Critical role of hepsin/TMPRSS1 in hearing and tectorial membrane morphogenesis: Insights from transgenic mouse models.

Mutations in various type II transmembrane serine protease (TMPRSS) family members are associated with non-syndromic hearing loss, with some mechanisms still unclear. For instance, the mechanism underlying profound hearing loss and tectorial membrane (TM) malformations in hepsin/TMPRSS1 knockout (KO) mice remains elusive. In this study, we confirmed significantly elevated hearing thresholds and abnormal TM morphology in hepsin KO mice, characterized by enlarged TM with gaps and detachment from the spiral limbus.

Recapitulating the immune system of hemophilia A patients with inhibitors using immunodeficient mice.

Background And Aim: Treating hemophilia A patients who develop inhibitors remains a clinical challenge. A mouse model of hemophilia A can be used to test the efficacy of strategies for inhibitor suppression, but the differences in the immune systems of mice and humans limit its utility. To address this shortcoming, we established a humanized NOD/SCID-IL2rγ hemophilia A (hu-NSG-HA) mouse model with a severely deficient mouse immune system presenting a patient's adapted immune cells.

Osteopontine-derived functional fragments coupled to RADA16 self-assembled peptide hydrogels promotes bone and vascular regeneration in vivo.

Biomaterial scaffolds have been widely used in tissue engineering. A functionalized self-assembled peptide scaffold named RADA16-OPD was designed by linking the short functional motif of osteopontine (OPN)-derived functional fragments SVVYGLR (OPD) to the C-terminus of the self-assembled peptide RADA16. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to analyze the self-assembling peptide's structural composition.

Cluster analysis for the overall health status of elderly, multimorbid patients with diabetes.

Purpose: To evaluate the overall health status and health-related abilities and problems of elderly patients with diabetes and multimorbidity compared with those with diabetes only. Additionally, we aimed to identify different subgroups of elderly, multimorbid patients with diabetes.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 538 elderly patients with diabetes.

Repair of critical-sized rat cranial defects with RADA16-W9 self-assembled peptide hydrogel.

Bone defects are common in orthopaedics and there is an urgent need to explore effective bone repair materials with osteoinductive activity. Peptide self-assembled nanomaterials have a fibrous structure like that of the extracellular matrix and are ideal bionic scaffold materials. In this study, a short peptide WP9QY (W9) with strong osteoinductive effect was tagged to a self-assembled peptide RADA16 molecule through solid phase synthesis to design a RADA16-W9 peptide gel scaffold.

Lotus Bee Pollen Extract Inhibits Isoproterenol-Induced Hypertrophy via JAK2/STAT3 Signaling Pathway in Rat H9c2 Cells.

Bee pollen possesses an anti-cardiomyocyte injury effect by reducing oxidative stress levels and inhibiting inflammatory response and apoptosis, but the possible effect mechanism has rarely been reported. This paper explores the effect of the extract of lotus bee pollen (LBPE) on cardiomyocyte hypertrophy (CH) and its mechanism. The main components of LBPE were identified via UPLC-QTOF MS.

Logistics Path Decision Optimization Method of Fresh Product Export Cold Chain Considering Transportation Risk.

The cold chain logistics route of fresh product export is characterized by large quantity and complexity, which is prone to cause transportation risks of different degrees in the process of fresh product export transportation and affects the decision-making effect of the cold chain logistics route. Therefore, in order to improve the ability of cold chain logistics route planning and shorten the transportation time, an optimization method of fresh product export cold chain logistics route decision considering transportation risk was proposed. This paper analyzes the basic characteristics and classification of cold chain logistics by means of risk quantification and uses the K-nearest neighbor algorithm to predict the risk of traffic congestion, so as to shorten the transportation time.

Using neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio to predict discharge among geriatric patients with influenza infection in emergency department.

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is used to predict the prognosis of various diseases, such as coronavirus disease 2019, community-acquired pneumonia, bacteremia, and endocarditis. However, NLR has never been reported to predict patient discharge in geriatric patients with influenza infection. This retrospective case-control study enrolled geriatric patients (≥65 years) with influenza virus infection who visited the emergency department of a medical center between January 01, 2010 and December 31, 2015.

FECTS: A Facial Emotion Cognition and Training System for Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Traditional training methods such as card teaching, assistive technologies (e.g., augmented reality/virtual reality games and smartphone apps), DVDs, human-computer interactions, and human-robot interactions are widely applied in autistic rehabilitation training in recent years.

National Early Warning Score for predicting intensive care unit admission among elderly patients with influenza infections in the emergency department: an effective disposition tool during the influenza season.

Objective: During the influenza epidemic season, the fragile elderlies are not only susceptible to influenza infections, but are also more likely to develop severe symptoms and syndromes. Such circumstances may pose a significant burden to the medical resources especially in the emergency department (ED). Disposition of the elderly patients with influenza infections to either the ward or intensive care unit (ICU) accurately is therefore a crucial issue.

A 12-hour rapid titration method for cancer pain: a randomized, controlled, open-label study.

Background: Opioid titration is the best way to achieve a balance of pain relief and tolerable side effects for moderate-to-severe cancer pain. Rapid dose titration helps to achieve early analgesia. We explored the efficacy and safety of a 12-hour rapid dose titration in treating cancer pain.

Light-driven post-translational installation of reactive protein side chains.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) greatly expand the structures and functions of proteins in nature. Although synthetic protein functionalization strategies allow mimicry of PTMs, as well as formation of unnatural protein variants with diverse potential functions, including drug carrying, tracking, imaging and partner crosslinking, the range of functional groups that can be introduced remains limited. Here we describe the visible-light-driven installation of side chains at dehydroalanine residues in proteins through the formation of carbon-centred radicals that allow C-C bond formation in water.

