Novel Quantitative Contrast Sensitivity Function Enhances the Prediction of Treatment Outcome and Recurrence in Amblyopia.

Purpose: Although effective amblyopia treatments are available, treatment outcome is unpredictable, and the condition recurs in up to 25% of the patients. We aimed to evaluate whether a large-scale quantitative contrast sensitivity function (CSF) data source, coupled with machine learning (ML) algorithms, can predict amblyopia treatment response and recurrence in individuals. Methods: Visual function measures from traditional chart vision acuity (VA) and novel CSF assessments were used as the main predictive variables in the models. Information from 58 potential predictors was extracted to predict treatment response and recurrence. Six ML methods were applied to construct models. The SHapley Additive exPlanations was used to explain the predictions. Results: A total of 2559 consecutive records of 643 patients with amblyopia were eligible for modeling. Combining variables from VA and CSF assessments gave the highest accuracy for treatment response prediction, with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.863 and 0.815 for outcome predictions after 3 and 6 months, respectively. Variables from the VA assessment alone predicted the treatment response, with AUC values of 0.723 and 0.675 after 3 and 6 months, respectively. Variables from the CSF assessment gave rise to an AUC of 0.909 for recurrence prediction compared to 0.539 for VA assessment alone, and adding VA variables did not improve predictive performance. The interocular differences in CSF features are significant contributors to recurrence risk. Conclusions: Our models showed CSF data could enhance treatment response prediction and accurately predict amblyopia recurrence, which has the potential to guide amblyopia management by enabling patient-tailored decision making.

Multiband task related components enhance rapid cognition decoding for both small and similar objects.

The cortically-coupled target recognition system based on rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) has a wide range of applications in brain computer interface (BCI) fields such as medical and military. However, in the complex natural environment backgrounds, the identification of event-related potentials (ERP) of both small and similar objects that are quickly presented is a research challenge. Therefore, we designed corresponding experimental paradigms and proposed a multi-band task related components matching (MTRCM) method to improve the rapid cognitive decoding of both small and similar objects. We compared the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) between MTRCM and other 9 methods under different numbers of training sample using RSVP-ERP data from 50 subjects. The results showed that MTRCM maintained an overall superiority and achieved the highest average AUC (0.6562 ± 0.0091). We also optimized the frequency band and the time parameters of the method. The verification on public data sets further showed the necessity of designing MTRCM method. The MTRCM method provides a new approach for neural decoding of both small and similar RSVP objects, which is conducive to promote the further development of RSVP-BCI.

Associations between the cause of amblyopia and pre-treatment contrast sensitivity, stereoacuity, fixation, and nystagmus.

Purpose: To explore the association between the cause of amblyopia and pre-treatment contrast sensitivity, stereoacuity, fixation and nystagmus. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted for 3408 patients with amblyopia who had not yet started amblyopia treatment utilizing a large amblyopia patient database maintained at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre. Six amblyogenic factor subtypes were identified: anisometropia, isoametropia, strabismus, anisometropia and strabismus, monocular visual deprivation, and binocular visual deprivation amblyopia. Monocular best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), the contrast sensitivity function (CSF), fixation, and stereopsis were compared between the subtypes before and after propensity score matching (PSM) for age and sex. Results: The two deprivation groups had poorer BCVA and CSF than the other groups. There were no systematic differences in CSF between the non-deprivation groups. Nystagmus was more common in the bilateral amblyopia groups compared to the monocular amblyopia groups. Eccentric fixation was uncommon with the exception of the anisometropia and strabismus group which had an eccentric fixation rate of 20%. Distance stereoacuity measured without monocular cues was absent for almost all patients. The results were consistent when analyzed using PSM. Conclusion: Visual deprivation causes more severe amblyopia than other amblyogenic factors. For non-deprivation amblyopia subtypes, individual differences such as variation in the severity of the amblyogenic factor might be more important in determining pre-treatment vision than whether amblyopia was caused by refractive error, strabismus or both.

ERetinaNet: An Efficient Neural Network Based on RetinaNet for Mammographic Breast Mass Detection.

