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Objective: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a prevalent refractory partial epilepsy seen in clinical practice, with most cases originating from the hippocampus and being characterized by impaired learning and memory. Oxidative stress plays a direct role in the development of epilepsy and neurodegeneration while promoting cognitive dysfunction. Previous research indicates that benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) has antioxidative stress properties and contributes to neuroprotection. In this study, we aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of BITC on a lithium-pilocarpine-induced temporal lobe epileptic mice model. Methods: We conducted Intellicage learning tests, Morris water maze, open field test, and step-down-type passive avoidance tests, respectively. In addition, body weight and brain-to-body ratio were calculated. Nissl staining, real-time quantitative PCR detection of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) and NAD(P)H dehydrogenase quinone 1(NQO1) were performed. Content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) were determined. Results: Our results demonstrate that BITC enhances cognitive function and motor ability in mice, as determined by Intellicage learning tests, Morris water maze, open field test, and step-down-type passive avoidance tests, respectively. Epilepsy leads to the loss of neurons in the CA3 region, while BITC treatment plays a positive role in neuroprotection, especially in the cortex. In comparison to the control group, the EP group exhibited decreased transcription levels of HO-1 and NQO1, alongside reduced GSH-Px activity, while MDA content was elevated. Conversely, the BITC treatment group, when compared to the EP group, showed enhanced transcription levels of Nrf2, HO-1, and NQO1, along with increased GSH-Px activity, and a decrease in MDA content. Conclusion: In summary, our study provides evidence that BITC can improve cognitive impairments in pilocarpine-induced epileptic mice, demonstrating significant antioxidant effects and neuroprotective properties. This highlights its potential as a phytochemical for managing the sequelae of epilepsy.
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Background Research on non-target organ damage of biological pesticides has attracted much attention. Rotenone exposure may be far beyond the occupational environment, and the exposureduring pregnancy may be increased through bioaccumulation, fruit or vegetable residues, and other forms of oral intake. At present, the effects of rotenone on placental development and its mechanism are still unknown. Objective To investigate the developmental damage of rat placenta and evaluate the expression levels of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK-3β) and beta catenin (β-catenin) followed by rotenone exposure through the placental barrier during pregnancy, as well as to propose possible associated mechanisms. Methods Eighteen sexually mature SD female infertile rats without specific pathogens were selected and divided into three groups: blank control group (0.9% saline), corn oil group, and rotenone group (corn oil + 2 mg·kg−1 rotenone) by random number method, six female animals in each group. Another six male rats were selected and mated to the female rats at night with a female to male ratio of 3:1 per cage. Pregnant rats were given 0.9% saline, corn oil, and 2 mg·kg−1 rotenone preparation by isovolumetric gavage once daily for the entire gestation period (19 d), and their conditions were observed after the last dose. The pregnant rats were anesthetized, and the size of the placenta and blood perfusion were detected by ultrasound the next day of the last dose of rotenone. Then, 3 pregnant rats in each group were sacrificed immediately and the placenta and umbilical cord tissues were dissected. The remaining 9 pregnant rats gave birth naturally, and the fetuses were observed for developmental evaluation and weighed. The histopathological changes of umbilical cord and placenta were observed by hematoxylin-eosin staining. The reactive oxygen species levels of placenta tissues were detected by flow cytometry. The Ca2+-ATPase activity of placenta tissues was detected by colorimetric method. The localization and levels of GSK-3β and β-catenin expression of placenta were detected by immunohistochemistry. The p-GSK-3β/GSK-3β and p-β-catenin/β-catenin protein expression in placental tissues were measured by Western blotting. Results No injury or death was recorded during the pregnant rats receiving rotennon administration. Adverse pregnancy outcomes such as fetal absorption and postpartum stillbirth were found in the rotenone group, and the weight of the fetal mice decreased (P<0.05). The B-ultrasound showed disc-shaped placenta with a thick middle and thin edge, smooth fetal surface, rough maternal surface, visible placental lobules, granular echotexture of the placenta with comma-like echogenic densities, and chorionic plate showing deep indentations, no calcification, degeneration, or necrosis in each group. Compared with the corn oil group, the fetal surface diameter of the placenta was reduced in the rotenone group (P<0.05). The Doppler color ultrasound showed that interplacental blood flow was reduced in the rotenone group, while interplacental blood flow was abundant in the blank control and the corn oil groups. The hematoxylin-eosin staining results showed that smooth muscle cells in the umbilical cord tissues of rats were loosely arranged, with fuzzy nuclei and inflammatory infiltration in the rotenone group. The placental trophoblast cells were small in size, disorderly arranged with nuclear fragmentation and cytoplasm turbidity. The tissue reactive oxygen species level in the rotenone group was higher than those in the other two groups (P<0.05). The Ca2+-ATPase activity of placental tissues was reduced in the rotenone group (P<0.05). The immunofluorescence low-magnification observation showed that GSK-3β and β-catenin were expressed in placental tissue, weak fluorescence expression in the decidua basalis, strong fluorescence expression in the labyrinthine layer structure. The labyrinthine layer under high magnification showed that compared with the blank control group and the corn oil group, the brightness of β-catenin fluorescence expression in the rotenone group decreased (P<0.05), and the brightness of GSK-3β expression increased (P<0.05). The Western blotting results showed that the expression of β-catenin and p-GSK-3β proteins decreased (P<0.01), and the expression of GSK-3β protein increased (P<0.01) in the rotenone group. No significant expression of p-β-catenin protein was detected in the placenta tissue of each group. Conclusion Rotenone exposure during pregnancy induces placental hypoperfusion, growth retardation, and oxidative stress in rats, as well as down-regulation of β-catenin and p-GSK-3β protein expression, and up-regulation of GSK-3β protein expression, which may further lead to abnormal pregnancy and fetal restricted growth.
