Sources and distributions of microplastics and the hazards to plants, animals and human health:A review.

The increases in plastic production and inadequate plastic waste management have significantly increased the presence of microplastics (MPs) in the environment. MPs refer to plastic fragments and particles with a size smaller than 5 millimeters. Numerous studies have focused on the impacts of MPs on the environment and living organisms, and explored the potential mechanisms. Humans and other organisms can ingest or carry MPs through various pathways, which have a range of adverse effects on metabolism, functionality, and health. Additionally, due to their larger surface area, MPs could adsorb various pollutants, including heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants, severely affecting the health of animals and humans. Based on research on MPs in recent years, we reviewed the sources and distribution of MPs, examined exposure pathways, toxic effects, and toxicological mechanisms on plants, animals, and human bodies, and provided a prospective outlook on future directions for MP research. This review would be a reference for further assessments of the health risks of MPs.

A novel acupuncture technique at the Zusanli point based on virtual reality and EEG: a pilot study.

Introduction: Acupuncture is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) method that achieves therapeutic effects through the interaction of neurotransmitters and neural regulation. It is generally carried out manually, making the related process expert-biased. Meanwhile, the neural stimulation effect of acupuncture is difficult to track objectively. In recent years, virtual reality (VR) in medicine has been on the fast lane to widespread use, especially in therapeutic stimulation. However, the use of related technologies in acupuncture has not been reported. Methods: In this work, a novel acupuncture stimulation technique using VR is proposed. To track the stimulation effect, the electroencephalogram (EEG) is used as the marker to validate brain activities under acupuncture. Results and discussion: After statistically analyzing the data of 24 subjects during acupuncture at the "Zusanli (ST36)" acupoint, it has been determined that Virtual Acupuncture (VA) has at least a 63.54% probability of inducing similar EEG activities as in Manual Acupuncture (MA). This work may provide a new solution for researchers and clinical practitioners using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) in acupuncture.

Behavioral observation and assessment protocol for language and social-emotional development study in children aged 0-6: the Chinese baby connectome project.

BACKGROUND: The global rise in developmental delays underscores the critical need for a thorough understanding and timely interventions during early childhood. Addressing this issue, the Chinese Baby Connectome Project (CBCP)'s behavior branch is dedicated to examining language acquisition, social-emotional development, and environmental factors affecting Chinese children. The research framework is built around three primary objectives: developing a 0-6 Child Development Assessment Toolkit, implementing an Intelligent Coding System, and investigating environmental influence. METHODS: Utilizing an accelerated longitudinal design, the CBCP aims to enlist a minimum of 1000 typically developing Chinese children aged 0-6. The data collected in this branch constitutes parental questionnaires, behavioral assessments, and observational experiments to capture their developmental milestones and environmental influences holistically. The parental questionnaires will gauge children's developmental levels in language and social-emotional domains, alongside parental mental well-being, life events, parenting stress, parenting styles, and family relationships. Behavioral assessments will involve neurofunctional developmental evaluations using tools such as the Griffiths Development Scales and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Additionally, the assessments will encompass measuring children's executive functions (e.g., Head-Toe-Knee-Shoulder), social cognitive abilities (e.g., theory of mind), and language development (e.g., Early Chinese Vocabulary Test). A series of behavior observation. experiments will be conducted targeting children of different age groups, focusing primarily on aspects such as behavioral inhibition, compliance, self-control, and social-emotional regulation. To achieve the objectives, established international questionnaires will be adapted to suit local contexts and devise customized metrics for evaluating children's language and social-emotional development; deep learning algorithms will be developed in the observational experiments to enable automated behavioral analysis; and statistical models will be built to factor in various environmental variables to comprehensively outline developmental trajectories and relationships. DISCUSSION: This study's integration of diverse assessments and AI technology will offer a detailed analysis of early childhood development in China, particularly in the realms of language acquisition and social-emotional skills. The development of a comprehensive assessment toolkit and coding system will enhance our ability to understand and support the development of Chinese children, contributing significantly to the field of early childhood development research. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov NCT05040542 on September 10, 2021.

An automatic diagnosis model of otitis media with high accuracy rate using transfer learning.

Introduction: Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media (CSOM) and Middle Ear Cholesteatoma are two common chronic otitis media diseases that often cause confusion among physicians due to their similar location and shape in clinical CT images of the internal auditory canal. In this study, we utilized the transfer learning method combined with CT scans of the internal auditory canal to achieve accurate lesion segmentation and automatic diagnosis for patients with CSOM and middle ear cholesteatoma. Methods: We collected 1019 CT scan images and utilized the nnUnet skeleton model along with coarse grained focal segmentation labeling to pre-train on the above CT images for focal segmentation. We then fine-tuned the pre-training model for the downstream three-classification diagnosis task. Results: Our proposed algorithm model achieved a classification accuracy of 92.33% for CSOM and middle ear cholesteatoma, which is approximately 5% higher than the benchmark model. Moreover, our upstream segmentation task training resulted in a mean Intersection of Union (mIoU) of 0.569. Discussion: Our results demonstrate that using coarse-grained contour boundary labeling can significantly enhance the accuracy of downstream classification tasks. The combination of deep learning and automatic diagnosis of CSOM and internal auditory canal CT images of middle ear cholesteatoma exhibits high sensitivity and specificity.

