Seizure Pathways Changes at the Subject-Specific Level via Dynamic Step Effective Network Analysis.

The variability in the propagation pathway in epilepsy is a main factor contributing to surgical treatment failure. Ways to accurately capture the brain propagation network and quantitatively assess its evolution remain poorly described. This work aims to develop a dynamic step effective network (dSTE) to obtain the propagation path network of multiple seizures in the same patient and explore the degree of dissimilarity. Multichannel stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG) signals were acquired with ictal processes involving continuous changes in information propagation. We utilized high-order dynamic brain networks to obtain propagation networks through different levels of linking steps. We proposed a dissimilarity index based on singular value decomposition to quantitatively compare seizure pathways. Simulated data were generated through The Virtual Brain, and the reliability of this method was verified through ablation experiments. By applying the proposed method to two datasets consisting of 29 patients total, the evolution processes of each patient's seizure networks was obtained, and the within-patient dissimilarities were quantitatively compared. Finally, three types of brain network connectivity patterns were found. Type I patients have a good prognosis, while type III patients are prone to postoperative recurrence. This method captures the evolution of seizure propagation networks and assesses their dissimilarity more reliably than existing methods, demonstrating good robustness for studying the propagation path differences for multiple seizures in epilepsy patients. The three different patterns will be important considerations when planning epilepsy surgery under sEEG guidance.

Abnormal and Changing Information Interaction in Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Based on Network Motifs.

Network motif analysis approaches provide insights into the complexity of the brain's functional network. In recent years, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been reported to result in abnormal information interactions in macro- and micro-scale functional networks. However, most existing studies remain limited due to potentially ignoring meso-scale topology information. To address this gap, we aimed to investigate functional motif patterns in ADHD to unravel the underlying information flow and analyze motif-based node roles to characterize the different information interaction methods for identifying the abnormal and changing lesion sites of ADHD. The results showed that the interaction functions of the right hippocampus and the right amygdala were significantly increased, which could lead patients to develop mood disorders. The information interaction of the bilateral thalamus changed, influencing and modifying behavioral results. Notably, the capability of receiving information in the left inferior temporal and the right lingual gyrus decreased, which may cause difficulties for patients in processing visual information in a timely manner, resulting in inattention. This study revealed abnormal and changing information interactions based on network motifs, providing important evidence for understanding information interactions at the meso-scale level in ADHD patients.

Spatial-temporal patterns and influencing factors for pulmonary tuberculosis transmission in China: an analysis based on 15 years of surveillance data.

Profiting from a series of anti-tuberculosis programs in China, the number of tuberculosis (TB) cases has diminished dramatically in the past decades. However, long-term spatial-temporal variations, regional trends of prevalence, and mechanisms of determinant factors remain unclear. Age-period-cohort analysis and Bayesian space-time hierarchy statistics were conducted to identify high-risk populations and areas in mainland China, and the geographical detector model was used to evaluate the important drivers of the disease. The prevalence of pulmonary TB has declined from 73.3/100,000 in 2004 to 55.45/100,000 in 2018. A bimodal distribution was found in age groups, and the birth cohorts before 1978 had relative higher risk. The high-risk areas were mainly distributed in western China and south-central China, and several provinces in eastern China showed a potential increasing trend, including Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, and Guangdong province. The index of night light (Q = 0.46), the population density (Q = 0.41), PM10 (Q = 0.38), urbanization rate (Q = 0.32), and PM 2.5 (Q = 0.31) contributed substantially to the spatial distribution of pulmonary tuberculosis. The identifications of epidemic patterns, high-risk areas and influence factors would help design targeted intervention measures to achieve milestones of the end TB strategy.

Abnormal information interaction in multilayer directed network based on cross-frequency integration of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been reported to result in abnormal cross-frequency integration. However, previous studies have failed to consider specific abnormalities in receiving and outputting information among frequency bands during integration. Here, we investigated heterogeneity in receiving and outputting information during cross-frequency integration in patients. The results showed that during cross-frequency integration, information interaction first increased and then decreased, manifesting in the heterogeneous distribution of inter-frequency nodes for receiving information. A possible explanation was that due to damage to some inter-frequency hub nodes, intra-frequency nodes gradually became new inter-frequency nodes, whereas original inter-frequency nodes gradually became new inter-frequency hub nodes. Notably, damage to the brain regions that receive information between layers was often accompanied by a strengthened ability to output information and the emergence of hub nodes for outputting information. Moreover, an important compensatory mechanism assisted in the reception of information in the cingulo-opercular and auditory networks and in the outputting of information in the visual network. This study revealed specific abnormalities in information interaction and compensatory mechanism during cross-frequency integration, providing important evidence for understanding cross-frequency integration in patients with MCI and AD.

