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International Journal of Molecular... Jun 2022MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. An aberrant regulation of gene expression by...
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. An aberrant regulation of gene expression by miRNAs is associated with numerous diseases, including cancer. MiRNAs expression can be influenced by various stimuli, among which hypoxia; however, the effects of different types of continuous hypoxia (moderate or marked) on miRNAs are still poorly studied. Lately, some hypoxia-inducible miRNAs (HRMs, hypoxia-regulated miRNAs) have been identified. These HRMs are often activated in different types of cancers, suggesting their role in tumorigenesis. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in miRNAs expression both in moderate continuous hypoxia and marked continuous hypoxia to better understand the possible relationship between hypoxia, miRNAs, and colorectal cancer. We used RT-PCR to detect the miRNAs expression in colorectal cancer cell lines in conditions of moderate and marked continuous hypoxia. The expression of miRNAs was analyzed using a two-way ANOVA test to compare the differential expression of miRNAs among groups. The levels of almost all analyzed miRNAs (miR-21, miR-23b, miR-26a, miR-27b, and miR-145) were greater in moderate hypoxia versus marked hypoxia, except for miR-23b and miR-21. This study identified a series of miRNAs involved in the response to different types of continuous hypoxia (moderate and marked), highlighting that they play a role in the development of cancer. To date, there are no other studies that demonstrate how these two types of continuous hypoxia could be able to activate different molecular pathways that lead to a different expression of specific miRNAs involved in tumorigenesis.
Topics: Carcinogenesis; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Colorectal Neoplasms; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Humans; Hypoxia; MicroRNAs
PubMed: 35682972
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23116294 -
Frontiers in Physiology 2022The recognition of tooth-marked tongues has important value for clinical diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine. Tooth-marked tongue is often related to spleen...
The recognition of tooth-marked tongues has important value for clinical diagnosis of traditional Chinese medicine. Tooth-marked tongue is often related to spleen deficiency, cold dampness, sputum, effusion, and blood stasis. The clinical manifestations of patients with tooth-marked tongue include loss of appetite, borborygmus, gastric distention, and loose stool. Traditional clinical tooth-marked tongue recognition is conducted subjectively based on the doctor's visual observation, and its performance is affected by the doctor's subjectivity, experience, and environmental lighting changes. In addition, the tooth marks typically have various shapes and colors on the tongue, which make it very challenging for doctors to identify tooth marks. The existing methods based on deep learning have made great progress for tooth-marked tongue recognition, but there are still shortcomings such as requiring a large amount of manual labeling of tooth marks, inability to detect and locate the tooth marks, and not conducive to clinical diagnosis and interpretation. In this study, we propose an end-to-end deep neural network for tooth-marked tongue recognition based on weakly supervised learning. Note that the deep neural network only requires image-level annotations of tooth-marked or non-tooth marked tongues. In this method, a deep neural network is trained to classify tooth-marked tongues with the image-level annotations. Then, a weakly supervised tooth-mark detection network (WSTDN) as an architecture variant of the pre-trained deep neural network is proposed for the tooth-marked region detection. Finally, the WSTDN is re-trained and fine-tuned using only the image-level annotations to simultaneously realize the classification of the tooth-marked tongue and the positioning of the tooth-marked region. Experimental results of clinical tongue images demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared with previously reported deep learning methods for tooth-marked tongue recognition. The proposed tooth-marked tongue recognition model may provide important syndrome diagnosis and efficacy evaluation methods, and contribute to the understanding of ethnopharmacological mechanisms.
PubMed: 35492602
DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.847267 -
Biotechnology Reports (Amsterdam,... Sep 2017Multifariousness of biofuel sources has marked an edge to an imperative energy issue. Production of hydrogen from microalgae has been gathering much contemplation right... (Review)
Review
Multifariousness of biofuel sources has marked an edge to an imperative energy issue. Production of hydrogen from microalgae has been gathering much contemplation right away. But, mercantile production of microalgae biofuels considering bio-hydrogen is still not practicable because of low biomass concentration and costly down streaming processes. This review has taken up the hydrogen production by microalgae. Biofuels are the up and coming alternative to exhaustible, environmentally and unsafe fossil fuels. Algal biomass has been considered as an enticing raw material for biofuel production, these days photobioreactors and open-air systems are being used for hydrogen production from algal biomass. The formers allow the careful cultivation control whereas the latter ones are cheaper and simpler. A contemporary, encouraging optimization access has been included called algal cell immobilization on various matrixes which has resulted in marked increase in the productivity per volume of a reactor and addition of the hydrogen-production phase.
