Multiple instance learning for eosinophil quantification of sinonasal histopathology images: A hierarchical determination on whole slide images.

KEY POINTS: We proposed a hierarchical framework including an unsupervised candidate image selection and a weakly supervised patch image detection based on multiple instance learning (MIL) to effectively estimate eosinophil quantities in tissue samples from whole slide images. MIL is an innovative approach that can help deal with the variability in cell distribution detection and enable automated eosinophil quantification from sinonasal histopathological images with a high degree of accuracy. The study lays the foundation for further research and development in the field of automated histopathological image analysis, and validation on more extensive and diverse datasets will contribute to real-world application.

ABC-Norm Regularization for Fine-Grained and Long-Tailed Image Classification.

Image classification for real-world applications often involves complicated data distributions such as fine-grained and long-tailed. To address the two challenging issues simultaneously, we propose a new regularization technique that yields an adversarial loss to strengthen the model learning. Specifically, for each training batch, we construct an adaptive batch prediction (ABP) matrix and establish its corresponding adaptive batch confusion norm (ABC-Norm). The ABP matrix is a composition of two parts, including an adaptive component to class-wise encode the imbalanced data distribution, and the other component to batch-wise assess the softmax predictions. The ABC-Norm leads to a norm-based regularization loss, which can be theoretically shown to be an upper bound for an objective function closely related to rank minimization. By coupling with the conventional cross-entropy loss, the ABC-Norm regularization could introduce adaptive classification confusion and thus trigger adversarial learning to improve the effectiveness of model learning. Different from most of state-of-the-art techniques in solving either fine-grained or long-tailed problems, our method is characterized with its simple and efficient design, and most distinctively, provides a unified solution. In the experiments, we compare ABC-Norm with relevant techniques and demonstrate its efficacy on several benchmark datasets, including (CUB-LT, iNaturalist2018); (CUB, CAR, AIR); and (ImageNet-LT), which respectively correspond to the real-world, fine-grained, and long-tailed scenarios.

Objective evaluation of biomaterial effects after injection laryngoplasty - Introduction of artificial intelligence-based ultrasonic image analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Hyaluronic acid (HA) can be degraded over time. However, persistence of the effects after injection laryngoplasty (IL) for unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP), longer than expected from HA longevity, has been observed. The purpose of the study was to develop a methodology with clinical utility for objective evaluation of the temporal change in HA volume after IL using artificial intelligence (AI)-based ultrasonic assessment. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Imaging phantoms simulating injected HA were built in different volumes for designing the algorithm for machine learning. Subsequently, five adult patients who had undergone IL with HA for UVFP were recruited for clinical evaluation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Estimated volumes were evaluated for injected HA by the automatic algorithm as well as voice outcomes at 2 weeks, and 2 and 6 months after IL. RESULTS: On imaging phantoms, contours on each frame were described well by the algorithm and the volume could be estimated accordingly. The error rates were 0%-9.2%. Moreover, the resultant contours of the HA area were captured in detail for all participants. The estimated volume decreased to an average of 65.76% remaining at 2 months and to a minimal amount at 6 months while glottal closure remained improved. CONCLUSION: The volume change of the injected HA over time for an individual was estimated non-invasively by AI-based ultrasonic image analysis. The prolonged effect after treatment, longer than HA longevity, was demonstrated objectively for the first time. The information is beneficial to achieve optimal cost-effectiveness of IL and improve the life quality of the patients.

Health risk assessment of exogenous harmful pollutants in Chinese medicine: a review / 中国中药杂志

In recent years, the quality and safety problems have been limiting the internationalization of Chinese medicine. The pollutants in Chinese medicine, particularly the exogenous harmful pollutants mainly including mycotoxins, pesticide residues, heavy metals, harmful elements, and sulfur dioxide, are of high risks for people. Therefore, the World Health Organization(WHO) and relevant national organizations have clearly defined the maximum residue limits(MRLs) of such pollutants. Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2020 edition, volume Ⅳ) also demonstrates the detection methods, MRLs and preliminary risk assessment methods for four typical exogenous harmful pollutants in Chinese medicine. Therefore, continuous optimization of the health risk assessment system can further help further raise the quality and safety of Chinese medicine. This paper reviews the research on the health risk assessment of four typical exogenous harmful pollutants in Chinese medicine and discusses the problems of and challenges for the assessment system, which is expected to lay a scientific basis for the establishment of the risk warning mode and response measures suitable for specific types of Chinese medicine.

Identification of Subtype-Specific Metastasis-Related Genetic Signatures in Sarcoma.

