Search

Increasing numbers of neuroimaging studies are acquiring data to examine changes in brain architecture by investigating intrinsic functional networks (IFN) from longitudinal resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). At the subject level, these IFNs are determined by cross-sectional procedures, which neglect intra-subject dependencies and result in suboptimal estimates of the networks. Here, a novel longitudinal approach simultaneously extracts subject-specific IFNs across multiple visits by explicitly modeling functional brain development as an essential context for seeking change. On data generated by an innovative simulation based on real rs-fMRI, the method was more accurate in estimating subject-specific IFNs than cross-sectional approaches. Furthermore, only group-analysis based on longitudinally consistent estimates identified significant developmental effects within IFNs of 246 adolescents from the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study. The findings were confirmed by the cross-sectional estimates when the corresponding group analysis was confined to the developmental effects. Those effects also converged with current concepts of neurodevelopment.

Aim. To analyze whether the change of laboratory tests (postoperative day 1 (POD1) minus pre-operation) could be predictive factors for postoperative infection in patients who have undergone McKeown esophagogastrectomy. Methods. We retrospectively investigated the clinical data of 358 patients who have undergone McKeown esophagogastrectomy, and divided them into infection and noninfection groups. SPSS 22.0 software was performed for data analysis. Results. In the two groups, smoking status (66.7% vs. 42.3%; P=0.014), male gender (86.1% vs. 72.0%; P<0.001), hoarseness (23.6% vs. 8.7%; P<0.001), poor coughing ability (51.4% vs. 9.1%; P<0.001), the change of WBC count (5.59 ± 4.75 × 109/L vs. 4.51 ± 4.11 × 109/L; P=0.05), the change of glucose (6.03 ± 3.97 g/L vs. 3.78 ± 3.18 g/L), the change of ALB (−12.83 ± 3.45 g/L vs. −10.69 ± 3.86 g/L), the change of CRE (0.17 ± 19.94 umol/L vs. −4.02 ± 15.40 umol/L, P=0.047) were significantly different. These factors were assessed using logistic regression analysis, and factors with P≤0.05 in the univariate analysis were entered into multivariate analysis based on the forward stepwise (conditional) method. Poor coughing ability (odds ratio [OR], 11.034, 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.358–22.724), smoking status (OR, 4.218; 95% CI, 2.110–8.431), the change of WBC count (OR, 1.079; 95% CI, 1.000–1.164), the change of serum ALB level (OR, 0.849; 95% CI, 0.772–0.935), and the change of blood glucose levels (OR, 1.237; 95% CI, 1.117–1.371) were determined as independent risk factors for postoperative infection. We established a scoring system based on these 5 factors, and the area under the curve for this predictive model was 0.843 (range, 0.793–0.894); the sensitivity, specificity, and cut-off score were 70.8%, 85.3%, and 2.500, respectively. Conclusion. Poor coughing ability, smoking habit, the high change of WBC and blood glucose levels, and low change of serum ALB levels can be used to predict the occurrence of postoperative infections among patients who have undergone McKeown esophagogastrectomy.

The marine bacterium Microbulbifer sp. A4B-17 produces secondary metabolites such as 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4HBA) and esters of 4HBA (parabens). 4HBA is a useful material in the synthesis of the liquid crystal. Parabens are man-made compounds that have been extensively used since the 1920s in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food industries for their effective antimicrobial activity. In this study, we completed the sequencing and annotation of the A4B-17 strain genome and found all genes for glucose utilization and 4HBA biosynthesis. Strain A4B-17 uses the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas (EMP), hexose monophosphate (HMP), and Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathways to utilize glucose. Other sugars such as fructose, sucrose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, mannitol, and glycerol supported cell growth and 4HBA synthesis. Reverse transcriptional analysis confirmed that the key genes involved in the glucose metabolism were functional. Paraben concentrations were proportionally increased by adding alcohols to the culture medium, indicating that strain A4B-17 synthesizes the 4HBA and the alcohols separately and an esterification reaction between them is responsible for the paraben synthesis. A gene that codes for a carboxylesterase was proposed to catalyze this reaction. The temperature and NaCl concentration for optimal growth were determined to be 35°C and 22.8 g/L.

