ALBERT

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 28 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): S.Z. Abbas, W.A. Khan, S. Kadry, M. Ijaz Khan, M. Waqas, M. Imran Khan〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Background:〈/strong〉 In this research communication, entropy optimized Darcy-Forchheimer flow with magnetohydrodynamic over a stretched surface is considered. Here Molybdenum disulfide (MOS〈sub〉2〈/sub〉) and Silicon dioxide (SiO〈sub〉2〈/sub〉) are taken as a nanoparticles and Propylene glycol as a continuous phase liquid. Electrically conducting fluid is considered and flow is generated via stretched surface of sheet. The total entropy rate which is depends on four types of irreversibilities i.e., heat transfer, porosity, fluid friction and dissipation) is calculated via second law of thermodynamics. The energy expression is mathematically modeled and discussed subject to heat generation/absorption, dissipation, thermal radiation and Joule heating. Furthermore, temperature dependent viscosity is accounted.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Method:〈/strong〉 The nonlinear PDE’s (partial differential equations) are first changed to ODE’s (ordinary differential equations) through implementation of appropriate similarity variables (transformations). The numerical results of ordinary ones are computed via Built-In-Shooting method. The results for the flow field, temperature, skin friction, Nusselt number and entropy generation are discussed against various sundry flow parameters graphically.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Results:〈/strong〉 Salient characteristics of sundry flow parameters on the entropy generation rate, velocity, Bejan number, gradients of velocity, gradient of temperature and temperature are examined and display graphically. The results are computed for both nanoparticles. From obtained results it is observed that temperature field increases versus higher thermal Biot number for both nanoparticles. It is also observed that the thermal field is more in presence of Molybdenum disulfide as compared to Silicon dioxide, because the thermal conductivity of Molybdenum disulfide is higher than Silicon dioxide. Entropy generation and Bejan number show contrast impact versus higher estimations of Brinkman number versus both nanoparticles.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 28 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): S.Z. Abbas, M. Ijaz Khan, S. Kadry, W.A. Khan, M. Israr-Ur-Rehman, M. Waqas〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Hydromagnetic second order velocity slip flow of viscous material with nonlinear mixed convection towards a stretched rotating disk is numerically examined here. Important slip mechanism of Buongiorno’s nanofluid model i.e., Brownian motion and thermophoretic diffusion is incorporated in the mathematical modeling. Heat transport aspects are examined via Joule heating, thermal radiation and dissipation. Convective conditions at the stretchable surface of disk is implemented for the heat transport analysis. Chemical reaction subject to activation energy is also considered. Through appropriate transformations and shooting method the outcomes are computed and demonstrated graphically. The flow field, temperature, surface drag force, concentration and Nusselt number are deliberated subject to pertinent parameters. Total entropy rate is obtained. The outcomes show that magnetic field significantly affects the flow field as well as entropy rate.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 27 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Abdul Hafeez, Masood Khan, Jawad Ahmed〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Background:〈/strong〉 Nanofluids are known for better heat transfer characteristics in many heat exchanger devices due to their enhanced heat transfer abilities. Recently, scientists give the idea of nanofluid which is the mixture of base fluid and solid nanoparticles having very small size. For physical phenomenon of conventional fluids by mean of suspensions of nanoparticles in base fluids and prompted produce a new composite known as ”nanofluids”. These composite contain the nanoparticles with 1-100 nm size which are suspended in the base fluids. Here we have considered a subclass of non-Newtonian fluid called Oldroyd-B fluid. The fluid motion over the disk surface is produced due to the rotation as well as radially stretching of disk. Further, the impact of non-linear thermal radiation and heat generation/absorption is introduced to visualize the heat transfer behavior. The convective boundary is also taken into consideration in order to investigate the fluid thermal characteristics. The novel features of thermophoresis and Brownian motion during the nanoparticles movement in fluid motion are studied with revised Buongiorno model. The physical problem is modeled with the concept of classical Fourier’s and Fick’s laws. The von Karman variables are used to convert the partial differential equations (PDEs) into non-dimensional ordinary differential equations (ODEs).〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Method:〈/strong〉 The system of governing ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with boundary conditions (BCs) are highly non-linear in nature. To handle these non-linear ODEs, we use a numerical technique called BVP Midrich scheme which uses the midpoint method to acquire the numerical solution of the governing problem. The solutions of the governing problem are obtained by utilizing Maple software.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Results:〈/strong〉 Effect of different involved controlling parameters on the velocities, temperature and concentration distributions are analyzed graphically. Additionally, the numerical data for local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are also tabulated. The reduction in heat transfer rate at the wall is noticed against thermoporesis and Brownian motion parameters, respectively. The concentration gradient at the wall reduces with an increment in mass transfer parameter.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Ying-Yu Tang, Qiu-Ning Liu, Cheng Wang, Ting-Ting Yang, Bo-Ping Tang, Chun-Lin Zhou, Li-Shang Dai〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉〈em〉Procambarus clarkii〈/em〉 is one of the most important aquatic invertebrates in China and has high commercial value. However, aquaculture has suffered great economic loss due to outbreaks of infectious diseases in 〈em〉P〈/em〉. 〈em〉clarkii〈/em〉. To identify red swamp crayfish related proteins involved in the response to bacterial infection, we analysed immune-related proteins following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation by quantitative proteomics. The proteome of the hepatopancreas of 〈em〉P〈/em〉. 〈em〉clarkii〈/em〉 challenged with LPS and phosphate-buffered saline was analysed to evaluate the immune response. Based on liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, 16 upregulated and 29 downregulated proteins were identified. A Gene Ontology analysis demonstrated 5 biological process, 11 cellular component, and 6 molecular function subcategories. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis indicated that the identified proteins were mainly involved in metabolism, phagosome, and ribosome. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR revealed that eight immune-related genes were upregulated after LPS stimulation compared to the control. Taken together, the data enhance our understanding of the immune response of crayfish to LPS.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 25 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Woo Kyung Moon, Yan-Wei Lee, Hao-Hsiang Ke, Su Hyun Lee, Chiun-Sheng Huang, Ruey-Feng Chang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Breast ultrasound and computer aided diagnosis (CAD) has been used to classify tumors into benignancy or malignancy. However, conventional CAD software has some problems (such as handcrafted features are hard to design; conventional CAD systems are difficult to confirm overfitting problems, etc.). In our study, we propose a CAD system for tumor diagnosis using an image fusion method combined with different image content representations and ensemble different CNN architectures on US images. The CNN-based method proposed in this study includes VGGNet, ResNet, and DenseNet. In our private dataset, there was a total of 1687 tumors that including 953 benign and 734 malignant tumors. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, F1 score and the AUC of the proposed method were 91.10%, 85.14%, 95.77%, 94.03%, 89.36%, and 0.9697 respectively. 〈strong〉In the open dataset (BUSI), there was a total of 697 tumors that including 437 benign lesions, 210 malignant tumors, and 133 normal images.〈/strong〉 The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, F1 score, and the AUC of the proposed method were 94.62%, 92.31%, 95.60%, 90%, 91.14%, and 0.9711. In conclusion, the results indicated different image content representations that affect the prediction performance of the CAD system, more image information improves the prediction performance, and the tumor shape feature can improve the diagnostic effect.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Mahmoud A.O. Dawood, Safaa E. Abdo, Mahmoud S. Gewaily, Eman M. Moustafa, Moustafa S. SaadAllah, Marwa F. AbdEl-kader, Awatef H. Hamouda, Amira A. Omar, Rasha A. Alwakeel〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The protective role of β-glucan (BG) on liver function, histopathology, immune and antioxidant related gene expressions in Nile tilapia exposed to subacute deltamethrin (DLM) was investigated for 30 days. Fish (28.18 ± 1.34 g) of the 1st and 2nd groups fed the control diet, while the 3rd and 4th groups fed BG at 0.5 g/kg and the 2nd and 4th groups were exposed to DLM (15 μg/L) in rearing water. DLM-treated fish displayed a considerable increase in blood biochemical parameters (creatinine, urea and bilirubin) as well as hepatic enzymes (ALP, AST and ALT) (〈em〉P〈/em〉 〈 0.05). Blood total protein, globulin, albumin, WBCs, RBCs, Hb, phagocytic index, phagocytic and lysozyme activities were significantly decreased in fish subjected to DLM (〈em〉P〈/em〉 〈 0.05). Fish fed BG showed significantly the lowest cortisol and glucose levels, while fish exposed to DLM without feeding BG showed the highest cortisol and glucose levels (〈em〉P〈/em〉 〈 0.05) after 15 and 30 days. Additionally, DLM toxicity caused downregulation in antioxidant (〈em〉CAT〈/em〉 and 〈em〉GPx〈/em〉) and immune (〈em〉IL-1β〈/em〉 and 〈em〉IL-8〈/em〉) related gene expressions, while and 〈em〉IFN-γ〈/em〉, 〈em〉HSP70〈/em〉 and 〈em〉CASP3〈/em〉 were upregulated. The histopathological examination of Nile tilapia exposed to DLM revealed damage in gills, intestine, spleen and liver which confirmed the toxic effects. Conversely, BG presented protective effects and restored the above-mentioned parameters when fish exposed to DLM and fed BG. Thus, BG supplementation exhibited defensive effects against DLM toxicity in Nile tilapia through improving blood biochemical responses, immune, and antioxidant related gene expressions as well as histopathological effects.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 23 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Gang Sun, Xiaoyan Liu, Junhui Gong, Ling Gao〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objectives〈/h6〉 〈p〉Fluorescein angiography (FA) is widely used in ophthalmology for examining retinal hemodynamics and vascular morphology. Artery-venous classification is an important step in FA image processing for measurement of feature parameters, such as arterio-venous passage time (AVP) and arterio-venous width ratio (AVR) that are proven useful in clinical assessment of circulation disturbance and vessel abnormalities. However, manual artery-venous classification needs expertise and is rather time consuming, and little effort has been devoted to develop automatic classification methods. In order to solve this problem, we propose a novel artery-venous classification method using region growing strategy with sequential and structural features (RGSS).〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉The main procedures of our proposed RGSS method include: (i) registration of FA image sequence by mutual-information method; (ii) extraction of sequential features of the dye perfusion process from the registrated FA images; (iii) extraction of vessel structural features from vascular centerline map; (iv) based on the obtained features, seeds of arteries and veins within initial growing region (here optic disk) are generated and then propagated in the entire vessel network using region growing strategy. The RGSS method was tested on our own dataset and public Duke dataset, and its performance was evaluated quantitatively.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉Tests show that RGSS method is able to classify arteries and veins from the complicated vessel network in FA images, with high classification accuracy of 0.91±0.04 on Duke dataset and 0.92±0.03 on our dataset. The employed sequential and structural features are demonstrated to be effective in classifying thin arteries and veins at vessel crossings.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉Automatic artery-venous classification can be accomplished using our proposed RGSS method with high accuracy. The RGSS method not only emancipates ophthalmologists from hard work of manual marking of arteries and veins, but also helps in measuring important parameters (such as AVP and AVR) for clinical assessment of circulation disturbance and vessel abnormalities.