Automatic interictal epileptiform discharge (IED) detection based on convolutional neural network (CNN).

Clinical diagnosis of epilepsy significantly relies on identifying interictal epileptiform discharge (IED) in electroencephalogram (EEG). IED is generally interpreted manually, and the related process is very time-consuming. Meanwhile, the process is expert-biased, which can easily lead to missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis. In recent years, with the development of deep learning, related algorithms have been used in automatic EEG analysis, but there are still few attempts in IED detection. This study uses the currently most popular convolutional neural network (CNN) framework for EEG analysis for automatic IED detection. The research topic is transferred into a 4-labels classification problem. The algorithm is validated on the long-term EEG of 11 pediatric patients with epilepsy. The computational results confirm that the CNN-based model can obtain high classification accuracy, up to 87%. The study may provide a reference for the future application of deep learning in automatic IED detection.

Transformer-Based High-Frequency Oscillation Signal Detection on Magnetoencephalography From Epileptic Patients.

High-frequency oscillations (HFOs), observed within 80-500 Hz of magnetoencephalography (MEG) data, are putative biomarkers to localize epileptogenic zones that are critical for the success of surgical epilepsy treatment. It is crucial to accurately detect HFOs for improving the surgical outcome of patients with epilepsy. However, in clinical practices, detecting HFOs in MEG signals mainly depends on visual inspection by clinicians, which is very time-consuming, labor-intensive, subjective, and error-prone. To accurately and automatically detect HFOs, machine learning approaches have been developed and have demonstrated the promising results of automated HFO detection. More recently, the transformer-based model has attracted wide attention and achieved state-of-the-art performance on many machine learning tasks. In this paper, we are investigating the suitability of transformer-based models on the detection of HFOs. Specifically, we propose a transformer-based HFO detection framework for biomedical MEG one-dimensional signal data. For signal classification, we develop a transformer-based HFO (TransHFO) classification model. Then, we investigate the relationship between depth of deep learning models and classification performance. The experimental results show that the proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art HFO classifiers, increasing classification accuracy by 7%. Furthermore, we find that shallow TransHFO ( < 10 layers) outperforms deep TransHFO models (≥10 layers) on most data augmented factors.

A multi-head self-attention deep learning approach for detection and recommendation of neuromagnetic high frequency oscillations in epilepsy.

Magnetoencephalography is a noninvasive neuromagnetic technology to record epileptic activities for the pre-operative localization of epileptogenic zones, which has received increasing attention in the diagnosis and surgery of epilepsy. As reported by recent studies, pathological high frequency oscillations (HFOs), when utilized as a biomarker to localize the epileptogenic zones, result in a significant reduction in seizure frequency, even seizure elimination in around 80% of cases. Thus, objective, rapid, and automatic detection and recommendation of HFOs are highly desirable for clinicians to alleviate the burden of reviewing a large amount of MEG data from a given patient. Despite the advantage, the performance of existing HFOs rarely satisfies the clinical requirement. Consequently, no HFOs have been successfully applied to real clinical applications so far. In this work, we propose a multi-head self-attention-based detector for recommendation, termed MSADR, to detect and recommend HFO signals. Taking advantage of the state-of-the-art multi-head self-attention mechanism in deep learning, the proposed MSADR achieves a more superior accuracy of 88.6% than peer machine learning models in both detection and recommendation tasks. In addition, the robustness of MSADR is also extensively assessed with various ablation tests, results of which further demonstrate the effectiveness and generalizability of the proposed approach.

Detecting High Frequency Oscillations for Stereoelectroencephalography in Epilepsy via Hypergraph Learning.

Successful epilepsy surgeries depend highly on pre-operative localization of epileptogenic zones. Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) records interictal and ictal activities of the epilepsy in order to precisely find and localize epileptogenic zones in clinical practice. While it is difficult to find distinct ictal onset patterns generated the seizure onset zone from SEEG recordings in a confined region, high frequency oscillations are commonly considered as putative biomarkers for the identification of epileptogenic zones. Therefore, automatic and accurate detection of high frequency oscillations in SEEG signals is crucial for timely clinical evaluation. This work formulates the detection of high frequency oscillations as a signal segment classification problem and develops a hypergraph-based detector to automatically detect high frequency oscillations such that human experts can visually review SEEG signals. We evaluated our method on 4,000 signal segments from clinical SEEG recordings that contain both ictal and interictal data obtained from 19 patients who suffer from refractory focal epilepsy. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed detector that can successfully localize interictal high frequency oscillations and outperforms multiple peer machine learning methods. In particular, the proposed detector achieved 90.7% in accuracy, 80.9% in sensitivity, and 96.9% in specificity.