PubMed: 28702371
DOI: 10.1016/j.btre.2017.06.001 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Dec 2021The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm that connects objects to provide seamless communication and contextual information to anyone, anywhere, at any time (AAA)....
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm that connects objects to provide seamless communication and contextual information to anyone, anywhere, at any time (AAA). These Internet-of-Things-enabled automated objects interact with visitors to present a variety of information during museum navigation and exploration. In this article, a smart navigation and information system (SNIS) prototype for museum navigation and exploration is developed, which delivers an interactive and more exciting museum exploration experience based on the visitor's personal presence. The objects inside a museum share the information that assist and navigate the visitors about the different sections and objects of the museum. The system was deployed inside Chakdara Museum and experimented with 381 users to achieve the results. For results, different users marked the proposed system in terms of parameters such as interesting, reality, ease of use, satisfaction, usefulness, and user friendly. Of these 381 users, 201 marked the system as most interesting, 138 marked most realistic, 121 marked it as easy-in-use, 219 marked it useful, and 210 marked it as user friendly. These statistics prove the efficiency of SNIS and its usefulness in smart cultural heritage, including smart museums, exhibitions and cultural sites.
Topics: Communication; Information Systems; Internet of Things; Museums; Personal Satisfaction
PubMed: 35009853
DOI: 10.3390/s22010312 -
Journal of Thoracic Disease Mar 2020Various approaches and markers for marking the lungs prior to lung tumor resection have been reported. In clinical practice, the hook wire localization method is often...
BACKGROUND
Various approaches and markers for marking the lungs prior to lung tumor resection have been reported. In clinical practice, the hook wire localization method is often used owing to the simplicity of the technique. However, although rare, this method is associated with air embolism, which can be lethal. Because vitamin B2 is harmless to the body and fluorescent, it was applied to various methods for thoracic surgery. Using a pig model, we aimed to examine whether a lung-marking method involving the injection of vitamin B2 to peripheral small lung lesions and observing them under black light irradiation could replace the hook wire localization method.
METHODS
We used a pig model to perform hook wire localization of the lungs and at the same time injected 1 mL of a vitamin B2 aqueous solution to the lung parenchyma at the hook wire puncture site under the visceral pleura. Subsequently, we measured the length of the fluorescent marked area and fluorescence intensity over time. Black light was used to assess the fluorescent marked area, and fluorescence intensity was quantified using image analysis software.
RESULTS
Lung-marking was successful in all five pigs and we visualized the vitamin B2-marked area under black light irradiation. Measurements were taken immediately after thoracotomy (0 min) and 60 and 120 min thereafter. No changes in the length of the marked area (1.3±0.3/1.2±0.3/1.1±0.3 cm, 0/60/120 min, P=0.21) and fluorescence intensity (162.8±55.1/157.2±63.1/165.2±62.2, 0/60/120 min, P=0.96) were observed over time. Compared to the non-marked area (normal lungs), the marked area showed significantly higher fluorescence intensity (P=0.01/0.01/0.01, 0/60/120 min).
CONCLUSIONS
Vitamin B2 lung-marking was performed safely and accurately using the pig model, providing good visibility of the marked area. This approach may replace the hook wire localization method. In the near future, we plan to conduct clinical trials to evaluate the applicability of this method in humans.
PubMed: 32274130
DOI: 10.21037/jtd.2020.01.06 -
Veterinary Medicine and Science Jul 2022Canine eosinophilia has not been evaluated over the last two decades. As in human local differences, changes in the prevalence and associated diseases over time can be...
BACKGROUND
Canine eosinophilia has not been evaluated over the last two decades. As in human local differences, changes in the prevalence and associated diseases over time can be expected.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to determine the prevalence and causes of marked blood eosinophilia in dogs.
METHODS
Retrospective study. A total of 317 clinical histories of dogs with an eosinophil concentration > 1.5 × 10 /L (marked eosinophilia) between 2013 and 2017 were evaluated. Patients were allocated to 10 groups according to their major clinical findings.
