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Recent investigation of cortical coding and computation indicates that temporal coding is probably a more biologically plausible scheme used by neurons than the rate coding used commonly in most published work. We propose and demonstrate in this letter that spiking neural networks (SNN), consisting of spiking neurons that propagate information by the timing of spikes, are a better alternative to the coding scheme based on spike frequency (histogram) alone. The SNN model analyzes cortical neural spike trains directly without losing temporal information for generating more reliable motor command for cortically controlled prosthetics. In this letter, we compared the temporal pattern classification result from the SNN approach with results generated from firing-rate-based approaches: conventional artificial neural networks, support vector machines, and linear regression. The results show that the SNN algorithm can achieve higher classification accuracy and identify the spiking activity related to movement control earlier than the other methods. Both are desirable characteristics for fast neural information processing and reliable control command pattern recognition for neuroprosthetic applications.

Abstract. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of interleukin 22 (IL-22) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in tuberculous pleural effusions (TPEs) and malignant pleural effusions (MPEs). Pleural effusion samples from 56 patients were classified on the basis of diagnosis as TPE (n=28) and MPE (n=28). The concentration of IL-22 was determined by ELISA. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), adenosine dehydrogenase (ADA) and CEA levels were also determined in all patients. A significant difference was observed in the levels of ADA and CEA (P<0.01), but not in the levels of LDH (P>0.05) between TPE and MPE. The concentration of IL-22 in TPE was significantly higher compared to MPE (P<0.01). With a threshold value of 49 pg/ml, IL-22 had a sensitivity of 82.14% (23/28) and a specificity of 96.43% (27/28) for differential diagnosis. The combined detection of IL-22 and CEA had a sensitivity of 100% (28/28) and a specificity of 96.43% (27/28) to distinguish TPE from MPE. TPEs showed significantly higher levels of IL-22 compared to MPEs. The combined detection of IL-22 and CEA may be more valuable in the differential diagnosis between TPE and MPE. IntroductionPleural effusion is one of the most common clinical manifestations of pleural diseases (1-3). According to clinical risk factors and prognosis, pleural effusion can be divided into two categories, benign and malignant (4). The most common cause of benign pleural effusion is tuberculosis (TB), and that of malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is lung and breast cancer (5). Due to different risk factors and prognosis, it is necessary to differentiate between them. However, this remains a major clinical problem. Although the presence of tumor cells in pleural effusion is a diagnostic marker of MPE, the probability of finding them is low. For cytology-negative pleural effusion, some of the currently used indices, such as lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), adenosine dehydrogenase (ADA) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), have a certain extent of differential value, however, their specificity and sensitivity are limited. Due to the fear of possible trauma caused by thoracoscopy, some patients are not keen to agree on such a procedure. Therefore, searching for new indices is very important.The improved understanding of pleural effusion immunopathogenesis could lead to the development of new immunodiagnostic tools to facilitate its differential diagnosis. The main cellular components in both tuberculous pleural effusions (TPEs) and MPEs are lymphocytes. Previous research data have reported that lymphocytes play an important regulatory role in the pathogenesis of pleural effusion (1,2). Inflammation leads to the accumulation of lymphocytes in the pleural cavity, which release a variety of mediators and cytokines influencing pleural capillary permeability, resulting in pleural effusion (6,7). Large scale studies have reported that CD4 + T lymphocytes play an important role in the pathogenesis of pleural effusion (7). CD4 + T cells can be differentiated into Th1, Th2, Th17...