Effects of Liqi Tongbian decoction on gut microbiota, SCFAs production, and 5-HT pathway in STC rats with Qi Stagnation Pattern.

Slow transit constipation (STC) is a common and debilitating condition characterized by delayed colonic transit and difficulty in fecal expulsion, significantly impacting patients' physical and mental wellbeing as well as their overall quality of life. This study investigates the therapeutic potential of Liqi Tongbian Decoction (LTD) in the treatment of STC, especially in cases involving the context of Qi stagnation, through a multifaceted approach involving the modulation of intestinal flora and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). We employed a rat model of STC with Qi Stagnation Pattern, established using the "loperamide + tail-clamping provocation method," to explore the effects of LTD on fecal characteristics, intestinal motility, and colonic pathology. Importantly, LTD exhibited the ability to increase the richness, diversity, and homogeneity of intestinal flora while also modulating the composition of microorganisms. It significantly increased the production of SCFAs, especially butyric acid. Moreover, LTD exerted a substantial influence on the synthesis of serotonin (5-HT) by modulating the expression of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) and interacting with the 5-HT4 receptor (5-HT4R), resulting in enhanced colonic motility. Correlation analyses revealed a positive correlation between certain bacterial genera, such as Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136 spp. and Clostridiales spp. and the concentrations of butyric acid and 5-HT. These results suggest a mechanistic link between microbiome composition, SCFAs production, and 5-HT synthesis. These findings highlight the potential of LTD to alleviate STC by facilitating a beneficial interplay among intestinal flora, SCFAs production, and 5-HT-mediated colonic motility, providing novel insights into the management of STC with Qi Stagnation Pattern.

High-precision Fourier ptychographic microscopy based on Gaussian apodization coherent transfer function constraints.

Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) combines the concepts of phase retrieval algorithms and synthetic apertures and can solve the problem in which it is difficult to combine a large field of view with high resolution. However, the use of the coherent transfer function in conventional calculations to describe the linear transfer process of an imaging system can lead to ringing artifacts. In addition, the Gerchberg-Saxton iterative algorithm can cause the phase retrieval part of the FPM algorithm to fall into a local optimum. In this paper, Gaussian apodization coherent transfer function is proposed to describe the imaging process and is combined with an iterative method based on amplitude weighting and phase gradient descent to reduce the presence of ringing artifacts while ensuring the accuracy of the reconstructed results. In simulated experiments, the proposed algorithm is shown to give a smaller mean square error and higher structural similarity, both in the presence and absence of noise. Finally, the proposed algorithm is validated in terms of giving reconstruction results with high accuracy and high resolution, using images acquired with a new microscope system and open-source images.

Cerebellum drives functional dysfunctions in restless leg syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) has serious effects on patients' sleep quality, physical and mental health. However, the pathophysiological mechanisms of RLS remain unclear. This study utilized both static and dynamic functional activity and connectivity analyses approaches as well as effective connectivity analysis to reveal the neurophysiological basis of RLS. METHODS: The resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) data from 32 patients with RLS and 33 age-, and gender-matched healthy control (HC) were collected. Dynamic and static amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF), functional connectivity (FC), and Granger causality analysis (GCA) were employed to reveal the abnormal functional activities and couplings in patients with RLS. RESULTS: RLS patients showed over-activities in left parahippocampus and right cerebellum, hyper-connectivities of right cerebellum with left basal ganglia, left postcentral gyrus and right precentral gyrus, and enhanced effective connectivity from right cerebellum to left postcentral gyrus compared to HC. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal cerebellum-basal ganglia-sensorimotor cortex circuit may be the underlying neuropathological basis of RLS. Our findings highlight the important role of right cerebellum in the onset of RLS and suggest right cerebellum may be a potential target for precision therapy.

State-specific modulation of mood using intracranial electrical stimulation of the orbitofrontal cortex.

BACKGROUND: Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a promising target for intracranial electrical stimulation (iES) aimed at improving mood states. However, knowledge gaps remain regarding the underlying neural mechanisms of iES effects, such as the effect of the OFC target in comparison with other emotional network targets, the impact of brain state at the time of stimulation, and the neural response induced by iES at both local and network scales. OBJECTIVE: Our study aims to address the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of iES in improving mood states. METHODS: We conducted a study in 24 epilepsy patients who received iES through implanted electrodes in the emotional network and compared the effects of iES on multiple targets in the emotional network. RESULTS: We found that only iES applied to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) led to mood improvement and changes in neural activity. We also observed that iES to the OFC suppressed the delta-theta power when the brain was in a low mood state. Moreover, the iES to the OFC decreased delta-theta power and increased gamma power at local regions within the emotional network, and enhanced the information flow through the frequency domain among regions within the emotional network. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide insight into the neural correlates of iES-induced mood improvement and support the potential of iES as a therapeutic intervention for mood disorders.

