Dispersion of bacterial cellulose bundles in organic solvents and their assembly as ultra-low grammage coating on woven fabric.

Water is commonly considered as the optimal dispersing medium for nanocellulose given its hydrophilic nature. However, studies have also proven otherwise that alternative organic solvents may give better dispersion quality. Herein, a thermodynamic approach is used to estimate the Hansen solubility parameters of bacterial cellulose (BC) and understand the dispersion of BC bundles in selected organic solvents (i.

Does pre-speech auditory modulation reflect processes related to feedback monitoring or speech movement planning?

Previous studies have revealed that auditory processing is modulated during the planning phase immediately prior to speech onset. To date, the functional relevance of this pre-speech auditory modulation (PSAM) remains unknown. Here, we investigated whether PSAM reflects neuronal processes that are associated with preparing auditory cortex for optimized feedback monitoring as reflected in online speech corrections.

Does pre-speech auditory modulation reflect processes related to feedback monitoring or speech movement planning?

Previous studies have revealed that auditory processing is modulated during the planning phase immediately prior to speech onset. To date, the functional relevance of this pre-speech auditory modulation (PSAM) remains unknown. Here, we investigated whether PSAM reflects neuronal processes that are associated with preparing auditory cortex for optimized feedback monitoring as reflected in online speech corrections.

Revealing speckle obscured living human retinal cells with artificial intelligence assisted adaptive optics optical coherence tomography.

Background: In vivo imaging of the human retina using adaptive optics optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) has transformed medical imaging by enabling visualization of 3D retinal structures at cellular-scale resolution, including the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, which are essential for maintaining visual function. However, because noise inherent to the imaging process (e.g.

Social Determinants of Health in Community-Dwelling Dementia Patients Aged 65 and Over: Analysis of the 2019 National Health Interview Survey.

Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias affect 3.4 million community-dwelling adults in the United States. Given the burden of disease, a greater understanding of modifiable risk factors is crucial for targeted public health strategies.

Visualization of erythrocyte stasis in the living human eye in health and disease.

Blood cells trapped in stasis have been reported within the microcirculation, but their relevance to health and disease has not been established. In this study, we introduce an imaging approach that reveals the presence of a previously-unknown pool of erythrocytes in stasis, located within capillary segments of the CNS, and present in 100% of subjects imaged. These results provide a key insight that blood cells pause as they travel through the choroidal microvasculature, a vascular structure that boasts the highest blood flow of any tissue in the body.

Widespread subclinical cellular changes revealed across a neural-epithelial-vascular complex in choroideremia using adaptive optics.

Choroideremia is an X-linked, blinding retinal degeneration with progressive loss of photoreceptors, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, and choriocapillaris. To study the extent to which these layers are disrupted in affected males and female carriers, we performed multimodal adaptive optics imaging to better visualize the in vivo pathogenesis of choroideremia in the living human eye. We demonstrate the presence of subclinical, widespread enlarged RPE cells present in all subjects imaged.

Photoreceptor and Retinal Pigment Epithelium Relationships in Eyes With Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy Revealed by Multimodal Adaptive Optics Imaging.

Purpose: To assess the structure of cone photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells in vitelliform macular dystrophy (VMD) arising from various genetic etiologies.

Methods: Multimodal adaptive optics (AO) imaging was performed in 11 patients with VMD using a custom-assembled instrument. Non-confocal split detection and AO-enhanced indocyanine green were used to visualize the cone photoreceptor and RPE mosaics, respectively.

Toward an index of oral somatosensory acuity: Comparison of three measures in adults.

Purpose: Somatosensory targets and feedback are instrumental in ensuring accurate speech production. Individuals differ in their ability to access and respond to somatosensory information, but there is no established standard for measuring somatosensory acuity. The primary objective of this study was to determine which of three measures of somatosensory acuity had the strongest association with change in production accuracy in a vowel learning task, while controlling for the better-studied covariate of auditory acuity.

Dietary interventions on the prevention and management of diabetes in post-kidney transplantation - A systematic review.

Post-transplant diabetes mellitus is associated with long-term immunosuppression and weight gain, and is related to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, accelerated loss of graft and increased mortality. There is an absence of strong evidence-based dietary guidelines for the prevention and management of post-transplant diabetes mellitus in kidney transplant recipients. The aim of this study was to systematically review all dietary evidence for kidney transplant recipients on clinical outcomes relating to diabetes, patient-reported outcomes and economic outcomes.

sub-diffraction adaptive optics imaging of photoreceptors in the human eye with annular pupil illumination and sub-Airy detection.

Adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) allows non-invasive visualization of the living human eye at the microscopic scale; but even with correction of the ocular wavefront aberrations over a large pupil, the smallest cells in the photoreceptor mosaic cannot always be resolved. Here, we synergistically combine annular pupil illumination with sub-Airy disk confocal detection to demonstrate a 33% improvement in transverse resolution (from 2.36 to 1.

Integrating adaptive optics-SLO and OCT for multimodal visualization of the human retinal pigment epithelial mosaic.

In vivo imaging of human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells has been demonstrated through multiple adaptive optics (AO)-based modalities. However, whether consistent and complete information regarding the cellular structure of the RPE mosaic is obtained across these modalities remains uncertain due to limited comparisons performed in the same eye. Here, an imaging platform combining multimodal AO-scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AO-SLO) with AO-optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) is developed to make a side-by-side comparison of the same RPE cells imaged across four modalities: AO-darkfield, AO-enhanced indocyanine green (AO-ICG), AO-infrared autofluorescence (AO-IRAF), and AO-OCT.