Automatic and Accurate Epilepsy Ripple and Fast Ripple Detection via Virtual Sample Generation and Attention Neural Networks.

About 1% of the population around the world suffers from epilepsy. The success of epilepsy surgery depends critically on pre-operative localization of epileptogenic zones. High frequency oscillations including ripples (80-250 Hz) and fast ripples (250-500 Hz) are commonly used as biomarkers to localize epileptogenic zones. Recent literature demonstrated that fast ripples indicate epileptogenic zones better than ripples. Thus, it is crucial to accurately detect fast ripples from ripples signals of magnetoencephalography for improving outcome of epilepsy surgery. This paper proposes an automatic and accurate ripple and fast ripple detection method that employs virtual sample generation and neural networks with an attention mechanism. We evaluate our proposed detector on patient data with 50 ripples and 50 fast ripples labeled by two experts. The experimental results show that our new detector outperforms multiple traditional machine learning models. In particular, our method can achieve a mean accuracy of 89.3% and an average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.88 in 50 repeats of random subsampling validation. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of virtual sample generation, attention mechanism, and architecture of neural network models.

Multi-Head Self-Attention Model for Classification of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Subtypes.

As a long-standing chronic disease, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE), resulting from abnormal discharges of neurons and characterized by recurrent episodic central nervous system dysfunctions, has affected more than 70% of drug-resistant epilepsy patients across the world. As the etiology and clinical symptoms are complicated, differential diagnosis of TLE mainly relies on experienced clinicians, and specific diagnostic biomarkers remain unclear. Though great effort has been made regarding the genetics, pathology, and neuroimaging of TLE, an accurate and effective diagnosis of TLE, especially the TLE subtypes, remains an open problem. It is of a great importance to explore the brain network of TLE, since it can provide the basis for diagnoses and treatments of TLE. To this end, in this paper, we proposed a multi-head self-attention model (MSAM). By integrating the self-attention mechanism and multilayer perceptron method, the MSAM offers a promising tool to enhance the classification of TLE subtypes. In comparison with other approaches, including convolutional neural network (CNN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF), experimental results on our collected MEG dataset show that the MSAM achieves a supreme performance of 83.6% on accuracy, 90.9% on recall, 90.7% on precision, and 83.4% on F1-score, which outperforms its counterparts. Furthermore, effectiveness of varying head numbers of multi-head self-attention is assessed, which helps select the optimal number of multi-head. The self-attention aspect learns the weights of different signal locations which can effectively improve classification accuracy. In addition, the robustness of MSAM is extensively assessed with various ablation tests, which demonstrates the effectiveness and generalizability of the proposed approach.

A Stacked Sparse Autoencoder-Based Detector for Automatic Identification of Neuromagnetic High Frequency Oscillations in Epilepsy.

High-frequency oscillations (HFOs) are spontaneous magnetoencephalography (MEG) patterns that have been acknowledged as a putative biomarker to identify epileptic foci. Correct detection of HFOs in the MEG signals is crucial for the accurate and timely clinical evaluation. Since the visual examination of HFOs is time-consuming, error-prone, and with poor inter-reviewer reliability, an automatic HFOs detector is highly desirable in clinical practice. However, the existing approaches for HFOs detection may not be applicable for MEG signals with noisy background activity. Therefore, we employ the stacked sparse autoencoder (SSAE) and propose an SSAE-based MEG HFOs (SMO) detector to facilitate the clinical detection of HFOs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to conduct HFOs detection in MEG using deep learning methods. After configuration optimization, our proposed SMO detector is outperformed other classic peer models by achieving 89.9% in accuracy, 88.2% in sensitivity, and 91.6% in specificity. Furthermore, we have tested the performance consistency of our model using various validation schemes. The distribution of performance metrics demonstrates that our model can achieve steady performance.

Digital case-based learning system in school.

With the continuing growth of multi-media learning resources, it is important to offer methods helping learners to explore and acquire relevant learning information effectively. As services that organize multi-media learning materials together to support programming learning, the digital case-based learning system is needed. In order to create a case-oriented e-learning system, this paper concentrates on the digital case study of multi-media resources and learning processes with an integrated framework. An integration of multi-media resources, testing and learning strategies recommendation as the learning unit is proposed in the digital case-based learning framework. The learning mechanism of learning guidance, multi-media materials learning and testing feedback is supported in our project. An improved personalized genetic algorithm which incorporates preference information and usage degree into the crossover and mutation process is proposed to assemble the personalized test sheet for each learner. A learning strategies recommendation solution is proposed to recommend learning strategies for learners to help them to learn. The experiments are conducted to prove that the proposed approaches are capable of constructing personalized sheets and the effectiveness of the framework.