Pyramidal Layer Research Articles

Effect of vestibular stimulation on cold water stress-induced neurological changes in Wistar rats

The current study was undertaken to see the effects of cold-water stress on the brain and to evaluate the beneficial effect of vestibular stimulation on stress-induced brain changes. Healthy, male, Wistar rats, weighing 180 to 250 gm with 3-6 months of age, were used for the study. Stress was induced by making the animals swim in cold water maintained at 100C for 30 min a day, for 14 days. Following cold water swimming stress, bilateral hot water caloric vestibular stimulation was given to the animals using 410C temperature water for 15 days. Rats were sacrificed and histopathological brain changes were studied by Hematoxylin & Eosin staining. Serum corticosterone level has increased significantly after cold water swimming stress (p<0.01). Corticosterone was less in animals that received caloric vestibular stimulation in comparison with the animals which did not receive caloric vestibular stimulation (p<0.05). Coldwater swimming stress had induced focal neuronal atrophy, nuclear pyknosis with congested blood vessels and infiltration of mononuclear inflammatory cells in the hippocampus and hypothalamus. Stressed animals that received caloric vestibular stimulation recovered well and showed the cerebral cortex with the normal neuroglial arrangement. Hypothalamus showed normal morphology and the hippocampus showed a pyramidal layer with a normal thickness in comparison to the animals which did not receive caloric vestibular stimulation. We conclude Caloric vestibular stimulation was effective in reversing the cold-water stress-induced serum corticosterone and histopathological changes in the brain.

Role of NODDI in the MRI Characterization of Hippocampal Abnormalities in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: Clinico-histopathologic Correlations.

The identification of possible hippocampal alterations is a crucial point for the diagnosis and therapy of patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). This study aims to investigate the role of neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) compared to diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in the comprehension of hippocampal microstructure in TLE. DTI and NODDI metrics were calculated in the hippocampi of adult patients with TLE, with and without histology-confirmed hippocampal sclerosis (HS), and in age/sex-matched healthy controls (HC). Diffusion metrics and hippocampal volumes of the pathologic side were compared within participants and between participants among the HS, non-HS, and HC groups. Diffusion metrics were also correlated with hippocampal volume and patients' clinical features. After surgery, hippocampal specimens were processed for neuropathology examinations. Fifteen patients with TLE (9 with and 6 without HS) and 11 HC were included. Hippocampal analyses resulted in a significant increase in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD; mm2/s × 10-3) and decrease in orientation dispersion index (ODI) comparing the pathologic side of patients with HS and their relative nonpathologic side (0.203 vs 0.183, 0.825 vs 0.724, 0.366 vs 0.443, respectively), the pathologic side of patients without HS (0.203 vs 0.169, 0.825 vs 0.745, 0.366 vs 0.453, respectively), and HC (0.203 vs 0.172, 0.825 vs 0.729, 0.366 vs 0.447, respectively). Moreover, neurite density (ND) was significantly decreased comparing both hippocampi of patients with HS (0.416 vs 0.460). A significant increase in free-water isotropic volume fraction (fiso) was found in the comparison of pathologic hippocampi of patients with HS and nonpathologic hippocampi of patients with HS (0.323 vs 0.258) and HC (0.323 vs 0.226). Hippocampal volume of all patients with TLE negatively correlated with MD (r = -0.746, p = 0.0145) and positively correlated with ODI (r = 0.719, p = 0.0145). Fiso and ND of sclerotic hippocampi positively correlated with disease duration (r = 0.684, p = 0.0424 and r = 0.670, p = 0.0486, respectively). Immunohistochemistry in sclerotic hippocampal specimens revealed neuronal loss in the pyramidal layer and fiber reorganization at the level of stratum lacunosum-moleculare, confirming ODI and ND metrics. This study shows the capability of diffusion MRI metrics to detect hippocampal microstructural alterations. Among them, ODI seems to better highlight the fiber reorganization observed by neuropathology in sclerotic hippocampi.

