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Background. Transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a known risk factor for stroke. Abnormal alterations in the low-frequency range of the gray matter (GM) of the brain have been studied in patients with TIA. However, whether there are abnormal neural activities in the low-frequency range of the white matter (WM) in patients with TIA remains unknown. The current study applied two resting-state metrics to explore functional abnormalities in the low-frequency range of WM in patients with TIA. Furthermore, a reinforcement learning method was used to investigate whether altered WM function could be a diagnostic indicator of TIA. Methods. We enrolled 48 patients with TIA and 41 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and clinical/physiological/biochemical data were collected from each participant. We compared the group differences between patients with TIA and HCs in the low-frequency range of WM using two resting-state metrics: amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF). The altered ALFF and fALFF values were defined as features of the reinforcement learning method involving a Q -learning algorithm. Results. Compared with HCs, patients with TIA showed decreased ALFF in the right cingulate gyrus/right superior longitudinal fasciculus/left superior corona radiata and decreased fALFF in the right cerebral peduncle/right cingulate gyrus/middle cerebellar peduncle. Based on these two rs-fMRI metrics, an optimal Q -learning model was obtained with an accuracy of 82.02%, sensitivity of 85.42%, specificity of 78.05%, precision of 82.00%, and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.87. Conclusion. The present study revealed abnormal WM functional alterations in the low-frequency range in patients with TIA. These results support the role of WM functional neural activity as a potential neuromarker in classifying patients with TIA and offer novel insights into the underlying mechanisms in patients with TIA from the perspective of WM function.

To investigate the effects of short-term acute moderate-intensity resistance exercise on blood glucose in older patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and sarcopenia using ambulatory glucose monitoring technology.This is a prospective intervention of an own-controlled before-and-after cohort study. A total of 24 older type 2 diabetes mellitus patients who met the enrollment criteria were selected, including 12 cases in the sarcopenia and 12 in the non-sarcopenia groups. First, they wore ambulatory glucose monitoring devices (Medtronic, Ipro2) and retained baseline data. Then they wore Ipro2 again and carried out two sessions of resistance exercise on alternate days. Blood glucose level, blood glucose fluctuation, and time in target range on the contrast and exercise days were compared and analyzed in both groups.The area under the curve of glucose level across 24 h and the mean blood glucose post exercise decreased (P 0.05) in the sarcopenia group. On the exercise day, the coefficient of variation of glucose, the largest amplitude of glycemic excursions, amplitude of postprandial glucose excursions and low blood glucose index decreased, whereas the time in target range increased (P 0.05).Short-term acute moderate-intensity resistance exercise is an effective and safe exercise modality, which can reduce blood glucose levels, blood glucose fluctuations and the risk of hypoglycemia, as well as improve the time in target range for older patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and sarcopenia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2022; 22: 653-659.

Objective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of different frequency bands in the spontaneous brain activity among patients with acute basal ganglia ischemic stroke (BGIS). Methods. In the present study, thirty-four patients with acute BGIS and forty-four healthy controls were examined by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) from May 2019 to December 2020. Two amplitude methods including amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and fractional ALFF (fALFF) calculated in three frequency bands (conventional frequency band: 0.01-0.08 Hz; slow-5 frequency band: 0.01-0.027 Hz; and slow-4 frequency band: 0.027-0.073 Hz) were conducted to evaluate the spontaneous brain activity in patients with acute BGIS and healthy controls (HCs). Gaussian Random Field Theory (GRF, voxel p < 0.01 and cluster p < 0.05 ) correction was applied. The correlation analyses were performed between clinical scores and altered metrics values. Results. Compared to HCs, patients with acute BGIS showed decreased ALFF in the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG) in the conventional and slow-4 bands, increased fALFF in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in the conventional and slow-4 bands, and increased fALFF in the bilateral caudate in the slow-5 frequency band. The fALFF value of the right caudate in the slow-5 frequency band was negatively correlated with the clinical scores. Conclusion. In conclusion, this study showed the alterations in ALFF and fALFF in three frequency bands between patients with acute BGIS and HCs. The results reflected that the abnormal LFO amplitude might be related with different frequency bands and promoted our understanding of pathophysiological mechanism in acute BGIS.

Migraine is a highly prevalent neurovascular disorder that affects approximately 15% of the global population. Migraine attacks are a complex cascade of neurologic events that lead to debilitating symptoms and are often associated with inhibitory behavior. The constellation of severe signs and symptoms during the ictal phase (headache attack) makes migraine the third most common cause of disability globally in both sexes under the age of 50. Misuse of pharmaceuticals, such as opiates, can lead to devastating outcomes and exacerbation of pain and headache attacks. A safe and well-tolerated non-pharmacological research approach is high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation over the M1.

Background To review our long-term clinical experience, analyze the failure patterns, and give suggestions for target volume delineation of carcinoma showing thymus-like differentiation (CASTLE) treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Methods From April 2008 to May 2019, 30 patients with CASTLE treated by postoperative or radical IMRT in our center were retrospectively reviewed. A total dose of 56-60 Gy in 28–30 fractions was prescribed to patients without residual disease and 66 Gy in 33 fractions for patients with residual or unresectable disease. Survival rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Treatment-related toxicities were graded by National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria (NCI-CTC) version 4.0. Results Among the 30 patients, 12 (40%) received partial resection or biopsy. Lateral lymph node metastasis was observed in 7 (23.3%) patients. During follow-up, regional lymph node recurrence occurred in 2 patients and distant metastasis in 5 patients. With a median follow-up time of 63.5 months, the 5-year local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), regional recurrence-free survival (RRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 100, 88.9, 78.9, 93.1 and 78.9%, respectively. For patients with no lateral neck node metastasis, prophylactic radiotherapy for lateral neck nodal regions failed to improve RRFS (p = 0.381) and OS (p = 0.153). Conclusion Distant metastasis was the major failure pattern for CASTLE after surgery and IMRT. For patients with no lateral neck node metastasis, the omission of irradiation for lateral neck nodal regions seems to be safe and feasible.

Morphological awareness, or sensitivity to units of meaning, is an essential component of reading comprehension development. Current neurobiological models of reading and dyslexia have largely been built upon phonological processing models, yet reading for meaning is as essential as reading for sound. To fill this gap, the present study explores the relation between children's neural organization for morphological awareness and successful reading comprehension in typically developing and impaired readers. English-speaking children ages 6-11 (N = 97; mean age = 8.6 years, 25% reading impaired) completed standard literacy assessments as well as an auditory morphological awareness task during functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging, which included root (e.g., PERSON + al) and derivational (e.g., quick + LY) morphology. Regression analyses revealed that children's morphological awareness predicted unique variance in reading comprehension above and beyond demographic factors, vocabulary knowledge, and decoding ability. Neuroimaging analyses further revealed that children with stronger reading comprehension showed greater engagement of brain regions associated with integrating sound and meaning, including left inferior frontal, middle temporal, and inferior parietal regions. This effect was especially notable for the derivational morphology condition that involved manipulating more analytically demanding and semantically abstract units (e.g., un-, -ly, -ion). Together, these findings suggest that successful reading comprehension, and its deficit in dyslexia, may be related to the ability to manipulate morpho-phonological units of word meaning and structure. These results inform theoretical perspectives on literacy and children's neural architecture for learning to read.

