Colossal tunability in high frequency magnetoelectric voltage tunable inductors.

The electrical modulation of magnetization through the magnetoelectric effect provides a great opportunity for developing a new generation of tunable electrical components. Magnetoelectric voltage tunable inductors (VTIs) are designed to maximize the electric field control of permeability. In order to meet the need for power electronics, VTIs operating at high frequency with large tunability and low loss are required.

A computer-aided diagnosis scheme of breast lesion classification using GLGLM and shape features: Combined-view and multi-classifiers.

Purpose: To address high false-positive results of FFDM issue, we make the first effort to develop a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) scheme to analyze and distinguish breast lesions.

Method: The breast lesion regions were first segmented and depicted on FFDM images from 106 patients. In this work, 11 gray-level gap-length matrix texture features and 12 shape features were extracted form craniocaudal view and mediolateral oblique view, and then Student's t-test, Fisher-score and Relief-F were introduced to select features.

Statistical CT reconstruction using region-aware texture preserving regularization learning from prior normal-dose CT image.

In some clinical applications, prior normal-dose CT (NdCT) images are available, and the valuable textures and structure features in them may be used to promote follow-up low-dose CT (LdCT) reconstruction. This study aims to learn texture information from the NdCT images and leverage it for follow-up LdCT image reconstruction to preserve textures and structure features. Specifically, the proposed reconstruction method first learns the texture information from those patches with similar structures in NdCT image, and the similar patches can be clustered by searching context features efficiently from the surroundings of the current patch.

The prostaglandin H2 analog U-46619 improves the differentiation efficiency of human induced pluripotent stem cells into endothelial cells by activating both p38MAPK and ERK1/2 signaling pathways.

Background: We have shown that the differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into endothelial cells (ECs) is more efficient when performed with a 3-dimensional (3D) scaffold of biomaterial than in monolayers. The current study aims to further increase hiPSC-EC differentiation efficiency by deciphering the signaling pathways in 3D scaffolds.

Methods And Results: We modified our 3D protocol by using U-46619 to upregulate both p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38MAPK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) signaling, which increased the differentiation efficiency (as measured by CD31 expression) to as high as 89% in two established hiPSC lines.

[Effect of moderate exercise for 30 min at 30 min versus 60 min after dinner on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomized, crossover, self-controlled study].

Objective: To compare the effectiveness of moderate exercise for 30 min at 30 min and 60 min after dinner on glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: This randomized, crossover, self-controlled pilot study was conducted in 15 inactive patients with type 2 diabetes without serious complications or use of exogenous insulin. The participants completed two randomly ordered exercise protocols (brisk walking for 30 min at 30 min or 60 min after dinner on the exercise day) spaced 1 week apart.

Serum ischaemia-modified albumin might be a potential biomarker for oxidative stress in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is considered to be a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease. The clinical role of ischaemia-modified albumin (IMA) and the association between IMA and oxidative stress in aMCI have not been investigated. The aim of the study was to explore this relationship and to generate new ideas for controlling Alzheimer's disease.

Insulin Injection Technique is Associated with Glycemic Variability in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Introduction: Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) receiving premixed insulin often fail to achieve optimal glycemic control. The insulin injection technique (IT) itself may be one of the factors affecting glycemic variability (GV). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between GV and IT in patients with T2D using premixed insulin.

Twenty Minute Moderate-Intensity Post-Dinner Exercise Reduces the Postprandial Glucose Response in Chinese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

BACKGROUND Postprandial hyperglycemia and glycemic fluctuations are significant cardiovascular disease risk factors for patients with type 2 diabetes. We investigated the effects of a single session of post-dinner moderate-intensity exercise on the postprandial glycemic response compared with a non-exercise condition in a study population of Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes. MATERIAL AND METHODS This randomized crossover self-controlled pilot study involved 29 patients with type 2 diabetes who participated in post-dinner exercise days using non-exercise days as a control.

Nonlocal low-rank and sparse matrix decomposition for spectral CT reconstruction.

Spectral computed tomography (CT) has been a promising technique in research and clinic because of its ability to produce improved energy resolution images with narrow energy bins. However, the narrow energy bin image is often affected by serious quantum noise because of the limited number of photons used in the corresponding energy bin. To address this problem, we present an iterative reconstruction method for spectral CT using nonlocal low-rank and sparse matrix decomposition (NLSMD), which exploits the self-similarity of patches that are collected in multi-energy images.

Iterative quality enhancement via residual-artifact learning networks for low-dose CT.

Radiation exposure and the associated risk of cancer for patients in computed tomography (CT) scans have been major clinical concerns. The radiation exposure can be reduced effectively via lowering the x-ray tube current (mA). However, this strategy may lead to excessive noise and streak artifacts in the conventional filtered back-projection reconstructed images.

Comparison of Efficacy and Economic Value of Prandilin 25 and Humalog Mix 25 in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes by a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System.

Introduction: To determine the clinical efficacy and economic value of insulin lispro 25-Prandilin 25 vs. insulin lispro 25-Humalog mix 25 in treatment of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS).

Methods: This was a single-center, randomized, case-crossover clinical trial.

Highly conductive, mechanically strong graphene monolith assembled by three-dimensional printing of large graphene oxide.

The manufacturing of three-dimensional (3D) graphene monolith with high mechanical and electrical performance has become an urgent issue in view of their potential applications in energy and electronics fields. Due to the structure rigidity and poor liquid-phase processing capability of graphene sheets, it is challenging to fabricate 3D graphene monolith with high mechanical performance, including strength, toughness and resiliency. Graphene oxide (GO) shows an improved dispersibility and reduction-restorable conductivity, which enables it to effectively balance the processing and comprehensive performances of graphene monolith.

