Ethylene oxide suppresses boar sperm function during capacitation.

Ethylene oxide (E.O) is an epoxide compound, and it has been utilized as a sterilizer or production of ether compounds in several industries. Although the toxic effects of E.

Effects of oridonin on sperm function and the PI3K/PDK1/AKT signaling pathway: Implications for reproductive toxicity.

Oridonin, a natural terpenoid isolated from the leaves of Isodon rubescens (Hemsley) H.Hara, is widely used in oriental medicine for its anticancer properties across various cancer types. Despite its prevalent use, the toxic effects of oridonin on male reproduction, particularly its impact on sperm functions and the mechanisms involved, are not well understood.

Facial Skin Rejuvenation Using Poly- dl -Lactic Acid Injected With a Laser-Generated Needle-Free Microjet Injector.

Background: A laser-induced needle-free microjet injector was developed for rapid, high-speed drug delivery of microliters into the skin.

Objective: This study evaluated the clinical rejuvenation effect of repeated dermal injections of the collagen simulator poly- dl -lactic acid (PDLA) using a laser-induced needle-free microjet injector.

Methods: Five PDLA injection sessions using a laser-induced needle-free microjet injector were conducted in patients concerned about aging skin.

Usefulness of longitudinal nodule-matching algorithm in computer-aided diagnosis of new pulmonary metastases on cancer surveillance CT scans.

Background: Detecting new pulmonary metastases by comparing serial computed tomography (CT) scans is crucial, but a repetitive and time-consuming task that burdens the radiologists' workload. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of a nodule-matching algorithm with deep learning-based computer-aided detection (DL-CAD) in diagnosing new pulmonary metastases on cancer surveillance CT scans.

Methods: Among patients who underwent pulmonary metastasectomy between 2014 and 2018, 65 new pulmonary metastases missed by interpreting radiologists on cancer surveillance CT (Time 2) were identified after a retrospective comparison with the previous CT (Time 1).

Application of sperm motion kinematics and motility-related proteins for prediction of male fertility.

The selection of superior sires is paramount for enhancing the efficiency of animal production in the livestock industry. However, semen quality assessment still relies on conventional semen analysis techniques in both animals and humans. Despite extensive efforts to develop various biomarkers for more accurate and precise predictions of male fertility potential, more effective physiological indicators and advance potential biomarkers are needed.

Functional validation of co-culture model of human keratinocytes and neuronal cell line for sensitive skin by using transient receptor potential channel vanilloid subfamily member 1 antagonist.

Background: Sensitive skin is a subjective cutaneous hyper-reactivity that occurs in response to various innocuous stimuli. Keratinocytes have recently been shown to participate in sensory transduction by releasing many neuroactive molecules that bind to intra-epidermal free nerve endings and modulate nociception. In the literature, the characterization of these interactions has been based on the co-culture of keratinocyte and mammalian-origin neuronal cell lines.

Clinico-Pathological Concordance Rate of Scalp Lesions Showing Alopecia.

Background: Some alopecic diseases can be diagnosed by detailed history taking and physical examination, but in many cases, biopsy must be performed to make a definite diagnosis.

Aims And Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the clinico-pathological concordance of scalp lesions showing alopecia.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records and biopsy slides of patients who underwent biopsy for evaluating scalp lesions showing alopecia.

Bone Suppression on Chest Radiographs for Pulmonary Nodule Detection: Comparison between a Generative Adversarial Network and Dual-Energy Subtraction.

Objective: To compare the effects of bone suppression imaging using deep learning (BSp-DL) based on a generative adversarial network (GAN) and bone subtraction imaging using a dual energy technique (BSt-DE) on radiologists' performance for pulmonary nodule detection on chest radiographs (CXRs).

Materials And Methods: A total of 111 adults, including 49 patients with 83 pulmonary nodules, who underwent both CXR using the dual energy technique and chest CT, were enrolled. Using CT as a reference, two independent radiologists evaluated CXR images for the presence or absence of pulmonary nodules in three reading sessions (standard CXR, BSt-DE CXR, and BSp-DL CXR).

Deep learning-based denoising algorithm in comparison to iterative reconstruction and filtered back projection: a 12-reader phantom study.

Objectives: (1) To compare low-contrast detectability of a deep learning-based denoising algorithm (DLA) with ADMIRE and FBP, and (2) to compare image quality parameters of DLA with those of reconstruction methods from two different CT vendors (ADMIRE, IMR, and FBP).

Materials And Methods: Using abdominal CT images of 100 patients reconstructed via ADMIRE and FBP, we trained DLA by feeding FBP images as input and ADMIRE images as the ground truth. To measure the low-contrast detectability, the randomized repeat scans of Catphan® phantom were performed under various conditions of radiation exposures.

Robustness of Deep Learning Algorithm to Varying Imaging Conditions in Detecting Low Contrast Objects In Computed Tomography Phantom Images: in Comparison to 12 Radiologists.