Pyramidal Ownership and SOE Innovation

AbstractHow can state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) become more innovative in emerging economies where market competition emerges and state socialism remains? Rooted in a state socialism logic that traditionally prioritizes central planning, SOEs are increasingly challenged by a market competition logic espousing efficiency and innovation. We posit that the challenge, stemming from the grip of the state as the ultimate owner, may be mitigated for some SOEs under pyramidal ownership. A pyramid features SOEs being organized into chains of firms, creating indirect ownership and control through pyramidal layers. Such layers insulate state intervention in lower‐tier SOEs, loosening the grip of the state socialism logic and facilitating corresponding SOEs’ acceptance of the market competition logic, as reflected in more innovation. Leveraging a sample of SOEs in China, we find that SOEs innovate more when the number of pyramidal layers between them and the state increases. In addition, the innovation‐facilitating role of pyramidal ownership hinges on industry regulations and institutional development. Overall, this paper integrates research on institutional logics and pyramidal ownership to deepen our understanding of SOE innovation.

Spatial distribution of beta-klotho mRNA in the mouse hypothalamus, hippocampal region, subiculum, and amygdala.

Beta-klotho (KLB) is a coreceptor required for endocrine fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 15/19 and FGF21 signaling in the brain. Klb is prominent within the hypothalamus, which is consistent with its metabolic functions, but diverse roles for Klb are now emerging. Central Klb expression is low but discrete and may govern FGF-targeted sites. However, given its low expression, it is unclear if Klb mRNA is more widespread. We performed in situ hybridization to label Klb mRNA to generate spatial maps capturing the distribution and levels of Klb within the mouse hypothalamus, hippocampal region, subiculum, and amygdala. Semiquantitative analysis revealed that Klb-labeled cells may express low, medium, or high levels of Klb mRNA. Hypothalamic Klb hybridization was heterogeneous and varied rostrocaudally within the same region. Most Klb-labeled cells were found in the lateral hypothalamic zone, but the periventricular hypothalamic region, including the suprachiasmatic nucleus, contained the greatest proportion of cells expressing medium or high Klb levels. We also found heterogeneous Klb hybridization in the amygdala and subiculum, where Klb was especially distinct within the central amygdalar nucleus and ventral subiculum, respectively. By contrast, Klb-labeled cells in the hippocampal region only expressed low levels of Klb and were typically found in the pyramidal layer of Ammon's horn or dentate gyrus. The Klb-labeled regions identified in this study are consistent with reported roles of Klb in metabolism, taste preference, and neuroprotection. However, additional identified sites, including within the hypothalamus and amygdala, may suggest novel roles for FGF15/19 or FGF21 signaling.

Internal embeddedness of business group affiliates and innovation performance: Evidence from China

Existing research on the relationship between internal embeddedness and the innovation performance of business group affiliates reports mixed results. We adopt embeddedness theory to identify two distinct characteristics of internal embeddedness, namely directorate embeddedness and capital embeddedness, and their respective impacts on business group affiliates' innovation performance. Based on a sample of listed affiliates in China from 2009 to 2018, our empirical results show that directorate embeddedness is positively related to the innovation performance of affiliates, whereas capital embeddedness has an inverted U-shaped effect. Furthermore, the pyramidal control layers of business groups attenuate the positive relationship between directorate embeddedness and the innovation performance of affiliates, and similar pyramidal control layers abate the inverted U-shaped relationship between capital embeddedness and innovation performance. Our findings highlight the distinctive characteristics of internal embeddedness and provide new insights into an organizational structure that drives business group affiliates’ innovation performance in a key emerging market.