Effects of a complex probiotic preparation, Fengqiang Shengtai and coccidiosis vaccine on the performance and intestinal microbiota of broilers challenged with Eimeria spp.

BACKGROUND: Coccidiosis, a prominent intestinal protozoan disease, carries significant economic implications for the poultry industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of Fengqiang Shengtai (BLES), a probiotics product, and coccidiosis vaccine in modulating the intestinal microbiome and providing insight into mitigating the occurrence and management of avian coccidiosis. METHODS: Broilers included in the study were divided into four pre-treatment groups: the Pre-Con group (commercial diet), Pre-BLES group (BLES supplement), Pre-Vac group (coccidiosis vaccination) and Pre-Vac-BLES group (combined vaccination and BLES). Body weight gain, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio were monitored from age 25 to 55 days. Cecum contents were collected at 8 and 15 days of age for comparative analysis of intestinal microbiomes. In the Pre-BLES and Pre-Vac-BLES groups, probiotics were administered at a dose of 0.01 g per chicken between ages 3 to 6 days and 10-13 days. At 3 days of age, chickens in the Pre-Vac and Pre-Vac-BLES groups were vaccinated with 1700 sporulated oocysts of the live coccidiosis vaccine per chicken. At the age of 25 days, Eimeria spp. challenge experiments were performed based on the aforementioned immunization strategy, and the oocysts per gram (OPG) in the feces, intestinal lesion score and intestinal pathological characteristics were evaluated. Specifically, 30 chickens were randomly selected from each group and orally administered 34,000 sporulated oocysts of Eimeria spp. per chicken, re-defined as Eimeria group, BLES-Eimeria group, Vac-Eimeria group and Vac-BLES-Eimeria group, respectively. Additionally, 30 chickens were randomly selected from the Pre-Con group and included as negative control without Eimeria spp. CHALLENGE: Intestinal microbiota was sequenced and analyzed when the broilers were 32 days old. RESULTS: A significant improvement was observed in body weight gain of the broilers in the Pre-BLES and Pre-Vac-BLES group at 45 days of age. Analysis of the intestinal microbiota revealed a positive correlation between the experimental groups receiving BLES and coccidiosis vaccines at 8 and 15 days of age with the Enterococcus genus and Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group, respectively. In addition to the reduced lesion score and OPG values, the combination of coccidiosis vaccine and BLES also reduced the intestinal epithelial abscission induced by coccidiosis vaccines. The results of intestinal microbial function prediction demonstrated that N-glycan biosynthesis and ferroptosis were the prominent signal pathways in the Vac-BLES-Eimeria group. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that supplementation of BLES with coccidiosis vaccine represents a promising strategy for improving growth performance, alleviating clinical manifestations and inducing favorable alterations to the intestinal microbiota in broiler chickens affected by coccidiosis.

Three-dimensional high-resolution anorectal manometry: A comparative pilot study with X-ray defaecography.

Three-dimensional high-resolution anorectal manometry (3DHRAM) is a new technique that can explore anorectal disorders and provide interesting topographic data for the diagnosis of pelvic floor disorders such as paradoxical puborectalis syndrome (PPS). Our object was to evaluate whether 3DHRAM can reliably diagnose PPS already diagnosed with X-ray defaecography, which is considered to be the gold standard. All patients being tested in our department for dyschezia by 3D-HRAM and X-ray defecography were eligible for the study. The 3DHRAM results were compared with X-ray defecography. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated for various 3DHRAM criteria to propose a diagnostic strategy for PPS. Twenty-three patients presented with PPS on X-ray defaecography. On 3DHRAM, according to our diagnostic strategy, the kappa value was 0.706, with a positive predictive value of 71.88% [95% CI, 53.02-85.60], a specificity of 80.43% [95% CI, 65.62-90.13], a sensibility of 95.83% [95% CI, 76.98-99.78], and area under curve value was 0.922. In this study, 3DHRAM was used to diagnose PPS with the same degree of reliability as X-ray defaecography, and we confirmed its use in the diagnosis of pelvic floor disorders. Further studies will be necessary to define classifications for these new anatomic data from 3DHRAM.

