Isolated basilar artery dissection--a rare cause of stroke in young adult.

Syncope accounts for approximately 1% to 2% of emergency department visits each year and up to 6% of hospital admissions [1,2]. The causes of syncope are numerous, from common benign disorders to life-threatening processes including transient ischemic attack and even stroke. Although cervicocerebral artery dissection is an uncommon etiology in ischemic stroke, it is the second leading cause in patients younger than 45 years, and most of them predominantly involved the extracranial artery [3-5].

Interaction between lung cancer cell and myofibroblast influenced by cyclic tensile strain.

Using a cell culture chip with a deformable substrate driven by a hydraulic force, we investigated the motility of cancer cells affected by myofibroblasts undergoing cyclic tensile strain (CTS). CTS reduced both the expression of α-smooth muscle actin in the myofibroblast and the ability of the myofibroblast to accelerate cancer cell migration. However, with the treatment of a pro-inflammatory factor interleukin-1β on the myofibroblasts, the effects of CTS on the myofibroblast were diminished.

Analysis of the paracrine loop between cancer cells and fibroblasts using a microfluidic chip.

We use a microfluidic cell culture chip equipped with pneumatic microvalves to analyze the paracrine loop between lung cancer cells and fibroblasts. In order to assess the cellular responses in the paracrine loop, we measure the migration speeds of cancer cells and the aspect ratios of fibroblasts which reflect the phenotype of myofibroblasts. With well-controlled interaction sequences between these two types of cells, we verify that the cytokines from cancer cells effectively stimulate the fibroblasts into myofibroblasts.

A type-2 self-organizing neural fuzzy system and its FPGA implementation.

This paper proposes a type-2 self-organizing neural fuzzy system (T2SONFS) and its hardware implementation. The antecedent parts in each T2SONFS fuzzy rule are interval type-2 fuzzy sets, and the consequent part is of Mamdani type. Using interval type-2 fuzzy sets in T2SONFS enables it to be more robust than type-1 fuzzy systems.