Background: Sarcomas are heterogeneous rare malignancies constituting approximately 1% of all solid cancers in adults and including more than 70 histological and molecular subtypes with different pathological and clinical development characteristics. Method: We identified prognostic biomarkers of sarcomas by integrating clinical information and RNA-seq data from TCGA and GEO databases. In addition, results obtained from cell cycle, cell migration, and invasion assays were used to assess the capacity for Tanespimycin to inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of sarcoma. Results: Sarcoma samples (N = 536) were divided into four pathological subtypes including DL (dedifferentiated liposarcoma), LMS (leiomyosarcoma), UPS (undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcomas), and MFS (myxofibrosarcoma). RNA-seq expression profile data from the TCGA dataset were used to analyze differentially expressed genes (DEGs) within metastatic and non-metastatic samples of these four sarcoma pathological subtypes with DEGs defined as metastatic-related signatures (MRS). Prognostic analysis of MRS identified a group of genes significantly associated with prognosis in three pathological subtypes: DL, LMS, and UPS. ISG15, NUP50, PTTG1, SERPINE1, and TSR1 were found to be more likely associated with adverse prognosis. We also identified Tanespimycin as a drug exerting inhibitory effects on metastatic LMS subtype and therefore can serve a potential treatment for this type of sarcoma. Conclusions: These results provide new insights into the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of sarcomas and provide new directions for further study of sarcoma.

Impact of Frisbee game course on the upper limb motor function of students with intellectual disabilities.

Objectives: Upper limb motor dysfunction often occurs in individuals with intellectual disabilities, affecting their daily self-care abilities and employability. Therefore, enhancing their upper limb motor function could improve the quality of life. This study investigated the impact of Frisbee game course on the upper limb motor function of students with intellectual disabilities. Methods: A self-designed Frisbee game course was made available to 10 senior vocational students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities in a special school in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The students participated 40 min each time, 4 times a week, for 6 weeks. Pre and post-test functional capacity and Frisbee throwing distance were measured. Descriptive statistics and paired-sample t-test were performed for the data analysis. Results: Frisbee game course improved the lifting capacity, significantly improved the grip strength (dominant hand), upper limb power, hand-eye coordination, and gross and fine hand motor skills of students with intellectual disabilities. Conclusion: Frisbee game course can improve upper limb muscle strength, power, coordination ability, and dexterity. Schools should implement Frisbee game courses and ensure their availability in the health and physical education of students with intellectual disabilities to enhance their upper limb motor function, employability, and vocational adaptability, thus improving their quality of life.

Haze effect removal from image via haze density estimation in optical model.

Images/videos captured from optical devices are usually degraded by turbid media such as haze, smoke, fog, rain and snow. Haze is the most common problem in outdoor scenes because of the atmosphere conditions. This paper proposes a novel single image-based dehazing framework to remove haze artifacts from images, where we propose two novel image priors, called the pixel-based dark channel prior and the pixel-based bright channel prior. Based on the two priors with the haze optical model, we propose to estimate atmospheric light via haze density analysis. We can then estimate transmission map, followed by refining it via the bilateral filter. As a result, high-quality haze-free images can be recovered with lower computational complexity compared with the state-of-the-art approach based on patch-based dark channel prior.

Multimedia-assisted breathwalk-aware system.

Breathwalk is a science of combining specific patterns of footsteps synchronized with the breathing. In this study, we developed a multimedia-assisted Breathwalk-aware system which detects user's walking and breathing conditions and provides appropriate multimedia guidance on the smartphone. Through the mobile device, the system enhances user's awareness of walking and breathing behaviors. As an example application in slow technology, the system could help meditator beginners learn "walking meditation," a type of meditation which aims to be as slow as possible in taking pace, to synchronize footstep with breathing, and to land every footstep with toes first. In the pilot study, we developed a walking-aware system and evaluated whether multimedia-assisted mechanism is capable of enhancing beginner's walking awareness while walking meditation. Experimental results show that it could effectively assist beginners in slowing down the walking speed and decreasing incorrect footsteps. In the second experiment, we evaluated the Breathwalk-aware system to find a better feedback mechanism for learning the techniques of Breathwalk while walking meditation. The experimental results show that the visual-auditory mechanism is a better multimedia-assisted mechanism while walking meditation than visual mechanism and auditory mechanism.

Noncontact respiratory measurement of volume change using depth camera.

In this study, a system is developed to measure human chest wall motion for respiratory volume estimation without any physical contact. Based on depth image sensing technique, respiratory volume is estimated by measuring morphological changes of the chest wall. We evaluated the system and compared with a standard reference device, and the results show strong agreement in respiratory volume measurement [correlation coefficient: r=0.966]. The isovolume test presents small variations of the total respiratory volume during the isovolume maneuver (standard deviation<107 ml). Then, a regional pulmonary measurement test is evaluated by a patient, and the results show visibly difference of pulmonary functional between the diseased and the contralateral sides of the thorax after the thoracotomy. This study has big potential for personal health care and preventive medicine as it provides a novel, low-cost, and convenient way to measure user's respiration volume.