Interaction between the Gut Microbiota and Intestinal Motility.

The gut microbiota is the largest symbiotic ecosystem with the host and has been proven to play an important role in maintaining the stability of the intestinal environment. The imbalance of the gut microbiota is caused by the imbalance between the symbiotic microbiota and the pathogenic microbiota. The commensal microbiome regulates intestinal motility, while the pathogenic microbiome causes intestinal motility disorder, resulting in disease development. Intestinal motility is a relatively general term, and its meaning may include intestinal muscle contraction, intestinal wall biomechanics, intestinal compliance, and transmission. The role of intestinal microecology and intestinal motility are interrelated, intestinal flora disorder mediates intestinal motility, and abnormal intestinal motility affects colonization of the intestinal flora. In this review, we briefly outlined the interaction between gut microbiota and intestinal motility and provided a reference for future studies.

Effects of Bacillus subtilis and coccidiosis vaccine on growth indices and intestinal microbiota of broilers.

Avian coccidiosis is the most serious parasitic disease in the poultry industry. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to explore the effects of B. subtilis and live coccidiosis vaccine alone or in combination on the production performance and anticoccidiosis, as well as the dynamic changes of intestinal microbial community. Nine hundred ninty Mahuang chickens were randomized into 4 preimmune groups including control group, coccidiosis vaccine immunization group; B. subtilis administration group and a group that was administrated a combination of live coccidiosis vaccine and B. subtilis group. Intestinal mucosal scraps collected from all these experimental groups at the age of 8 d and 15 d for microbial community 16S rRNA gene sequencing. At the age of 25 d, 30 broilers from each preimmune group were randomly assigned to a subgroup infected with Eimeria spp. and renamed as CI, V-CI BS-CI, and VBS-CI group. The production performance was monitored at the age of 25 d, 35 d, 45 d, and 55 d for the rest broilers from each pre-immune group. Otherwise, in the Eimeria spp. challenge stage, intestinal mucosal scraps collected for microbial community sequencing, while duodenum, jejunum, and cecum collected for pathological examination after sacrifice at the age of 32 d. In addition, the oocysts per gram of feces (OPG) and intestinal lesion score of broilers after Eimeria spp. challenge were also counted. Overall, the probiotics and coccidiosis vaccine resulted in the significantly improvement of the production performance. Otherwise, the intestinal lesion score and OPG after Eimeria spp. infection was significantly decreased in the VBS-CI group (P < 0.05). Moreover, these protective effects may also be closely related to genus such as Romboutsia, Blautia, and Butyricococcus, as well as microbiota functions like the quorum sensing pathway. According to these results, a combination of B. subtilis and coccidiosis vaccines can improve performance and provide additional protection against Eimeria spp. infection.

Causal Structural Covariance Network Suggesting Structural Alterations Progression in Type 2 Diabetes Patients.

Background and Purpose: According to reports, type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a progressive disease. However, no known research has examined the progressive brain structural changes associated with T2D. The purpose of this study was to determine whether T2D patients exhibit progressive brain structural alterations and, if so, how the alterations progress. Materials and Methods: Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were collected for 81 T2D patients and 48 sex-and age-matched healthy controls (HCs). Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and causal structural covariance network (CaSCN) analyses were applied to investigate gray matter volume (GMV) alterations and the likely chronological processes underlying them in T2D. Two sample t-tests were performed to compare group differences, and the differences were corrected using Gaussian random field (GRF) correction (voxel-level p < 0.001, cluster-level p < 0.01). Results: Our findings demonstrated that GMV alterations progressed in T2D patients as disease duration increased. In the early stages of the disease, the right temporal pole of T2D patients had GMV atrophy. As the diseases duration prolonged, the limbic system, cerebellum, subcortical structures, parietal cortex, frontal cortex, and occipital cortex progressively exhibited GMV alterations. The patients also exhibited a GMV alterations sequence exerting from the right temporal pole to the limbic-cerebellum-striatal-cortical network areas. Conclusion: Our results indicate that the progressive GMV alterations of T2D patients manifested a limbic-cerebellum-striatal-cortical sequence. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the progression and an improvement of current diagnosis and intervention strategies for T2D.

Current Applications of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Functional Constipation.

