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Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a frequent vascular complication of diabetes mellitus and remains a leading cause of vision loss worldwide. Microaneurysm (MA) is usually the first symptom of DR that leads to blood leakage in the retina. Periodic detection of MAs will facilitate early detection of DR and reduction of vision injury. In this study, we proposed a novel model for the detection of MAs in fluorescein fundus angiography (FFA) images based on the improved FC-DenseNet, MAs-FC-DenseNet. FFA images were pre-processed by the Histogram Stretching and Gaussian Filtering algorithm to improve the quality of FFA images. Then, MA regions were detected by the improved FC-DenseNet. MAs-FC-DenseNet was compared against other FC-DenseNet models (FC-DenseNet56 and FC-DenseNet67) or the end-to-end models (DeeplabV3+ and PSPNet) to evaluate the detection performance of MAs. The result suggested that MAs-FC-DenseNet had higher values of evaluation metrics than other models, including pixel accuracy (PA), mean pixel accuracy (MPA), precision (Pre), recall (Re), F1-score (F1), and mean intersection over union (MIoU). Moreover, MA detection performance for MAs-FC-DenseNet was very close to the ground truth. Taken together, MAs-FC-DenseNet is a reliable model for rapid and accurate detection of MAs, which would be used for mass screening of DR patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macular edema is considered as a major cause of visual loss and blindness in patients with ocular fundus diseases. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique, which has been widely applied for diagnosing macular edema due to its non-invasive and high resolution properties. However, the practical applications remain challenges due to the distorted retinal morphology and blurred boundaries near macular edema. Herein, we developed a novel deep learning model for the segmentation of macular edema in OCT images based on DeepLab framework (OCT-DeepLab). In this model, we used atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) to detect macular edema at multiple features and used the fully connected conditional random field (CRF) to refine the boundary of macular edema. OCT-DeepLab model was compared against the traditional hand-crafted methods (C-V and SBG) and the end-to-end methods (FCN, PSPnet, and U-net) to estimate the segmentation performance. OCT-DeepLab showed great advantage over the hand-crafted methods (C-V and SBG) and end-to-end methods (FCN, PSPnet, and U-net) as shown by higher precision, sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score. The segmentation performance of OCT-DeepLab was comparable to that of manual label, with an average area under the curve (AUC) of 0.963, which was superior to other end-to-end methods (FCN, PSPnet, and U-net). Collectively, OCT-DeepLab model is suitable for the segmentation of macular edema and assist ophthalmologists in the management of ocular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing blood lipid and bile acid profile changes in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Evaluating the integrated model's diagnostic significance for CRC. Ninety-one individuals with colorectal cancer (CRC group) and 120 healthy volunteers (HC group) were selected for comparison. Serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and apolipoproteins (Apo) A1, ApoA2, ApoB, ApoC2, and ApoC3 were measured using immunoturbidimetric and colorimetric methods. Additionally, LC–MS/MS was employed to detect fifteen bile acids in the serum, along with six tumor markers: carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigens (CA) 125, CA19-9, CA242, CA50, and CA72-4. Group comparisons utilized independent sample t-tests and Mann–Whitney U tests. A binary logistic regression algorithm was applied to fit the indicators and establish a screening model; the diagnostic accuracy of individual Indicators and the model was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The CRC group showed significantly lower levels in eight serum lipid indicators and eleven bile acids compared to the HC group (P < 0.05). Conversely, serum levels of TG, CA19-9, and CEA were elevated (P < 0.05). Among the measured parameters, ApoA2 stands out for its strong correlation with the presence of CRC, showcasing exceptional screening efficacy with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.957, a sensitivity of 85.71%, and a specificity of 93.33%. The screening model, integrating ApoA1, ApoA2, lithocholic acid (LCA), and CEA, attained an impressive AUC of 0.995, surpassing the diagnostic accuracy of individual lipids, bile acids, and tumor markers. CRC patients manifest noteworthy alterations in both blood lipids and bile acid profiles. A screening model incorporating ApoA1, ApoA2, LCA, and CEA provides valuable insights for detecting CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total dissolved gas (TDG) supersaturation, which occurs during dam spilling, may result in fish bubble disease and mortality. Many studies have been conducted to identify the factors pertaining to TDG generation, such as the spilling discharge and tailwater depth. Additionally, the energy dissipation efficiency should be considered due to its effect on the air entrainment, which influences the TDG generation process. According to the TDG field observations of 49 cases at Dagangshan and Xiluodu hydropower stations, the TDG