Corrigendum: BM-MSCs alleviate diabetic nephropathy in male rats by regulating ER stress, oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptotic pathways.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1265230.].

Cytotoxic activity of bimetallic Ag@Se green synthesized nanoparticles using Jerusalem Thorn (Parkinsonia aculeata).

Introduction: The process of green synthesis of metal nanoparticles is considered to be eco-friendly and cost-effective. Methods: In this study, bimetallic Ag@Se-P and Ag@Se-S nanoparticles were synthesized successfully using Parkinsonia aculeata aerial parts and seed extracts. The phytochemical contents in P. aculeata aerial parts and seed aqueous extract serve as reducing and stabilizing capping agents without the need for any chemical stabilization additive in the synthesis of bimetallic nanoparticles. Result and Discussion: The obtained results from UV-vis spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed the successful synthesis of bimetallic nanoparticles with cluster irregular spherical morphology, crystalline nature, and average particle sizes of 17.65 and 24.36 nm for Ag@Se-S and Ag@Se-P, respectively. The cytotoxicity assessment of greenly synthesized nanomaterials using seed and plant extracts showed cell inhibition >50 µg/mL. Ag@Se-S and Ag@Se-P seed and plant extracts significantly reduced LPS-induced inflammation, which was assessed by NO and cytokines IL-1ß, IL-6, and TNF-α. The mRNA and protein expression levels of phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K) and nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB) were significantly overexpressed in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cell lines. Ag@Se-S and Ag@Se-P downregulated the expression of PI3K and NFkB in LPS-induced cell models.

BM-MSCs alleviate diabetic nephropathy in male rats by regulating ER stress, oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptotic pathways.

Introduction: Diabetic nephropathy (DN), a chronic kidney disease, is a major cause of end-stage kidney disease worldwide. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become a promising option to mitigate several diabetic complications. Methods: In this study, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) in a rat model of STZ-induced DN. After the confirmation of diabetes, rats were treated with BM-MSCs and sacrificed at week 12 after treatment. Results: Our results showed that STZ-induced DN rats had extensive histopathological changes, significant upregulation in mRNA expression of renal apoptotic markers, ER stress markers, inflammatory markers, fibronectin, and intermediate filament proteins, and reduction of positive immunostaining of PCNA and elevated P53 in kidney tissue compared to the control group. BM-MSC therapy significantly improved renal histopathological changes, reduced renal apoptosis, ER stress, inflammation, and intermediate filament proteins, as well as increased positive immunostaining of PCNA and reduced P53 in renal tissue compared to the STZ-induced DN group. Conclusion: In conclusion, our study indicates that BM-MSCs may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of DN and provide important insights into their potential use as a novel therapeutic approach for DN.

ESG performance, investor attention, and company reputation: Threshold model analysis based on panel data from listed companies in China.

Amid heightened inter-company competition and the global drive towards ESG reforms, this study investigates whether enhancing the ESG performance of listed companies in China assists in elevating their reputation. It also examines the mediating role of investor attention in the relationship between ESG performance and company reputation, and further delves into whether there's a threshold effect of investor attention on the ESG-performance relationship. Utilizing sample data from Chinese listed companies spanning 2011 to 2021, and employing methods such as the panel two-way fixed-effects regression model, mediation effect testing, and threshold effect models, the study reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between ESG performance and the reputation of these companies. Moreover, a unique threshold effect is observed in the relationship between ESG performance and reputation. Innovatively, our research confirms the mediating role of investor attention in the relationship between ESG performance and company reputation, noting a more pronounced mediation effect in non-state-owned companies as opposed to state-owned ones. This study builds upon the existing literature on the relationship between CSR and company reputation, as well as between investor attention and reputation. By elucidating the mediating role of investor attention and its dual threshold effect, we provide a nuanced perspective on how ESG performance influences company reputation. Practically speaking, this research offers strategic recommendations for companies, investors, and regulators in the Chinese market on reputation management aligned with ESG principles. For instance, companies should prioritize their ESG performance, striving to maintain it above the market average, thus optimizing its effect on their reputation. Furthermore, companies should nurture their relationships with investors, aiming to elevate investor attention above the market mean. Policymakers should encourage companies to bolster their ESG performance, even contemplating more rewards and incentives for those with notable ESG achievements. Lastly, auditors should intensify their focus on non-financial information during audits, especially ensuring the accuracy and completeness of a company's ESG reports.

