SAM: Semi-Active Mechanism for Extensible Continuum Manipulator and Real-Time Hysteresis Compensation Control Algorithm.

Background: Cable-driven continuum manipulators (CDCMs) enable scar-free procedures but face limitations in workspace and control accuracy due to hysteresis.

Methods: We introduce an extensible CDCM with a semi-active mechanism (SAM) and develop a real-time hysteresis compensation control algorithm using a temporal convolution network (TCN) based on data collected from fiducial markers and RGBD sensing.

Results: Performance validation shows the proposed controller significantly reduces hysteresis by up to 69.

Human cytomegalovirus harnesses host L1 retrotransposon for efficient replication.

Genetic parasites, including viruses and transposons, exploit components from the host for their own replication. However, little is known about virus-transposon interactions within host cells. Here, we discover a strategy where human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) hijacks L1 retrotransposon encoded protein during its replication cycle.

A kinesin-1 adaptor complex controls bimodal slow axonal transport of spectrin in Caenorhabditis elegans.

An actin-spectrin lattice, the membrane periodic skeleton (MPS), protects axons from breakage. MPS integrity relies on spectrin delivery via slow axonal transport, a process that remains poorly understood. We designed a probe to visualize endogenous spectrin dynamics at single-axon resolution in vivo.

End-binding protein 1 promotes specific motor-cargo association in the cell body prior to axonal delivery of dense core vesicles.

Axonal transport is key to neuronal function. Efficient transport requires specific motor-cargo association in the soma, yet the mechanisms regulating this early step remain poorly understood. We found that EBP-1, the C.

Reduction of nemo-like kinase increases lysosome biogenesis and ameliorates TDP-43-related neurodegeneration.

Protein aggregation is a hallmark of many neurodegenerative disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Although mutations in TARDBP, encoding transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 kDa (TDP-43), account for less than 1% of all ALS cases, TDP-43-positive aggregates are present in nearly all ALS patients, including patients with sporadic ALS (sALS) or carrying other familial ALS-causing (fALS-causing) mutations. Interestingly, TDP-43 inclusions are also present in subsets of patients with frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease; therefore, methods of activating intracellular protein quality control machinery capable of clearing toxic cytoplasmic TDP-43 species may alleviate disease-related phenotypes.

The Caenorhabditis elegans anchor cell transcriptome: ribosome biogenesis drives cell invasion through basement membrane.

Cell invasion through basement membrane (BM) barriers is important in development, immune function and cancer progression. As invasion through BM is often stochastic, capturing gene expression profiles of actively invading cells in vivo remains elusive. Using the stereotyped timing of Caenorhabditis elegans anchor cell (AC) invasion, we generated an AC transcriptome during BM breaching.

Modularized dynamic cell culture platform for efficient production of extracellular vesicles and sequential analysis.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanometer-sized particles naturally secreted by cells for intercellular communication that encapsulate bioactive cargo, such as proteins and RNA, with a lipid bilayer. Tumor cell-derived EVs (tdEVs) are particularly promising biomarkers for cancer research because their contents reflect the cell of origin. In most studies, tdEVs have been obtained from cancer cells cultured under static conditions, thus lacking the ability to recapitulate the microenvironment of cells .

End Binding protein 1 promotes specific motor-cargo association in the cell body prior to axonal delivery of Dense Core Vesicles.

Axonal transport is key to neuronal function. Efficient transport requires specific motor-cargo association in the soma, yet the mechanisms regulating this early step remain poorly understood. We found that EBP-1, the ortholog of the canonical microtubule end binding protein EB1, promotes the specific association between kinesin-3/KIF1A/UNC-104 and Dense Core Vesicles (DCVs) prior to their axonal delivery.

CRISPR/Cas13a-assisted AMP generation for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection using a personal glucose meter.

Herein, we described a washing- and label-free clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas13a-based RNA detection method utilizing a personal glucose meter (PGM), which relies on the -cleavage activity of CRISPR/Cas13a and kinase reactions. In principle, the presence of target RNA activates the -cleavage of CRISPR/Cas13a, generating 2',3'-cyclic phosphate adenosine, which is converted to adenosine monophosphate (AMP) by the T4 polynucleotide kinase. Subsequently, the AMP is converted to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) through phosphorylation by a myokinase; ADP is then used as a substrate in the cascade enzymatic reaction promoted by pyruvate kinase and hexokinase.

Ghostformer: A GhostNet-Based Two-Stage Transformer for Small Object Detection.

In this paper, we propose a novel two-stage transformer with GhostNet, which improves the performance of the small object detection task. Specifically, based on the original Deformable Transformers for End-to-End Object Detection (deformable DETR), we chose GhostNet as the backbone to extract features, since it is better suited for an efficient feature extraction. Furthermore, at the target detection stage, we selected the 300 best bounding box results as which were subsequently set as primary object queries of the decoder layer.

Washing-Free and Label-Free Onsite Assay for Inorganic Pyrophosphatase Activity Using a Personal Glucose Meter.

