Are proximal and distal neuromuscular parameters able to predict hip and knee frontal plane kinematics during single-leg landing?

OBJECTIVE: To determine if proximal and distal neuromuscular parameters (EMG amplitude and median frequency - MDF) can predict frontal plane kinematics during single-leg landing. STUDY DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Fifteen participants (7 female) performed six single-leg landings with measures of frontal plane kinematics and EMG obtained 230 ms after first foot contact, totalizing 90 landings. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (i) 2D hip adduction [hip ADD] and knee frontal plane projection angle [knee FPPA]; (ii) EMG amplitude and MDF of gluteus medius [GMed], tensor fascia latae [TFL], peroneus longus [PL] and tibialis anterior [TA]. RESULTS: We observed that MDF of TA was a significant predictor of hip ADD (p = 0.037; ß = -0.049 Hz; R2c = 0.30). Also, MDF of PL was significant predictor of knee FPPA (p = 0.043; ß = 0.042 Hz; R2c = 0.37). Hip muscles and EMG amplitude parameters were not considered predictors of frontal plane kinematics. CONCLUSION: The firing frequency of ankle muscles predicted the variance of hip and knee frontal plane kinematics during single-leg landing.

Ivermectin acute administration impaired the spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis of adult rats.

Ivermectin (IVM) is an antiparasitic agent widely used in agricultural, domestic animals and in human clinical practice. In the present study, the temporal effects of therapeutic doses of IVM in the morphometric and histological assessment of testis were studied to verify if IVM acute administration impaired the spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis of adult rats, if these effects are reversible. The testosterone levels and the plasmatic IVM levels were assessed. The results show: 1) IVM acute exposure, mainly in the higher dose, reduced the testicular volume, the tubular diameter and the germinal epithelium height; 2) no interferences on Leydig cells frequency; 3) histological studies show that tubular sections containing several histological changes indicative of spermatogenesis interruption, such as disorganization of germinal epithelium, vacuolar degeneration of the germ cells and sloughing of cells into the tubular lumen; 4) no differences in testosterone levels; 5) The IVM plasmatic levels were significantly reduced at 72h after the 0.2mg/kg. It was concluded that acute IVM impaired the spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis of rats. Probably these effects were not consequence of IVM at the Leydig cells because no effects were observed at this level. Finally, our results suggest that some testicular effects are reversible and correlated with the plasmatic levels of IVM.

Development and validation of carbofuran and 3-hydroxycarbofuran analysis by high-pressure liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) for forensic Veterinary Medicine.

Agricultural pesticides used with the criminal intent to intoxicate domestic and wild animals are a serious concern in Veterinary Medicine. In order to identify the pesticide carbofuran and its metabolite 3- hydroxycarbofuran in animals suspected of exogenous intoxication a high pressure liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) method was developed and validated in stomach contents, liver, vitreous humor and blood. The method was evaluated using biological samples from seven different animal species. The following parameters of analytical validation were evaluated: linearity, precision, accuracy, selectivity, recovery and matrix effect. The method was linear at the range of 6.25-100µg/mL and the correlation coefficient (r2) values were >0.9811 for all matrices. The precision and accuracy of the method was determined by coefficient of variation (CV) and the relative standard deviation error (RSE), and both were less than 15%. Recovery ranged from 74.29 to 100.1% for carbofuran and from 64.72 to 100.61% for 3-hydroxycarbofuran. There were no significant interfering peaks or matrix effects. This method was suitable for detecting 25 positive cases for carbofuran amongst a total of 64 animal samples suspected of poisoning brought to the Toxicology Diagnostic Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, University of Sao Paulo.

Attenuated allergic inflammatory response in the lungs during lactation.

