Nonlinearity identified by neural network models inP CO 2 control system in humans

The nonlinearity included in the P_{CO 2} control system in humans is evaluated using the degree of nonlinearity based on a difference of residuals. An autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model and neural networks (linear and nonlinear) are employed to model the system, and three types of network (Jordan, Elman and fully interconnected) are compared. As the Jordan-type linear network cannot approximate respiratory data accurately, the other two types and the ARMA model are used for the evaluation of the nonlinearity. The results of the evaluation indicate that the linear assumption for the P_{CO 2} control system is invalid for three subjects out of seven. In particular, strong nonlinearity was observed for two subjects.     

Differential induction of human monocyte transforming growth factorβ1 production and its regulation by interleukin 4

We have previously shown that trauma patients' monocytes which arein vivo activated by multiple injury-induced mediators have elevated transforming growth factor-beta (TGF) bioactivity. Interleukin-4 (IL-4), a Th₂ and B lymphocyte stimulatory factor, has been shown to inhibit monocyte production of a number of mediators both after lipopolysaccharide stimulation and after trauma-induced stimulation. However, IL-4 inhibitory effects appears to vary, depending on the mixture of inducing stimuli. Here we describe thein vitro IL-4 inhibition of human monocyte TGF bioactivity using several stimulation induction protocols: muramyl dipeptide stimulation alone, or after FcRI (CD64) cross-linking induction, interferon-gamma (IFN) priming, or trauma-generatedin vivo mediator induction. IL-4 suppressed both muramyl dipeptide-induced TGF bioactivity and TGF mRNA in a dose-dependent fashion and was most effective when IL-4 was administered at initiation of normal monocyte stimulation. Muramyl dipeptide (MDP)-induced increases in trauma patients' monocyte TGF bioactivity were also inhibited by high doses of IL-4 (25 ng/ml). FcRI cross-linking increased MDP-induced normal monocyte TGF bioactivity, but this increase could be consistently inhibited only by very high IL-4 concentrations (50 ng/ml). IL-4 did not consistently downregulate MDP-induced TGF bioactivity in IFN-primed monocytes. IL-4 can suppress monocyte TGF production, as well as other monocyte mediators, but its efficiency depends on the stimuli combination present in the microenvironment.     

基于遗传算法的经颅磁刺激线圈阵列设计与场分布计算

为解决经颅磁刺激的兴奋点定位问题提出了以圆环面聚焦线圈阵列实现电磁聚焦的方案。而后,使用经过改进的自适应遗传算法对注入阵列各单元线圈电流的大小和相位进行了优化,在目标区域内很好的实现了电磁聚焦。通过计算,显示了线圈阵列在优化后的电流组态下产生的磁场和电场在计算区域内的分布和二维等高线图,表明了该聚焦线圈阵列可在目标区域产生具有良好聚焦性能的电场和磁场分布,并具有可同时聚焦至多个目标的能力。     

小鼠胃癌MAGE3抗原H-2K~k限制性抗原肽的筛选

本研究对小鼠胃癌MAGE3抗原H 2Kk 限制性的抗原肽进行了筛选。用CTL表位预测的基序法对易与H 2Kk 结合的多肽序列进行了预测并人工合成了 4个多肽。在体外检测了各多肽刺激H 2Kk 型小鼠T细胞增殖和分泌IFN γ的能力 ,同时测定了各多肽诱导出的CTL对小鼠前胃癌细胞株MFC细胞的杀伤活性。结果显示 ,抗原肽MAGE31 3 0 1 3 7可有效地刺激特异性T细胞的增殖和分泌细胞因子IFN γ ,其诱导出的CTL细胞对MFC细胞也有较高的杀伤活性。这些实验结果证实抗原肽MAGE31 3 0 1 3 7可以作为多肽疫苗来对表达MAGE3抗原的H 2Kk 型小鼠胃癌进行免疫治疗。     

基于主成分分析-神经网络的非编码RNA预测

预测非编码RNA对认识其调控功能具有重要意义。选择单核苷酸和二核苷酸出现频率作为神经网络分类特征,运用主成分分析方法降低输入数据的维数,去除数据间的相关性,采用Levenberg-Marquardt算法改善网络训练速度。对数据集的测试结果表明,此方法对细菌混合ncRNA的预测精度达到81.3%,对原核生物tRNA的预测精度达到93.3%,表明该方法能有效预测原核生物ncRNA。预测结果还发现两种古细菌的ORF序列在序列特征上与其它细菌和古细菌存在差别。     

