Wide-Angular Tolerance Optical Filter Design and Its Application to Green Pepper Segmentation.

The optical filter is critical in many applications requiring wide-angle imaging perception. However, the transmission curve of the typical optical filter will change at an oblique incident angle due to the optical path of the incident light change. In this study, we propose a wide-angular tolerance optical filter design method based on the transfer matrix method and automatic differentiation. A novel optical merit function is proposed for simultaneous optimization at normal and oblique incidents. The simulation results demonstrate that such a wide-angular tolerance design can realize a similar transmittance curve at an oblique incident angle compared to a normal incident angle. Furthermore, how much improvement in a wide-angular optical filter design for oblique incident contributes to image segmentation remains unclear. Therefore, we evaluate several transmittance curves along with the U-Net structure for green pepper segmentation. Although our proposed method is not perfectly equal to the target design, it can achieve an average 50% smaller mean absolute error (MAE) than the original design at 20∘ oblique incident angle. In addition, the green pepper segmentation results show that wide-angular tolerance optical filter design improves the segmentation of the near-color object about 0.3% at 20∘ oblique incident angle compared to the previous design.

Room-Temperature High-Performance Thermoelectric Bi0.6 Sb0.4 Te: Elimination of Detrimental Band Inversion in BiTe.

Room-temperature thermoelectric materials are the key to miniaturizing refrigeration equipment and have great scientific and social implications, yet their application is hindered by their extreme scarcity. BiTe exhibiting strong spin-orbit coupling peaks ZT at 600 K. Herein, we discover the synergy effect of Sb doping in BiTe that eliminates the detrimental band inversion and leads to an overlap of conduction band (CB) and valence band that significantly increases the S from 33 to 124 µV K-1 . In addition, this effect enhances the µ from 58 to 92 cm2  V-1 s-1 owing to the sharp increase in the CB slope along the Γ-A in the first Brillouin zone. Furthermore, Sb doping increases the anharmonicity, shortens the phonon lifetime and lowers κlat . Finally, Se/Sb codoping further optimizes the ZT to 0.6 at 300 K, suggesting that Bi0.6 Sb0.4 Te1-y Sey is a potential room-temperature TE material.

Pontine control of rapid eye movement sleep and fear memory.

AIMS: We often experience dreams of strong irrational and negative emotional contents with postural muscle paralysis during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but how REM sleep is generated and its function remain unclear. In this study, we investigate whether the dorsal pontine sub-laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (SLD) is necessary and sufficient for REM sleep and whether REM sleep elimination alters fear memory. METHODS: To investigate whether activation of SLD neurons is sufficient for REM sleep induction, we expressed channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in SLD neurons by bilaterally injecting AAV1-hSyn-ChR2-YFP in rats. We next selectively ablated either glutamatergic or GABAergic neurons from the SLD in mice in order to identify the neuronal subset crucial for REM sleep. We finally  investigated the role of REM sleep in consolidation of fear memory using rat model with complete SLD lesions. RESULTS: We demonstrate the sufficiency of the SLD for REM sleep by showing that photo-activation of ChR2 transfected SLD neurons selectively promotes transitions from non-REM (NREM) sleep to REM sleep in rats. Diphtheria toxin-A (DTA) induced lesions of the SLD in rats or specific deletion of SLD glutamatergic neurons but not GABAergic neurons in mice completely abolish REM sleep, demonstrating the necessity of SLD glutamatergic neurons for REM sleep. We then show that REM sleep elimination by SLD lesions in rats significantly enhances contextual and cued fear memory consolidation by 2.5 and 1.0 folds, respectively, for at least 9 months. Conversely, fear conditioning and fear memory trigger doubled amounts of REM sleep in the following night, and chemo-activation of SLD neurons projecting to the medial septum (MS) selectively enhances hippocampal theta activity in REM sleep; this stimulation immediately after fear acquisition reduces contextual and cued fear memory consolidation by 60% and 30%, respectively. CONCLUSION: SLD glutamatergic neurons generate REM sleep and REM sleep and SLD via the hippocampus particularly down-regulate contextual fear memory.

