Smartphone-based intelligent system with a wearable throat microphone for real-time screening of swallowing ability.

Objectives: Accurate and timely swallowing ability screening is essential for effective prevention and treatment of dysphagia. Current clinical imaging methods are often radioactive or invasive, limiting their applicability for routine monitoring. This study aims to develop a smartphone-based intelligent system for real-time screening of swallowing ability using a wearable throat microphone.

Wind Turbine Blade Fault Detection Method Based on TROA-SVM.

Wind turbines are predominantly situated in remote, high-altitude regions, where they face a myriad of harsh environmental conditions. Factors such as high humidity, strong gusts, lightning strikes, and heavy snowfall significantly increase the vulnerability of turbine blades to fatigue damage. This susceptibility poses serious risks to the normal operation and longevity of the turbines, necessitating effective monitoring and maintenance strategies.

Platelet-rich plasma injection for enterocutaneous fistula: a case report.

Introduction: An ECF is an abnormal communication between the small or large bowel and the skin. PRP provides a variety of bioactive factors to promote wound healing. This case report details the use of PRP in the management of ECF.

Genome-wide DNA methylation analysis of cognitive function in middle and old-aged Chinese monozygotic twins.

Cognitive ability plays an important role in mental and physical well-beings in the increasingly ageing populations. Here, based on a sample of 30 cognitive function-discordant monozygotic twin pairs, we aimed to detect specific epigenetic variants potentially related to cognitive function by conducting an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS). Association between methylation level of single CpG site with cognitive function score was tested by linear mixed effect model.

Propionate promotes vitamin D receptor expression via yes-associated protein in rats with short bowel syndrome.

Vitamin D deficiency and refractory osteoporosis are common complications in patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS). The symptom of bone loss is not effectively alleviated, even after the oral administration of vitamin D in SBS patients who had been weaned off parenteral nutrition. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of propionate on the expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in the small intestine of rats with SBS.

Rotating Machinery Fault Diagnosis Based on Improved Multiscale Amplitude-Aware Permutation Entropy and Multiclass Relevance Vector Machine.

The health state of rotating machinery directly affects the overall performance of the mechanical system. The monitoring of the operation condition is very important to reduce the downtime and improve the production efficiency. This paper presents a novel rotating machinery fault diagnosis method based on the improved multiscale amplitude-aware permutation entropy (IMAAPE) and the multiclass relevance vector machine (mRVM) to provide the necessary information for maintenance decisions.

Long noncoding RNA CCDC144NL-AS1 knockdown induces naïve-like state conversion of human pluripotent stem cells.

Background: Human naïve pluripotency state cells can be derived from direct isolation of inner cell mass or primed-to-naïve resetting of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) through different combinations of transcription factors, small molecular inhibitors, and growth factors. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified to be crucial in diverse biological processes, including pluripotency regulatory circuit of mouse pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), but few are involved in human PSCs' regulation of pluripotency and naïve pluripotency derivation. This study initially planned to discover more lncRNAs possibly playing significant roles in the regulation of human PSCs' pluripotency, but accidently identified a lncRNA whose knockdown in human PSCs induced naïve-like pluripotency conversion.

Anisotropic infrared plasmonic broadband absorber based on graphene-black phosphorus multilayers.

Two-dimensional materials (2DMs) such as graphene and black phosphorus (BP) have aroused considerable attentions in the past few years. Engineering and enhancing their light-matter interaction is possible due to their support for localized surface plasmon resonances in the infrared regime. In this paper, we have proposed an infrared broadband absorber consisting of multilayer graphene-BP nanoparticles sandwiched between dielectric layers.

Microbial transformation of the anti-aging agent cycloastragenol by .