Environmental enrichment leads to behavioral circadian shifts enhancing brain-wide functional connectivity between sensory cortices and eliciting increased hippocampal spiking

Environmental enrichment induces widespread neuronal changes, but the initiation of the cascade is unknown. We ascertained the critical period of divergence between environmental enriched (EE) and standard environment (SE) mice using continuous infrared (IR) videography, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and neuron level calcium imaging. Naïve adult male mice (n = 285, C57BL/6J, postnatal day 60) were divided into SE and EE groups. We assessed the linear time-series of motion activity using a novel structural break test which examined the dataset for change in circadian and day-by-day motion activity. fMRI was used to map brain-wide response using a functional connectome analysis pipeline. Awake calcium imaging was performed on the dorsal CA1 pyramidal layer. We found the preeminent behavioral feature in EE was a forward shift in the circadian rhythm, prolongation of activity in the dark photoperiod, and overall decreased motion activity. The crepuscular period of dusk was seen as the critical period of divergence between EE and SE mice. The functional processes at dusk in EE included increased functional connectivity in the visual cortex, motor cortex, retrosplenial granular cortex, and cingulate cortex using seed-based analysis. Network based statistics found a modulated functional connectome in EE concentrated in two hubs: the hippocampal formation and isocortical network. These hubs experienced a higher node degree and significant enhanced edge connectivity. Calcium imaging revealed increased spikes per second and maximum firing rate in the dorsal CA1 pyramidal layer, in addition to location (anterior-posterior and medial-lateral) effect size differences between EE and SE. The emergence of functional-neuronal changes due to enrichment consisted of enhanced hippocampal-isocortex functional connectivity and CA1 neuronal increased spiking linked to a circadian shift during the dusk period. Future studies should explore the molecular consequences of enrichment inducing shifts in the circadian period.

Effect of the plant flavonoid, rhoifolin, on memory and cognition in a rat model of Alzheimer’s disease

Purpose: To investigate the neuroprotective effect of the natural flavonoid rhoifolin in rats with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced (AD).
 Methods: Morris water-maze and novel object recognition tests were carried out to estimate the effect of rhoifolin on memory and cognition. Histopathological analysis was made to observe thickness of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal layer. Analysis of oxidative stress markers was performed to estimate the effect of rhoifolin on oxidative stress in the hippocampus and frontal cortex.
 Results: Morris water maze and novel object recognition tests showed a significant improvement in the memory, cognition and spatial learning in rhoifolin treated AD animals (p < 0.05). Moreover, rhoifolin treatment resulted in a significant increase in the CA1 pyramidal layer of AD animals indicating its neuroprotective properties (p < 0.05). The increase in the hippocampal CA1 area further validated the reversal of cognitive dysfunctions caused by STZ treatment. Furthermore, analysis of oxidative stress markers SOD, CAT, GPX, GRX, and MDA showed a significant improvement in the oxidative stress in the hippocampus and frontal cortex (p < 0.05).
 Conclusion: The present study is the first report to demonstrate the effect of plant flavonoid, rhoifolin on STZ-induced AD in rat model. Rhoifolin improves spatial learning, cognition, and memory in STZ-treated rat model. Therefore, rhoifolin may be a promising therapeutic agent for the management of AD.

Research on Object Detection of PCB Assembly Scene Based on Effective Receptive Field Anchor Allocation.