Mammography is an effective method for diagnosing breast diseases, and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems play an important role in the detection of breast masses. However, low contrast and the interference of surrounding tissues make the detection of masses challenging. In this paper, an efficient RetinaNet network named ERetinaNet is proposed to improve the accuracy and inference speed of mammographic breast mass detection. Efficient modules are designed and introduced into the network to facilitate the extraction of comprehensive features, while the structure of the network is simplified to improve the inference speed. A Faster RepVGG (FRepVGG) architecture is first proposed as the backbone network that utilizes three effective strategies: 1) The multi-branch structure used during training enhances learning, and it is equivalently converted to a single-path structure during inference by re-parameterization technique to accelerate the detection speed. 2) The Extraction operation is proposed to condense the features of intermediate layers. 3) An effective Multi-spectral Channel Attention (eMCA) module is added in the last layer of each stage, enabling the network to pay more attention to the target region. In addition, Vision Transformer (ViT) is added to ERetinaNet, which enables ERetinaNet to learn global semantic information. The detection head is simplified to make ERetinaNet more efficient. The experimental results show that compared with the original RetinaNet, ERetinaNet improves the mean Average Precision (mAP) from 79.16% to 85.01% and significantly shortens the inference time. Moreover, the detection accuracy of ERetinaNet outperforms other excellent object detection networks, such as Faster R-CNN, SSD, YOLOv3 and YOLOv7.

Perceptual Learning Based on the Lateral Masking Paradigm in Anisometropic Amblyopia With or Without a Patching History.

Purpose: Perceptual learning (PL) has shown promising performance in restoring visual function in adolescent amblyopes. We retrospectively compared the effect of a well-accepted PL paradigm on patients with anisometropic amblyopia with or without a patching therapy history (patching therapy [PT] group versus no patching therapy [NPT] group). Methods: Eighteen PT and 13 NPT patients with anisometropic amblyopia underwent monocular PL for 3 months. During training, patients practiced a Gabor detection task following the lateral masking paradigm by applying a temporal two-alternative forced choice procedure with the amblyopic eye. Monocular contrast sensitivity functions (CSF), visual acuity, interocular differences in visual function metrics, and stereoacuity were compared before and after training. Results: PL improved the visual acuity of the amblyopia eyes by 0.5 lines on average in the PT group and 1.5 lines in the NPT group. A significant reduction in the interocular difference in visual acuity was observed in the NPT group (P < 0.01) but not in the PT group (P = 0.05). Regarding CSF metrics, the area under the log CSF and cutoff in the amblyopic eyes of the NPT groups increased after training (P < 0.05). In addition, the interocular differences of the CSF metrics (P < 0.05) in the NPT group were significantly reduced. However, in the PT group, all the CSF metrics were unchanged after training. A total of 27 of 31 patients in both groups had no measurable stereopsis pretraining, and recovery after training was not significant. Conclusions: PL based on a lateral masking training paradigm improved visual function in anisometropic amblyopia. Patients without a patching history achieved greater benefits. Translational Relevance: PL based on a lateral masking training paradigm could be a new treatment for amblyopia.

Binocular Summation With Quantitative Contrast Sensitivity Function: A Novel Parameter to Evaluate Binocular Function in Intermittent Exotropia.

Purpose: Intermittent exotropia (IXT) is the most common form of strabismus. Surgery can potentially improve binocular function in patients with IXT. We aimed to evaluate binocular function using a novel parameter-binocular summation ratio (BSR), measured using quantitative contrast sensitivity function (CSF) in patients with IXT before and after surgery. Methods: Prospective study of 63 patients with IXT and 41 healthy controls were consecutively enrolled and underwent quantitative CSF testing binocularly and monocularly. BSR was calculated by dividing the CSF of the binocular value by the better monocular value. Forty-eight patients with IXT underwent strabismus surgery. BSR, stereoacuity, fusion ability, and strabismus questionnaires were assessed pre-operatively and 2 months postoperatively. Results: Sixty-three patients with IXT (median age = 9 years) compared with 41 healthy controls showed a worse mean BSR based on all CSF metrics at baseline (the area under the log CSF [AULCSF], spatial frequency [SF] cutoff, and contrast sensitivity at 1.0-18.0 cpd SF). All 48 patients with IXT showed successful alignment after surgery, and there were significant improvements in BSR based on the AULCSF, SF cutoff, and contrast sensitivity at 6.0, 12.0, and 18.0 cpd SF, respectively. The distance stereoacuity and fusion ability also improved after surgery, and a better BSR was associated with better stereoacuity and fusion. For strabismus questionnaires, the psychosocial subscale scores improved postoperatively, whereas the functional subscale scores did not change. Conclusions: BSR based on quantitative CSF can characterize binocular function across a range of spatial frequencies and can be used as a supplemental measurement for monitoring binocularity in patients with IXT in clinical settings.