Functional constipation (FC) is a common condition that would be hard to treat in clinical practice with a prevalence incidence in the population. Pharmacotherapy is a common treatment modality. However, clinical effects are limited and patients continue to suffer from it. In recent years, with the gradual increase in research on gut microbiota, it is understood that dysbiosis of the gut microbiota is importantly associated with the development of constipation. Recent studies have shown that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective method for restoring gut microbiota, as well as being efficacious in the treatment of FC. This mini review explains the characteristics of gut microbiota in FC patients, the mechanism of action of FMT, treatment modalities, current efficacy, and related problems. The purpose is to provide research directions and references for the future applications of FMT in FC.

Single and Combined Effects of Clostridium butyricum and Coccidiosis Vaccine on Growth Performance and the Intestinal Microbiome of Broiler Chickens.

Avian coccidiosis is an important intestinal protozoan disease that has caused major economic losses to the poultry industry. Clostridium butyricum can not only maintain the stability of the intestinal barrier, but can also improve the production performance of broiler chickens. We studied the effects of feeding C. butyricum alone, administration of coccidiosis vaccine alone, and the combined administration of C. butyricum and coccidiosis vaccine on body weight gain, feed consumption, and feed conversion ratio of broilers. Meanwhile, intestinal contents of 8- and 15-day-old broilers were collected, and their intestinal microbiome was characterized by high-throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 region of 16S rDNA. We analyzed the oocysts per gram values and lesion scores in the C. butyricum alone group, in a group challenged with the coccidiosis-causing parasite, Eimeria, and in groups simultaneously challenged Eimeria and pretreated with C. butyricum, the coccidiosis vaccine, or combined C. butyricum and coccidiosis vaccine. Intestinal tissue samples were collected from 32-day-old broilers for microbiome analysis. Our results showed that combination of C. butyricum with coccidiosis vaccine significantly improved the performance of broiler chickens and also significantly reduced the oocysts per gram value and intestinal lesions caused by Eimeria sp. infection. Furthermore, C. butyricum and coccidiosis vaccine administered alone or in combination significantly increased the relative abundance of the immune biomarker genus Barnesiella. The significant increase in the abundance of the Clostridia_UCG.014, Eubacterium coprostanoligenes group and Bacteroides was a key factor in controlling Eimeria sp. infection.

Effects of a multi-strain probiotic on growth, health, and fecal bacterial flora of neonatal dairy calves.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with a multi-strain probiotic (MSP) product containing of Bifidobacterium animalis, Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus faecalis, and Bacillus cerevisiae on growth, health, and fecal bacterial composition of dairy calves during the first month of life. METHODS: Forty Holstein calves (24 female and 16 male) at 2 d of age were grouped by sex and date of birth then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments: milk replacer supplementation with 0 g (0MSP), 2 g (2MSP), 4 g (4MSP), and 6 g (6MSP) MSP per calf per day. RESULTS: Supplementation of MSP did not result in any significant differences in parameters of body measurements of calves during the 30 d period. As the dosage of MSP increased, the average daily gain (p = 0.025) and total dry matter intake (p = 0.020) of calves showed a linear increase. The fecal consistency index of the 2MSP, 4MSP, and 6MSP group calves were lower than that of the 0MSP group calves (p = 0.003). As the dosage of MSP increased, the concentrations of lactate dehydrogenase (p = 0.068) and aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.081) in serum tended to decrease, whereas the concentration of total cholesterol increased quadratically (p = 0.021). The relative abundance of Dorea in feces was lower (p = 0.011) in the 2MSP, 4MSP, and 6MSP group calves than that in the 0MSP group calves. The relative abundance of Dorea (p = 0.001), Faecalibacterium (p = 0.050), and Mitsuokella (p = 0.030) decreased linearly, whereas the relative abundance of Prevotella tended to increase linearly as the dosage of MSP increased (p = 0.058). CONCLUSION: The MSP product can be used to reduce the diarrhea, improve the performance, and alter the composition of the fecal bacteria in neonatal dairy calves under the commercial conditions.

Comparison of laser microsurgery and open partial laryngectomy for T1-2 laryngeal cancer treatment.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the clinical efficacy of transoral laser microsurgery and open partial laryngectomy (OPL) in treating T1-2 laryngeal cancer. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted of 182 patients with T1-2 cancer with anterior vocal commissure (AVC) involvement. The local control (LC), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates at 5-year follow-up and the influencing factors were analyzed. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed in the LC or DFS rates between the two groups at 3- and 5-year follow-up. No significant difference was found between the two groups with T1-stage disease. The 5-year LC rates were significantly different from patients with grade 3 or 4 tumors on indirect laryngoscopy and patients with class III or IV tumors on the modified Mallampati test (MMT) (log-rank test: χ2=8.037, P=0.005). The 3-year LC rate of OPL in the depth of pathological infiltration (3-5 mm) group was found to be significantly higher than that of TLM. Significant differences in pathological infiltration depth (3-5 mm) existed between the two groups (log-rank test: χ2=5.786, P=0.016). CONCLUSIONS: T1 lesions are generally limited and superficial, and laser surgery can be well-controlled. For patients with difficult airway exposure, surgeons should have extensive surgical experience and skills. It is recommended that a variety of equipment should be ready so that surgeons can convert to open surgery at any time. For patients with a deep infiltration depth, surgeons should examine laryngoscopy imaging results before surgery.

