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Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety May 2024Diabetic retinopathy (DR), one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus (DM), is a major contributor of vision impairment and blindness...
BACKGROUND
Diabetic retinopathy (DR), one of the most common microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus (DM), is a major contributor of vision impairment and blindness worldwide. Studies have shown that air pollution exposure is adversely associated with DM. However, evidence is scarce regarding how air pollution exposure affects DR. This study aimed to investigate the association between ambient air pollution exposure and DR risk.
METHODS
The study population was based on the Fujian Eye Study (FJES), an ophthalmologic, epidemiologic survey investigating the eye health condition of residents in Fujian Province from 2018 to 2019. Daily average concentrations of ambient air pollutants (PM, PM, SO, NO, and O) were acquired from a high-resolution air quality dataset in China from 2013 to 2018. We used a logistic regression model to examine the associations between DR risk and long-term air pollution at various exposure windows.
RESULTS
A total of 2405 out of the 8211 participants were diagnosed with diabetes, among whom 183 had DR. Ambient air pollution, especially particulate matter (i.e., PM and PM) and NO were positively associated with DR prevalence among all the study subjects. Ambient SO and O concentrations were not associated with DR prevalence. PM and NO seemed to be borderline significantly associated with increased prevalence of DR in subjects with DM, especially under the model adjusted for sex, age, BMI, SBP, and DBP.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings showed that long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter and NO was associated with a high DR risk in Fujian province, where ambient air pollution is relatively low.
PubMed: 38763052
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2024.116459 -
Frontiers in Sports and Active Living 2024Long-term skill learning can lead to structure and function changes in the brain. Different sports can trigger neuroplasticity in distinct brain regions. Volleyball, as...
BACKGROUND
Long-term skill learning can lead to structure and function changes in the brain. Different sports can trigger neuroplasticity in distinct brain regions. Volleyball, as one of the most popular team sports, heavily relies on individual abilities such as perception and prediction for high-level athletes to excel. However, the specific brain mechanisms that contribute to the superior performance of volleyball athletes compared to non-athletes remain unclear.
METHOD
We conducted a study involving the recruitment of ten female volleyball athletes and ten regular female college students, forming the athlete and novice groups, respectively. Comprehensive behavioral assessments, including Functional Movement Screen and audio-visual reaction time tests, were administered to both groups. Additionally, resting-state magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were acquired for both groups. Subsequently, we conducted in-depth analyses, focusing on the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), and functional connectivity (FC) in the brain for both the athlete and novice groups.
RESULTS
No significant differences were observed in the behavioral data between the two groups. However, the athlete group exhibited noteworthy enhancements in both the ALFF and ReHo within the visual cortex compared to the novice group. Moreover, the functional connectivity between the visual cortex and key brain regions, including the left primary sensory cortex, left supplementary motor cortex, right insula, left superior temporal gyrus, and left inferior parietal lobule, was notably stronger in the athlete group than in the novice group.
CONCLUSION
This study has unveiled the remarkable impact of volleyball athletes on various brain functions related to vision, movement, and cognition. It indicates that volleyball, as a team-based competitive activity, fosters the advancement of visual, cognitive, and motor skills. These findings lend additional support to the early cultivation of sports talents and the comprehensive development of adolescents. Furthermore, they offer fresh perspectives on preventing and treating movement-related disorders.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
Registration number: ChiCTR2400079602. Date of Registration: January 8, 2024.
PubMed: 38756186
DOI: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1393988 -
Gait & Posture May 2024Developments in vision-based systems and human pose estimation algorithms have the potential to detect, monitor and intervene early on neurodegenerative diseases through... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Developments in vision-based systems and human pose estimation algorithms have the potential to detect, monitor and intervene early on neurodegenerative diseases through gait analysis. However, the gap between the technology available and actual clinical practice is evident as most clinicians still rely on subjective observational gait analysis or objective marker-based analysis that is time-consuming.
RESEARCH QUESTION
This paper aims to examine the main developments of vision-based motion capture and how such advances may be integrated into clinical practice.
METHODS
The literature review was conducted in six online databases using Boolean search terms. A commercial system search was also included. A predetermined methodological criterion was then used to assess the quality of the selected articles.