Anoikis-related gene CDKN2A predicts prognosis and immune response and mediates proliferation and migration in thyroid carcinoma.

Thyroid carcinoma (THCA) is a tumor commonly occurring in the endocrine system, and its incidence rate is increasing yearly. Anoikis is a type of cell death involved in the carcinogenesis process. This study aimed to investigate the prognosis and immune correlations of anoikis in THCA. Our study used several bioinformatics algorithms (co-expression analysis, univariate and multivariate Cox analysis) to screen anoikis-related genes (ARGs) to construct risk models. Through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, nomogram, and independent prognostic analysis found that the constructed model had ideal predictive value for THCA. The consensus clustering method was used to divide ARG patterns into three subgroups, and there were significant differences in survival among the three subgroups. The CIBERSORT algorithm demonstrated strong correlations among immune infiltrating cells, prognostic genes, and risk scores. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis showed that CDKN2A is an independent prognostic gene. Basic experiments (immunohistochemistry, qRT-PCR, etc.) showed that the expression levels of CDKN2A mRNA and protein were highly expressed in THCA, which was consistent with the results of bioinformatics analysis. In vitro, the knockdown of CDKN2A significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration of THCA cells. In summary, our study utilized eight ARGs to construct an accurate risk model. ARGs, especially CDKN2A, play a crucial role in the occurrence and development of THCA and can become potential targets for treating THCA patients.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic control measures on amblyopia treatment: a retrospective study of records from a tertiary eye hospital in China.

OBJECTIVES: Amblyopia is the most common cause of unilateral visual impairment in children and requires long-term treatment. This study aimed to quantify the impact of pandemic control measures on amblyopia management. DESIGN AND SETTING: This was a retrospective cohort study of data from a large amblyopia management database at a major tertiary eye care centre in China. PARTICIPANTS: Outpatients with amblyopia who visited the hospital from 1 June 2019, through 28 February 2022. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the number of first and follow-up in-person visits to the hospital for amblyopia treatment. Secondary outcomes included the time interval between consecutive visits and improvement of vision (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis). Patient records were grouped into prepandemic and during pandemic periods. RESULTS: A total of 10 060 face-to-face visits for 5361 patients (median age 6.7 years, IQR 5.4, 8.9) that spanned two lockdown periods were included in the analysis, of which 28% were follow-up visits. Pandemic control measures caused a sharp decline in the number of outpatient visits (3% and 30% of prepandemic levels in the months directly after the start of the first (2020) and second (2021) periods of pandemic control measures, respectively). However, these drops were followed by pronounced rebounds in visits that exceeded prepandemic levels by 51.1% and 108.5%, respectively. The interval between consecutive visits increased significantly during the pandemic from a median (IQR) of 120 (112, 127) days in 2019 to 197 (179, 224) in 2020 (p<0.001) and 189 (182, 221) in 2021 (p<0.001). There were no significant differences in the improvement of visual function or treatment compliance between the prepandemic and postpandemic groups. CONCLUSIONS: The number of amblyopia patient hospital visits spiked well above prepandemic levels following lockdown periods. This pattern of patient behaviour can inform planning for amblyopia treatment services during and after public health-related disruptions.

Role of anoikis-related gene PLK1 in kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma: a bioinformatics analysis and preliminary verification on promoting proliferation and migration.

