Visualizing pursed lips breathing of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through evaluation of global and regional ventilation using electrical impedance tomography.

. This study aims to explore the possibility of using electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to assess pursed lips breathing (PLB) performance of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)..

Evaluation of adjacent and opposite current injection patterns for a wearable chest electrical impedance tomography system.

Wearable electrical impedance tomography (EIT) can be used to monitor regional lung ventilation and perfusion at the bedside. Due to its special system architecture, the amplitude of the injected current is usually limited compared to stationary EIT system. This study aims to evaluate the performance of current injection patterns with various low-amplitude currents in healthy volunteers.

Synergistic effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation and inhibitory control training on electrophysiological performance in healthy adults.

Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a non-invasive nerve stimulation technique that exerts a positive "exogenous" online neuromodulatory effect on inhibitory control (IC). Additionally, IC training (ICT) is an effective approach for enhancing IC the "endogenous" activation of brain regions implicated in this process. The aim of the present study was to examine the synergistic effects of tVNS and ICT on IC enhancement.

The expression of KRT2 and its effect on melanogenesis in alpaca skins.

In order to investigate the effects of the keratin 2 (KRT2) on alpaca melanocyte in vivo and vitro, the immunohistochemistry (IHC), quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), Western blot, and alpaca melanocytes transfection methods were used. The results showed that mRNA and protein expression of KRT2 was highly expressed in brown skin in comparison with that in white skin. Moreover, we found that KRT2 was expressed in alpaca melanocytes in vitro by immunocytochemistry.

Endothelin-1 increases melanin synthesis in an established sheep skin melanocyte culture.

The aims of the study were to establish a culture system for sheep skin melanocytes and uncover the effects of endothelin-1 on melanin synthesis in cultured melanocytes in order to provide an optimal cell system and a theoretical basis for studying the regulatory mechanism of coat color in sheep. In this study, skin punch biopsies were harvested from the dorsal region of 1-3-yr-old sheep, and skin melanocytes were then obtained by the two-step digestion using dispase II and trypsin/ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). The primary cultures of the melanocytes were established and characterized by dopa-staining, immunocytochemical localization of melanocyte markers, and RT-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of coat color genes.