Persistent Dark Cones in Oligocone Trichromacy Revealed by Multimodal Adaptive Optics Ophthalmoscopy.

Dark cone photoreceptors, defined as those with diminished or absent reflectivity when observed with adaptive optics (AO) ophthalmoscopy, are increasingly reported in retinal disorders. However, their structural and functional impact remain unclear. Here, we report a 3-year longitudinal study on a patient with oligocone trichromacy (OT) who presented with persistent, widespread dark cones within and near the macula.

High-speed label-free two-photon fluorescence microscopy of metabolic transients during neuronal activity.

The brain is an especially active metabolic system, requiring a large supply of energy following neuronal activation. However, direct observation of cellular metabolic dynamics associated with neuronal activation is challenging with currently available imaging tools. In this study, an optical imaging approach combining imaging of calcium transients and the metabolic co-enzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (phosphate) (NAD(P)H) is utilized to track the metabolic dynamics in hippocampal neuron cultures.

Video-rate multimodal multiphoton imaging and three-dimensional characterization of cellular dynamics in wounded skin.

To date, numerous studies have been performed to elucidate the complex cellular dynamics in skin diseases, but few have attempted to characterize these cellular events under conditions similar to the native environment. To address this challenge, a three-dimensional (3D) multimodal analysis platform was developed for characterizing cellular dynamics in skin, which was then utilized to process wound healing data to demonstrate its applicability. Special attention is focused on biological parameters that are difficult to study with analysis, including 3D cell tracking and techniques to connect biological information obtained from different imaging modalities.

characterization of minipig skin as a model for dermatological research using multiphoton microscopy.

Minipig skin is one of the most widely used non-rodent animal skin models for dermatological research. A thorough characterization of minipig skin is essential for gaining deeper understanding of its structural and functional similarities with human skin. In this study, three-dimensional (3-D) images of minipig skin was obtained non-invasively using a multimodal optical imaging system capable of acquiring two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) images simultaneously.

Graded Image Generation Using Stratified CycleGAN.

In medical imaging, CycleGAN has been used for various image generation tasks, including image synthesis, image denoising, and data augmentation. However, when pushing the technical limits of medical imaging, there can be a substantial variation in image quality. Here, we demonstrate that images generated by CycleGAN can be improved through explicit grading of image quality, which we call stratified CycleGAN.

Individual predictors of response to biofeedback training for second-language production.

While recent research suggests that visual biofeedback can facilitate speech production training in clinical populations and second language (L2) learners, individual learners' responsiveness to biofeedback is highly variable. This study investigated the hypothesis that the type of biofeedback provided, visual-acoustic versus ultrasound, could interact with individuals' acuity in auditory and somatosensory domains. Specifically, it was hypothesized that learners with lower acuity in a sensory domain would show greater learning in response to biofeedback targeting that domain.

Tracking metabolic dynamics of apoptosis with high-speed two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.

Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is an essential process in development and homeostasis, and disruptions in associated pathways are responsible for a wide variety of diseases such as cancer, developmental abnormalities, and Alzheimer's disease. On the other hand, cell death, in many cases, is the desired outcome of therapeutic treatments targeting diseases such as cancer. Recently, metabolic imaging based on two-photon fluorescence microscopy has been developed and shown to be highly sensitive to certain cell death processes, most notably apoptosis, thus having the potential as an advanced label-free screening tool.

Cross-modal association between vowels and colours: A cross-linguistic perspective.

Previous studies showed similar mappings between sounds and colours for synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes alike, and proposed that common mechanisms underlie such cross-modal association. The findings between vowels and colours, and between pitch and lightness, were investigated separately, and it was also unknown how language background would influence such association. The present study investigated the cross-modal association between sounds (vowels and pitch) and colours in a tone language using three groups of non-synaesthetes: Cantonese (native), Mandarin (foreign, tonal), and English (foreign, non-tonal).

High-speed imaging of transient metabolic dynamics using two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.

Two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (2P-FLIM) of autofluorescent metabolic coenzymes has been widely used to investigate energetic perturbations in living cells and tissues in a label-free manner with subcellular resolution. While the currently used state-of-the-art instruments are highly sensitive to local molecular changes associated with these metabolic processes, they are inherently slow and limit the study of dynamic metabolic environments. Here, a sustained video-rate 2P-FLIM imaging system is demonstrated for time-lapse lifetime imaging of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, an autofluorescent metabolic coenzyme involved in both aerobic and anaerobic processes.

Intraoperative visualization of the tumor microenvironment and quantification of extracellular vesicles by label-free nonlinear imaging.

Characterization of the tumor microenvironment, including extracellular vesicles (EVs), is important for understanding cancer progression. EV studies have traditionally been performed on dissociated cells, lacking spatial information. Since the distribution of EVs in the tumor microenvironment is associated with cellular function, there is a strong need for visualizing EVs in freshly resected tissues.

Intra-operative imaging of surgical margins of canine soft tissue sarcoma using optical coherence tomography.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a rapid non-invasive imaging technique that has shown high sensitivity for intra-operative surgical margin assessment in human breast cancer clinical trials. This promising technology has not been evaluated in veterinary medicine. The objective of this study was to correlate normal and abnormal histological features with OCT images for surgical margins from excised canine soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and to establish image evaluation criteria for identifying positive surgical margins.