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Non-invasive neuroimaging has revealed specific network-based resting-state dynamics in the human brain, yet the underlying neurophysiological mechanism remains unclear. We employed intracranial electroencephalography to characterize local field potentials within the default mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network (FPN), and salience network (SN) in 42 participants. We identified stronger within-network phase coherence at low frequencies (θ and α band) within the DMN, and at high frequencies (γ band) within the FPN. Hidden Markov modeling indicated that the DMN exhibited preferential low frequency phase coupling. Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) analysis revealed that the low-frequency phase in the DMN modulated the high-frequency amplitude envelopes of the FPN, suggesting frequency-dependent characterizations of intrinsic brain networks at rest. These findings provide intracranial electrophysiological evidence in support of the network model for intrinsic organization of human brain and shed light on the way brain networks communicate at rest.

The pile responses induced by adjacent tunnel excavation have been a hot research topic in geotechnical engineering. Tunnel excavation may exert disturbance to the surrounding soil mass and then influence the adjacent pile foundations. In this paper, the random finite difference analysis considering the spatial variations of soil properties is conducted to explore the effect of tunnel excavation on the adjacent pile response by varying the distance of pile away from the tunnel centerline (D), the pile length (L), the pile diameter (dp), the tunnel depth (h), and the anisotropic ratio between the horizontal and the vertical scales of fluctuation (δx/δy). A set of pile response curves are developed to assess the influence of tunnel excavation on the adjacent passive pile foundations in spatially variable clays and provide guidelines for the tunnel excavation in the complex constructed environment.

ObjectiveTo assist improving long-term postoperative seizure-free rate, we aimed to use machine learning algorithms based on neuropsychological data to differentiate temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) from extratemporal lobe epilepsy (extraTLE), as well as explore the relationship between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological tests.MethodsTwenty-three patients with TLE and 23 patients with extraTLE underwent neuropsychological tests and MRI scans before surgery. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were firstly employed for feature selection, and a machine learning approach with neuropsychological tests was employed to classify TLE using leave-one-out cross-validation. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the relationship between brain alterations and neuropsychological tests.ResultsWe found that logistic regression with the selected neuropsychological tests generated classification accuracies of 87.0%, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.89. Three neuropsychological tests were acquired as significant neuropsychological signatures for the diagnosis of TLE. We also found that the Right-Left Orientation Test difference was related to the superior temporal and the banks of the superior temporal sulcus (bankssts). The Conditional Association Learning Test (CALT) was associated with the cortical thickness difference in the lateral orbitofrontal area between the two groups, and the Component Verbal Fluency Test was associated with the cortical thickness difference in the lateral occipital cortex between the two groups.ConclusionThese results showed that machine learning-based classification with the selected neuropsychological data can successfully classify TLE with high accuracy compared to previous studies, which could provide kind of warning sign for surgery candidate of TLE patients. In addition, understanding the mechanism of cognitive behavior by neuroimaging information could assist doctors in the presurgical evaluation of TLE.

In an urbanization process, infrastructure elements such as tunnels and deep excavations are widely used to service the development of cities. Owing to the lengthy geological processes of geomaterials and the limited availability of site-specific test data, soil and rock properties exhibiting spatial variability are frequently encountered in geological and geotechnical engineering. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the application of spatial variability in tunneling and deep excavation over the past 20 years. It is found that the spatial variability is generally modeled as a random field (RF) in finite element software, based on random field theory (RFT). This model has been widely used in the design, stability evaluation, and probabilistic analysis of tunnels and excavations. Previous works have proven that the performance of tunnels and deep excavations can be better captured by considering the spatial variability, as compared with conventional deterministic analysis methods. Nonetheless, current research still faces many factual scientific problems. Therefore, this paper also identifies some research gaps, as well as recommendations for further investigations.

Anisotropic spatial variability of soil properties is frequently encountered in geotechnical engineering practice due to the complex depositional process. To quantitatively evaluate the response of slope failure related to anisotropic spatial variability of soil properties and reveal the underlying influence of anisotropic spatial variability of soil properties on the slope reliability, this study integrates the random finite difference method (RFDM) into a probabilistic assessment framework and adopts general spatial variability and a cohesive-frictional soil slope example for illustration. A parametric analysis is carried out to investigate the influence of general anisotropic spatial variability of soil properties on slope failure probability and failure characteristics. The results show that the directional angles of scales of fluctuation of general anisotropic spatial variability significantly affect the slope failure probability. The dominant failure mode is the intermediate type in most cases of general anisotropic spatial variability, which is distinguished from the shallow failure mode occurring in the homogenous state. Overestimation of cross-correlation between c and φ (ρc,φ), scales of fluctuation (δmax and δmin) in general anisotropic spatially variable soils significantly influences the average slip mass volumes of deep and multi-slip failure mode. Compared with transverse anisotropic spatial variability, general anisotropic spatial variability significantly amplifies the effects of ρc,φ, δmax and δmin on slope reliability.