The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of using hair as a long-term indicator of cocktail (low-dose β

The objective of the present study was to assess the accumulation of ractopamine (RAC) residues in hair of Chinese Simmental beef cattle following exposure to two doses of RAC for 28 days. Six male cattle were orally administered with RAC hydrochloride at a dose of 0.67 mg/kg body weight/day (low-dose group, n = 3) and 2.01 mg/kg body weight/day (high-dose group, n = 3). The results suggested that RAC was obviously accumulated in hair, with a concentration of 5.57 ± 0.66 ng/g (white hair) and 13.67 ± 2.73 ng/g (red hair) in the low-dose group on Day 1 of treatment, respectively. In red hair, the peak concentrations of RAC were 5619.38 ± 2156.84 ng/g (low-dose group) and 6908.3 ± 1177.62 ng/g (high-dose group) on Day 14 of treatment, and then decreased slowly. In white hair, the highest concentrations of RAC were 3387.38 ± 1620.87 ng/g (low-dose group) on Day 14 of withdraw and 9621.72 ± 1497.65 ng/g (high-dose group) on Day 28 of treatment. The concentration of RAC in old hair was higher than that in new hair. No significant differences in RAC concentrations were obtained among dosage, hair color and old versus new hair (P > 0.05). The results indicated that ractopamine is significantly accumulated in red and white hair of Chinese Simmental beef cattle, which can be used as a matrix to assess the presence of RAC residues.

Patients receiving thiazide diuretics have a higher risk of impaired glucose tolerance or even incident diabetes, but the change of blood glucose level varies across different trials. The aim of this study was to investigate the glycemic changes in hypertensive patients with thiazide‐type diuretics. Twenty‐six randomized trials involving 16,162 participants were included. Thiazide‐type diuretics were found to increase fasting plasma glucose (FPG) compared with nonthiazide agents or placebo or nontreatment (mean difference [MD], 0.27 mmol/L [4.86 mg/dL]; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15–0.39). Patients receiving lower doses of thiazides (hydrochlorothiazide or chlorthalidone ≤25 mg daily) had less change in FPG (MD, 0.15 mmol/L [2.7 mg/dL]; 95% CI, 0.03–0.27) than those receiving higher doses (MD, 0.60 mmol/L [10.8 mg/dL]; 95% CI, 0.39–0.82), revealed by the subgroup analysis of thiazides vs calcium channel blockers. Thiazide‐type diuretics are associated with significant but small adverse glycemic effects in hypertensive patients. Treatment with a lower dose might reduce or avoid glycemic changes.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary palygorskite supplementation on nutrient utilization in weaned piglets. Twenty-seven weaned piglets (age, 24 days; weight, 7.32±0.12 kg) were allocated to three treatment groups (n=9 each) and each pig was considered to be a replicate. The control group was fed a basal diet and the two palygorskite treatments groups were fed a basal diet supplemented with either 2000 or 3000 mg/kg palygorskite for 42 days. On days 21 and 42, blood samples were collected for measurement of serum biochemical parameters, and three piglets from each group were sacrificed to collect intestinal digesta to assess the activities of gastrointestinal tract digestive enzymes. Titanium dioxide was added to all diets at 0.3% and used as a marker to determine nutrient digestibility at the end of the trial. The feed/gain and diarrhea index were decreased in the 2000 mg/kg palygorskite group (P

Salbutamol, a selective β2-agonist, endangers the safety of animal products as a result of illegal use in food animals. In this study, an iTRAQ-based untargeted quantitative proteomic approach was applied to screen potential protein biomarkers in plasma of cattle before and after treatment with salbutamol for 21 days. A total of 62 plasma proteins were significantly affected by salbutamol treatment, which can be used as potential biomarkers to screen for the illegal use of salbutamol in beef cattle. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay measurements of five selected proteins demonstrated the reliability of iTRAQ-based proteomics in screening of candidate biomarkers among the plasma proteins. The plasma samples collected before and after salbutamol treatment were well-separated by principal component analysis (PCA) using the differentially expressed proteins. These results suggested that an iTRAQ-based untargeted quantitative proteomic strategy combined with PCA pattern recognition methods can discriminate dif...