Attention Network with Information Distillation for Super-Resolution.

Resolution is an intuitive assessment for the visual quality of images, which is limited by physical devices. Recently, image super-resolution (SR) models based on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have made significant progress. However, most existing SR models require high computational costs with network depth, hindering practical application. In addition, these models treat intermediate features equally and rarely explore the discriminative capacity hidden in their abundant features. To tackle these issues, we propose an attention network with information distillation(AIDN) for efficient and accurate image super-resolution, which adaptively modulates the feature responses by modeling the interactions between channel dimension and spatial features. Specifically, gated channel transformation (GCT) is introduced to gather global contextual information among different channels to modulate intermediate high-level features. Moreover, a recalibrated attention module (RAM) is proposed to rescale these feature responses, and RAM concentrates the essential contents around spatial locations. Benefiting from the gated channel transformation and spatial information masks working jointly, our proposed AIDN can obtain a more powerful ability to identify information. It effectively improves computational efficiency while improving reconstruction accuracy. Comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations demonstrate that our AIDN outperforms state-of-the-art models in terms of reconstruction performance and visual quality.

Saturated Dissolved Oxygen Concentration in in situ Fragmentation Bioleaching of Copper Sulfide Ores.

In situ fragmentation bioleaching is a promising way to perform deep mining safely, economically, and in an environmentally friendly manner, where oxygen plays a critical role in microbial growth and mineral dissolution. However, the lack of oxygen limits the implementation of in-situ fragmentation bioleaching. To overcome this limitation, aeration was proposed, with saturated dissolved oxygen concentration as an important indicator. Orthogonal experiments were conducted to measure saturated dissolved oxygen concentration at various temperature, pH, and electrolyte (ferrous sulfate, ferric sulfate, copper sulfate, and sulfuric acid) concentration conditions. Experimental data were analyzed by Python programming language and least squares method to obtain a saturated dissolved oxygen concentration model. Results showed that temperature had the most significant effect on oxygen solubility, which was concluded by comparing the results of surface fitting based on the least squares method. At 30-40°C, the saturated dissolved oxygen concentration decreased faster as metal ions concentration increased. The conjoint effect of the five variables on oxygen solubility showed that pH was linearly negatively related to oxygen solubility. Additionally, a mathematical model was also proposed to predict the saturated dissolved oxygen concentration in in situ fragmentation bioleaching of copper sulfide ores. This work enables bioleaching processes to be modeled and controlled more effectively.

Automatic Search Dense Connection Module for Super-Resolution.

The development of display technology has continuously increased the requirements for image resolution. However, the imaging systems of many cameras are limited by their physical conditions, and the image resolution is often restrictive. Recently, several models based on deep convolutional neural network (CNN) have gained significant performance for image super-resolution (SR), while extensive memory consumption and computation overhead hinder practical applications. For this purpose, we present a lightweight network that automatically searches dense connection (ASDCN) for image super-resolution (SR), which effectively reduces redundancy in dense connection and focuses on more valuable features. We employ neural architecture search (NAS) to model the searching of dense connections. Qualitative and quantitative experiments on five public datasets show that our derived model achieves superior performance over the state-of-the-art models.

Color-Ratio Maps Enhanced Optical Filter Design and Its Application in Green Pepper Segmentation.

There is a growing demand for developing image sensor systems to aid fruit and vegetable harvesting, and crop growth prediction in precision agriculture. In this paper, we present an end-to-end optimization approach for the simultaneous design of optical filters and green pepper segmentation neural networks. Our optimization method modeled the optical filter as one learnable neural network layer and attached it to the subsequent camera spectral response (CSR) layer and segmentation neural network for green pepper segmentation. We used not only the standard red-green-blue output from the CSR layer but also the color-ratio maps as additional cues in the visible wavelength and to augment the feature maps as the input for segmentation. We evaluated how well our proposed color-ratio maps enhanced optical filter design methods in our collected dataset. We find that our proposed method can yield a better performance than both an optical filter RGB system without color-ratio maps and a raw RGB camera (without an optical filter) system. The proposed learning-based framework can potentially build better image sensor systems for green pepper segmentation.

