Frame-based versus robot-assisted stereo-electro-encephalography for drug-resistant epilepsy.

Background: Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) is an effective presurgical invasive evaluation for drug-resistant epilepsies. The introduction of robotic devices provides a simplified, accurate, and safe alternative to the conventional SEEG technique. We report our institutional experience with robot-assisted SEEG and compare its in vivo accuracy, operation efficiency, and safety with the more traditional SEEG workflow.

Regular nutrition consultations reduced risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in adults.

Objectives: This study investigated the effects of regular nutrition consultations on reducing risk factors, including body mass index, body composition, blood pressure, blood lipid profile, blood glucose-related markers, and inflammatory factors for cardiovascular diseases.

Methods: Data were collected from participants (n = 129) who completed eight dietary consultations and were divided into two groups according to the regularity of the consultations: an irregular group (with irregular consultation intervals; n = 39) and a regular group (accepted consultation once every 3 wk; n = 90).

Results: Compared with the irregular group, the regular group had more significant reductions in cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as body mass index, body fat, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and insulin levels.

A comprehensive assessment of oral health, swallowing difficulty, and nutritional status in older nursing home residents.

Declines in oral consumption and swallowing function are common reasons which may elevate the risk of malnutrition in the older adults. This study aimed to provide valuable information and contribute to the existing body of knowledge in this field as well as highlight the importance of a comprehensive assessment of oral health, swallowing function, and nutritional status in long-term care residents. This was a cross-sectional study.

Focused ultrasound for brain metastases: an update on global clinical trials.

Background: Despite advances in immunotherapy and targeted treatments for malignancies of the central nervous system (CNS), the treatment of brain metastases (BMs) remains a formidable challenge, due largely to difficulties in crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB), drug resistance, and molecular discrepancies. Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a non-invasive tool for BBB breaching, tumor ablation, enhancing drug delivery, promoting the release of tumor biomarkers for liquid biopsy, or the tumor microenvironment disruption. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the current literature related to FUS and its application in the treatment of brain metastasis.

Beneficial Effects of Oral Nutrition Supplements on the Nutritional Status and Physical Performance of Older Nursing Home Residents at Risk of Malnutrition.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of nutritional supplement drinks (NSDs) and nutritional education (NE) on the nutritional status and physical performance of older nursing home residents who were at risk of malnutrition. This study was a clustered, randomized, parallel, multi-center clinical trial, with 107 participants more than 65 years old and at risk of malnutrition recruited from several nursing homes in this study. Participants were divided into two groups: an NE group ( = 50) and an NSD group ( = 57).

Evaluation of Dietary Intake in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

The phase of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) holds significant importance for postponing the onset of dementia. Therefore, MCI has become a central focus in research related to dementia prevention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dietary intake and dietary patterns of MCI patients in Taiwan.

The Preliminary Results for Evaluating Cocoa Butter's Hepatoprotective Effects against Lipid Accumulation and Inflammation in Adult Male Rats Chronically Fed Ethanol.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of saturated fats from cocoa butter (plant source) compared with lard (animal source) on alcoholic liver damage in rats. Male Wistar rats were fed either a control diet (C) or an ethanol diet (E), and the dietary fats (corn oil, olive oil, and safflower oil) of these two diets were further replaced by lard (CL, EL) or cocoa butter (CC, EC). After 8-week feeding, plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activities, hepatic triglyceride (TG) levels, plasma intercellular adhesion molecular (ICAM)-1 levels, hepatic cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) protein expression, and hepatic interleukin (IL)-1β significantly increased in the E group compared to the C group.

Structural connectivity in children after total corpus callosotomy.

Objectives: To investigate structural connectivity after total callosotomy.

Methods: Deterministic fiber tracking (tractography) of whole brain white matter was performed on 13 epilepsy patients pre- and post-callosotomy. The analysis of structural connectivity was based on graph theory and network-based analysis with a focus on the inter- and intrahemispheric networks.

Applying principal component, health risk assessment, source identification for metallic elements of ambient air total suspended particulates at Taiwan Scientific Park.

This study collected ambient air total suspended particle (TSP) concentrations and dry depositions at Taichung Science Park sampling site. The metallic elements concentrations and dry depositions were analyzed. The possible pollutant sources are discussed in this study.

Synbiotics Alleviate Hepatic Damage, Intestinal Injury and Muscular Beclin-1 Elevation in Rats after Chronic Ethanol Administration.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beneficial effects of synbiotics on liver damage, intestinal health, and muscle loss, and their relevance in rats with chronic ethanol feeding. Thirty Wistar rats fed with a control liquid diet were divided into control and synbiotics groups, which were respectively provided with water or synbiotics solution (1.5 g/kg body weight/day) for 2 weeks.

Pilot study of focused ultrasound for drug-resistant epilepsy.

Objective: The neuromodulatory effects of focused ultrasound (FUS) have been demonstrated in animal epilepsy models; however, the safety and efficacy of FUS in humans with epilepsy have not been well established. Patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) undergoing stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) provide an opportunity to investigate the neuromodulatory effects of FUS in humans.