To characterize the metabolic disorders of dairy cows treated with gossypol, 12 dairy cows were assigned to either a control group or a treatment group that was fed 1000 mg of gossypol per kilogram of dry matter feed for 28 days. Milk quality was adversely affected, as both milk protein and lactose levels were significantly decreased in the gossypol-treated group (3.40% vs 3.16%, P = 0.044; 5.15% vs 4.91%, P = 0.027; respectively). Plasma samples revealed increases in alanine aminotransferase (P = 0.092), choline esterase (P = 0.02), and glutathione transferase (P = 0.0005) and decreases in glucose (P = 0.076) in the gossypol-treated group. Mass spectrometry based comparative metabolomic analyses showed reduced concentrations of the gluconeogenesis precursor l-glutamine (P = 0.047), with significant decreases (P0.05) in plasma l-lysine, l-threonine, and homoserine levels after gossypol treatment. HDL-C and LDL-C levels in the gossypol-treated group were increased (P = 0.044) and decreased (P = 0.023), respectively. These results demonstrate that gossypol induced oxidative stress and hepatotoxicity; reduced peripheral lipid metabolism, and enhanced hepatic lipid accumulation; decreased amino acid bioavailability and milk protein synthesis; and decreased gluconeogenesis and milk lactose in dairy cows.

Group analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) metrics frequently employs generalized additive models (GAM) to remove contributions of confounding factors before identifying cohort specific characteristics. For example, the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) used such an approach to identify effects of alcohol misuse on the developing brain. Here, we hypothesized that considering confounding factors before group analysis removes information relevant for distinguishing adolescents with drinking history from those without. To test this hypothesis, we introduce a machine-learning model that identifies cohort-specific, neuromorphometric patterns by simultaneously training a GAM and generic classifier on macrostructural MRI and microstructural diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics and compare it to more traditional group analysis and machine-learning approaches. Using a baseline NCANDA MR dataset (N = 705), the proposed machine learning approach identified a pattern of eight brain regions unique to adolescents who misuse alcohol. Classifying high-drinking adolescents was more accurate with that pattern than using regions identified with alternative approaches. The findings of the joint model approach thus were (1) impartial to confounding factors; (2) relevant to drinking behaviors; and (3) in concurrence with the alcohol literature.

Goat milk samples of three lactation stages (colostrum, mature and late milk) were collected from three farms and analyzed with an untargeted method based on UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry and multivariate statistics. A total of 14 lipid subclasses and 756 lipid molecules were identified in samples. Five lipid subclasses and 51 lipid molecules in milk were significantly different among different geographical origins. Two lipid subclasses and 26 lipid molecules were significantly different among different lactation stages. Combined with the partial least squares discriminant analysis results of lipid molecules with a VIP value (Variable Importance in the projection) higher than 1, totally 38 and 19 lipid molecules could be used as potential indicators to identify geographical origins and lactation stages, respectively. Based on six and five selected molecules, the correct rates of discrimination models for geographical origin and lactation stage respectively reached 100% and 96%.

Dietary selenium deficiency is recognized as a global problem. Pork is the most widely consumed meat throughout the world and an important source of selenium for humans. In this study, a reliable approach was developed for analyzing selenium and its speciation in the muscles of pigs after different selenium treatments. The selenium source deposition efficiency was ranked as: selenomethionine > methylselenocysteine > selenite, and the muscle selenium content had a dose effect with selenomethionine supplementation. In total, four species of selenium were detected in the muscles of pigs and the distributions of these selenium species were greatly affected by the dietary selenium supplementation forms and levels. Selenomethionine (>70% of total selenium) and selenocystine (>11%) were the major selenium species, followed by methylselenocysteine and selenourea. Therefore, selenium-enriched pork produced from selenomethionine is a good source for improving human dietary selenium intake.

