Visualization of Endolymphatic Hydrops in Patients With Unilateral Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss With Four Types According to Chinese Criterion

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible value of endolymphatic hydrops (EH) in patients with unilateral idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (UISSNHL) with four types according to audiometry.Methods: Seventy-two patients (40 men and 32 women; age range, 28–78 years; mean age: 50.0 ± 12.9 years) with UISSNHL were admitted retrospectively into this study. Based on the pure tone audiometry before treatment, the hearing loss of all these patients were categorized into four types: low-frequency group (LF-G), high-frequency group (HF-G), flat group (F-G), and total deafness group (TD-G). The average time from symptom onset to the first examination was 6.9 ± 4.4 days (1–20 days). 3D-FLAIR MRI was performed 24 h after intratympanic injection of gadolinium (Gd) within 1 week after the UISSNHL onset. The incidence of EH in the affected ears based on four types of hearing loss were analyzed using the Chi-square test, and the possible relationship with vertigo and prognosis were also assessed.Results: Eleven of 21 patients (52.4%) in LF-G had the highest EH-positive rate, followed by 18.2% in HF-G, 11.8% in F-G, and 17.4% in TD-G. The significant difference was found in the four groups (P = 0.018). The EH rate of LF-G was statistically significantly higher than that of F-G and TD-G (P = 0.009, P =0.014), respectively. After being valued by the volume-referencing grading system (VR scores), the EH level was represented by the sum scores of EH. In LF-G, no statistically significant difference was found in the prognosis of ISSNHL patients between with the EH group and the no EH group (P = 0.586). The symptom “vertigo” did not correlate with EH and prognosis.Conclusions: EH was observed in UISSNHL patients by 3D-FLAIR MRI. EH may be responsible for the pathology of LF-G but not related to prognosis. It might be meaningless to assess EH in other hearing loss types, which might be more related to the blood-labyrinth dysfunction

FGF22 deletion causes hidden hearing loss by affecting the function of inner hair cell ribbon synapses

Ribbon synapses are important structures in transmitting auditory signals from the inner hair cells (IHCs) to their corresponding spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). Over the last few decades, deafness has been primarily attributed to the deterioration of cochlear hair cells rather than ribbon synapses. Hearing dysfunction that cannot be detected by the hearing threshold is defined as hidden hearing loss (HHL). The relationship between ribbon synapses and FGF22 deletion remains unknown. In this study, we used a 6-week-old FGF22 knockout mice model (Fgf22–/–) and mainly focused on alteration in ribbon synapses by applying the auditory brainstem response (ABR) test, the immunofluorescence staining, the patch-clamp recording, and quantitative real-time PCR. In Fgf22–/– mice, we found the decreased amplitude of ABR wave I, the reduced vesicles of ribbon synapses, and the decreased efficiency of exocytosis, which was suggested by a decrease in the capacitance change. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that Fgf22–/– led to dysfunction in ribbon synapses by downregulating SNAP-25 and Gipc3 and upregulating MEF2D expression, which was important for the maintenance of ribbon synapses’ function. Our research concluded that FGF22 deletion caused HHL by affecting the function of IHC ribbon synapses and may offer a novel therapeutic target to meet an ever-growing demand for deafness treatment

Relationship between rice genetic diversity and microbiota composition in traditional Yuanyang rice terraces of China. P1

Rice has been annually cultivated for more than 1400 years in the Yuanyang terraces (YYT) of Yunnan, China. Interestingly, the level of diseases observed in this region has always remained low and, consequently, the YYT rice production has never been constrained by a heavy disease burden. A recent study has shown that the arsenal of resistance genes overall born by the rice traditional varieties that are grown in YYT prevents the dissemination of the highly virulent fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae (Liao et al 2016). While the use of more than 40 traditional rice varieties has been maintained for centuries in YYT, but the use of a few modern improved varieties has been drastically increased the last few years. This significant change in the overall level of diversity of the rice varieties growing in YYT may affect the long‐term sustainable rice protection of this region. Our overarching hypothesis is that the simplification of the varietal landscape is driving a modification of the YYT rice microbiota, which may by extension have an impact on the YYT plant pathogen dynamics, and further on the pathogen emergence or non‐emergence. In this study, we have focused our sampling design on a YYT village where both traditional and modern varieties have been equally cultivated for 3‐4 years. We have sampled 9 fields cultivated with traditional rice varieties and 9 fields cultivated with improved rice varieties. The 180 collected plants (10 plants X 18 fields) were genotyped after partial genome sequencing (genotyping‐by‐sequencing approach, GBS). The GBS library was established using the ApekI restriction enzyme, we genotyped the panel of samples with up to 5000 informative SNP markers. This GBS study has confirmed the high degree of diversity of YYT traditional rice varieties in comparison to the low level of diversity of the modern improved varieties that are increasingly introduced in the YYT region. We have further characterized the roots and the stem microbiota using the virion‐associated nucleic acid metagenomics‐based approach to characterize the virus communities and metabarcoding methods for the bacteria and fungi communities. Besides highlighting the characterization of the microbiota of each rice variety, we will present preliminary results on the relationship between the YYT host genetic diversity and the rice microbiota composition