Vision-based object detection of PCB (printed circuit board) assembly scenes is essential in accelerating the intelligent production of electronic products. In particular, it is necessary to improve the detection accuracy as much as possible to ensure the quality of assembly products. However, the lack of object detection datasets in PCB assembly scenes is the key to restricting intellectual PCB assembly research development. As an excellent representative of the one-stage object detection model, YOLOv3 (you only look once version 3) mainly relies on placing predefined anchors on the three feature pyramid layers and realizes recognition and positioning using regression. However, the number of anchors distributed in each grid cell of different scale feature layers is usually the same. The ERF (effective receptive field) corresponding to the grid cell at different locations varies. The contradiction between the uniform distribution of fixed-size anchors and the ERF size range in different feature layers will reduce the effectiveness of object detection. Few people use ERF as a standard for assigning anchors to improve detection accuracy. To address this issue, firstly, we constructed a PCB assembly scene object detection dataset, which includes 21 classes of detection objects in three scenes before assembly, during assembly, and after assembly. Secondly, we performed a refined ERF analysis on each grid of the three output layers of YOLOv3, determined the ERF range of each layer, and proposed an anchor allocation rule based on the ERF. Finally, for the small and difficult-to-detect TH (through-holes), we increased the context information and designed improved-ASPP (Atrous spatial pyramid pooling) and channel attention joint module. Through a series of experiments on the object detection dataset of the PCB assembly scene, we found that under the framework of YOLOv3, anchor allocation based on ERF can increase mAP (mean average precision) from 79.32% to 89.86%. At the same time, our proposed method is superior to Faster R-CNN (region convolution neural network), SSD (single shot multibox detector), and YOLOv4 (you only look once version 4) in the balance of high detection accuracy and low computational complexity.

The Relationship between p53-Positive Neurons and Dark Neurons in the Hippocampus of Rats after Surgical Interventions on the Nasal Septum.

The study evaluates the dependence of p53 protein expression on the appearance of dark neurons (DNs) in the hippocampus in rats during experimental modeling of septoplasty. Septoplasty simulation was carried out on 15 sexually mature male Wistar rats. We studied histological sections of the hippocampus stained with Nissl toluidine blue and antibodies to the p53 protein. In the CA1 subfield, the number of p53-positive neurons significantly increased on the 2nd, 4th (p < 0.001) and 6th days (p < 0.05). In the dynamics, the peak of the growth of p53 protein expression in the cytoplasm of CA1 and CA2 neurons fell on the 2-4thday after the operation, and on the 6th day the number of these neurons decreased (p < 0.001). In the cytoplasm of CA3 neurons in all periods after surgery, an increase in the expression of the p53 protein as compared to the control group was noted. In the CA1 pyramidal layer, the number of DNs decreased on the 6th day (p < 0.001). In CA2, after 2 days, a minimum of DNs as compared with the 4th day (p < 0.001) was noted. In CA3, on the 4th day, there was a peak in DNs as compared with the rest of the days (p < 0.001). A positive strong association was found in all periods of assessment and in all subfields of the hippocampus between an increase in the number of dark and p53-positive neurons. The appearance of dark and p53-positive neurons in the hippocampal formation in rats after simulating septoplasty are typical responses of nervous tissue to stress. It is obvious that the expression of the p53 protein is associated with the basophilia of the cytoplasm of neurons, their morpho-functional state. Presumably, the p53 protein can trigger not only the activation of damaged neurons in the hippocampus but also play a neuroprotective role. Upcoming studies should determine the role of the p53 protein in the further fate of damaged neurons in the pyramidal layer and differentiate the mechanisms of its expression.

Real-Time Dance Posture Tracking Method Based on Lightweight Network

Video analysis of human motion has been widely used in intelligent monitoring, sports analysis, and virtual reality as a research hotspot in computer vision. It is necessary to decompose and track the movements in the process of movement in order to improve the training quality in dance training. The traditional motion tracking decomposition method, on the other hand, is unable to calculate the visual changes of adjacent key nodes, and the contour of 3D visual motion tracking remains ambiguous. This paper applies the human posture estimation algorithm in computer vision to the detection of key points of rectangular objects and obtains the heat map of key points of rectangular objects by adding a lightweight feature extraction network and a feature pyramid layer integrating multilayer semantic information, on the basis of summarizing and analyzing related research work at home and abroad. Because of the fusion of multilayer information, the network’s design not only reduces the amount of calculation and parameters but also improves the accuracy of the final detection result. The test results show that the proposed algorithm’s recognition accuracy has improved.