To explore the intervention effect of exoskeleton robot training on anxiety of stroke patients. Methods 24 stroke patients with hemiplegia were randomly divided into experimental group and control group, with 12 cases in each group. Moreover, the robot group took the walking training with UGO 210, a lower limb exoskeleton walking rehabilitation, once per day, 30 minutes per time, a total of 20 times of treatment. Before the trial and at the end of the trial cycle, patients’ emotions were assessed using the Self-rating Anxiety scale (SAS), and the efficacy of the two groups was compared. Results: The scores of anxiety scale decreased in both groups (P

The aim of this study was to evaluate the concentrations of clenbuterol residues in the red hair of Chinese Simmental beef cattle following exposure to two doses of clenbuterol for 21 days. This experiment was conducted in six male red pied Chinese Simmental beef cattle which were randomly divided into two groups (n = 3). Groups 1 and 2 were administered clenbuterol at a dose of 16 and 48 μg/kg body weight (BW)/day, respectively. Hair samples were collected on Days 7, 14 and 21 during treatment, and on Days 0, 14, 28, 42 and 70 after discontinuation of medication, using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method. About 500 mg hair samples spiked with 50 pg/mg D9-clenbuterol internal standard were analyzed with which the method recovery was from 88.6 to 116.9%. The results showed that clenbuterol was significantly accumulated in hair, with a concentration of 0.98 ± 0.56 pg/mg in Group 1 and 6.34 ± 3.21 pg/mg in Group 2 on Day 7 of treatment, and the residue concentrations increased as treatment proceeded. During the early withdrawal period, the residues increased from 13.52 ± 8.69 to 17.96 ± 6.94 pg/mg in Group 1 and from 55.15 ± 4.04 to 147.79 ± 15.35 pg/mg in Group 2. No significant differences were found in the later withdrawal period in both treatment groups. The results of the present study indicated that the red hair of Chinese Simmental beef cattle has high accumulation potential for clenbuterol residues. Hair, as a target matrix, even light-pigmented hair, can be used to monitor clenbuterol abuse over a long period.

Salbutamol, a selective β2-agonist, endangers the safety of animal products because of its illegal use in food animals. In this work, residues of salbutamol and its metabolites were investigated to select appropriate targets and marker residues for monitoring the illegal use of salbutamol. Ten metabolites of salbutamol were identified from plasma, urine, liver, and kidney samples; of these, six were newly identified. There were significant differences (P < 0.01) between the parent (nonconjugated) and total (conjugated + nonconjugated) salbutamol concentrations in plasma, urine, liver, and kidney tissues. Salbutamol residues in urine were relatively higher than those in plasma and other internal tissues during the dosing period and were rapidly eliminated from plasma, heart, spleen, and kidney tissues during the withdrawal time. Total salbutamol was identified as more preferable than parent salbutamol as a marker residue, and urine and eye tissues were found to be more suitable as targets for preslaughter and postslaughter monitoring of the illegal use of salbutamol in beef cattle.

Ractopamine was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use as a growth promoter on cattle a decade ago is still banned by the European Union and most Asian countries. While, ractopamine residues in living samples and some organs (besides liver, muscle and kidney) of cattle under the recommended feed condition (10-30 mg/kg in dry matter, 28-42 days) remains unclear. In this study, nine cattle (246.22 ± 18.17 kg) were fed 0.67 mg/kg body weight (equivalent to 30 mg/kg in dry matter) of ractopamine for 28 days to investigate the residues of ractopamine in plasma, urine and organs. Plasma and urine were sampled during treatment and withdrawal period. Three cattle were slaughtered on withdrawal days 0 and 3 for organs collection. Ractopamine was determined by LC-MS/MS and its glucuronide metabolites were identified by Q-TOF/MS. Ractopamine concentrations in plasma and urine reached highest on treatment day 14 (2.88 ng/mL) and day 7 (4713.25 ng/mL), respectively. On withdrawal day 28, ractopamine concentrations in plasma and urine and were undetectable (limit of quantitation, 0.2 ng/mL) and 4.21 ng/mL, respectively. On withdrawal day 0, ractopamine residue in tissues were as follows: liver > eye > lung > spleen > aqueous fluid > heart > bile > kidney > gluteus > rib eye muscle. Compared with those on withdrawal day 0, ractopamine contents in most tissues that sampled on withdrawal day 3 were lower (P

