Korean Red Ginseng-induced astrocytic HIF-1α: A key regulator of neuroglobin derived from neural stem cell differentiation in physiologic retina and brain.

Background: Neuroglobin (Ngb) and growth-associated protein (GAP) 43 in neurons are associated with axonal regeneration. Korean Red Ginseng Extract (KRGE) enhances glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive astrocytes and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) protein activation in normoxic astrocytes. However, crosstalk between neural stem cell (NSC) differentiation and astrocytic HIF-1α in the KRGE-treated normoxic brain and retina remains unclear.

Accelerated Discovery of Solvation Structure Engineering for Stable Aqueous Rechargeable Zinc Batteries via Physics-Guided Bayesian Active Learning.

Aqueous rechargeable zinc batteries, despite advantages like safety and performance, struggle with water-based side reactions such as hydrogen evolution and corrosion. Regulating the solvation structure of Zn is essential for stability. Introducing n-hexane, a nonpolar alkane, modifies Zn coordination and stabilizes the Zn anode-electrolyte interface.

Transition from parenteral treprostinil to selexipag aiming at hemodynamic targets in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the progress of treatment with intensive targeted therapy in high-risk pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients and focused on setting an appropriate hemodynamic target of pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) ≤4 Wood units (WU) and mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP) ≤ 40 mmHg.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated high-risk PAH patients who were administered treprostinil at a single tertiary pulmonary hypertension center between January 2020 and December 2022. Echocardiography, right heart catheterization, 6-minute walk distance (6MWD), and blood tests were obtained 6 and 12 months after the initiation of parenteral treprostinil administration.

Fundamental study on structural formation, amino acids and nucleotide-related compounds of cultivated meat from 3D-cultured pig muscle stem cells.

Since the first cultivated meat prototype in 2013, significant advancements have been made, yet cultivated meat still differs from conventional meat, particularly in nutritional and flavor profiles. In this study, cell-cultivated pork was developed using 3D-cultured pig muscle stem cells (MuSCs) on hydrogel scaffolds over a 44-day period and analyzed for muscle maturity and nutritional characteristics. qPCR analysis showed muscle fiber maturation with a shift from type I to type II fibers during long-term culture.

Prognostic significance of normalized distance from maximum standardized uptake value to tumor centroid on [F]FDG PET/CT in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: The maximum [F]FDG uptake of a cancer lesion has been found to relocate from the center to the periphery during progression. This behavior suggests that the normalized distances from the hotspot of radiotracer uptake to the tumor centroid (NHOC) and to the tumor perimeter (NHOP) could serve as novel geometric PET parameters indicative of tumor aggressiveness. This study aimed to explore the prognostic relevance of NHOC and NHOP in [F]FDG PET/CT for predicting the response to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

Emission of Alkali Halide Cluster Ions from the Charged Droplets Generated from Electrospray Ionization.

In this study, the formation and emission of alkali halide cluster ions in charged droplets generated by electrospray ionization (ESI) was investigated using mass spectrometry (MS). We focus on ion emission at the air-solution interface of charged droplets, distinguishing between two mechanisms: the ion evaporation model (IEM), where ions are released directly from the interface, and the charge residue model (CRM), where ions are generated after complete solvent evaporation. Using an iodide/chloride mixture, we analyzed how interfacial affinity influences the composition of the generated alkali halide cluster cations and anions.

Ratio of Skeletal Muscle Mass to Visceral Fat Area Is a Useful Marker for Assessing Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction among Koreans with Preserved Ejection Fraction: An Analysis of the Random Forest Model.

Background: Although the presence of both obesity and reduced muscle mass presents a dual metabolic burden and additively has a negative effect on a variety of cardiometabolic parameters, data regarding the associations between their combined effects and left ventricular diastolic function are limited. This study investigated the association between the ratio of skeletal muscle mass to visceral fat area (SVR) and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) in patients with preserved ejection fraction using random forest machine learning.

Methods: In total, 1,070 participants with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction who underwent comprehensive health examinations, including transthoracic echocardiography and bioimpedance body composition analysis, were enrolled.

Phase Change Materials for Energy Storage Applications from PEG and PBAT with AlN and CNT as Fillers.

This study investigates the fabrication of phase change material-poly(butylene adipate--terephthalate) (PCM-PBAT) composites through melt blending techniques, focusing on the impact of isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) treatment on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) treatment on aluminum nitride (AlN) particles. Analysis of mechanical properties highlights an enhancement in tensile strength with APTES-treated AlN particles, while dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) reveals an increase in stiffness. Laser flash analysis (LFA) investigation demonstrates a significant increase, up to 325%, in thermal conductivity compared to PCM-PBAT composites without filler.

Superior P-Type Switching in InSe Nanosheets for Complementary Multifunctional Systems.

van der Waals (vdW) indium selenide (InSe) is receiving attention for its exceptional electron mobility and moderate band gap, enabling various applications. However, the intrinsic -type behavior of InSe has restricted its use predominantly to -type devices, constraining its application in complementary integrated microsystems. Here, we show superior ambipolar InSe transistors with vdW bottom contacts, achieving impressive -type on/off current ratios greater than 10 and Schottky barrier heights approaching the ideal Schottky-Mott limit.

Enhanced dual-mode imaging: Superior photoacoustic and ultrasound endoscopy in live pigs using a transparent ultrasound transducer.

Dual-mode photoacoustic/ultrasound endoscopy (ePAUS) is a promising tool for preclinical and clinical interventions. To be clinically useful, ePAUS must deliver high-performance ultrasound imaging comparable to commercial systems and maintain high photoacoustic imaging performance at long working distances. This requires a transducer with an intact physical aperture and coaxial alignment of acoustic and optical beams within the probe, a challenging integration task.

