Proceedings, 2021, IECBS 2020

Background: The associations between inflammatory markers and many diseases have been the subject of many articles and reviews. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric, review and visualization analysis of inflammatory biomarkers (IB) in the context of febrile seizure (FS) patients. Methods: The study focused on the IB in FS using (1) bibliometric analysis-specific indicators and maps in order to analyze and present the network of authors, journals, universities and countries, (2) automated literature screening and unsupervised clustering approach for filtering and topic cluster identification. Results: We conducted a literature mining search on FS research, specifically IB in the context of FS, using automated tool VOSViewer. The presentation and discussions on the resulted bibliometric maps and topic clusters offer a comprehensive overview, status and leading trends in existing research on inflammatory biomarkers in FS. Conclusion. The analysis using bibliometric methods and review with graphical presentations can be very useful in investigating and better understanding the relationship between FS and IB. Full article

The genus Blechnum L. includes a large variety of species native to central and southern continental Chile: B. arcuatum, B. asperum, B. blechnoides, B. chilense, B. corralense, B hastatum, B. magellanicum, B. microphyllum, B. mochaenum and B. penna-marina, containing compounds such as flavonols, hydroxycinnamic acids, lignans, and phytoecdysteroids. In this examination, terpenic compounds of the phytoecdysone type with pharmacological potential on the central nervous system are detailed. These compounds are characterized by a C27, C28 or C29 structure that possesses a 14-alpha-hydroxy-7-en-6-one chromophore and an A/B-cis (5beta-H) ring fusion that can be extracted from the plant with organic solvents, such as hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and ethanol, is concentrated in a reduced pressure rotary evaporator and are identified by gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometry detector (GC-MS) or a tandem ionization electrospray network detector UHPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS. Phytoecdysteroids applied in vitro and in vivo models of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s at concentrations between 100 and 500 µg/mL, can modulate the enzymatic inhibition of monoamine oxidases (MAO-A and MAO-B) and cholinesterases (AChE and BChE), with zero toxicity effects and satisfactory results in cell viability. Full article

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are considered common facilitating factors along with other infections in triggering febrile seizures (FS). The main purpose of our study was to identify specific patterns of UTIs, using a combination of inflammatory biomarkers, in order to differentiate UTIs from other bacterial diseases triggering FS. Method: This study included a number of 197 distinct FS events from patients hospitalized in the Pediatric Clinical Hospital Sibiu, among which 10.2% were diagnosed with UTIs. Results: In one-third of the patients with UTI, the symptoms were limited to fever and FS. Using Two-Step cluster analysis, a distinct inflammatory pattern has emerged: higher platelet distribution of the population (PDW), platelet large cell ratio (P-LCR), mean platelet volume (MPV), C-Reactive Protein (CRP), and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR). This pattern was associated mainly with bacterial lower respiratory infections. UTIs were highly unlikely in the patients with significantly increased CRP values and normal values of platelet indices. Conclusion. Considering the nonspecific clinical picture of UTIs at an early age, to optimize the management of FS, a fast diagnosis of UTI is mandatory. Our study suggests that analyzing the inflammatory biomarkers interlinks (rather than individual parameters) could help identify even oligosymptomatic UTIs patients. Full article

During the transition from neonate to adulthood, brain maturation establishes coherence between behavioral states—wakefulness, non-rapid eye movement, and rapid eye movement sleep. Few studies have characterized and analyzed cerebral rhythms and the sleep–wake cycle in early ages, in relation to adulthood. Since the analysis of sleep in early ages can be used as a predictive model of brain development and the subsequent emergence of neural disturbances in adults, we performed a study on late neonatal and adult wild-type C57BL/6 mice. We acquired longitudinal 24 h electroencephalogram and electromyogram recordings and performed time and spectral analyses. We compared both age groups and found that late neonates: (i) spent more time in wakefulness and less time in non-rapid eye movement sleep, (ii) showed an increased relative band power in delta, which, however, reduced in theta during each behavioral state, (iii) showed a reduced relative band power in beta during wakefulness and non-rapid eye movement sleep, and (iv) manifested an increased total power over all frequencies. Given the mice–human age equivalence, the data presented here might have implications for the clinical context in the analysis of electroencephalogram and sleep-based early and late diagnosis after injury or neurodegeneration. Full article

In marketing, there are many methods to relate reactions to products to customer preference. Current electroencephalography (EEG) signal analysis in the neuromarketing field focuses mainly on correlations between selected electrodes and hemisphere-based analysis on single scalp measures. The present study shows microstate analysis of brain EEG signals in goal-oriented videos. We measured a 16 channel EEG with an Emotiv EPOC+ device. We used two oriented videos from the Ecuadorian Government to publicize Ecuador as a tourist destination. We used a Topographic Atomize and Agglomerate Hierarchical Clustering (TAAHC) microstate analysis for the duration of the EEG as the participants watched each video. We picked the four predominant, in total time and repeatability, microstate maps that represent more than 50% of the entire recording time. We also show, in time, how topographies are represented along the video, which in a later step could be correlated with the images observed in the videos. We show the existing relations between the existing microstates. A microstate analysis of brain signal behavior across time might be a valid methodology and useful tool to analyze videos with marketing purposes. Full article