The scaffold protein CARMA1 is required for the TCR-induced lymphocyte activation. In this study, we show that CARMA1 also plays an essential role in T cell differentiation. We have found that the adoptive transfer of bone marrow cells expressing constitutively active CARMA1 results in lung inflammation, eosinophilia, and elevated levels of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10 in recipient mice. In contrast, CARMA1-deficient T cells are defective in TCR-induced expression of Th2 cytokines, suggesting that CARMA1 preferentially directs Th2 differentiation. The impaired cytokine production is due to reduced expression of JunB and GATA3 transcription factors. CARMA1 deficiency affects JunB stability resulting in its enhanced ubiquitination and degradation. In contrast, TCR-dependent induction of GATA3 is suppressed at the transcriptional level. We also found that supplementation with IL-4 partially restored GATA3 expression in CARMA1-deficient CD4+ splenocytes and subsequently production of GATA3-dependent cytokines IL-5 and IL-13. Therefore, our work provides the mechanism by which CARMA1 regulates Th2 cell differentiation.

In this paper, a novel hierarchical ZSM-5 microsphere (simplified as ZSM-5-MS hereafter) of about 3 μm, which is assembled by many French fries-like crystals (in shape of French fries) of about 100 nm in width, was synthesized by using SBA-15 as the silica source. ZSM-5-MS exhibited a unique geometrical shape which was entirely distinct from the conventional MFI shape. The N 2 adsorption isotherm suggested that the ZSM-5-MS had a uniform mesopores of 15 nm with a tail up to 45 nm. The ZSM-5-MS was modified to form a Mo/HZSM-5-MS catalyst which exhibited good catalytic performance in methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) due to the presence of both micropores and mesopores. A time trial study was carried out by SEM, XRD and TEM analysis for the insight into the growth of the obtained ZSM-5-MS. A growth model via self-assembly combined with crystallization process was proposed based on the time trial observations. The demonstrated route may be extended to synthesize other types of zeolites with unusual structure and properties.

MFI membrane with high permeance was successfully synthesized on the macroporous (pore size of 3–4 μm) α-Al 2 O 3 tubular support with a novel modified secondary growth method. Before the crystallization, the seeded support was wrapped with Teflon tape in order to focalize the growth of crystals in the region of seed layer. The as-synthesized membrane was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and single-gas permeation testing. The results indicated that the as-synthesized membrane had a thickness of 6–8 μm similar to the thickness of the seed layer and exhibited high gas permeance. At room temperature, the permeance of H 2 and the ideal separation factor of H 2 /SF 6 reached 1.64 × 10 −6 mol m −2 s −1 Pa −1 and 71, respectively. The permeance of single-gas increased with the increasing of temperature. The ideal separation factors of H 2 / i -C 4 H 10 and H 2 /SF 6 decreased with the increasing of temperature from 298 to 473 K. At 473 K, the ideal separation factors of H 2 / i -C 4 H 10 and H 2 /SF 6 were 12.16 and 11.08, which were still higher than their Knudsen ratios of 5.39 and 8.54, respectively.