Background: Kidney renal papillary cell carcinoma (KIRP) is a rare malignancy with a very poor prognosis. Anoikis is a specific form of apoptosis involved in carcinogenesis, but the role of anoikis in KIRP has not been explored. Methods: Anoikis-related genes (ARGs) were obtained from the GeneCards database and Harmonizome database and were used to identify different subtypes of KIRP and construct a prognostic model of KIRP. In addition, we also explored the immune microenvironment and enrichment pathways among different subtypes by consensus clustering into different subtypes. Drug sensitivity analysis was used to screen for potential drugs. Finally, we verified the mRNA and protein expression of the independent prognostic gene PLK1 in patient tissues and various cells and further verified the changes in relevant prognostic functions after constructing a PLK1 stable knockdown model using ShRNA. Results: We identified 99 differentially expressed anoikis-related genes (DEGs) associated with KIRP survival, and selected 3 genes from them to construct a prognostic model, which can well predict the prognosis of KIRP patients. Consensus clustering divided KIRP into two subtypes, and there was a significant difference in survival rates between the two subtypes. Immune profiling revealed differing immune statuses between the two subtypes, and functional analysis reveals the differential activity of different functions in different subtypes. Drug sensitivity analysis screened out 15 highly sensitive drugs in the high-risk group and 11 highly sensitive drugs in the low-risk group. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed that PLK1 was an independent prognostic factor in KIRP, and its mRNA and protein expression levels were consistent with gene differential expression levels, both of which were highly expressed in KIRP. Functional verification of PLK1 in KIRP revealed significant results. Specifically, silencing PLK1 inhibited cell proliferation, clonogenicity, and migration, which indicated that PLK1 plays an important role in the proliferation and migration of KIRP. Conclusion: The prognosis model constructed by ARGs in this study can accurately predict the prognosis of KIRP patients. ARGs, especially PLK1, play an important role in the development of KIRP. This research can help doctors provide individualized treatment plans for KIRP patients and provide researchers with new research ideas.

Characteristics and predictive factors of visual function improvements after monocular perceptual learning in amblyopia.

Monocular perceptual learning has shown promising performance in restoring visual function in amblyopes beyond the critical period in the laboratory. However, the treatment outcome is variable and indeterminate in actual clinical and neuroscientific practice. We aimed to explore the efficacy of monocular perceptual learning in the clinical setting. By combining continuous monitoring of perceptual learning and clinical measurements, we evaluated the efficacy and characteristics of visual acuity and contrast sensitivity function improvement and further explored the individualized effect after perceptual learning. Amblyopes (average age:17 ± 7 years old) were trained in a monocular two-alternative forced choice identification task at the 50% contrast threshold of the amblyopic eye for 10-15 days. We found that monocular perceptual learning improves both visual acuity and contrast sensitivity function in amblyopia. The broader activation of spatial contrast sensitivity, with a significant improvement in lower spatial frequencies, contributed to improving visual acuity. Visual acuity changes in the early stage can predict the endpoint treatment outcomes. Our results confirm the efficacy of monocular perceptual learning and suggest potential predictors of training outcomes to assist in the future management of clinical intervention and vision neuroscience research in amblyopia beyond the critical period of visual plasticity.

Distinct doorway states lead to triplet excited state generation in epigenetic RNA nucleosides.

N 6-Hydroxymethyladenosine (hm6A) and N6-formyladenosine (f6A) are two important intermediates during the demethylation process of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which has been proven to show epigenetic function in mRNA. However, there is no knowledge about how the chemical integrity and stability could be altered when these two nucleosides are exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Herein, we report the first study on excited state dynamics of hm6A and f6A in solutions by using femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy and quantum chemistry calculations. Surprisingly, triplet excited species are clearly identified in both hm6A and f6A after UV excitation, which is in sharp contrast to the 10-3 level triplet yield of adenosine scaffolds. Moreover, the doorway states leading to triplet states are found to be an intramolecular charge transfer state and a lower-lying dark nπ* state in hm6A and f6A, respectively. These discoveries pave the way to further study their effects on RNA strands and provide insight for understanding RNA photochemistry.

A novel cuproptosis-related lncRNAs signature predicts prognostic and immune of bladder urothelial carcinoma.

Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma (BLCA) remains the most common urinary system tumor, and its prognosis is poor. Cuproptosis is a recently discovered novel cell death involved in the development of tumor cells. However, the use of cuproptosis to predict the prognosis and immunity of Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma remains largely unclear, and this study was designed to verify cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) to estimate the prognosis and immunity of Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma. In our study, we first defined the expression of cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) in BLCA, and 10 CRGs were up- or downregulated. We then constructed a co-expression network of cuproptosis-related mRNA and long non-coding RNAs using RNA sequence data from The Cancer Genome Atlas Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma (TCGA-BLCA), clinical features and mutation data from BLCA patients to obtain long non-coding RNAs by Pearson analysis. Afterward, univariate and multivariate COX analysis identified 21 long non-coding RNAs as independent prognostic factors and used these long non-coding RNAs to construct a prognostic model. Then, survival analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), immunoassay, and comparison of tumor mutation frequencies were performed to verify the accuracy of the constructed model, and GO and KEGG functional enrichment analysis was used to verify further whether cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs were associated with biological pathways. The results showed that the model constructed with cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs could effectively evaluate the prognosis of BLCA, and these long non-coding RNAs were involved in numerous biological pathways. Finally, we performed immune infiltration, immune checkpoint and drug sensitivity analyses on four genes (TTN, ARID1A, KDM6A, RB1) that were highly mutated in the high-risk group to evaluate the immune association of risk genes with BLCA. In conclusion, the cuproptosis-related lncRNA markers constructed in this study have evaluation value for prognosis and immunity in BLCA, which can provide a certain reference for the treatment and immunity of BLCA.