Valorization of Second-Grade Date Fruit Byproducts and Nonstandard Sweet Potato Tubers to Produce Novel Biofortified Functional Jam.

Byproducts of second-grade dates and sweet potato tubers of noncommercial standard are produced along with the main product and are just as important as the main product but cannot be sold in the open market, as they may not be considered acceptable by consumers. Such byproducts can be valorized through the manufacture of a wide range of functional food products with high market appeal, such as jams. The research approach of this study included measuring antioxidant activity, total flavonoids, polyphenols, physicochemical and color indices, pH, and total sugar, as well as conducting a sensory evaluation, of mixed jams composed of different ratios of date jam (DFJ) to sweet potato jam (SPJ), namely, DP1 (80:20), DP2 (70:30), DP3 (60:40), and DP4 (50:50). To date, no other studies have considered producing mixed jam from dates and sweet potato byproducts. The sensory evaluation results indicated that jam DP4 (consisting of 50% date and 50% sweet potato) had the maximum overall acceptability. This investigation reveals the potential of using mixed byproducts in jams as natural functional ingredients, suggesting the economic value of valorization byproducts as low-cost ingredients to expand the properties, nutritional value, antioxidant content, and overall acceptability of jams. The discovered optimal mixed fruit jam has significant potential for further development as a commercial product.

Inhibition of PANX1 Channels Reduces the Malignant Properties of Human High-Risk Neuroblastoma.

Pannexin 1 (PANX1) is expressed in many tissue types including tissues of neural origin. Neuroblastoma (NB) is a neural crest-derived malignancy mainly occurring in children. The majority of NB patients present with high-risk disease for which current therapies are ineffective. Here, we show that while PANX1 is expressed in NB of all stages, high PANX1 expression in high-risk NB is associated with a reduced survival probability. PANX1 channel inhibition using probenecid (PBN) or carbenoxolone (CBX) reduced the proliferation of our panel of high-risk NB cell lines. We show that expression of the Y10F PANX1 mutant, which cannot be phosphorylated on tyrosine 10 and acts in a dominant-negative manner, curtailed NB cell proliferation. Furthermore, PBN and CBX treatment halted the growth of NB spheroids and in some cases triggered the regression of established NB spheroids. Finally, both drugs reduced the progression of high-risk NB in vivo. Together our data indicate that PANX1 channels regulate human NB malignant properties and that the use of PBN or CBX may provide a new therapeutic approach for high-risk NB.

Emerging technology for intraoperative margin assessment and post-operative tissue diagnosis for breast-conserving surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Tissue-preserving surgery is utilized progressively in cancer therapy, where a clear surgical margin is critical to avoid cancer recurrence, specifically in breast cancer (BC) surgery. The Intraoperative pathologic approaches that rely on tissue segmenting and staining have been recognized as the ground truth for BC diagnosis. Nevertheless, these methods are constrained by its complication and timewasting for tissue preparation. OBJECTIVE: We present a non-invasive optical imaging system incorporating a hyperspectral (HS) camera to discriminate between cancerous and non-cancerous tissues in ex-vivo breast specimens, which could be an intraoperative diagnostic technique to aid surgeons during surgery and later a valuable tool to assist pathologists. METHODS: We have established a hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) system comprising a push-broom HS camera at wavelength 380∼1050 nm with source light 390∼980 nm. We have measured the investigated samples' diffuse reflectance (Rd), fixed on slides from 30 distinct patients incorporating mutually normal and ductal carcinoma tissue. The samples were divided into two groups, stained tissues during the surgery (control group) and unstained samples (test group), both captured with the HSI system in the visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR) range. Then, to address the problem of the spectral nonuniformity of the illumination device and the influence of the dark current, the radiance data were normalized to yield the radiance of the specimen and neutralize the intensity effect to focus on the spectral reflectance shift for each tissue. The selection of the threshold window from the measured Rd is carried out by exploiting the statistical analysis by calculating each region's mean and standard deviation. Afterward, we selected the optimum spectral images from the HS data cube to apply a custom K-means algorithm and contour delineation to identify the regular districts from the BC regions. RESULTS: We noticed that the measured spectral Rd for the malignant tissues of the investigated case studies versus the reference source light varies regarding the cancer stage, as sometimes the Rd is higher for the tumor or vice versa for the normal tissue. Later, from the analysis of the whole samples, we found that the most appropriate wavelength for the BC tissues was 447 nm, which was highly reflected versus the normal tissue. However, the most convenient one for the normal tissue was at 545 nm with high reflection versus the BC tissue. Finally, we implement a moving average filter for noise reduction and a custom K-means clustering algorithm on the selected two spectral images (447, 551 nm) to identify the various regions and effectively-identified spectral tissue variations with a sensitivity of 98.95%, and specificity of 98.44%. A pathologist later confirmed these outcomes as the ground truth for the tissue sample investigations. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed system could help the surgeon and the pathologist identify the cancerous tissue margins from the non-cancerous tissue with a non-invasive, rapid, and minimum time method achieving high sensitivity up to 98.95%.

