Overcoming photon and spatiotemporal sparsity in fluorescence lifetime imaging with SparseFLIM.

Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) provides quantitative readouts of biochemical microenvironments, holding great promise for biomedical imaging. However, conventional FLIM relies on slow photon counting routines to accumulate sufficient photon statistics, restricting acquisition speeds. Here we demonstrate SparseFLIM, an intelligent paradigm for achieving high-fidelity FLIM reconstruction from sparse photon measurements.

Multidimensional quantitative characterization of the tumor microenvironment by multicontrast nonlinear microscopy.

Characterization of the microenvironment features of tumors, such as its microstructures, biomolecular metabolism, and functional dynamics, may provide essential pathologic information about the tumor, tumor margin, and adjacent normal tissue for early and intraoperative diagnosis. However, it can be particularly challenging to obtain faithful and comprehensive pathological information simultaneously from unperturbed tissues due to the complexity of the microenvironment in organisms. Super-multiplex nonlinear optical imaging system emerged and matured as an attractive tool for acquisition and elucidation of the nonlinear properties correlated with tumor microenvironment.

Deep learning autofluorescence-harmonic microscopy.

Laser scanning microscopy has inherent tradeoffs between imaging speed, field of view (FOV), and spatial resolution due to the limitations of sophisticated mechanical and optical setups, and deep learning networks have emerged to overcome these limitations without changing the system. Here, we demonstrate deep learning autofluorescence-harmonic microscopy (DLAM) based on self-alignment attention-guided residual-in-residual dense generative adversarial networks to close the gap between speed, FOV, and quality. Using the framework, we demonstrate label-free large-field multimodal imaging of clinicopathological tissues with enhanced spatial resolution and running time advantages.

Quantitative analysis of morphometric parameters of fascicular groups of peripheral nerve on MicroCT images.

Background: Sectional image of the peripheral nerves is a prerequisite for studying the morphological parameters of fascicular groups. Ultra-high precision MicroCT scan can explicitly display the internal morphology of physiological tissues. This study aimed to quantitatively measure the basic morphological parameters of fascicular groups of a peripheral nerve on MicroCT images, obtain the statistical principles and investigate the variation pattern of these morphological parameters during the process of fascicular group extension.

Research on corrosion behavior and biocompatibility of a porous Mg-3%Zn/5%β-Ca(PO) composite scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

Background: Rapid corrosion rates are a major impediment to the use of magnesium alloys in bone tissue engineering despite their good mechanical properties and biodegradability. Zinc is a promising alloy element, and it is an effective grain refiner for magnesium. β-Ca(PO) (β-TCP) is widely used for bone regeneration because of its good biocompatibility, and it also has a similar chemical and crystal structure to human bone.

Reverse active learning based atrous DenseNet for pathological image classification.

Background: Due to the recent advances in deep learning, this model attracted researchers who have applied it to medical image analysis. However, pathological image analysis based on deep learning networks faces a number of challenges, such as the high resolution (gigapixel) of pathological images and the lack of annotation capabilities. To address these challenges, we propose a training strategy called deep-reverse active learning (DRAL) and atrous DenseNet (ADN) for pathological image classification.

Long noncoding RNA MEG3 silencing protects against hypoxia-induced pheochromocytoma-12 cell injury through inhibition of TIMP2 promoter methylation.

Hypoxia is a common pathological process caused by insufficient oxygen. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to participate in this pathology. Hypoxia is reported to significantly reduce the secretion of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 (TIMP2) and TIMP2 induces pheochromocytoma-12 (PC12) cell cycle arrest.

Support Vector Machine Classification of Nonmelanoma Skin Lesions Based on Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy.

Early diagnosis of malignant skin lesions is critical for prompt treatment and a clinical prognosis of skin cancers. However, it is difficult to precisely evaluate the development stage of nonmelanoma skin cancers because they are derived from the same tissues as a result of the uncontrolled growth of abnormal squamous keratinocytes in the epidermis layer of the skin. In the present study, we developed a linear-kernel support vector machine (LSVM) model to distinguish basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from actinic keratosis (AK) and Bowen's disease (BD).

Effectiveness of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation on Lower Limbs of Patients With Hemiplegia After Chronic Stroke: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) with or without other interventions in improving lower limb activity after chronic stroke.

Data Sources: Electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBase, Cochrane Library, PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database), and PsycINFO, were searched from the inception to January 2017.

Study Selection: We selected the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving chronic stroke survivors with lower limb dysfunction and comparing NMES or combined with other interventions with a control group of no electrical stimulation treatment.

Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Alpha7 Subunit Mediates Vagus Nerve Stimulation-Induced Neuroprotection in Acute Permanent Cerebral Ischemia by a7nAchR/JAK2 Pathway.

BACKGROUND The role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha7 subunit (a7nAchR) in the treatment of acute cerebral ischemia by VNS has not been thoroughly clarified to date. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the specific role of a7nAchR and explore whether this process is involved in the mechanisms of VNS-induced neuroprotection in rats undergoing permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (PMCAO) surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS Rats received a7nAChR antagonist (A) or antagonist placebo injection for control (AC), followed by PMCAO and VNS treatment, whereas the a7nAChR agonist (P) was utilized singly without VNS treatment but only with PMCAO pretreatment.

