Abstract Objective Increasing evidence has suggested a potential role of glymphatic system function in the pathomechanisms underlying mood disorders and related cognitive impairment. However, this association in bipolar disorder remained unclear. Design, Participants, and Measures In all, 185 patients (mean age ~ 30 years) with bipolar disorder and 95 healthy individuals were enrolled for the assessment of the go/no-go task and the digit symbol substitution test (DSST). The Analysis Along the Perivascular Space (ALPS) index, an indicator of glymphatic system activity, was measured using diffusion tensor imaging within diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. All participants were divided into two subgroups (< vs. ≥ mean level) based on the mean ALPS index level. Additionally, participants were further categorized into quartiles based on ALPS index levels, ranging from Q1 (highest) to Q4 (lowest). Results Generalized linear model, after adjusting for age, sex, education years, and clinical symptoms, found no difference in the ALPS index levels between patients and controls. Patients with lower ALPS index levels—that is, those with values below the mean or in the lowest quartile (Q4)—performed the worst on the DSST and the go/no-go task. Conclusions and Relevance Glymphatic system dysfunction appeared to play a critical role in cognitive impairment among patients with bipolar disorder, but not in healthy individuals. Further research is warranted to clarify the specific pathomechanisms underlying this bipolar disorder–specific association between glymphatic system dysfunction and cognitive deficits.
This work investigates the application of artificial neural network (ANN)-based regression models to predict the static and dynamic characteristics of GaN impact avalanche transit time (IMPATT) sources in the terahertz (THz) frequency regime. A comprehensive dataset, derived from self-consistent quantum drift-diffusion (SCQDD) simulations of GaN IMPATT structures designed for a wide frequency range from the microwave frequency bands, up to 5 THz, is used to train the ANN models. The models effectively capture the impact of variations in structural, doping, and biasing parameters on device performance. The proposed ANN approach significantly reduces computational time for predicting breakdown characteristics, power output, and conversion efficiency properties of IMPATT sources, achieving similar accuracy to traditional SCQDD simulations while requiring only 7.8–20.1% of the computational time. Mean square errors are observed to be on the order of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{-4}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>–<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$10^{-6}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, demonstrating the models’ high accuracy. Experimental validation shows strong agreement in terms of breakdown voltage, power output, and efficiency, supporting the potential of machine learning to streamline the design and optimization of high-frequency semiconductor devices.
Three-dimensional printed concrete (3DPC) is increasingly recognized in the construction industry for its high design flexibility and the elimination of conventional formwork. However, weak interlayer adhesion remains a significant challenge. The potential of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers for reinforcing 3DPC is being explored, driven by their environmental sustainability and economic advantages. However, there is an inadequate interfacial adhesion between these recycled fibers and the 3DPC matrix. This study investigated the use of dopamine modification to address this issue and enhance the interlayer adhesion of fiber-reinforced 3DPC. Recycled PET fibers were surface-modified using dopamine treatment, forming a polydopamine (PDA) film that improved surface roughness and hydrophilicity. Both unmodified and modified fibers were incorporated into 3DPC at various volume fractions (0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5%). The effects on interlayer adhesion strength, compressive strength, and flexural strength were systematically evaluated and compared. The results showed that the inclusion of 0.3 vol% dopamine-modified fibers resulted in a 22.5% increase in interlayer adhesion strength compared to the control group, and a 14.8% improvement over unmodified fibers at the same content. Additionally, the compressive strength and flexural strength of 3DPC with 0.3 vol% MPET fibers increased by 22.5% and 27.6%, respectively, compared to the control group. Microstructural analysis using SEM and XRD revealed that the dopamine modification significantly improved the interfacial adhesion between fibers and the concrete matrix, explaining the superior performance of modified fibers. This study demonstrates that recycled PET fibers modified with dopamine can effectively enhance the interlayer adhesion of 3DPC. The findings affirm that surface modification techniques can significantly elevate the utility of recycled PET fibers in 3DPC, contributing to the sustainable advancement of construction materials.
Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is recognized as a highly malignant tumor. Targeted combination immunotherapy, the initially approved regimen, is compromised by adverse side effects and low response rates during clinical treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine and its derived natural compounds, known for their anticancer effects, offer advantages of low toxicity and cost. In this study, we performed high-throughput phenotypic screening in vitro to identify promising anti-HCC drugs. Among 1,444 bioactive compounds, digoxigenin (DIG) was found to significantly impede HCC cell progression. We validated DIG’s therapeutic effects through assays such as cell counting by CCK8, lactate dehydrogenase, and colony formation. Analyses including transmission electron microscopy, western blotting, and immunofluorescence demonstrated that DIG inhibits HCC cell proliferation via autophagy. Network pharmacology and molecular docking studies suggest that DIG targets the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Comparative treatments of Hep3B and Huh7 cells with DIG or mTOR inhibitors revealed similar inhibitory impacts, indicating that DIG induces autophagy by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. In vivo studies confirmed that DIG halts the growth of subcutaneous xenograft tumors. In conclusion, DIG represents a potential HCC treatment by modulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway to induce autophagy. This research, via phenotypic screening, accelerates drug discovery and the development of novel therapies targeting the underlying mechanisms of liver cancer.
Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens, Cytology
Claudia Fredolini, Tea Dodig-Crnković, Annika Bendes
et al.
Abstract Background Self-sampling of dried blood spots (DBS) offers new routes to gather valuable health-related information from the general population. Yet, the utility of using deep proteome profiling from home-sampled DBS to obtain clinically relevant insights about SARS-CoV-2 infections remains largely unexplored. Methods Our study involved 228 individuals from the general Swedish population who used a volumetric DBS sampling device and completed questionnaires at home during spring 2020 and summer 2021. Using multi-analyte COVID-19 serology, we stratified the donors by their response phenotypes, divided them into three study sets, and analyzed 276 proteins by proximity extension assays (PEA). After normalizing the data to account for variances in layman-collected samples, we investigated the association of DBS proteomes with serology and self-reported information. Results Our three studies display highly consistent variance of protein levels and share associations of proteins with sex (e.g., MMP3) and age (e.g., GDF-15). Studying seropositive (IgG+) and seronegative (IgG-) donors from the first pandemic wave reveals a network of proteins reflecting immunity, inflammation, coagulation, and stress response. A comparison of the early-infection phase (IgM+IgG-) with the post-infection phase (IgM-IgG+) indicates several proteins from the respiratory system. In DBS from the later pandemic wave, we find that levels of a virus receptor on B-cells differ between seropositive (IgG+) and seronegative (IgG-) donors. Conclusions Proteome analysis of volumetric self-sampled DBS facilitates precise analysis of clinically relevant proteins, including those secreted into the circulation or found on blood cells, augmenting previous COVID-19 reports with clinical blood collections. Our population surveys support the usefulness of DBS, underscoring the role of timing the sample collection to complement clinical and precision health monitoring initiatives.
Crop yield forecasting has been well studied in recent decades and is significant in protecting food security. Crop growth is a complex phenomenon that depends on various factors. Machine learning and deep learning trends have emerged as important innovations in this field. We propose to utilize crop, weather, and soil data from agricultural datasets to evaluate yield prediction behavior. Paddy being a staple food crop in India is chosen for this research. In this paper, we propose hybrid architecture for paddy yield prediction, namely, MLR-LSTM, which combines Multiple Linear Regression and Long Short-Term Memory to utilize their complementary nature. The results are compared with traditional machine learning methods such as Support vector machine, Long short-term memory and Random forest method. Evaluation metrics such as Coefficient of Determination (R2), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Square Error (MSE), F1 score, Recall, and Precision are used to evaluate the hybrid method and traditional models. The results obtained from the proposed hybrid method indicates that the hybrid model delivers better R2, RMSE, MAE, MSE values of 0.93, 0.1549, 0.199, and 0.024 respectively.