RESULTS
A total of seventeen studies were evaluated, with thirteen studies focusing on gait classification systems and four studies on gait measurement systems. Of the gait classification systems, nine studies utilized artificial intelligence-assisted techniques, while four studies employed statistical techniques. The results revealed high correlations of gait features identified by classifier models with existing clinical rating scales. These systems demonstrated generally high classification accuracies and were effective in diagnosing disease severity levels. Gait measurement systems that extract spatiotemporal and kinematic joint information from video data generally found accurate measurements of gait parameters with low mean absolute errors, high intra- and inter-rater reliability.
SIGNIFICANCE
Low cost, portable vision-based systems can provide proof of concept for the quantification of gait, expansion of gait assessment tools, remote gait analysis of neurodegenerative diseases and a point of care system for orthotic evaluation. However, certain challenges, including small sample sizes, occlusion risks, and selection bias in training models, need to be addressed. Nevertheless, these systems can serve as complementary tools, equipping clinicians with essential gait information to objectively assess disease severity and tailor personalized treatment for enhanced patient care.
PubMed: 38754258
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2024.04.029 -
Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare 2024The incidence of visual impairment(VI) in older people is gradually increasing. This review aimed to summarise the evidence on existing health management models and... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
The incidence of visual impairment(VI) in older people is gradually increasing. This review aimed to summarise the evidence on existing health management models and strategies for older adults with VI to improve health-related and vision-related quality of life (QoL) in older people.
METHODS
Based on the framework of the scoping review methodology of Arksey and O'Malley (2005), a comprehensive literature search of relevant literature published between January 2010 and June 2022 in PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang database, Sinomed and the grey literature.
RESULTS
Finally, 31 articles were included. The health management model had a multidisciplinary team low vision rehabilitation model, medical consortium two-way management model, low vision community comprehensive rehabilitation model, medical consortium-family contract service model, screening-referral-follow-up model, and three-level low vision care model. The health management strategy covers nine aspects, the combination of multi-element strategies is feasible, and network information technology has also shown positive results.
CONCLUSION
In the future, under the Internet and hierarchical management model, we should provide demand-based personalized support to rationalize and scientifically achieve hierarchical management and improve resource utilization efficiency and eye health outcomes.
PubMed: 38751666
DOI: 10.2147/JMDH.S463894 -
PLOS Global Public Health 2024Maternal and child deaths occur during pregnancy and delivery. Timely information on signs of pregnancy complications and ways to plan for normal birth is a strategy to...
Maternal and child deaths occur during pregnancy and delivery. Timely information on signs of pregnancy complications and ways to plan for normal birth is a strategy to reduce maternal and child deaths. The purpose of this study was to assess birth preparedness, and pregnancy complications readiness and identify associated factors in Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study design was used. A total of 1635 weighted samples of pregnant women were included for analysis from the 2016 Ethiopian demographic and health survey data set. Multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of potential variables on birth preparedness and complication readiness. STATA version 15 software was used for data processing and analysis. A variable with a p-value < 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval was considered a significant factor. Pregnant women were informed about convulsions (8.02%), fever (35.95%), abdominal pain (28.92%), leaking fluid from the vagina (28.21%), and blurred vision (17.98%). Pregnant women prepared for supplies needed for birth (38.70%), transportation (20.04%), money (18.97%), people's support for birth (5.03%), and blood donors (3.11%). Only 56% and 44.91% of pregnant women had good birth preparedness and were informed about pregnancy complications respectively. Educational status, antenatal care visits, and region were significant factors associated with birth preparedness and complication readiness. Distance to health facility and residency were significantly associated with birth and complication readiness, respectively. Birth preparedness and complication readiness among pregnant women were low in Ethiopia. Empowering women with education, installing safe roads, building accessible health facilities, and emphasizing pregnancy complications and birth preparedness plans during antenatal care visits are important interventions to enhance birth preparedness and pregnancy complication readiness.
PubMed: 38748714
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003127 -
Brazilian Journal of Biology = Revista... 2024Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), often called drones, have gained progressive prevalence for their swift operational ability as well as their extensive applicability in...