Schisandra chinensis bee pollen's chemical profiles and protective effect against HO-induced apoptosis in H9c2 cardiomyocytes.

Background: Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill bee pollen extract (SCBPE) is often used as a functional food in China due to its good antioxidant property. However, its chemical compositions and effects on H9c2 cardiomyocytes against HO-induced cell injury still lacks of reports thus far.

Selective voltammetric detection of chlorophylls using a semi-circular potential wave.

A simple electrochemical method employing a novel semi-circular potential sweep voltammetry on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode was developed to distinguish and quantify two main chlorophyll components (chlorophyll a and b) present in their mixtures. The semi-circular potential sweep generates large, transient scan rates, enabling the selective detection of species with closely similar oxidative potentials. The proposed method shows good applicability in mixtures of chlorophyll a (Chl a) and chlorophyll b (Chl b) with concentrations ranging from 46.

Mining-Induced Time-Series Deformation Investigation Based on SBAS-InSAR Technique: A Case Study of Drilling Water Solution Rock Salt Mine.

Compared to traditional coal mines, the mining-induced dynamic deformation of drilling solution mining activities may result in even more serious damage to surface buildings and infrastructures due to the different exploitation mode. Therefore, long-term dynamic monitoring and analysis of rock salt mines is extremely important for preventing potential geological damages. In this work, the small baseline subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SBAS-InSAR) technique with Sentinel-1A imagery is utilized to monitor the ground surface deformation of a rock salt mining area.

Phase Difference Measurement of Under-Sampled Sinusoidal Signals for InSAR System Phase Error Calibration.

Phase difference measurement of sinusoidal signals can be used for phase error calibration of the spaceborne single-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) system. However, there are currently very few papers devoted to the discussion of phase difference measurement of high-frequency internal calibration signals of the InSAR system, especially the discussion of sampling frequency selection and the corresponding measuring method when the high-frequency signals are sampled under the under-sampling condition. To solve this problem, a phase difference measurement method for high-frequency sinusoidal signals is proposed, and the corresponding sampling frequency selection criteria under the under-sampling condition is determined.

Dopamine oxidation at gold electrodes: mechanism and kinetics near neutral pH.

The two-electron electrochemical oxidation of dopamine is studied voltammetrically at gold macroelectrodes around neutral pH with simulations used to give kinetic and mechanistic data. In particular, the system shows "potential inversion" in which the thermodynamic oxidation potential of dopamine to form the corresponding semi-quinone formation occurs at a more positive potential than that of the oxidation of the semi-quinone to the quinone form. The use of Tafel slopes measured from the voltammograms as a function of the voltage scan rate is show to be a particularly sensitive indicator of mechanism showing the effect of the follow-up chemistry in which the two-electron oxidation product undergoes an irreversible cyclization reaction.

Electrochemical quantification of piperine in black pepper.

A simple, rapid method of the detection of piperine in black pepper is reported using a voltammetric sensor based on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode with analysis following a short one-step extraction using ethanol. The method is based on a novel potential sweep designed to maximise signal sizes and shown with context of the present analytical challenge to be essential for gathering data allowing the construction of a linear calibration curve for the analysis in the relevant range namely 0.25-5.

Fluoro-electrochemical microscopy reveals group specific differential susceptibility of phytoplankton towards oxidative damage.

In the vicinity of an electrode creating a highly oxidising environment the fluorescence - arising from the presence of chlorophyll-a - of single cellular phytoplankton becomes inhibited. Even for phytoplankton that are very comparable in size ( 2-20 μm) the rate of this (electro)chemically induced fluorescence inhibition differs significantly between phytoplankton species; the fluorescence signal of the freshwater algae turns off ∼70 times faster than that of the marine coccolithophore . The varying behaviour reflects the differing susceptibility of these globally important phytoplankton species towards extreme levels of radical induced oxidative stress, indicating the physical and chemical properties of the plankton cell wall and membrane are very different between species, and are important in determining their susceptibility.

Automatic Extraction of Water and Shadow from SAR Images Based on a Multi-Resolution Dense Encoder and Decoder Network.

The water and shadow areas in SAR images contain rich information for various applications, which cannot be extracted automatically and precisely at present. To handle this problem, a new framework called Multi-Resolution Dense Encoder and Decoder (MRDED) network is proposed, which integrates Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Residual Network (ResNet), Dense Convolutional Network (DenseNet), Global Convolutional Network (GCN), and Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (ConvLSTM). MRDED contains three parts: the Gray Level Gradient Co-occurrence Matrix (GLGCM), the Encoder network, and the Decoder network.

Band Electrodes in Sensing Applications: Response Characteristics and Band Fabrication Methods.

This Review surveys the fabrication methods reported for both single microband electrodes and microband electrode arrays and their uses in sensing applications. A theoretical section on band electrodes provides background information on the structure of band electrodes, their diffusional profiles, and the types of voltammetric behavior observed. A short section summarizes the currently available commercial microband electrodes.

An Improved Time-Series Model Considering Rheological Parameters for Surface Deformation Monitoring of Soft Clay Subgrade.

Building deformation models consistent with reality is a crucial step for time-series deformation monitoring. Most deformation models are empirical mathematical models, lacking consideration of the physical mechanisms of observed objects. In this study, we propose an improved time-series deformation model considering rheological parameters (viscosity and elasticity) based on the Kelvin model.

Electron Transfer to Decorated Graphene Oxide Particles.

Graphene oxides (GOs) are popular catalyst supports for precious metals in nanoparticle form. The hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on individual GO platelets decorated with Pd nanoparticles (Pd/GOs) were investigated. The results suggest that the catalytic activity is confined to the zone physically close to the point of electrical contact between platelet and electrode with just a fraction of the platelet active.