Deficits of Learning and Spatial Memory are Associated with Increased Pyknosis of Pyramidal Neurons of the Hippocampus of Adult Rats with Chronic Hydrocephalus

&#x0D; Background: The hippocampus is the brain's center for the consolidation of short-term and spatial memory that enables navigation. Hippocampal injury occurs in hydrocephalus and is associated with loss of memory.&#x0D; Objective: We assessed pyknotic changes in kaolin-induced chronic hydrocephalus in adult rats using qualitative and quantitative means, and related these to memory deficits in the rats.&#x0D; Methods: Adult rats were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. Hydrocephalus was induced by intracisternal injection of 0.1ml sterile kaolin suspension for 6weeks. Control rats received sham injections. Spatial memory was assessed with the Morris water maze test. Coronal sections of the brains were grouped into either mild or moderate hydrocephalus and then stained with H&amp;E and cresyl violet stains. Thus, there were three groups: control, mild hydrocephalus and moderate hydrocephalus (n=10), respectively.&#x0D; Results: Shrinking and thinning of the hippocampal tissue, distortion of the pyramidal layer and pyknotic cells were observed in the CA1 and CA3 regions of the hydrocephalic rats. The pyknotic indices in the mild hydrocephalic rat (Cornus Ammonis, CA) CA1, CA2, CA3 (54.30±1.38; 27.62±0.83; 57.61±0.74) and moderate hydrocephalic rat CA1, CA2, CA3 (48.18±0.67; 32.00±0.84; 42.41±1.19) regions were significantly increased compared to the controls' CA1, CA2, CA3 (12.14±0.56; 9.21±0.36; 13.04±0.59).&#x0D; Conclusion: Chronic hydrocephalus in adult rats was associated with cell death in all the regions of the hippocampus, irrespective of the degree of ventricular enlargement. The extent of cell death corresponded with the severity of learning and memory deficits.&#x0D; Background: The hippocampus is the center of the brain for the consolidation of short-term memory and spatial memory that enables navigation. Hippocampal damage occurs in hydrocephalus and is associated with memory loss.&#x0D; Objective: We assessed pyknotic changes in chronic kaolin-induced hydrocephalus in adult rats using qualitative and quantitative means, and related them to memory deficits in rats.&#x0D; Methods: Adult rats were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. Hydrocephalus was induced by intracisternal injection of 0.1 ml of sterile kaolin suspension for 6 weeks. Control rats received sham injections. Spatial memory was assessed by the Morris water maze test. Coronal sections of brains were grouped into mild or moderate hydrocephalus and then stained with H&amp;E and cresyl violet. There were therefore three groups: control, mild hydrocephalus and moderate hydrocephalus (n=10), respectively.&#x0D; RESULTS: Shrinking and thinning of hippocampal tissue, distortion of the pyramidal layer, and pyknotic cells were observed in the CA1 and CA3 regions of hydrocephalic rats. The pyknotic indices in the CA1, CA2 and CA3 regions of mild hydrocephalic rats (Cornus Ammonis, CA) (54.30±1.38; 27.62±0.83; 57.61±0.74) and hydrocephalic rats moderate CA1, CA2 and CA3 (48.18±0.67; 32.00±0.84; 42.41±1.19) were significantly increased compared to the CA1, CA2, CA3 regions of controls (12.14±0.56; 9.21±0.36; 13.04±0.59).&#x0D; Conclusion: Chronic hydrocephalus in adult rats was associated with cell death in all regions of the hippocampus, regardless of the degree of ventricular enlargement. The extent of cell death corresponded to the severity of learning and memory deficits.&#x0D; Key words: Chronic hydrocephalus, hippocampus, adult rats, memory, pyknotic cells.&#x0D; &#x0D; Keywords: Adult rats; Chronic hydrocephalus; hippocampus; memory; pyknotic cells.