The microbial transformation of cycloastragenol (CA) by AS 3.20 was investigated. Seven isolated products were identified as (20,24)-3β,6α,16β,25- tetrahydroxy-20,24-epoxy-9,10--cycloartan-9(11),10(19)-diene (), (20,24)- 3β,6α,16β,25-tetrahydroxy-20,24-epoxy-9,10--cycloartan-1(10),9(11)-diene (), (20,24)-3β,16β,25-trihydroxy-6α,19α;20,24-diepoxy-9,10--cycloartan-9(11)-ene (), (20,24)-6α,16β,25-trihydroxy-3β,10β;20,24-diepoxy-9,10-- cycloartan-11-one (), (20,24)-16β,25-dihydroxy-6α-methoxy-3β,10β;20,24- diepoxy-9,10--cycloartan-7(8),9(11)-diene (), (20,24)-6α,16β,25-trihydroxy-3β,10β;20,24-diepoxy-9,10--cycloartan-9(11)-ene (), and (20,24)-3β,6α,16β,25-tetrahydroxy-19-acetoxy-ranunculan-9(10)-ene () by spectroscopic analysis.

Microbial hydroxylation and glycosidation of oleanolic acid by and their anti-inflammatory activities.

Biotransformation of oleanolic acid (OA) by AS 3.2695 was investigated. Nine hydroxylated and glycosylated metabolites () were obtained.

Optimization of lithography source illumination arrays using diffraction subspaces.

An efficient and robust lithography illumination optimization (ILO) approach is developed based on subspace compressive sensing (CS) and an lp-norm reconstruction algorithm. Instead of optimizing the source pattern over all its degrees of freedom, the proposed method only optimizes the source pixels in a subspace. The subspace includes the source pixels inducing interference between different diffraction orders of the mask pattern.

High-Throughput Data of Circular RNA Profiles in Human Temporal Cortex Tissue Reveals Novel Insights into Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

Background/aims: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of long noncoding RNAs with a closed loop structure that regulate gene expression as microRNA sponges. CircRNAs are more enriched in brain tissue, but knowledge of the role of circRNAs in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) has remained limited. This study is the first to identify the global expression profiles and characteristics of circRNAs in human temporal cortex tissue from TLE patients.

Fast lithographic source optimization using a batch-processing sequential least square estimator.

This paper proposes a fast source optimization (SO) method for lithography systems to improve the imaging performance of different hotspots on the fullchip layout. Hotspots are referred to as the critical locations on the layout that are difficult to print. A fullchip layout usually includes numerous hotspots with different geometric characteristics.

(R)-panaxadiol by whole cells of filamentous fungus Absidia coerulea AS 3.3382.

The microbial transformation of 20(R)-panaxadiol (PD) by the fungus Absidia coerulea AS 3.3382 afforded three new and three known metabolites. The structures of the metabolites were characterized as 3-oxo-20(R)-panaxadiol (1), 3-oxo-7β- hydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (2), 3-oxo-22β-hydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (3), 3-oxo- 7β,22β-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (4), 3-oxo-7β,24β-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (5), and 3-oxo-7β,24α-dihydroxyl-20(R)-panaxadiol (6).

Biotransformation of 20(R)-panaxatriol by Mucor racemosus and the anti-hepatic fibrosis activity of some products.

Biocatalysis of 20(R)-panaxatriol (PT) was performed by the fungus Mucor racemosus. Six metabolites (1-6) including five new compounds were obtained, and their structures were elucidated as 20(R),25-epoxy-12β,24β-dihydroxydammaran-3,6-dione (2), 20(R),25-epoxy-12β,22β-dihydroxydammaran-3,6-dione (3), 20(R),25-epoxy-23β-hydroxydammaran-3,6,12-trione (4), 20(R),25-epoxy-12β,23α- dihydroxydammaran-3,6-dione (5), and 20(R),25-epoxy-12β-hydroxydammaran-3,6,23-trione (6) by spectroscopic analysis. Pharmacological studies revealed that compounds 2, 3 and 5 exhibited significant antihepatic fibrosis activity, while 4 and 6 showed cytotoxicity against HSC-T6 cells.

Quantitative assessment of parkinsonian bradykinesia based on an inertial measurement unit.

