A novel automatic suspicious mass regions identification using Havrda & Charvat entropy and Otsu's N thresholding

Mass detection is a very important process for breast cancer diagnosis and computer aided systems. It can be very complex when the mass is small or invisible because of dense breast tissue. Therefore, the extraction of suspicious mass region can be very challenging. This paper proposes a novel segmentation algorithm to identify mass candidate regions in mammograms. The proposed system includes three parts: breast region and pectoral muscle segmentation, image enhancement and suspicious mass regions identification. The first two parts have been examined in previous studies. In this study, we focused on suspicious mass regions identification using a combination of Havrda & Charvat entropy method and Otsu's N thresholding method. An open access Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) database, which contains 59 masses, was used for the study. The proposed system obtained a 93% sensitivity rate for suspicious mass regions identification in 56 abnormal and 40 normal images.     

急性等容血液稀释自体血回输对老年骨科手术患者脑电双谱指数与肌松效应的影响

目的：观察急性等容血液稀释（ANH）自体血回输对老年骨科手术患者脑电双谱指数与肌松效应的影响,探究含有麻醉药成分的自体血回输对术后麻醉苏醒质量及安全性的影响。方法：择期骨科手术患者40例,年龄65～75岁,体质量55～80 kg,ASA Ⅰ～Ⅱ级,预计术中出血量≥600 mL。患者随机分为2组（n=20）：A组为进行ANH组,在麻醉诱导平稳后实施ANH,血细胞比容（Hct）目标值28%～30%;B组为对照组,即术中常规补液,不进行ANH。于术毕回输自体血时（T1）、回输10 min（T2）、20 min（T3）、30 min（T4）、40 min（T5）、50 min（T6）、60 min（T7）各时点观测两组患者脑电双频指数（BIS）、四个成串刺激（TOF值）及丙泊酚、顺式阿曲库铵的血浆药物浓度变化;观察并记录术前（T0）及T7时点血气变化,观察患者拔除气管导管的时间以及苏醒质量。结果：A组BIS值在术后T6、T7时点明显低于B组（P<0.05）,A组TOF值在T5、T6、T7时点明显低于B组（P<0.05）;A组与B组术后丙泊酚、顺式阿曲库铵的血药浓度组间比较差异无显著性（P>0.05）;A组在术后T7时点乳酸（Lac）值明显高于B组（P<0.05）;A组拔除气管导管的时间明显长于B组（P<0.05）;A组Aldrete评分明显低于B组（P<0.05）。结论：ANH后术毕自体血回输可增加血浆中麻醉药物浓度,加深患者的麻醉深度,增强肌松效应,使老年患者呼吸功能恢复和拔管时间延迟。     

Chinese red pepper (Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim.) leaf extract as natural antioxidants in salted silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) in dorsal and ventral muscles during processing

Chinese red pepper (Zanthoxylum bungeanum Maxim.) leaf (ZML) extract contains high amounts of phenolic compounds possessing high total antioxidant capacity and hydroxyl, 1, 1-dipheny-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity. ZML extract was investigated as a natural antioxidant for the lipid stability of salted silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) throughout salting and drying. Both dorsal and ventral muscles were examined for differences in moisture content, salt content, total lipid content, and degree of lipid oxidation. The hexanal content, Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value, and lipoxygenase (LOX) activity in the ventral muscle were significantly higher than those of the dorsal muscle (p < 0.05). In the treatments with ZML extract, the hexanal content, the TBARS value, and the LOX activity were significantly lower (p < 0.05) during processing both in the dorsal and ventral muscles. The sensory qualities of processed salted fish could be improved with the amount of 0.030% extract in the dorsal muscle and 0.045% extract in the ventral muscle. These results showed that ZML extract can be a source of natural antioxidants and used as a food additive.     

Therapeutic Effect of Losartan,an Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Antagonist,on CCl4-Induced Skeletal Muscle Injury

TGF-β1 is known to inhibit muscle regeneration after muscle injury. However, it is unknown if high systemic levels of TGF-β can affect the muscle regeneration process. In the present study, we demonstrated the effect of a CCl₄ intra-peritoneal injection and losartan (an angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist) on skeletal muscle (gastrocnemius muscle) injury and regeneration. Male C57BL/6 mice were grouped randomly as follows: control (n = 7), CCl₄-treatment group (n = 7), and CCl₄ + losartan treatment group (n = 7). After CCl₄ treatment for a 16-week period, the animals were sacrificed and analyzed. The expression of dystrophin significantly decreased in the muscle tissues of the control group, as compared with that of the CCl₄ + losartan group (p < 0.01). p(phospho)-Smad2/3 expression significantly increased in the muscles of the control group compared to that in the CCl₄ + losartan group (p < 0.01). The expressions of Pax7, MyoD, and myogenin increased in skeletal muscles of the CCl₄ + losartan group compared to the corresponding levels in the control group (p < 0.01). We hypothesize that systemically elevated TGF-β1 as a result of CCl₄-induced liver injury causes skeletal muscle injury, while losartan promotes muscle repair from injury via blockade of TGF-β1 signaling.     