To investigate the dynamic variation of subsets of myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and their ratio in septic mice, and to discuss their role in the development of sepsis.Male C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into sepsis model group and sham group according to random number table. Polymicrobial sepsis was induced by using cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), while mice in sham group only underwent laparotomy and laparorrhaphy without CLP. Thirty mice in each group were used to observe living condition, and the 20-day survival rate was compared between the two groups. In addition, subsets of MDSC in peripheral blood, spleen and bone marrow were analyzed with flow cytometry for other 60 mice (12 mice at each time point, as 0, 3, 7, 12 and 20 days). Spleens were harvested at 7 days for weighing, and single cell suspension of spleen tissue was prepared for splenocyte counting. Histopathologic changes in spleen tissue and liver tissue were observed under light microscope after hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stain.(1) No mice died in sham group within 20 days after the operation. On the other hand, 10 mice in model group died within 20 days, and the difference in survival rate between the two groups was statistically significant (100.0% vs. 66.7%, χ(2) = 11.861, P = 0.001). (2) The spleens in model group showed obvious enlargement and significantly outweighed as compared with those in sham group (mg: 413.33±41.63 vs. 111.67±17.56, t = 11.564, P = 0.000), and the total count of splenocytes was significantly higher than that in sham group (×10(9)/L: 21.20±2.43 vs. 1.87±0.06, t = 13.578, P = 0.005). (3) Pathological sections with HE staining showed that the liver tissue and spleen tissue remained normal in sham group. In model group, the hepatic tissue showed acute inflammatory reaction, including tissue disruption, capillary congestion, infiltration of neutrophils, marked edema of hepatocytes and focal hepatocellular necrosis. Abnormalities were also found in the spleen tissue: the red pulp and white pulp were disordered, splenic sinus was congested with numerous red cells, the splenic capsule thickened, immature myeloid cells with circular nuclei proliferated in the subcapsular region and perivascular region, splenic cord and splenic sinus were infiltrated with a large number of hematopoietic cells. (4) No significant changes in the monocytic MDSC (M-MDSC) and granulocytic MDSC (G-MDSC), and their ratio were found in peripheral blood, spleen and bone marrow at every time point in sham group. On the other hand, in model group, the ratio of M-MDSC and G-MDSC was continuously increased in peripheral blood, spleen and bone marrow, and M-MDSC only slightly decreased at 20 days. On the other hand, the ratio of M-MDSC/G-MDSC rose at first followed by a decrease. The ratio of M-MDSC/G-MDSC in peripheral blood was higher than 1 from 3 days after the operation, reaching the peak at 12 days (compared with 0 day: 4.16±0.53 vs. 0.79±0.11, P0.05), while the ratio of M-MDSC/G-MDSC in spleen and bone marrow after CLP were lower than 1 at all time points, reaching the peak on 7 days after the operation (compared with 0 day: 0.70±0.06 vs. 0.25±0.02 in spleen, 0.39±0.06 vs. 0.11±0.01 in bone marrow, both P0.05), and then gradually decreased afterwards.Subgroups of MDSCs were continuously aggregated in the peripheral blood, spleen and bone marrow, and their ratio rose first and decreased afterwards along with the development of sepsis, and the changes may reflect the change of immune status at different stages of sepsis.

This study measured the concentrations of salbutamol residues in red and white hair of cattle during and after salbutamol administration. Three Chinese Simmental beef cattle received an oral administration of 150 μg/kg body weight/d salbutamol for 21 consecutive days. Salbutamol concentrations were determined on Days 1, 7, 14, and 21 of administration and on Days 7, 14, 28, 42, and 70 following the last administration dose using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The concentrations of salbutamol that eluted from hair were determined. The results revealed that salbutamol concentrations were higher in red hair than in white hair on the same sampling day (P < 0.01). In red hair, salbutamol concentrations increased from 29.82 ± 1.8 ng/g on Day 1 of administration to 442.55 ± 250.29 ng/g on Day 21 of administration, and decreased to 33.36 ± 19.22 ng/g on Day 70 after the last administration. In white hair, salbutamol concentrations changed from 4.25 ± 0.32 ng/g on Day 1 of administration to 33.81 ± 6.44 ng/g and 12.25 ± 2.51 ng/g on Days 14 and 70, respectively, after the last administration. The concentrations of salbutamol that eluted from white hair on Days 1 and 7 were 22.94 ± 2.00 ng/g and 92.94 ± 22.49 ng/g, respectively. Our findings revealed that hair is an appropriate biological matrix for assessing the illegal use of salbutamol in animal husbandry.

Endoscopy enables high resolution visualization of tissue texture and is a critical step in many clinical workflows, including diagnosis and radiation therapy treatment planning for cancers in the nasopharynx. However, an endoscopic video does not provide explicit 3D spatial information, making it difficult to use in tumor localization, and it is inefficient to review. We introduce a pipeline for automatically reconstructing a textured 3D surface model, which we call an endoscopogram, from multiple 2D endoscopic video frames. Our pipeline first reconstructs a partial 3D surface model for each input individual 2D frame. In the next step (which is the focus of this paper), we generate a single high-quality 3D surface model using a groupwise registration approach that fuses multiple, partially overlapping, incomplete, and deformed surface models together. We generate endoscopograms from synthetic, phantom, and patient data and show that our registration approach can account for tissue deformations and reconstruction inconsistency across endoscopic video frames.