[Research advance in multi-component pharmacokinetics of Chinese herbal extracts in recent five years].

The multi-component pharmacokinetic study of Chinese herbal extracts elaborates the in vivo processes,including absorption,distribution,metabolism,and excretion,of multiple bioactive components,which is of significance in revealing pharmacodynamic material basis of Chinese herbal medicine. In recent years,with the innovation in ideas,and development of techniques and methods on traditional Chinese medicine( TCM) research,the pharmacokinetic studies of Chinese herbal extracts were extensively performed,and notable progress has been made. This paper reviewed the advancement of multi-component pharmacokinetics of Chinese herbal extracts in recent five years from analysis technology of biological sample,the pharmacokinetic characteristics of Chinese herbal medicine with complex system,and the impacts of processing and pathological state on pharmacokinetics of Chinese herbal extracts,aiming to provide a reference for quality control,product development and rational medication of Chinese herbal extracts.

[Advance on pharmacokinetics study of traditional Chinese medicine injections in recent ten years].

Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) injections boast a definite efficacy and have been widely used in clinic. However, the problems in medication safety have been attracted increasing attention. Pharmacokinetics is of significance to guiding TCM injection administration regimen design and improving safety and effectiveness in clinical use. In recent years, with the improvement of ideas, technology and methods of TCM studies, the pharmacokinetic studies of TCM injections have been broadly performed, with a notable progress. This paper reviewed the advance in pharmacokinetics studies of TCM injections in recent ten years, which mainly focused on pre-clinical concentration-time course, distribution, metabolism and excretion in vivo based on analysis techniques, pharmacokinetic interactions of constitutes, impact of pathological state, pharmacokinetic interactions between TCM injection and chemical drugs, and clinical pharmacokinetics studies of TCM injections, in the expectation of providing reference for studies on quality control, product development and rational clinical use of TCM injections.

Clinical Characteristics and Manifestations of Fungal Esophagitis: A Single-Center Experience in South China.

Fungal esophagitis is a common infectious disease, although the pathogenic clinical characteristics remain incompletely clear, especially in South China. The goal of this study was to investigate the pathogenic clinical characteristics of fungal esophagitis and the efficacy of different therapeutic strategies at a tertiary hospital in South China. A retrospective study was conducted from January 2007 to December 2017. Data from 113,390 patients who were treated in the endoscopic unit were retrieved and analyzed. To further understand the pathogen and risk factors for fungal esophagitis, we performed a case-control analysis of 101 patients and 202 controls. Of the 113,390 patients, 932 (0.82%) were positive. The annual detection rate ranged from 0.345% to 1.106%, showing an initially increasing and subsequently decreasing trend. The patients' median age was 49 years (range from 8 to 85), and most were men (615/932, 65.99%). Candida albicans was found in samples collected from 36 patients, without any drug-resistant strains. Age (P = 0.018), malignancy (OR = 4.031, 95% CI: 1.562~10.407), cigarette smoking (OR = 3.017, 95% CI: 1.645~5.533), and the use of antibiotics (OR = 2.178, 95% CI: 1.078~4.400) or immunosuppressants (OR = 6.525, 95% CI: 1.089~39.105) were independently associated with esophageal candidiasis. Fluconazole had a better curative effect than nystatin (OR = 4.047, 95% CI: 1.282~12.772) or simple observation (OR = 8.91, 95% CI: 2.61~30.49). In conclusion, fungal esophagitis primarily affects men and elderly individuals; it develops in the setting of malignancy, smoking, and certain previous medication use. Candida albicans is the most common pathogen and is sensitive to antifungal agents. Fluconazole has a good therapeutic effect.