Advancing diagnostic performance and clinical applicability of deep learning-driven generative adversarial networks for Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that severely affects the activities of daily living in aged individuals, which typically needs to be diagnosed at an early stage. Generative adversarial networks (GANs) provide a new deep learning method that show good performance in image processing, while it remains to be verified whether a GAN brings benefit in AD diagnosis. The purpose of this research is to systematically review psychoradiological studies on the application of a GAN in the diagnosis of AD from the aspects of classification of AD state and AD-related image processing compared with other methods. In addition, we evaluated the research methodology and provided suggestions from the perspective of clinical application. Compared with other methods, a GAN has higher accuracy in the classification of AD state and better performance in AD-related image processing (e.g. image denoising and segmentation). Most studies used data from public databases but lacked clinical validation, and the process of quantitative assessment and comparison in these studies lacked clinicians' participation, which may have an impact on the improvement of generation effect and generalization ability of the GAN model. The application value of GANs in the classification of AD state and AD-related image processing has been confirmed in reviewed studies. Improvement methods toward better GAN architecture were also discussed in this paper. In sum, the present study demonstrated advancing diagnostic performance and clinical applicability of GAN for AD, and suggested that the future researchers should consider recruiting clinicians to compare the algorithm with clinician manual methods and evaluate the clinical effect of the algorithm.

Formulation of traditional Chinese medicine and its application on intestinal flora of constipated rats.

In this study, the self-extracted constipation treatment of traditional Chinese medicine extracts was applied to constipated rats. To explore the mechanism and role of the Chinese medicine for the treatment of constipation, the 16S rRNA sequencing and qRT-PCR technology were used to analyze the intestinal flora. We found that the relative abundance of Firmicutes with constipation was significantly higher accounted for 86.7%, while the gut microbiota was significantly changed after taking a certain dose of Chinese medicine, greatly increased the relative abundance of Lactobacillus accounted for 23.1%, enhanced the symbiotic relationships of Lactobacillus with other intestinal flora. The total copies of intestinal bacteria in the constipated rats decreased after taking the traditional Chinese medicine. Finally, this study results provides a theoretical basis for the treatment and understand the mechanism and effect of traditional Chinese medicine on rate constipation.

Using RNA sequencing to identify a putative lncRNA-associated ceRNA network in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

Accumulating evidence indicates that lncRNAs can interact with miRNAs to regulate target mRNAs through competitive interactions. However, this mechanism remains largely unexplored in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). In this study, transcriptome-wide RNA sequencing was performed on 3 pairs of LSCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues to investigate the expression profiles of lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs, with differential expression of 171 lncRNAs, 36 miRNAs and 1709 mRNAs detected. Seven lncRNAs, eight mRNAs and three miRNAs were identified to be dysregulated in patients' tissues by using qRT-PCR. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were performed to elucidate the potential functions of these differentially expressed genes in LSCC. Subsequently, a ceRNA (lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA) network including 4631 ceRNA pairs was constructed based on predicted miRNAs shared by lncRNAs and mRNAs. Cis- and transregulatory lncRNAs were analysed by bioinformatics-based methods. Importantly, mRNA-related ceRNA networks (mRCNs) were further obtained based on potential cancer-related coding genes. Coexpression between lncRNAs and downstream mRNAs was used as a criterion for the validation of mRCNs, with the ZNF561-AS1-miR217-WNT5A and SATB1-AS1-miR1299-SAV1/CCNG2/SH3 KBP1/JADE1/HIPK2 ceRNA regulatory interactions determined, followed by experimental validation after siRNA transfection. Moreover, ceRNA activity analysis revealed that different activities of ceRNA modules existing in specific pathological environments may contribute to the tumorigenesis of LSCC. Consistently, both downregulated SATB1-AS1 and ZNF561-AS1 significantly promoted laryngeal cancer cell migration and invasion, indicating their important roles in LSCC via a ceRNA regulatory mechanism. Taken together, the results of this investigation uncovered and systemically characterized a lncRNA-related ceRNA regulatory network that may be valuable for the diagnosis and treatment of LSCC.