Background Anxiety and depression are more frequent in cancer patients than general population and may be correlated with cancer prognosis; however, their value in prostate cancer patients is largely unknown. We aimed to evaluate prevalence of anxiety and depression in prostate cancer survivors post the surgeries, and their correlations with patients’ disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Methods A hundred and ninety-four patients with prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy were enrolled. After discharged from hospital, patients were assessed for post-surgery anxiety and depression every 3 months using Zung Self-rating Anxiety/Depression Scale (SAS/SDS) for a total of 36 months. In addition, disease conditions, DFS, and OS were also documented. Results SAS score (P P = 0.004), SDS score (P P P = 0.009) and anxiety at 3 years (P = 0.017) were correlated with worse DFS, and anxiety at baseline (P = 0.009) was also correlated with shorter OS in prostate cancer patients. Furthermore, depression at baseline (P = 0.005) and depression at 2 years (P = 0.008) were associated with unfavorable DFS, and depression at baseline (P = 0.001), 1 year (P = 0.025), and 2 years (P = 0.008) were associated with worse OS in prostate cancer patients. Moreover, multivariate Cox’s proportional hazards regression analysis elucidated that depression at baseline (P = 0.027) was an independent predictive factor for shorter DFS in prostate cancer patients. Conclusion Anxiety and depression both gradually deteriorate, and they correlate with unfavorable survival profile in prostate cancer patients after radical prostatectomy.

Oral squamous carcinoma (OSCC) is a clinical common tumor with high recurrence rate and low 5 year survival rate. In this work, photothermal antitumor treatment has been performed to treat OSCC by taking anti-wound infection into consideration. By introducing C defects, we have successfully converted the semi-conductive SiC into metallic carbon-defective silicon carbide (SiC1-x), and endowed it with the near infrared absorption property for photothermal therapy (PTT). The results revealed that SiC1-x mediated PTT treatment could remove solid OSCC tumor in a biosafe way, showing low hematotoxicity, cytotoxicity and tissue toxicity. Moreover, the low invasion of PTT treatment could not only prevent the invasion of bacteria, but also realize an antibacterial effect on the wound, both of which are important for oral surgery. SiC1-x could be excreted from the body post treatment, which thus reduces the long-term potential toxicity. On the whole, this study provided a promising way to treat OSCC in an effective and safe way.

The role of surgery in nasopharyngeal carcinoma liver metastases (NCLM) remains elusive, and the current application is limited. We aim to investigate whether hepatic resection (HR) of NCLM improves survival compared with non-hepatic resection (NHR) treatment.One hundred and thirty-three patients with NCLM from 2007 to 2017 were divided into two groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was used to compare the clinical outcomes.After PSM the median overall survival (OS) and the 1, 3 and 5-year OS rates in HR group were 32.60 months, 86.2%, 37.3% and 37.3%, respectively; while for NHR group these values were 19.57 months, 61.5%, 12.9% and 2.9%, respectively (P = 0.008). Multivariate analysis indicated hepatitis B virus infection (P = 0.029) and hepatic resection (P = 0.018) were independent prognostic factors.Our study revealed that hepatectomy yields a survival benefit safely compared with systemic treatments, especially for patients with the size of largest metastasis5 cm, unilobar distribution of liver tumor and received unanatomical hepatectomy.

To investigate the relationships between caspase-8 (CASP8), fatty acid synthetase (Fas) gene polymorphisms and prognosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients in Han nationality.The clinical data of 85 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were analyzed retrospectively. The polymorphisms of CASP8 and Fas gene were detected, and prognosis of the patients were analyzed. The polymorphisms of CASP8 and Fas gene in patients with different prognosis were compared, and the relationships between gene polymorphisms and the poor prognosis of the patients were investigated.The incidence rate of poor prognosis of the patients enrolled in the study was 65.88%. The polymorphisms of CASP8 and Fas genes in the patients with poor or good prognosis were in accordance with Hardy Weinberg's law of genetic balance. The frequencies of GG genotype and G allele at rs 1035142 of CASP8 gene, GA genotype and A allele at rs 1377 of Fas gene in patients with poor prognosis were lower than those of the patients with good prognosis (P0.05). The frequencies of GT, TT and T alleles at rs 1035142 of CASP8 gene, GG and G alleles at rs 1377 of Fas gene in patients with poor prognosis were higher than those of the patients with good prognosis (P0.05). The proportions of Ann Arbor stage III-IV and high malignancy in patients with poor prognosis were higher than those of the patients with good prognosis (P0.05). Logistic multiple regression analysis showed that Ann Arbor stage III-IV, moderate malignant, high malignancy, CASP8 rs 1035142 GT genotype, CASP8 rs 1035142 TT genotype and Fas rs 1377 GG genotype were all the risk factors for the poor prognosis of the patients (P0.05).The poor prognosis rate of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients in Han nationality is relatively high, and the risk factors for the prognosis of the patients include Ann Arbor stage III-IV, moderate and high malignancy, CASP8 rs 1035142 GT genotype, CASP8 rs 1035142 TT genotype and Fas rs 1377 GG genotype.CASP8、Fas基因多态性与汉族非霍奇金淋巴瘤患者预后的关系.探讨胱天蛋白酶8（CASP8）、脂肪酸合成酶（Fas）基因多态性与汉族非霍奇金淋巴瘤患者预后的关系。.回顾性分析85例汉族非霍奇金淋巴瘤患者的临床资料，检测CASP8、Fas基因多态性，统计预后情况，对比不同预后患者CASP8、Fas基因多态性，探讨基因多态性与患者预后不良的关系。.本组85例患者预后不良发生率为65.88%；预后不良与预后良好患者CASP8、Fas基因多态性均符合Hardy-Weinberg遗传平衡定律；预后不良患者CASP8基因rs 1035142位点GG基因型频率、等位基因G频率，Fas基因rs 1377位点GA基因型频率、等位基因A频率均明显低于预后良好患者（P0.05），CASP8基因rs 1035142位点GT、TT基因型频率、等位基因T频率，Fas基因rs 1377位点GG基因型频率和等位基因G频率均明显高于预后良好患者（P0.05）；预后不良患者Ann Arbor分期III-IV期、高度恶性占比均明显高于预后良好患者（P0.05）；Logistic多元回归分析显示，Ann Arbor分期III-IV期、中度恶性、高度恶性、CASP8 rs 1035142 GT基因型、CASP8 rs 1035142 TT基因型、Fas rs 1377 GG基因型均为患者预后不良的危险因素（P0.05）。.汉族非霍奇金淋巴瘤患者预后不良发生率较高，Ann Arbor分期III-IV期、中高度恶性、CASP8 rs 1035142 GT基因型、CASP8 rs 1035142 TT基因型、Fas rs 1377 GG基因型均是其预后不良的危险因素。.