Background: As the most characteristic feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), bradykinesia (slowness of movement) affects all patients with Parkinson's disease and interferes with their daily activities. This study introduces a wearable bradykinesia assessment system whose core component is composed of an inertial measurement unit.

Methods: The system diagram and assessment task were defined in accordance with clinical requirements from neurologists.

Single-cell transcriptome analyses reveal signals to activate dormant neural stem cells.

The scarcity of tissue-specific stem cells and the complexity of their surrounding environment have made molecular characterization of these cells particularly challenging. Through single-cell transcriptome and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we uncovered molecular properties of CD133(+)/GFAP(-) ependymal (E) cells in the adult mouse forebrain neurogenic zone. Surprisingly, prominent hub genes of the gene network unique to ependymal CD133(+)/GFAP(-) quiescent cells were enriched for immune-responsive genes, as well as genes encoding receptors for angiogenic factors.

Characterization and protective efficacy in an animal model of a novel truncated rotavirus VP8 subunit parenteral vaccine candidate.

The cell-attachment protein VP8* of rotavirus is a potential candidate parenteral vaccine. However, the yield of full-length VP8 protein (VP8*, residues 1-231) expressed in Escherichia coli was low, and a truncated VP8 protein (ΔVP8*, residues 65-231) cannot elicit efficient protective immunity in a mouse model. In this study, tow novel truncated VP8 proteins, VP8-1 (residues 26-231) and VP8-2 (residues 51-231), were expressed in E.

[Mahalanobis distance based hyperspectral characteristic discrimination of leaves of different desert tree species].

The hyperspectral reflectance of Populus euphratica, Tamarix hispida, Haloxylon ammodendron and Calligonum mongolicum in the lower reaches of Tarim River and Turpan Desert Botanical Garden was measured by using the HR-768 field-portable spectroradiometer. The method of continuum removal, first derivative reflectance and second derivative reflectance were used to deal with the original spectral data of four tree species. The method of Mahalanobis Distance was used to select the bands with significant differences in the original spectral data and transform spectral data to identify the different tree species.

Development of an enzyme-linked immunospot assay for determination of rotavirus infectivity.

Conventional rotavirus infectivity assays are time consuming, labor intensive, and with low sample throughput. To overcome these problems, a 96-well microplate enzyme-linked immunospot assay (Elispot) was developed for the measurement of rotavirus infectious titers. The infected MA104 cells were stained with a horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-VP6 monoclonal antibody followed by detection with an ELISPOT analyzer.

Improved characteristics and protective efficacy in an animal model of E. coli-derived recombinant double-layered rotavirus virus-like particles.

Live rotavirus vaccines that are effective in middle- and high-income countries have been found to be less immunogenic and effective in infants in resource-limited settings. The virus-like particle (VLP) approach is promising for rotavirus vaccine development, but challenges remain for VLP production at large scale. In this study, rotavirus capsid VP2 and VP6 proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and were assembled with high efficiency into homogeneous single-layered VP6-VLPs or double-layered VP2/6-VLPs (dl2/6-VLPs) through a post-purification assembly process.

TALEN-mediated gene mutagenesis in rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys.

Recent advances in gene editing technology have introduced the potential for application of mutagenesis approaches in nonhuman primates to model human development and disease. Here we report successful TALEN-mediated mutagenesis of an X-linked, Rett syndrome (RTT) gene, methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2), in both rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys. Microinjection of MECP2-targeting TALEN plasmids into rhesus and cynomolgus zygotes leads to effective gene editing of MECP2 with no detected off-target mutagenesis.

Periodate-triggered cross-linking of DOPA-containing peptide-protein complexes.

Chemical cross-linking is a powerful methodology for analyzing proteins-small molecule and protein-protein interactions. We describe the development of a new chemical cross-linking reaction for the study of protein complexes. Specifically, we show that molecules containing an ortho dihydroxyarene unit can be oxidized selectively with sodium periodate in the presence of native proteins, producing an ortho quinone intermediate that can cross-link with suitable nearby protein residues.