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 23 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Mohammed A. Al-masni, Dong-Hyun Kim, Tae-Seong Kim〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉: Computer automated diagnosis of various skin lesions through medical dermoscopy images remains a challenging task.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉: In this work, we propose an integrated diagnostic framework that combines a skin lesion boundary segmentation stage and a multiple skin lesions classification stage. Firstly, we segment the skin lesion boundaries from the entire dermoscopy images using deep learning full resolution convolutional network (FrCN). Then, a convolutional neural network classifier (i.e., Inception-v3, ResNet-50, Inception-ResNet-v2, and DenseNet-201) is applied on the segmented skin lesions for classification. The former stage is a critical prerequisite step for skin lesion diagnosis since it extracts prominent features of various types of skin lesions. A promising classifier is selected by testing well-established classification convolutional neural networks. The proposed integrated deep learning model has been evaluated using three independent datasets (i.e., International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) 2016, 2017, and 2018, which contain two, three, and seven types of skin lesions, respectively) with proper balancing, segmentation, and augmentation.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉: In the integrated diagnostic system, segmented lesions improve the classification performance of Inception-ResNet-v2 by 2.72% and 4.71% in terms of the F1-score for benign and malignant cases of the ISIC 2016 test dataset, respectively. The classifiers of Inception-v3, ResNet-50, Inception-ResNet-v2, and DenseNet-201 exhibit their capability with overall weighted prediction accuracies of 77.04%, 79.95%, 81.79%, and 81.27% for two classes of ISIC 2016, 81.29%, 81.57%, 81.34%, and 73.44% for three classes of ISIC 2017, and 88.05%, 89.28%, 87.74%, and 88.70% for seven classes of ISIC 2018, respectively, demonstrating the superior performance of ResNet-50.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉: The proposed integrated diagnostic networks could be used to support and aid dermatologists for further improvement in skin cancer diagnosis.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈h5〉Graphical Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉〈figure〉〈img src="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0169260719321698-fx1.jpg" width="301" alt="Image, graphical abstract" title="Image, graphical abstract"〉〈/figure〉〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 23 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): W.A. Khan, M. Waqas, S. Kadry, Z. Asghar, S.Z. Abbas, M. Irfan〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Background and objective〈/strong〉〈/p〉 〈p〉The scrutiny of nonlinear convected flow aspect has continuously appealed researchers attention because of its ample demands in processes like heat exchangers, building insulation, crystal growth, insulation of nuclear reactor, food processing, solar energy and electronic element chilling etc. Taking into consideration the aforesaid utilizations, we modeled differential type (second-grade) nanoliquid considering non-linear mixed convection. The considered differential type nonlinear model elaborates viscoelasticity (elastic and viscous) characteristics. Furthermore the thermal systems emphases on transportation of heat and irreversibility reduction. Especially, evaluating the systems via thermodynamic second relation is essential with the purpose of finding a standard communication between power input prerequisite and heat transference augmentation.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Method〈/strong〉〈/p〉 〈p〉Formulated non-dimensional problem is non-linear subject to the assumptions (i.e., Non-linear mixed convection, magnetic field, viscous dissipation, double stratification, Joule heating and convective conditions). Analytic simulations for modeled non-linear systems is not possible. Hence we considered bvp4c scheme for non-linear analysis.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Conclusions〈/strong〉〈/p〉 〈p〉Velocity 〈math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si8.svg"〉〈mrow〉〈mo stretchy="true"〉(〈/mo〉〈msup〉〈mi〉f〈/mi〉〈msup〉〈mrow〉〈/mrow〉〈mo〉′〈/mo〉〈/msup〉〈/msup〉〈mrow〉〈mo stretchy="true"〉(〈/mo〉〈mi〉η〈/mi〉〈mo stretchy="true"〉)〈/mo〉〈/mrow〉〈mo stretchy="true"〉)〈/mo〉〈/mrow〉〈/math〉 of second grade (non-Newtonian) fluid intensifies for larger estimations of 〈em〉R〈/em〉* and 〈em〉λ〈/em〉* whereas it dwindles for 〈em〉M〈/em〉. Temperature of nanoliquid deteriorates with 〈em〉S〈/em〉〈sub〉1〈/sub〉 while (〈em〉θ〈/em〉(〈em〉η〈/em〉)) rises against 〈em〉Ec〈/em〉. Entropy generation (EG) and (BN) (Bejan number) significantly affected by physical parameters 〈em〉M, α〈/em〉〈sub〉2〈/sub〉 and 〈em〉Br〈/em〉.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 22 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Xiangdong Tian, Changxiao Han, Jian Wang, Yetong Tan, Guangyu Zhu, Ming Lei, Sheng Ma, Yuanyi Hu, Shuwen Li, Handong Chen, Ye Huang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉To observe the efficacy of distal tibial tuberosity high tibial osteotomy in treating medial compartment osteoarthritis of the knee. In the experiment, a medical image enhancement algorithm based on shear wave domain improved Gamma correction was implemented to process medical images in order to diagnose patients more effectively.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉Sixty-five patients (13 males and 52 females) were included in the study who were treated with distal tibial tuberosity high tibial osteotomy, and the mean age of the patients was 63±6 years (range 49–73). All patients received X-Ray and MRI before surgery. We carefully studied and analyzed the findings, MRI findings and medical characteristics after using the shearlet domain to improve the Gamma correction method in order to enhance diagnostic accuracy. The improved image help us to judge the damage of the medial and lateral compartment more accurately. Weight bearing line (WBL) and femora-tibial Angle (FTA) were measured to evaluate the lower limb alignment before and 12 months after surgery. Visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) scores, the Westrn Ontario and Mcmaster Universities (WOMAC) scores were recorded to evaluate knee pain and function before surgery, 3 months and 6 months after surgery.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉The X-Ray and MRI scans of the patients were analyzed. After the shear wave shearlet domain is implemented, the image effect is significantly improved. 12 months after surgery, WBL was improved from 16.34±2.18% to 60.32±2.89% (〈em〉p〈/em〉〈0.05), FTA was improved from 171.17±1.87° to 179.83±2.14° (〈em〉p〈/em〉〈0.05). At 3 months and 12 months after surgery, VAS, HSS and WOMAC scores were significantly improved compared with baseline (〈em〉p〈/em〉〈0.05).〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusion〈/h6〉 〈p〉Distal tibial tuberosity high tibial osteotomy is able to correct varus deformity, relieve knee pain and the functional dysfunction, indicating which had a significant short-term efficacy. The shear wave shearlet domain incorporates the Gamma correction method to effectively preserve the image details, which to achieve a more accurate diagnosis, and help us to judge the damage of the medial and lateral compartment more accurately.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 22 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Davood Toghraie, Navid Nasajpour Esfahani, Majid Zarringhalam, Nima Shirani, Sara Rostami〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and Objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉In the present research, simulation of blood flow is carried out inside the artery with different radiuses of 0.002m, 0.0025m, 0.003m, and 0.0035m.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉To simulate the blood as non-Newtonian fluid using of Sisko model, different constant heat fluxes are applied on the boundary walls of the artery. Then, the results of velocity, temperature, and Nusselt number are reported versus axial and radial directions.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉Results show that blood temperature is enhanced with increasing axial distance. Also, maximum temperatures are seen at maximum axial and radial distances from references of entry and central regions of artery. Furthermore, increasing the radius of the artery can increase blood temperature due to a reduction in blood velocity inside the vessel. Consequently, blood particles can spend more time to receive thermal energy, which leads to emerging higher blood temperature. This phenomenon can be important in the oxygenation process inside the human body. It is observed that effect of increasing the radius of the artery can enhance blood temperature as much as 0.001K. Also, applying constant heat fluxes in order 4W/m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉 to 5W/m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉 and 6W/m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉 on the artery wall brings axial Nusselt values of 0.365 to 0.4575 and 0.55, respectively. As a result of axial and radial Nusselt numbers, it is reported that because radial Nusslet is unchanged in the central region of the artery, temperature shall be constant in a radius less of 0.0019m. Therefore, the influences of heat fluxes are ignorable in the central region of the vein. Also, maximum temperatures are reported as much as 310.5K, 311.1K, and 311.5K in order of applying thermal boundary flux of q''=400 W/m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉, q''=800 W/m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉 and q''=1000 W/m〈sup〉2〈/sup〉 respectively. Therefore, applying heat fluxes in the range of investigated can raise the blood temperature as much as 1.5°C, which is equal to 38.5°C. Thus, there is no doubt that such a high temperature is dangerous for human health.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉As conclusion, the results of this research are important hints for medical diagnostics of oxygenation, hematocrit, polycythemia, and blood disorders.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Junjie Nie, Zhixue Yu, Defu Yao, Fan Wang, Chunhua Zhu, Kaihui Sun, Jude Juventus Aweya, Yueling Zhang〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The histone deacetylase, sirtuin 6 (SIRT6), plays an essential role in the regulation of oxidative stress, mitochondrial function and inflammation in mammals. However, the specific role of SIRT6 in invertebrate immunity has not been reported. Here, we characterized for the first time, a sirtuin 6 homolog in 〈em〉Litopenaeus vannamei〈/em〉 (〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6), with full-length cDNA of 2919 bp and 1536 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding a putative protein of 511 amino acids, which contains a typical SIR2 domain. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis revealed that 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 shares a close evolutionary relationship with SIRT6 from invertebrates. Real-time quantitative PCR analysis of 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 transcripts revealed that they were ubiquitously expressed in shrimp and induced in hepatopancreas and hemocytes upon challenge with 〈em〉Vibrio parahaemolyticus〈/em〉, 〈em〉Streptococcus iniae〈/em〉, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), suggesting the involvement of 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 in shrimp immune response. Moreover, knockdown of 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 decreased mitochondrial membrane potential and increased total ROS level in hemocytes, especially upon 〈em〉V. parahaemolyticus〈/em〉 challenge. Depletion of 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 also increased hemocytes apoptosis in terms of decreased expression of pro-survival 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉Bcl-2, but increased expression of pro-apoptotic 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉Bax and 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉Cytochrome C, coupled with high 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉Caspase3/7 activity. Shrimp were rendered more susceptible to 〈em〉V. parahaemolyticus〈/em〉 infection upon 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 knockdown. Taken together, our present data suggest that 〈em〉Lv〈/em〉SIRT6 plays an important role in shrimp immune response by modulating hemocytes ROS production and apoptosis during pathogen challenge.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Wenbin Hua, Jinggang Zhi, Bingjin Wang, Wencan Ke, Wengang Sun, Shuhua Yang, Li Li, Cao Yang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉To compare the biomechanical changes of adjacent segment degeneration (ASD) after one- or two-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) versus cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA).〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉A three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of intact C2-C7 segments was constructed and validated. In the one-level surgery model, the cage with plate implant or Prestige LP cervical disc prosthesis were integrated at C5-C6 segment into the FE model; while in the two-level surgery model, the prostheses were integrated at both C4-C5 and C5-C6 segments into the FE model. A pure moment of 1.0 Nm combined with a follower load of 73.6 N were imposed on C2 to investigate the flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation of different segments in the FE model. The segmental range of motion (ROM) and intradiscal pressure of the surgery models were investigated and compared with the intact model.