Vadthya Lokya, Sejal Parmar, Arun K. Pandey
et al.
Abstract In addition to the challenge of meeting global demand for food production, there are increasing concerns about food safety and the need to protect consumer health from the negative effects of foodborne allergies. Certain bio‐molecules (usually proteins) present in food can act as allergens that trigger unusual immunological reactions, with potentially life‐threatening consequences. The relentless working lifestyles of the modern era often incorporate poor eating habits that include readymade prepackaged and processed foods, which contain additives such as peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, and soy‐based products, rather than traditional home cooking. Of the predominant allergenic foods (soybean, wheat, fish, peanut, shellfish, tree nuts, eggs, and milk), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) are the best characterized source of allergens, followed by tree nuts (Juglans regia, Prunus amygdalus, Corylus avellana, Carya illinoinensis, Anacardium occidentale, Pistacia vera, Bertholletia excels), wheat (Triticum aestivum), soybeans (Glycine max), and kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). The prevalence of food allergies has risen significantly in recent years including chance of accidental exposure to such foods. In contrast, the standards of detection, diagnosis, and cure have not kept pace and unfortunately are often suboptimal. In this review, we mainly focus on the prevalence of allergies associated with peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soybean, and kidney bean, highlighting their physiological properties and functions as well as considering research directions for tailoring allergen gene expression. In particular, we discuss how recent advances in molecular breeding, genetic engineering, and genome editing can be used to develop potential low allergen food crops that protect consumer health.
Overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has improved in the era of multi-line sequential therapy. The application of antiviral therapy and its impact on survival for patients with HBV-related HCC needs to be reassessed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the application and impact of antiviral therapy on survival for patients with HBV-related HCC receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy. Patients with advanced HBV-related HCC treated with sorafenib or lenvatinib as first-line therapy with (n = 377) and without (n = 182) nucleos(t)ide analogue (NUC) therapy were retrospectively enrolled. Prognostic factors of OS were evaluated. Secular trends in the increased application of NUC therapy and improved survival were observed in the last decade. The HBV reactivation rate in patients without NUC therapy was 6.6%. By multivariate analysis, baseline low HBV viral load, achieving undetectable HBV DNA after TKI therapy, and ability to receive second-line therapy were found to be independent predictors of OS. In subgroup patients with NUC therapy, starting NUC before TKI was associated with a better OS. In conclusion, the application of antiviral therapy for patients with HBV-related HCC receiving TKI therapy has increased over time. Achieving complete virological suppression may contribute to a better OS in patients with advanced HBV-related HCC.
A general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) is employed in a variety of domains, including accelerating the spread of deep natural network models; however, further research into its effective implementation is needed. When using the compute unified device architecture (CUDA), which has recently gained popularity, the situation is analogous to use the GPUs and its memory space. This is due to the lack of a gold standard for selecting the most efficient approach for CUDA GPU parallel computation. Contrarily, as solving the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression fully consists of the basic linear algebra operations, the computation using GPGPU is more effective than other models. Additionally, its optimization problem often requires fast and efficient calculations. The purpose of this study is to provide brief introductions to the implementation approaches and numerically compare the computational efficiency of GPU parallel computation with that of the fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding algorithm for LASSO. This study contributes to providing gold standards for the CUDA GPU parallel computation, considering both computational efficiency and ease of implementation. Based on our comparison results, we recommend implementing the CUDA GPU parallel computation using Python, with either a dynamic-link library or PyTorch for the iterative algorithms.