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Deep learning has become a research hotspot in multimedia, especially in the field of image processing. Pooling operation is an important operation in deep learning. Pooling operation can reduce the feature dimension, the number of parameters, the complexity of computation, and the complexity of time. With the development of deep learning models, pooling operation has made great progress. The main contributions of this paper on pooling operation are as follows: firstly, the steps of the pooling operation are summarized as the pooling domain, pooling kernel, step size, activation value, and response value. Secondly, the expression form of pooling operation is standardized. From the perspective of "invariable" to "variable," this paper analyzes the pooling domain and pooling kernel in the pooling operation. Pooling operation can be classified into four categories: invariable of pooling domain, variable of pooling domain, variable of pooling kernel, and the pooling of invariable "+" variable. Finally, the four types of pooling operation are summarized and discussed with their advantages and disadvantages. There is great significance to the research of pooling operations and the iterative updating of deep learning models.
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Aprendizado Profundo , Processamento de Imagem Assistida por Computador/métodosRESUMO
A global sentiment in early 2022 is that the COVID-19 virus could become endemic just like common cold flu viruses soon. The most optimistic view is that, with minimal precautions, such as vaccination, boosters and optional masking, life for most people will proceed as normal soon. However, as warned by A. Katzourakis of Oxford University recently [1], we must set aside lazy optimism, and must be realistic about the likely levels of death, disability and sickness that will be brought on by a COVID-19 endemic. Moreover, the world must also consider that continual circulation of the virus could give rise to new variants such as the new BA.2 variant (a subvariant of Omicron) continues to spread across the US and parts of Europe. Data from the CDC is already showing that BA.2 has been tripling in prevalence every two weeks [2]. Hence, globally, we must use available and proven weapons to continue to fight the COVID-19 viruses, i.e., effective vaccines, antiviral medications, diagnostic tests and stop an airborne virus transmission through social distancing, and mask wearing. For this work, we have demonstrated a smart mask with an optimally-coupled ultra-thin flexible soundwave sensors for tracking, classifying, and recognizing different respiratory activities, including breathing, speaking, and two-/tri-phase coughing; the masks functionality can also be augmented in the future to monitor other human physiological signals. Although researchers have integrated sensors into masks to detect respiratory activities in the past, they only based on measuring temperature and air flow during coughing, i.e., counting only the number of coughs. However, coughing is a process consisting of several phases, including an explosion of the air with glottal opening producing some noise-like waveform, a decrease of airflow to decrease sound amplitude, and a voiced stage which is the interruption of the air flow due to the closure of glottal and periodical vibration of partly glottis, which is not always present. Therefore, sensors used for cough detection should not be only sensitive to subtle air pressure but also the high-frequency vibrations, i.e., a pressure sensor that needs to be responsive to a wide input amplitude and bandwidth range, in order to detect air flows between hundreds of hertz from breath, and acoustic signals from voice that could reach [~] 8000 Hz. Respiratory activities data from thirty-one (31) human subjects were collected. Machine learning methods such as Support Vector Machines and Convolutional Neural Networks were used to classify the collected sensor data from the smart mask, which show an overall macro-recall of about 93.88% for the three respiratory sounds among all 31 subjects. For individual subjects, the 31 human subjects have the average macro-recall of 95.23% (ranging from 90% to 100%) for these 3 respiratory activities. Our work bridges the technological gap between ultra-lightweight but high-frequency response sensor material fabrication, signal transduction and conditioning, and applying machining learning algorithms to demonstrate a reliable wearable device for potential applications in continual healthy monitoring of subjects with cough symptoms during the eventual COVID-19 endemic. The monitoring and analysis of cough sound should be highly beneficial for human health management. These health monitoring data could then be shared with doctors via cloud storage and transmission technique to help disease diagnosis more effectively. Also, communication barriers caused by wearing masks can be alleviated by combining with the speech recognition techniques. In general, this research helps to advance the wearable device technology for tracking respiratory activities, similar to an Apple Watch or a Fitbit smartwatch in tracking physical and physiological activities.