Zearalenone induces apoptosis and autophagy by regulating endoplasmic reticulum stress signalling in porcine trophectoderm cells.

Zearalenone (ZEA), a mycotoxin produced mainly by fungi belonging to Fusarium species in foods and feeds, causes a serious hazard to humans and animals. Numerous studies have revealed that ingesting ZEA can disrupt the reproductive function and impair the reproductive process in animals. This experiment was to investigate the toxicological effect and the mechanism of ZEA exposure on reproduction in pigs during early stages of pregnancy. In the present study, we treated with 0 to 80 µmol/L ZEA for 12 or 24 h in trophoblast ectoderm (pTr) cells. The results showed that ZEA had significantly decreased cell proliferation (P < 0.05), which was accompanied by DNA damage-related cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase, activation of the apoptosis and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, as well as impairment of barrier function (P < 0.05). Western blot analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that exposure to ZEA can activation of autophagy in pTr cells. Importantly, pretreatment with chloroquine (CQ) or 3-methyladenine (3-MA) led to increased apoptosis in pTr cells. Interestingly, pTr cells pretreated with 4-phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA), an inhibitor of ER stress, resulted in reduced cell death in pTr cells, indicating a critical role for ER stress in the activation of autophagy. In conclusion, these results reveal that ZEA-triggered ER stress is critical for the cell fate decision of pTr cells during early porcine embryonic development. Application of small molecules with ability of blocking ER stress might be therapeutic option to reduce the deleterious effect of ZEA in pregnant animals.

Factors predicting regression of visual acuity following successful treatment of anisometropic amblyopia.

Objective: To identify factors associated with visual acuity regression following successful treatment of anisometropic amblyopia. Design and method: This was a retrospective cohort study. Database records for 100 and 61 children with anisometropic amblyopia who met at least one criterion for successful treatment proposed by the Pediatric Eye Disease Investigator Group (PEDIG) and had at least 1 year of follow-up data available after the criterion was met were analyzed. The study sample was split into two groups, those who regressed within 1 year of successful treatment (no longer met any of the PEDIG criteria for successful treatment) and those who did not. A two-step analysis involving a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression and a logistic regression were used to identify predictor variables for increased risk of regression. A broad range of clinical, perceptual, and demographic variables were included in the analyses. Results: Sixty-eight (42.5%) children regressed within 1 year of successful treatment. Among the 27 predictor variables considered within the statistical modeling process, the three most important for predicting treatment regression were the extent of amblyopic eye visual acuity improvement, age at first hospital visit and sex. Specifically, lower risk of regression was associated with larger amblyopic eye visual acuity improvement with treatment, younger age at initiation of treatment and female sex. Conclusion: Patients who received treatment at a younger age and responded well to treatment had a lower risk of treatment regression. This pattern of results suggests that early detection of amblyopia and strategies that enhance treatment adherence may reduce the risk of treatment regression. The higher risk of regression in boys than girls that we observed may reflect known sex differences in brain development and /or sex differences in environment within our sample of children from South China.

Amblyopia is associated with impaired balance in 3-6-year-old children in China.

