Case Report: Transorbital approach for the management of an orbito-temporal penetrating brain injury (skull base region) secondary to wooden spikes

Background and importance: Transorbital penetrating brain injury (PBI) due to a non-projectile foreign body is rare. It can lead to life-threatening severe neurovascular damage. Surgery is the primary treatment choice; however, there are a number of approaches that can be considered based on the patient's condition in terms of foreign body location and state of the patient. Clinical presentation: An 18-year-old male carpenter was hit by a log and sustained transorbital PBI while cutting wood with a machine. Computed tomography (CT) scan showed a wooden spike that was approximately 11 cm from the left medial orbital to the superior part of the posterolateral of the petrous bone, crossing the right side at the base of the skull. CT angiography (CTA), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and magnetic resonance venography (MRV) revealed no internal carotid artery (ICA) and cavernous sinus lesions, respectively. We had a 3D-printed model for preoperative planning, and surgery was performed using a transorbital approach to extract the wood 14 days after the accident. The impacted wood was removed without any complications. Conclusion: There are many surgical approaches for transorbital PBI. We decided to perform the transorbital approach because it is perpendicular to the entry zone. Surgeons should consistently perform minimally invasive procedures based on the clinical and radiological findings.

Application of the Fine-Grained Soil Prospecting Method in Typical Covered Terrains of Northern China

In recent years, mineral resources near the surface are becoming scarce, causing focused mineral exploration on concealed deposits in covered terrains. In northern China, covered terrains are widespread and conceal bedrock sequences and mineralization. These represent geochemical challenges for mineral exploration in China. As a deep-penetrating geochemical technology that can reflect the information of deep anomalies, the fine-grained soil prospecting method has achieved ideal test results in arid Gobi Desert covered terrain, semi-arid grassland covered terrain, and alluvium soil covered terrain of northern China. The anomaly range indicated by the fine-grained soil prospecting method is very good with the known ore body location. The corresponding relationship can effectively indicate deep ore bodies and delineate anomalies in unknown areas. Overall, the fine-grained soil prospecting method can be applied to geochemical prospecting and exploration in covered terrains.

Correlations between components of the immune system

Background: No evidence of the possibility to alter a constituent of the immune system without directly affecting one of its associated components has been shown yet. Methods: A schematic model was developed in which two triggers, fasting and splenectomy, were studied for their ability to affect the expression of cell membrane epitopes and the cytokine secretion of out-of-body autogeneic and syngeneic lymphocytes. Results: Fasting decreased expression of CD8 and CD25 and increased TNFα levels. The effect of splenectomy as a trigger was investigated in non-fasting mice by comparing splenectomized and non-splenectomized mice. An increase in the CD8 expression and in TNFα, IFNg, and IL10 secretion was noted. The effect of splenectomy as a trigger was investigated in fasting mice by comparing splenectomized and non-splenectomized mice. Splenectomy had a significant effect on expression of CD25 and CD4 CD25 and on secretion of TNFα, IFNg, and IL10. To determine the effect of keeping the cells in an out-of-body location on the expression of lymphocyte epitopes, tubes kept on top of the cages of the fasting mice were compared with tubes kept on top of empty cages. A significant change in the CD8 expression was noted. To determine the effect of keeping cells in an out-of-body location on cytokine secretion, tubes kept on top of cages were tested for cytokine levels. A significant decrease was noted for the secretion of TNFα and IFNg. Conclusions: The data obtained from this study characterized a system for induction of correlations between two components of the immune system without a transfer of mediators. The study showed that a mouse could affect cells at a distance and alter the expression of surface markers and cytokine secretion following two types of triggers: fasting and/or splenectomy. Thus, an out-of-body correlation can be induced between two components of the immune system.

Identification of Lung Innervating Sensory Neurons and Their Target Specificity

Known as the gas exchange organ, the lung is also critical for responding to the aerosol environment in part through interaction with the nervous system. The diversity and specificity of lung innervating neurons remains poorly understood. Here, we interrogated the cell body location, molecular signature and projection pattern of lung innervating sensory neurons. Retrograde tracing from the lung coupled with whole tissue clearing highlighted neurons primarily in the vagal ganglia. Centrally, they project specifically to the nucleus of the solitary tract in the brainstem. Peripherally, they enter the lung alongside branching airways. Labeling of nociceptor Trpv1+ versus peptidergic Tac1+ vagal neurons showed shared and distinct terminal morphology and targeting to airway smooth muscles, vasculature including lymphatics, and alveoli. Notably, a small population of vagal neurons that are Calb1+ preferentially innervate pulmonary neuroendocrine cells, a demonstrated airway sensor population. This atlas of lung innervating neurons serves as a foundation for understanding their function in lung.

