The mechanisms leading to the occurrence of seizures in humans are still poorly understood. It is widely accepted, however, that the process of seizure generation is closely associated with an abnormal synchronization of neurons. In order to investigate this process, we have studied synchronization between different regions of the brain from intracranial EEG recordings of Pilocarpine-induced epileptic rat by Synchronization likelihood (SL). It was found that during the state of transition from non-epileptiform discharges to continuous-epileptiform discharges, synchronization between left-ECoG and left-EHG was significantly strengthened, and similar change had taken place between right-ECoG and right-EHGd; left-ECoG; and right-ECoG and left-EHG and right-EHG (P < 0.05). During the state of transition from continuous-epileptiform discharges to period-epileptiform discharges, the synchronization was significantly weakened between left-ECoG and left-EHG, and similar change was noted between left-EHG and right-EHG (P < 0.01). The results showed that SL might be used to assess the dynamics of synchronization and it might be helpful to understanding the mechanisms involving the origin of epileptiform discharge.
Animals ; Cerebral Cortex ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; methods ; Epilepsy ; chemically induced ; physiopathology ; Hippocampus ; physiopathology ; Male ; Pilocarpine ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is a new technique used to characterize the long-range temporal correlation (LRTC) structure of non-stationary time series, which has been applied in electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations and diseases such as Alzheimer and stroke. In this paper, DFA is used to study the scaling exponents of intracranial EEG recordings of Pilocarpine-induced epileptic rat. It was found that when the brain functional status changed from non-epileptiform discharges to continuous-epileptiform discharges and to period-epileptiform discharges, the average scaling exponents of four brain regions (left cortex and left hippocampus, right cortex and right hippocampus) changed from 0.97 to 0.82 and to 0.94, and a statistically significant difference between the brain functional states was shown by paired T test (P < 0.05), thus suggesting that the local neuronal network dynamics of the three brain function states may be different. But in regard to the three brain function states, there is no statistically significant difference between the four brain regions(P >0.05).
Animals ; Brain ; physiopathology ; Electroencephalography ; methods ; Epilepsy ; chemically induced ; physiopathology ; Male ; Pilocarpine ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

Objective To explore the relationships among academic self-efficacy, interpersonal re-lationship and scholastic attainment of students in a health vocational college. Methods By means of the platform named "Wenjuanxing", an online questionnaire survey was conducted in May and June 2016 among students of a health vocational college in Sichuan using a survey consisting of two questionnaires, i.e. the academic self-efficacy questionnaire compiled by Yusong Liang & Zongkui Zhou and the comprehen-sive diagnostic scale for interpersonal relationships compiled by Richang Zheng . The data from 1070 students were collected and 1034 of them (i.e. 96.636％) were valid. SPSS software (release 21.0) was utilized for the statistical analysis. The scores of academic self-efficacy, its two dimensionalities and scholastic attainment were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA with the factor "interpersonal distress" with three levels. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the correlations among academic self-efficacy, interpersonal relationship and scholastic attainment. Results The detection rate of interpersonal distress was 49.613％; for academic self-efficacy, learning ability self-efficacy and scholastic attainment of students, there were significantly differences among the groups with interpersonal distress free, some interpersonal distress and more interpersonal distress (F values were 8.397, 25.005 and 4.462 while P values were 0.000, 0.000 and 0.012 for the three type of scores respectively). There were significantly negative correlations between academic self-efficacy or learning ability self-efficacy and interpersonal relationship or its four dimensionalities (r=-0.106 to -0.226, P=0.000 to 0.001); there was a significantly positive correlation between academic self-efficacy or learning ability self-efficacy and scholastic attainment (r=0.181, P=0.000 and r=0.225, P=0.000);while there was a significantly negative correlation between scholastic attainment and each of interpersonal relationship, the way of getting along with people and talking (r=-0.079 to-0.117, P=0.000 to 0.012). Conclusion The academic self-efficacy of students in the Health Vocational College is at medium level, and that many students have interpersonal problems. Since academic self-efficacy, interper-sonal relationship and scholastic attainment influence and promote each other, we need to pay attention to improving students' academic self-efficacy and conditions of interpersonal distress in order to promote the establishment of harmonious interpersonal relationships and improve students' self-confidence and scholastic attainment in the daily teaching activities by systematic design and comprehensive training.

Objective To describe the incidence and mortality of brain tumors in China in 2020 and to predict the disease burden up to 2040.Methods The brain tumor incidence and mortality in 2020 were recorded based on the data from International Agency for Cancer Research(IARC),Cancer Today database.The incidence and mortality were standardized by age using Segi's world standard population.The burden of brain tumors in 2040 was predicted with assuming that national rates remained constant in 2020.Results It was estimated there were approximately 79 600 new brain tumors cases and 65 200 deaths in China in 2020.The age-standardized incidence and mortality rates of brain tumors in China were 4.1/100 000 and 3.2/100 000,respectively,which were lower than the United States of America,most of European countries and Australia.The incidence and mortality were higher than Africa,central America,and the Caribbean.From 2020 to 2040,the brain tumors cases and deaths are predicted to have an increase as 32.1%and 41.5%respectively.Conclusions The disease burden of brain tumors was still heavy in China.Further studies are urgently needed to clarify the epidemic trend of tissue typing and risk factors of brain tumors,which may support the development of effective prevention strategies.