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 inhibits α-synuclein-induced microglia inflammation to protect from neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Microglia activation induced by α-synuclein (α-syn) is one of the most important factors in Parkinson's disease (PD) pathogenesis. However, the molecular mechanisms by which α-syn exerts neuroinflammation and neurotoxicity remain largely elusive. Targeting metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) has been an attractive strategy to mediate microglia activation for neuroprotection, which might be an essential regulator to modulate α-syn-induced neuroinflammation for the treatment of PD. Here, we showed that mGluR5 inhibited α-syn-induced microglia inflammation to protect from neurotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: Co-immunoprecipitation assays were utilized to detect the interaction between mGluR5 and α-syn in microglia. Griess, ELISA, real-time PCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence assays were used to detect the regulation of α-syn-induced inflammatory signaling, cytokine secretion, and lysosome-dependent degradation. RESULTS: α-syn selectively interacted with mGluR5 but not mGluR3, and α-syn N terminal deletion region was essential for binding to mGluR5 in co-transfected HEK293T cells. The interaction between these two proteins was further detected in BV2 microglia, which was inhibited by the mGluR5 specific agonist CHPG without effect by its selective antagonist MTEP. Moreover, in both BV2 cells and primary microglia, activation of mGluR5 by CHPG partially inhibited α-syn-induced inflammatory signaling and cytokine secretion and also inhibited the microglia activation to protect from neurotoxicity. We further found that α-syn overexpression decreased mGluR5 expression via a lysosomal pathway, as evidenced by the lysosomal inhibitor, NH4Cl, by blocking mGluR5 degradation, which was not evident with the proteasome inhibitor, MG132. Additionally, co-localization of mGluR5 with α-syn was detected in lysosomes as merging with its marker, LAMP-1. Consistently, in vivo experiments with LPS- or AAV-α-syn-induced rat PD model also confirmed that α-syn accelerated lysosome-dependent degradation of mGluR5 involving a complex, to regulate neuroinflammation. Importantly, the binding is strengthened with LPS or α-syn overexpression but alleviated by urate, a potential clinical biomarker for PD. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provided evidence for a novel mechanism by which the association of α-syn with mGluR5 was attributed to α-syn-induced microglia activation via modulation of mGluR5 degradation and its intracellular signaling. This may be a new molecular target for an effective therapeutic strategy for PD pathology.

Potential therapeutic effect of Saussureae Involucratae Herba on breast cancer and its mechanism based on network pharmacology / 中国中药杂志

As one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the world, female breast cancer is induced by the high level of estrogen. Saussureae Involucratae Herba(SIH), a gynecological medicinal, regulates estrogen-induced diseases. However, the therapeutic effect of SIH on breast cancer has not been reported. Therefore, this study aims to explore the potential efficacy of SIH on breast cancer based on in vitro experiment and network pharmacology. The inhibitory effect of SIH water extract on proliferation and migration of breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells was examined. The result demonstrated SIH water extract significantly suppressed the proliferation of breast cancer cells(IC_(50)=6.47 mg·mL~(-1)) and also restricted the migration. A total of 39 components of SIH were retrieved from traditional Chinese medicine database(TCMD) and 160 targets of SIH were screened by target fishing with the PharmaDB database. The Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man(OMIM) was used to establish a 1 001-targets data set of breast cancer. Based on the overlaps(45) of targets between SIH and breast cancer, a protein-protein interaction(PPI) network was built to analyze the interactions among these targets with STRING platform and Cytoscape. Finally, through topology and GO and KEGG analysis, 8 targets, 101 pathways and 85 biological processes were found to involve the treatment of breast cancer by SIH. SIH may exert the anti-breast cancer effect by regulating cell cycle, inhibiting proliferation, migration and adhesion of cancer cells, and modulating estrogen receptor. This study clarified the mechanism of SIH in treating breast cancer, which lays a foundation for the further development of SIH.