RESULTS
Eosinophilia was present in 1,592 of 10,829 dogs (14.7%); it was mild (0.8-1.49 × 10 /L) in 78.4%, moderate (1.5 - 4.9 × 10 /L) in 20.5% and severe (> 5 × 10 /L) in 1.1% of cases. Rottweilers were overrepresented (16.1%). Of 317 cases with marked eosinophilia, 19.6% had neoplasia, 19.1% gastrointestinal disorders, 13.6% health check, 10.4% endoparasites, 6% respiratory, 5.4% neurologic, 5.4% dermatologic, 4.8% urogenital, 3.2% endocrine disorders and 12.6% miscellaneous. Lymphomas (29%) and mast cell tumours (12.9%) were the most frequent tumours in the neoplasia group. A total of 72.6% of tumour-bearing dogs were older than 8 years, while 63.6% of dogs had endoparasites, and 86% of apparently healthy dogs were younger than 5 years. Eosinophilia was significantly higher in patients with respiratory disorders (p < 0.0146). Leukocytosis was found in 50.2% of cases.
CONCLUSION
Malignancy was the most common cause of marked blood eosinophilia in older dogs and endoparasitism in younger dogs. Eosinophilia was common in apparently healthy young dogs and may be related to undiagnosed parasitic infestations.
Topics: Animals; Dog Diseases; Dogs; Ectoparasitic Infestations; Eosinophilia; Humans; Leukocyte Count; Prevalence; Retrospective Studies
PubMed: 35654102
DOI: 10.1002/vms3.832 -
Polymers Feb 2023The basic intention of the present work is to analyze the influence of the incorporated microporous membrane and the technology of the needling process on the functional...
The basic intention of the present work is to analyze the influence of the incorporated microporous membrane and the technology of the needling process on the functional properties of nonwovens designed as an insulating layer for protective gloves for protection against high temperatures. The investigated nonwovens are produced in carded nonwoven formation and mechanically bonded with needle bonding. The studied nonwovens contain a microporous membrane of polyester (PES) with a thickness of 20 µm (samples marked as ST and STL). In the theoretical part of the research work, the nonwovens and some technology stages are presented. The experimental part of the present work deals with the mechanical properties: breaking stress and strain, viscoelastic properties (yield strength, elastic modulus) and elastic recovery after cyclic loading and thermal conduction. In the experimental part, permeability properties (water vapor permeability, air permeability) are also analyzed. The results of the investigation show that the samples marked as ST and STL, which contain a microporous PES membrane, have a higher breaking stress than the samples marked as T and TL without the microporous PES membrane. Samples marked as ST and STL also exhibit higher values of elongation at break and limit of recoverable deformation (stress and strain at yield) and a lower modulus of elasticity than samples marked as T and TL. The samples marked as ST and STL are mechanically bonded to the lamellar plate using forked needles and therefore have a textured (ribbed) shape that affects the improved mechanical properties. The TL and STL samples, which contain a microporous PES membrane, have higher elastic recovery and lower air permeability than the T and TL samples, while water vapor permeability is lower only for the ST sample.
PubMed: 36772086
DOI: 10.3390/polym15030785 -
Veterinary Sciences Dec 2023Basophilia is a rare hematologic finding in dogs. This research aimed to describe the hematologic and clinical characteristics of dogs with moderate-to-marked...
Basophilia is a rare hematologic finding in dogs. This research aimed to describe the hematologic and clinical characteristics of dogs with moderate-to-marked basophilia. CBC reports with blood smear examinations from dogs presented to the North Carolina State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital were retrospectively reviewed for basophilia (>193 cells/µL). We classified basophilia as moderate when counts were ≥500 cells/µL and marked when they reached ≥1000 cells/µL. We compared the hematologic and clinical profiles of dogs with moderate-to-marked basophilia (the basophilia group) to those without basophilia, serving as our control group. In addition, we investigated differences between dogs with marked basophilia versus those with moderate basophilia, as well as between dogs in the basophilia group with and without concurrent eosinophilia. Diseases associated with moderate-to-marked basophilia included eosinophilic lung disease ( < 0.0001), leukemia/myeloproliferative neoplasms ( = 0.004), parasitic infection ( = 0.004), mast cell tumor ( = 0.005), and inflammatory bowel disease ( = 0.02). Overall, dogs with marked basophilia had a lower frequency of inflammatory diseases (51% vs. 70%, = 0.009) and a higher frequency of neoplastic diseases (48% vs. 26%, = 0.003) compared to those with moderate basophilia. In the basophilia group, concurrent eosinophilia was only seen in 36% of dogs. Dogs with concurrent eosinophilia were more often diagnosed with inflammatory diseases (77% vs. 58%, = 0.006), with fewer diagnoses of neoplasia (19% vs. 40%, = 0.001), compared to dogs without concurrent eosinophilia. The findings of this study offer veterinary clinicians valuable guidance in determining diagnostic priorities for dogs with moderate-to-marked basophilia.