Methods: Patients with DRE undergoing SEEG for localization of the seizure onset zone (SOZ) were prospectively enrolled.

The Prophylactic Effects of Glutamine on Muscle Protein Synthesis and Degradation in Rats with Ethanol-Induced Liver Damage.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the prophylactic effects of glutamine on muscle protein synthesis and degradation in rats with ethanol-induced liver injury. For the first 2 weeks, Wistar rats were divided into two groups and fed a control ( = 16) or glutamine-containing diet ( = 24). For the following 6 weeks, rats fed the control diet were further divided into two groups ( = 8 per group) according to whether their diet contained no ethanol (CC) or did contain ethanol (CE).

Cingulate gyrus epilepsy: semiology, invasive EEG, and surgical approaches.

Objective: The semiology of cingulate gyrus epilepsy is varied and may involve the paracentral area, the adjacent limbic system, and/or the orbitofrontal gyrus. Invasive electroencephalography (iEEG) recording is usually required for patients with deeply located epileptogenic foci. This paper reports on the authors' experiences in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of patients with focal epilepsy originating in the cingulate gyrus.

Revealing the Electrophysiological Correlates of Working Memory-Load Effects in Symmetry Span Task With HHT Method.

Complex span task is one of the commonly used cognitive tasks to evaluate an individual's working memory capacity (WMC). It is a dual task consisting of a distractor subtask and a memory subtask. Though multiple studies have utilized complex span tasks, the electrophysiological correlates underlying the encoding and retrieval processes in working memory span task remain uninvestigated.

Identification of Siglec Ligands Using a Proximity Labeling Method.

Siglecs are a family of receptor-type glycan recognition proteins (lectins) involved in self-nonself discrimination by the immune system. Identification of Siglec ligands is necessary to understand how Siglec-ligand interaction translates into biological outcomes. However, this is challenging because the interaction is weak.

Stabilizing Nanosized Si Anodes with the Synergetic Usage of Atomic Layer Deposition and Electrolyte Additives for Li-Ion Batteries.

A substantial increase in charging capacity over long cycle periods was made possible by the formation of a flexible weblike network via the combination of Al2O3 atomic layer deposition (ALD) and the electrolyte additive vinylene carbonate (VC). Transmission electron microscopy shows that a weblike network forms after cycling when ALD and VC were used in combination that dramatically increases the cycle stability for the Si composite anode. The ALD-VC combination also showed reduced reactions with the lithium salt, forming a more stable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) absent of fluorinated silicon species, as evidenced by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Inference of transcriptional regulatory network by bootstrapping patterns.

Motivation: Transcriptional regulatory networks, which consist of linkages between transcription factors (TF) and target genes (TGene), control the expression of a genome and play important roles in all aspects of an organism's life cycle. Accurate prediction of transcriptional regulatory networks is critical in providing useful information for biologists to determine what to do next. Currently, there is a substantial amount of fragmented gene regulation information described in the medical literature.

Seed-mediated synthesis of palladium nanorods and branched nanocrystals and their use as recyclable Suzuki coupling reaction catalysts.

In this study, we have used a simple seed-mediated synthesis process to prepare uniform Pd nanorods with average lengths of approximately 200 and 300 nm through the addition of 50-100 microL of 0.004 M copper acetate solution into the growth solution for the first time. Because of their long lengths, they nicely settled to the bottom of the reaction vial and can easily be separated from the suspended faceted particles.

UPF1, a conserved nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factor, regulates cyst wall protein transcripts in Giardia lamblia.

The Giardia lamblia cyst wall is required for survival outside the host and infection. Three cyst wall protein (cwp) genes identified to date are highly up-regulated during encystation. However, little is known of the molecular mechanisms governing their gene regulation.

Incomplete nonsense-mediated mRNA decay in Giardia lamblia.

Messenger RNAs containing premature translation stop codons are degraded by a nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) system. The NMD pathway is present in yeast, plants and mammals and is thought to protect cells from production of nonfunctional proteins by rapidly degrading mutant mRNAs. There is little understanding of the biology of the origins of eukaryotes, particularly of the NMD pathway.

Neomycin and puromycin affect gene expression in Giardia lamblia stable transfection.

Two systems for stable transfection of Giardia have been established using selection either by neomycin or by puromycin. We asked if these selection systems themselves influenced expression of endogenous giardial genes. Northern blot analysis showed a approximately 1.

Ultra-low-temperature non-aqueous capillary electrophoretic separation--77 K fluorescence spectroscopic detection for the on-line identification of photo-converted analytes of trans-resveratrol.

We demonstrate here, for the first time, that non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) can be interfaced with any ultra-low-temperature (ULT) separation method and 77 K fluorescence spectroscopy (FS). This novel ULT-NACE-FS system consists of a modular CE system, a dry ice bath, and instrumentation for 77 K fluorescence detection. The ULT-NACE method serves to separate structurally similar molecules by a combination of a low electrophoresis current and a high voltage at approximately -70 degrees C.