A Retina Inspired Model for Enhancing Visibility of Hazy Images.

The mammalian retina seems far smarter than scientists have believed so far. Inspired by the visual processing mechanisms in the retina, from the layer of photoreceptors to the layer of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), we propose a computational model for haze removal from a single input image, which is an important issue in the field of image enhancement. In particular, the bipolar cells serve to roughly remove the low-frequency of haze, and the amacrine cells modulate the output of cone bipolar cells to compensate the loss of details by increasing the image contrast.

Altered Neuronal Firing Pattern of the Basal Ganglia Nucleus Plays a Role in Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia in Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Levodopa therapy alleviates the symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), but long-term treatment often leads to motor complications such as levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID).

Aim: To explore the neuronal activity in the basal ganglia nuclei in patients with PD and LID.

Methods: Thirty patients with idiopathic PD (age, 55.

Quercetin protects human brain microvascular endothelial cells from fibrillar β-amyloid1-40-induced toxicity.

Amyloid beta-peptides (Aβ) are known to undergo active transport across the blood-brain barrier, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy has been shown to be a prominent feature in the majority of Alzheimer׳s disease. Quercetin is a natural flavonoid molecule and has been demonstrated to have potent neuroprotective effects, but its protective effect on endothelial cells under Aβ-damaged condition is unclear. In the present study, the protective effects of quercetin on brain microvascular endothelial cells injured by fibrillar Aβ 1-40 (fAβ 1-40) were observed.

Efficient resting-state EEG network facilitates motor imagery performance.

Objective: Motor imagery-based brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) systems hold promise in motor function rehabilitation and assistance for motor function impaired people. But the ability to operate an MI-BCI varies across subjects, which becomes a substantial problem for practical BCI applications beyond the laboratory.

Approach: Several previous studies have demonstrated that individual MI-BCI performance is related to the resting state of brain.

Clinical characteristics and post-surgical outcomes of focal cortical dysplasia subtypes.

We retrospectively studied 105 patients with a focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) diagnosed on pathological examination, and investigated the long term postoperative seizure outcomes, different clinical characteristics of the three FCD subtypes, particularly type I and II, and surgical outcomes for each group. FCD is a common cause of drug-resistant epilepsy, which is divided into three different subtypes according to its involvement at different stages of brain development. Each of these groups may have different characteristics and may even have different surgical outcomes.

Characteristics of subthalamic oscillatory activity in parkinsonian akinetic-rigid type and mixed type.

Objective: To explore neurons with β oscillatory activity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in relation to parkinsonian motor signs.

Methods: We studied 27 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who underwent electrode implantation for STN deep brain stimulation. Thirteen patients were classified as akinetic-rigid (AR) type and 14 patients were classified as mixed type.

Resection of a dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor in the precentral gyrus.

Background: Dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNTs) are common causes of intractable epilepsy in pediatric epilepsy patients. The effect of surgical intervention is often limited when the tumor is located in the precentral gyrus. Furthermore, complete surgical resection is often not performed in order to avoid permanent neurological deficits.

Bevacizumab promotes venous thromboembolism through the induction of PAI-1 in a mouse xenograft model of human lung carcinoma.

Background: An increased incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is associated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment in cancer. However, the mechanism underlying this effect remains elusive. In this study, we examined the effect of bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against VEGF-A, on VTE in a murine xenograft A549 cell tumor model.

Comparison of daytime and nighttime new particle growth at the HKUST supersite in Hong Kong.

Particles larger than 50-100 nm in diameter have been considered to be effective cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) under typical atmospheric conditions. We studied the growth of newly formed particles (NPs) in the atmosphere and the conditions for these particles to grow beyond 50 nm at a suburban coastal site in Hong Kong. Altogether, 17 new particle formation events each lasting over 1 h were observed in 17 days during 8 Mar-28 Apr and 1 Nov-30 Dec 2011.

Silent suppressive surrounds and optimal spatial frequencies of single neurons in cat V1.

The receptive fields of the clear majority of neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) of cats contain silent surround regions beyond the classical receptive field (CRF). When stimulated on their own, the silent surround regions do not generate action potentials (spikes); instead, they modulate (and usually partially suppress) spike responses to stimuli presented in the CRF. In the present study, we subdivided our sample of single V1 neurons recorded from anesthetized cats into two distinct categories: surround-suppressive (SS) cells and surround-non-suppressive (SN) cells.

Surgical treatment for patients with symptomatic generalised seizures due to brain lesions.

Object: To study the role of epilepsy surgery for patients with focal lesions who exhibited the semiology of clinically generalised seizures.

Methods: From our epilepsy surgery series, we identified 29 patients who underwent surgery for seizures, including certain types of generalised seizures, according to their ictal semiology. We systematically reviewed the brain imaging, video-EEG, surgical operation, and pathological findings data of these patients.

Long-term follow-up of bilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Chinese Parkinson's disease patients.

Background And Purpose: The long-term benefits of deep bilateral brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) are less well described, especially in Chinese cohorts. Here, we present a large group of Chinese PD patients treated with bilateral STN DBS.

