Resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI) has been drawing more and more attention in recent years. However, a publicly available, systematically integrated and easy-to-use tool for RS-fMRI data processing is ...still lacking. We developed a toolkit for the analysis of RS-fMRI data, namely the RESting-state fMRI data analysis Toolkit (REST). REST was developed in MATLAB with graphical user interface (GUI). After data preprocessing with SPM or AFNI, a few analytic methods can be performed in REST, including functional connectivity analysis based on linear correlation, regional homogeneity, amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF), and fractional ALFF. A few additional functions were implemented in REST, including a DICOM sorter, linear trend removal, bandpass filtering, time course extraction, regression of covariates, image calculator, statistical analysis, and slice viewer (for result visualization, multiple comparison correction, etc.). REST is an open-source package and is freely available at http://www.restfmri.net.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Design and culture are more and more intertwined and complementary. The current state of cultural and creative products is characterized by a lack of a combination of artistic elements and modern ...design. Traditional cultural and creative products that incorporate digital art elements are designed by this paper using virtual reality technology. Computer technology is used to generate a virtual environment, combined with VR tools to interact with the virtual environment, reproduce three-dimensional objects, and generate three-dimensional images by using mathematical pathways for image visualization. The digital art elements in the image are extracted by K-mean clustering algorithm, and the extracted elements are output to the element adjacency matrix to realize the visual display of the matching and proportion of digital art elements. By combining the methods above, it is proposed to extract digital art elements from traditional cultural and creative products. After market research to understand the crowd’s preference for cultural and creative product design, as well as analyzing the application of digital elements in cultural and creative products, the design effectiveness is analyzed. The research results show that people pay more attention to decorative and living cultural and creative products, the number of people who pay attention to them is 78 and 83 respectively, and the standard deviation is 26.674 and 31.064. The content of dynamic and interactive elements is the highest among the 6 kinds of digital art elements, which is 113. The cultural and creative products designed in this paper contain more digital elements, and the results achieved are better.
Background
Studies regarding the impact of Parkinson's disease (PD) on quality of life (QOL) have reported conflicting results, and the underlying QOL domains require further study. In order to ...understand the association between PD and QOL, we conducted this meta‐analysis to systematically compare QOL between PD patients and healthy controls.
Method
The PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases were systematically searched. Data were analyzed using the random‐effects model.
Results
Twenty studies covering 2707 PD patients and 150,661 healthy controls were included in the study. Compared with healthy controls, PD patients had significantly poorer QOL overall and in most domains with moderate to large effects sizes. Different QOL measures varied in their association with quality of life, with the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire‐39 (PDQ‐39) having the largest effect size (standard mean difference, SMD = −1.384, 95% CI: −1.607, −1.162, Z = 12.189, P < 0.001), followed by the Europe Quality of Life Questionnaire‐visual analogue scale (EQ‐VAS) (SMD = −1.081, 95% CI: −1.578, −0.584, Z = −4.265, P < 0.001), Europe Quality of Life Questionnaire‐5D (EQ‐5D) (SMD = −0.889, 95% CI: −1.181, −0.596, Z = −5.962, P < 0.001), and the Short‐form Health Survey (SF) scales (physical dimension: SMD = −0.826, 95% CI: −1.529, −0.123, Z = −2.303, P = 0.021; mental dimension: SMD = −0.376, 95% CI: −0.732, −0.019, Z = −2.064, P = 0.039).
Conclusion
PD patients had lower QOL compared with healthy controls in most domains, especially in physical function and mental health. Considering the negative impact of poor QOL on daily life and functional outcomes, effective measures should be developed to improve QOL in this population.
Improving the QOL in patients with PD is an important concern, which can provide reference for decisions of policymakers and clinicians. PD patients had significantly poorer QOL, with moderate to large effect sizes in most domains. Moreover, different QOL measures had moderating effects on the results.