AIMS: To evaluate the influence of lactation on lung immune function during allergic inflammation. MAIN METHODS: Female rats, 60-90days old, were divided into three groups: no lung allergy virgins (N group), ovalbumin (OVA)-immunized and sensitized virgins (V group), and OVA-immunized and sensitized lactating females (L group). On gestation day (GD) 10, all animals in L group received a subcutaneous injection of 0.1mg·kg(-1) OVA plus aluminum hydroxide. On GD17, the L group received a subcutaneous booster injection of 10µg OVA plus 10mg aluminum hydroxide. After 7days, an inhalatory challenge with 1% OVA was given in 15min sessions for 3 consecutive days. Animals from the V group received the same treatment, meaning both tests and time intervals between OVA treatment and inhalatory challenge were the same as in the L group. Twenty-four hours after the last inhalation session, the animals were euthanized, and the following tests were performed: total and differential bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and femoral marrow lavage (FML) leukocyte counts, quantification of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interferon γ (IFN-γ) levels in BAL fluid, and quantification of plasma corticosterone and catecholamine levels. KEY FINDINGS: The L group presented lower BAL total leukocyte counts and decreases in the number of eosinophils and macrophages compared with the V group. They also expressed higher BAL IFN-γ and lower plasma corticosterone levels. Plasma norepinephrine levels were higher in the L group than in the N and V groups. SIGNIFICANCE: Lactating female rats presented less intense allergic lung inflammation. Our findings suggest that lactation may protect females from asthmatic crises.

A systematic review on content-based medical video retrieval

OBJETIVO: Identificar o estado da arte com relação à aplicação de recuperação de vídeos baseada em conteúdo no contexto de vídeos médicos. Nossa contribuição é fornecer uma visão geral sobre estudos anteriores, bem como vantagens e desafios a serem explorados no tema por pesquisadores da área de aplicações de informática em saúde. MÉTODOS: Nós conduzimos uma revisão sistemática nas principais bases de trabalhos científicos das áreas da computação e medicina. Depois de definir um protocolo, nós conduzimos uma busca por artigos e tecemos uma discussão crítica sobre os estudos encontrados. RESULTADOS: Os resultados mostraram que a aplicação do conceito de recuperação de vídeos baseada em conteúdo na área médica é recente e ainda pouco explorada. CONCLUSÕES: Nos trabalhos analisados, as aplicações de interesse consistem na identificação e descrição de estruturas representadas nos vídeos para posterior indexação e recuperação. Os objetivos mais comuns verificados são auxílio ao diagnóstico, análise de procedimentos e tomada de decisão.

OBJECTIVE: Identify the state of the art about the application of content-based video retrieval in the context ofmedical videos. Our contribution is to provide an overview of previous studies as well as advantages and challenges tobe explored on this subject to the researchers interested in the applied health informatics field. METHODS: We conducta systematic review in the main scientific databases of the computing and medical fields. After defining a protocol, we conducted a search and, then, a critical discussion about the studies. RESULTS: The results showed that the application of the concept of content-based video retrieval in the medical field is recent and has been little explored. CONCLUSIONS: Applications of interest in the analyzed works consist in the identification and description of structures depicted in thevideos for later indexing and retrieval. The most common goals are to aid diagnosis, procedures analysis, and decision making.

A systematic review on the evaluation and characteristics of computer-aided diagnosis systems

INTRODUCTION: One of the challenges in developing Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) systems is their accurate and comprehensive assessment. This paper presents the conduction and results of a systematic review (SR) that aims to verify the state of the art regarding the assessment of CAD systems. This survey provides a general analysis of the current status of the design, development and assessment of such systems and includes discussions on the most used metrics and approaches that could be utilized to obtain more objective evaluation methods. METHODS: The SR was conducted using the scientific databases, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, ScienceDirect and Web of Science. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined and applied to each retrieved work to select those of interest. From 156 studies retrieved, 100 studies were included. Results: There is a number of abnormalities that have been used for the development of CAD systems. Images from computed tomographies and mammographies are the most encountered types of medical images. Additionally, a number of studies used public databases for CAD evaluations. The main evaluation metrics and methods applied to CAD systems include sensitivity, accuracy, specificity and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. In the assessed CAD systems that used the segmentation method, 30.0% applied the overlap measure. DISCUSSION: There remain several topics to explore for the assessment of CAD schemes. While some evaluation metrics are traditionally used, they require a prior knowledge of case characteristics to test CAD systems. We were not able to identify articles that use software testing to evaluate CAD systems. Thus, we realize that there is a gap between CAD assessments and traditional practices of software engineering. However, the scope of this research is limited to scientific and academic works and excludes commercial interests. Finally, we discuss potential research studies within this scope to create a more objective and efficient evaluation of CAD systems.