Background: Traditional medical treatments are not effective for some patients with Tourette syndrome (TS). According to the literature, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be effective for the treatment of TS; however, different targets show different results.Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of low-frequency rTMS in patients with TS, with the bilateral parietal cortex as the target.Methods: Thirty patients with TS were divided into two groups: active and sham groups. The active group was subjected to 0.5-Hz rTMS at 90% of resting motor threshold (RMT) with 1,200 stimuli/day/side, whereas the sham group was subjected to 0.5-Hz rTMS at 10% of RMT with 1,200 stimuli/day/side with changes in the coil direction. Both groups were bilaterally stimulated over the parietal cortex (P3 and P4 electrode sites) for 10 consecutive days. The symptoms of tics and premonitory urges were evaluated using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), Modified Scoring Method for the Rush Video-based Tic Rating Scale (MRVBTS), and Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS) scores at baseline, the end of the 10-day treatment, 1 week after treatment, and 1 month after treatment.Results: At the end of the 10-day treatment, the YGTSS total, YGTSS motor tic, YGTSS phonic tic, MRVBTS, and PUTS scores in the active group significantly improved and improvements were maintained for at least 1 month.Conclusions: Low-frequency bilateral rTMS of the parietal cortex can markedly alleviate motor tics, phonic tics, and premonitory urges in patients with TS.

Abstract Objective This study aimed to explore a shorter and safer contralateral C7 transposition pathway for the treatment of central upper limb paralysis. Methods From July 2018 to March 2019, 10 patients with central upper limb paralysis underwent posterior cervical 7 nerve transposition. The age of these patients ranged within 31–58 years old (average: 44 years old). These patients comprised of eight male patients and two female patients. Nine patients had cerebral hemorrhage, and one patient had a cerebral infarction. Furthermore, nine patients presented with spastic paralysis of the upper limbs and one patient presented with nonspastic paralysis. The duration of plegia before the operation ranged from 6 to 60 months (average: 26 months). The surgical procedure included transposition of the contralateral cervical 7 nerve root via a posterior vertebral approach under general anesthesia, and the distal part of the contralateral cervical 7 nerve was anastomosed with the proximal part of the ipsilateral cervical 7 nerve. Results The length of the contralateral cervical 7 nerve was 5.16 ± 0.21 cm, which was directly anastomosed with the ipsilateral cervical 7 nerve. Neither case needed nerve transplantation. Most patients had temporary numbness in their healthy fingers, which all disappeared within three months. Up to now, the follow‐up results are as follows: The spasticity of the affected upper limbs in five patients is lower than that before the operation, the pain and temperature sensation of the affected upper limbs in six patients are better than before the operation. Conclusion The distance of nerve transposition can be shortened by a posterior vertebral approach operation, where the contralateral C7 nerve can be anastomosed directly with the ipsilateral C7 nerve which may be effective for nerve regeneration and functional recovery. However, this conclusion still needs further research and verification.

Herpes zoster (HZ) can cause a blistering skin rash with severe neuropathic pain. Pharmacotherapy is the most common treatment for HZ patients. However, most patients are usually the elderly or those that are immunocompromised, and thus often suffer from side effects or easily get intractable post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) if medication fails. It is challenging for clinicians to tailor treatment to patients, due to the lack of prognosis information on the neurological pathogenesis that underlies HZ. In the current study, we aimed at characterizing the brain structural pattern of HZ before treatment with medication that could help predict medication responses. High-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 14 right-handed HZ patients (aged 61.0 ± 7.0, 8 males) with poor response and 15 (aged 62.6 ± 8.3, 5 males) age- (p = 0.58), gender-matched (p = 0.20) patients responding well, were acquired and analyzed. Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) with a searchlight algorithm and support vector machine (SVM), was applied to identify the spatial pattern of the gray matter (GM) volume, with high predicting accuracy. The predictive regions, with an accuracy higher than 79%, were located within the cerebellum, posterior insular cortex (pIC), middle and orbital frontal lobes (mFC and OFC), anterior and middle cingulum (ACC and MCC), precuneus (PCu) and cuneus. Among these regions, mFC, pIC and MCC displayed significant increases of GM volumes in patients with poor response, compared to those with a good response. The combination of sMRI and MVPA might be a useful tool to explore the neuroanatomical imaging biomarkers of HZ-related pain associated with medication responses.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous cognitive disorder that is often comorbid with Parkinson's diseases (PD). The amnestic subtype of PD-MCI (PD-aMCI) has a higher risk to develop dementia. However, there is a lack of studies on the white matter (WM) structural changes of PD-aMCI. We characterized the WM structural changes of PD-aMCI (n = 17) with cognitively normal PD (PD-CN, n = 19) and normal controls (n = 20), using voxel-based and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses on fractional anisotropy (FA) axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD). By excluding and then including the motor performance as a covariate in the comparison analysis between PD-aMCI and PD-CN, we attempted to discern the influences of two neuropathological mechanisms on the WM structural changes of PD-aMCI. The correlation analyses between memory and voxel-based WM measures in all PD patients were also performed (n = 36). The results showed that PD-aMCI had smaller FA values than PD-CN in the diffuse WM areas, and PD-CN had higher AD and RD values than normal controls in the right caudate. Most FA difference between PD-aMCI and PD-CN could be weakened by the motor adjustment. The FA differences between PD-aMCI and PD-CN were largely spatially overlapped with the memory-correlated FA values. Our findings demonstrated that the WM structural differences between PD-aMCI and PD-CN were mainly memory-related, and the influence of motor adjustment might indicate a common mechanism underlying both motor and memory impairment in PD-aMCI, possibly reflecting a predominant influence of dopaminergic neuropathology.

Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) is a significant prerequisite for slope stability analysis involving unsaturated soils. However, it is difficult to measure an entire SWCC over a wide suction range using in-situ or laboratory tests. As an alternative, the Arya and Paris (AP) model provides a feasible way to predict SWCC from the routinely available particle-size distribution (PSD) data by introducing a scaling parameter. The accuracy of AP model is generally dependent on the calibrated database which contains test data collected from other sites. How to use the available test data to determine the scaling parameter and to predict the SWCC remains an unresolved problem. This paper develops a Bayesian approach to predict SWCC from PSD. The proposed approach not only determines the scaling parameter, but also identifies fitting parameters of the parametric SWCC model. Finally, the proposed approach is illustrated using real data in Unsaturated Soil Database (UNSODA). Results show that the proposed approach provides a proper prediction of SWCC by making use of the available test data. Additionally, the proposed approach is capable of predicting SWCC in the high suction range, allowing engineers to obtain a complete SWCC in practice with reasonable accuracy.

Unlike traditional virus isolation and sequencing approaches, sequence-independent amplification based viral metagenomics technique allows one to discover unexpected or novel viruses efficiently while bypassing culturing step. Here we report the discovery of the first Sicinivirus isolate (designated as strain JSY) of picornaviruses from commercial layer chickens in mainland China by using a viral metagenomics technique. This Sicinivirus isolate, which contains a whole genome of 9,797 nucleotides (nt) excluding the poly(A) tail, possesses one of the largest picornavirus genome so far reported, but only shares 88.83% and 82.78% of amino acid sequence identity to that of ChPV1 100C (KF979332) and Sicinivirus 1 strain UCC001 (NC_023861), respectively. The complete 939 nt 5'UTR of the isolate strain contains at least twelve stem-loop domains (A-L), representing the highest set of loops reported within Sicinivirus genus. The conserved 'barbell-like' structure was also present in the 272 nt 3'UTR of the isolate as that in the 3' UTR of Sicinivirus 1 strain UCC001. The 8,586 nt large open reading frame encodes a 2,862 amino acids polyprotein precursor. Moreover, Sicinivirus infection might be widely present in commercial chicken farms in Yancheng region of the Jiangsu Province as evidenced by all the tested stool samples from three different farms being positive (17/17) for Sicinivirus detection. This is the first report on identification of Sicinivirus in commercial layer chickens with a severe clinical disease in mainland China, however, further studies are needed to evaluate the pathogenic potential of this picornavirus in chickens.

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma is the most common and most lethal form of brain tumor in human. Unfortunately, there is still no effective therapy to this fatal disease and the median survival is generally less than one year from the time of diagnosis. Discovery of ligands that can bind specifically to this type of tumor cells will be of great significance to develop early molecular imaging, targeted delivery and guided surgery methods to battle this type of brain tumor. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We discovered two target-specific aptamers named GBM128 and GBM131 against cultured human glioblastoma cell line U118-MG after 30 rounds selection by a method called cell-based Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (cell-SELEX). These two aptamers have high affinity and specificity against target glioblastoma cells. They neither recognize normal astraglial cells, nor do they recognize other normal and cancer cell lines tested. Clinical tissues were also tested and the results showed that these two aptamers can bind to different clinical glioma tissues but not normal brain tissues. More importantly, binding affinity and selectivity of these two aptamers were retained in complicated biological environment. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The selected aptamers could be used to identify specific glioblastoma biomarkers. Methods of molecular imaging, targeted drug delivery, ligand guided surgery can be further developed based on these ligands for early detection, targeted therapy, and guided surgery of glioblastoma leading to effective treatment of glioblastoma.