Blockchain is becoming popular as a distributed and reliable ledger which allows distrustful parties to transact safely without trusting third parties. Emerging blockchain systems like Ethereum ...support smart contracts where miners can run arbitrary user-defined programs. However, one of the biggest concerns about the blockchain and the smart contract is privacy, since all the transactions on the chain are exposed to the public. In this paper, we present ShadowEth, a system that leverages hardware enclave to ensure the confidentiality of smart contracts while keeping the integrity and availability based on existing public blockchains like Ethereum. ShadowEth establishes a confidential and secure platform protected by trusted execution environment (TEE) off the public blockchain for the execution and storage of private contracts. It only puts the process of verification on the blockchain. We provide a design of our system including a protocol of the cryptographic communication and verification and show the applicability and feasibility of ShadowEth by various case studies. We implement a prototype using the Intel SGX on the Ethereum network and analyze the security and availability of the system.
Rapid, sensitive, point-of-care detection of bacteria is extremely important in food safety. To address this requirement, we developed a new surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based lateral ...flow (LF) strip biosensor combined with recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) for simultaneous detection of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis. AuMBA@Ag core–shell nanoparticles were used in this SERS-LF. Highly sensitive quantitative detection is achieved by measuring the characteristic peak intensities of SERS tags. Under optimal conditions, the SERS intensities of MBA at 1077 cm–1 on test lines are used to measure S. Enteritidis (y = 1980.6x – 539.3, R 2 = 0.9834) and L. monocytogenes (y = 1696.0x – 844, R 2 = 0.9889), respectively. The limit of detection is 27 CFU/mL for S. Enteritidis and 19 CFU/mL for L. monocytogenes. Significantly, this SERS-LF has high specificity and applicability in the detection of L. monocytogenes and S. Enteritidis in food samples. Therefore, the SERS-LF is a feasible method for the rapid and quantitative detection of a broad range of bacterial pathogens in real food samples.
Brain imaging efforts are being increasingly devoted to decode the functioning of the human brain. Among neuroimaging techniques, resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) is currently expanding exponentially. ...Beyond the general neuroimaging analysis packages (e.g., SPM, AFNI and FSL), REST and DPARSF were developed to meet the increasing need of user-friendly toolboxes for R-fMRI data processing. To address recently identified methodological challenges of R-fMRI, we introduce the newly developed toolbox, DPABI, which was evolved from REST and DPARSF. DPABI incorporates recent research advances on head motion control and measurement standardization, thus allowing users to evaluate results using stringent control strategies. DPABI also emphasizes test-retest reliability and quality control of data processing. Furthermore, DPABI provides a user-friendly pipeline analysis toolkit for rat/monkey R-fMRI data analysis to reflect the rapid advances in animal imaging. In addition, DPABI includes preprocessing modules for task-based fMRI, voxel-based morphometry analysis, statistical analysis and results viewing. DPABI is designed to make data analysis require fewer manual operations, be less time-consuming, have a lower skill requirement, a smaller risk of inadvertent mistakes, and be more comparable across studies. We anticipate this open-source toolbox will assist novices and expert users alike and continue to support advancing R-fMRI methodology and its application to clinical translational studies.
In children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), functional neuroimaging studies have revealed abnormalities in various brain regions, including prefrontal-striatal circuit, ...cerebellum, and brainstem. In the current study, we used a new marker of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), amplitude of low-frequency (0.01–0.08
Hz) fluctuation (ALFF) to investigate the baseline brain function of this disorder. Thirteen boys with ADHD (13.0
±
1.4 years) were examined by resting-state fMRI and compared with age-matched controls. As a result, we found that patients with ADHD had decreased ALFF in the right inferior frontal cortex, left sensorimotor cortex, and bilateral cerebellum and the vermis as well as increased ALFF in the right anterior cingulated cortex, left sensorimotor cortex, and bilateral brainstem. This resting-state fMRI study suggests that the changed spontaneous neuronal activity of these regions may be implicated in the underlying pathophysiology in children with ADHD.
The amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) measures resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) signal of each voxel. However, the unit of blood oxygenation level-dependent ...(BOLD) signal is arbitrary and hence ALFF is sensitive to the scale of raw signal. A well-accepted standardization procedure is to divide each voxel's ALFF by the global mean ALFF, named mALFF. Although fractional ALFF (fALFF), a ratio of the ALFF to the total amplitude within the full frequency band, offers possible solution of the standardization, it actually mixes with the fluctuation power within the full frequency band and thus cannot reveal the true amplitude characteristics of a given frequency band. The current study borrowed the percent signal change in task fMRI studies and proposed percent amplitude of fluctuation (PerAF) for RS-fMRI. We firstly applied PerAF and mPerAF (i.e., divided by global mean PerAF) to eyes open (EO) vs. eyes closed (EC) RS-fMRI data. PerAF and mPerAF yielded prominently difference between EO and EC, being well consistent with previous studies. We secondly performed test-retest reliability analysis and found that (PerAF ≈ mPerAF ≈ mALFF) > (fALFF ≈ mfALFF). Head motion regression (Friston-24) increased the reliability of PerAF, but decreased all other metrics (e.g. mPerAF, mALFF, fALFF, and mfALFF). The above results suggest that mPerAF is a valid, more reliable, more straightforward, and hence a promising metric for voxel-level RS-fMRI studies. Future study could use both PerAF and mPerAF metrics. For prompting future application of PerAF, we implemented PerAF in a new version of REST package named RESTplus.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Parietal alpha activity shows a specific pattern of phasic changes during working memory. It decreases during the encoding and recall phases but increases during the maintenance phase. This study ...tested whether online rTMS delivered to the parietal cortex during the maintenance phase of a working memory task would increase alpha activity and hence improve working memory. Then, 46 healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to two groups to receive 3‐day parietal 10 Hz online rTMS (either real or sham, 3600 pulses in total) that were time‐locked to the maintenance phase of a spatial span task (180 trials in total). Behavioral performance on another spatial span task and EEG signals during a change detection task were recorded on the day before the first rTMS (pretest) and the day after the last rTMS (posttest). We found that rTMS improved performance on both online and offline spatial span tasks. For the offline change detection task, rTMS enhanced alpha activity within the maintenance phase and improved interference control of working memory at both behavioral (K score) and neural (contralateral delay activity) levels. These results suggested that rTMS with alpha frequency time‐locked to the maintenance phase is a promising way to boost working memory.
We have found that 3 days of parietal 10 Hz rTMS resulted in offline alpha oscillation entrainment and improved working memory. This study is the first to demonstrate that targeting parietal alpha oscillation can noninvasively modulate working memory.
The theory on the glymphatic convection mechanism of cerebrospinal fluid holds that cardiac pulsations in part pump cerebrospinal fluid from the peri-arterial spaces through the extracellular tissue ...into the peri-venous spaces facilitated by aquaporin water channels. Since cardiac pulses cannot be the sole mechanism of glymphatic propulsion, we searched for additional cerebrospinal fluid pulsations in the human brain with ultra-fast magnetic resonance encephalography. We detected three types of physiological mechanisms affecting cerebral cerebrospinal fluid pulsations: cardiac, respiratory, and very low frequency pulsations. The cardiac pulsations induce a negative magnetic resonance encephalography signal change in peri-arterial regions that extends centrifugally and covers the brain in ≈1 Hz cycles. The respiratory ≈0.3 Hz pulsations are centripetal periodical pulses that occur dominantly in peri-venous areas. The third type of pulsation was very low frequency (VLF 0.001–0.023 Hz) and low frequency (LF 0.023–0.73 Hz) waves that both propagate with unique spatiotemporal patterns. Our findings using critically sampled magnetic resonance encephalography open a new view into cerebral fluid dynamics. Since glymphatic system failure may precede protein accumulations in diseases such as Alzheimer's dementia, this methodological advance offers a novel approach to image brain fluid dynamics that potentially can enable early detection and intervention in neurodegenerative diseases.
PDF