Enzyme-assisted extraction of chicken skin protein hydrolysates and fat: Degree of hydrolysis affects the physicochemical and functional properties

Enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) of oils/fats involves the disruption of the cell wall of source material using enzymes to facilitate the release of oil. When proteases are used as the enzyme, EAE ends in the extracted oil as well as the protein hydrolysates. Herein, the EAE (using a commercial protease, Alcalase) was exploited to obtain fat and protein hydrolysates from chicken skin. Degree of hydrolysis (DH, the percentage ratio of cleaved peptide bonds), which showed a logarithmic correlation with the reaction time, was found to affect the properties of the products. As the DH increased, the peptide chain length of protein hydrolysates decreased which was confirmed by SDS-PAGE analysis. With the increase of DH, the emulsifying activity index, foaming capacity, and oil holding capacity of the hydrolysates decreased but the solubility and emulsion stability index increased (p < 0.05). The DPPH free radical scavenging activity of the hydrolysates increased with the DH up to DH = 39.62% but decreased thereafter (p < 0.05). EAE resulted in a rise in fat yield and the fat contained a higher amount of unsaponifiables and lower free fatty acids (FFA) content, as compared to the control treatment (No enzyme, 80°C, 2 h, p < 0.05). DH affected the fat yield and the unsaponifiables content of the fat, positively (p < 0.05). However, it did not affect the fat FFA content and iodine value (p > 0.05). Results obtained here showed DH can be used as an effective measure for controlling the physicochemical and functional properties of chicken skin protein hydrolysates and fat in the EAE process.     

基于改进J-A模型的气动肌肉迟滞建模及其补偿控制

 针对气动肌肉非对称迟滞现象,采用改进Jiles-Atherton(J-A)模型来对其进行描述,并利用自适应权重粒子群来对模型所需参数进行辨识;通过与实验数据进行对比,对所建模型精度进行验证。基于所建迟滞模型,进而提出一种积分逆迟滞补偿器,通过将其引入到PID控制系统中,实现对气动肌肉的迟滞补偿控制。仿真结果表明,引入迟滞补偿器后显著提高了对气动肌肉的控制精度,验证了所提迟滞补偿器的有效性。     

A guide to analysis and reconstruction of serial block face scanning electron microscopy data

Serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBF‐SEM) is a relatively new technique that allows the acquisition of serially sectioned, imaged and digitally aligned ultrastructural data. There is a wealth of information that can be obtained from the resulting image stacks but this presents a new challenge for researchers – how to computationally analyse and make best use of the large datasets produced. One approach is to reconstruct structures and features of interest in 3D. However, the software programmes can appear overwhelming, time‐consuming and not intuitive for those new to image analysis. There are a limited number of published articles that provide sufficient detail on how to do this type of reconstruction. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide a detailed step‐by‐step protocol, accompanied by tutorial videos, for several types of analysis programmes that can be used on raw SBF‐SEM data, although there are more options available than can be covered here. To showcase the programmes, datasets of skeletal muscle from foetal and adult guinea pigs are initially used with procedures subsequently applied to guinea pig cardiac tissue and locust brain. The tissue is processed using the heavy metal protocol developed specifically for SBF‐SEM. Trimmed resin blocks are placed into a Zeiss Sigma SEM incorporating the Gatan 3View and the resulting image stacks are analysed in three different programmes, Fiji, Amira and MIB, using a range of tools available for segmentation. The results from the image analysis comparison show that the analysis tools are often more suited to a particular type of structure. For example, larger structures, such as nuclei and cells, can be segmented using interpolation, which speeds up analysis; single contrast structures, such as the nucleolus, can be segmented using the contrast‐based thresholding tools. Knowing the nature of the tissue and its specific structures (complexity, contrast, if there are distinct membranes, size) will help to determine the best method for reconstruction and thus maximize informative output from valuable tissue.