Two opposing hippocampus to prefrontal cortex pathways for the control of approach and avoidance behaviour

The decision to either approach or avoid a potentially threatening environment is thought to rely upon the coordinated activity of heterogeneous neural populations in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, how this circuitry is organized to flexibly promote both approach or avoidance at different times has remained elusive. Here, we show that the hippocampal projection to PFC is composed of two parallel circuits located in the superficial or deep pyramidal layers of the CA1/subiculum border. These circuits have unique upstream and downstream connectivity, and are differentially active during approach and avoidance behaviour. The superficial population is preferentially connected to widespread PFC inhibitory interneurons, and its activation promotes exploration; while the deep circuit is connected to PFC pyramidal neurons and fast spiking interneurons, and its activation promotes avoidance. Together this provides a mechanism for regulation of behaviour during approach avoidance conflict: through two specialized, parallel circuits that allow bidirectional hippocampal control of PFC.

Emotional Intelligence &amp; ICTs for Women and Equality

Gender equality is a fundamental human right and is essential for the existence of peaceful societies, with human resources that are fully utilized and sustainable development. Emotional Intelligence is not gender biased and it is an integral key to successful personal and working life. In (Drigas &amp; Papoutsi, 2021) there was an attempt to construct a reliable and valid measurement instrument of emotional intelligence with 81 items, based on the theoretical nine-layer pyramid model of emotional intelligence. The sample was consisted of 520 teachers (129 males and 391 females) from primary and secondary school grade and the data was collected with the Nine Layer Pyramid Model Questionnaire for Emotional Intelligence. Among other results we examined gender differences in emotional intelligence. The results revealed some differences between the two genders on emotional intelligence with women scoring higher on overall emotional intelligence. This article also provides an overview of the prevailing emotional intelligence status of both sexes as it emerges through research, beliefs about emotions between women and men, and suggestions for avoiding stereotypes and proper interventions for raising emotional both men and women. Finally, a reference is made to technology in its various forms, including Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which is also associated with emotional intelligence and has great potential to empower women worldwide and promote gender equality

A New Automated Polyp Detection Network MP-FSSD in WCE and Colonoscopy Images Based Fusion Single Shot Multibox Detector and Transfer Learning

Small polyp region detection in wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) images is a challenging task in computer vision owing to two major problems: its variation in terms of shape, texture, and size, and the low illumination in the gastrointestinal tract. This study proposes a multiscale pyramidal fusion single-shot multibox detector network (MP-FSSD) to detect small polyp regions in WCE or colonoscopy frames, or both, with respect to the precision-vs-speed trade-off as the base architecture. We investigated deep transfer learning by transferring knowledge to polyp images, thereby enabling the extraction of highly representative features and contextual information from the FSSD. First, an edge-pooling layer was embedded in the shallow part of the network. Subsequently, the feature maps from different layers and scales were transformed to match their sizes. A concatenation module was introduced to integrate the feature maps from different layers, which were delivered to the next layer, followed by downsampling blocks to generate new pyramidal layers. Finally, the feature maps were fed to the multibox detectors to predict the final detection results. Experimentally, we maintained the same hyperparameters for both datasets for a fair comparison. The proposed MP-FSSD network exceeded FSSD by 3.62% in terms of mean average precision (mAP). The testing speed of 62.5 FPS is superior to that of the competitor detection methods. The proposal demonstrates that deep learning has much room for development in the field of gastrointestinal image detection.