This review was undertaken to assess the effects of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors on blood pressure (BP) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). We searched three main databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus) for relevant articles. Randomized controlled trials which reported BP changes from baseline to study endpoint in patients with T2DM receiving treatment of DPP-4 inhibitors were included for analysis. Random effects models were used to measure the mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Fifteen trials involving 5636 participants were identified. When compared with placebo or nontreatment, DPP-4 inhibitors achieved greater reductions for both SBP (mean difference, -3.04 mmHg; 95% CI, -4.37 to -1.72; P

Male hamsters were fed one of the following three diets for 6 weeks (n = 15): normal-fat diet (NFD), high-fat diet (HFD), or HFD + 2 g/kg genistein; the effects of dietary genistein on hyperlipidemia were investigated using traditional and (1)H NMR metabonomic approaches. At 6 weeks, compared with the hamsters in the NFD group, those in the HFD group had higher plasma and liver lipids (P < 0.05). Hyperlipidemia was alleviated in the genistein group, with lower plasma cholesterol (9.11 ± 0.40 vs 12.4 ± 0.37 mmol/L), triglyceride (8.07 ± 1.08 vs 14.7 ± 1.18 mmol/L), LDL cholesterol (2.69 ± 0.20 vs 4.48 ± 0.27 mmol/L), malondialdehyde (7.77 ± 1.64 vs 14.0 ± 1.15 μmol/L), and liver cholesterol (20.9 ± 1.01 vs 29.9 ± 2.76 μmol/g) than those in the HFD group (P < 0.05). Expression of hepatic LDL receptor and estrogen receptors α and β mRNA in the genistein group were significantly up-regulated, compared with those of the HFD group (P < 0.05). In the (1)H NMR metabonomic analysis, both the small and macromolecular plasma metabolite profiles differed among the three groups, and the metabolic profile of the genistein group was shifted toward that of the NFD group. These results extend our understanding of the beneficial effects of genistein on hyperlipidemia.

Fusion between an endoscopic movie and a CT can aid specifying the tumor target volume for radiotherapy. That requires a deformable pharyngeal surface registration between a 3D endoscope reconstruction and a CT segmentation. In this paper, we propose to use local geometric features for deriving a set of initial correspondences between two surfaces, with which an association graph can be constructed for registration by spectral graph matching. We also define a new similarity measurement to provide a meaningful way for computing inter-surface affinities in the association graph. Our registration method can deal with large non-rigid anatomical deformation, as well as missing data and topology change. We tested the robustness of our method with synthetic deformations and showed registration results on real data.

Objectives To investigate the current situation and analyze the associated factors of withdrawing or withholding life support in the intensive care unit (ICU) of our cancer center. Methods Three hundred and twenty-two cancer patients in critical status were admitted to our ICU in 2010 and 2011. They were included in the study and were classified into two groups: withdrawing or withholding life support (WWLS), and full life support (FLS). Demographic information and clinical data were collected and compared between the two groups. Factors associated with withdrawing or withholding life support were analyzed with univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results Eighty-two of the 322 cases (25.5% of all) made the decisions to withdraw or withhold life support. Emergency or critical condition at hospital admission, higher scores of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) in 12 hours after ICU admission, financial difficulties and humanistic care requirements are important factors associated with withdrawing or withholding life support. Conclusions Withdrawing or withholding life support is not uncommon in critically ill cancer patients in China. Characteristics and associated factors of the decision-making are related to the current medical system, medical resources and traditional culture of the country.