Effect of OATP1B1 521T --> C heterogenesis on pharmacokinetic characterstics of rosuvastatin in Chinese volunteers / 药学学报

This study is to report the effect of OATP1B1 gene mutation in the 521T --> C in Chinese human on the pharmacokinetics of rosuvastatin and guide the reasonable clinical application of rosuvastatin by the feature of genetic polymorphism of OATP1B1. Plasma samples were determined with LC-MS: the analyte and internal standard pitavastatin were both analyzed by MS in the ESI, m/z was 480.0 for rosuvastatin and 420.0 for the IS, separately. Genotyping of OATP1B1 was determined with the method of polymerase chain reaction--amplification refractory mutation system targeted at 40 healthy volunteers and showed that there were 7 subjects with 521T --> C mutant, accounting to 17.5% of total and wild type homozygote accounted to 82.5%. It was found that there were significant differences between OATP1B1 mutation in the 521T --> C and wild type homozygote for rosuvastatin pharmacokinetic process in Chinese human. In contrast to OATP1B1 wild type group, OATP1B1 mutation group's absorption degree increased, elimination process decreased. The OATP1B1 mutation should be noted for guiding the reasonable application of rosuvastatin during its clinical use.

Detection of peripheral blood HBV-LHBs transactivation function and its relationship with anti-viral efficacy / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Explore the serum of patients with CHB of HBV large envelope protein (HBV-LHBs) trans-activation function and antiviral therapy effect relationship.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>60 cases of anti-viral treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B to take every 3 months HBVDNA, HBV-LHBs, as well as detection of hepatitis B immune markers to observe the changes in indexes.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Income group 60 cases of anti-virus group HBVDNA with HBV-LHBs have a higher detection rate of the consistency of the results found no statistical significance (P > 0.05), HBV-LHBs-positive rate and positive rate of HBeAg differences (chi2 = 4.08, P < 0.05). After 24 months of antiviral therapy HBV-LHBs expression always HBVDNA in 29 cases of which occurred 24 months after the negative reaction of the 20 cases, continuous positive were seven cases of non-negative. 60 cases of patients 24 months found no HBsAg seroconversion, four cases of emergence of HBeAg seroconversion.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>(1) detection of serum HBV-LHBs to reflect the hepatitis B virus replication with HBVDNA good correlation. (2) anti-viral treatment of dynamic observation of the process of HBV-LHBs expression can predict the effectiveness of anti-viral therapy.</p>

Induction of biliary cholangiocarcinoma cell apoptosis by 103Pd cholangial radioactive stent gamma-rays / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>In recent years, interventional tumor therapy, involving implantation of intra-cholangial metal stents through percutaneous trans-hepatic punctures, has provided a new method for treating cholangiocarcinoma. (103)Pd cholangial radioactive stents can concentrate high radioactive dosages into the malignant tumors and kill tumor cells effectively, in order to prevent re-stenosis of the lumen caused by a relapsed tumor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of gamma-rays released by the (103)Pd biliary duct radioactive stent in treating cholangiocarcinoma via induction of biliary cholangiocarcinoma cell apoptosis.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A group of biliary duct cancer cells was collectively treated with a dose of gamma-rays. Cells were then examined by the 3-(4, 5-dimethyl thiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl terazolium-bromide (MTT) technique for determining the inhibition rate of the biliary duct cancer cells, as well as with other methods including electron microscopy, DNA agarose gel electrophoresis, and flow cytometry were applied for the evaluation of their morphological and biochemical characteristics. The growth curve and the growth inhibition rate of the cells were determined, and the changes in the ultrastructure of the cholangiocarcinoma cells and the DNA electrophoresis bands were examined under a UV-lamp.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The gamma-ray released by (103)Pd inhibited cholangiocarcinoma cell growth, as demonstrated when the growth rate of the cells was stunned by a gamma-ray with a dosage larger than 197.321 MBq. Typical features of cholangiocarcinoma cell apoptosis were observed in the 197.321 MBq dosage group, while cell necrosis was observed when irradiated by a dosage above 245.865 MBq. DNA agarose gel electrophoresis results were different between the 197.321 MBq irradiation dosage group, the 245.865 MBq irradiation dosage group, and the control group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>(103)Pd radioactive stents which provide a radioactive dosage of 197.321 MBq are effective in the treatment of cholangiocarcinoma; (103)Pd radioactive stents should be useful for the clinical treatment of cholangiocarcinoma.</p>

Subject diagnostic value of detecting a1pha-fetoprotein variants with a new microspincolumn method in hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the usefulness of new microspincolumn method for the measurement of a1pha-fetoprotein variant AFP-L3 in differentiation of benign and malignant liver disease and the warming for liver cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>AFP-L3 was isolated by using microspincolumn coupled with lens culinaris agglutinin (LCA), AFP and AFP-L3 were determined with chemiluminescent immunoassay, the proportion of AFP-L3 levels AFP-L3(%) were calculated, and the relationship between the elevated AFP-L3(%) levels and benign and malignant liver disease was analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The levels of AFP-L3(%) in serum of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma was significantly higher than those in the patients with other liver diseases (P < 0.001). Taking AFP-L3(%) >or= 10% as the diagnostic criteria, the sensitivity for diagnosis of liver cancer was 90.9%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Detection of AFP-L3 seemed to be of clinical value in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma; it may be especially important for identifying patients with hepatocellular carcinoma whose a1pha-fetoprotein level is low.</p>