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉In the one-level model of ACDF, the ROM at C5-C6 was decreased, the ROM and intradiscal pressure at C4-C5 and C6-C7 segments were increased. In the two-level model of ACDF, the ROM at C4-C5 and C5-C6 were decreased, the ROM and intradiscal pressure at C3-C4 and C6-C7 were increased. However, in both one- and two-level models of CDA, the ROM of surgery segments were preserved, avoiding the increase of the ROM and intradiscal pressure at the adjacent segments.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉Abnormal ROM and intradiscal pressure at the adjacent segments may contribute to the higher risk of ASD after ACDF compared with CDA.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 24 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yushan Tang, Shan Liu, Yaru Deng, Yuhui Zhang, Lirong Yin, Wenfeng Zheng〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉Force haptic reappearance technology is considered to be one of the top ten technologies that can change human life in the future. It has broad application prospects and market demand. Most of the existing medical robots, especially the remote diagnosis and treatment robots, lack haptic feedback, or the calculation of feedback force is insufficient. Haptic reappearance technology is an effective method to solve the problem of haptic presence and improve the practicability of medical robot.〈/p〉 〈p〉The ultimate goal of the force haptic reappearance system is to let the operator feel the haptic feedback when interacting with the soft tissue model in the virtual environment in real time. Haptic device is the necessary condition to realize force haptic reappearance, and it is an essential part of the system. Its important role is to introduce the external force imposed by the operator into the virtual environment, and let the operator feel the force in the virtual environment, which effectively guarantees the operator's sense of reality and immersion when interacting with the virtual environment.〈/p〉 〈p〉Therefore, starting with the key technology of force and haptic reappearance system, this paper studies the construction of force and haptic reappearance system. Soft tissue surface model is drawn by OpenGL, and hand model is drawn by 3Ds Max. The haptic reappearance and visual feedback of soft tissue model of hand palpation are realized. The quality of feedback is evaluated. The haptic reappearance is stable and realistic, and the visual feedback is smooth. This indicates that the system has a certain application value and is worth to promote to the public.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 24 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Sina Fathi, Maryam Ahmadi, Behrouz Birashk, Afsaneh Dehnad〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background〈/h6〉 〈p〉Mental disorders, according to the definition of World Health Organization, consist of a wide range of signs, which are generally specified by a combination of unusual thoughts, feelings, behavior, and relationships with others. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders, described as permanent and severe fear or feeling of embarrassment in social situations. Considering the imprecise nature of SAD symptoms, the main objective of this study was to generate an intelligent decision support system for SAD diagnosis, using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) technique and to conduct an evaluation method, using sensitivity, specificity and accuracy metrics.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Method〈/h6〉 〈p〉In this study, a real-world dataset with the sample size of 214 was selected and used to generate the model〈em〉.〈/em〉 The method comprised a multi-stage procedure named preprocessing, classification, and evaluation. The preprocessing stage, itself, consists of three steps called normalization, feature selection, and anomaly detection, using the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) clustering method. The ANFIS technique with 5-fold cross-validation was used for the classification of social anxiety disorder.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results and conclusion〈/h6〉 〈p〉The preprocessed dataset with seven input features were used to train the ANFIS model. The hybrid optimization learning algorithm and 41 epochs were used as optimal learning parameters. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity metrics were reported 98.67%, 97.14%, and 100%, respectively. The results revealed that the proposed model was quite appropriate for SAD diagnosis and in line with findings of other studies. Further research study addressing the design of a decision support system for diagnosing the severity of SAD is recommended.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 25 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Woo Kyung Moon, Yao-Sian Haung, Chin-Hua Hsu, Ting-Yin Chang Chien, Jung Min Chang, Su Hyun Lee, Chiun-Sheng Huang, Ruey-Feng Chang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and Objectives〈/h6〉 〈p〉: Automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) is a widely used screening modality for breast cancer detection and diagnosis. In this study, an effective and fast computer-aided detection (CADe) system based on a 3-D convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed as the second reader for the physician in order to decrease the reviewing time and misdetection rate.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉: Our CADe system uses the sliding window method, a CNN-based determining model, and a candidate aggregation algorithm. First, the sliding window method is performed to split the ABUS volume into volumes of interest (VOIs). Afterward, VOIs are selected as tumor candidates by our determining model. To achieve higher performance, focal loss and ensemble learning are used to solve data imbalance and reduce false positive (FP) and false negative (FN) rates. Because several selected candidates may be part of the same tumor and they may overlap each other, a candidate aggregation method is applied to merge the overlapping candidates into the final detection result.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉: In the experiments, 165 and 81 cases are utilized for training the system and evaluating system performance, respectively. On evaluation with the 81 cases, our system achieves sensitivities of 100% (81/81), 95.3% (77/81), and 90.9% (74/81) with FPs per pass (per case) of 21.6 (126.2), 6.0 (34.8), and 4.6 (27.1) respectively. According to the results, the number of FPs per pass (per case) can be diminished by 56.8% (57.1%) at a sensitivity of 95.3% based on our tumor detection model.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉: In conclusion, our CADe system using 3-D CNN with the focal loss and ensemble learning may have the capability of being a tumor detection system in ABUS image.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 25 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Hyehyun Han, Doo Yong Lee〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and Objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈em〉:〈/em〉 Deformation of elastic material such as soft tissues of human body in the virtual environment is computed based on actual material properties. But this often leads to computational overhead hindering real-time simulation. This paper proposes a new modeling method of deformable objects for real-time simulation, using iterative updates of local positions, and control of the desired behavior by material properties.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Method〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈em〉:〈/em〉 The Saint Venant–Kirchhoff model is used to form the governing equation to express and control the nonlinear behavior and properties of the material. This governing equation is combined with a local iterative solver using position-based dynamics framework. The proposed method updates the local positions iteratively by finding the solution to minimize the energy of related elements surrounding the target nodes. A grouping method is devised to determine the optimal order of computation.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Result〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈em〉:〈/em〉 Various dynamic behaviors can be simulated using the proposed method corresponding to different Young's modulus. Maximum deformations simulated by the proposed method are compared with those results from commercial ANSYS. Relative errors of the real-time simulation results are less than 15% when Young's modulus ranges from 4kPa to 10kPa. Real-time performance is evaluated using a liver model composed of 596 tetrahedral elements.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusion〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈em〉:〈/em〉 Simulation results show that the proposed method can simulate, in real-time, the stiffness of the model faithfully according to their material properties.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 24 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Afiya Eram, Mohammad Zuber, Laxmikant G Keni, Sagar Kalburgi, Rajaram Naik, Shruti Bhandary, Swathi, Irfan Anjum Badruddin〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉Finite element based simulation has emerged as a powerful tool to analyse the tooth strength and its fracture characteristics. The aim of this study is to compare and evaluate the fracture resistance of immature teeth reinforcement with MTA, Biodentine and Bioaggregate as an apical plug and backfill material using Finite Element Method.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉A 3D finite element analysis model was generated using a simulated immature maxillary central incisor. Seven different models were developed representing (Model 1): control group having an immature tooth model without any reinforcement material; (Model 2): Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) as apical plug 4mm; (Model 3): Biodentine as apical plug 4mm; (Model 4): Bioaggregate as apical plug 4mm; (Model 5): MTA filled in the entire root canal 8.5mm; (Model 6): Biodentine filled in the entire root canal 8.5mm; (Model 7): Bioaggregate filled in the entire root canal 8.5mm. A force of 100N was applied at an angle of 130° to the palatal surface of the tooth. Stress distribution at cemento‑enamel junction was measured using the Von Mises stress criteria.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉It was found that the 4mm apical plug using MTA showed higher fracture resistance when compared to 8.5mm backfill using MTA. When MTA was replaced as backfill material by Biodentine and Bioaggregate, the von mises stress increased by 64% and 94% respectively.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉It is not desirable to restore the entire root canal of an immature teeth using same material due to higher stress concentration at the cervical region. Considering the shorter setting time and improved handling characteristics, Biodentine can be preferred over the time‑tested MTA as an apical plug.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 22 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Shayan Jalilpour, Sepideh Hajipour Sardouie, Amirmohammad Mijani〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) are useful methods in the brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Hybrid BCI systems that combine these two approaches can enhance the proficiency of the P300 spellers.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉In this study, a new hybrid RSVP/SSVEP BCI is proposed to increase the classification accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR) as compared with the other RSVP speller paradigms. In this paradigm, RSVP (eliciting a P300 response) and SSVEP stimulations are presented in such a way that the target group of characters is identified by RSVP stimuli, and the target character is recognized by SSVEP stimuli.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉The proposed paradigm achieved accuracy of 93.06%, and ITR of 23.41 bit/min averaged across six subjects.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉The new hybrid system demonstrates that by using SSVEP stimulation in Triple RSVP speller paradigm, we could enhance the performance of the system as compared with the traditional Triple RSVP paradigm. Our work is the first hybrid paradigm in RSVP spellers that could obtain the higher classification accuracy and information transfer rate in comparison with the previous RSVP spellers.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Gerard Martí-Juan, Gerard Sanroma-Guell, Gemma Piella〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉〈em〉Background and Objectives:〈/em〉 Recently, longitudinal studies of Alzheimer’s disease have gathered a substantial amount of neuroimaging data. New methods are needed to successfully leverage and distill meaningful information on the progression of the disease from the deluge of available data. Machine learning has been used successfully for many different tasks, including neuroimaging related problems. In this paper, we review recent statistical and machine learning applications in Alzheimer’s disease using longitudinal neuroimaging. 