Visuo-Acoustic Stimulation’s Role in Synaptic Plasticity: A Review of the Literature

Brain plasticity is the capacity of cerebral neurons to change, structurally and functionally, in response to experiences. This is an essential property underlying the maturation of sensory functions, learning and memory processes, and brain repair in response to the occurrence of diseases and trauma. In this field, the visual system emerges as a paradigmatic research model, both for basic research studies and for translational investigations. The auditory system remains capable of reorganizing itself in response to different auditory stimulations or sensory organ modification. Acoustic biofeedback training can be an effective way to train patients with the central scotoma, who have poor fixation stability and poor visual acuity, in order to bring fixation on an eccentrical and healthy area of the retina: a pseudofovea. This review article is focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying retinal sensitivity changes and visual and auditory system plasticity.

Leaf Diseases Detection of Medicinal Plants Based on Support Vector Machine Classification Algorithm

On earth, plants play the most important part. Every organ of a plant plays a vital role in the ecological field as well as the medicinal field. But on the whole earth there are several species of plants are available. The different species of plants have different diseases. Therefore, it is required to identify the plants as well as their diseases correctly. It is difficult and also time consuming to identify the plants and their diseases manually. In this research an automatic disease detection system of plant is proposed. High-quality leaf images are used for training and testing. For detecting the healthy area and diseased area in a leaf, region-based and color-based region thresholding techniques are used. For feature selection Histogram Oriented Gradient (HOG) and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) method were applied. Finally, for classification two-class and multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM) were used. It is found that both feature selection processes with SVM give 99% accuracy. An user oriented graphical user interface is created for understanding the automated system.

Asbestos Fibers and Ferruginous Bodies Detected by VP-SEM/EDS in Colon Tissues of a Patient Affected by Colon-Rectum Cancer: A Case Study

The aim of this work was to inspect the presence of asbestos fibers in colon tissue from a patient, with history of indirect exposure to asbestos and affected by colon cancer, who underwent surgery. Variable pressure scanning electron microscopy, coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (VP-SEM/EDS), was used for identification of inorganic fibers and for their morphological- chemical characterization. Fresh tissue samples from both, healthy area close to the neoplasia and from the neoplastic regions, were separately digested to eliminate the biological matrix. The precipitate was analyzed by VP-SEM/EDS, identifying in samples from healthy tissue asbestos bodies and small asbestos fibers, and in samples from neoplastic tissue long fibers of asbestos, free from covering. A quantification of the asbestos bodies and the free fibers in the two type of specimens is proposed. Moreover, to locate the fibers in the biological medium, histological sections from the colon of the same patient were also examined. Free asbestos fibers appeared concentrated in the tissue bridge between the healthy and the neoplastic areas. Immuno-histochemical investigation performed on the neoplasia seems to exclude a role of microsatellite instability in the carcinogenesis process, suggesting an influence of the fibers.

Mitos Wanita Pada Desain Kemasan Sabun Pembersih Kewanitaan

A wider market in which there are various kinds of products makescompetition fierce for the attention of consumers. In plain view,many similar items have almost similar visual elements, one of whichis feminine cleaning products. The feminine sanitizer packagingbottle has a distinctive curve and is almost similar from one brand toanother. This study aims to examine a work of VisualCommunication Design in the form of packaging design of femininecleansing soap products. The feminine cleansing soap productssampled were Herborist, Resik V, and Sumber Ayu, and all threecontain the same content, namely betel leaf extract. The researchmethod used in this research is descriptive qualitative with the theoryof the meaning of connotations and myths of Roland Barthes. Theresults of the analysis of connotative and mythological meanings ofthe three samples of feminine cleansing soap show that there aresimilarities in the meanings of verbal and visual signs. Theseproducts carry the same image which is constructed through theconnotations and myths of the hope of every woman to have afragrant, clean, healthy, healthy area of womanhood and does notinterfere with daily activities. Meanwhile, the meaning of myth in thepackaging design of feminine cleansing soap reveals that the shapeof the packaging design bottle is an ideal image of a woman's body.

Comparison and evaluation of three different molecular methods for detection of human Betapapillomaviruses in skin biopsies from patients with nonmelanoma skin cancer and precancerous lesions

Betapapillomaviruses have been linked to the development of nonmelanoma skin cancers. A great diversity of these viruses in skin specimens requires the use of sensitive and reliable detection methods. There are currently no standardized assays for diagnostic purposes. A combination of several molecular methods has great practical significance and gives the opportunity to broaden the spectrum of detected Beta-HPV types. In the present study, different molecular methods for Beta-HPVs detection and genotyping were used: PCRs with different sets of primers, PCR followed by reverse hybridization and direct sequencing of PCR amplimers; all performed in skin biopsies from lesions and perilesional healthy area of 118 patients with NMSC or precancerous lesions. Beta-HPVs were detected in 41% of 261 biopsies examined. The RHA for 25 types of Beta-HPVs showed a significantly higher sensitivity than PCR-based methods and allowed to detect 172 genotypes in 86 samples, including 39 with multiple infections. The most frequently identified types were HPV23, HPV24 and HPV93. HPV5 and HPV8, considered high-risk carcinogen types, were detected only in a small percentage of samples. Direct sequencing confirmed the presence of Beta-HPV genotypes from outside of RHA panel in the analysed biopsies. This allowed detecting thirty-two additional genotypes in 5 samples, that were positive only in RHA with the universal probe, which failed to identify the virus genotypes. Our findings confirmed the need to apply different methods to detect Beta-HPV infections.