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ObjectiveAllocation of medical resource is essential to a strong public health system in response to COVID-19. Analysis of confirmed COVID-19 patients hospital length of stay in Sichuan can be informative to decision-making in other regions of the world. DesignA retrospective cross-sectional study. Data and MethodData from confirmed COVID-19 cases in Sichuan Province were obtained from the National Notifiable Diseases Reporting System (NNDRS) and field survey. We collected information on demographic, epidemiological, clinical characteristics, and the length of hospital stay for confirmed patients. We conducted an exploratory analysis using adjusted multivariate cox-proportional models. ParticipantsA total of 538 confirmed patients of COVID-19 infection in Sichuan Province from January to March 2020. Outcome measureThe length of hospital stay after admissions for confirmed patients. ResultsFrom January 16, 2020 to March 4, 2020, 538 human cases of COVID-19 infection were laboratory-confirmed, and were hospitalized for treatment. Among these, 271 (50%) were 45 years of age or above, 285 (53%) were male, 450 (84%) were considered as having mild symptoms. The median hospital length of stay was 19 days (interquartile range (IQR): 14-23, Range: 3-41). Adjusted multivariate analysis showed that longer hospital length of stay was associated with factors aged 45 and over (HR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.60-0.91), those admitted to provincial hospital (HR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.54-0.99), and those with serious illness (HR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.48-0.90); living in areas with more than 5.5 healthcare workers per 1000 population (HR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.05-1.65) was associated with shorter hospital length of stay. There was no gender difference. ConclusionsPreparation control measures of COVID-19 should involve the allocation of sufficient medical resources, especially in areas with older vulnerable populations and in areas that lack basic medical resources. Strengths and limitations of this study{blacktriangleright} Patients at least 45 years, those with serious illness, those living in areas with fewer healthcare workers per 1,000 people, and those admitted to higher levels of hospitalization had longer lengths of hospitalization, while gender, time interval from onset to visit the hospital had no effect on the length of the hospital stay. {blacktriangleright}Preparation of timely evidence-based prevention and control measures for COVID-19 involve allocation of sufficient medical resources, especially in areas with older vulnerable populations and in areas that lack basic medical resources. {blacktriangleright}Based on findings, it is of great significance to strengthen the construction of multi-level medical institutions in response to public health emergencies and occupation of medical resources. {blacktriangleright}The characteristics of inpatients can be further subdivided to obtain more detailed inpatient characteristics.
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Objective: To evaluate the relationship between the levels of serum uric acid (SUA) and prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) by Meta analysis. Methods: We searched the databases of Pub Med, Elsevier and Web of Science for internationally published cohort study for the relationship between SUA levels and CAD prevalence and conducted a general analysisby using Stata software. Results: A total of 11 cohort study including 463,918 subjects were enrolled in this study. For both male and female genders, increase SUA level was the risk factor for CAD occurrence (RR=1.11, 95% CI 1.00-1.24) and (RR=1.24, 95% CI 1.15-1.34). Dose-response Meta-analysis indicated that by 1 mg/dl SUA elevation, the risk of CAD occurrence would increase 4.8% in male and 12.4% in female, the risk in female gender was higher than male. Conclusion: SUA level has been closely related to CAD prevalence.
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BACKGROUND:In recent years, great progress has been achieved in the mechanical and viscoelastic properties of arterial blood vessels of normal human corpses and animals. OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively analyze the tensile mechanical properties of thoracic aorta in normaly fed spontaneously hypertensive rats and salt-loaded spontaneously hypertensive rats. METHODS: Twenty spontaneously hypertensive rats were obtained and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n=10/group). Rats in the experimental group were subjected to continuous salt loading intervention for 16 weeks. Rats in the control group were fed with normal diet and ordinary tap water. At the 16th week, 10 specimens of thoracic aorta of rats from these two groups were harvested to conduct stress relaxation experiments.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The decrease in stress at 7 200 seconds and the decrease in normalized stress relaxation function value at 7 200 seconds of thoracic aortic specimens of rats in experimental group were both lower than those in the control group (P< 0.05). These results confirm that the stress relaxation properties of thoracic aorta of normaly fed and salt-loaded spontaneously hypertensive rats change, wherein the changes in salt-loaded spontaneously hypertensive rats are more obvious.
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BACKGROUND:Many studies have shown that Chinese medicineFuming granules have certain curative effects on optic nerve injury, but a large number of experimental studies are stil needed to verify. OBJECTIVE:To verify the effect of Chinese medicineFuming granules on optic nerve injury by the method of stress relaxation experiments. METHODS: The animal models of optic nerve injury were established by the clamping method. Rats were intervened withFuming granules by intragastric administration. Model group and normal control group were set for comparison. After 30 days of successive administration, optic nerve injury received stress relaxation experiments in each group, and histomorphology was observed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:In the normal control group, the optic nerve nuclei distributed uniformly without edema, augmentation or inflammatory cels, and the axon and other contents had a clear structure. In the model group, the optic nerve fiber arranged sparsely, presented unclear structure, and axon, karyorrhexis and the other contents changed. In theFuming granule group, the transect of optic nerve which arranged densely had large area, and most of the axon had a normal structure. The decreases in stress at 7 200 s and stress relaxation were as folows: normal control group > fuming granule group > model group (P < 0.05). Results confirmed that Chinese medicineFuming granule accelerates the recovery of axoplasm of injured optic nerve, restores the morphology of axons, and contributes to the recovery of injured optic nerve.