Background Pain is a complex experience that involves sensory-discriminative and cognitive-emotional neuronal processes. It has long been known across cultures that pain can be relieved by mindful breathing (MB). There is a common assumption that MB exerts its analgesic effect through interoception. Interoception refers to consciously refocusing the mind’s attention to the physical sensation of internal organ function. Objective In this study, we dissect the cortical analgesic processes by imaging the brains of healthy subjects exposed to traditional MB (TMB) and compare them with another group for which we augmented MB to an outside sensory experience via virtual reality breathing (VRB). Methods The VRB protocol involved in-house–developed virtual reality 3D lungs that synchronized with the participants’ breathing cycles in real time, providing them with an immersive visual-auditory exteroception of their breathing. Results We found that both breathing interventions led to a significant increase in pain thresholds after week-long practices, as measured by a thermal quantitative sensory test. However, the underlying analgesic brain mechanisms were opposite, as revealed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy data. In the TMB practice, the anterior prefrontal cortex uniquely modulated the premotor cortex. This increased its functional connection with the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), thereby facilitating the S1-based sensory-interoceptive processing of breathing but inhibiting its other role in sensory-discriminative pain processing. In contrast, virtual reality induced an immersive 3D exteroception with augmented visual-auditory cortical activations, which diminished the functional connection with the S1 and consequently weakened the pain processing function of the S1. Conclusions In summary, our study suggested two analgesic neuromechanisms of VRB and TMB practices—exteroception and interoception—that distinctively modulated the S1 processing of the ascending noxious inputs. This is in line with the concept of dualism (Yin and Yang).

To establish a radiomics nomogram for preoperative prediction of Ki-67 proliferation index in stage T1a-b lung adenocarcinoma.A total of 206 patients with pathologically confirmed lung adenocarcinoma who underwent CT scans within 2 weeks preoperatively from January 2016 to June 2020 were retrospectively included. Ki-67 index ≤ 10% was considered low expression, and Ki-67 index 10% was considered high expression. The primary cohort was randomized with a 7:3 ratio into a training cohort (n = 145) and a validation cohort (n = 61). The minimum redundancy maximum relevance (mRMR) and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) were used for feature selection, and radiomics signature was constructed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify clinically important risk factors and radiomics signature associated with Ki-67 proliferation index, which were then combined into radiomics nomogram.Tumor maximum diameter (P = 0.005), lobulation (P = 0.002), absent of vacuole (P 0.001), and Radscore (P 0.001) were independent risk predictors of high Ki-67 proliferation index expression. The radiomics nomogram showed good predictive efficacy. The AUC, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of radiomics nomogram in the training and validation cohorts were 0.91 (95% CI: 0.86-0.96), 87.9%, 80.5%, 83.4% and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.75-0.94), 71.9%, 82.8% and 77.0%. Decision curve analysis further demonstrated the clinical utility of the nomogram.Radiomics nomogram provide a non-invasive method to predict Ki-67 proliferation index preoperatively in stage T1a-b lung adenocarcinoma, which might be the supplementary information for clinicians to choose the appropriate treatment program.

The Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) and hyperdense vessel sign (HDVS) on baseline non-contrast CT (NCCT) may benefit prognosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). We aimed to investigate the agreement of ASPECTS between automated and manual interpretations, and further understand the roles of NCCT and CT Perfusion (CTP) in prognosis.From January 2019 to May 2020, thrombolysis-treated AIS patients undergoing NCCT and Perfusion imaging before treatment were retrospectively reviewed. A radiologist, a senior neuroradiologist and a neurologist blindly interpreted ASPECTS from NCCT images and a prototypical software produced automated results. Another independent radiologist determined presence of HDVS and CTP-ASPECTS. Three-month modified Rankin scale (mRS) ≤ 2 indicated good functional outcome. NCCT ASPECTS were compared against CTP-ASPECTS using squared weighted kappa. Univariable, multivariable and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis were conducted to evaluate the prognostic value of clinical risk factors, NCCT and CTP findings.Seventy-five patients were included in this study, of whom 35 (46.7%) presented favorable outcome. Fair to substantial agreement with CTP-ASPECTS was witnessed for automated and manual interpretations (0.685, automated; 0.778, radiologist; 0.830, neuroradiologist; 0.313, neurologist). ASPECTS, HDVS, infarct core volume and mismatch ratio were univariably related to functional outcome, and infarct core volume remained as an independent prognostic factor in the multivariable analysis. The multivariable model achieved an area under ROC (AUC) of 0.768 (95% CI, 0.666-0.870).Automated ASPECTS achieves substantial agreement with reference CTP-ASPECTS, and comprehensive CT assessment may benefit AIS prognosis after intravenous thrombolysis.

Iodinated contrast media (ICM) is widely used in radiological examination and interventional therapy. In the commonly used ICM, iodixanol is considered to be the safer one. However, compared with other ICMs, it has a higher incidence of delayed cutaneous adverse reactions. The underlying mechanisms are unclear. In this study, mice with positive allergic reactions were selected based on the mouse clinical allergy symptom score and skin and blood samples taken 1, 6, 24, 48, and 72 h after ICMs (6 g iodine/kg) injection for histological and blood analyses. ICMs-induced pseudo-allergic reactions were investigated through in vivo intravital vascular imaging and passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) not mediated by IgE and through, calcium imaging degranulation of mast cells (MCs), and western blot assays in vitro. Results shows iodixanol-induced systemic anaphylaxis caused severe extravasation of plasma proteins and degranulation of skin MCs, and increased levels of plasma histamine, cytokines and inflammatory chemokines. Mechanistically, iodixanol increases degranulation of MCs and promotes the synthesis of inflammatory factors by activating PLC-γ and PI3K-related pathways. Trigonelline inhibit iodixanol-induced MC-related pseudo-allergic reactions in vitro and in vivo. These results suggest that mice in the iodixanol group had a higher incidence of delayed cutaneous reactions, characterized by cytokine release over time and delayed cutaneous MC degranulation. Iodixanol's delayed cutaneous adverse reactions may be due to a delayed phase of MC-related pseudo-allergic reactions. Trigonelline revealed anti-allergic activity in iodixanol-induced MC-related pseudo-allergic reactions.