The Hepatoprotective Effect of Two Date Palm Fruit Cultivars' Extracts: Green Optimization of the Extraction Process.

Date palm fruit (Phoenix dactylifera: Arecaceae) is rich in essential nutrients and possesses several pharmacological and medicinal activities. The current study aimed to optimize a water bath-assisted extraction method for two cultivars of date palm fruits, Anbara (An) and Reziz (Rz), and investigated the protective effect of the optimized date palm fruit extract against CCl4-induced liver toxicity in relation to oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and DNA integrity. The optimization process of two date palm fruit cultivars was applied, using response surface methodology through adjusting three "factors"; time, temperature, and rotation, to allow maximum contents of total phenolic (TPC), total flavonoid (TFC), reducing power (FRAP) and scavenging activity (ABTS) of the extract "responses". Extraction factors' application significantly enhanced TPC, TFC, FRAP, and ABTS responses by 1.30, 1.23, 3.03, and 2.06-fold, respectively in An and 2.18, 1.71, 1.11, and 2.62-fold, respectively in Rz, in relation to the convectional water extraction. Furthermore, co-administered CCl4 with An or Rz optimized extracts enhanced body weight gain, amended hepatic architecture, and diminished collagen fiber accumulation. Furthermore, An or Rz extracts reduced liver enzymes, hydroxyproline, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), MDA, inflammatory cytokine (TNF-α, NF-κB) levels, and DNA fragmentation, while increasing deteriorated adiponectin (ADP) and antioxidant enzyme (GSH, GPX, NO, and IFN-γ) levels, relative to CCl4-administered animals. The protective effects of An or Rz-optimized extracts were also evidenced by suppressing hepatic fibrosis and improving liver function and structure via modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis, in CCl4-induced hepatic damage. Hence, the optimized extraction process for the two date palm fruits resulted in extracts which are rich in phenolic and flavonoid contents and with an elevated antioxidant power. The presence of these rich extracts could help to explain their proven hepatoprotective activity against CCl4-induced liver toxicity.

State ownership, information asymmetry and cash holding: Impact of COVID-19 on Chinese-listed firms.

This study investigates the relationship between information asymmetry and cash holdings under the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China. It likewise explores how state ownership dominates their nexus, particularly during the pandemic. COVID-19 caused increases in cash holdings, and that the information asymmetry's effect on cash holdings is more pronounced over the COVID-19 period. Additionally, information asymmetry has a weaker effect on corporate cash holdings for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the pandemic. Overall, the study shows that state ownership moderates information asymmetry's impact on cash holdings and softens firms' precautionary motive for cash holdings during the pandemic.

Towards an Effective Intrusion Detection Model Using Focal Loss Variational Autoencoder for Internet of Things (IoT).