The performance of deep learning algorithm (DLA) to that of radiologists was compared in detecting low contrast objects in CT phantom images under various imaging conditions. For training, 10,000 images were created using American College of Radiology CT phantom as the background. In half of the images, objects of 3-20 mm size and 5-30 HU contrast difference were generated in random locations.

Dirac solitons in optical microresonators.

Mode-coupling-induced dispersion has been used to engineer microresonators for soliton generation at the edge of the visible band. Here, we show that the optical soliton formed in this way is analogous to optical Bragg solitons and, more generally, to the Dirac soliton in quantum field theory. This optical Dirac soliton is studied theoretically, and a closed-form solution is derived in the corresponding conservative system.

Change in plasma sirtuin 1 level by injection into uterus of resveratrol in Korean cattle.

Bovine embryonic development is closely associated with mitochondrial biogenesis, which is regulated by the sirtuin 1 (SIRT1). Resveratrol, which is a type of natural phenol produced by several plants and used as a dietary supplement, is the activator of SIRT1. Although it has been reported that resveratrol increased SIRT1 level in bovine blastocysts, there are no reports on the change in the plasma SIRT1 level in cows.

Low-Dose Abdominal CT Using a Deep Learning-Based Denoising Algorithm: A Comparison with CT Reconstructed with Filtered Back Projection or Iterative Reconstruction Algorithm.

Objective: To compare the image quality of low-dose (LD) computed tomography (CT) obtained using a deep learning-based denoising algorithm (DLA) with LD CT images reconstructed with a filtered back projection (FBP) and advanced modeled iterative reconstruction (ADMIRE).

Materials And Methods: One hundred routine-dose (RD) abdominal CT studies reconstructed using FBP were used to train the DLA. Simulated CT images were made at dose levels of 13%, 25%, and 50% of the RD (DLA-1, -2, and -3) and reconstructed using FBP.

Microspinning: Local Surface Mixing via Rotation of Magnetic Microparticles for Efficient Small-Volume Bioassays.

The need for high-throughput screening has led to the miniaturization of the reaction volume of the chamber in bioassays. As the reactor gets smaller, surface tension dominates the gravitational or inertial force, and mixing efficiency decreases in small-scale reactions. Because passive mixing by simple diffusion in tens of microliter-scale volumes takes a long time, active mixing is needed.

ELIPatch, a thumbnail-size patch with immunospot array for multiplexed protein detection from human skin surface.

Proteins secreted by skin have great potential as biomarkers for interpreting skin conditions. However, inconvenience in handling and bulky size of existing methods are existing limitations. Here, we describe a thumb-nail sized patch with the array of microdisks which captures multiple proteins from the skin surface.

One-Step Generation of a Drug-Releasing Hydrogel Microarray-On-A-Chip for Large-Scale Sequential Drug Combination Screening.

Large-scale screening of sequential drug combinations, wherein the dynamic rewiring of intracellular pathways leads to promising therapeutic effects and improvements in quality of life, is essential for personalized medicine to ensure realistic cost and time requirements and less sample consumption. However, the large-scale screening requires expensive and complicated liquid handling systems for automation and therefore lowers the accessibility to clinicians or biologists, limiting the full potential of sequential drug combinations in clinical applications and academic investigations. Here, a miniaturized platform for high-throughput combinatorial drug screening that is "pipetting-free" and scalable for the screening of sequential drug combinations is presented.

Hierarchical shape-by-shape assembly of microparticles for micrometer-scale viral delivery of two different genes.

Understanding tissue engineering using a bottom-up approach has been hindered by technical limitations because no platform can demonstrate the controlled formation of a heterogeneous population of cells in microscale. Here, we demonstrate hierarchical shape-by-shape assembly of virus-laden particles into larger ones to transfect two different genes on the seeded cells. We show that smaller daughter particles with different sizes and shapes can be assembled into the matching indentations of larger parent particles with different sizes and shapes.

An optical-frequency synthesizer using integrated photonics.

Optical-frequency synthesizers, which generate frequency-stable light from a single microwave-frequency reference, are revolutionizing ultrafast science and metrology, but their size, power requirement and cost need to be reduced if they are to be more widely used. Integrated-photonics microchips can be used in high-coherence applications, such as data transmission , highly optimized physical sensors and harnessing quantum states , to lower cost and increase efficiency and portability. Here we describe a method for synthesizing the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to create a phase-coherent microwave-to-optical link.

Residual Error Based Anomaly Detection Using Auto-Encoder in SMD Machine Sound.

Detecting an anomaly or an abnormal situation from given noise is highly useful in an environment where constantly verifying and monitoring a machine is required. As deep learning algorithms are further developed, current studies have focused on this problem. However, there are too many variables to define anomalies, and the human annotation for a large collection of abnormal data labeled at the class-level is very labor-intensive.