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum hijacks copper from its host for infection

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum induces host reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, which leads to necrosis in the host, allowing the pathogen to absorb nutrients from the dead tissues. Here, we found that three S. sclerotiorum genes involved in copper ion import/transport, SsCTR1, SsCCS and SsATX1, were significantly up-regulated during infection of Brassica oleracea. Function analysis revealed that these genes involved in fungal ROS detoxification, oxalic acid production, pathogen establishment and virulence. On the host side, four genes putatively involved in copper ion homeostasis, BolCCS, BolCCH, BolMT2A and BolDRT112, were significantly down-regulated in susceptible B. oleracea, but stably expressed in resistant B. oleracea during infection. Their homologs were found to promote resistance to necrotrophic pathogens and increase antioxidant activity in Arabidopsis thaliana. Furthermore, copper concentration analysis indicated that copper is transported into the necrotic area from healthy area during infection. Collectively, our data suggest that S. sclerotiorum hijacks host copper to detoxify ROS, whereas the resistant hosts restrict the supply of essential copper nutrients to S. sclerotiorum by maintaining copper ion homeostasis during infection.

Clinical Applications

The study of the diagnostic accuracy of Infrared Thermal Imaging in the diagnosis of orthopaedic injuries in childhood has been motivated by the high incidence of these injuries throughout the world, being one of the most common reasons for urgent medical consultation. Diagnosis of musculoskeletal injuries usually involves radiography, but this exposes children without fractures to unnecessary ionising radiation. This chapter assesses whether infrared thermography could provide a viable alternative in cases of trauma. To evaluate the accuracy of this technique new thermographic variables have been added to those commonly analysed, such as the extent of the injury and the difference in the size of the area that is at an equal temperature or higher than the maximum temperature of the healthy area. Non-linear cataloguing methods (decision tree models) have also been applied. With the protocol presented, infrared thermal imaging had a sensitivity of 0.91, a specificity of 0.88 and a negative predictive value of 0.95 for diagnosing musculoskeletal injuries.

Clinical Applications

The study of the diagnostic accuracy of Infrared Thermal Imaging in the diagnosis of orthopaedic injuries in childhood has been motivated by the high incidence of these injuries throughout the world, being one of the most common reasons for urgent medical consultation. Diagnosis of musculoskeletal injuries usually involves radiography, but this exposes children without fractures to unnecessary ionising radiation. This chapter assesses whether infrared thermography could provide a viable alternative in cases of trauma. To evaluate the accuracy of this technique new thermographic variables have been added to those commonly analysed, such as the extent of the injury and the difference in the size of the area that is at an equal temperature or higher than the maximum temperature of the healthy area. Non-linear cataloguing methods (decision tree models) have also been applied. With the protocol presented, infrared thermal imaging had a sensitivity of 0.91, a specificity of 0.88 and a negative predictive value of 0.95 for diagnosing musculoskeletal injuries.

Surgical treatment of invasive vulvar cancer

This paper presents the surgical treatment of invasive cancer of the vulva at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Novi Sad in the period from 2000 to 2010. Forty-one patients underwent different surgical procedures depending on their stage of the disease, age and general physical condition assessed according to the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians: wide excision to the healthy area with negative edges of 10 mm, simplex - radical vulvectomy or hemivulvectomy, block dissection of the vulva by Way, one-sided or bilateral lymphadenectomy and skin-muscle flap to cover the resulting skin defects. The number of removed lymph nodes on one side ranged from 8 to 19, the average being 12.6. Various postoperative complications (inflammation and wound dehiscence, lymphorrhoea, lymphocyst and limb lymphedema) developed in 9 (21.9%) and the local regional recurrence was recorded in 7 (17%) patients. The outcome was lethal in 4 (9.8%) surgically treated women. The primary surgical procedure is always individually planned and the choice of individual plans depends on three main factors: the size and position of the primary tumor in relation to the center line of the vulva (clitoral area - anus) and the involvement of regional lymph nodes. In order to reduce the psychosexual morbidity the preference is nowadays widely given to the local excision with adequate and histopathologically confirmed negative edges of the tumor together with determining the presence of metastases in sentinel lymph nodes.