As the range of security attacks increases across diverse network applications, intrusion detection systems are of central interest. Such detection systems are more crucial for the Internet of Things (IoT) due to the voluminous and sensitive data it produces. However, the real-world network produces imbalanced traffic including different and unknown attack types. Due to this imbalanced nature of network traffic, the traditional learning-based detection techniques suffer from lower overall detection performance, higher false-positive rate, and lower minority-class attack detection rates. To address the issue, we propose a novel deep generative-based model called Class-wise Focal Loss Variational AutoEncoder (CFLVAE) which overcomes the data imbalance problem by generating new samples for minority attack classes. Furthermore, we design an effective and cost-sensitive objective function called Class-wise Focal Loss (CFL) to train the traditional Variational AutoEncoder (VAE). The CFL objective function focuses on different minority class samples and scrutinizes high-level feature representation of observed data. This leads the VAE to generate more realistic, diverse, and quality intrusion data to create a well-balanced intrusion dataset. The balanced dataset results in improving the intrusion detection accuracy of learning-based classifiers. Therefore, a Deep Neural Network (DNN) classifier with a unique architecture is then trained using the balanced intrusion dataset to enhance the detection performance. Moreover, we utilize a challenging and highly imbalanced intrusion dataset called NSL-KDD to conduct an extensive experiment with the proposed model. The results demonstrate that the proposed CFLVAE with DNN (CFLVAE-DNN) model obtains promising performance in generating realistic new intrusion data samples and achieves superior intrusion detection performance. Additionally, the proposed CFLVAE-DNN model outperforms several state-of-the-art data generation and traditional intrusion detection methods. Specifically, the CFLVAE-DNN achieves 88.08% overall intrusion detection accuracy and 3.77% false positive rate. More significantly, it obtains the highest low-frequency attack detection rates for U2R (79.25%) and R2L (67.5%) against all the state-of-the-art algorithms.

Oxygen saturation measurements using novel diffused reflectance with hyperspectral imaging: Towards facile COVID-19 diagnosis.

Oxygen saturation level plays a vital role in screening, diagnosis, and therapeutic assessment of disease's assortment. There is an urgent need to design and implement early detection devices and applications for the COVID-19 pandemic; this study reports on the development of customized, highly sensitive, non-invasive, non-contact diffused reflectance system coupled with hyperspectral imaging for mapping subcutaneous blood circulation depending on its oxygen saturation level. The forearm of 15 healthy adult male volunteers with age range of (20-38 years) were illuminated via a polychromatic light source of a spectrum range 400-980 nm. Each patient had been scanned five times to calculate the mean spectroscopic reflectance images using hyperspectral camera. The customized signal processing algorithm includes normalization and moving average filter for noise removal. Afterward, employing K-means clustering for image segmentation to assess the accuracy of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels. The reliability of the developed diffused reflectance system was verified with the ground truth technique, a standard pulse oximeter. Non-invasive, non-contact diffused reflectance spectrum demonstrated maximum signal variation at 610 nm according to SpO2 level. Statistical analysis (mean, standard deviation) of diffused reflectance hyperspectral images at 610 nm offered precise calibrated measurements to the standard pulse oximeter. Diffused reflectance associated with hyperspectral imaging is a prospective technique to assist with phlebotomy and vascular approach. Additionally, it could permit future surgical or pharmacological intercessions that titrate or limit ischemic injury continuously. Furthermore, this technique could offer a fast reliable indication of SpO2 levels for COVID-19 diagnosis.

Comparing safety and adequacy between surgical biopsy versus core needle biopsy in diagnosing neuroblastoma.

BACKGROUND: Adequate tissue biopsy is essential for diagnosis and risk stratification of neuroblastoma (NB). Historically, NB diagnosis has relied on tissue obtained via surgical biopsy. However, core needle biopsy may provide a safe and adequate method of obtaining tissue in pediatric patients. AIM: The aim of this study is to compare the adequacy and safety between core needle biopsy and surgical biopsy for the diagnosis of NB in children at our institution. METHODS: Institutional approval was obtained. Medical records of patients diagnosed with NB from 2004 - 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients had either core needle biopsy (CNB) or surgical biopsy (SB) including open/minimally invasive biopsy. Data included patient demographics, tumor location and size, sample adequacy for diagnosis and risk stratification, post-biopsy complications, length of hospital stay, and need for repeat biopsy. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Mann-Whitney U test or Student's t-test. RESULTS: Thirty-eight patients were included; 53 biopsies were performed including 41 SB and 12 CNB. Patient and tumor characteristics were similar in both groups, as well as the biopsy adequacy for diagnosis and risk stratification. In all cases, there was no need for repeat biopsy. The CNB group demonstrated reduced length of stay (2 ± 0.4 days vs 5 ± 0.5 days; P < 0.0001) and fewer complications (8%) than the SB group (44%) (P = 0.038). CONCLUSION: Core needle biopsy is an acceptable modality for diagnosis and risk stratification in the pediatric population. Advantages include decreased length of stay and fewer post-procedure complications.