〈em〉Methods:〈/em〉 We search for papers using longitudinal imaging data, focused on Alzheimer’s Disease and published between 2007 and 2019 on four different search engines. 〈em〉Results:〈/em〉 After the search, we obtain 104 relevant papers. We analyze their approach to typical challenges in longitudinal data analysis, such as missing data and variability in the number and extent of acquisitions. 〈em〉Conclusions:〈/em〉 Reviewed works show that machine learning methods using longitudinal data have potential for disease progression modelling and computer-aided diagnosis. We compare results and models, and propose future research directions in the field.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Hua Zou, Shuang Leng, Ce Xi, Xiaodan Zhao, Angela S Koh, Fei Gao, Ju Le Tan, Ru-San Tan, John C Allen, Lik Chuan Lee, Martin Genet, Liang Zhong〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and Objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉Evaluation of biventricular function is an essential component of clinical management in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This study aims to examine the utility of biventricular strains derived from a model-to-image registration technique in PAH patients in comparison to age- and gender-matched normal controls.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉A three-dimensional (3D) model was reconstructed from cine short- and long-axis cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images and subsequently partitioned into right ventricle (RV), left ventricle (LV) and septum. The hyperelastic warping method was used to register the meshed biventricular finite element model throughout the cardiac cycle and obtain the corresponding biventricular circumferential, longitudinal and radial strains.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉Intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of biventricular strains was excellent with all intra-class correlation coefficients 〉 0.84. 3D biventricular longitudinal, circumferential and radial strains for RV, LV and septum were significantly decreased in PAH patients compared with controls. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the 3D biventricular strains were better early markers (Area under the ROC curve = 0.96 for RV longitudinal strain) of ventricular dysfunction than conventional parameters such as two-dimensional strains and ejection fraction.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉Our highly reproducible methodology holds potential for extending CMR imaging to characterize 3D biventricular strains, eventually leading to deeper understanding of biventricular mechanics in PAH.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 16 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Md Mohaimenul Islam, Hsuan-Chia Yang, Tahmina Nasrin Poly, Wen-Shan Jian, Yu-Chuan (Jack) Li〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background〈/h6〉 〈p〉: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the leading causes of blindness globally. Earlier detection and timely treatment of DR are desirable to reduce the incidence and progression of vision loss. Currently, deep learning (DL) approaches have offered better performance in detecting DR from retinal fundus images. We, therefore, performed a systematic review with a meta-analysis of relevant studies to quantify the performance of DL algorithms for detecting DR.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉: A systematic literature search on EMBASE, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus was performed between January 1, 2000, and March 31, 2019. The search strategy was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guidelines, and DL-based study design was mandatory for articles inclusion. Two independent authors screened abstracts and titles against inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were extracted by two authors independently using a standard form and the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool was used for the risk of bias and applicability assessment.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉: Twenty-three studies were included in the systematic review; 20 studies met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. The pooled area under the receiving operating curve (AUROC) of DR was 0.97 (95%CI: 0.95-0.98), sensitivity was 0.83 (95%CI: 0.83-0.83), and specificity was 0.92 (95%CI: 0.92-0.92). The positive- and negative-likelihood ratio were 14.11 (95%CI: 9.91-20.07), and 0.10 (95%CI: 0.07-0.16), respectively. Moreover, the diagnostic odds ratio for DL models was 136.83 (95%CI: 79.03-236.93). All the studies provided a DR-grading scale, a human grader (e.g. trained caregivers, ophthalmologists) as a reference standard.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusion〈/h6〉 〈p〉: The findings of our study showed that DL algorithms had high sensitivity and specificity for detecting referable DR from retinal fundus photographs. Applying a DL-based automated tool of assessing DR from color fundus images could provide an alternative solution to reduce misdiagnosis and improve workflow. A DL-based automated tool offers substantial benefits to reduce screening costs, accessibility to healthcare and ameliorate earlier treatments.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Lang Lang, Minnan Bao, Weixin Jing, Wei Chen, Lan Wang〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉Toll is essential in innate immune system which is important for defense against bacterial, fungal and viral infections in invertebrates. Our previous study showed that cadmium (Cd) could change the expression pattern of ShToll3 in the epithelium (gills and midgut from the freshwater crab 〈em〉Sinopotamon henanense〈/em〉) infected by 〈em〉Aeromonas hydrophila〈/em〉. To investigate the diverse innate immune roles of crustacean homolog Tolls, in this study, we cloned 〈em〉Shtoll1〈/em〉 from 〈em〉S. henanense〈/em〉. The full-length cDNA of 〈em〉Shtoll1〈/em〉 was 4746 bp, with an ORF of 3033 bp encoding a putative protein of 111 amino acids, a 5′-untranslated region of 255 bp and a 3′-untranslated region of 1713 bp. Phylogenetic analysis showed that ShToll1 was clustered into the group of DmToll1, DmToll 4 and DmToll 5. In addition, the tissue distribution results showed that 〈em〉Shtoll1〈/em〉 was expressed widely in different tissues, with the highest expression in heamocytes. Besides, 〈em〉Shtoll1〈/em〉 expressions were upregulated in heamocytes and hepatopancreas after 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 infection. At the same time, the increase of 〈em〉Shtoll1〈/em〉 expressions were examined in heamocytes in response to Cd exposure and 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 infection in combination. Through western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis, the ShToll1 expressions in heamocytes were increased in response to 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 and Cd independently as well as in combination. Moreover, the mRNA level of three antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) 〈em〉alf5, alf6,〈/em〉 and 〈em〉c-lys〈/em〉, which possibly responded to Cd and 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 stimulation through 〈em〉Shtoll1,〈/em〉 were analyzed.〈/p〉 〈p〉Thus, we conclude that Cd expand the susceptibility of ShToll1 to 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 infection in heamocytes. This suggest that ShToll1 may contribute to the innate immune defense of 〈em〉S. henanense〈/em〉 against 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 and Cd in heamocytes.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 13 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): A. Panigrahi, R.R. Das, M.R. Sivakumar, A. Saravanan, C. Saranya, N.S. Sudheer, K.P. Kumaraguru Vasagam, P. Mahalakshmi, S. Kannappan, G. Gopikrishna〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Effect of bio-augmentation of 〈em〉Bacillus spp〈/em〉 in biofloc on growth, survival and immunity in Indian white shrimp 〈em〉Penaeus indicus〈/em〉 was evaluated. Nine 〈em〉Bacillus〈/em〉 strains were isolated and screened individually as well as in the form of a consortia. To maintain a C:N ratio of 12:1 a blend of carbohydrate sources was used. Bio-augmentation with bacterial consortium and 〈em〉Virgibacillus sp.〈/em〉 produced improved growth and immunity. Shrimp survival ranged from 80 to 95% among treatments. Production was higher (35%) in the biofloc tanks with an average body weight (ABW) of 10.89 ± 1.2 g. On evaluating the immune responses, it was found that trypsin significantly (P 〈 0.05) enhanced Prophenoloxidase (PO) activity in 〈em〉Lysinibacillus〈/em〉, 〈em〉Bacillus cereus〈/em〉, 〈em〉Bacillus licheniformis〈/em〉 and 〈em〉Bacillus subtilis〈/em〉 bio-augmented groups. Laminarin induced PO activity was observed in groups supplemented with 〈em〉Oceanobacillus sp.〈/em〉, 〈em〉Bacillus sp.〈/em〉and 〈em〉Bacillus megaterium〈/em〉. The lysozyme (LZ) activity was significantly (P 〈 0.05) higher in 〈em〉B. cereus〈/em〉 and Microbial Consortia (MC), while other treatments were less effective. Total hemocyte count (THC) significantly (P 〈 0.05) increased in all treatment groups compared to the control. Hyaline hemocyte (HH) count was significantly (P 〈 0.05) higher in the control group (14.43%). Semi granular hemocytes (SGH) was higher in groups treated with 〈em〉Lysinibacillus, Bacillus sp., B. licheniformis〈/em〉 and 〈em〉B. subtilis.〈/em〉 The granular hemocyte (GH) count was significantly (P 〈 0.05) higher in 〈em〉Virgibacillus sp.〈/em〉, 〈em〉B. cereus〈/em〉, 〈em〉B.megaterium〈/em〉 and 〈em〉Oceanobacillus sp.〈/em〉 The biofloc alone (BF), treated and augmented with 〈em〉B. megaterium〈/em〉 significantly (P 〈 0.05) increased phagocytic activity. Highly significant phagocytic index (PI) was observed in bio-augmented groups, BF and MC. The relative expression levels of immune genes were found to be significantly up-regulated in shrimps grown in bio-augmented groups. Enhanced immunological parameters implies that bio-augmentation of biofloc with 〈em〉Bacillus spp.〈/em〉 improved immunity in shrimps. Hence, bio-augmentation of probiotics in biofloc may be useful in improving culture conditions to produce 〈em〉P. indicus.〈/em〉〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Jessica L. Piesz, Sarah E. Barker, Ian R. Bricknell〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The ectoparasite, 〈em〉Lepeophtheirus salmonis〈/em〉 (Kroyer 1837)〈em〉,〈/em〉 is effective at avoiding elimination from its host, Atlantic salmon, 〈em〉Salmo salar〈/em〉 L., by inhibiting the recruitment of immune cells to the site of attachment. In other ectoparasitic arthropods, numerous factors have been identified that bind or neutralize chemokines preventing their interaction with receptors on the surfaces of immune cells. To determine if 〈em〉L. salmonis〈/em〉 is utilizing a similar mechanism of immune modulation, the chemotactic activity of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) to leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and the secreted/excreted products (SEPs) of the sea louse were investigated 〈em〉in vitro〈/em〉. The results showed that incubation of LTB4 with SEPs reduced leukocyte migration compared to LTB4 immune stimulation alone. Data suggests that one of the mechanisms 〈em〉L. salmonis〈/em〉 may be using to regulate immune cell recruitment in Atlantic salmon is by inhibiting or neutralizing the activity of chemokines.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Li-Jie Huo, Ming-Chong Yang, Jin-Xing Wang, Xiu-Zhen Shi〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉ATPase Inhibitory Factor 1 (IF1) is a mitochondrial protein that functions as a physiological inhibitor of F〈sub〉1〈/sub〉F〈sub〉0〈/sub〉-ATP synthase. In the present study, a mitochondrial ATPase inhibitor factor 1 (〈em〉Mj〈/em〉ATPIF1) was identified from kuruma shrimp (〈em〉Marsupenaeus japonicus〈/em〉), which was demonstrated to participate in the viral immune reaction of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉ATPIF1 contained a mitochondrial ATPase inhibitor (IATP) domain, and was widely distributed in hemocytes, heart, hepatopancreas, gills, stomach, and intestine of shrimp. 〈em〉MjATPIF1〈/em〉 transcription was upregulated in hemocytes and intestines by WSSV. WSSV replication decreased after 〈em〉MjATPIF1〈/em〉 knockdown by RNA interference and increased following recombinant 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉ATPIF1 protein injection. Further study found that 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉ATPIF1 promoted the production of superoxide and activated the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB, Dorsal) to induce the transcription of WSSV RNAs. These results demonstrate that 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉ATPIF1 benefits WSSV replication in kuruma shrimp by inducing superoxide production and NF-κB activation.