Curvature Filters-Based Multiscale Feature Extraction for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Exploring fast and effective spectral-spatial feature extraction algorithms for hyperspectral image (HSI) classification is one of the most focus problems in current hyperspectral remote-sensing research. Generally, the size of homogeneous regions in HSIs is not consistent in real scenario and real scenario usually consist of ground objects of different scales. Multiscale strategy starts to be used to construct discriminative features at different scales for HSI classification in recent years. To efficiently characterize the multiscale spectral-spatial features of HSIs, a curvature filters-based multiscale feature extraction method with multiscale superpixel segmentation constraint is proposed. The proposed algorithm is composed of the following major stages. First, global multiscale spectral-spatial features are efficiently extracted via progressively curvature filtering and downsampling operations, which can be regarded as an image pyramid decomposition method. Next, a multiscale superpixel segmentation strategy is applied on the first layer of the image pyramid, and a weighted mean operation is applied within and among superpixels to extract the local multiscale spatial features (LMSFs). Finally, the global multiscale curvature features (GMCFs) and the superpixel segmentation-based LMSFs are fused to form the final multiscale spectral-spatial features for classification purposes. To verify the capabilities of the proposed method, comprehensive experiments are performed on five real hyperspectral datasets. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly improve the classification accuracies compared to several standard HSI feature extraction and classification methods, especially when the number of samples for training is limited.

SPEED: Separable Pyramidal Pooling EncodEr-Decoder for Real-Time Monocular Depth Estimation on Low-Resource Settings

The monocular depth estimation (MDE) is the task of estimating depth from a single frame. This information is an essential knowledge in many computer vision tasks such as scene understanding and visual odometry, which are key components in autonomous and robotic systems. Approaches based on the state of the art vision transformer architectures are extremely deep and complex not suitable for real-time inference operations on edge and autonomous systems equipped with low resources (i.e. robot indoor navigation and surveillance). This paper presents SPEED, a Separable Pyramidal pooling EncodEr-Decoder architecture designed to achieve real-time frequency performances on multiple hardware platforms. The proposed model is a fast-throughput deep architecture for MDE able to obtain depth estimations with high accuracy from low resolution images using minimum hardware resources (i.e. edge devices). Our encoder-decoder model exploits two depthwise separable pyramidal pooling layers, which allow to increase the inference frequency while reducing the overall computational complexity. The proposed method performs better than other fast-throughput architectures in terms of both accuracy and frame rates, achieving real-time performances over cloud CPU, TPU and the NVIDIA Jetson TX1 on two indoor benchmarks: the NYU Depth v2 and the DIML Kinect v2 datasets.

Morphological characteristics of the brain nervous tissue during aging

Identification of morphological manifestations and evaluation of morphometric parameters of the nervous tissue in various structures of the human brain during aging. Autopsy material was obtained from patients whose causes of death were not associated with neurological diseases. Three age groups were studied: young (35-45 years old) (n=10); eldery (75-89 years old) (n=20); centenarians (over 90 years old) (n=10). Quantitative analysis of large neurons in the compact part of the substantia nigra, basal ganglia, layer V of the cortex, and the pyramidal layer of the hippocampus was carried out. In addition, the brain mass, the thickness of the cortex of the precentral gyrus were measured, the glial index was calculated, and the morphological signs of age-related involution of the brain tissue and intracerebral vessels were assessed. In senile and centenarians, compared with young people, there was a progressive reduction in large neurons of layer V of the cortex, basal ganglia, the pyramidal layer of the hippocampus and substantia nigra, a decrease in brain mass and thickness of the cortex of the precentral gyrus, as well as an increase in the glial index. Changes in blood vessels characteristic of aging are described. Also, during aging, signs characteristic of neurodegeneration were found. The results of the study confirm that such brain structures as the cortex of the precentral gyrus, the hippocampus, the basal ganglia, and the substantia nigra lose large neurons with age, followed by the development of gliosis. The identified morphological changes characteristic of aging are phenomenologically similar to a certain set of morphological changes in neurodegenerative diseases of late age.

