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Ya-Nan Zhao,1,* Yu-Dong Yan,1,* Chen-Yao Wang,1 Wei-Min Qu,1 Thomas C Jhou,2 Zhi-Li Huang,1 Su-Rong Yang1 1Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Su-Rong Yang; Zhi-Li HuangDepartment of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86-21-54237228; +86-21-54237103Email sryang@shmu.edu.cn; huangzl@fudan.edu.cnAbstract: The rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg), a brake of the dopamine system, is specifically activated by aversive stimuli, such as foot shock. It is principally composed of gamma-aminobutyric acid neurons. However, there is no exact location of the RMTg on the brain stereotaxic atlas. The RMTg can be defined by c-Fos staining elicited by psychostimulants, the position of retrograde-labeled neurons stained by injections into the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the terminal field formed by axons from the lateral habenula, and some molecular markers identified as specifically expressed in the RMTg such as FoxP1. The RMTg receives a broad range of inputs and produces diverse outputs, which indicates that the RMTg has multiple functions. First, the RMTg plays an essential role for non-rapid eye movement sleep. Additionally, the RMTg serves a vital role in response to addiction. Opiates increase the firing rates of dopaminergic neurons in the VTA by acting on μ-opioid receptors on RMTg neurons and their terminals inside the VTA. In this review, we summarize the recent research advances on the anatomical location of the RMTg in rats and mice, its projections, and its regulation of sleep–wake behavior and addiction.Keywords: rostromedial tegmental nucleus, anatomical location, projections, sleep–wake behavior, addiction

Most current research has focused on non-tonal languages such as English. However, more than 60world’s population speaks tonal languages. Mandarin is the most spoken tonal languages in the world. Interestingly, the use of tone in tonal languages may represent different meanings of words and reflect feelings, which is very different from non-tonal languages. The objective of this study is to determine whether a spoken Mandarin sentence with or without tone can be distinguished by analyzing electroencephalographic signals (EEG). We first constructed a new Brain Research Center Speech (BRCSpeech) database to recognize Mandarin. The EEG data of 14 participants were recorded, while they articulated pre-selected sentences. To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply the method of asymmetric feature extraction method for speech recognition using EEG signals. This study shows that the feature extraction method of Rational Asymmetry (RASM) can achieve the best accuracy in the classification of cross-subjects. In addition, our proposed Binomial Variable Algorithm methodology can achieve 98.82% accuracy in cross-subject classification. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the use of eight channels ((F7, F8), (C5, C6), (P5, P6), and (O1, O2)) can achieve an accurate of 94.44%. This study explores the neuro-physiological correlation of Mandarin pronunciation, which can help develop a tonal language synthesis system based on BCI in the future.

PURPOSE Although NRG1 fusions are oncogenic drivers across multiple tumor types including lung cancers, these are difficult to study because of their rarity. The global eNRGy1 registry was thus established to characterize NRG1 fusion-positive lung cancers in the largest and most diverse series to date. METHODS From June 2018 to February 2020, a consortium of 22 centers from nine countries in Europe, Asia, and the United States contributed data from patients with pathologically confirmed NRG1 fusion-positive lung cancers. Profiling included DNA-based and/or RNA-based next-generation sequencing and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Anonymized clinical, pathologic, molecular, and response (RECIST v1.1) data were centrally curated and analyzed. RESULTS Although the typified never smoking (57%), mucinous adenocarcinoma (57%), and nonmetastatic (71%) phenotype predominated in 110 patients with NRG1 fusion-positive lung cancer, further diversity, including in smoking history (43%) and histology (43% nonmucinous and 6% nonadenocarcinoma), was elucidated. RNA-based testing identified most fusions (74%). Molecularly, six (of 18) novel 5 ' partners, 20 unique epidermal growth factor domain-inclusive chimeric events, and heterogeneous 5 '/3 ' breakpoints were found. Platinum-doublet and taxane-based (post-platinum-doublet) chemotherapy achieved low objective response rates (ORRs 13% and 14%, respectively) and modest progression-free survival medians (PFS 5.8 and 4.0 months, respectively). Consistent with a low programmed death ligand-1 expressing (28%) and low tumor mutational burden (median: 0.9 mutations/megabase) immunophenotype, the activity of chemoimmunotherapy and single-agent immunotherapy was poor (ORR 0%/PFS 3.3 months and ORR 20%/PFS 3.6 months, respectively). Afatinib achieved an ORR of 25%, not contingent on fusion type, and a 2.8-month median PFS. CONCLUSION NRG1 fusion-positive lung cancers were molecularly, pathologically, and clinically more heterogeneous than previously recognized. The activity of cytotoxic, immune, and targeted therapies was disappointing. Further research examining NRG1-rearranged tumor biology is needed to develop new therapeutic strategies.

Ping Hua,1 Jianyang Liu,2 Jun Tao,1 Xifeng Lin,1 Rongjun Zou,1 Dingwen Zhang,1 Songran Yang3,4 1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 2Department of Vascular Surgery, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou, 3The Biobank of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 4Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China Objective: Retrospective studies and a meta-analysis were performed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the perioperative administration of recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (rhBNP) during cardiac surgery under extracorporeal circulation. Methods: Computerized literature searches were performed in Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, CBM, and WANFANG to find randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to the perioperative administration of rhBNP during cardiac surgery starting from the database inception until December 2016. Two researchers independently performed study screening, information extraction, and quality evaluation according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria, and a meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.2 software. Results: A total of 12 studies were analyzed, including 12 RCTs and 727 patients. The meta-analysis results indicated that the perioperative administration of rhBNP could reduce the occurrence rate of postoperative complications, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, length of hospital stay, and serum creatinine (Scr) levels, and increase the 24-hour urine volume; however, it did not affect the postoperative mortality rate. Conclusion: The perioperative administration of rhBNP during cardiac surgery was safe and effective, and could improve the prognosis of the patients. Keywords: recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide, perioperative administration, meta-analysis

Interpretation of cardiac rhythms is highly dependent on accurate detection of atrial activity. The robustness is an important requirement for clinical usage. This study presents an adaptive QRS detection method for real-time clinical ECG signals. In this method, center differentiation is applied as a whitening filer, and a composite function enhances the high frequency QRS energy. To robustly detect clinical data, a novel threshold selection method based on statistics is proposed. Moreover, this study provides a benchmarking clinical dataset acquired from cardiac patients. Our extensive experimental results using the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database show that our technique can detect beats with 99.67% accuracy, and the sensitivity is 99.83%. With the exceptional QRS detection result, further testing of the proposed method with clinical data shows the accuracy for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias is 82.9% and 90.2%, respectively. © 2012 IEEE.

It is very important to reduce the possibility of spatial disorientation because spatial disorientation is a major cause of aircraft crashes. In this research, we assess the effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on spatial cognitive function by measuring physiological signals, including brain waves measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Through physiological signals such as brain waves, we can objectively understand a subject's cognitive state. Moreover, we use virtual reality technology to build 3D scenery that provides navigation clues in an environment with no visual reference frame. Using the virtual environment, we confirm that TENS lessens spatial disorientation. Across subjects and sessions, the parietal component of brain activity exhibited baseline elevation predominantly in the theta (4-7 Hz) and alpha (8-12 Hz) band as the subjects navigated. This study also found that subjects performed better after TENS in terms of behavioral and EEG data. The results facilitate understanding of the cognitive function of maintaining spatial orientation and development of a device for assisting pilots and reducing the occurrence of spatial disorientation. © 2012 IEEE.