In this study, we demonstrated a personal glucose meter-based method for washing-free and label-free inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase) detection, which relies on the cascade enzymatic reaction (CER) promoted by hexokinase and pyruvate kinase. In principle, the absence of target PPase enables adenosine triphosphate sulfurylase to catalyze the conversion of pyrophosphate (PPi) to ATP, a substrate of CER, which results in the significant reduction of glucose levels by the effective CER process. In contrast, the PPi cleavage activity works in the presence of target PPase by decomposing PPi to orthophosphate (Pi).

Neurexin and frizzled intercept axonal transport at microtubule minus ends to control synapse formation.

Synapse formation is locally determined by transmembrane proteins, yet synaptic material is synthesized remotely and undergoes processive transport in axons. How local synaptogenic signals intercept synaptic cargo in transport to promote its delivery and synapse formation is unknown. We found that the control of synaptic cargo delivery at microtubule (MT) minus ends mediates pro- and anti-synaptogenic activities of presynaptic neurexin and frizzled in C.

TA-Unet: Integrating Triplet Attention Module for Drivable Road Region Segmentation.

Road segmentation has been one of the leading research areas in the realm of autonomous driving cars due to the possible benefits autonomous vehicles can offer. Significant reduction of crashes, greater independence for the people with disabilities, and reduced traffic congestion on the roads are some of the vivid examples of them. Considering the importance of self-driving cars, it is vital to develop models that can accurately segment drivable regions of roads.

Immunoglobulin E Detection Method Based on Cascade Enzymatic Reaction Utilizing Portable Personal Glucose Meter.

We herein describe a cascade enzymatic reaction (CER)-based IgE detection method utilizing a personal glucose meter (PGM), which relies on alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity that regulates the amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The amount of sandwich assay complex is determined according to the presence or absence of the target IgE. Additionally, the ALP in the sandwich assay catalyzes the dephosphorylation of ATP, a substrate of CER, which results in the changes in glucose level.

Microfluidic recapitulation of circulating tumor cell-neutrophil clusters double spiral channel-induced deterministic encapsulation.

Circulating tumor cell (CTC)-neutrophil clusters are highly potent precursors of cancer metastasis. However, their rarity in patients' blood has restricted research thus far, and moreover, studies on methods for mimicking cell clusters have generally neglected conditions. Here, we introduce an inertial-force-assisted droplet microfluidic chip that allows the recapitulation of CTC-neutrophil clusters in terms of physical as well as biochemical features.

Pharmacological rescue in patient iPSC and mouse models with a rare DISC1 mutation.

We previously identified a causal link between a rare patient mutation in DISC1 (disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1) and synaptic deficits in cortical neurons differentiated from isogenic patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here we find that transcripts related to phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) signaling are significantly elevated in human cortical neurons differentiated from iPSCs with the DISC1 mutation and that inhibition of PDE4 or activation of the cAMP signaling pathway functionally rescues synaptic deficits. We further generated a knock-in mouse line harboring the same patient mutation in the Disc1 gene.

Process Mining-Supported Emergency Room Process Performance Indicators.

Emergency room processes are often exposed to the risk of unexpected factors, and process management based on performance measurements is required due to its connectivity to the quality of care. Regarding this, there have been several attempts to propose a method to analyze the emergency room processes. This paper proposes a framework for process performance indicators utilized in emergency rooms.

Serum trace metal levels in Alzheimer's disease and normal control groups.

Objective: To determine whether serum trace metals are related to abnormal cognition in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: We studied serum lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and arsenic(As) in 89 patients with AD and in 118 cognitively normal individuals. We analyzed the results of the blood tests and the food intake.

Elevated serum copper and ceruloplasmin levels in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Copper takes part in a variety of biological reduction-oxidation (redox) processes, and is an important cofactor of many redox enzymes. Ceruloplasmin, the copper-transporting protein, also possesses an important redox capacity.

Methods: We assessed serum copper, ceruloplasmin and free-copper levels in 89 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (mean age, 77.

The association of heavy metal of blood and serum in the Alzheimer's diseases.

This study has attempted to establish an analysis method through validation against heavy metals in the body (Pb, Cd and Hg) using ICP-MS and Gold amalgamation and find out the relevance between heavy metal and Alzheimer's disease after analyzing the distribution of heavy metal concentration (Pb, Cd and Hg) and correlations between a control group and Alzheimer's disease group. In this study, Pb and Cd levels in the blood and serum were validation using ICP-MS. For analysis of Hg levels in the blood and serum, the gold amalgamation-based 'Direct Mercury Analyzer' has been used.

Use of the terms "schizophrenia" and "schizophrenic" in the South Korean news media: a content analysis of newspapers and news programs in the last 10 years.

Objective: In this study, we explored the meaning attributed to the words "jungshinbunyeolbyung" (schizophrenia) and "jungshinbunyeol" (schizophrenic) in South Korean newspapers and news programs in the last 10 years.

Methods: We screened the websites of three national newspapers and the broadcasts of three nationwide television news programs from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2010. We classified a total of 490 articles and 257 news segments by category and quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed them.