Abnormal Spatial and Temporal Overlap of Time-Varying Brain Functional Networks in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a complex psychiatric disorder with unclear etiology and pathological features. Neuroscientists are increasingly proposing that schizophrenia is an abnormality in the dynamic organization of brain networks. Previous studies have found that the dynamic brain networks of people with SZ are abnormal in both space and time. However, little is known about the interactions and overlaps between hubs of the brain underlying spatiotemporal dynamics. In this study, we aimed to investigate different patterns of spatial and temporal overlap of hubs between SZ patients and healthy individuals. Specifically, we obtained resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the public dataset for 43 SZ patients and 49 healthy individuals. We derived a representation of time-varying functional connectivity using the Jackknife Correlation (JC) method. We employed the Betweenness Centrality (BC) method to identify the hubs of the brain's functional connectivity network. We then applied measures of temporal overlap, spatial overlap, and hierarchical clustering to investigate differences in the organization of brain hubs between SZ patients and healthy controls. Our findings suggest significant differences between SZ patients and healthy controls at the whole-brain and subnetwork levels. Furthermore, spatial overlap and hierarchical clustering analysis showed that quasi-periodic patterns were disrupted in SZ patients. Analyses of temporal overlap revealed abnormal pairwise engagement preferences in the hubs of SZ patients. These results provide new insights into the dynamic characteristics of the network organization of the SZ brain.

Low Power Consumption Hybrid-Integrated Thermo-Optic Switch with Polymer Cladding and Silica Waveguide Core.

Taking advantage of the large thermo-optical coefficient of polymer materials, a hybrid-integrated thermo-optic switch was designed and simulated. It is also compatible with the existing silica-based planar light-wave circuit (PLC) platform. To further reduce the power consumption, we introduced the air trench structure and optimized the structural parameters of the heating region. This scheme is beneficial to solving the problem of the large driving power of silica-based thermo-optic switches at this stage. Compared with the switching power of all-silica devices, the power consumption can be reduced from 116.11 mW (TE) and 114.86 mW (TM) to 5.49 mW (TE) and 5.96 mW (TM), which is close to the driving power of the reported switches adopting polymer material as the core. For the TE mode, the switch's rise and fall times were 121 µs and 329 µs. For the TM mode, the switch times were simulated to be 118 µs (rise) and 329 µs (fall). This device can be applied to hybrid integration fields such as array switches and reconfigurable add/drop multiplexing (ROADM) technology.

Trends and focuses of hantavirus researches: a global bibliometric analysis and visualization from 1980 to 2020.

BACKGROUND: There have been worldwide changes in the researches on hantaviruses in the past several decades. Nevertheless, there are few bibliometric analysis studies this field. We aim to evaluate and visualize the research focuses and trends of this field using a bibliometric analysis way to help understand the developmet and future hotspots of this field. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Publications related to hantavirus studies were culled from the Web of Science Core Collection to generate trend analysis. The articles and reviews were re-extracted and Countries, institutions, authors, references and keywords in this field were visually analyzed by using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. RESULTS: A total of 4408 studies were included and the number of publications regarding hantaviruses significantly increased yearly. Three thousand seven hundred sixteen research articles and reviews were retrieved to generate bibliometric analysis. These studies mainly come from 125 countries led by USA and China and 3312 institutions led by the University of Helsinki. Twelve thousand five hundred twenty nine authors were identified and Vaheri A were the most influential author. Journal of Virology was the journal with the most studies and citations. After analysis, Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, nephropathia epidemica and related genotypes, clinical symptoms and rodents were the most common keywords and developing areas. CONCLUSION: Research on hantavirus is flourishing. Cooperation among different countries and institutions in this field must be strengthened in the future. The ecology and clinical symptoms of new genotypes, the vaccine development and factors that affect host population distribution and density are current and developing areas of study.

Epidemic characteristics and transmission risk prediction of brucellosis in Xi'an city, Northwest China.