Enhanced Visualization of Hematoxylin and Eosin Stained Pathological Characteristics by Phasor Approach.

The phasor approach to fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) is used to identify different types of tissues from hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained basal cell carcinoma (BCC) sections. The results suggest that working directly on the phasor space with the clustering assignment achieves immunofluorescence like simultaneous five or six-color imaging by using multiplexed fluorescence lifetimes of H&E. The phase approach is of particular effectiveness for enhanced visualization of the abnormal morphology of a suspected nidus.

Phasor-FLIM as a Screening Tool for the Differential Diagnosis of Actinic Keratosis, Bowen's Disease, and Basal Cell Carcinoma.

The aim of this study was to distinguish basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from actinic keratosis (AK) and Bowen's disease (BD) by fluorescence lifetimes of hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and phasor analysis. Pseudocolor images of average fluorescence lifetime (τm) exhibited more contrast than conventional bright field and/or fluorescence images of H&E-stained sections. The mean values (μ) of τm distribution (τm) in three layers of skin were first explored for comparison with the corresponding layers of AK, BD, and BCC.

CMedTEX: A Rule-based Temporal Expression Extraction and Normalization System for Chinese Clinical Notes.

Time is an important aspect of information and is very useful for information utilization. The goal of this study was to analyze the challenges of temporal expression (TE) extraction and normalization in Chinese clinical notes by assessing the performance of a rule-based system developed by us on a manually annotated corpus (including 1,778 clinical notes of 281 hospitalized patients). In order to develop system conveniently, we divided TEs into three categories: direct, indirect and uncertain TEs, and designed different rules for each category of them.

Tissue-engineered rhesus monkey nerve grafts for the repair of long ulnar nerve defects: similar outcomes to autologous nerve grafts.

Acellular nerve allografts can help preserve normal nerve structure and extracellular matrix composition. These allografts have low immunogenicity and are more readily available than autologous nerves for the repair of long-segment peripheral nerve defects. In this study, we repaired a 40-mm ulnar nerve defect in rhesus monkeys with tissue-engineered peripheral nerve, and compared the outcome with that of autograft.

Go is required for the release of IL-8 and TNF-α, but not degranulation in human mast cells.

Mast cells activated by IgE-dependent and -independent mechanisms play important roles in innate and acquired immune responses. Activation of pertussis toxin (PTX)-sensitive Gi/o proteins is the key step in mast cell degranulation and release of de novo synthesized inflammatory mediators through IgE-independent mechanism. However, the roles of Gi and Go proteins in mast cells activation have not yet been differentiated.

The Pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis is Associated with Milk or Egg Allergy.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a very complicated autoimmune disease with apparent synovial hyperplasia and cartilage and bone destruction.

Aims: In the present study, we aimed to determine whether the pathogenesis of RA correlates with food allergy and which allergen(s) are relevant.

Materials And Methods: We used type-II collagen (CII) to induce arthritis (collagen-induced arthritis, CIA) model in Wistar rats, and the development of arthritis was evaluated accordingly by scoring system.

An automatic system to identify heart disease risk factors in clinical texts over time.

Despite recent progress in prediction and prevention, heart disease remains a leading cause of death. One preliminary step in heart disease prediction and prevention is risk factor identification. Many studies have been proposed to identify risk factors associated with heart disease; however, none have attempted to identify all risk factors.

Automatic de-identification of electronic medical records using token-level and character-level conditional random fields.

De-identification, identifying and removing all protected health information (PHI) present in clinical data including electronic medical records (EMRs), is a critical step in making clinical data publicly available. The 2014 i2b2 (Center of Informatics for Integrating Biology and Bedside) clinical natural language processing (NLP) challenge sets up a track for de-identification (track 1). In this study, we propose a hybrid system based on both machine learning and rule approaches for the de-identification track.

Combination of apolipoprotein A1-modi liposome-doxorubicin with autophagy inhibitors overcame drug resistance in vitro.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) represents the major drawback in chemotherapy. Liposome-based approaches could reverse MDR to some extent through circumventing the active efflux effect of P-glycoprotein. However, the reverse power of liposome is very limited because the nontargeting liposome is inefficient to deliver drugs to tumor actively.

High peritoneal transport status was not associated with mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients with diabetes.

Background: Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients with diabetes are at increased risk of mortality and high peritoneal transporters appear to contribute to poor survival. However, little is known about the combined impacts of high peritoneal transporters and diabetes on mortality.

Methods: This was a prospective observational cohort study.

[Capture and detection of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) IgM by a recombinant multi-epitope chimeric antigen].

To establish a sensitive and specific antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (AC-ELISA) method to detect serum IgM against human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) by expressing a recombinant HCMV multi-epitope cheimeric antigen through genetic engineering. The dominant epitopes of HCMV were analyzed and selected by computer software A recombinant multi-epitope chimeric antigen expression vector including HCMV DNA was constructed, and transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3).