T1 mapping can potentially quantitatively assess the intrinsic properties of tumors. BTo assess the repeatability and reproducibility of BProspective reproducibility study.Sixty lung cancer patients (22 with emphysema) with a total of 60 lesions (adenocarcinoma [n = 23], squamous cell carcinoma [n = 19], and small-cell lung cancer [SCLC] [n = 18]).A 3 T/BIntraobserver, interobserver, and test-retest reproducibility of minimum, maximum, mean, and SD of lung tumor T1 values were assessed. The correlation between mean T1 and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and differences between different histological types of lung cancer were evaluated.Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), within-subject coefficients of variation (WCVs), Bland-Altman plots, Pearson's correlation coefficient (r), and analysis of variance (ANOVA). A P value0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.No significant differences were found in minimum, maximum, mean, and SD T1 values for repeated measurements (intraobserver and interobserver) and repeated examinations (P = 0.103-0.979). All parameters showed good intraobserver, interobserver and test-retest reproducibility (ICC, 0.780-0.978), except the maximum T1 value (ICC, 0.645-0.922). The mean T1 exhibited the best reproducibility and repeatability, with an average difference 6% for repeated measurements,8% for repeated scans in lung cancer patients, and10% for repeated scans in those with emphysema. The mean T1 correlated moderately with ADC (r = -0.580, -0.516, and -0.511 for observers A, B, and C). Both mean T1 and mean ADC were significantly different in SCLC patients compared with those in adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma patients.The mean T1 from B1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to explore the value of spectral computed tomography (CT) imaging in differentiating lung cancer from inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT). METHODS One hundred twelve patients with 96 lung cancers and 16 IMTs underwent spectral CT during arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP). The normalized iodine concentration in AP (NICAP) and VP (NICVP), slope of spectral Hounsfield unit curve in AP (λAP) and VP (λVP), and normalized iodine concentration difference between AP and VP (ICD) were calculated. The 2-sample t test compared quantitative parameters. Two readers qualitatively assessed lesion types according to imaging features. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated to calculate sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity and specificity of the qualitative and quantitative studies were compared. RESULTS The patients with IMT had significantly higher NICAP, NICVP, λAP, λVP, and ICD than did the patients with lung cancer (P < 0.05). The threshold NICVP of 0.425 would yield the highest sensitivity and specificity of 92.7% and 81.3%, respectively, for differentiating lung cancer from IMT. The logistic regression model produced from combining quantitative parameters NICAP, NICVP, λAP, and λVP provided a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 81.3%, respectively, for differentiating lung cancer from IMT. CONCLUSIONS Spectral CT imaging with the quantitative analysis may help to increase the accuracy of differentiating lung cancer from IMT.

Objective Tinnitus, phantom sound perception, arises from aberrant brain activity within auditory cortex. In tinnitus animal models, auditory cortex neurons show increased spontaneous firing and neural synchrony. In humans, similar hyperactivation in auditory cortex has been displayed with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) or increased connectivity between brain regions has also been shown in tinnitus using fNIRS. However, current fNIRS technology utilizes infrared (IR)-sources and IR-detectors placed on the scalp that restricts (~3 cm depth IR penetration) signal capture to outer cerebral cortex due to skin and skull bone. To overcome this limitation, in this proof of concept study, we adapted fNIRS probes to fit in the external auditory canal (EAC) to physically place IR-probes deeper within the skull thereby extracting neural signals from deeper auditory cortex. Methods Twenty adults with tinnitus and 20 nontinnitus controls listened to periods of silence and broadband noise before and after 5 min of silence to calculate RSFC. Concurrent scalp probes over auditory cortex and an adapted probe placed in the right EAC were utilized. Results For standard probes, left and right auditory cortex in tinnitus showed increased RSFC to each other and to other nonauditory cortices. Interestingly, adapted fNIRS probes showed trends toward increased RSFC. Conclusion While many areas for the adapted probes did not reach significance, these data using a highly innovative and newly created probe adapting fNIRS technology to the EAC substantiates our previously published data in human tinnitus and concurrently validates this technology as a useful and expanded brain imaging modality.

Pain is a complex experience that involves sensation, emotion, and cognition. The subjectivity of the traditional pain measurement tools has expedited the interest in developing neuroimaging techniques to monitor pain objectively. Among noninvasive neuroimaging techniques, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has balanced spatial and temporal resolution; yet, it is portable, quiet, and cost-effective. These features enable fNIRS to image the cortical mechanisms of pain in a clinical environment. In this article, we evaluated pain neuroimaging studies that used the fNIRS technique in the past decade. Starting from the experimental design, we reviewed the regions of interest, probe localization, data processing, and primary findings of these existing fNIRS studies. We also discussed the fNIRS imaging's potential as a brain surveillance technique for pain, in combination with artificial intelligence and extended reality techniques. We concluded that fNIRS is a brain imaging technique with great potential for objective pain assessment in the clinical environment.

Significance: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging brain imaging technique due to its small size, low cost, minimum scanning sonic noise, and portability. Unfortunately, because this technique does not provide neuroanatomical information to accompany the functional data, its data interpretation remains a persistent challenge in fNIRS brain imaging applications. The two most popular approaches for fNIRS anatomical registration are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and three-dimensional (3-D) digitization. MRI scanning yields high-precision registration but reduces the cost-effectiveness and accessibility of fNIRS imaging. Alternatively, the low cost and portable 3-D digitizers are affected by magnetic properties of ambient metal objects, including participant clothing, testing equipment, medical implants, and so forth. Aim: To overcome these obstacles and provide accessible and reliable neuroanatomical registration for fNIRS imaging, we developed and explored a photogrammetry optode registration (POR) method. Approach: The POR method uses a consumer-grade camera to reconstruct a 3-D image of the fNIRS optode-set, including light emitters and detectors, on a participant’s head. This reconstruction process uses a linear-time incremental structure from motion (LTI-SfM) algorithm, based on 100 to 150 digital photos. The POR method then aligns the reconstructed image with an anatomical template of the brain. Results: To validate this method, we tested 22 adult and 19 child participants using the POR method and MRI imaging. The results comparisons suggest on average 55% and 46% overlap across all data channel measurements registered by the two methods in adult and children, respectively. Importantly, this overlap reached 65% and 60% in only the frontal channels. Conclusions: These results suggested that the mismatch in registration was partially due to higher variation in backward optode placement rather than the registration efficacy. Therefore, the photo-based registration method can offer an accessible and reliable approach to neuroanatomical registration of fNIRS as well as other surface-based neuroimaging and neuromodulation methods.

Background To develop and validate a nomogram for early identification of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) based on initial clinical and CT characteristics. Methods The initial clinical and CT imaging data of 217 patients with COVID-19 were analyzed retrospectively from January to March 2020. Two hundred seventeen patients with 146 mild cases and 71 severe cases were randomly divided into training and validation cohorts. Independent risk factors were selected to construct the nomogram for predicting severe COVID-19. Nomogram performance in terms of discrimination and calibration ability was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC), calibration curve, decision curve, clinical impact curve and risk chart. Results In the training cohort, the severity score of lung in the severe group (7, interquartile range [IQR]:5–9) was significantly higher than that of the mild group (4, IQR,2–5) (P Conclusion The nomogram incorporating initial clinical and CT characteristics may help to identify the severe patients with COVID-19 in the early stage.

Previous studies have indicated disrupted functional connectivity in multiple brain regions and resting-state networks in episodic migraine, but it is unclear how brain network property is disrupted in chronic migraine. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-wise functional connectivity density analysis, we examined the large-scale functional connectivity pattern over the whole brain in 17 patients with chronic migraine without medication overuse compared to 35 healthy controls. The associations between functional connectivity density and clinical variables were also explored. Compared with controls, chronic migraine patients showed decreased local and distant functional connectivity density in the dorsolateral and medial prefrontal cortexes and precuneus and increased local and distant functional connectivity density in the hippocampal complex. The patients also presented increased local functional connectivity density in the orbital frontal gyrus and cerebellum and increased distant functional connectivity density in the temporal pole. Moreover, local functional connectivity density in several brain regions, such as the left superior temporal gyrus and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, was found to be correlated with headache frequency or pain intensity. Chronic migraine is associated with functional connectivity alterations in regions involved in multisensory integration, affective and cognitive processing, and pain modulation. Both local and distant functional connectivity density are complementary biomarkers for investigating the neural mechanism of this disorder. Some local functional connectivity density alterations may be useful for assessing the disease burden of chronic migraine.