A Colorimetric Assay of Citrate Synthase Activity in Drosophila Melanogaster.

Mitochondria play the most prominent roles in cellular metabolism by producing ATP through oxidative phosphorylation and regulating a variety of physiological processes. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a primary cause of a number of metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Intact mitochondria are critical for their proper functioning. The enzyme citrate synthase is localized in the mitochondrial matrix and thus can be used as a quantitative enzyme marker of intact mitochondrial mass. Given that many molecules and pathways that have important functions in mitochondria are highly conserved between humans and Drosophila, and that an array of powerful genetic tools are available in Drosophila, Drosophila serves as a good model system for studying mitochondrial function. Here, we present a protocol for fast and simple measurement of citrate synthase activity in tissue homogenate from adult flies without isolating mitochondria. This protocol is also suitable for measuring citrate synthase activity in larvae, cultured cells, and mammalian tissues.

A Look Into the Power of fNIRS Signals by Using the Welch Power Spectral Estimate for Deception Detection.

Neuroimaging technologies have improved our understanding of deception and also exhibit their potential in revealing the origins of its neural mechanism. In this study, a quantitative power analysis method that uses the Welch power spectrum estimation of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals was proposed to examine the brain activation difference between the spontaneous deceptive behavior and controlled behavior. The power value produced by the model was applied to quantify the activity energy of brain regions, which can serve as a neuromarker for deception detection. Interestingly, the power analysis results generated from the Welch spectrum estimation method demonstrated that the spontaneous deceptive behavior elicited significantly higher power than that from the controlled behavior in the prefrontal cortex. Meanwhile, the power findings also showed significant difference between the spontaneous deceptive behavior and controlled behavior, indicating that the reward system was only involved in the deception. The proposed power analysis method for processing fNIRS data provides us an additional insight to understand the cognitive mechanism of deception.

A Photocleavable Amphiphilic Prodrug Self-Assembled Nanoparticles with Effective Anticancer Activity In Vitro.

Accelerating degradation of prodrug is an effective strategy for improving the pharmacological action. A photocleavable amphiphilic prodrug of methotrexate-coumarin derivative-PEG conjugates (MTX-AMC-PEG) with photo-triggered breakage to release clinical drug under laser irradiation was fabricated and self-assembled into nanoparticles for chemotherapy. The nanoparticles exhibited good intracellular uptake and excellent photolysis release of MTX, which resulted in efficient anticancer activity in vitro with laser irradiation. This research provides a way to fabricate photocleavable prodrug nanoparticles with stimuli-triggered drug release behavior.

Multimodal MRI-based classification of migraine: using deep learning convolutional neural network.

BACKGROUND: Recently, deep learning technologies have rapidly expanded into medical image analysis, including both disease detection and classification. As far as we know, migraine is a disabling and common neurological disorder, typically characterized by unilateral, throbbing and pulsating headaches. Unfortunately, a large number of migraineurs do not receive the accurate diagnosis when using traditional diagnostic criteria based on the guidelines of the International Headache Society. As such, there is substantial interest in developing automated methods to assist in the diagnosis of migraine. METHODS: To the best of our knowledge, no studies have evaluated the potential of deep learning technologies in assisting with the classification of migraine patients. Here, we used deep learning methods in combination with three functional measures (the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations, regional homogeneity and regional functional correlation strength) based on rs-fMRI data to distinguish not only between migraineurs and healthy controls, but also between the two subtypes of migraine. We employed 21 migraine patients without aura, 15 migraineurs with aura, and 28 healthy controls. RESULTS: Compared with the traditional support vector machine classifier, which has an accuracy of 83.67%, our Inception module-based convolutional neural network approach showed a significant improvement in classification output (over 86.18%). Our data also indicate that the Inception module-based CNN performs better than the AlexNet-based CNN (Inception module-based CNN reached an accuracy of 99.25%). Finally, we also found that regional functional correlation strength (RFCS) could be regarded as the optimum input out of the three indices (ALFF, ReHo, RFCS). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our study shows that combining the three functional measures of rs-fMRI with deep learning classification is a powerful method to distinguish between migraineurs and healthy individuals. Our data also highlight that deep learning-based frameworks could be used to develop more complicated models or systems to aid in clinical decision making in the future.