Aim To observe the effect of ZDY102, a C25 stereo-isomer of ZMS, the active component of Zhimu, on brain M receptor density of dementia model animals and the correlation with its effect on learning/memory ability. Methods The rats were randomly divided into five groups: control group, model group, model given orally for 2 months with 3.6 mg?kg -1?d -1 of ZDY102 treatment, model treated with 9.0 mg?kg -1?d -1 of ZDY102, and model treated with 18.0 mg?kg -1?d -1 of ZDY102. Dementia model was produced by single unilateral injection of 4 ?l of normal saline containing 4 ?g of ?-amyloid (25～35) and 1 ?g of ibotenic acid into right basal ganglion region with the aid of a stereotaxic equipment. The brain muscarinic receptor density was analyzed with single-site binding assay using 3H-quinuclidinyl benzilae(QNB). The learning/memory ability was measured by Y-maze performance. Results Two months after model production, the learning and memory ability as well as the density of muscarinic receptor in brain were significantly decreased in model rats compared with those in control rats. Parallel models treated with daily oral administration of ZDY102 for two months improved in learning and memory ability and their muscarinic receptor density was significantly increased when compared with model rats. The correlation coefficient between total M receptor densities and the learning/memory ability was significant when examined with linear regression. Conclusion ZDY102 can significantly improve the learning and memory ability and increase the brain muscarinic receptor density of the model. Since brain muscarinic receptors are closely correlated to learning and memory, up-regulation of M receptor density might play a very important role in the therapeutic effect of ZDY102.

Objective To explore the relationship between placental thickness,MRI signs and postpartum hemorrhage in placenta accreta(PA)patients.Methods 28 PA patients with postpartum hemorrhage and 3 9 PA patients without postpartum hemorrhage were analyzed retrospectively.We compared the clinical features and MRI signs between the two groups,and analyzed the correlation between placental thickness and PA related postpartum hemorrhage.Results The mean placental thickness was significantly higher in the hemorrhage patients (62.04±13.826)mm than that in the patients without hemorrhage (39.72±11.362)mm.Among the clinical features, there were no correlations between age,previous intrauterine operation history,previous cesarean section history and occurrence of the PA related postpartum hemorrhage.The following MRI signs were related to the occurrence of the PA related postpartum hemorrhage,including placenta previa,local bulging of the uterine,heterogeneous signal intensity in the placenta,intraplacental hypointensity bands,intraplacental abnormal vascularity,scar covered by placenta,abnormal signal intensity around the cervix,thinning of myometrium.Conclusion Measurement of placental thickness by MRI combined with placenta previa,local bulging of the uterine,heterogeneous signal intensity in the placenta,intraplacental hypointensity bands,intraplacental abnormal vascularity,scar covered by placenta,heterogeneous signal intensity around the cervix, thinning of myometrium are valuable in predicting PA related postpartum hemorrhage.

In this paper, a new calculating method of generalized dimension, based on boxes-coupling principle, is proposed to overcome the edge effects and to improve the capability of the speech endpoint detection which is based on the original calculating method of generalized dimension. This new method has been applied to speech endpoint detection. Firstly, the length of overlapping border was determined, and through calculating the generalized dimension by covering the speech signal with overlapped boxes, three-dimension feature vectors including the box dimension, the information dimension and the correlation dimension were obtained. Secondly, in the light of the relation between feature distance and similarity degree, feature extraction was conducted by use of common distance. Lastly, bi-threshold method was used to classify the speech signals. The results of experiment indicated that, by comparison with the original generalized dimension (OGD) and the spectral entropy (SE) algorithm, the proposed method is more robust and effective for detecting the speech signals which contain different kinds of noise in different signal noise ratio (SNR), especially in low SNR.
Artificial Intelligence ; Humans ; Pattern Recognition, Automated ; methods ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Speech ; Speech Production Measurement ; methods ; Speech Recognition Software

