Reorganization of rich clubs in functional brain networks of dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease.

The purpose of this study was to reveal the patterns of reorganization of rich club organization in brain functional networks in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study found that the rich club node shifts from sensory/somatomotor network to fronto-parietal network in DLB. For AD, the rich club nodes switch between the temporal lobe with obvious structural atrophy and the frontal lobe, parietal lobe and cerebellum with relatively preserved structure and function. In addition, compared with healthy controls, rich club connectivity was enhanced in the DLB and AD groups. The connection strength of DLB patients was related to cognitive assessment. In conclusion, we revealed the different functional reorganization patterns of DLB and AD. The conversion and redistribution of rich club members may play a causal role in disease-specific outcomes. It may be used as a potential biomarker to provide more accurate prevention and treatment strategies.

MRI-Based Grading of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Using a Machine Learning Classifier.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a machine learning (ML)-based classifier for discriminating between low-grade (ISUP I-II) and high-grade (ISUP III-IV) clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) using MRI textures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated a total of 99 patients (with 61 low-grade and 38 high-grade ccRCCs), who were randomly divided into a training set (n = 70) and a validation set (n = 29). Regions of interest (ROIs) of all tumors were manually drawn three times by a radiologist at the maximum lesion level of the cross-sectional CMP sequence images. The quantitative texture analysis software, MaZda, was used to extract texture features, including histograms, co-occurrence matrixes, run-length matrixes, gradient models, and autoregressive models. Reproducibility of the texture features was assessed with the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Features were chosen based on their importance coefficients in a random forest model, while the multi-layer perceptron algorithm was used to build a classifier on the training set, which was later evaluated with the validation set. RESULTS: The ICCs of 257 texture features were equal to or higher than 0.80 (0.828-0.998. Six features, namely Kurtosis, 135dr_RLNonUni, Horzl_GLevNonU, 135dr_GLevNonU, S(4,4)Entropy, and S(0,5)SumEntrp, were chosen to develop the multi-layer perceptron classifier. A three-layer perceptron model, which has 229 nodes in the hidden layer, was trained on the training set. The accuracy of the model was 95.7% with the training set and 86.2% with the validation set. The areas under the receiver operating curves were 0.997 and 0.758 for the training and validation sets, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A machine learning-based grading model was developed that can aid in the clinical diagnosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using MRI images.

Enriched physical environment reverses spatial cognitive impairment of socially isolated APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic mice before amyloidosis onset.

AIMS: Social isolation increases the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Environmental enrichment, a complicated social and physical construct, plays beneficial effects on brain plasticity and function. This study was designed to determine whether physical enrichment can reduce the deleterious consequences of social isolation on the onset of AD. METHODS: One-month-old APPswe/PS1dE9 transgenic AD model mice were singly housed in the enriched physical environment for 8 weeks and then received behavioral tests, neuropathological analyses, and Western blot of the hippocampus. RESULTS: The enriched physical environment reversed spatial cognitive decline of socially isolated APPswe/PS1dE9 mice. The functional reversal was associated with decreases in cellular apoptosis, synaptic protein loss, inflammation, and glial activation in the hippocampus, without changes in amyloid ß neuropathology. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the enriched physical environment may serve as a nonpharmacological intervention for delaying the onset of AD accompanied with social isolation.

[Enhancement effect of low intensity ultrasound on biological wastewater treatment system in low temperature and design of application on biological wastewater treatment].

This work aims to study the enhancement effects of low intensity ultrasound on biological wastewater treatment in low temperature. The activated sludge was irradiated by ultrasound with intensity of 0.3 W cm(-2) for 10 minutes, and then simulated SBR process in 4 degrees C. Oxygen uptake rate (OUR), dehydrogenase activity (DHA) and COD were determined to indicate the changes of sludge activity and the removal rate of organic matter after the ultrasonic irradiation in low temperature. Results showed that after ultrasonic enhancement, the sludge activity could be increased by 30%, and COD removal rate could keep the usual level as in the room temperature. Furthermore, the enhancement effect of ultrasonic irradiation was more significant in the low temperature than that in the room temperature. This paper also took the typical municipal wastewater secondary treatment technology and SBR technology as examples to illustrate the design and operation of the enhancement of biological wastewater treatment using low intensity ultrasound.

[Treatment of domestic wastewater using sequence batch reactor enhanced by low intensity ultrasound].

Enhancement effect of ultrasound (US) on the bio-treatment of domestic wastewater was studied through contrast experiments between two sequence batch reactors (SBR) with and without US. The results showed that when US with intensity of 0.3 W x cm(-2) was employed to irradiate 10% of the activated sludge in the SBR for 10 minutes every 8 hours, the removal rate of COD was improved by 3% - 6%, and the effluent COD of US-SBR was lower than that of the control SBR by 40% - 53%. Moreover, the tolerance of SBR to high concentration and toxicity impact was improved effectively. For the practical domestic wastewater, the sludge activity was 14% higher in the US-SBR than that in the control SBR, increasing the capacity of microorganism to degrade the refractory compounds. The settleability of activated sludge in the US-SBR descended slightly and 5% increase of SVI (sludge volume index) was observed during the experiment, but it had little influence on the system since the increment was very small. According to the results of scan electro-microscope (SEM) and microbial community structures analysis, the microorganism in the US-SBR was damaged by US and compared with the control, the cell wall was ruffled obviously, but it didn't change the community structures of activated sludge. Kinetics analysis of microbial respiration in the two SBRs showed that the activated sludge in the US-assisted SBR could make better use of substrate.