Role of ventricular assist devices in the German heart allocation system

The Eurotransplant (ET) allocation algorithm, newly implemented in 2000, gives priority for heart transplantation (HTx) to patients with high urgency (HU) status, but now this status is rescinded upon ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation and only regained if severe complications occur during mechanical circulatory support (MCS). We studied the effects of this change on the patients in our institute who were waiting for HTx with MCS. The median duration of MCS until HTx in adult patients gradually increased from 3.1 months in 1994, reaching a peak of 16.7 months in 2000, and then gradually decreased to 6.0 months in 2003. Among the patients with VAD implantation as a bridge to HTx, two patients were on MCS for more than 1 year (the longest duration of MCS being 1.6 years) at the end of 1999, and this figure increased to nine patients and a maximum MCS duration of 3.7 years at the end of 2003. These data imply that the patients in whom a complication occurred in the early phase of MCS and who had overcome this complication underwent HTx early with HU status, and those who were stable during MCS waited a long time for HTx. Furthermore, the number of patients in the latter group is increasing. The new allocation algorithm imposes on patients with MCS waiting for HTx who are relatively young and free from complications and serious coexisting disease, very long-term MCS without an end to VAD bridging, which is almost equivalent to destination therapy. Part of this paper was presented at the 42nd JSAO Conference (Tokyo, October 5–7, 2004)     

Analysis of proliferating biliary epithelial cells in human liver disease using a monoclonal antibody against DNA polymeraseα

The proliferative activity and ultrastructural characteristics of proliferating biliary epithelial cells were analysed immunohistocytochemically in 39 biopsied liver specimens from patients with acute viral hepatitis, chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis using a monoclonal antibody against DNA polymerase (DNA-PA). In acute viral hepatitis with perivenular confluent necrosis, proliferation of typical bile ducts was found frequently in portal areas. In chronic aggressive hepatitis and cirrhosis, ductular proliferation of both typical and atypical forms was found in enlarged portal and periportal areas and in confluent necrotic areas. The number of proliferating biliary epithelial cells that stained positive for DNA-PA was small. There were very few positively stained cells in atypical bile ducts in confluent necrotic areas of cirrhosis. Atypical bile ducts seen in chronic aggressive hepatitis, cirrhosis and acute hepatitis with confluent necrosis were positively stained for both cytokeratins 8 and 19. In cirrhosis, the number of stained biliary epithelial cells in typical bile ducts was larger than the number of such cells in atypical bile ducts (P< 0.01). By electron microscopy, the cells positively stained for DNA-PA were mostly so-called clear cells with irregular nuclei containing coarse nucleoplasm, and a few small cells with scanty cytoplasm and few organelles.     

基于球形标记的多模态医学体配准

本文提出在医学多模态数据集 (尤其是 MRI和 CT)中基于球形人造标记的体配准过程。此过程或是半自动或是全自动完成的。半自动方法要求数据集中标出球形标记的近似点位置 ,再自动进行配准。全自动方法不需要用户的任何交互操作 ,即所有配准子任务 (球体的分割、寻找两组球体的对应关系、最后把第一套球体映射成第二套球体的几何变换的计算 )能由计算机自动执行。在全自动配准中 ,积聚器算法和迭代最近点算法的结合证明是一种有效的和鲁棒性好的点匹配方法     

模拟退火算法在图像配准中的应用

近年来 ,脑功能成像技术发展迅速 ,已在脑科学研究中占有重要地位。研究中通常需要将同一被试的多种模式成像结果或同一模式的时间序列结果结合起来分析 ,首先要解决的问题就是几幅图像的严格对齐问题 ,即所谓的图像配准。在模拟退火算法和其它工作的基础之上 ,较好的解决了图像配准中的连续变量全局优化问题 ,通过基于点的配准方法 ,实现了时间序列脑功能图像的高精度配准。     

Fast Adaptive Unsharp Masking with Programmable Mediaprocessors

Unsharp masking is a widely used image-enhancement method in medical imaging. Hardware-based solutions can be developed to support high computational demand for unsharp masking, but they suffer from limited flexibility. Software solutions can easily incorporate new features and modify key parameters, such as filtering kernel size, but they have not been able to meet the fast computing requirement. Modern programmable mediaprocessors can meet both fast computing and flexibility requirements, which will benefit medical image computing. In this article, we present fast adaptive unsharp masking on two leading mediaprocessors or high-end digital signal processors, Hitachi/Equator Technologies MAP-CA and Texas Instruments TMS320C64x. For a 2k × 2k 16-bit image, our adaptive unsharp masking with a 201 × 201 boxcar kernel takes 225 ms on a 300-MHz MAP-CA and 74 ms on a 600-MHz TMS320C64x. This fast unsharp masking enables technologists and/or physicians to adjust parameters interactively for optimal quality assurance and image viewing.