Hypothesis awareness confounds asynchronous control conditions in indirect measures of the rubber hand illusion

Reports of changes in experiences of body location and ownership following synchronous tactile and visual stimulation of fake and real hands (rubber hand (RH) effects) are widely attributed to multisensory integration mechanisms. However, existing control methods for subjective report measures (asynchronous stroking and control statements) are confounded by participant hypothesis awareness; the report may reflect response to demand characteristics. Subjective report is often accompanied by indirect (also called ‘objective’ or ‘implicit’) measures. Here, we report tests of expectancies for synchronous ‘illusion’ and asynchronous ‘control’ conditions across two pre-registered studies ( n = 140 and n = 45) for two indirect measures: proprioceptive drift (a change in perceived hand location) and skin conductance response (a measure of physiological arousal). Expectancies for synchronous condition measures were greater than for asynchronous conditions in both studies. Differences between synchronous and asynchronous control condition measures are therefore confounded by hypothesis awareness. This means indirect measures of RH effects may reflect compliance, bias and phenomenological control in response to demand characteristics, just as for subjective measures. Valid control measures are required to support claims of a role of multisensory integration for both direct and indirect measures of RH effects.

Synthesis, extraction and idetification of meat bioactive peptides: a review

The consumption of meat should consider the concept of functional food. The meat had a highquality protein and contain of bioactive peptide compounds. Amino acid was component of bioactive peptides compound. It joined by covalent bonds known as amide or peptide bonds. A lot of research was currently focused on the bioactive peptide compounds isolated from myofibril and sarcoplasmic proteins with the synthesis, extraction, and identification methods. This study used a systematic review to get the structure of amino acids that the source of bioactive components and the principle of synthesis, extraction and identification of bioactive peptide in the meat. This paper highlights were finding on the structure of amino acid in the meat. The proportion of amino acids was also different in each animal body location. The result identified that more than 170 peptides were released from the main structure of the myofibril (actin, myosin) and sarcoplasmic muscle proteins, and the synthesis, extraction and bioactive peptide identification in the meat as well as their potential use as functional food.

A systematic review of smartphone-based human activity recognition methods for health research

Smartphones are now nearly ubiquitous; their numerous built-in sensors enable continuous measurement of activities of daily living, making them especially well-suited for health research. Researchers have proposed various human activity recognition (HAR) systems aimed at translating measurements from smartphones into various types of physical activity. In this review, we summarized the existing approaches to smartphone-based HAR. For this purpose, we systematically searched Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science for peer-reviewed articles published up to December 2020 on the use of smartphones for HAR. We extracted information on smartphone body location, sensors, and physical activity types studied and the data transformation techniques and classification schemes used for activity recognition. Consequently, we identified 108 articles and described the various approaches used for data acquisition, data preprocessing, feature extraction, and activity classification, identifying the most common practices, and their alternatives. We conclude that smartphones are well-suited for HAR research in the health sciences. For population-level impact, future studies should focus on improving the quality of collected data, address missing data, incorporate more diverse participants and activities, relax requirements about phone placement, provide more complete documentation on study participants, and share the source code of the implemented methods and algorithms.

The role of vision and proprioception in self-motion encoding: An immersive virtual reality study

Past research on the advantages of multisensory input for remembering spatial information has mainly focused on memory for objects or surrounding environments. Less is known about the role of cue combination in memory for own body location in space. In a previous study, we investigated participants’ accuracy in reproducing a rotation angle in a self-rotation task. Here, we focus on the memory aspect of the task. Participants had to rotate themselves back to a specified starting position in three different sensory conditions: a blind condition, a condition with disrupted proprioception, and a condition where both vision and proprioception were reliably available. To investigate the difference between encoding and storage phases of remembering proprioceptive information, rotation amplitude and recall delay were manipulated. The task was completed in a real testing room and in immersive virtual reality (IVR) simulations of the same environment. We found that proprioceptive accuracy is lower when vision is not available and that performance is generally less accurate in IVR. In reality conditions, the degree of rotation affected accuracy only in the blind condition, whereas in IVR, it caused more errors in both the blind condition and to a lesser degree when proprioception was disrupted. These results indicate an improvement in encoding own body location when vision and proprioception are optimally integrated. No reliable effect of delay was found.