Protocol on transcranial alternating current stimulation for the treatment of major depressive disorder: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) offers a new approach for adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). The study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tACS treating MDD. METHODS: This is an 8-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. Ninety-two drug-naive patients with MDD aged 18 to 65 years will receive 20 daily 40-min, 77.5-Hz, 15-mA sessions of active or sham tACS targeting the forehead and both mastoid areas on weekdays for 4 consecutive weeks (week 4), following a 4-week observation period (week 8). The primary outcome is the remission rate defined as the 17-item Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS-17) score ≤7 at week 8. Secondary outcomes are the rates of response at weeks 4 and 8 and rate of remission at week 4 based on HDRS-17, the proportion of participants having improvement in the clinical global impression-improvement, the change in HDRS-17 score (range, 0-52, with higher scores indicating more depression) over the study, and variations of brain imaging and neurocognition from baseline to week 4. Safety will be assessed by vital signs at weeks 4 and 8, and adverse events will be collected during the entire study. DISCUSSION: The tACS applied in this trial may have treatment effects on MDD with minimal side effects. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1800016479; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=22048.

Cross-linked gelatin microsphere-based scaffolds as a delivery vehicle of MC3T3-E1 cells: in vitro and in vivo evaluation.

Scaffolding plays a crucial role in bone tissue engineering by not only providing interfaces for cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation but also guiding neotissue formation. For this purpose, microspheres (MSs) are being increasingly used alone or in combination with other scaffolds. However, few researchers have used MSs to prepare 3D scaffolds by culture with delivered cells. In this study, we have developed covalent cross-linked gelatin MSs (ccG-MSs) (average diameter = 100-300 µm) to load mouse osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells, which exhibit attachment and spreading on surfaces of ccG-MSs after co-culture. Significantly, the ccG-MSs can be integrated into a macroscopic construct with MC3T3-E1 cells after 5 days of cultivation. The MC3T3-E1 cells within ccG-MSs constructs show a higher viability and proliferation activity than those in the micro-cavitary gelatin gel (MCG) constructs. Calcium deposition, alkaline phosphatase activity as well as osteocalcin secretion within both ccG-MSs and MCG constructs have been evaluated in vitro and in vivo, respectively. Compared to MCG scaffolds, ccG-MS-based scaffolds can provide better cellular microenvironments for cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. Our findings will lay the foundation for understanding cellular behaviors in MS-based 3D constructs and help in designing MS-based bone tissue engineering scaffolds.

Effect of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation for the Treatment of Chronic Insomnia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Parallel-Group, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND: Not all adults with chronic insomnia respond to the recommended therapeutic options of cognitive behavioral therapy and approved hypnotic drugs. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) may offer a novel potential treatment modality for insomnia. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the efficacy and safety of tACS for treating adult patients with chronic insomnia. METHODS: Sixty-two participants with chronic primary insomnia received 20 daily 40-min, 77.5-Hz, 15-mA sessions of active or sham tACS targeting the forehead and both mastoid areas in the laboratory on weekdays for 4 consecutive weeks, followed by a 4-week follow-up period. The primary outcome was response rate measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at week 8. Secondary outcomes were remission rate, insomnia severity, sleep onset latency (SOL), total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency, sleep quality, daily disturbances, and adverse events at the end of the 4-week intervention and at the 4-week follow-up. RESULTS: Of 62 randomized patients, 60 completed the trial. During the 4-week intervention, 1 subject per group withdrew due to loss of interest and time restriction, respectively. Based on PSQI, at 4-week follow-up, the active group had a higher response rate compared to the sham group (53.4% [16/30] vs. 16.7% [5/30], p = 0.009), but remission rates were not different between groups. At the end of the 4-week intervention, the active group had higher response and remission rates than the sham group (p < 0.001 and p = 0.026, respectively). During the trial, compared with the sham group, the active group showed a statistically significant decrease in PSQI total score, a shortened SOL, an increased TST, improved sleep efficiency, and improved sleep quality (p < 0.05 or p < 0.001). Post hoc analysis revealed that, in comparison with the sham group, the active group had improved symptoms, except for daily disturbances, at the end of the 4-week intervention, and significant improvements in all symptoms at the 4-week follow-up. No adverse events or serious adverse responses occurred during the study. CONCLUSION: The findings show that the tACS applied in the present study has potential as an effective and safe intervention for chronic insomnia within 8 weeks.