Despite the tremendous impact that a good constitutive relation for the response of arterial tissues can have with regard to advances in cardiovascular science and medicine, and notwithstanding the intense effort to put a felicitous constitutive relation into place, no reliable constitutive relation is available in the literature. In this review article, we provide a brief survey and assessment of the evolution of constitutive relations that have been developed to describe the response of arterial tissues, their inadequacies, and the various quintessential aspects of the response that need to be taken into consideration. We then fashion a nonlinear constitutive relation to describe an inhomogeneous anisotropic compressible viscoelastic solid, which while being grossly inadequate to describe the tissue in its entirety, makes it evident that what one ought to strive for is not in capturing the complexity of tissues, but rather the development of a simple global measure that can be a reliable predictor of the onset of tissue disease, and tissue damage and failure.
Exploring a pipeline’s response to blast vibration during tunnel excavation is critical for ensuring the safety of the pipeline. In this paper, the vibration monitoring and numerical simulation methods are used to evaluate the dynamic response of ground soil and pipelines to blasts. The attenuation law of peak particle velocity (<i>PPV</i>) and the distribution characteristics of peak effective stress (PES) in pipe sections under different working conditions are studied. The following findings are recorded: (1) A three-dimensional model considering in situ stress is established, and it is found the triangular equivalent load simulation blast effect method used in this paper can effectively reflect the impact of blasting on pipelines. The simulation error is controlled at 7.69%. (2) The ground <i>PPV</i> of each monitoring point decays continuously with the increase in horizontal and axial distance, and the cavity enlargement effect is exhibited above the excavation area. The oncoming blast side <i>PPV</i> of the pipe section is more significant than that behind the blast side. (3) When the blast vibration is transmitted to the pipe, there are differences in the <i>PPV</i> and PES distribution characteristics across the pipe cross-section. The <i>PPV</i> is greater in the lower part of the pipe section, while the PES value is greater in the upper part of the pipe section. The maximum PES of 1.53 MPa is significantly lower than the safety threshold (≤4.6 MPa) at the hazardous-section-monitoring point. (4) A pipeline <i>PPV</i> prediction model is proposed to guide subsequent blasting program development. An empirical formula for the safety criterion applicable to this study is proposed for the scientific implementation of safety assessments for subsequent construction. This safety evaluation framework can be used as a reference for similar projects.
The article explores the hypothesis that modern communication is taking on a special form today. It can
be called imitative communication, in which information processing technologies play a very important role. The
author derives the origin of this communication from the commercial, consumer status of social information,
which in the early stages of the emergence of media reality contributed to the development of market relations.
Thanks to the development of technology, the quality of imitation of reality becomes an independent factor infl uencing the deconstruction of a person in the information process. In these conclusions, the author relies on his
own long-term studies of the history of television. It was this mass media that laid the foundations of imitative
reality, tearing off the perception of reality from its real development and laying the foundations for technological
identifi cation of a person to the detriment of traditional personal efforts. Imitative reality has a connection with the
phenomenon of the game. The author carries out a phenomenological rethinking of the game in comparison with
its classical defi nitions. The game appears as a form of detection of ontological boundaries in which the personality is located. However, with today’s development of technology, the game is turning into a way to replace reality,
losing its original status as an identifi er of social meanings. With this interpretation, many currently unresolved
problems, for example, the problem of computer addiction, acquire the features of distinct social deviations that
have specifi c ways of treatment. As a perspective for the development of the existing situation, the author calls
the reditization (return) of the individual to reality, while virtual reality should acquire the status of another utopia
in the history of mankind
Renyuan Ma, Subash C. B. Gopinath, Thangavel Lakshmipriya
et al.
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a glycoprotein, one of the common tumor biomarkers, found at low levels in body fluids. Generally, overexpression of CEA is found in various cancers, including ovarian, breast, lung, colorectal, gastric, and pancreatic cancers. Since CEA is an important tumor biomarker, the quantification of CEA is helpful for diagnosing cancer, monitoring tumor progression, and the follow-up treatment. This research develops a highly sensitive sandwich aptasensor for CEA identification on an interdigitated electrode sensor. Carbon-based material was used to attach a higher anti-CEA capture aptamer onto the sensor surface through a chemical linker, and then, CEA was quantified by the aptamer. Furthermore, CEA-spiked serum was tested by using the immobilized aptamer, which was found to not affect the target validation. The limit of detection for CEA in PBS and serum is calculated from a linear regression graph to be 0.5 ng/mL with R2 values of 0.9593 and 0.9657, respectively, over a linear range from 0.5 to 500 ng/mL. This CEA quantification by the aptasensor can help diagnose various surgical tumors and monitor their progression.