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), often called drones, have gained progressive prevalence for their swift operational ability as well as their extensive applicability in diverse real-world situations. Of late, UAV usage in precision agriculture has attracted much interest from scientific community. This study will look at drone aid in precise farming. Big data has the ability to analyze enormous amounts of data. Due to this, it is one of the diverse crucial technologies of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which had applied in precision agriculture for the abstraction of critical information as well as for assisting agricultural practitioners in the comprehension of the most feasible farming practices, and also for better decision-making. This work analyses communication protocols, as well as their application toward the challenge of commanding a drone fleet for protecting crops from infestations of parasites. For computer-vision tasks as well as data-intensive applications, the method of deep learning has shown much potential. Due to its vast potential, it can also be used in the field of agriculture. This research will employ several schemes to assess the efficacy of models includes Visual Geometry Group (VGG-16), the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as well as the Fully-Convolutional Network (FCN) in plant disease detection. The methods of Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) can be used in order to adapt deep neural networks to the immediate situation. Simulated outcomes demonstrate that the proposed method is providing superior performance over various other technologically-advanced methods.
Topics: Agriculture; Animals; Unmanned Aerial Devices; Crops, Agricultural; Neural Networks, Computer; Plant Diseases
PubMed: 38747863
DOI: 10.1590/1519-6984.281671 -
BioRxiv : the Preprint Server For... Apr 2024Many inherited retinal diseases target photoreceptors, which transduce light into a neural signal that is processed by the downstream visual system. As photoreceptors...
UNLABELLED
Many inherited retinal diseases target photoreceptors, which transduce light into a neural signal that is processed by the downstream visual system. As photoreceptors degenerate, physiological and morphological changes to retinal synapses and circuitry reduce sensitivity and increase noise, degrading visual signal fidelity. Here, we pharmacologically targeted the first synapse in the retina in an effort to reduce circuit noise without sacrificing visual sensitivity. We tested a strategy to partially replace the neurotransmitter lost when photoreceptors die with an agonist of receptors that ON bipolars cells use to detect glutamate released from photoreceptors. In mice, which express a photoreceptor mutation that causes retinitis pigmentosa (RP), we found that a low dose of the mGluR6 agonist L-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid (L-AP4) reduced pathological noise induced by photoreceptor degeneration. After making electroretinogram recordings in mice to characterize the developmental time course of visual signal degeneration, we examined effects of L-AP4 on sensitivity and circuit noise by recording light-evoked responses from individual retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). L-AP4 decreased circuit noise evident in RGC recordings without significantly reducing response amplitudes, an effect that persisted over the entire time course of rod photoreceptor degeneration. Subsequent recordings from rod bipolar cells (RBCs) showed that RBCs are more depolarized in retinas, likely contributing to downstream circuit noise and reduced synaptic gain, both of which appear to be ameliorated by hyperpolarizing RBCs with L-AP4. These beneficial effects may reduce pathological circuit remodeling and preserve the efficacy of therapies designed to restore vision.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited degenerative disease that affects more than two million people worldwide. RP patients first lose peripheral and low-light vision due to the progressive death of their highly sensitive rod photoreceptors. Photoreceptor degeneration induces pathological noise within the retinal circuit, leading to dramatic structural changes that may hamper therapies to restore visual sensitivity. We discovered a pharmacological treatment that reduces pathological activity in a mouse model of RP without diminishing signaling in surviving circuitry. Partially replacing the neurotransmitter lost when photoreceptors die reduced noise in the retinal circuit without eliminating light sensitivity. This approach could limit the impact of the disease on retinal neurons and preserve the efficacy of subsequent restorative therapies.
PubMed: 38746092
DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.30.591881 -
Nature Communications May 2024The role of the hippocampus in spatial navigation has been primarily studied in nocturnal mammals, such as rats, that lack many adaptations for daylight vision. Here we...
The role of the hippocampus in spatial navigation has been primarily studied in nocturnal mammals, such as rats, that lack many adaptations for daylight vision. Here we demonstrate that during 3D navigation, the common marmoset, a new world primate adapted to daylight, predominantly uses rapid head-gaze shifts for visual exploration while remaining stationary. During active locomotion marmosets stabilize the head, in contrast to rats that use low-velocity head movements to scan the environment as they locomote. Pyramidal neurons in the marmoset hippocampus CA3/CA1 regions predominantly show mixed selectivity for 3D spatial view, head direction, and place. Exclusive place selectivity is scarce. Inhibitory interneurons are predominantly mixed selective for angular head velocity and translation speed. Finally, we found theta phase resetting of local field potential oscillations triggered by head-gaze shifts. Our findings indicate that marmosets adapted to their daylight ecological niche by modifying exploration/navigation strategies and their corresponding hippocampal specializations.