Rice genetic diversity and microbiome characterization of a centuries-old Chinese rice agro-system

Plant microbial communities may moderate the plant responses to different abiotic or biotic stresses like pathogens. On the other hand, plant genotypes may influence the composition and structure of the plant microbiota. In the Chinese Yuanyang terraces (YYT), a sustainable rice disease control has been achieved for centuries using mixtures of traditional genetically diverse rice varieties harboring a wide panel of resistance genes. However, this centuries-old agrosystem is currently challenged by the introduction of several “modern” rice varieties. The potential simplification of the rice varietal landscape is likely to drive a modification of the rice microbiota, which may have an impact on the plant-pathogen dynamics, and further on the frequency, extent and impact of disease emergence events. We here investigated the microbial communities (bacteria, fungi and viruses) associated with roots and aerial organs from eleven and eight YYT fields cultivated with traditional and “modern” rice varieties, respectively. Besides using a genotyping-by-sequencing approach (GBS) to decipher the rice genetic diversity, microbial communities were characterized by metagenomics approaches. The GBS approach confirms a shift of the rice genetic diversity and split the varieties into three lineages (traditional varieties, “modern” introduced varieties and one Japonica traditional variety). Metagenomics approaches show that microbial communities from aerial organs are lineage-dependent and that microbial communities from the roots are more homogeneous and not different among rice lineages. Interestingly, our study reveals a high prevalence (15%) of Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus in Yuanyang terraces, and that this virus is significantly more prevalent in traditional local varieties

Vestibular Endolymphatic Hydrops Visualized by Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Its Correlation With Vestibular Functional Test in Patients With Unilateral Meniere's Disease

Background:Currently, 3 Tesla-MRI following intratympanic gadolinium injection has made it possible to assess the existence and the severity of hydrops in each compartment of the endolymphatic spacesin vivo. However, the relationship between vestibular endolymphatic hydrops (EH) visualized by MRI and vestibular functional tests, especially the correlation between caloric test, video-head impulse test, and semicircular canal hydrops, has not been well-investigated.Objective:The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the severity of EH in each compartment of otoliths and semicircular canal and the results of vestibular functional tests.Methods:In this retrospective study, we performed three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) sequences following intratympanic gadolinium injection in 69 unilateral patients with definite Menière's disease. Vestibular and lateral semicircular canal hydrops was graded on MRI using a four grade criterion. All patients underwent pure-tone audiometry, cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP), ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP), caloric test and video head impulse test (vHIT). The latency, amplitude and asymmetry ratio of VEMP, canal paresis (CP) and vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain of lateral semicircular canal of vHIT were collected. The correlation analysis were performed between the parameters of function test and EH.Results:Vestibular EH showed correlations with the duration of disease (r= 0.360) and pure tone average (r= 0.326). AR of cVEMP showed correlations with Vestibular EH (r= 0.407). CP (r= 0.367) and VOR gain of lateral semicircular canal at 60 ms (r= 0.311) showed correlations with lateral semicircular canal hydrops.Conclusion:EH in different compartments is readily visualized by using 3D-FLAIR MRI techniques. The degree of vestibular EH correlated with AR of cVEMP and EH in the semicircular canal ampullar affects the caloric and vHIT response in patients with unilateral Meniere‘s disease.</jats:p

Vehicle Intersections Prediction Based on Markov Model with Variable Weight Optimization

In this study, a new algorithm for predicting vehicle turning at intersections is proposed. The method is based on the Markov chain and can predict vehicle trajectories using GPS location sequences. Unlike traditional Markov models, which use preset weights, we created the Markov model using a data-driven weight selection method. The proposed model can dynamically adjust the weights of each intersection&rsquo;s influence on current trajectories based on the data, in contrast to the fixed weights in traditional models. The study also details how to process trajectory data to identify whether a vehicle has passed through an intersection and how to determine the adjacency relationship of intersections, thus providing a reference for implementing a model of the classification problem. The data-driven algorithm was applied and compared to the fixed-weight algorithm on the same trajectory dataset, and the superiority of the weight selection algorithm was proven. The prediction accuracy of the traditional method was 49.61%, while the proposed method achieved a prediction accuracy of 60.66% for 100,000 trajectory datasets, nearly an 11% increase. Volunteer participation in the second dataset collected on the university campus showed that the accuracy of the proposed method could be further improved to 79.31% as the GPS sampling frequency increased. Simulation results show that the algorithm provides accurate prediction and that the prediction effect is improved with the expansion of the trajectory data set and the increase in GPS sampling frequency. The proposed algorithm has the potential to provide a location-based optimization of network resource allocation