In Blockchain Regulation and Governance in Europe, Michele Finck examines the relationship between blockchain technology and EU law and introduces the theme of blockchain governance. The book provides a general introduction to blockchains as both a regulatable and a regulatory technology and outlines the interaction between distributed ledger technology and specific areas of EU law, such as the General Data Protection Regulation. It should be read by anyone interested in EU law, the relationship between law, innovation and technology, and technology governance.
In pursuing maximum energy efficiency, local utilization of various crude fuels came into view. The present paper compares the combustion characteristics of standard diesel oil and crude rapeseed oil; the latter is an excellent model for high-viscosity liquid fuels. The combustion tests were performed in a 15 kW atmospheric turbulent swirl burner; the liquid fuels were atomized by a plain-jet airblast atomizer. Firstly, the acoustic signal is evaluated, since the instabilities of swirl combustion are accompanied by characteristic pressure fluctuations. The spectral analysis was performed by Wavelet transform, which fits excellently to the acoustic spectrum of combustion noise. This multi-scale technique features increased spectral resolution at lower frequencies at the expense of lower temporal resolution, providing excellent performance at both low-frequency, well-localized components and high-frequency, broadband phenomena. The joint probability density function of two characteristic frequencies was plotted with the result that flame acoustics match for the two fuels. Secondly, their pollutant emissions were compared and evaluated under similar conditions with the conclusion that crude rapeseed oil can substitute diesel oil in a limited operating range. Note that the distinct material properties already mean differences in all atomization, evaporation, and mixing characteristics, hence, the latter result is not intuitive.
This paper presents a study for sea water desalination on board of passenger ships using waste heat from the engine. Three thermal methods for water desalination were explored, namely Forward Feed Multiple Effect Evaporation, Once Through Multi-Stage Flash, and Brine Circulation Multi-Stage Flash. Computer simulation has been developed to calculate the parameters of the desalination plant; the required amount of fresh water and the corresponding total heat transfer area. The optimum plant selection is the one which achieves the required distillate flow rate with minimum heat transfer area. The effect of different variables on the plant selection has been studied, i.e. steam temperature, exhaust temperature, and intake water flow rate. An existing passenger ship has been selected to examine the proposed method where the optimum desalination method has been selected for her using the developed software. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed method, the economical, environmental, and technical gains are numerically analyzed. Using the waste heat recovery leads to reducing the unit product cost of freshwater by circa 30%. The plant reduced the emissions by about five thousand tons of CO2, 100 tons of NOx and 35 tons of SO2 per year. Applying the optimum design of the proposed salt water desalination on the case study saved 2.7 $/ m3 as a minimum comparing to the average cost of fresh water in ports. These savings can cover the plant capital cost in six years at most.
This paper problematizes the use of the concept of contemporary to describe a specific modus operandi of a group of directors and films that no longer identify with the characteristics of modern cinema. Using the symbolic date of 9/11 as an historical decisive moment, we take as an example of this cinema, Loong Boonmee raleuk chat, winner of 2010’s Palme D’Or at Cannes Film Festival. In analysing Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film, we aim at proposing, as a metaphor, a different approach - a logic of the building - in order to describe the specific creative processes in contemporary cinema. In order to describe the Thai filmmaker’s method, we will recuperate Giorgio Agamben’s ideas about what it means to be contemporary, and also the ethical responsibility of cinema in helping to recover the lost gestures of humanity.