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Muting Yan, Zhihao Liu, Kaihang Xu, Wenjing Wang, Lanfen Fan, Han Gong〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Previous studies have indicated that white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection induces apoptosis in many shrimp organs. However, the mechanism by which WSSV causes host apoptosis remains largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated the function of wsv152, the first mitochondrial protein identified as encoded by WSSV. Glutathione S-transferase pulldown and co-immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that wsv152 interacts with the shrimp mitochondrial protein cytochrome 〈em〉c〈/em〉 oxidase 5a (COX5a), a subunit of the COX complex. We also found that wsv152 expression significantly increased the rate of apoptosis, suggesting a role of wsv152 in WSSV-induced apoptosis in shrimp. Knockdown of wsv152 〈em〉in vivo〈/em〉 led to downregulation of several apoptosis-related shrimp genes, including cytochrome 〈em〉c〈/em〉, apoptosis-inducing factor and caspase-3. Suppression of wsv152 also resulted in significant reductions in the number of WSSV genome copies in tissues and in the mortality of WSSV-infected shrimp. Together, these results suggest that wsv152 targets host COX5a and is associated with the expression profiles of apoptosis-related shrimp genes. Wsv152 is likely also involved in WSSV-induced apoptosis, thereby facilitating virus infection and playing a complex role in WSSV pathogenesis.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Sen Xu, Ming Jing, Wen-Ying Liu, He Dong, De-Min Kong, Ya-Ru Wang, Han-Han Zhang, Zhen Yue, You-Jie Li, Fei Jiao, Shu-Yang Xie〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉L-type lectins (LTLs) belong to the lectin family and are characterized by a conserved structural motif in their carbohydrate recognition domain. LTLs are homologous to leguminous lectins. In this study, we identified and functionally characterized an LTL from kuruma shrimp 〈em〉Marsupenaeus japonicus〈/em〉. We designated this LTL as 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2. 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 contains a signal peptide, a Lectin_leg domain, a coiled coil, and transmembrane domain. 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 is distributed in hemocytes, heart, hepatopancreas, gill, stomach, and intestine; higher expression levels are seen in hemocytes and the hepatopancreas than in other tissues. 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 was upregulated following challenge of shrimp with 〈em〉Vibrio anguillarum〈/em〉 and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 can agglutinate several bacteria without Ca〈sup〉2+〈/sup〉. In addition, 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 could bind to several Gram-positive and -negative bacteria by binding to their lipopolysaccharide and peptidoglycan. However, 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 could not enhance the clearance of 〈em〉V. anguillarum〈/em〉 in vivo. In the presence of WSSV infection, 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 knockdown by RNA interference resulted in a 7-day lower cumulative mortality of 〈em〉M. japonicus〈/em〉. Moreover, less 〈em〉VP19, VP24, VP26,〈/em〉 and 〈em〉VP2〈/em〉8 mRNAs were extracted from the hemocytes of 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 knockdown shrimp than from the control. These results suggest that 〈em〉Mj〈/em〉LTL2 is involved in immune responses in shrimp.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yiyi Yan, Xingchen Huo, Taoshan Ai, Jianguo Su〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉As one of the most important fish in freshwater aquaculture, gibel carp (〈em〉Carassius auratus gibelio〈/em〉) is easily susceptible to Cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2). Immersion vaccination has attracted many researchers due to its simple operation in preventing infectious diseases. However, the unavoidable disadvantage is that the immersion vaccine must be used with adjuvants to get a better performance. In this study, gibel carps were vaccinated by a 60 min bath in a β-propiolactone-inactivated Cyprinid herpesvirus 2, mixed with DTT, β-glucan, anisodamine and scopolamine, respectively. After immunization, the fishs were challenged by CyHV-2 in 2 weeks. By analyzing pathological section, we found that β-glucan, anisodamine and scopolamine groups protected the gibel carp compared to the control group, which was consistent with the trend of survival rate. Specifically, β-glucan group in serum appeared best on lysozyme, TSOD and complement C3. Real time quantitative RT-PCR results demonstrated that in both spleen and head kidney tissues, mRNA expressions of typical Th1 immune response cytokines IL-2 and IFN-γ2 in β-glucan group and anisodamine group were significantly higher than other groups and the level of immunoglobulins related to systemic immunity (IgM) and mucosal immunity (IgZ) were also enhanced in the immune period. DTT group slightly affected immune gene and serum enzyme activity, while did not show an adjuvant effect on survival rate. In addition, four adjuvant groups could obviously inhibit CyHV-2 replication. This study explored and proved the good efficiency of β-glucan or anisodamine as immersion immune adjuvant and also provided reference for improving the efficiency of immersion immunity.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): S. Nadeem, Nadeem Abbas, M.Y. Malik〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background〈/h6〉 〈p〉In this paper, we discussed the Cu − Al〈sub〉2〈/sub〉O〈sub〉3〈/sub〉/H〈sub〉2〈/sub〉O (Hybrid nanofluid) flow over permeable exponentially stretching channel. The hybrid nanofluid involves two kinds of nanoparticles along with base fluid (pure water). Our research objective is to evaluate the heat transfer rate of hybrid nanofluid.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Method〈/h6〉 〈p〉The resulting system is numerically tackled via shooting method (bvp4c).〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉The hybrid nanofluid gains larger rate of heat transfer as compared to simple nanofluid. The impact of non-dimension parameter on temperature profile, boundary layer will be analyzed for enormous values of dimensionless parameter. Also, boundary layer thickness when γ 〈 0 (injection) and when γ 〉 0 (suction) will be compared. The present results with the existence literature will be compared for justification/validation.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Carlo Ricciardi, Valeria Cantoni, Giovanni Improta, Luigi Iuppariello, Imma Latessa, Mario Cesarelli, Maria Triassi, Alberto Cuocolo〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Introduction〈/h6〉 〈p〉Coronary artery disease (CAD) is still one of the primary causes of death in the developed countries. Stress single-photon emission computed tomography is used to evaluate myocardial perfusion and ventricular function in patients with suspected or known CAD. This study sought to test data mining and machine learning tools and to compare some supervised learning algorithms in a large cohort of Italian subjects with suspected or known CAD who underwent stress myocardial perfusion imaging.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉The dataset consisted of 10,265 patients with suspected or known CAD. The analysis was conducted using Knime analytics platform in order to implement Random Forests, C4.5, Gradient boosted tree, Naïve Bayes, and K nearest neighbor (KNN) after a procedure of features filtering. K-fold cross-validation was employed.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉Accuracy, error, precision, recall, and specificity were computed through the above-mentioned algorithms. Random Forests and gradients boosted trees obtained the highest accuracy (〉95%), while it was comprised between 83% and 88%. The highest value for sensitivity and specificity was obtained by C4.5 (99.3%) and by Gradient boosted tree (96.9%). Naïve Bayes had the lowest precision (70.9%) and specificity (72.0%), KNN the lowest recall and sensitivity (79.2%).〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉The high scores obtained by the implementation of the algorithms suggests health facilities consider the idea of including services of advanced data analysis to help clinicians in decision-making. Similar applications of this kind of study in other contexts could support this idea.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yi Huang, Wenjun Yan, Menghua Xia, Yi Guo, Guohui Zhou, Yuanyuan Wang〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉Segmenting vessel membranes and locating the calcific region in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) images aid physicians in the diagnosis of atherosclerosis. However, the manual extraction of the media adventitia (MA)/lumen border and calcification location are cumbersome due to the excessive number of IVUS frames. Moreover, most existing (semi-)automatic detection methods cannot achieve both vessel membrane extraction and calcification location simultaneously, and they are unable to detect vessel membranes in IVUS frames from different acquisition systems.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Method〈/h6〉 〈p〉A fully automatic approach is proposed based on extremal regions and a flexible selection strategy to extract vessel membranes in different IVUS frames and locate the calcific region in high-frequency ones. Three main steps are included in the algorithm. First, a region detector is employed to extract extremal regions from an IVUS image. Then, according to the selection strategy, a part of the extracted regions is selected. At the same time, the calcification is located according to its special acoustic properties. Next, approximate MA and lumen border segmentation is achieved based on the selected extremal regions and the located calcification in polar coordinates. Finally, the final segmentation results are obtained by smoothing the approximate values.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Result〈/h6〉 〈p〉To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, it was evaluated based on a standard public dataset. Furthermore, to quantitatively evaluate the segmentation performance, the Hausdorff distance (HD), Jaccard measure (JM) and percentage of area difference (PAD) were used. The results show that a mean HD of 1.13/1.21 mm, a mean JM of 0.83/0.77 and a mean PAD of 0.11/0.23 are achieved for MA/lumen border detection in 77 40-MHz IVUS images. For MA/lumen border extraction in 435 20-MHz IVUS frames, the average HD, JM and PAD values are 0.47/0.28 mm, 0.84/0.89 and 0.13/0.10, respectively. In addition, the approach successfully achieves calcification location in 40-MHz IVUS frames. In comparison with other published methods, the method proposed in this study is competitive.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusion〈/h6〉 〈p〉According to these results, our strategy can extract MA/lumen borders in different IVUS frames and effectively locate calcification in high-frequency IVUS frames.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Jing Wang, Wenjing Hong, Fei Zhu〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Astakine is a crucial factor in the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells and is directly involved in hematopoiesis in crustaceans. To assess the role of Astakine in the innate immune system of 〈em〉Scylla paramamosain〈/em〉, the immune responses in healthy and Astakine-inhibited 〈em〉S. paramamosain〈/em〉 were investigated in the present study. The RNA transcripts of 〈em〉Astakine〈/em〉 were widely distributed in all examined tissues, with significantly higher levels of expression in hemocytes of both healthy and challenged 〈em〉S. paramamosain〈/em〉 with 〈em〉Vibrio alginolyticus〈/em〉 and WSSV. When 〈em〉Astakine〈/em〉 was knocked down by RNA interference technology, immune-related genes, including 〈em〉Janus kinase〈/em〉, 〈em〉prophenoloxidase〈/em〉, 〈em〉hemocyanin〈/em〉, 〈em〉β-actin〈/em〉, 〈em〉myosin II essential light chain-like protein〈/em〉, 〈em〉signal transducer and activator of transcription〈/em〉, 〈em〉Relish〈/em〉, and 〈em〉C-type-lectin〈/em〉, were significantly down-regulated in hemocytes. The levels of phenoloxidaseactivity (PO), total hemocyte counts (THC) and hemocyte proliferation decreased significantly in hemocytes of Astakine-dsRNA treated 〈em〉S. paramamosain〈/em〉. After being challenged with 〈em〉V. alginolyticus〈/em〉 and WSSV, the THC decreased significantly and the levels of hemocyte apoptosis increased significantly in Astakine-dsRNA treated 〈em〉S. paramamosain〈/em〉 in comparison with those in infected groups without Astakine-dsRNA treatment. After being challenged with WSSV, the WSSV copies were significantly lower in Astakine-dsRNA treated groups than those in the WSSV infection group, which suggested that knockdown of 〈em〉Astakine〈/em〉 was not conductive to WSSV replication and this might be associated with the decreasing THC. The results of survival analysis showed that the survival rate of 〈em〉V. alginolyticus〈/em〉 or WSSV infected 〈em〉S. paramamosain〈/em〉 decreased significantly following 〈em〉Astakine〈/em〉 knockdown. These results suggested that RNA interference of 〈em〉Astakine〈/em〉 might weaken the resistance of 〈em〉S. paramamosain〈/em〉 to 〈em〉V. alginolyticus〈/em〉 or WSSV infection. The weaken resistivity after knockdown 〈em〉Astakine〈/em〉 might be related to the changes of important immune-related gene expression, THC, PO activity, proliferation and apoptosis of hemocytes.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 15 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): José Martins, Jaime S. Cardoso, Filipe Soares〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉Background and Objective: Glaucoma, an eye condition that leads to permanent blindness, is typically asymptomatic and therefore difficult to be diagnosed in time. However, if diagnosed in time, Glaucoma can effectively be slowed down by using adequate treatment; hence, an early diagnosis is of utmost importance. Nonetheless, the conventional approaches to diagnose Glaucoma adopt expensive and bulky equipment that requires qualified experts, making it difficult, costly and time-consuming to diagnose large amounts of people. Consequently, new alternatives to diagnose Glaucoma that suppress these issues should be explored.