Human brucellosis (HB) has re-emerged in China since the mid-1990s, and exhibited an apparent geographic expansion shifted from the traditional livestock regions to the inland areas of China. It is often neglected in non-traditional epidemic areas, posing a serious threat to public health in big cities. We carried out a retrospective epidemiological study in Xi'an, the largest city in northwestern China. It utilizes long-term surveillance data on HB during 2008-2021 and investigation data during 2014-2021. A total of 1989 HB cases were reported in Xi'an, consisting of 505 local cases, i.e., those located in Xi'an and 1,484 non-local cases, i.e., those located in other cities. Significantly epidemiological heterogeneity was observed between them, mainly owing to differences in the gender, occupation, diagnostic delays, and reporting institutions. Serological investigations suggested that 59 people and 1,822 animals (sheep, cattle, and cows) tested positive for brucellosis from 2014 to 2021, with the annual average seroprevalence rates were 1.38 and 1.54%, respectively. The annual animal seroprevalence rate was positively correlated with the annual incidence of non-local HB cases. Multivariate boosted regression tree models revealed that gross domestic product, population density, length of township roads, number of farms, and nighttime lights substantially contributed to the spatial distribution of local HB. Approximately 7.84 million people inhabited the potential infection risk zones in Xi'an. Our study highlights the reemergence of HB in non-epidemic areas and provides a baseline for large and medium-sized cities to identify regions, where prevention and control efforts should be prioritized in the future.

Multiple Survival Outcome Prediction of Glioblastoma Patients Based on Multiparametric MRI.

PURPOSE: Construction of radiomics models for the individualized estimation of multiple survival stratification in glioblastoma (GBM) patients using the multiregional information extracted from multiparametric MRI that could facilitate clinical decision-making for GBM patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 134 eligible GBM patients were selected from The Cancer Genome Atlas. These patients were separated into the long-term and short-term survival groups according to the median of individual survival indicators: overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and disease-specific survival (DSS). Then, the patients were divided into a training set and a validation set in a ratio of 2:1. Radiomics features (n = 5,152) were extracted from multiple regions of the GBM using multiparametric MRI. Then, radiomics signatures that are related to the three survival indicators were respectively constructed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression for each patient in the training set. Based on a Cox proportional hazards model, the radiomics model was further constructed by combining the signature and clinical risk factors. RESULTS: The constructed radiomics model showed a promising discrimination ability to differentiate in the training set and validation set of GBM patients with survival indicators of OS, PFS, and DSS. Both the four MRI modalities and five tumor subregions have different effects on the three survival indicators of GBM. The favorable calibration and decision curve analysis indicated the clinical decision value of the radiomics model. The performance of models of the three survival indicators was different but excellent; the best model achieved C indexes of 0.725, 0.677, and 0.724, respectively, in the validation set. CONCLUSION: Our results show that the proposed radiomics models have favorable predictive accuracy on three survival indicators and can provide individualized probabilities of survival stratification for GBM patients by using multiparametric and multiregional MRI features.

Cardioprotective effects of combined therapy with diltiazem and superoxide dismutase on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.

AIMS: Our experiments were designed to study the effect of diltiazem (DIL) combined with superoxide dismutase (SOD) on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (MIRI) injury in a rat model. MAIN METHODS: Fifty rats were randomly separated into sham, ischemia-reperfusion (IR), DIL (5mg/kg), SOD (10,000U/kg) and combinatorial therapy (DIL plus SOD) groups. MIRI was induced by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery for 30min and then reperfusing for 60min. The cardioprotective effects of combinatorial therapy were evaluated using hemodynamics, biochemical indices, histopathology and apoptotic-related proteins and gene expression. KEY FINDINGS: Compared with the IR group, combinatorial therapy significantly improved cardiac function and decreased arrhythmia, myocardial infarction area and release of myocardial enzyme. In addition, combinatorial therapy protected the myocardial cell structure as well as markedly alleviated oxidative stress, resulting in upregulation of Bcl-2 and adenine nucleotide transporter-1 expression as well as downregulation of Bax, caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3 expression. SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicated that DIL combined with SOD can provide protection against MIRI in rats, and these effects may be attributed to a reduction in oxygen stress damage, attenuation of calcium overload, and inhibition of cell apoptosis.