Carboxymethyl-Cellulose-Containing Ag Nanoparticles as an Electrochemical Working Electrode for Fast Hydroxymethyl-Furfural Sensing in Date Molasses.

Novel biosensors based on carboxymethyl cellulose extract from date palm fronds containing Ag nanoparticles as an electrochemical working electrode for fast hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) sensing in date molasses were prepared. The morphological, structural, and crystallinity characteristics of the prepared Ag@CMC were described via SEM, DLS, TEM, and XRD. In addition, Raman spectroscopy and UV-VIS spectroscopy were performed, and thermal stability was studied. The investigated techniques indicated the successful incorporation of AgNPs into the CMC polymer. The sensing behavior of the prepared AgNPs@CMC electrode was studied in terms of cyclic voltammetry and linear scan voltammetry at different HMF concentrations. The results indicated high performance of the designed AgNPs@CMC, which was confirmed by the linear behavior of the relationship between the cathodic current and HMF content. Besides, real commercial samples were investigated using the novel AgNPs@CMC electrode.

The influence of low- intensity laser irradiation versus hyperbaric oxygen therapy on transcutaneous oxygen tension in chronic diabetic foot ulcers: a controlled randomized trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the stage and severity of the chronic diabetic foot ulcer (CDFU) is vital to increase the healing rate and to select the suitable treatment. We aim to assess the influence of low-intensity laser irradiation (LILI) and hyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) to accelerate the CDFU healing thru the transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPO2) measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-five diabetic patients (type 2) of both genders, their ages ranged from 40-65 years with CDFUs (duration of ulcer < 6 weeks). All patients were randomly assigned into LILI, HBOT, and the control group. Measurement of TcPO2 using transcutaneous oximetry was performed for all patients once in the baseline and consequently in the second, fourth, and sixth- weeks duration. LILI utilized by a 33-diode cluster contact applicator with output power 1440 mW, energy density (fluency) was adjusted for 4 J/Cm2 at 10 kHz, and for 8 min per session, three times per week for a total of consecutive 6 weeks. HBOT was pressurized up to 2.5 ATA and patients delivered 100% oxygen for 60 min per session for 30 sessions. The Control group received conventional wound care only, twice daily, with saline and apply a new bandage after cleaning. RESULTS: MANOVA revealed a statistically insignificant difference in the control group, while statistically significant improvement in both the LILI and HBOT groups. The intergroup comparisons showed an insignificant statistical difference in the pre-test, while highly statistically significant differences for the three post-measures in favor of HBOT and LILI groups. The percentage of improvement of the HBOT group was higher than LILI. Post-hoc test using the least significant difference (LSD) revealed statistically significant differences of HBOT in favor of the LILI group. CONCLUSION: Both LILI and HBOT may be used as adjunctive methods to improve TcPO2 that accelerate healing in CDFUs. HBOT may be favorable in the improvement of TcPO2 than LILI.