Motion artifacts are the most significant sources of noise in the context of pediatric brain imaging designs and data analyses, especially in applications of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), in which it can completely affect the quality of the data acquired. Different methods have been developed to correct motion artifacts in fNIRS data, but the relative effectiveness of these methods for data from child and infant subjects (which is often found to be significantly noisier than adult data) remains largely unexplored. The issue is further complicated by the heterogeneity of fNIRS data artifacts. We compared the efficacy of the six most prevalent motion artifact correction techniques with fNIRS data acquired from children participating in a language acquisition task, including wavelet, spline interpolation, principal component analysis, moving average (MA), correlation-based signal improvement, and combination of wavelet and MA. The evaluation of five predefined metrics suggests that the MA and wavelet methods yield the best outcomes. These findings elucidate the varied nature of fNIRS data artifacts and the efficacy of artifact correction methods with pediatric populations, as well as help inform both the theory and practice of optical brain imaging analysis.

Emerging research suggests that children's ability to divide is the best predictor of later arithmetic development. Although division is typically taught around grade 3, children much younger than this practice division when sharing and allocating resources (e.g. sharing food). To test the hypothesis that social sharing abilities are linked to the emergence of complex numerical division abilities, we examined sharing and division abilities in adults and children. The first study used functional near infrared spectroscopy to examine the neurocognitive bases of division in adults (N=28; age range: 18-23 years) during a task that evaluated their judgment of proportions in the context of sharing, as well as traditional numerical division tasks. The second study explored the relation between sharing and emergent math abilities in children (N=53; age range: 4-6 years) using the same sharing task and established math measures. Our findings suggest that social sharing activities might engage similar cognitive mechanisms that support mathematical reasoning. The study informs theories of numerical cognition and highlights the importance of examining gaps in how early life activities support cognitive development.

Background. The dawn phenomenon (DP) is the primary cause of difficulty in blood glucose management in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients, and the use of oral hypoglycemic agents has shown weak efficacy in controlling DP. Thus, this study is aimed at investigating the effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise before breakfast on the blood glucose level and glycemic variability in T2D patients with DP. Methods. A total of 20 T2D patients with DP confirmed via continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) participated in the current study. After collecting baseline measurements by CGM as a control, CGM was reinstalled and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise was performed prior to breakfast. Dawn blood glucose increase, blood glucose levels, and glycemic variability were measured before and after exercise. Results. Dawn blood glucose increase (ΔGlu, 1.25±0.84vs.2.15±1.07, P=0.005), highest blood glucose value before breakfast (Gmax, 8.01±1.16vs. 8.78±1.09, P=0.005), and mean blood glucose (MBG, 7.80±0.97vs. 8.37±0.95, P=0.001) were all lower, and time in range (TIR, 90.75±12.27vs. 83.5±15.41, P=0.015) was higher after exercise than before exercise. Among the glycemic variability indicators, blood glucose standard deviation (SD, 1.1±0.5vs. 1.48±0.63, P=0.001), coefficient of variation (CV, 14.14±5.94vs.17.69±7.46, P=0.006), mean amplitude of glucose excursion (MAGE, 2.71±1.52vs.3.73±1.98, P=0.006), and largest amplitude of glucose excursion (LAGE, 4.97±2.07vs.6.41±2.36, P=0.002) were all decreased following exercise. Conclusions. Acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise before breakfast reduced the morning rise of blood glucose in T2D patients, partially counteracting DP. Furthermore, exercise significantly reduced blood glucose fluctuations and improved blood glucose control throughout the day. We recommend that T2D patients with DP take moderate-intensity aerobic exercise before breakfast to improve DP and glycemic control.

When a listener hears a word, multiple lexical items may come to mind; for instance, /kaen/ may activate concepts with similar phonological onsets such as candy and candle. Acquisition of two lexicons may increase such linguistic competition. Using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy neuroimaging, we investigate whether bilingualism impacts word processing in the child’s brain. Bilingual and monolingual children (N = 52; ages 7–10) completed a lexical selection task in English, where participants adjudicated phonological competitors (e.g., car/cat vs. car/pen). Children were less accurate and responded more slowly during competing than non-competing items. In doing so, children engaged top-down fronto-parietal regions associated with cognitive control. In comparison to bilinguals, monolinguals showed greater activity in left frontal regions, a difference possibly due to bilinguals’ adaptation for dual-lexicons. These differences provide insight to theories aiming to explain the role of experience on children’s emerging neural networks for lexical selection and language processing.

Purpose Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths with high recurrence after surgery due to a paucity of effective post-surgical adjuvant treatments. DC vaccines can activate multiple anti-tumor immune responses but have not been explored for post-surgery PDAC recurrence. Intraperitoneal (IP) delivery may allow increased DC vaccine dosage and migration to lymph nodes. Here, we investigated the role of prophylactic DC vaccination controlling PDAC tumor growth with IP delivery as an administration route for DC vaccination. Methods DC vaccines were generated using ex vivo differentiation and maturation of bone marrow–derived precursors. Twenty mice were divided into four groups (n = 5) and treated with DC vaccines, unpulsed mature DCs, Panc02 lysates or no treatment. After tumor induction, mice underwent three magnetic resonance imaging scans to track tumor growth. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), a quantitative magnetic resonance imaging measurement of tumor microstructure, was calculated. Survival was tracked. Tumor tissue was collected after death and stained with hematoxylin and eosin, Masson's trichrome, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling and anti-CD8 stains for histology. Results DC-vaccinated mice demonstrated stronger anti-tumor cytotoxicity compared with control groups on lactate dehydrogenase assay. DC vaccine mice also demonstrated decreased tumor volume, prolonged survival and increased ΔADC compared with control groups. On histology, the DC vaccine group had increased apoptosis, increased CD8+ T cells and decreased collagen. ΔADC negatively correlated with % collagen in tumor tissues. Discussion Prophylactic DC vaccination may inhibit PDAC tumor growth during recurrence and prolong survival. ΔADC may be a potential imaging biomarker that correlates with tumor histological features.

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic performance of deep learning (DL)-based vascular extraction and stenosis detection technology in assessing coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods: The diagnostic performance of DL technology was evaluated by retrospective analysis of coronary computed tomography angiography in 124 suspected CAD patients, using invasive coronary angiography as reference standard. Lumen diameter stenosis ≥50% was considered obstructive, and the diagnostic performances were evaluated at per-patient, per-vessel and per-segment levels. The diagnostic performances between DL model and reader model were compared by the areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves (AUCs). Results: In patient-based analysis, AUC of 0.78 was obtained by DL model to detect obstructive CAD [sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 63%, positive predictive value of 94%, and negative predictive value of 59%], While AUC by reader model was 0.74 (sensitivity of 97%, specificity of 50%, positive predictive value of 93%, negative predictive value of 73%). In vessel-based analysis, the AUCs of DL model and reader model were 0.87 and 0.89 respectively. In segment-based analysis, the AUCs of 0.84 and 0.89 were obtained by DL model and reader model respectively. It took 0.47 min to analyze all segments per patient by DL model, which is significantly less than reader model (29.65 min) (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The DL technology can accurately and effectively identify obstructive CAD, with less time-consuming, and it could be a reliable diagnostic tool to detect CAD. Advances in knowledge: The DL technology has valuable prospect with the diagnostic ability to detect CAD.

