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Objective To understand the current status of application of depth of anesthesia (DoA) monitors used by anesthesiologists in China and evaluated its validity. Methods Chinese anesthesiologists who have been licensed as medical practitioners were selected as the research objects. A nationwide online survey was carried out by sending a WeChat survey form to 12 750 anesthesiologists during July and September 2020, and the data of DoA monitor usage and effectiveness were collected. Finally, 4 037 valid questionnaires were obtained. The survey data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 software. The data were expressed as proportions with 95% confidence interval (CI), and Chi-square test was conducted for statistical analysis. Results ① Only 9.1% of anesthesiologists routinely used DoA monitors in clinical anesthesia. Anesthesiologists in teaching hospitals [proportion of very familiar: 30.3% (28.3%~32.3%)] and grade-A tertiary hospitals [proportion of very familiar: 28.8% (27.1%~30.6%)] were more familiar with DoA monitors than those in non-teaching hospitals [proportion of very familiar: 14.8% (13.2%~16.4%)] and non-grade-A tertiary hospitals [proportion of very familiar: 11.8% (10.1%~13.5%)], respectively. Among the participants, 65.4% of them considered that the 3 electroencephalogram parameters of DoA monitors were equally important, with the proportion of anesthesiologists in teaching hospitals [66.7%(64.7%~68.7%)] higher than that in non-teaching hospitals [64.1%(62.0%~66.2%)], though no statistical difference due to 95%CI overlapping. ② 96.5% of anesthesiologists believed that the DoA monitors could effectively monitor DoA. However, there was no significant difference in anesthesiologists' evaluation of the effectiveness of different DoA monitors. ③ Anesthesiologists with different titles believed that DoA monitors were indispensable for different general anesthesia methods, but statistical difference was seen in whether DoA monitors were required for general anesthesia preserving spontaneous respiration (P < 0.05). Conclusion The usage of DoA monitors in China is quite low. Different types of DoA monitors are effective for DoA monitoring and suitable for different general anesthesia methods, which are worthy of clinical application.

A homozygous mutation of the DNAJC6 gene causes autosomal recessive familial type 19 of Parkinson's disease (PARK19). To test the hypothesis that PARK19 DNAJC6 mutations induce the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic cells by reducing the protein expression of functional DNAJC6 and causing DNAJC6 paucity, an in vitro PARK19 model was constructed by using shRNA-mediated gene silencing of endogenous DANJC6 in differentiated human SH-SY5Y dopaminergic neurons. shRNA targeting DNAJC6 induced the neurodegeneration of dopaminergic cells. DNAJC6 paucity reduced the level of cytosolic clathrin heavy chain and the number of lysosomes in dopaminergic neurons. A DNAJC6 paucity-induced reduction in the lysosomal number downregulated the protein level of lysosomal protease cathepsin D and impaired macroautophagy, resulting in the upregulation of pathologic α-synuclein or phospho-α-synucleinSer129 in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. The expression of α-synuclein shRNA or cathepsin D blocked the DNAJC6 deficiency-evoked degeneration of dopaminergic cells. An increase in ER α-synuclein or phospho-α-synucleinSer129 caused by DNAJC6 paucity activated ER stress, the unfolded protein response and ER stress-triggered apoptotic signaling. The lack of DNAJC6-induced upregulation of mitochondrial α-synuclein depolarized the mitochondrial membrane potential and elevated the mitochondrial level of superoxide. The DNAJC6 paucity-evoked ER stress-related apoptotic cascade, mitochondrial malfunction and oxidative stress induced the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons via activating mitochondrial pro-apoptotic signaling. In contrast with the neuroprotective function of WT DNAJC6, the PARK19 DNAJC6 mutants (Q789X or R927G) failed to attenuate the tunicamycin- or rotenone-induced upregulation of pathologic α-synuclein and stimulation of apoptotic signaling. Our data suggest that PARK19 mutation-induced DNAJC6 paucity causes the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons via downregulating protease cathepsin D and upregulating neurotoxic α-synuclein. Our results also indicate that PARK19 mutation (Q789X or R927G) impairs the DNAJC6-mediated neuroprotective function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I offer some reasons for the theory that, compared with human beings, non-human animals have some but lesser intrinsic value. On the basis of this theory, I first argue that we do not know how to compare an animal's claim to be free from a more serious type of harm (e.g., death), and a human's claim to be free from some lesser type of harm (e.g., non-fatal morbidity). For we need to take account of these parties' intrinsic value, and their competing types of claim. Yet, there exists no known way for making such comparison, when a human's intrinsic value is higher than that of an animal, whereas the type of claim an animal has is morally weightier than the type of claim a human has. Second, I explain why utilitarianism is unhelpful in making such comparison. Third, in the case where some animals can be sacrificed for saving a larger number of humans, it is crucial to ask whether animals have the right to life, and I argue that this question is more perplexing than we might think. My conclusion is that the various difficulties mentioned above have a deeper source than we have so far acknowledged, and that this reflects that the moral reality is less tidy and more complex than many theories portray. Keywords: animal research, animal rights, undecidability, inter-species comparison of utility, intrinsic value, moral status, non-vegetarianism, preference utilitarianism

Predicate detection is made complicated because of the topology of the communication pattern of the distributed computations and the properties of the predicates. This coupling is investigated, and it is shown that when appropriate constraints are imposed, efficient, elegant detection algorithms can be obtained.

A shape matching technique based on the straight line Hough transform (SLHT) is presented. In the theta-rho space, the transform can be expressed as the sum of two terms, namely, the translation term and the intrinsic term. This formulation allows the translation, rotation, and intrinsic parameters of the curve be easily decoupled. A shape signature, called the scalable translation invariant rotation-to-shifting (STIRS) signature, is obtained from the theta-rho space by computing the distances between pairs of points having the same theta value. This is equivalent to computing the perpendicular distances between pairs of parallel tangents to the curves. This signature has the following properties: 1) It is invariant to translation; 2) rotation in the image space corresponds to circular shifting of the signature; 3) the signature can be easily normalized. Matching two signatures only amounts to computing a 1-D correlation. The height and location of a peak (if it exists) indicates the similarity and orientation of the test object with respect to the reference object. Knowing the orientation, the location of the test object is obtained by an inverse transform (voting) from the theta-rho space to the x-y plane. Examples demonstrating the feasibility of these techniques are presented. The shape matching technique assumes that the shape is characterized by its set of tangent lines. It is proved, based on curve reconstruction, that a continuous closed smooth curve is indeed uniquely characterized by its complete set of tangents. This result serves as the theoretical foundation of the shape recognition methodology based on SLHT.