Deciphering Heartbeat Signatures: A Vision Transformer Approach to Explainable Atrial Fibrillation Detection from ECG Signals.

Remote patient monitoring based on wearable single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) devices has significant potential for enabling the early detection of heart disease, especially in combination with artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for automated heart disease detection. There have been prior studies applying AI approaches based on deep learning for heart disease detection. However, these models are yet to be widely accepted as a reliable aid for clinical diagnostics, in part due to the current black-box perception surrounding many AI algorithms.

SMART-lipid nanoparticles enabled mRNA vaccine elicits cross-reactive humoral responses against the omicron sub-variants.

The continual emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants has necessitated the development of broad cross-reactive vaccines. Recent findings suggest that enhanced antigen presentation could lead to cross-reactive humoral responses against the emerging variants. Toward enhancing the antigen presentation to dendritic cells (DCs), we developed a novel shikimoylated mannose receptor targeting lipid nanoparticle (SMART-LNP) system that could effectively deliver mRNAs into DCs.

Using Lipid Nanoparticles for the Delivery of Chemically Modified mRNA into Mammalian Cells.

In recent years, chemically modified messenger RNA (mRNA) has emerged as a potent nucleic acid molecule for developing a wide range of therapeutic applications, including a novel class of vaccines, protein replacement therapies, and immune therapies. Among delivery vectors, lipid nanoparticles are found to be safer and more effective in delivering RNA molecules (e.g.

Field-theoretic model of inhomogeneous supramolecular polymer networks and gels.

We present a field-theoretic model of the gelation transition in inhomogeneous reversibly bonding systems and demonstrate that our model reproduces the classical Flory-Stockmayer theory of gelation in the homogeneous limit. As an illustration of our model in the context of inhomogeneous gelation, we analyze the mean-field behavior of an equilibrium system of reacting trifunctional units in a good solvent confined within a slit bounded by parallel, repulsive walls. Our results indicate higher conversions and, consequently, higher concentrations of gel following the gelation transition near the center of the slit relative to the edges.

Polymer translocation through pores with complex geometries.

We propose a method for the theoretical investigation of polymer translocation through composite pore structures possessing arbitrarily specified geometries. The proposed method accounts for possible reverse chain motions at the interface between the constituent parts of a composite pore. As an illustration of our method, we study polymer translocation between two spherical compartments connected by a cylindrical pore and by a composite pore consisting of two connected cylinders of different diameters, which is structurally similar to the alpha-hemolysin membrane channel.

Effect of charge distribution on the translocation of an inhomogeneously charged polymer through a nanopore.

We investigate the voltage-driven translocation of an inhomogeneously charged polymer through a nanopore by utilizing discrete and continuous stochastic models. As a simplified illustration of the effect of charge distribution on translocation, we consider the translocation of a polymer with a single charged site in the presence and absence of interactions between the charge and the pore. We find that the position of the charge that minimizes the translocation time in the absence of pore-polymer interactions is determined by the entropic cost of translocation, with the optimum charge position being at the midpoint of the chain for a rodlike polymer and close to the leading chain end for an ideal chain.

Effect of disorder on DNA electrophoresis in a microfluidic array of obstacles.

The size-based separation of electrophoresing DNA chains of varying lengths has been experimentally achieved in microfluidic obstacle arrays. The separation is actuated by the occurrence of size-dependent chain-obstacle collisions and the subsequent formation of hooked chain configurations in the array. We investigate the role played by disorder in array geometry in determining chain dynamics in the array.