PubMed: 38133251
DOI: 10.3390/vetsci10120700 -
Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2023Inflammatory bowel disease is a common condition in cats, characterized by recurring gastrointestinal signs with histologic evidence of intestinal inflammation. A...
Inflammatory bowel disease is a common condition in cats, characterized by recurring gastrointestinal signs with histologic evidence of intestinal inflammation. A 9-month-old neutered male Sphynx cat was presented with a 5-week history of vomiting and hematochezia. Conservative patient management with a therapeutic gastrointestinal formula, antibiotics, and antiemetics resulted in a positive response to treatment, with relapse of signs when the medications were discontinued. A new finding of marked eosinophilia and basophilia was identified 3 months after the initial presentation. Colonoscopy revealed cecal erosions and a surgical biopsy with histopathology confirmed a diagnosis of lymphocytic-plasmacytic and eosinophilic enterocolitis. For this diagnosis, the patient was treated with prednisolone, tylosin, and metronidazole. Antibiotics were gradually tapered as the cat showed clinical improvement. The patient showed resolution of the gastrointestinal signs, and the numbers of eosinophils and basophils returned within the reference range 8 weeks after the treatment began. Basophilia and eosinophilia has been reported in conjunction with feline T-cell lymphoma. However, marked basophilia accompanying eosinophilia is extremely rare in cats with inflammatory bowel disease. We herein provide clinical details, including ultrasonography, endoscopy, histopathology, and disease course of feline lymphocytic-plasmacytic and eosinophilic enterocolitis with marked basophilia and eosinophilia. This case highlights the importance of considering enteritis as potential diagnoses when eosinophilia and basophilia are concurrently observed in cats.
PubMed: 37732139
DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1153702 -
BJOG : An International Journal of... Mar 2023To assess the association between marked variability in fetal heart rate (FHR) and neonatal acidosis.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the association between marked variability in fetal heart rate (FHR) and neonatal acidosis.
DESIGN
Bicentric prospective cohort study.
SETTING
From January 2019 to December 2019, in two French tertiary care maternity units.
POPULATION
Women in labour at ≥37 weeks of gestation, with continuous FHR monitoring until delivery and with the availability of umbilical arterial pH. Women with intrauterine fetal death or medical termination, multiple pregnancies, non-cephalic presentation or planned caesarean delivery were excluded.
METHODS
The exposure was marked variability in FHR in the 60 minutes before delivery, defined as a variability greater than 25 beats per minute, with a minimum duration of 1 minute. To assess the association between marked variability and neonatal acidosis, we used multivariable modified Poisson regression modelling. We then conducted subgroup analyses according to the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) category of the associated fetal heart rate.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Neonatal acidosis, defined as an umbilical artery pH of ≤7.10.
RESULTS
Among the 4394 women included, 177 (4%) had marked variability in fetal heart rate in the 60 minutes before delivery. Acidosis occurred in 6.0% (265/4394) of the neonates. In the multivariable analysis, marked variability was significantly associated with neonatal acidosis (aRR 2.30, 95% CI 1.53-3.44). In subgroup analyses, the association between marked variability and neonatal acidosis remained significant in NICHD category-I and category-II groups.
CONCLUSIONS
Marked variability was associated with a twofold increased risk of neonatal acidosis.
Topics: Infant, Newborn; Child; Pregnancy; Female; Humans; Heart Rate, Fetal; Prospective Studies; Labor, Obstetric; Fetal Monitoring; Infant, Newborn, Diseases; Acidosis; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
PubMed: 36398385
DOI: 10.1111/1471-0528.17345