The Effects of Probiotic Supplementation on Clinical Symptom,Weight Loss,Glycemic Control,Lipid and Hormonal Profiles,Biomarkers of Inflammation,and Oxidative Stress in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins - The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is to determine the effectiveness of probiotic supplementation...     

Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement Imaging of Glioblastoma at 7 Tesla: Region Specific Correlation with Apparent Diffusion Coefficient and Histology

Objective

To explore the correlation between Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement (NOE)-mediated signals and tumor cellularity in glioblastoma utilizing the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and cell density from histologic specimens. NOE is one type of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) that originates from mobile macromolecules such as proteins and might be associated with tumor cellularity via altered protein synthesis in proliferating cells.

Patients and Methods

For 15 patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma, NOE-mediated CEST-contrast was acquired at 7 Tesla (asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio (MTR_asym) at 3.3ppm, B1 = 0.7 μT). Contrast enhanced T1 (CE-T1), T2 and diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) were acquired at 3 Tesla and coregistered. The T2 edema and the CE-T1 tumor were segmented. ADC and MTR_asym values within both regions of interest were correlated voxelwise yielding the correlation coefficient r_Spearman (r_Sp). In three patients who underwent stereotactic biopsy, cell density of 12 specimens per patient was correlated with corresponding MTR_asym and ADC values of the biopsy site.

Results

Eight of 15 patients showed a weak or moderate positive correlation of MTR_asym and ADC within the T2 edema (0.16≤r_Sp≤0.53, p<0.05). Seven correlations were statistically insignificant (p>0.05, n = 4) or yielded r_Sp≈0 (p<0.05, n = 3). No trend towards a correlation between MTR_asym and ADC was found in CE-T1 tumor (-0.31<r_Sp<0.28, p<0.05, n = 9; p>0.05, n = 6). The biopsy-analysis within CE-T1 tumor revealed a strong positive correlation between tumor cellularity and MTR_asym values in two of the three patients (r_Sp ^patient3 = 0.69 and r_Sp ^patient15 = 0.87, p<0.05), while the correlation of ADC and cellularity was heterogeneous (r_Sp ^patient3 = 0.545 (p = 0.067), r_Sp ^patient4 = -0.021 (p = 0.948), r_Sp ^patient15 = -0.755 (p = 0.005)).

Discussion

NOE-imaging is a new contrast promising insight into pathophysiologic processes in glioblastoma regarding cell density and protein content, setting itself apart from DWI. Future studies might be based on the assumption that NOE-mediated CEST visualizes cellularity more accurately than ADC, especially in the CE-T1 tumor region.     

Sparse connectivity for MAP inference in linear models using sister mitral cells

Sensory processing is hard because the variables of interest are encoded in spike trains in a relatively complex way. A major goal in studies of sensory processing is to understand how the brain extracts those variables. Here we revisit a common encoding model in which variables are encoded linearly. Although there are typically more variables than neurons, this problem is still solvable because only a small number of variables appear at any one time (sparse prior). However, previous solutions require all-to-all connectivity, inconsistent with the sparse connectivity seen in the brain. Here we propose an algorithm that provably reaches the MAP (maximum a posteriori) inference solution, but does so using sparse connectivity. Our algorithm is inspired by the circuit of the mouse olfactory bulb, but our approach is general enough to apply to other modalities. In addition, it should be possible to extend it to nonlinear encoding models.     

Drying trials and protein enrichment by microbial growth on cane and beet molasses distillery stillage

Summary It is well known that molasses stillage is difficult to dry because of its high hygroscopicity. This investigation was made to try to affect the drying capability of beet molasses stillage by the addition of gelling agents. Increase in crude protein and essential amino acid content of beet molasses was obtained by growing Brevibacterium flavum and Candida utilis. The results obtained showed that drying performance is probably due to an optimum combination of the chemico-physical properties of the raw material.     

Electrosyntheses of disaccharides from phenyl or ethyl 1-thioglycosides

Constant current electrolyses of the glycosyl donors phenyl and ethyl 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-benzyl-1-thio-β-d-glycopyranoside in dry acetonitrile in the presence of various primary and secondary sugar alcohols, performed in an undivided cell, gave β-linked disaccharide derivatives selectively in good yields. Phenyl 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-benzoyl-1-thio-β-d-glycopyranoside gave the β-glucosides exclusively in good to moderate yields.