Topics: Animals; Callithrix; Spatial Navigation; Hippocampus; Male; Locomotion; Vision, Ocular; Pyramidal Cells; Head Movements; Interneurons; Female; Behavior, Animal; CA1 Region, Hippocampal
PubMed: 38744848
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48374-2 -
Journal of Ophthalmology 2024The spot vision screener (SVS) has been widely used for eye health examinations of infants and young children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the...
BACKGROUND
The spot vision screener (SVS) has been widely used for eye health examinations of infants and young children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of two SVS measurements in children with ophthalmological diseases.
METHODS
29 patients aged 15 years or younger who visited our hospital for refraction examinations with SVS before and at least 60 minutes after administration of 2 drops of 1% cyclopentolate ophthalmic solution (before and after cycloplegia) were included in this study. Two SVS measurements were made before and after cycloplegia, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and Bland-Altman analysis for spherical, spherical equivalent (SE), cylindrical, J0, and J45 values before and after cycloplegia were analyzed.
RESULTS
The mean age ± standard deviation (SD) of the 29 patients was 7.6 ± 2.4 years. There were 11 males and 18 females. The mean spherical values based on the SVS before and after cycloplegia were 0.42 ± 1.67 diopter (D), and 1.47 ± 2.23 D for the first measurement and 0.60 ± 1.74 D, and 1.42 ± 2.27 D for the second measurement, respectively. The mean cylindrical values based on SVS before and after cycloplegia were -1.45 ± 0.96 D and -1.65 ± 0.89 D for the first measurement and -1.58 ± 1.13 D and -1.66 ± 0.91 D for the second measurement, respectively. The ICCs for the first and second spherical, SE, cylindrical, J0, and J45 values before cycloplegia were 0.95, 0.98, 0.83, 0.86, and 0.86, respectively. The ICCs for the first and second spherical, SE, cylindrical, J0, and J45 values after cycloplegia were 0.99, 0.99, 0,87, 0.73, and 0.80, respectively. The Bland-Altman analysis of the first and second spherical and SE values before cycloplegia showed fan-shaped variation as hyperopia increased.
CONCLUSIONS
Two consecutive SVS refraction measurements have a high degree of reproducibility for spherical and SE values but a low degree for cylindrical, J0, and J45 values. From these results, multiple measurements are required to obtain reliable results for cylindrical values.
PubMed: 38741691
DOI: 10.1155/2024/2173860 -
Analytica Chimica Acta Jun 2024The environmental impact of sample preparation should be minimized through simplification of the procedures and the use of natural, renewable and/or reusable materials....
BACKGROUND
The environmental impact of sample preparation should be minimized through simplification of the procedures and the use of natural, renewable and/or reusable materials. In such scenario, thin-film microextraction fulfils the former criteria, as it enables few steps and miniaturization, thus small amount of extraction phase. At the same time, the use of sorbents such as biochars obtained from biomass waste is even more promoted due to their availability at low cost and increased life-cycle in a circular economy vision. However, it is not always easy to combine these criteria in sample preparation.
RESULTS
A thin film microextraction was developed for the determination of steroids in aqueous samples, entailing a membrane made of cellulose triacetate and a wood-derived biochar (Nuchar®) as carbon precursor. Different characterization techniques showed the successful preparation, whereas the sorption kinetics experiments demonstrated that biochar is responsible for the extraction with the polymer acting as a smart support. After a study about membranes' composition in terms of biochar amounts (4 %, 10 %, 16 % wt) and type of synthesis set up, the ceramic 3D-mold was selected, achieving reproducible and ready-to-use membranes with composition fixed as 10 %. Different elution conditions, viz. type and time of agitation, type, composition and volume of eluent, were evaluated. The final microextraction followed by HPLC-MS/MS quantification was successfully validated in river and wastewater treatment plant effluent samples in terms of accuracy (R% 64-123 %, RSD<19 % in river; R% 61-118 %, RSD <18 % in effluent, n = 4), sensitivity (MQLs 0.2-8.5 ng L) and robustness.
SIGNIFICANCE
This novel biochar-based polymeric film proved to be a valid and sustainable sorbent, in terms of extraction capability, ease of preparation and greenness. By comparison with literature and the greenness evaluation with the most recent metric tools, this method expands the potential applicability of the thin-film microextraction and opens up innovative scenarios for sustainable procedures entailing the use of biochars entrapped in bio-polymers.
Topics: Charcoal; Wastewater; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Polymers; Adsorption; Steroids; Solid Phase Microextraction
PubMed: 38740458
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2024.342658