Single-Input Multiple-Output (SIMO) Cascode Low-Noise Amplifier with Switchable Degeneration Inductor for Carrier Aggregation.

This paper presents a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) cascode low-noise amplifier with inductive degeneration for inter- and intra-band carrier aggregation. The proposed low-noise amplifier has two output ports for flexible operation in carrier aggregation combinations for band 30 and band 7. However, during inter- and intra-band operation, gain variation occurs depending on the output mode.

Prompt Tuning of Deep Neural Networks for Speaker-Adaptive Visual Speech Recognition.

Visual Speech Recognition (VSR) aims to infer speech into text depending on lip movements alone. As it focuses on visual information to model the speech, its performance is inherently sensitive to personal lip appearances and movements, and this makes the VSR models show degraded performance when they are applied to unseen speakers. In this paper, to remedy the performance degradation of the VSR model on unseen speakers, we propose prompt tuning methods of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) for speaker-adaptive VSR.

Enhanced thermoelectric performance of copper iodide particles/nanowires composite in the low-temperature range.

Thermoelectric (TE) energy harvesting presents a viable method for reducing energy waste by transforming waste thermal energy into electricity. In this study, we fabricated copper iodide (CuI) composites using synthesized CuI nanowires (NWs) and particles to enhance TE performance in the low-temperature range. The Seebeck coefficient () was notably higher when a combination of CuI particles and NWs was used, reaching a maximum of 1614.

In Silico Analysis and Biochemical Characterization of PET Hydrolase with Bis(2-Hydroxyethyl) Terephthalate Biodegradation Activity.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most widely used plastics in the world, causes serious environmental problems. Recently, scientists have been focused on the enzymatic degradation of PET, an environmentally friendly method that offers an attractive approach to the degradation and recycling of PET. In this work, PET hydrolase from sp.

Optimizing Disease Outbreak Forecast Ensembles.

On the basis of historical influenza and COVID-19 forecasts, we found that more than 3 forecast models are needed to ensure robust ensemble accuracy. Additional models can improve ensemble performance, but with diminishing accuracy returns. This understanding will assist with the design of current and future collaborative infectious disease forecasting efforts.

Horizontal Lithium Electrodeposition on Atomically Polarized Monolayer Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

Both uncontrolled Li dendrite growth and corrosion are major obstacles to the practical application of Li-metal batteries. Despite numerous attempts to address these challenges, effective solutions for dendrite-free reversible Li electrodeposition have remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate the horizontal Li electrodeposition on top of atomically polarized monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (hBN).

Evaluation of fluid responsiveness using liver compression in dogs with experimentally induced hypovolemia.

Objective: To investigate whether liver compression (LC) could increase stroke volume (SV) by more than 15% in healthy, anesthetized dogs with hypovolemia and suggest LC as a novel method to evaluate fluid responsiveness.

Animals: 6 healthy Beagles.

Methods: This prospective, nonrandomized experimental study was conducted from November 2023 to February 2024.

HiRENet: Novel convolutional neural network architecture using Hilbert-transformed and raw electroencephalogram (EEG) for subject-independent emotion classification.

Background And Objectives: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are the most widely used deep-learning framework for decoding electroencephalograms (EEGs) due to their exceptional ability to extract hierarchical features from high-dimensional EEG data. Traditionally, CNNs have primarily utilized multi-channel raw EEG data as the input tensor; however, the performance of CNN-based EEG decoding may be enhanced by incorporating phase information alongside amplitude information.

Methods: This study introduces a novel CNN architecture called the Hilbert-transformed (HT) and raw EEG network (HiRENet), which incorporates both raw and HT EEG as inputs.

Therapeutic Efficacy of Ultrasound-Guided Selective Nerve Block on Chronic Cervical Radiculopathy.

: Cervical radiculopathy (CR) manifests as pain and sensorimotor disturbances in the upper extremities, often resulting from nerve root compression due to intervertebral disc herniation, degenerative changes, or trauma. While conservative treatments are initially preferred, persistent or severe cases may require surgical intervention. Ultrasound-guided selective nerve root block (SNRB) has emerged as a promising intervention for alleviating symptoms and potentially obviating the need for surgery.

The Development of an Artificial Intelligence Video Analysis-Based Web Application to Diagnose Oropharyngeal Dysphagia: A Pilot Study.

The gold standard test for diagnosing dysphagia is the videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS). However, the accuracy of this test varies depending on the specialist's skill level. We proposed a VFSS-based artificial intelligence (AI) web application to diagnose dysphagia.

Long-Term Enhancement of Botulinum Toxin Injections for Post-Stroke Spasticity by Use of Stretching Exercises-A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Botulinum toxin A (BONT/A) injections play a central role in the treatment of upper limb spasticity in stroke patients. We proposed structured stretching exercises to enhance the effect of post-stroke spasticity relief of the upper limbs following BONT/A injections. A total of 43 patients who had a stroke with grade 2 spasticity or higher on the Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) in their upper-limb muscles were randomly assigned to the intervention ( = 21) or control group ( = 22).

Direct oral anticoagulants for oral anticoagulants-naïve Asian patients with atrial fibrillation and end-stage renal disease undergoing dialysis.

In Asian patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing dialysis, the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) remains debatable. From the national health insurance claims data in South Korea, we included 425 new users of OAC among patients with non-valvular AF and ESRD undergoing dialysis between 2013 and 2020. Patients were categorized into DOAC (n = 106) and warfarin group (n = 319).