Purpose: School-age children in China have more advanced motor development than their North American counterparts. This is likely due to cultural differences in children's regular motor activities. It is unknown whether the motor function impairments associated with binocular visual disorders (BVDs) such as amblyopia in children raised in North America exist for children raised in China. Design: Prospective case-control study. Methods: A major tertiary eye hospital in China tested children aged 3 to <7 (n = 63) belonging to three groups: anisometropic or strabismic amblyopia (n = 22), anisometropia or strabismus without amblyopia (n = 20), or controls (n = 21). The main outcome measure was motor function scores (Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2nd edition). Results: Balance scores varied significantly across groups (F 2,61 = 4.2, p = 0.02) with the amblyopia group (mean ± SD: 12.5 ± 3.0) exhibiting significantly poorer scores than controls (14.8 ± 2.3). The no-amblyopia BVD group (12.8 ± 3.1) did not differ significantly from the other groups. Manual dexterity, catching and throwing and total scores did not vary significantly across the three groups. A separate pre-planned comparison of only the amblyopia and control groups revealed significantly poorer total motor scores in the amblyopia group (10.1 ± 3.2) vs. controls (12 ± 2.4). A linear regression model was unable to significantly predict associations between total motor score and binocular function score (standardized ß = -0.09, 95%, p = 0.7), amblyopia etiology (standardized ß = 0.14, 95%, p = 0.4), or inter-ocular acuity difference (standardized ß = -0.18, 95%, p = 0.4), in the amblyopia group. Conclusion: Amblyopia is associated with motor function impairment in children raised in China. Motor deficits that may impact everyday activities have been observed in patients with amblyopia across multiple cultures.

Assessing the contrast sensitivity function in myopic parafovea: A quick contrast sensitivity functions study.

Purpose: Compare peripheral contrast sensitivity functions (CSF) between myopes and emmetropes to reveal potential myogenic risks during emmetropization. Materials and methods: This observational, cross-sectional, non-consecutive case study included data from 19 myopes (23.42 ± 4.03 years old) and 12 emmetropes (22.93 ± 2.91 years old) who underwent central and peripheral quick CSF (qCSF) measurements. Summary CSF metrics including the cut-off spatial frequency (cut-off SF), area under log CSF (AULCSF), low-, intermediate-, and high-spatial-frequency AULCSFs (l-, i-, and h-SF AULCSFs), and log CS at 19 SFs in the fovea and 15 peripheral locations (superior, inferior, temporal, and nasal quadrants at 6, 12, 18, and 24° eccentricities, excluding the physiological scotoma at 18°) were analyzed with 3-way and 4-way between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) (α = 0.05). Results: Three-way ANOVA showed that myopes had significantly increased AULCSF at 6° (mean difference, 0.08; 95% CI, 0.02-0.13; P = 0.007) and 12° (mean difference, 0.09; 95% CI, 0.03-0.14; P = 0.003). Log CS at all 19 SFs were higher in the myopia group compared to the normal group (mean differencesuperior, 0.02; 95% CI, 0.01-0.20; P = 0.02 and mean differenceinferior, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.02-0.21; P = 0.01) at 12°. The h-SF AULCSF at 6° (mean differenceinferior, 1.27; 95% CI, 0.32-2.22; P = 0.009) and i-SF AULCSF at 12° (mean differencesuperior, 5.31; 95% CI, 4.35-6.27; P < 0.001; mean differenceinferior, 1.14; 95% CI, 0.19-2.10; P = 0.02) were higher in myopia vs. normal group. Conclusion: We found myopia increased contrast sensitivity in superior and inferior visual field locations at 6° parafoveal and 12° perifoveal regions of the retina. The observation of increased contrast sensitivities within the macula visual field in myopia might provide important insights for myopia control during emmetropization.

Glucosamine alleviates zearalenone-induced damage to porcine trophectoderm cells by activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

As one of the mycotoxins commonly found in feed and food, zearalenone (ZEA) mainly harms the reproductive functions of humans and animals. In our study, we investigated the protective effects of glucosamine (GlcN) on ZEA-induced apoptosis and oxidative damage of porcine trophectoderm (pTr) cells. Our results showed that 0.5 mmol L-1 GlcN significantly alleviated ZEA-induced decline in pTr cell viability. In addition, GlcN also significantly reversed other toxicity of ZEA to pTr cells, including G2/M phase arrest, DNA damage, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and barrier function disruption. Further studies indicated that GlcN can reduce apoptosis and autophagy in pTr cells in response to ZEA treatment. These results were confirmed by flow cytometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and western blotting to detect the expressions of apoptosis and autophagy related proteins. Notably, GlcN activated the expressions of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway related proteins, suggesting that its protective effect on pTr cells may be mediated by the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. To demonstrate this mechanism, we used the PI3K/AKT pathway inhibitor wortmannin to pretreat pTr cells, and showed that the protective effect of GlcN on ZEA-induced pTr cytotoxicity was eliminated. In conclusion, GlcN was able to alleviate ZEA-induced toxic effects in pTr cells. This study also provides a theoretical basis for GlcN alleviating the adverse effects of ZEA on early embryo development and proved its potential application prospects.