was positively related to the energy dissipation efficiency, tailwater depth and discharge per unit width. A correlation between the generated TDG level and these factors was established. The empirical equations proposed by the USACE were calibrated, and the TDG level estimation performance was compared with the established correlation for 25 spillage cases at seven other dams. Among the considered cases, the standard error of the TDG estimation considering the energy dissipation efficiency was 5.7%, and those for the correlations obtained using the USACE equations were 13.0% and 10.0%. The findings indicated that the energy dissipation efficiency considerably influenced the TDG level, and its consideration helped enhance the precision of the TDG estimation. Finally, the generality of this approach and future work were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study evaluated the nutritional quality in muscle tissues of nine commercially important marine fish species. And the concentrations of trace metals (i.e. As, Hg, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd and Zn) in the muscles (edible part) and tissues (gill and liver) of fishes caught from Dachen fishing ground, the coast of Zhejiang Province, East China Sea, were determined, and the values of target hazard quotient (THQ) and the carcinogenic risk (TR) were calculated for assessing human health risk. Significant differences(P < 0.05) were observed in the proximate chemical composition of fish muscles in these species. The muscle protein content of fish species ranged from 12.36 to 23.41%. The muscle lipid content of fishes ranged from 0.48 to 2.54%. The accumulation capacity of heavy metals (except Cr) in livers and gills was higher than that in muscles. In addition, the accumulation ability of most fishes is related to the water layer they live, the fishes living in the demersal layer showed more accumulation of heavy metals than the middle-upper layer(except Cu). Estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI) and the carcinogenic risk (TR) assessed for potential human health risk implications suggest that the values were within the acceptable threshold for human. However, the carcinogenic risk(TR) of As and Cr was close to the critical limit (10–4). Therefore, in order to ensure the health and safety of human consumption, the continuous monitoring of heavy metals in Dachen fishing ground area is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study evaluated the nutritional quality in muscle tissues of nine commercially important marine fish species. And the concentrations of trace metals (i.e. As, Hg, Cu, Pb, Cr, Cd and Zn) in the muscles (edible part) and tissues (gill and liver) of fishes caught from Dachen fishing ground, the coast of Zhejiang Province, East China Sea, were determined, and the values of target hazard quotient (THQ) and the carcinogenic risk (TR) were calculated for assessing human health risk. Significant differences(P < 0.05) were observed in the proximate chemical composition of fish muscles in these species. The muscle protein content of fish species ranged from 12.36 to 23.41%. The muscle lipid content of fishes ranged from 0.48 to 2.54%. The accumulation capacity of heavy metals (except Cr) in livers and gills was higher than that in muscles. In addition, the accumulation ability of most fishes is related to the water layer they live, the fishes living in the demersal layer showed more accumulation of heavy metals than the middle-upper layer(except Cu). Estimated daily intake (EDI), target hazard quotient (THQ), hazard index (HI) and the carcinogenic risk (TR) assessed for potential human health risk implications suggest that the values were within the acceptable threshold for human. However, the carcinogenic risk(TR) of As and Cr was close to the critical limit (10–4). Therefore, in order to ensure the health and safety of human consumption, the continuous monitoring of heavy metals in Dachen fishing ground area is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac tissue engineering using biomaterials with or without combination of stem cell therapy offers a new option for repairing infarcted heart. However, the bioactivity of biomaterials remains to be optimized because currently available biomaterials do not mimic the biochemical components as well as the structural properties of native myocardial extracellular matrix. Here we hypothesized that human heart valve-derived scaffold (hHVS), as a clinically relevant novel biomaterial, may provide the proper microenvironment of native myocardial extracellular matrix for cardiac repair. In this study, human heart valve tissue was sliced into 100 μm tissue sheet by frozen-sectioning and then decellularized to form the hHVS. Upon anchoring onto the hHVS, post-infarct murine BM c-kit+ cells exhibited an increased capacity for proliferation and cardiomyogenic differentiation in vitro. When used to patch infarcted heart in a murine model of myocardial infarction, either implantation of the hHVS alone or c-kit+ cell-seeded hHVS significantly improved cardiac function and reduced infarct size; while c-kit+ cell-seeded hHVS was even superior to the hHVS alone. Thus, we have successfully developed a hHVS for cardiac repair. Our in vitro and in vivo observations provide the first clinically relevant evidence for translating the hHVS-based biomaterials into clinical strategies to treat myocardial infarction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]