Hyperspectral image-based analysis of thermal damage for ex-vivo bovine liver utilizing radiofrequency ablation.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Thermal ablation is the predominant methodology to treat liver tumors for segregating patients who are not permitted to have surgical intervention. However, noticing or predicting the size of the thermal strategies is a challenging endeavor. We aim to analyze the effects of ablation district volume following radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of ex-vivo liver exploiting a custom Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: RFA was conducted on the ex-vivo bovine liver at focal and peripheral blood vessel sites and observed by Custom HSI system, which has been designed to assess the exactness and proficiency using visible and near-infrared wavelengths region for tissue thermal effect. The experiment comprised up to ten trials with RFA. The experiment was carried out in two stages to assess the percentage of the thermal effect on the investigated sample superficially and for the side penetration effect. Measuring the diffuse reflectance (Rd) of the sample to identify the spectral reflectance shift which could differentiate between normal and ablated tissue exploiting the designed cross-correlation algorithm for monitoring of thermal ablation. RESULTS: Determination of the diffuse reflection (Rd) spectral signature responses from normal, thermal effected, and thermal ablation regions of the investigated liver sample. Where the ideal wavelength range at (600-640 nm) could discriminate between these different regions. Then, exploited the converted RGB image of the HS liver tissue after RFA for more validations which shows that the optimum wavelength for differentiation at (530-560 nm and 600-640 nm). Finally, applying statistical analysis to validate our results presenting that wavelength 600 nm had the highest standard deviation (δ) to differentiate between various thermally affected regions regarding the normal tissue and wavelength 640 nm shows the highest (δ) to differentiate between the ablated and normal regions. CONCLUSION: The designed and implemented medical imaging system incorporated the hyperspectral camera capabilities with the associate cross-correlation algorithm that could successfully distinguish between the ablated and thermally affected regions to assist the surgery during the tumor therapy.

Optimized collusion prevention for online exams during social distancing.

Online education is important in the COVID-19 pandemic, but online exam at individual homes invites students to cheat in various ways, especially collusion. While physical proctoring is impossible during social distancing, online proctoring is costly, compromises privacy, and can lead to prevailing collusion. Here we develop an optimization-based anti-collusion approach for distanced online testing (DOT) by minimizing the collusion gain, which can be coupled with other techniques for cheating prevention. With prior knowledge of student competences, our DOT technology optimizes sequences of questions and assigns them to students in synchronized time slots, reducing the collusion gain by 2-3 orders of magnitude relative to the conventional exam in which students receive their common questions simultaneously. Our DOT theory allows control of the collusion gain to a sufficiently low level. Our recent final exam in the DOT format has been successful, as evidenced by statistical tests and a post-exam survey.

Delineation of the Arm Blood Vessels Utilizing Hyperspectral Imaging to Assist with Phlebotomy for Exploiting the Cutaneous Tissue Oxygen Concentration.

SIGNIFICANCE: The estimation of tissue oxygenation is vital in the diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation of a huge assortment of diseases. The hyperspectral (HS) imaging system is a rising innovation that can be utilized to build a highly sensitive, non-invasive, and tissue hemoglobin immersion map. OBJECTIVE: As a result of the urgent need to design and implement early detection devices and applications for the COVID-19 pandemic, we propose building a non-invasive custom optical imaging system to assist with phlebotomy and vascular approach to survey the reliability of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels recovered from spectral images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: HS images were gathered from 15 healthy subjects without previous medical history complications and with an average age range of 20 to 38 years, who were undergoing phlebotomy. The forearm was vigorously illuminated utilizing an HS camera with polychromatic source light of spectrum range (400∼980 nm). Spectroscopic reflectance images were caught by a focal plane exhibit for the region of interest (ROI). Then the custom algorithm comprising normalization and moving average filtering for noise removal was applied, followed by K-mean clustering for image segmentation to visualize and highlight the arteries and the veins in the investigated forearm. RESULTS: The investigations show that after normalization of the recorded signal from the HS camera of the participating subjects it was noticed that at wavelength of 460 nm the oxygenated arteries had a stronger signal than the de-oxygenated veins, and at a wavelength of 750 nm the de-oxygenated veins had a stronger signal than the oxygenated arteries. Thus, the ideal wavelength to reveal the oxygenated arteries was 460 nm, and the ideal wavelength to reveal the de-oxygenated veins was 750 nm. CONCLUSIONS: HSI is a prospective technique to assist with phlebotomy and non-contact oxygen saturation approach. Additionally, it may permit future surgical or pharmacological intercessions that titrate or limit ischemic injury continuously.