A Fast Video Fire Detection of Irregular Burning Feature in Fire-Flame Using in Indoor Fire Sensing Robots

Indoor fire sensing robot could become the best choice to detect irregularity feature in the complex situation with help of nascent visual technologies. This paper works on improvement computational time and accuracy of video fire detection (VFD) using on those robots. The profile of flame is first identified by flame luminance and chrominance using the proposed VFD network. A more efficient layer aggregation connection is designed to improve detection accuracy. The proposed feature pyramid layer combining ghost convolution and cross-connection improves the feature extraction ability. Improvements in re-parameterized blocks with residual connections increase inference speed. The irrigation feature of fast burning fire flame in the incipient, growth, full-developed and decay stages are fully detected with analysis of the proposed visualized Heat Release Rate (vHRR) with spark, flicker, and other dynamic disturbances involved. Compared with high-performance methods, the average detection accuracy of this method on public datasets and self-built datasets is improved by 3.5% and 2.3%. Five indoor representative scenarios illustrate that our method achieves a good balance between the detection accuracy and speed of flame trends. In the future, the model could be deployed in lightweight, fast-moving indoor sensor robots for fire detection in hazardous environments.

Prenatal alcohol exposure affects developmental differentiation of interictal discharges in septal and temporal hippocampus.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) provokes lifelong CNS dysfunction, including an increased susceptibility to seizure disorders. We investigated hippocampal excitability in vitro in the offspring of dams exposed to a mild ethanol concentration throughout pregnancy (ethanol 15%v/v in drinking water). Hippocampal slices were prepared from the offspring at a young (Y, 21-30 postnatal days, PND) or adult (A, 60 PND) age, with controls from same age normal rats (N). Synchronous spontaneous interictal-type epileptiform discharges (IEDs) were induced by bathing the slices in Mg2+-free ACSF or in 4-Aminopyridine (4-AP, 50µΜ) and were recorded from CA1 pyramidal layer of temporal (T) and septal slices (S). Hippocampal slices readily generated IEDs following NMDA receptor activation or K+ conductance block, with frequency and duration depending on location (septal or temporal), age, the activating mechanism, and prior conditioning (N or PAE). From the two media, 4-AP induced higher frequency (always), shorter duration (mostly) IEDs compared to Mg 2+-free ACSF. Temporal IED frequency increased with age, whereas septal was stable, indicating an earlier maturation of the latter part. The hippocampal "T to S" (high to low) excitability gradient appeared at/later than the end of the first postnatal month and mostly concerned discharge frequency. Discharge duration generally decreased with maturation but appeared to depend on many factors, including conditioning. Prenatal alcohol exposure differentiated the control of synchronous discharges by NMDA receptors and K+ conductances, and their developmental evolution, thus suggesting potential mechanisms for aberrant hippocampal neuronal network function.

Cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) with a high prevalence of hydrocephalus without clinical symptoms.

Normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a condition in which the ventricle is enlarged without elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure, and it generally develops in later life and progresses slowly. A complete animal model that mimics human idiopathic NPH has not yet been established, and the onset mechanisms and detailed pathomechanisms of NPH are not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate a high spontaneous prevalence (34.6%) of hydrocephalus without clinical symptoms in inbred cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus). In all 46 hydrocephalic cotton rats, the severity was mild or moderate and not severe. The dilation was limited to the lateral ventricles, and none of the hemorrhage, ventriculitis, meningitis, or tumor formation was found in hydrocephalic cotton rats. These findings indicate that the type of hydrocephalus in cotton rats is similar to that of communicating idiopathic NPH. Histopathological examinations revealed that the inner granular and pyramidal layers (layers IV and V) of the neocortex became thinner in hydrocephalic brains. A small number of pyramidal cells were positive for Fluoro-Jade C (a degenerating neuron marker) and ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba1)-immunoreactive microglia were in contact with the degenerating neurons in the hydrocephalic neocortex, suggesting that hydrocephalic cotton rats are more or less impaired projections from the neocortex. This study highlights cotton rats as a candidate for novel models to elucidate the pathomechanism of idiopathic NPH. Additionally, cotton rats have some noticeable systemic pathological phenotypes, such as chronic kidney disease and metabolic disorders. Thus, this model might also be useful for researching the comorbidities of NPH to other diseases.