This study explored the impact of infant temperament and maternal stress on the development of the infant medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) among sixteen 6–8-month-old infants. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure activation of the infant mPFC in response to angry, happy, and sad faces. Infant temperament and dimensions of maternal stress were measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire and the Parenting Stress Index Respectively. Infants with high negative emotionality demonstrated increased mPFC activation in association with all emotion face conditions. Negative emotionality moderated the effect of total maternal stress on mPFC activation to angry and sad faces. Mother-infant dysfunctional interaction was related to increased mPFC activation associated with happy faces, supporting the “novelty hypothesis”, in which the mPFC responds more strongly to unique experiences. Therefore, this study provides additional evidence that infant temperament and the quality of the mother-infant relationship influence the development of the mPFC and how infants process emotions.

The LSL-Kras

This study used an emerging brain imaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to investigate functional brain activation and connectivity that modulates sometimes traumatic pain experience in a clinical setting. Hemodynamic responses were recorded at bilateral somatosensory (S1) and prefrontal cortices (PFCs) from 12 patients with dentin hypersensitivity in a dental chair before, during, and after clinical pain. Clinical dental pain was triggered with 20 consecutive descending cold stimulations (32° to 0°C) to the affected teeth. We used a partial least squares path modeling framework to link patients' clinical pain experience with recorded hemodynamic responses at sequential stages and baseline resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Hemodynamic responses at PFC/S1 were sequentially elicited by expectation, cold detection, and pain perception at a high-level coefficient (coefficients: 0.92, 0.98, and 0.99, P < 0.05). We found that the pain ratings were positively affected only at a moderate level of coefficients by such sequence of functional activation (coefficient: 0.52, P < 0.05) and the baseline PFC-S1 RSFC (coefficient: 0.59, P < 0.05). Furthermore, when the dental pain had finally subsided, the PFC increased its functional connection with the affected S1 orofacial region contralateral to the pain stimulus and, in contrast, decreased with the ipsilateral homuncular S1 regions ( P < 0.05). Our study indicated for the first time that patients' clinical pain experience in the dental chair can be predicted concomitantly by their baseline functional connectivity between S1 and PFC, as well as their sequence of ongoing hemodynamic responses. In addition, this linked cascade of events had immediate after-effects on the patients' brain connectivity, even when clinical pain had already ceased. Our findings offer a better understating of the ongoing impact of affective and sensory experience in the brain before, during, and after clinical dental pain.

The relationship between parameters of brain functional networks and clinical indexes is unclear so far in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR). This paper is to investigate this. Twenty-one patients with different grades of DR and 21 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled from August 2012 to September 2014. The clinical indexes recorded included DR grade, duration of diabetes, HbA1c, diabetic foot screen, fasting plasma glucose, insulin, Homa-β, Homa-IR, insulin sensitive index (ISI), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and patient sex and age. Subjects were scanned using 3-T MR with blood-oxygen-level-dependent and 3D–FSPGR sequences. MR data was analyzed via preprocessing and functional network construction, and quantified indexes of network (clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, global efficiency, degree distribution, and small worldness) were evaluated. Statistics consisted of ANOVA and correlation. There were significant differences between patients and controls among clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, degree distribution, and small worldness parameters (P

Tinnitus, or phantom sound perception, leads to increased spontaneous neural firing rates and enhanced synchrony in central auditory circuits in animal models. These putative physiologic correlates of tinnitus to date have not been well translated in the brain of the human tinnitus sufferer. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) we recently showed that tinnitus in humans leads to maintained hemodynamic activity in auditory and adjacent, non-auditory cortices. Here we used fNIRS technology to investigate changes in resting state functional connectivity between human auditory and non-auditory brain regions in normal-hearing, bilateral subjective tinnitus and controls before and after auditory stimulation. Hemodynamic activity was monitored over the region of interest (primary auditory cortex) and non-region of interest (adjacent non-auditory cortices) and functional brain connectivity was measured during a 60-second baseline/period of silence before and after a passive auditory challenge consisting of alternating pure tones (750 and 8000Hz), broadband noise and silence. Functional connectivity was measured between all channel-pairs. Prior to stimulation, connectivity of the region of interest to the temporal and fronto-temporal region was decreased in tinnitus participants compared to controls. Overall, connectivity in tinnitus was differentially altered as compared to controls following sound stimulation. Enhanced connectivity was seen in both auditory and non-auditory regions in the tinnitus brain, while controls showed a decrease in connectivity following sound stimulation. In tinnitus, the strength of connectivity was increased between auditory cortex and fronto-temporal, fronto-parietal, temporal, occipito-temporal and occipital cortices. Together these data suggest that central auditory and non-auditory brain regions are modified in tinnitus and that resting functional connectivity measured by fNIRS technology may contribute to conscious phantom sound perception and potentially serve as an objective measure of central neural pathology.

Objectives The phylogenetic relationships between Chinese Leishmania strains were investigated using lack ( Leishmania homolog of receptors for activated protein kinase C) gene sequences, and the power of this gene was assessed for understanding the epidemiology and population genetics of Leishmania . Methods The lack gene sequences from Leishmania isolates were sequenced after polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Sequence alignment was performed and a phylogenetic tree was created using the MEGA 5.0 software program. Results Sequences of 850 bp were analyzed for each of the Leishmania strains collected from different locations in China, and minor differences in sequences were noted between the strains. Four distinct groups formed according to differences in the sequences of the lack gene. Group I consisted of 12 isolates from Shandong, Xinjiang, Gansu and Sichuan. These strains are part of the Leishmania donovani complex and are pathogenic to humans and canines. Group II included six isolates from Xinjiang and a reference strain, Leishmania turanica . Group III contained two isolates (one from a sand fly in Xinjiang and one from a rodent in Inner Mongolia) and they were identified as Leishmania gerbilli . Finally, group IV contained a strain from a sand fly in Xinjiang and a strain from a lizard in Inner Mongolia, and these strains were found to be Sauroleishmania . Conclusion The Chinese Leishmania isolates formed four groups based on differences in the sequences of the lack gene, and this result is consistent with previous studies. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the Leishmania isolates from China are more complicated than previously thought. There is consensus between genetic clustering and identification using classical methods, which means that the lack gene yields polymorphic information that could be used for genotyping Leishmania isolates.