Discovery and application of traditional Chinese medicine efficacy markers based on systematic traditional Chinese medicine / 中国中药杂志

The quality marker(Q-marker) of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) is a new concept of TCM quality control proposed in recent years. It is a hot issue in the research of modern Chinese medicine. The TCM efficacy is a high-level summary of the TCM therapeutic effect under the guidance of TCM theory. On this basis, it is of considerable significance to explore the TCM efficacy marker for the TCM modernization. However, the traditional research strategy based on the single herb and decoction piece in macro TCM level, or the drug research strategy based on the biological effect of the targets, is quite different from the characteristics of multiple components of TCM, as well as the weak and low-selective effect of Chinese medicine ingredients on targets. Therefore, how to select representative ingredients to characterize the TCM overall efficacy is a problematic point in establishing TCM efficacy markers. In this paper, the concept and method of Q-marker were introduced into the study of Chinese medicine efficacy. The research method for systematic TCM was used to systematically discuss the connotation of TCM efficacy markers, the principles of discovery and determination, common research ideas and techniques by taking the representative research results as an example. This study provides new ideas for the research and discovery of TCM efficacy markers.

[System modeling on Chinese herbal medicine process based on multi-block partial least squares].

The system model of Chinese herbal medicine process is the basis for improving the precision of pharmaceutical process and ensuring the stable transmission of quality between different sections of the process. By taking the wet granulation-tableting process as the research object and using the Panax notoginsengs sapions (PNS) as a model drug, multi-block partial least squares method (MBPLS) was used in this article to build the system model of Chinese herbal medicine process, analyze the mass transmission rules in the process and improve the understanding on pharmaceutical process system of Chinese medicine. According to the process flow, the quality attributes of raw materials, granules and tablets collected in the process were divided into different data blocks, and the MBPLS method was used to establish system model. The R²Y and Q²Y of MBPLS model were 89.1% and 65.5%, respectively, indicating that the performance of the MBPLS model was good. By analyzing the parameters of MBPLS model, it was determined that the physical quality attributes of PNS raw materials and quality attributes of PNS granules were the key factors to affect the quality of PNS tablets. The particle size, bulk density and tapped density of PNS raw materials were the critical quality attributes which caused the quality variations of PNS granules and PNS tablets. MBPLS can quantify the contributions of each unit to the product quality by dividing the quality attributes into different units. It was helpful to analyze the interactions between the process units of Chinese herbal medicine and it could be applied to build system model of other Chinese herbal preparations processes.

Relationships between Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder and Neurodegenerative Diseases: Clinical Assessments, Biomarkers, and Treatment.

OBJECTIVE: Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is characterized by dream enactment and loss of muscle atonia during rapid eye movement sleep. RBD is closely related to α-synucleinopathies including Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. Many studies have investigated the markers of imaging and neurophysiological, genetic, cognitive, autonomic function of RBD and their predictive value for neurodegenerative diseases. This report reviewed the progress of these studies and discussed their limitations and future research directions. DATA SOURCES: Using the combined keywords: "RBD", "neurodegenerative disease", "Parkinson disease", and "magnetic resonance imaging", the PubMed/MEDLINE literature search was conducted up to January 1, 2018. STUDY SELECTION: A total of 150 published articles were initially identified citations. Of the 150 articles, 92 articles were selected after further detailed review. This study referred to all the important English literature in full. RESULTS: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in SCARB2 (rs6812193) and MAPT (rs12185268) were significantly associated with RBD. The olfactory loss, autonomic dysfunction, marked electroencephalogram slowing during both wakefulness and rapid eye movement sleep, and cognitive impairments were potential predictive markers for RBD conversion to neurodegenerative diseases. Traditional structural imaging studies reported relatively inconsistent results, whereas reduced functional connectivity between the left putamen and substantia nigra and dopamine transporter uptake demonstrated by functional imaging techniques were relatively consistent findings. CONCLUSIONS: More longitudinal studies should be conducted to evaluate the predictive value of biomarkers of RBD. Moreover, because the glucose and dopamine metabolisms are not specific for assessing cognitive cognition, the molecular metabolism directly related to cognition should be investigated. There is a need for more treatment trials to determine the effectiveness of interventions of RBD on preventing the conversion to neurodegenerative diseases.