〈/p〉 〈p〉Methods: This work proposes an interpretable computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) pipeline that is capable of diagnosing Glaucoma using fundus images and run offline in mobile devices. Several public datasets of fundus images were merged and used to build Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) that perform segmentation and classification tasks. These networks are then used to build a pipeline for Glaucoma assessment that outputs a Glaucoma confidence level and also provides several morphological features and segmentations of relevant structures, resulting in an interpretable Glaucoma diagnosis. To assess the performance of this method in a restricted environment, this pipeline was integrated into a mobile application and time and space complexities were assessed.〈/p〉 〈p〉Results: Considering the test set, the developed pipeline achieved 0.91 and 0.75 of Intersection over Union (IoU) in the optic disc and optic cup segmentation, respectively. With regards to the classification, an accuracy of 0.87 with a sensitivity of 0.85 and an AUC of 0.93 were attained. Moreover, this pipeline runs on an average Android smartphone in under two seconds.〈/p〉 〈p〉Conclusions: The results demonstrate the potential that this method can have in the contribution to an early Glaucoma diagnosis. The proposed approach achieved similar or slightly better metrics than the current CAD systems for Glaucoma assessment while running on more restricted devices. This pipeline can, therefore, be used to construct accurate and affordable CAD systems that could enable large Glaucoma screenings, contributing to an earlier diagnose of this condition.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Yunkun Li, Jiabei Han, Jiayu Wu, Dong Li, Xixi Yang, Anqi Huang, Guixian Bu, Fengyan Meng, Fanli Kong, Xiaohan Cao, Xingfa Han, Xiaofu Pan, Shiyong Yang, Xianyin Zeng, Xiaogang Du〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Quantification real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is a common method in analysis of gene expression, but the stable reference genes for the normalization analysis have not been appreciated before identifying expression pattern of genes in teleost fishes. In this study, we selected eight candidate reference genes (〈em〉18S〈/em〉, 〈em〉Actin〈/em〉, 〈em〉EF-1α〈/em〉, 〈em〉40S〈/em〉, 〈em〉B2M〈/em〉, 〈em〉TUBA〈/em〉, 〈em〉UBCE〈/em〉 and 〈em〉GAPDH〈/em〉) basing on transcriptome analysis and the traditional housekeeping genes, and analyzed the stability of the reference genes in spleen, head kidney and head kidney leukocytes (HKL) after pathogen challenge in 〈em〉Schizothorax prenanti〈/em〉 (〈em〉S. prenanti〈/em〉). Three common programs (geNorm, NormFinder and Bestkeeper) were used to evaluate the stability of the candidate reference genes. Two reference genes, 〈em〉Actin〈/em〉 and 〈em〉EF-1α〈/em〉 presented higher stability, while 〈em〉18S〈/em〉 and 〈em〉GAPDH〈/em〉 were the lower stable genes, both in 〈em〉in vitro〈/em〉 and 〈em〉in vivo〈/em〉. An important immune gene, 〈em〉toll-like receptor 22a〈/em〉 (〈em〉TLR22a〈/em〉), was selected to validate the stability of the proposed reference genes (〈em〉Actin〈/em〉 and 〈em〉EF-1α〈/em〉) across different experiment treatments. The results reveal that 〈em〉Actin〈/em〉 and 〈em〉EF-1α〈/em〉 are quite suitable reference genes for the normalization analysis. Otherwise, using the most stable gene 〈em〉Actin〈/em〉 to validate the reliable of transcriptome data showed the high correlation between the fold change of transcriptome data and qRT-PCR data. In conclusion, our study not only acquired the suitable reference gene for the qRT-PCR assay under specific experiment condition, but also provided a comprehensive method to evaluate and validate the reference gene based on transcriptome analysis in teleost fishes.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Xiang Sun, Peng Jin, Qin Liu, Qiyao Wang, Yuanxing Zhang, Xiaohong Liu〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Inactivated vaccines are often applied with adjuvants in commercial fish farming. Although some mineral or non-mineral oil adjuvants show efficient improvement with inactivated vaccines, but sometimes bring side effects such as tissue adhesion and granulomatous lesion at the injection site. CpG ODN is a novel type of soluble adjuvant which has been proved to possess excellent advantages in fish vaccine development. In this study, we designed a tandem sequence of CpG ODN synthesized in plasmid pcDNA 3.1, and an inactivated 〈em〉Vibrio anguillarum〈/em〉 vaccine developed in our previous work was chosen for determining the efficiency of the CpG-riched plasmids (pCpG) as an adjuvant. Results showed that pCpG we designed can offer higher immunoprotection with the vaccine. Interestingly, even below the minimum immune dosage of the vaccine, a high RPS of 84% was observed once the vaccine was administrated with the pCpG. Serum specific antibody titer, superoxide dismutase and total protein were enhanced and some immune genes related to both innate and adaptive immune response were upregulated, implying an effective auxiliary function of the pCpG. Totally, our study suggested that the pCpG is a potential and available adjuvant for turbot vaccine development.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 18 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Shalu Chaudhary, Sachin Taran, Varun Bajaj, Siuly Siuly〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Background and Objective:〈/strong〉 Motor Imagery (MI) based Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) is a rising support system that can assist disabled people to communicate with the real world, without any external help. It serves as an alternative communication channel between the user and computer. Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings prove to be an appropriate choice for imaging MI tasks in a BCI system as it provides a non-invasive way for completing the task. The reliability of a BCI system confides on the efficiency of the assessment of different MI tasks.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Methods:〈/strong〉 The present work proposes a new approach for the classification of distinct MI tasks based on EEG signals using the flexible analytic wavelet transform (FAWT) technique. The FAWT decomposes the EEG signal into sub-bands and temporal moment-based features are extracted from the sub-bands. Feature normalization is applied to minimize the bias nature of classifier. The FAWT-based features are utilized as inputs to multiple classifiers. Ensemble learning method based Subspace k-Nearest Neighbour (kNN) classifier is established as the best and robust classifier for the distinction of the right hand (RH) and right foot (RF) MI tasks.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Results:〈/strong〉 The sub-band (SB) wise features are tested on multiple classifiers and best performance parameters are obtained using the ensemble method based subspace kNN classifier. The best results of parameters are obtained for fourth SB as accuracy 99.33%, sensitivity 99%, specificity 99.6%, F1-Score 0.9925, and kappa value 0.9865. The other sub-bands are also attained significant results using subspace KNN classifier.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈strong〉Conclusions:〈/strong〉 The proposed work explores the utility of FAWT based features for the classification of RH and RF MI tasks EEG signals. The suggested work highlights the effectiveness of multiple classifiers for classification MI-tasks. The proposed method shows better performance in comparison to state-of-arts methods. Thus, the potential to implement a BCI system for controlling wheelchairs, robotic arms, etc.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 15 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): S.Z. Abbas, W.A. Khan, M. Mudassar Gulzar, Tanzila Hayt, M. Waqas, Z. Asghar〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background〈/h6〉 〈p〉: Hybrid nanoliquids have several benefits in comparison to orthodox type liquids because of their revised attributes. The enhanced rheological along with thermo-physical attributes, create them additionally apposite for systems featuring solar energy. Thus, in the current analysis, the focus retained to pursue the diversity behave by hybrid nanofluid in comparison with traditional nanofluid considering the scheme of micropolar fluid in the environment of MHD, with rotating porous channel on the exponentially stretched surface.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉: For the solution of the generated differential model, a numerical technique BVP-4C is applied. The information extraction is done by the graphical representations of these solutions.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉: The velocity, temperature, and micro-rotation are analyzed deeply under graphical representation. For nanofluid and hybrid nanofluid, we investigated a comprehensive behavior by the variation of skin friction and Nusselt number. As a result of these explorations, we found in depth the higher rate of heat transferring in the scenario of hybrid nanofluid in comparison with nanofluid in the manifestation of porosity and rotation.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 15 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Eleonora Sulas, Monica Urru, Roberto Tumbarello, Luigi Raffo, Danilo Pani〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉〈em〉Background and objective.〈/em〉Pulsed-wave Doppler (PWD) echocardiography is the primary tool for antenatal cardiological diagnosis. Based on it, different measurements and validated reference parameters can be extracted. The automatic detection of complete and measurable cardiac cycles would represent a useful tool for the quality assessment of the PWD trace and the automated analysis of long traces. 〈em〉Methods.〈/em〉This work proposes and compares three different algorithms for this purpose, based on the preliminary extraction of the PWD velocity spectrum envelopes: template matching, supervised classification over a reduced set of relevant waveshape features, and supervised classification over the whole waveshape potentially representing a cardiac cycle. A custom dataset comprising 43 fetal cardiac PWD traces (174,319 signal segments) acquired on an apical five-chamber window was developed and used for the assessment of the different algorithms. 〈em〉Results.〈/em〉The adoption of a supervised classifier trained with the samples representing the upper and lower envelopes of the PWD, with additional features extracted from the image, achieved significantly better results (〈em〉p〈/em〉 〈 0.0001) than the other algorithms, with an average accuracy of 98% ± 1% when using an SVM classifier and a leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. Further, the robustness of the results with respect to the classifier model was proved. 〈em〉Conclusions.〈/em〉 The results reveal excellent detection performance, suggesting that the proposed approach can be adopted for the automatic analysis of long PWD traces or embedded in ultrasound machines as a first step for the extraction of measurements and reference clinical parameters.〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Fábio Mendonça, Sheikh Shanawaz Mostafa, Fernando Morgado-Dias, Antonio G. Ravelo-García〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background〈/h6〉 〈p〉Multiple methods have been developed to assess what happens between and within time series. In a particular type of these series, the previous values of the currently observed series are contingent on the lagged values of another series. These cases can commonly be addressed by regression. However, a model selection criteria should be employed to evaluate the compromise between the amount of information provided and the model complexity. This is the basis for the development of the Matrix of Lags (MoL), a tool to study dependent time series.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉For each input, multiple regressions were applied to produce a model for each lag and a model selection criterion identifies the lags that will populate an auxiliary matrix. Afterwards, the energy of the lags (that are in the auxiliary matrix) was used to define a row of the MoL. Therefore, each input corresponds to a row of the MoL. To test the proposed tool, the heart rate variability and the electrocardiogram derived respiration were employed to perform the indirect estimation of the electroencephalography cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) cycles. Therefore, a support vector machine was fed with the MoL to perform the CAP cycle classification for each input signal. Multiple tests were carried out to further examine the proposed tool, including the effect of balancing the datasets, application of other regression methods and employment of two feature section models. The first was based on sequential backward selection while the second examined characteristics of a return map.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉The best performance of the subject independent model was attained by feeding the lags, selected by sequential backward selection, to a support vector machine, achieving an average accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of, respectively, 77%, 71%, 82% and 0.77.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉The developed model allows to perform a measurement of a characteristic marker of sleep instability (the CAP cycle) and the results are in the upper bound of the specialist agreement range with visual analysis. Thus, the developed method could possibly be used for clinical diagnosis.