To access the effect of iodinate contrast agent (ICA) on DNA double-stand breaks (DSBs) in human peripheral blood lymphocytes during computed tomography (CT) examinations.This present study was approved by the institutional ethics committee; written informed patient consent was obtained from 70 patients. A total of 48 patients underwent computed tomography urography (CTU), in which only one time CT scanning was examined after injecting ICA, and 22 patients received unenhanced whole abdominal CT, among them 10 patients were selected to get ICA injection immediately after irradiation. Blood samples were taken from all patients prior to and immediately after CT scan, as well as 8min after the injection of ICA. The lymphocytes in these blood samples were separated by using density-gradient centrifugation, fixed and immunostained with γH2AX antibody. The average number of phosphorylated histone H2AX (γH2AX) foci per lymphocyte was counted under a fluorescence microscopy. Differences in the number of γH2AX-foci were statistically analyzed using independent sample t test and one way ANOVA.The three patient groups had no significant differences in the baseline foci numbers(P0.05). The γH2AX-focus levels increased in both groups after CT scan. Patients who underwent CTU examinations had a greater DSBs level (mean±standard error of mean, 0.945±0.184 foci per cell) than those who received unenhanced whole abdominal CT scan (mean±standard error of mean, 0.700±0.112 foci per cell), increasing by about 37.9%; The ICA injected before CT scan itself had an effect on the DSBs, which increased DSBs level by approximately 90.3% (0.059±0.018vs 0.031±0.025, P0.05), but no significant difference was found if added after irradiation, increasing DSBs level only by 3.2% approximately (0.711±0.091vs 0.689±0.108, P=0.499).The iodinated contrast agent itself can lead to an increase in the level of DSBs as assessed with γH2AX foci formation, and the application of ICA can amplify DNA damage induced by diagnostic x-ray procedures such as whole abdominal CT.

Bilingualism is a typical linguistic experience, yet relatively little is known about its impact on children's cognitive and brain development. Theories of bilingualism suggest that early dual-language acquisition can improve children's cognitive abilities, specifically those relying on frontal lobe functioning. While behavioral findings present much conflicting evidence, little is known about its effects on children's frontal lobe development. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the findings suggest that Spanish-English bilingual children (n = 13, ages 7-13) had greater activation in left prefrontal cortex during a non-verbal attentional control task relative to age-matched English monolinguals. In contrast, monolinguals (n = 14) showed greater right prefrontal activation than bilinguals. The present findings suggest that early bilingualism yields significant changes to the functional organization of children's prefrontal cortex for attentional control and carry implications for understanding how early life experiences impact cognition and brain development.

// Su Hu 1, * , Qian Jiang 2, * , Dongdong Luo 1 , Lei Zhao 3 , Xin Fu 2 , Yuqin Chen 2 , Xue Song 4 , Lihua Li 1 , Hailin Zhao 1 , Yingfang He 1 , Biao Peng 1 1 Department of Neurosurgery, Cancer Center of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510095, China 2 State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, The 1st Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510120, China 3 Department of Physiology, School of Basic Science, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510182, China 4 Guangdong Provincial Hospital of TCM Breast Department, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510006, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Biao Peng, email: pengbiaopengbiao@msn.com Keywords: glioma, miR-200b, LDHA, proliferation, metabolism Received: December 04, 2015 Accepted: June 04, 2016 Published: June 27, 2016 ABSTRACT Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) is involved in various cancers. In this study, we investigated the expression and function of LDHA in glioma. We found that LDHA was up-regulated in glioma samples. Furthermore, we found that overexpression of LDHA promoted proliferation, invasion and glycolysis in glioma cells. Luciferase reporter assays confirmed that LDHA was a direct target of miR-200b. miR-200b was found to be down-regulated in glioma samples, which was inversely correlated with LDHA expression. Repression of LDHA by miR-200b suppressed the glycolysis, cell proliferation and invasion of glioma cells. These results provide evidence that miR-200b acts as a tumor suppressor in glioma through the inhibition of LDHA both in vitro and in vivo . Targeting LDHA through miR-200b could be a potential therapeutic strategy in glioma.

A dental appointment commonly prompts fear of a painful experience, yet we have never fully understood how our brains react to the expectation of imminent tooth pain once in a dental chair. In our study, 21 patients with hypersensitive teeth were tested using nonpainful and painful stimuli in a clinical setting. Subjects were tested in a dental chair using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure cortical activity during a stepwise cold stimulation of a hypersensitive tooth, as well as nonpainful control stimulation on the same tooth. Patients’ sensory-discriminative and emotional-cognitive cortical regions were studied through the transition of a neutral to a painful stimulation. In the putative somatosensory cortex contralateral to the stimulus, 2 well-defined hemodynamic peaks were detected in the homuncular orofacial region: the first peak during the nonpainful phase and a second peak after the pain threshold was reached. Moreover, in the upper-left and lower-right prefrontal cortices, there was a significant active hemodynamic response in only the first phase, before the pain. Subsequently, the same prefrontal cortical areas deactivated after a painful experience had been reached. Our study indicates for the first time that pain perception and expectation elicit different hemodynamic cortical responses in a dental clinical setting.

To explore whether miR-200b suppresses tumor cell invasion by targeting PROM1, thus to reveal the molecular mechanism that miR-200b functions as a tumor suppressor in glioma.PROM1 3'UTR-luciferase vector was constructed and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was employed to examine the effect of miR-200b on luciferase activity. Human glioblastoma U87 cells were transfected with miR-200b mimics, and next qRT-PCR and Western blotting were performed to detect the expressions of PROM1 mRNA and protein. The effect of PROM1 down-regulation on invasion was observed after PROM1 siRNA were transfected into U87 cells.The miR-200b bound to the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) of PROM1 and inhibited the luciferase activity. Its luciferase activity was down-regulated by 57.0% (P0.01). PROM1 protein and mRNA expressions were significantly down-regulated when miR-200b was overexpressed in the U87 cells (P0.05). siRNA-mediated down-regulation of PROM1 suppressed the potential of cell invasion. The invasion ability of SKOV3 cells after transfection with siRNA-PROM1 was significantly lower than that in the negative control cells (P0.05).miR-200b may suppress cell invasion by targeting PROM1 in glioma.

This work describes a simple method to yield large amounts of the isolate MHOM/CN/90/SC10H2 amastigotes-like forms in axenic cultures using promastigotes as the starting population. The isolate MHOM/CN/90/SC10H2, used in this study, belongs to an undescribed species of Leishmania endemic to hill foci in China. The method describes induced extracellular amastigote transformation of this isolate. The rounded parasite obtained in axenic culture was morphologically similar, even at the ultrastructural level, to intracellular amastigotes. Moreover, the axenic amastigotes remained viable as verified by the stage-specific genes (gp46 and p4 genes) with RT-PCR. A 70–80 kDa protein was recognized by polyclonal antibody HRP-IgG only in axenic-derived amastigotes and not in promastigotes.

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and toxicities in T4 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) combined with chemotherapy. Methods This is a retrospective analysis of 81 patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). All the primary tumors were attributed to T4 stage according to the AJCC2010 staging system. And the distribution of disease by N stage was N0 in 13.6%, N1 in 30.9%, N2 in 37%, and N3 in 18.5%. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy was offered to all patients. Radiotherapy-related toxicities were graded according to the Acute and the Late Radiation Morbidity Scoring Criteria of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) scoring criteria. Chemotherapy-related toxicities were graded by National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria (NCI-CTC) version 3.0. Prognostic factors were assessed by univariate analysis. Results With a median follow-up of 37 months, 12 patients experienced local regional failure and total distant metastasis occurred in 18 patients, representing the major mode of failure. Ten patients died. Among them, 70% died of distant metastasis. The 3-year actuarial rates of local failure–free survival (LFFS), regional failure–free survival (RFFS), distant failure–free survival (DFFS), overall survival (OS), and progression–free survival (PFS) were 83.8%, 97.4%, 81.3%, 90%, and 69.7%, respectively. Acute and late toxicities were mild or moderate. Conclusions IMRT provides excellent local-regional control for T4 NPC. Distant metastasis remains the major cause of treatment failure. Further explorations of the sequence and regimen of systemic therapy are needed in the future.

