Enzymatic production of rare sugars with a new mutant of cellobiose 2-epimerase from Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus.

Cellobiose 2-epimerase from Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus (CsCE) can epimerize and isomerize lactose into epilactose and lactulose respectively. Competition between these reactions reactions has prompted the search for new enzymes to drive the reaction in one direction or the other. The isomerization and epimerization capacity of a novel mutant CsCE (CsCE H356N) was evaluated, obtaining a maximum lactulose yield of 64.

Effect of Organic Solvents on the Activity, Stability and Secondary Structure of asclepain cI, Using FTIR and Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

The present study aims at understanding the effect of organic solvents on the specific proteolytic activity and operational stability of asclepain cI in aqueous-organic media, using correlations between geometrical and structural parameters of asclepain cI. These correlations were determined by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and the secondary structure of the enzyme validated by Fourier-transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Asclepain cI exhibited significantly higher catalytic potential in 29 of the 42 aqueous-organic media tested, composed by 0.

Clustering Methods for Vibro-Acoustic Sensing Features as a Potential Approach to Tissue Characterisation in Robot-Assisted Interventions.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the feature extraction methods applied to vibro-acoustic signals (VA signals) in the context of robot-assisted interventions. The primary objective is to extract valuable information from these signals to understand tissue behaviour better and build upon prior research. This study is divided into three key stages: feature extraction using the Cepstrum Transform (CT), Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs), and Fast Chirplet Transform (FCT); dimensionality reduction employing techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding (t-SNE), and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP); and, finally, classification using a nearest neighbours classifier.

Contact Endoscopy - Narrow Band Imaging (CE-NBI) data set for laryngeal lesion assessment.

The endoscopic examination of subepithelial vascular patterns within the vocal fold is crucial for clinicians seeking to distinguish between benign lesions and laryngeal cancer. Among innovative techniques, Contact Endoscopy combined with Narrow Band Imaging (CE-NBI) offers real-time visualization of these vascular structures. Despite the advent of CE-NBI, concerns have arisen regarding the subjective interpretation of its images.

Thyroid Nodule Detection and Region Estimation in Ultrasound Images: A Comparison between Physicians and an Automated Decision Support System Approach.

Background: Thyroid nodules are very common. In most cases, they are benign, but they can be malignant in a low percentage of cases. The accurate assessment of these nodules is critical to choosing the next diagnostic steps and potential treatment.

Vibro-Acoustic Sensing of Instrument Interactions as a Potential Source of Texture-Related Information in Robotic Palpation.

The direct tactile assessment of surface textures during palpation is an essential component of open surgery that is impeded in minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery. When indirectly palpating with a surgical instrument, the structural vibrations from this interaction contain tactile information that can be extracted and analysed. This study investigates the influence of the parameters contact angle α and velocity v→ on the vibro-acoustic signals from this indirect palpation.

Industrial bioelectrochemistry for waste valorization: State of the art and challenges.

Bioelectrochemistry has gained importance in recent years for some of its applications on waste valorization, such as wastewater treatment and carbon dioxide conversion, among others. The aim of this review is to provide an updated overview of the applications of bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) for waste valorization in the industry, identifying current limitations and future perspectives of this technology. BESs are classified according to biorefinery concepts into three different categories: (i) waste to power, (ii) waste to fuel and (iii) waste to chemicals.

Surgeons' requirements for a surgical support system to improve laparoscopic access.

Creating surgical access is a critical step in laparoscopic surgery. Surgeons have to insert a sharp instrument such as the Veress needle or a trocar into the patient's abdomen until the peritoneal cavity is reached. They solely rely on their experience and distorted tactile feedback in that process, leading to a complication rate as high as 14% of all cases.

The Advances in Computer Vision That Are Enabling More Autonomous Actions in Surgery: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

This is a review focused on advances and current limitations of computer vision (CV) and how CV can help us obtain to more autonomous actions in surgery. It is a follow-up article to one that we previously published in entitled, "Artificial Intelligence Surgery: How Do We Get to Autonomous Actions in Surgery?" As opposed to that article that also discussed issues of machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing, this review will delve deeper into the field of CV. Additionally, non-visual forms of data that can aid computerized robots in the performance of more autonomous actions, such as instrument priors and audio haptics, will also be highlighted.

Endoscopic Imaging Technology Today.

One of the most applied imaging methods in medicine is endoscopy. A highly specialized image modality has been developed since the first modern endoscope, the "Lichtleiter" of Bozzini was introduced in the early 19th century. Multiple medical disciplines use endoscopy for diagnostics or to visualize and support therapeutic procedures.

Trends in lactose-derived bioactives: synthesis and purification.

Lactose obtained from cheese whey is a low value commodity despite its great potential as raw material for the production of bioactive compounds. Among them, prebiotics stand out as valuable ingredients to be added to food matrices to build up functional foods, which currently represent the most active sector within the food industry. Functional foods market has been growing steadily in the recent decades along with the increasing awareness of the World population about healthy nutrition, and this is having a strong impact on lactose-derived bioactives.

Deep Convolution Neural Network for Laryngeal Cancer Classification on Contact Endoscopy-Narrow Band Imaging.