Roles of stress response-related signaling and its contribution to the toxicity of zearalenone in mammals.

Zearalenone (ZEA) is a mycotoxin frequently found in cereal crops and cereal-derived foodstuffs worldwide. It affects plant productivity, and is also a serious hazard to humans and animals if being exposed to food/feed contaminated by ZEA. Studies over the last decade have shown that the toxicity of ZEA in animals is mainly mediated by the various stress responses, such as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, oxidative stress, and others. Accumulating evidence shows that oxidative stress and ER stress signaling are actively implicated in and contributes to the pathophysiology of various diseases. Biochemically, the deleterious effects of ZEA are associated with apoptosis, DNA damage, and lipid peroxidation by regulating the expression of genes implicated in these biological processes. Despite these findings, the underlying mechanisms responsible for these alterations remain unclear. This review summarized the characteristics, metabolism, toxicity and the deleterious effects of ZEA exposure in various tissues of animals. Stress response signaling implicated in the toxicity as well as potential therapeutic options with the ability to reduce the deleterious effects of ZEA in animals were highlighted and discussed.

Task-Related Component Analysis Combining Paired Character Decoding for Miniature Asymmetric Visual Evoked Potentials.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology based on event-related potentials (ERP) of electroencephalography (EEG) is widely used in daily life and medical treatment. However, the research of identifying the miniature and more informative asymmetric visual evoked potentials (aVEPs), which belongs to ERP, needs further exploration. Herein, a task-related component analysis combining paired character decoding (TRCA-PCD) method, which can enhance reproducibility of aVEPs in multiple trials and strengthen the features of different samples, was designed to realize fast decoding of aVEPs. The BCI performance and the influence of repetition times between the TRCA-PCD method, the discriminative canonical pattern matching (DCPM) method and traditional task-related component analysis (TRCA) method were compared using a 32-class aVEPs dataset recorded from 32 subjects. The highest average recognition accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) of TRCA-PCD after parameter selection were 70.37 ± 2.49 % (DCPM: 64.91 ± 2.81 %, TRCA: 44.01 ± 3.25 %) with the peak value of 97.92% and 28.90 ± 3.83 bits/min (DCPM: 21.29 ± 3.35 bits/min, TRCA: 11.54 ± 2.81 bits/min) with the peak value of 94.55 bits/min respectively. Statistical analysis indicated that the highest average recognition rate could be obtained when the repetition time was six, and the highest ITR could be obtained when the repetition time was one. Overall, the results verified the effectiveness and superiority of TRCA-PCD in recognition of aVEPs and provided a reference for parameter selection. Therefore, the TRCA-PCD method can promote the further application of aVEPs in the BCI speller field.

Contrast Sensitivity and Stereoacuity in Successfully Treated Refractive Amblyopia.

Purpose: To assess whether monocular contrast sensitivity and stereoacuity impairments remain when visual acuity is fully recovered in children with refractive amblyopia. Methods: A retrospective review of 487 patients diagnosed with refractive amblyopia whose visual acuity improved to 0.08 logMAR or better in both eyes following optical treatment was conducted. Measurements of monocular contrast sensitivity and stereoacuity had been made when visual acuity normalized. All patients had been treated with refractive correction for approximately 2 years following diagnosis. No other treatments were provided. Monocular contrast sensitivity was measured using the CSV-1000E chart for children 6 years of age or younger and a psychophysical technique called the quick contrast sensitivity function in older children. Stereoacuity was measured using the Random Dot Test that includes monocular cues and the Randot Stereoacuity Test that does not have monocular cues. Results: Statistically significant interocular differences in contrast sensitivity were observed. These differences tended to occur at higher spatial frequencies (12 and 18 cycles per degree). Stereoacuity within the age-specific normal range was achieved by 47.4% of patients for the Random Dot Test and only 23.1% of patients for the Randot Stereoacuity Test. Conclusions: Full recovery of visual acuity following treatment for refractive amblyopia does not equalize interocular contrast sensitivity or restore normal stereopsis. Alternative therapeutic approaches that target contrast sensitivity and/or binocular vision are required.