The reduction of trial-to-trial variability (TTV) in task-evoked functional near-infrared spectroscopy signals by considering the correlated low-frequency spontaneous fluctuations that account for the resting-state functional connectivity in the brain is investigated. A resting-state session followed by a task-state session of a right hand finger-tapping task has been performed on five subjects. Significant ipsilateral and bilateral resting-state functional connectivity has been detected at the subjects' motor cortex using the seed correlation method. The correlation coefficients obtained during the resting-state are used to reduce the TTV in the signals measured during the task sessions. The results suggest that correlated spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations contribute significantly to the TTV in the task evoked fNIRS signals.

MicroRNAs can coordinately repress multiple target genes and interfere with the biological functions of the cell, such as proliferation and apoptosis. In the present study, we report that miR-200b was downregulated in malignant glioma cell lines and specimens. Overexpression of miR-200b suppressed the proliferation and colony formation of glioma cells. An oncogene encoding cAMP responsive element-binding protein 1 (CREB1), which has been shown to be an important transcription factor involved in the proliferation, survival, and metastasis of tumor cells, was here confirmed as a direct target gene of miR-200b. CREB1 was also found to be present at a high level in human glioma tissues. This was inversely correlated with miR-200b expression. Ectopic expression of CREB1 attenuated the growth suppressive phenotypes of glioma cells caused by miR-200b. These results indicate that miR-200b targets the CREB1 gene and suppresses glioma cell growth, suggesting that miR-200b shows tumor-suppressive activity in human malignant glioma.

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. The purpose of this study is to identify areas of neurodegeneration in glaucoma utilizing 3 T magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters with whole-brain voxel-based analysis (VBA) and determine whether these parameters correlate with disease severity.Twenty-five glaucoma patients and 25 age-matched healthy volunteers were prospectively examined. Clinical glaucoma severity was assessed utilizing static threshold visual field parameters. All subjects underwent 3 T MRI utilizing a DTI sequence (repetition time/echo time 13,000/68.9 ms, maximal b value 800 s/mm(2) along 30 directions) and an anatomic sequence to provide structural information. All data sets were processed by VBA. Brain fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD) were compared in the two groups. Correlation between DTI parameters and glaucoma stage were determined.The bilateral optic radiations and chiasma of glaucoma patients demonstrated statistically significantly lower fractional anisotropy (p 0.05). Optic radiation RD was similarly decreased in glaucoma patients (p 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences noted in MD or AD between the two groups (p 0.05). Optic chiasm fractional anisotropy values were negatively correlated with glaucoma stage (r = -0.53, p 0.05) and optic radiation RD values positively correlated (left r = 0.45, p 0.05; right = 0.38, p = 0.06).DTI parameters fractional anisotropy and RD are altered in the optic chiasm and radiations of glaucoma patients. As fractional anisotropy and RD also correlate with glaucoma stage, these values could serve as potential noninvasive markers of disease severity.

A phase II study was conducted to test the efficacy and toxicity of the combination of cisplatin, 5-Fu and nimotuzumab, as induction treatment of resectable head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Forty cases of resectable HNSCC were treated with nimotuzumab (400 mg on day 1) combined with PF regimens (cisplatin 75 mg/m² on days 1 and 5-Fu 750 mg/m² on days 1-5 q3wks). After 2 cycles, an organ-preservation local therapy (surgery or radiotherapy) was recommended. The primary endpoints of this study were overall response rate, pathologic complete response and safety of the induction treatment. Mean age of 40 patients was 54 years old, of them 9 patients with oropharyngeal cancer (22.5%), 16 hypopharyngeal cancer (40.0%), 10 laryngeal cancer (25.0%), and 5 oral cancer (12.5%).With a 2-cycle induction treatment, 34 (85.0%) patients achieved complete or partial response. Twenty-four patients (60.0%) got downstage, with T downstage in 21 (52.5%) patients and N downstage in 8 (20.0%) patients. Totally 27 patients got surgery after the induction treatment, of them 20 patients (74.1%) preserved organ functions. Four patients' primary tumors (10.0% in all 40 patients and 14.8% in operated 27 patients) showed pathologically complete responses. The toxicity was mild and manageable. The most common grade 3/4 toxicities were neutropenia (5.0%), nausea/vomiting (2.5%), stomatitis (2.5%) and thrombocytopenia (2.5%). One patient got grade 2 renal insufficiency and one patient got grade 1 skin rash.For resectable HNSCC, nimotuzumab plus PF regimen as induction treatment is highly effective for preserving the organ function and the toxicities are well tolerable.

Deception involves complex neural processes in the brain. Different techniques have been used to study and understand brain mechanisms during deception. Moreover, efforts have been made to develop schemes that can detect and differentiate deception and truth-telling. In this paper, a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based online brain deception decoding framework is developed. Deploying dual-wavelength fNIRS, we interrogate 16 locations in the forehead when eight able-bodied adults perform deception and truth-telling scenarios separately. By combining preprocessed oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin signals, we develop subject-specific classifiers using the support vector machine. Deception and truth-telling states are classified correctly in seven out of eight subjects. A control experiment is also conducted to verify the deception-related hemodynamic response. The average classification accuracy is over 83.44% from these seven subjects. The obtained result suggests that the applicability of fNIRS as a brain imaging technique for online deception detection is very promising.

Leishmaniasis remains endemic in China, especially in the west and northwest frontier regions in central Asia. Epidemic outbreaks of both visceral and cutaneous forms of the disease have become a serious concern in view of such events occurring in neighboring countries. In the present study, we have begun to characterize available parasites as an initial step in understanding the epidemiology of leishmaniasis in central Asia. Nineteen Leishmania isolates collected since the 1950s from epidemiologically different foci in China were separated into five genotypes (Groups I-V) based on their polymorphisms in both kinetoplast (kDNA) and nuclear (nDNA) DNAs. Both kDNA and nDNA are conserved in Group I, which consists of six isolates, i.e., five cases of human kala-azar and one case of canine leishmaniasis isolated from three distant foci more than 30 years apart. In contrast, both kDNA and nDNA are heterogeneous in Group II, consisting of 10 isolates scattered in the plain area from the eastern coast to the western desert. This group includes five kala-azar cases, one post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis case, two sand fly isolates, and two canine isolates. The remaining three groups (III-V), two from great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) and one from a kala-azar case, differ among themselves and from the aforementioned groups. Groups I, II/III, IV, and V contain isolates that have been recognized epidemiologically or typed isoenzymatically as L. donovani s.l., L. infantum s.l., L. turinica, and L. gerbilli, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)