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Pritpal Singh〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈p〉〈em〉Background and objectives:〈/em〉 Brain MR images consist of three major regions: gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid. Medical experts make decisions on different serious diseases by evaluating the developments in these areas. One of the significant approaches used in analyzing the MR images were segmenting the regions. However, their segmentation suffers from two major problems as: (a) the boundaries of their gray matter and white matter regions are ambiguous in nature, and (b) their regions are formed with unclear inhomogeneous gray structures. For these reasons, diagnosis of critical diseases is often very difficult.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈em〉Methods:〈/em〉 This study presented a new method for MR image segmentation, which consisted of two main parts as: (a) neutrosophic-entropy based clustering algorithm (NEBCA), and (b) HSV color system. The NEBCA’s role in this study was to perform segmentation of MR regions, while HSV color system was used to provide better visual representation of features in segmented regions.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈em〉Results:〈/em〉 Application of the proposed method was demonstrated in 30 different MR images of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Experimental results were presented individually for the NEBCA and HSV color system. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated in terms of statistical metrics used in an image segmentation domain. Experimental results, including statistical analysis reflected the efficiency of the proposed method over the existing well-known image segmentation methods available in literature. For the proposed method and existing methods, the average CPU time (in nanosecond) was computed and it was found that the proposed method consumed less time to segment MR images.〈/p〉 〈p〉〈em〉Conclusion:〈/em〉 The proposed method can effectively segment different regions of MR images and can very clearly represent those segmented regions.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): J. Reig-Lopez, M. Merino-Sanjuan, V. Mangas-Sanjuan, M. Prado-Velasco〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉The aims of this study are (i) to assess the predictive reliability of the physiologically based software PhysPK 〈em〉versus〈/em〉 the well-known population approach software NONMEM for the cited semi-mechanistic PK model, (ii) to determine whether these modelling approaches are interchangeable and (iii) to compare acausal with causal modelling approaches in the framework of semi-mechanistic PK models.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉A semi-mechanistic model was proposed, which assumed oral administration of a solid dosage form with a peripheral compartment and two active metabolites. The model incorporates intestinal transit, dissolution limited by solubility, variable efflux transporter expression along the gut and linear and non-linear metabolism in the gut and liver. Four different approximations to the theoretical model were developed in order to validate both the new software and modelling methodology.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉Plasmatic concentrations correlation plots as well as relative errors in AUC〈sub〉0-48〈/sub〉 and C〈sub〉max〈/sub〉 predictions revealed the accuracy of PhysPK in the prediction of these exposition parameters. Physiological and acausal object oriented version systematically under-estimated AUC〈sub〉0-48〈/sub〉 and C〈sub〉max〈/sub〉 of the parent drug, whereas metabolites were over-estimated when taking the semi-mechanistic and extraction-based metabolism version as the reference.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉PhysPK has been properly validated, where differences are related to numerical precision of integrators and solvers. A systematic bias for the parent drug and active metabolites was predicted when a semi-mechanistic approach including extraction-based metabolism was compared to the physiologic and acausal approach, showing that interchangeability might be possible when intrinsic-clearance metabolism is implemented in the semi-mechanistic approach. The acausal and object-oriented methodology allows for defining the semi-mechanistic model through its local mechanisms and relationships among entities, without the need to build the final set of Ordinary Differential Equations.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Guangben Wei, Shuanghu Cai, Yuanzhi Wu, Shaohong Ma, Yucong Huang〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉〈em〉Vibrio harveyi〈/em〉 is the pathogen causing vibriosis in marine-cultured animals, leading to massive deaths in farmed grouper around the world. It is urgent to develop an effective vaccine to prevent vibriosis. In the previous study, we developed a 〈em〉V. harveyi〈/em〉 formalin-killed cells vaccine (FKC), and sought an effective adjuvant for enhancing the immune efficacy of vaccine. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the immune responses and protective effect of FKC combined with chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) or 〈em〉Astragalus〈/em〉 polysaccharides (APS) in the pearl gentian grouper〈em〉♀Epinephelus fuscoguttatus × ♂E. lanceolatus〈/em〉. The results indicated the vaccine triggered a remarkably higher expression levels of IL-1β, IL-16, TNF-α, MHC-Iα and IgM in the kidney and spleen of groupers post-vaccination. Antibody titers, lysozyme, catalase, superoxide dismutase and total protein were significantly elevated in the vaccinated fish compared with those in the control. The experimental groupers were challenged intraperitoneally by 〈em〉V. harveyi〈/em〉 at 35 d post-vaccination, and the relative percentage of survival (RPS) of group FKC + COS, FKC + APS, COS, APS and FKC were 80%, 72%, 52%, 47% and 55%, respectively. These results demonstrated COS and APS was the potential adjuvants for FKC against 〈em〉V. harveyi〈/em〉 in aquaculture.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Hossein Bonakdari, Jean-Pierre Pelletier, Johanne Martel-Pelletier〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉The interrupted time-series (ITS) concept is performed using linear regression to evaluate the impact of policy changes in public health at a specific time. Objectives of this study were to verify, with an artificial intelligence-based nonlinear approach, if the estimation of ITS data could be facilitated, in addition to providing a computationally explicit equation.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉Dataset were from a study of Hawley et al. (2018) in which they evaluated the impact of UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approval of tumor necrosis factor inhibitor therapies on the incidence of total hip (THR) and knee (TKR) replacement in rheumatoid arthritis patients. We used the newly developed Generalized Structure Group Method of Data Handling (GS-GMDH) model, a nonlinear method, for the prediction of THR and TKR incidence in the abovementioned population.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉In contrast to linear regression, the GS-GMDH yields for both THR and TKR prediction values that almost fitted with the measured ones. These models demonstrated a low mean absolute relative error (0.10 and 0.09 respectively) and high correlation coefficient values (0.98 and 0.78). The GS-GMDH model for THR demonstrated 6.4/1000 person years (PYs) at the mid-point of the linear regression line post-NICE, whereas at the same point linear regression is 4.12/1000 PYs, a difference of around 35%. Similarly for the TKR, the linear regression to the datasets post-NICE was 9.05/1000 PYs, which is lower by about 27% than the GS-GMDH values of 12.47/1000 PYs. Importantly, with the GS-GMDH models, there is no need to identify the change point and intervention lag time as they simulate ITS continually throughout modelling.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉The results demonstrate that in the medical field, when looking at the estimation of the impact of a new drug using ITS, a nonlinear GS-GMDH method could be used as a better alternative to regression-based methods data processing. In addition to yielding more accurate predictions and requiring less time-consuming experimental measurements, this nonlinear method addresses, for the first time, one of the most challenging tasks in ITS modelling, i.e. avoiding the need to identify the change point and intervention lag time.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: June 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, Volume 189〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): S.Z. Abbas, W.A. Khan, M. Waqas, M. Irfan, Z. Asghar〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and Objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉In the working principle of magnetic devices, the thin film substances are the verified efficient ingredients. Several fields of physics and chemistry has taken advanced studies for the features and utilization of thin film for various aspects. Here, we extracted the features of thin film analysis for time-dependent Oldroyd-B liquid. More specifically, our emphasis is to explore transportation rate of mass/heat by considering mass/energy fluxes. Furthermore, space/temperature dependent heat source/sink are considered. Radiation aspects are taken into account for mathematical modeling of Oldroyd-B liquid. Additionally, Oldroyd-B liquid features are elaborated considering Dufour/Soret aspects. Moreover, the heated surface by convection and chemical aspects remained under consideration while designing the physical model.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Method〈/h6〉 〈p〉Feasible variables are employed to achieve nonlinear structure. Computational analysis of such a nonlinear structure is too easy. Therefore, we have engaged numerical technique (bvp4c technique) to solve nonlinear system.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉Thickness of liquid film boosts for larger rotation whereas it dwindles against magnetic parameter. Liquid concentration intensifies for Soret number. Transportation rate of mass for larger rotation parameter.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusion〈/h6〉 〈p〉Velocity components (Radial, axial, azimuthal) rises via higher ω. Velocity of liquid increase for greater (β〈sub〉2〈/sub〉) while reverse trend is detected for (β〈sub〉1〈/sub〉). Temperature of liquid dwindles for heat sink (〈em〉A〈/em〉* 〈 0, 〈em〉B〈/em〉* 〈 0) parameters while (θ(η)) rises for (〈em〉A〈/em〉* 〉 0, 〈em〉B〈/em〉* 〉 0).〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Chin-Cheng Chien, Tzu-Yung Lin, Chia-Chun Chi, Chun-Hung Liu〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉The purpose of this study was to profile the mechanisms of action of probiotic, 〈em〉Bacillus subtilis〈/em〉 E20 in activating the immunity of white shrimp, 〈em〉Litopenaeus vannamei〈/em〉. Two groups of shrimp were studied. One group was fed a control diet without probiotic supplementation and the other was fed a probiotic-containing diet at a level of 10〈sup〉9〈/sup〉 cfu kg diet〈sup〉−1〈/sup〉. After the 8-week feeding regimen, the metabolite composition in the hepatopancreas of shrimp were investigated using 〈sup〉1〈/sup〉H nuclear magnetic resonance (〈sup〉1〈/sup〉H NMR) based metabolomic analysis. Results from the 〈sup〉1〈/sup〉H NMR analysis revealed that 16 hepatopancreatic metabolites were matched and identified among groups, of which 2 metabolites, creatinine and glutamine were significantly higher in probiotic group than in the control group. This result was confirmed by the reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and spectrophotometric analysis. Transcriptome analysis indicated the expressions of 10 genes associated with antioxidant enzymes, pattern recognition proteins and antimicrobial molecules, more active expression in the shrimp fed a diet supplemented with probiotic as compared to that of shrimp in control. In addition, the expressions of 4 genes involved with hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-peptide N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase for protein 〈em〉O-〈/em〉glycosylation were also higher in hepatopancreas of probiotic-treated shrimp than in shrimp fed a control diet. Western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that heat shock factor 1, heat shock protein 70, and protein 〈em〉O〈/em〉-glycosylation in hepatopancreas were higher in probiotic group than the control group. These findings suggest that probiotic, 〈em〉B. subtilis〈/em〉 E20 promotes the digestibility of glutamine in the diet, and that the increased glutamine in shrimp can be used as fuel for immune cells or may be used to regulate immune molecule expressions and protein 〈em〉O〈/em〉-glycosylation via the HBP to increase protein 〈em〉O〈/em〉-glycosylation, thereby improving the health of shrimp.