can take the place of conventional PC component in well-known FSIM metric, which achieves improved performance and spends less in computation cost. This study suggests that the proposed circular symmetric PC feature is a highly efficient quality feature and can be exclusively used in IQA model designs.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder, characterized by the progressive loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons (DANs), involving the dysregulation of both neurons and glial cells. Cell type- and region-specific gene expression profiles can provide an effective source for revealing the mechanisms of PD. In this study, we adopted the RiboTag approach to obtain cell type (DAN, microglia, astrocytes)- and brain region (substantia nigra, caudate-putamen)-specific translatomes at an early stage in an MPTP-induced mouse model of PD. Through DAN-specific translatome analysis, the glycosphingolipid biosynthetic process was identified as a significantly downregulated pathway in the MPTP-treated mice. ST8Sia6, a key downregulated gene related to glycosphingolipid biosynthesis, was confirmed to be downregulated in nigral DANs from postmortem brains of patients with PD. Specific expression of ST8Sia6 in DANs exerts anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in MPTP-treated mice. Through cell type (microglia vs. astrocyte) and brain region (substantia nigra vs. caudate-putamen) comparisons, nigral microglia showed the most intense immune responses. Microglia and astrocytes in the substantia nigra showed similar levels of activation in interferon-related pathways and interferon gamma (IFNG) was identified as the top upstream regulator in both cell types. This work highlights that the glycosphingolipid metabolism pathway in the DAN is involved in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in an MPTP mouse model of PD and provides a new data source for elucidating the pathogenesis of PD.

Background: The optimal approach for perioperative pain management in laparoscopic gynecological surgery is unclear due to a lack of comprehensive analysis, which limits the development of evidence-based enhanced recovery after surgery protocols. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and network meta-analysis to support clinical decision-making for optimal analgesia. Materials and methods: This study conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and CINAHL from inception to 3 December 2021, and updated on 19 August 2022. Randomized controlled trials comparing the perioperative use of nonopioid analgesics and regional techniques in adults undergoing elective laparoscopic gynecological surgery under general anesthesia were included in the analysis, either alone or in combination. The co-analgesic interventions during the perioperative period for the intervention and control groups of each eligible study were also considered. We assessed the risk of bias using the Risk of Bias 2 tool and evaluated the certainty of evidence using the Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis (CINeMA) approach. A Bayesian network meta-analysis was used to estimate the efficacy of the analgesic strategies. The primary outcomes were pain score at rest and cumulative oral morphine milligram equivalents at 24 h postoperatively. Results: Overall, 108 studies with 9582 participants and 35 different interventions were included. Compared with inert treatments, combinations of two or more interventions showed better efficacy and longer duration in reducing postoperative pain and opioid consumption within 24 h than monotherapies, and showed stepwise enhanced effects with increasing analgesic modes. In combination therapies, regional techniques that included peripheral nerve blocks and intraperitoneal local anesthetics, in combination with nonopioid systemic analgesics, or combining local anesthetics with adjuvant drugs, were found to be more effective. Monotherapies were found to be mostly ineffective. The most effective peripheral nerve blocks were found to be ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane block with adjuvant and ultrasound-guided quadratus lumborum block. Conclusions: These results provide robust evidence for the routine use of regional techniques in combination with nonopioid analgesics in perioperative pain management. However, further better quality and larger trials are needed, considering the low confidence levels for certain interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]