Custom optical imaging system for ex-vivo breast cancer detection based on spectral signature.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Breast cancer is a popular well-known tumor in women globally and the subsequent driving reason for malignancy death. The purpose of the present study is to develop Low cost, commercial, and affordable system that discriminates malignant from normal breast tissues by exploiting the unique properties of Hyperspectral (HS) Imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The difference in the optical properties of the investigated breast tissues gives various reactions to light transmission, absorption, and especially the reflection over the spectral range. A custom optical imaging system (COIS) was designed to assess variable responses to monochromatic LEDs (415, 565, 660 nm) to highlight the differences in the reflectance properties of malignant/normal tissue. Statistical analysis was computed for determining the ideal wavelength to differentiate between normal and malignant regions. The experiment was repeated using the same LEDs, and low-cost CCD camera to examine the capability of such a system to discriminate between normal and malignant tissue. RESULTS: Spectral images obtained by Hyperspectral camera, have been analyzed to reveal the difference of reflectance malignant and normal breast tissue. Superficial spectral reflection image with blue LED (415 nm) showed high variance (10.11). However, a more-depth reflection image with red LED (660 nm) showed low variance (4.44). So the optimum contrast image was produced by combining the three spectral information images from blue, green, and red LED. The COIS using a commercial CCD camera was in agreement with the HS camera. CONCLUSIONS: The novel COIS of the commercial Low-cost CCD Camera is reliable and can be used with endoscopy technique as an assistant tool for surgical doctor to make decision and assess the resection edges in real time during surgery.

Hyperspectral imaging for diagnosis and detection of ex-vivo breast cancer.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Breast cancer is one of the most widely recognized tumors. .Diagnosis made in the early stage of disease may imporve outcomes. The discovery of malignant growth utilizing noninvasive light intrusive methods in lieu of conventional excisional biopsy may assist in achieving this goal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The change of the optical properties of ex-vivo breast tissues provides different responses to light transmission, absorption, and particularly the reflection over the spectrum range. We offer the use of Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) with advanced image processing and pattern recognition in order to analyze HSI data for breast cancer detection. The spectral signatures were mined and evaluated in both malignant and normal tissue. K-mean clustering was designed for classifying hyperspectral data in order to evaluate and detection of cancer tissue. This method was used to detect ex-vivo breast cancer. Spatial spectral images were created to high spot the differences in the reflectance properties of malignant versus normal tissue. RESULTS: Trials showed that the superficial spectral reflection images within 500 nm wavelength showed high variance (214.65) between cancerous and normal breast tissues. On the other hand, image within 620 nm wavelength showed low variance (0.0020).However, the superimposed of spectral region 420-620 nm was proposed as the optimum bandwidth. Finally, the proposed HS imaging system was capable to discriminate the tumor region from normal tissue of the ex-vivo breast sample with sensitivity and a specificity of 95 % and 96 %. CONCLUSIONS: High sensitivity and specificity were achieved, which proposes potential for HSI as an edge evaluation method to enhance the surgical outcome compared to the presently available techniques in the clinics.

Tissue characterization utilizing hyperspectral imaging for liver thermal ablation.

BACKGROUND: Thermal ablation is the dominant modality to treat liver tumors for patients who are not surgical candidates. . However, correctly predicting the volume of the subsequent tissue destruction during the Thermal Ablation technique is a difficult undertaking. OBJECTIVE: To examine the impacts of ablation zone volume following Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of an ex-vivo bovine liver to correlate the impacts of thermal ablation with target organ perfusion; by exploiting the unique properties of Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Radiofrequency ablation was perfused on ex-vivo bovine livers at peripheral and central­vessel­adjacent locations, and monitored by HSI with a spectral range from 400 to 1000 nm. The system contains k-means clustering (K = 8) algorithms combining spectral and spatial information. Labeled spectral signatures datasets were used as training data. Statistical analysis (10 samples) was computed to calculate the highest variance between six spectral images for determining the optimum wavelength for discrimination between the affected regions after thermal ablation (normal, thermal, and ablated liver tissue regions). RESULTS: The change of the optical properties ofex-vivo liver tissues provides different responses to light transmission, scattering, absorption and particularly the reflection over the spectrum range. The produced spectral image from reflection with the highest variance (358.07) empowered us to determine the optimum wavelength spectral image (720 ±â€¯18.92 nm) to distinguish between the normal, ablated, and thermal categories. CONCLUSION: Hyperspectral imaging is a powerful tool in monitoring tissue characterization, which is a useful technique for edge evaluation of liver thermal ablation ..