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Hourong Liu, Chengwen Song, Junhao Ning, Yuan Liu, Zhaoxia Cui〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Variable lymphocyte receptors (VLRs) play an important role via their antigen-special reorganization in jawless vertebrates (agnathans) adaptive immune response. In the present study, the open reading frame (ORF) of 〈em〉Eriocheir sinensis〈/em〉 VLRA (designated as EsVLRA) was identified. EsVLRA comprised a 799-amino-acid polypeptide with one LRR_NT domain, thirteen LRR domains and one LRR_CT domain, which showed a high domain consistency of the VLR genes in lamprey (〈em〉Petromyzon marinus〈/em〉). The transcript of EsVLRA was detected in all examined tissues with the highest level detected in hepatopancreas. Notably, the expression of EsVLRA in hepatopancreas, gonads, gill and intestine of male crabs was significantly higher than that in females. The recombinant EsVLRA exhibited strong bacteria-binding activity rather than antibacterial activity, suggesting its crucial role in immune recognition. Furthermore, 6 h earlier response and a significantly higher peak of EsVLRA mRNA expression was observed after challenge with live 〈em〉Vibrio parahaemolyticus〈/em〉 (240.6-fold, 〈em〉P〈/em〉 〈 0.01, crabs receive secondary challenge after 〈em〉V. parahaemolyticus〈/em〉 vaccine to the carbs only receive twice PBS injection, N = 6), compared with those only received first injection with formalin-inactivated 〈em〉V. parahaemolyticus〈/em〉 (39.7-fold, 〈em〉P〈/em〉 〈 0.01, challenge 6 h to vaccination 12 h). The findings of this study together demonstrated that EsVLRA plays an important role in the immune system of 〈em〉E. sinensis〈/em〉, serving as a pattern recognition receptor and involving in the immune priming.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Iris Barjhoux, Damien Rioult, Alain Geffard, Melissa Palos Ladeiro〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Immunotoxicity analysis receives a strong interest in environmental 〈em〉a priori〈/em〉 and 〈em〉a posteriori〈/em〉 risk assessment procedures considering the direct involvement of the immune system in the health status of organisms, populations and thus ecosystems. The freshwater mussel 〈em〉Dreissena polymorpha〈/em〉 is an invasive species widely used in ecotoxicology studies and biomonitoring surveys to evaluate the impacts of contaminants on aquatic fauna. Bivalve hemocytes are the immunocompetent cells circulating in the open circulatory system of the organism. However, there is nowadays no consensus on a protocol to evaluate the immunocompetent state of this particular cell type using flow cytometry. Wild species such as 〈em〉D. polymorpha〈/em〉 present several technical barriers complicating their analyze including (i) the quality and the purity of the hemolymph sample, (ii) the controversial characterization of hemocyte subpopulations and their diversity, (iii) the quantity of biological material, and (iv) the high inter-individual variability of hemocyte responses. The present work proposes several technical and analytical improvements to control the above-mentioned issues. The inclusion of sedimentation and cell detachment steps in the pre-analytical phase of the protocol substantially ameliorate the quality of the hemolymph sample as well as the accuracy of the cytometric measurements, by selecting the analyzed cells on their adhesion ability and by increasing the concentration of the analyzed events. The development of an effective triple-labeling procedure including the cellular probe Hoechst® 33342, the membrane impermeant dye propidium iodide and yellow-green fluorescent microspheres allowed the simultaneous analysis of cytotoxicity and phagocytosis activity in hemocytes. It also significantly enhanced the accuracy of hemocyte endpoint measurements by eliminating non-target events from the analysis and allowing relevant gating strategies. Finally, the use of pooled samples of hemolymph noticeably reduced inter-sample variability while providing more plasticity in the experimental design and improving the discriminating potency between treatments. The developed protocol is suitable for 〈em〉ex vivo〈/em〉 exposure of hemocyte in a chemical/environmental toxicity assessment as well as for 〈em〉in vivo〈/em〉 exposure in the laboratory or 〈em〉in situ〈/em〉 biomonitoring surveys with few adaptations.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉 〈h5〉Graphical abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉〈figure〉〈img src="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1050464819312318-fx1.jpg" width="500" alt="Image 1" title="Image 1"〉〈/figure〉〈/p〉〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Limei Qiu, Hao Chen, Zhi Zhou, Huan Zhang, Rui Liu, Qilin Yi, Chuanyan Yang, Lei Gao, Lingling Wang〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Oyster 〈em〉Crassostrea gigas〈/em〉, is considered as a useful environmental indicator since it is widely distributed along the intertidal zone whereby it tends to accumulate cadmium and is always exposed to various pathogen agents. However, its molecular responses to both cadmium and pathogen stimulation remain unclear. In the present study, transcriptome data of hemocytes from oysters were analyzed to reveal specific molecular responses of oyster to cadmium or cadmium/bacteria stimulation. A total of 21591, 22872 and 20107 genes were detected in the BLANK, Cd24h and Cd/Bac24h group, respectively. Among them, there were 685 differentially expressed genes collected in the comparison of Cd24h versus BLANK. GO analysis of these genes found that sixteen terms into the Molecular Function category displayed transporter activities, and were all over-enrichment by cadmium exposure, whereas twelve terms into Biological Process category involved mainly in metabolic process of the various cellular components and two terms into Cellular Component category were all under-enrichment. The 330 immune responsive genes were shared by two gene lists of CdBac24h versus BLANK and CdBac24h versus Cd24h, and seven out of thirty terms in GO analysis were related to the immune process. Further annotation of these genes from the KEGG database revealed fourteen pathways, including two nervous system related pathways, arachidonic acid pathway, four immune pathways, MAPK cascade and other four cell signaling pathways, and two energy related pathways. Twenty-two differentially expressed genes were identified to responsive to both cadmium exposure and bacteria stimulation, but in different expression patterns, suggesting that bilateral responsive genes, such as alkaline phosphatase and sodium and chloride-dependent glycine transporter gene, could be candidate biomarkers for early warning of cadmium pollution. The present results collectively indicated that a profound neuro-endocrine-immune regulatory network was activated in response to cadmium and bacteria stimulation in oyster 〈em〉C. gigas〈/em〉, and the expression pattern of some cadmium responsive genes may be either reversed or strengthened by bacteria stimulation. The results provide knowledge on the transcriptomic response profile of oyster after short-term cadmium exposure and bacteria stimulation, which would be useful for future studies on stress response mechanism of mollusc, and some cadmium-bacteria responsive genes may be explored as potential biomarkers for monitoring marine pollution.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: Available online 3 January 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Hamid Hassanzadeh Afrouzi, Majid Ahmadian, Mirollah Hosseini, Hossein Arasteh, Davood Toghraie, Sara Rostami〈/p〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Background and Objective〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈strong〉:〈/strong〉 In most countries, the higher death rates are due to cardiovascular disease and stroke. These problems often derive from irregular blood flow and the circulatory system disorder.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Methods〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈strong〉:〈/strong〉 In this paper, the blood flow is simulated in a created aneurysm in the artery upon using Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). Blood is selected as a non-Newtonian fluid which was simulated with power-law model. The lattice Boltzmann results for non-Newtonian fluid flow with power-law model and the curved boundary are compared and validated with previous studies which show a good agreement. In this study, simulations are carried out for two types of aneurysms. For the first aneurysm, three power-law exponents of 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 at Reynolds number of 100 for three different cases are investigated.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Results〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈strong〉:〈/strong〉 The results show that the wall shear stress increases with increasing the power-law exponent. In addition, in the main duct of artery where the velocity is larger, shear stress is lower due to the smaller velocity gradient. For the second Aneurysm, the simulations are done for three Reynolds numbers of 100, 150 and 200, and three Womersley numbers of 4, 12 and 20. The blood flow is pulsating at the inlet such as the real pulsating wave in the blood. Results show that with increasing the Womersley number, the velocity profiles in the middle of the aneurysm are closer at a constant Reynolds number.〈/p〉 〈/div〉 〈div〉 〈h6〉Conclusions〈/h6〉 〈p〉〈strong〉:〈/strong〉 With increasing the Reynolds number, the range of vortices and values of velocity and tension grow in the aneurysm.〈/p〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Lei Liu, Yunfei Dang〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is a crucial pattern recognition receptor in the host innate immune system. Previously, we reported the biological function of 〈em〉Ctenopharyngodon idella〈/em〉 MBL (CiMBL) in initiating the lectin pathway of the complement system. In the present study, we further explored its biological function including the agglutinating ability, binding capacity and protective role 〈em〉in vitro〈/em〉 and 〈em〉in vivo〈/em〉. After 〈em〉Aeromonas hydrophila〈/em〉 infection, western blot analysis revealed that the CiMBL were fluctuated and expressed in the serum and major immune-related tissues. The result of quantitative PCR (qPCR) showed that the recombinant CiMBL (rCiMBL) significantly inhibited the mRNA expression of interleukin-1β (〈em〉IL-1β〈/em〉) and tumor necrosis factor-α (〈em〉TNF-α〈/em〉) in liver, spleen and hepatic cells. Due to rCiMBL bound to 〈span〉d〈/span〉-mannose, 〈span〉d〈/span〉-galactose, 〈span〉d〈/span〉-glucose, N-acetyl-〈span〉d〈/span〉-glucosamine (GlcNAc), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), peptidoglycan (PGN) and Agar in the presence of Ca〈sup〉2+〈/sup〉, herein gram-positive (〈em〉Staphylococcus aureus〈/em〉 and 〈em〉Micrococcus luteus〈/em〉) and gram-negative (〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 and 〈em〉Vibrio anguillarum〈/em〉) bacteria were agglutinated by rCiMBL in a Ca〈sup〉2+〈/sup〉-dependent manner. More importantly, rCiMBL enhanced the survival rate of grass carp following bacterial infection. Overall, the results provide an evidence that CiMBL can protect grass carp against 〈em〉A. hydrophila〈/em〉 infection in aquaculture.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉

Description: 〈p〉Publication date: March 2020〈/p〉 〈p〉〈b〉Source:〈/b〉 Fish & Shellfish Immunology, Volume 98〈/p〉 〈p〉Author(s): Chao Zhang, Xueying Cao, Kaiqiang Wang, Xiaoling Dai, Ruidong Zhang, Zhuoxing Zhang, Xin Huang, Qian Ren〈/p〉 〈div xml:lang="en"〉 〈h5〉Abstract〈/h5〉 〈div〉〈p〉Transcription factor activator protein 1 (AP1) plays an irreplaceable role in the response to a variety of external stimulants, such as cellar stress, bacterial and viral infections, and inflammatory cytokines. In this study, we identified a novel 〈em〉AP1〈/em〉 gene from 〈em〉Macrobrachium nipponense〈/em〉 and named it 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉, which has a full length of 1747 bp contains an 882 bp open reading frame, and encodes a protein with 293 amino acids. The MnAP1 protein contains Pfam and bZIP domains. 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 is widely distributed in hemocytes, heart, hepatopancreas, gill, stomach, and intestinal tissues. The expression levels of 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 in the gills and stomach were significantly upregulated after 〈em〉Vibrio parahaemolyticus〈/em〉 and 〈em〉Staphylococcus aureus〈/em〉 attacks. We studied the relationship between 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 and the transcripts of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in gills through RNA interference. Interestingly, the regulatory effects of 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 on the expression of different AMPs were different. We found that the expression levels of crustins, including 〈em〉Cru1〈/em〉, 〈em〉Cru3,〈/em〉 and 〈em〉Cru4〈/em〉 in the gills were evidently decreased, whereas the synthesis of 〈em〉Cru5〈/em〉 and anti-lipopolysaccharide factors (〈em〉ALF〈/em〉3 and 〈em〉ALF4〈/em〉) were obviously increased. We further explored the effect of 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 on the expression of transcription factor relish from 〈em〉M. nipponense〈/em〉. The result showed that the knockdown of 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 can remarkably upregulate the expression of 〈em〉MnRelish〈/em〉. Relish as a member of the nuclear factor κB family that regulates the expression of AMPs in the innate immunity of crustacean. Hence, we also detected the expression levels of 〈em〉Cru5〈/em〉, 〈em〉ALF3〈/em〉, and 〈em〉ALF4〈/em〉 in the gills of 〈em〉MnRelish〈/em〉-silenced prawns. The Data showed that the expression levels of these three AMPs were evidently reduced after 〈em〉MnRelish〈/em〉 silencing. Our results indicated that 〈em〉MnAP1〈/em〉 plays a positive role in regulating the expression of AMPs, promotes the JNK/AP1 signaling pathway, and exerts a negative regulatory effect on the synthesis of AMPs by inhibiting the transcription of NF-κB factor in the innate immunity of 〈em〉M. nipponense〈/em〉.〈/p〉〈/div〉 〈/div〉