[Optimization of irradiation cycle for enhancement of biological treatment of wastewater by low intensity ultrasound].

This work aims to optimize one of the critical technological parameters--ultrasound (US) irradiation cycle for utilizing the low intensity ultrasound to enhance biological wastewater treatment. The aerobic activated sludge from domestic wastewater treatment plant was used for this study as an experimental material. Oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and 2, 3, 5-triphenyl tetrazoliumchloride-dehydrogenase activity (TTC-DHA) were determined to indicate the changes of biological activity (within 48 h) after US irradiation at 0.3 W/cm2 in irradiation time of 10 min. The activity of sludge took 8 h after irradiation to reach peak level, and the enhancement effects induced by US faded away 24 h after irradiation. In addition, 8 h and 24 h were used as irradiation cycle respectively to carry out repeated US treatment. Results showed that when 8 h cycle was used, sludge activity decreased quickly after second US irradiation, and after third US exposure, sludge activity decreased even less than 50% of the control. When 24 h was used as the irradiation cycle, sludge activity increased after each US irradiation, but the extent of each increase declined with the increase of the number of US exposure. In consideration of US equipment costs and stability of treatment effects, 8 h should be selected as the US irradiation cycle and each time we can expose only a part of activated sludge in the biological reactor to avoid the decrease of sludge activity induced by repeated US treatment. The paper also analyzed the mechanism of biological activity enhancement by US according to above phenomena.

[Optimization of the proportion of irradiated sludge for enhancement of sludge activity in biological treatment of wastewater by low intensity ultrasound].

The proportion of irradiated sludge (percentage that the irradiated sludge account for the total sludge in the reactor) for enhancement of biological treatment of wastewater by ultrasound (US) was optimized through contrast experiments between two sequenced batch reactors (SBR) with and without US. During the experiment, the US with intensity of 0.3 W/cm2 and frequency of 35 kHz was employed to irradiate a certain percentage of sludge in the US-SBR reactor for 10 minutes every 8 h. The results showed that the removal rate of COD and NH3-N could be increased of 5% and 0.5% respectively when the proportion of exposed sludge was 10%. A significant increase of sludge activity was also obtained with this proportion and more than 12% increase of OUR ( Oxygen Uptake Rate, OUR) was achieved when 10% of sludge was irradiated. Moreover, the growth rate of activated sludge was decreased of 11% when the proportion of irradiated sludge was 10%, which can reduce the subsequent procedure of sludge treatment. With the increase of proportion of the irradiated sludge, SVI (sludge volume index) of the sludge in the US-SBR increased continuously, but it had little influence when the proportion of the irradiated sludge was no more than 10%. Therefore, to improve the treatment efficiency of biological reactor, US with intensity of 0.3 W/cm2 could be employed to irradiate 10% of the sludge in the biological reactor for 10 minutes every 8 h.

[Mechanism of low intensity ultrasound enhanced biological treatment of wastewater].

Low intensity ultrasonic irradiation can improve activity of microorganisms effectively, and thus it can be used to enhance the biological treatment of wastewater and increase the treatment efficiency through improving microbial activity in the biological reactor. The research achievements from home and abroad on the application of ultrasound (US) in bioengineering and biology were comprehensively summarized. The biological effect of low intensity US and the main mechanisms of biological activity enhancement were discussed, and the future application of low intensity US in biological wastewater treatment was analyzed accordingly.

[Improvement of the activity of activated sludge by low intensity ultrasound].

Aerobic activated sludge from domestic wastewater treatment plant was used as an experimental material. Oxygen Uptake Rate(OUR) was detected as the index to indicate the changes of sludge activity induced by ultrasound(US) at 35kHz in 0 - 40 min with the US intensities of 0 - 1 .2 W/cm2. The best results were achieved at a US intensity of 0.3 W/cm2 and irradiation time of 10 min. Improper US intensity and irradiation time lead to a decrease of sludge activity. Therefore, the stimulating effects of US on the sludge activity could be enhanced at an optimized US intensity and irradiation time. In addition, changes of sludge activities (within 48 hours) after US irradiation at 0.3 W/cm2 in 10 min were examined. The activity of sludge took 8 hours after irradiation to reach peak level, and the activity was as double as that of the initial level after irradiation. In 24 hours after irradiation, the enhancement effects induced by ultrasound disappeared. Therefore, to improve the treatment efficiency of biological reactor, ultrasound with intensity of 0.3W/cm2 could be employed to irradiate part of the sludge in the biological treatment system for 10 minutes every 8 hours. It also presented the hypothetical explanation of the mechanism of biological activity enhancement stimulated by ultrasound.