BACKGROUND:Congenital clubfoot mainly manifests as abnormal bone itself and abnormal cartilage development.The bone morphogenetic protein(BMP)/drosophila mothers against decapentaplegic protein(Smad)signaling pathway can direct the development of bone and cartilage during embryonic period,but its role in the field of clubfoot etiology has not been confirmed in animal experiments. OBJECTIVE:To explore the mechanism by which the BMP/Smad signaling pathway is involved in the regulation of foot and ankle chondroplasia in a rat congenital clubfoot model. METHODS:Sprague-Dawley rats at 10 days of gestation with the same growth condition were randomly divided into experimental and control groups.The experimental group was intragastrically given 135 mg/kg retinoic acid to make the clubfoot model,while the control group was given the same amount of vegetable oil.The fetal rats were taken out after 21 days of gestation by cesarean section.In the experimental group,the 27 of 41 fetal rats had clubfoot,with a deformity rate of 65.9%;in the control group,no clubfoot was observed in all the 36 fetuses.The ankles tissues of the rats were collected for hematoxylin-eosin staining.Western blot assay,RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry were performed to detect the expression levels of Smad5 and P-Smad5,the core proteins of the BMP/Smad signaling pathway,as well as SP7 and Sox9,the downstream proteins of the BMP/Smad signaling pathway. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Compared with the control group,hematoxylin-eosin staining showed that the cartilage matrix in the foot and ankle tissues increased and the gap between the bones increased in the experimental group.Immunohistochemical findings showed that the expression levels of Smad5 and SP7 decreased in the experimental group,while the mRNA expression of Sox9 increased.RT-qPCR results showed that the mRNA expression of Smad5 and SP7 decreased,while the mRNA expression of Sox9 increased in the foot and ankle tissues of rats in the experimental group.Western blot results showed that P-Smad5/Smad5 expression and SP7 expression were decreased and Sox9 expression was increased in the ankle of rats in the experimental group.To conclude,the occurrence of cartilage abnormalities in the foot and ankle of the rat model of congenital clubfoot is associated with impaired transmission of the BMP/Smad signaling pathway.

Objective:To evaluate the relationships among contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) features, molecular type, and biomarker expression of breast cancer.Methods:A retrospectively analysis of breast cancer patients confirmed by pathology were performed using Breast Imaging Report And Data System (BI-RADS) ultrasound category lesions in the Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine from May 2020 to April 2021. All patients underwent conventional ultrasound and CEUS before biopsy and/or surgery. The relationships among BI-RADS category, quantitative and qualitative CEUS features and biomarker expression of breast cancer were evaluated.Results:All 149 patients with 149 breast lesions were included. The numbers of BI-RADS category 4A, 4B, 4C, and 5 were 8, 60, 49, and 32, respectively. Among them, the numbers of Luminal A like, Luminal B like (human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) positive), Luminal B like (HER-2 negative), HER-2 overexpression and triple negative type were 81, 29, 17, 15, and 7. No significant correlations were found among BI-RADS category, molecular types, and biomarker estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), HER-2, and antigen Ki-67 (Ki-67) expression (all P>0.05). There were no correlations between quantitative or qualitative CEUS features and molecular types of breast cancer (all P>0.05). There were no correlations between qualitative CEUS variables and ER, PR, HER-2, and Ki-67 expression (all P>0.05). Ascending slope (AS) were negatively correlated with ER and PR expression( r=-0.40, P=0.01; r=-0.35, P=0.03). Descending slope (DS) were positively correlated with ER and PR expression( r=0.42, P=0.01; r=0.36, P=0.03). Arrive time (AT) were positively correlated with HER-2 expression( r=0.37, P=0.02). Conclusions:AS and DS are correlated with ER and PR expression.Arrive time (AT) is correlated with HER-2 expression. The quantitative variables of CEUS are helpful for evaluation of biomarker expression in breast cancer.

Objective To assess the characterization and usefulness of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to diagnose focal lesions of pancreas in comparison to contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT).Methods 177 cases of focal solid lesions of the pancreas confirmed by pathology were collected.The enhanced patterns and diagnostic capability of CEUS were analyzed,and these results were compared with those of CECT.Results The diagnostic accuracies of ultrasound,CEUS and CECT were 61.6％ (109/177),89.3％ (158/177),and 92.1％ (163/177),respectively.There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracies of CEUS and CECT (P =0.071).The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value (PPV),negative predictive value (NPV),and accurate rate for CEUS were 90.9％,63.6％,73.8％,86.2％,82.5％ (the areas under the curve,AUC =0.820),and 89.8％,69.3％,76.7％,85.9％,84.7％ for CECT (AUC =0.847),respectively,when the hypo-enhanced was regarded as the cut value.No significant difference was found between these results from CEUS and CECT (P =0.071).Conclusions The diagnostic ability of CEUS in focal lesions of the pancreas is similar to that of CECT.