(1) Background: Contact Endoscopy (CE) and Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) are optical imaging modalities that can provide enhanced and magnified visualization of the superficial vascular networks in the laryngeal mucosa. The similarity of vascular structures between benign and malignant lesions causes a challenge in the visual assessment of CE-NBI images. The main objective of this study is to use Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNN) for the automatic classification of CE-NBI images into benign and malignant groups with minimal human intervention.

Study of needle punctures into soft tissue through audio and force sensing: can audio be a simple alternative for needle guidance?

Purpose: Percutaneous needle insertion is one of the most common minimally invasive procedures. The clinician's experience and medical imaging support are essential to the procedure's safety. However, imaging comes with inaccuracies due to artifacts, and therefore sensor-based solutions were proposed to improve accuracy.

Vascular Auscultation of Carotid Artery: Towards Biometric Identification and Verification of Individuals.

Background: Biometric sensing is a security method for protecting information and property. State-of-the-art biometric traits are behavioral and physiological in nature. However, they are vulnerable to tampering and forgery.

Artificial Intelligence Surgery: How Do We Get to Autonomous Actions in Surgery?

Most surgeons are skeptical as to the feasibility of autonomous actions in surgery. Interestingly, many examples of autonomous actions already exist and have been around for years. Since the beginning of this millennium, the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has grown exponentially with the development of machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), computer vision (CV) and natural language processing (NLP).

Enzymatic production of lactulose by fed-batch and repeated fed-batch reactor.

The effects of the most significant operational variables on reactor performance of fed-batch and repeated fed-batch were evaluated in the lactulose production by enzymatic transgalactosylation. Feed flowrate in the fed stage (F) and fructose to lactose molar ratio (Fr/L) were the variables that mostly affected the values ​​of lactulose yield (Y), lactulose productivity (π) and selectivity of transgalactosylation (S/). Maximum Y of 0.

Effect of product partition on the synthesis of butyl-β-D-galactoside from Aspergillus oryzae.

The effect of donor substrate and products partitioning on the performance of butyl-β-galactoside synthesis with Aspergillus oryzae β-galactosidase was studied. Firstly, the partition coefficient of the donor substrate (lactose) and the reaction products (glucose, galactose and butyl-β-galactoside) were determined in the aqueous and organic phases of the reaction medium. In the temperature range studied (30 to 50 °C), butyl β-galactoside was roughly 130 and 30-fold more soluble in the organic phase than lactose and the monosaccharides, respectively.

Development of a Hybrid Bioinorganic Nanobiocatalyst: Remarkable Impact of the Immobilization Conditions on Activity and Stability of β-Galactosidase.

Hybrid bioinorganic biocatalysts have received much attention due to their simple synthesis, high efficiency, and structural features that favor enzyme activity and stability. The present work introduces a biomineralization strategy for the formation of hybrid nanocrystals from β-galactosidase. The effects of the immobilization conditions were studied, identifying the important effect of metal ions and pH on the immobilization yield and the recovered activity.

Cyclist Effort Features: A Novel Technique for Image Texture Characterization Applied to Larynx Cancer Classification in Contact Endoscopy-Narrow Band Imaging.

Background: Feature extraction is an essential part of a Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system. It is usually preceded by a pre-processing step and followed by image classification. Usually, a large number of features is needed to end up with the desired classification results.

Immobilization strategies of photolyases: Challenges and perspectives for DNA repairing application.

Photolyases are enzymes that repair DNA damage caused by solar radiation. Due to their photorepair potential, photolyases added in topical creams and used in medical treatments has allowed to reverse skin damage and prevent the development of different diseases, including actinic keratosis, premature photoaging and cancer. For this reason, research has been oriented to the study of new photolyases performing in extreme environments, where high doses of UV radiation may be a key factor for these enzymes to have perfected their photorepair potential.

Biocatalysis in the winemaking industry: Challenges and opportunities for immobilized enzymes.

Enzymes are powerful catalysts already being used in a large number of industrial processes. Impressive advantages in enzyme catalysts improvement have occurred in recent years aiming to improve their performance under harsh operation conditions far away from those of their cellular habitat. Production levels of the winemaking industry have experienced a remarkable increase, and technological innovations have been introduced for increasing the efficiency at different process steps or for improving wine quality, which is a key issue in this industry.

Immobilization of Aspergillus oryzae β-galactosidase in cation functionalized agarose matrix and its application in the synthesis of lactulose.

Aspergillus oryzae β-galactosidase was immobilized in in-house quaternary ammonium agarose (QAA) and used for the first time in the synthesis of lactulose. A biocatalyst was obtained with a specific activity of 24,690 IU∙g; protein immobilization yield of 97% and enzyme immobilization yield of 76% were obtained at 30 °C in 10 mM phosphate buffer pH 7 for standard size agarose at 100 mg∙g which the maximum protein load of QAA. Highest yield and specific productivity of lactulose were 0.

Auscultation System for Acquisition of Vascular Sounds - Towards Sound-Based Monitoring of the Carotid Artery.

Introduction: Atherosclerotic diseases of the carotid are a primary cause of cerebrovascular events such as stroke. For the diagnosis and monitoring angiography, ultrasound- or magnetic resonance-based imaging is used which requires costly hardware. In contrast, the auscultation of carotid sounds and screening for bruits - audible patterns related to turbulent blood flow - is a simple examination with comparably little technical demands.