Staphylococcus sciuri are important human pathogens responsible for endocarditis, peritonitis, septic shock, urinary tract infection, pelvic inflammatory disease and wound infections. However, little information is known regarding the pathogenicity of S. sciuri to animals. From the pericardial fluid of a diseased piglet with exudative epidermitis (EE), we isolated a strain of Staphylococcus in pure culture. Surprisingly, this isolate was a member of S. sciuri rather than S. hyicus as identified by its biochemical traits and also by analysis of 23S ribosomal DNA using Internal Transcribed Spacer PCR. In addition, inoculation of newborn piglets with 1x10(10) CFU of the isolate by oral feeding or intra-muscular injection successfully reproduced EE in piglets, which suggested that the oral intake of the pathogen by the animals is one of the major routes of exposure. These unexpected findings prioritized S. sciuri as important zoonotic agents, which may have ramifications for human medicine.

Temporal variation of rock mass properties, especially the strength degradation due to drying-wetting cycles as well as the acidic wetting fluid (rainfall or reservoir water) is crucial to stability of reservoir rock slopes. Based on a series of drying-wetting cycling and experiments considering the influences of pH values, the degradation degree models of the reduced cohesion c′, friction angle φ′ are developed. 2D stability analysis of the slope is subsequently carried out to calculate the factor of safety (Fs) via limit equilibrium method (LEM) and a predictive model of Fs is built using multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), revealing the effect of the dryingwetting cycles and pH value. The reliability analysis by Monte Carlo simulation is performed to rationally consider the uncertainty and the temporal variation of the shear strength parameters of rock mass. Results indicate that the MARS-based model can estimate the Fs accurately. The Fs and the reliability index β decrease with increase of drying-wetting cycles, and the temporal variation of rock mass properties has significant influence on the slope reliability. Overlooking the temporal variation of rock properties may overestimate the Fs and reliability index β in the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case-control study of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis focusing on the regional gray matter atrophy and neuropsychological problems. The study conducted voxel-based morphometric analysis in 11 research subjects with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, showing that the patients have gray matter atrophy. Results suggest the correlation of gray matter atrophy with cognitive decline and emotional abnormalities.

The article discusses research being done on the production and evaluation of one monoclonal antibody (MAb) against avian leukosis virus subgroup J in hens. It references several studies including "A Comparison of Test Materials for Differentiating Avian Leukosis Virus Group-Specific Antigens of Exogenous and Endogenous Origin" by L. B. Crittenden and E. J. Smith in a 1984 issue of "Avian Diseases."

Background: Current vaccines to avian influenzae virus (AIV), a highly contagious disease of birds, need to be constantly updated due to the high level of variation in the target antigens. Therefore, a vaccine that could induce broad cross protection against AIV is required. The M2 membrane protein is structurally conserved amongst AIV subtypes but tends in induce a poor immune response, whereas C3d has been shown in many species to enhance immunogenicity. In this study, we investigated the potential of M2-avian C3d fusion proteins to provide effective immunity. Results: We fused chicken complement C3d to sM2 (M2 protein with the transmembrane region deleted) of AIV and expressed four fusion proteins, GST (Glutathione S-transferase tagged proteins in pGEX expression vector) -C3d-sM2, GST-C3d-L2-sM2, GST-C3d-L1-C3d-sM2 and GST-C3d-L1-C3d-L2-sM2 were used to immunize mice. In addition, Specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens were inoculated with the plasmids pcDNA-sM2, pcDNA-C3d-L1-C3d-L2-sM2, GST-sM2 and GST-C3d-L1-C3d-L2-sM2. The immune response was monitored by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for sM2 antibody, and all the test animals were challenged with A/chicken/Bei Jing/WD9/98 (H9N2) virus. Results revealed that the anti-sM2 antibody in mice and chickens vaccinated with these proteins was higher than the nonfused forms of sM2, the GST-C3d-L1-C3d-L2-sM2 groups have conferred the highest 30% and 20% protection ratio in mice and chickens respectively. In addition, the pcDNA-C3d-L1-C3d-L2-sM2 also enhances the antibody responses to sM2 compared to pcDNA-sM2 in chickens, and acquired 13.3% protection ratio. Conclusion: These results indicated that chicken C3d enhanced the humoral immunity against AIV M2 protein either fused proteins expressed by the prokaryotic system or with the DNA vaccine. Nevertheless, in view of the poor protection ratio for these animals, we speculated that this is not a worthy developing of vaccine in these constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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