The objective of this study was to investigate ractopamine residues in urine, plasma and hair of cattle during and after treatment. Three cattle (body weight = 620 ± 6.2 kg) were administered ractopamine (2.01 mg/kg body weight) into the rumen for 5 consecutive days. Ractopamine concentrations in samples were determined by an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS-MS) method. The concentrations of parent ractopamine in urine were 1,631.1 ng/mL on withdrawal day 0 and 8.3 ng/mL on withdrawal day 14. After hydrolysis of its conjugates, ractopamine concentration ranged from 11,796.7 ng/mL (withdrawal day 0) to 39.7 ng/mL (withdrawal day 14). In plasma, parent ractopamine and its conjugates were below the limits of quantification (LOQ = 0.2 ng/mL) on withdrawal days 5 and 7. Accumulation of ractopamine in black and white hair was 124.6 and 78.1 ng/g, respectively, on withdrawal day 0, and 226.7 and 165.6 ng/g, respectively, on withdrawal day 14. This study demonstrated the rapid elimination and high bioavailability of ractopamine in urine and plasma in cattle. However, accumulation of ractopamine in cattle's hair is high and persistent, so hair can be used as the target matrix for monitoring ractopamine abuse in ruminants.

In image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) of disease sites subject to respiratory motion, soft tissue deformations can affect localization accuracy. We describe the application of a method of 2D/3D deformable registration to soft tissue localization in abdomen. The method, called registration efficiency and accuracy through learning a metric on shape (REALMS), is designed to support real-time IGRT. In a previously developed version of REALMS, the method interpolated 3D deformation parameters for any credible deformation in a deformation space using a single globally-trained Riemannian metric for each parameter. We propose a refinement of the method in which the metric is trained over a particular region of the deformation space, such that interpolation accuracy within that region is improved. We report on the application of the proposed algorithm to IGRT in abdominal disease sites, which is more challenging than in lung because of low intensity contrast and nonrespiratory deformation. We introduce a rigid translation vector to compensate for nonrespiratory deformation, and design a special region-of-interest around fiducial markers implanted near the tumor to produce a more reliable registration. Both synthetic data and actual data tests on abdominal datasets show that the localized approach achieves more accurate 2D/3D deformable registration than the global approach.

The present paper shows that for any sequence of nonnegative numbers {λm} with, infinitely many distinct elements, the rational combinations of\(\left\{ {X^{\lambda _n } } \right\}\) form a dense set (in the uniform norm on the positive axis) in the space of continuous fuctions f on [0,∞) with\(\mathop {\lim }\limits_{x \to \infty } f\left( x \right) = f\left( 0 \right)\). The last condition can be removed when {λm} has an infinity cluster point.

The human multidrug resistance 1 gene (MDR1) is an important candidate gene influencing the susceptibility to various diseases, including breast cancer. The object of this study was to investigate on MDR1 gene polymorphisms and its relationship with the susceptibility to breast cancer. A total of 271 patients with breast cancer and 225 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Data about the risk factors for breast cancer were collected using questionnaires. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and DNA sequencing methods were used to investigate the c.3073AC polymorphisms. We observed no significant differences in the allelic and genotypic frequencies of c.3073AC polymorphisms between patients and control subjects. Furthermore, there were no significant differences about the distribution of the breast cancer patients' risk factors among AA, AC and CC genotype. Results from this study suggested that c.3073AC polymorphism was not associated with the susceptibility to breast cancer in the studied population. Future studies evaluating the association between c.3073AC variant and breast cancer risks are essential to reach to more reliable results on larger populations.

In this paper, we design the teleoperated mobile manipulators and build a system where they are able to cooperate with multiple users. The 6-DOF mobile manipulator with 6 joints, 1 microphone, 2 cameras and 2 wheels has a broad workspace and flexible mechanical arms as well as can see and hear. First, the structure of teleoperated mobile manipulator is provided and the motion control of it is introduced. Further, the collaboratively-teleoperated mobile manipulator is implemented which is also the goal of our research. Based on the network platform with Users-Server-Robots mode, both commands transport and multimedia data transport are realized. Therefore, controllers could obtain the real-time remote state information of manipulators which is called vision sharing, and send the control commands in time to them as feedback. Finally, several experiments are carried out with the actual mobile manipulator in our lab, which later has achieved the expected result.