Methods: Between 2003 and 2010, 195 consecutive PD patients received implants at the Xuanwu Hospital affiliated to the Capital Medical University in Beijing (China) for bilateral STN DBS.

Anti-inflammation effect of methyl salicylate 2-O-β-D-lactoside on adjuvant induced-arthritis rats and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated murine macrophages RAW264.7 cells.

Methyl salicylate 2-O-β-D-lactoside (MSL) is a derivative of natural salicylate isolated from Gaultheria yunnanensis (Franch.) Rehder, which is widely used for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA), swelling and pain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of MSL on the progression of adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) in rat in vivo and explore the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanism of MSL in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated murine macrophages RAW264.

Discovery of multitarget-directed ligands against Alzheimer's disease through systematic prediction of chemical-protein interactions.

To determine chemical-protein interactions (CPI) is costly, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. In silico prediction of CPI can facilitate the target identification and drug discovery. Although many in silico target prediction tools have been developed, few of them could predict active molecules against multitarget for a single disease.

[Application of laparoscopic technique in the treatment of traumatic colorectal perforation].

Objective: To explore the efficacy and the security of laparoscopic technique in patients with traumatic colorectal perforation.

Methods: Clinical data of 42 patients with traumatic colorectal perforation in our hospital during March of 2005 to March of 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Twenty-two patients received traditional open operation, and 20 patients received laparoscopic treatment.

Genome-wide analysis of citrus R2R3MYB genes and their spatiotemporal expression under stresses and hormone treatments.

The R2R3MYB proteins represent one of the largest families of transcription factors, which play important roles in plant growth and development. Although genome-wide analysis of this family has been conducted in many species, little is known about R2R3MYB genes in citrus, In this study, 101 R2R3MYB genes has been identified in the citrus (Citrus sinesis and Citrus clementina) genomes, which are almost equal to the number of rice. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that they could be subdivided into 21 subgroups.

Therapeutic efficacy of a novel non-peptide αvβ3 integrin antagonist for pathological retinal angiogenesis in mice.

αvβ3 integrin has been reported as a promising therapeutic target for angiogenesis. In the present study, we tested the antiangiogenic activity of 3-[3-(6-guanidino-1-oxoisoindolin-2-yl) propanamido]-3-(pyridin-3-yl) propanoic acid dihydrochloride (GOPPP), a novel non-peptide αvβ3 antagonist. Both human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and a mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) were investigated separately.

Multifeature-based surround inhibition improves contour detection in natural images.

To effectively perform visual tasks like detecting contours, the visual system normally needs to integrate multiple visual features. Sufficient physiological studies have revealed that for a large number of neurons in the primary visual cortex (V1) of monkeys and cats, neuronal responses elicited by the stimuli placed within the classical receptive field (CRF) are substantially modulated, normally inhibited, when difference exists between the CRF and its surround, namely, non-CRF, for various local features. The exquisite sensitivity of V1 neurons to the center-surround stimulus configuration is thought to serve important perceptual functions, including contour detection.

Pinocembrin protects human brain microvascular endothelial cells against fibrillar amyloid-β(1-40) injury by suppressing the MAPK/NF-κB inflammatory pathways.

Cerebrovascular accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may contribute to disease progression through Aβ-induced microvascular endothelial pathogenesis. Pinocembrin has been shown to have therapeutic effects in AD models. These effects correlate with preservation of microvascular function, but the effect on endothelial cells under Aβ-damaged conditions is unclear.

[Acquisition and storage methods for image data collected in Chinese medicine resources survey].

The acquisition and storage of the image data are important in the Chinese medicine resources survey, and it is important data and evidence for the process and the results. The image data of the Chinese medicinal materials' habitat, original plant or animal, processing in habitat, commodity form, the relative contents and workshop scenarios in the investigation are important for the compiling of the Color Atlas of National Chinese Medicine Resources, mapping the digital scattergram of the Chinese medicine resources, establishing the digital Chinese medicine plant herbarium and acquiring the documentary of the Chinese medicine resource survey. The content, procedures and methods of the video data collecting have been related and analyzed in this article to provide reference for the Chinese medicine resources survey.

Unexpected outcome of pallidal deep brain stimulation in a patient with Tourette syndrome.

A 30-year-old man underwent bilateral GPi DBS for refractory TS. His tics and obsessive-compulsive symptoms were significantly improved after chronic stimulation. At 22 months postoperatively, the implantable pulse generator had to be removed because of an infection in the infraclavicular pouch.

[An improved classification approach based on spatial and spectral features for hyperspectral data].

The spatial correlativity and spectral information are not applied synchronously in the classification model of hyperspectral data. To solve this problem, an improved classification approach based on Markov random field (MRF) theory is proposed in our work The MRF model based on maximum a posteriori is applied to combine the spectral and spatial information. The probabilistic support vector machine (PSVM) algorithm using pixels' spectral information is applied to improve the estimation accuracy of the class conditional probability (CCP) of the spectral energy function, and the efficient belief propagation (EBP) based on multi-accelerated strategy (such as ordinal propagated message strategy, linearized message-updating strategy, and coarse-to-fine approach) is developed in order to solve the problem of the high calculational complexity and time-consumed in the global energy minimum optimization of MRF model.