Male Patients with Longstanding Type 2 Diabetes Have a Higher Incidence of Hypoglycemia Compared with Female Patients.

Introduction: To explore whether there was a gender difference in the risk of hypoglycemia during intensive insulin therapy in patients with longstanding type 2 diabetes (T2D). This was a post hoc analysis of a single-center, open-label and prospective trial.

Methods: All subjects were admitted as inpatients, underwent a standard bread meal test at baseline and received a 7-day continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) therapy for achieving glycemic control.

Optimizing a Parameterized Plug-and-Play ADMM for Iterative Low-Dose CT Reconstruction.

Reducing the exposure to X-ray radiation while maintaining a clinically acceptable image quality is desirable in various CT applications. To realize low-dose CT (LdCT) imaging, model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) algorithms are widely adopted, but they require proper prior knowledge assumptions in the sinogram and/or image domains and involve tedious manual optimization of multiple parameters. In this paper, we propose a deep learning (DL)-based strategy for MBIR to simultaneously address prior knowledge design and MBIR parameter selection in one optimization framework.

An Efficient Iterative Cerebral Perfusion CT Reconstruction via Low-Rank Tensor Decomposition With Spatial-Temporal Total Variation Regularization.

Cerebrovascular diseases, i.e., acute stroke, are a common cause of serious long-term disability.

Regularization strategies in statistical image reconstruction of low-dose x-ray CT: A review.

Statistical image reconstruction (SIR) methods have shown potential to substantially improve the image quality of low-dose x-ray computed tomography (CT) as compared to the conventional filtered back-projection (FBP) method. According to the maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation, the SIR methods are typically formulated by an objective function consisting of two terms: (a) a data-fidelity term that models imaging geometry and physical detection processes in projection data acquisition, and (b) a regularization term that reflects prior knowledge or expectations of the characteristics of the to-be-reconstructed image. SIR desires accurate system modeling of data acquisition, while the regularization term also has a strong influence on the quality of reconstructed images.

Attenuating Pregnancy Weight Gain-What Works and Why: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Excessive maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) contributes to generational obesity. Our aim was to explore efficacy and intervention characteristics (trimester, duration, frequency, intensity, and delivery method) of interventions to prevent excessive GWG. CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, LILACS, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched up to May 2018 (no date or language restrictions).

Metformin add-on continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion on precise insulin doses in patients with type 2 diabetes.

To investigate whether metformin add-on to the continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (Met + CSII) therapy leads to a significant reduction in insulin doses required by type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients to maintain glycemic control, and an improvement in glycemic variation (GV) compared to CSII only therapy. We analyzed data from our two randomized, controlled open-label trials. Newly diagnoses T2D patients were randomized assigned to receive either CSII therapy or Met + CSII therapy for 4 weeks.

Coating-free, air-stable silver nanowires for high-performance transparent conductive film.

Silver nanowire (Ag NW) based films are considered as a promising alternative for traditional indium tin oxide but still suffer from some limitations, including insufficient conductivity, transparency and environmental instability. We here report a novel etching synthesis strategy to improve the performance of Ag NW films. Different from the traditional methods to synthesize high aspect ratios of NWs or employ electrically conductive coatings, we find it effective to reduce the high-reactivity defects of NWs for optimizing the comprehensive performance of Ag NW films.

Huge abdominal and perineal aggressive angiomyxoma: A misdiagnosed case report and literature review.

Aggressive angiomyxoma (AA) is a distinctive soft tissue tumor with a high risk of local recurrence. Clinicians must be aware of this rare tumor pre-operatively. Excision is the preferred method of AA treatment.

A new Mumford-Shah total variation minimization based model for sparse-view x-ray computed tomography image reconstruction.

Total variation (TV) minimization for the sparse-view x-ray computer tomography (CT) reconstruction has been widely explored to reduce radiation dose. However, due to the piecewise constant assumption for the TV model, the reconstructed images often suffer from over-smoothness on the image edges. To mitigate this drawback of TV minimization, we present a Mumford-Shah total variation (MSTV) minimization algorithm in this paper.

Promote quantitative ischemia imaging via myocardial perfusion CT iterative reconstruction with tensor total generalized variation regularization.

Myocardial perfusion computed tomography (MPCT) imaging is commonly used to detect myocardial ischemia quantitatively. A limitation in MPCT is that an additional radiation dose is required compared to unenhanced CT due to its repeated dynamic data acquisition. Meanwhile, noise and streak artifacts in low-dose cases are the main factors that degrade the accuracy of quantifying myocardial ischemia and hamper the diagnostic utility of the filtered backprojection reconstructed MPCT images.

Comparison of Efficacy and Safety of Lispro and Aspart Evaluated by Continuous Glucose Monitoring System in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes.

Objective: To compare the effect of the rapid-acting insulin analogues (RAIAs) aspart (NovoRapid) and lispro (Prandilin) on glycemic variations by continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) in patients within newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) receiving continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) and metformin intensive therapy.

Methods: This is a single-blind randomized controlled trial. A total of 110 patients with newly diagnosed T2DM and with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c%) above 9% was hospitalized and randomly divided into two groups: group Asp (NovoRapid group) and group Lis (Prandilin group).

The real world of blood glucose point-of-care testing (POCT) system running in China teaching hospital.

Background:  The blood glucose point-of-care testing (POCT) system is important in the decision-making process involving patients suspected of having hypoglycemia. To investigate the real world of the POCT system being used in teaching hospitals in China.

Methods: The survey was conducted by Hisend Research Group from May 2015 to July 2015 in four teaching hospitals in China.