Influence of 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium chloride on MIL-53(Al) crystallinity and particle size.

Little is known about ionic liquids as MOF crystallization additives. We investigate the role of 1-methyl-3-octylimidazolium chloride (OmimCl) in MIL-53(Al) hydrothermal synthesis. Higher crystallinities and particle sizes with 0.

Insertable Glucose Sensor Using a Compact and Cost-Effective Phosphorescence Lifetime Imager and Machine Learning.

Optical continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems are emerging for personalized glucose management owing to their lower cost and prolonged durability compared to conventional electrochemical CGMs. Here, we report a computational CGM system, which integrates a biocompatible phosphorescence-based insertable biosensor and a custom-designed phosphorescence lifetime imager (PLI). This compact and cost-effective PLI is designed to capture phosphorescence lifetime images of an insertable sensor through the skin, where the lifetime of the emitted phosphorescence signal is modulated by the local concentration of glucose.

Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry empowers ultra-fast protein biomarker quantification.

The global scientific response to COVID 19 highlighted the urgent need for increased throughput and capacity in bioanalytical laboratories, especially for the precise quantification of proteins that pertain to health and disease. Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry (AEMS) represents a much-needed paradigm shift for ultra-fast biomarker screening. Here, a quantitative AEMS assays is presented, employing peptide immunocapture to enrich (i) 10 acute phase response (APR) protein markers from plasma, and (ii) SARS-CoV-2 NCAP peptides from nasopharyngeal swabs.

Metal Fluorides Passivate II-VI and III-V Quantum Dots.

Quantum dots (QDs) with metal fluoride surface ligands were prepared via reaction with anhydrous oleylammonium fluoride. Carboxylate terminated II-VI QDs underwent carboxylate for fluoride exchange, while InP QDs underwent photochemical acidolysis yielding oleylamine, PH, and InF. The final photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) reached 83% for InP and near unity for core-shell QDs.

Albumin promoter-driven FlpO expression induces efficient genetic recombination in mouse liver.

Tissue-specific gene manipulations are widely used in genetically engineered mouse models. A single recombinase system, such as the one using Alb-Cre, has been commonly used for liver-specific genetic manipulations. However, most diseases are complex, involving multiple genetic changes and various cell types.

PTEN deficiency induces an extrahepatic cholangitis-cholangiocarcinoma continuum via aurora kinase A in mice.

Background & Aims: The PTEN-AKT pathway is frequently altered in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (eCCA). We aimed to evaluate the role of PTEN in the pathogenesis of eCCA and identify novel therapeutic targets for this disease.

Methods: The Pten gene was genetically deleted using the Cre-loxp system in biliary epithelial cells.

A mouse model for high-efficient Flp-recombinase-mediated genetic manipulation in the pancreas.

Background: Tissue and cell-specific gene targeting has been widely employed in biomedical research. In the pancreas, the commonly used Cre recombinase recognizes and recombines loxP sites. However, to selectively target different genes in distinct cells, a dual recombinase system is required.

Towards Accurate Reconstruction of 3D Scene Shape From A Single Monocular Image.

Despite significant progress made in the past few years, challenges remain for depth estimation using a single monocular image. First, it is nontrivial to train a metric-depth prediction model that can generalize well to diverse scenes mainly due to limited training data. Thus, researchers have built large-scale relative depth datasets that are much easier to collect.

Ptf1a Promoter-Driven Cre Expression During Spermatogenesis Causes Germline Recombination.

Objectives: Two independently developed Ptf1a-Cre mouse lines, Ptf1atm1(cre)Hnak and Ptf1atm1(Cre)Cvw, are widely used in pancreatic research. Recently, Ptf1atm1(cre)Hnak line was reported to transmit unwanted paternal recombination. We aimed to investigate whether this exists in the Ptf1atm1(Cre)Cvw line.

Pancreas-specific CHRM3 activation causes pancreatitis in mice.

Hyperstimulation of the cholecystokinin 1 receptor (CCK1R), a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), in pancreatic acinar cells is commonly used to induce pancreatitis in rodents. Human pancreatic acinar cells lack CCK1R but express cholinergic receptor muscarinic 3 (M3R), another GPCR. To test whether M3R activation is involved in pancreatitis, a mutant M3R was conditionally expressed in pancreatic acinar cells in mice.

A Real-Time Early Warning System for Monitoring Inpatient Mortality Risk: Prospective Study Using Electronic Medical Record Data.

Background: The rapid deterioration observed in the condition of some hospitalized patients can be attributed to either disease progression or imperfect triage and level of care assignment after their admission. An early warning system (EWS) to identify patients at high risk of subsequent intrahospital death can be an effective tool for ensuring patient safety and quality of care and reducing avoidable harm and costs.

Objective: The aim of this study was to prospectively validate a real-time EWS designed to predict patients at high risk of inpatient mortality during their hospital episodes.

Prediction of the 1-Year Risk of Incident Lung Cancer: Prospective Study Using Electronic Health Records from the State of Maine.

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Early detection of individuals at risk of lung cancer is critical to reduce the mortality rate.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a prospective risk prediction model to identify patients at risk of new incident lung cancer within the next 1 year in the general population.

An ensemble-based likelihood ratio approach for family-based genomic risk prediction.

Objective: As one of the most popular designs used in genetic research, family-based design has been well recognized for its advantages, such as robustness against population stratification and admixture. With vast amounts of genetic data collected from family-based studies, there is a great interest in studying the role of genetic markers from the aspect of risk prediction. This study aims to develop a new statistical approach for family-based risk prediction analysis with an improved prediction accuracy compared with existing methods based on family history.

Model-based and model-free pain avoidance learning.

While there is good evidence that reward learning is underpinned by two distinct decision control systems - a cognitive 'model-based' and a habitbased 'model-free' system, a comparable distinction for punishment avoidance has been much less clear. We implemented a pain avoidance task that placed differential emphasis on putative model-based and model-free processing, mirroring a paradigm and modelling approach recently developed for reward-based decision-making. Subjects performed a two-step decision-making task with probabilistic pain outcomes of different quantities.

Assessing Statewide All-Cause Future One-Year Mortality: Prospective Study With Implications for Quality of Life, Resource Utilization, and Medical Futility.

Background: For many elderly patients, a disproportionate amount of health care resources and expenditures is spent during the last year of life, despite the discomfort and reduced quality of life associated with many aggressive medical approaches. However, few prognostic tools have focused on predicting all-cause 1-year mortality among elderly patients at a statewide level, an issue that has implications for improving quality of life while distributing scarce resources fairly.

Objective: Using data from a statewide elderly population (aged ≥65 years), we sought to prospectively validate an algorithm to identify patients at risk for dying in the next year for the purpose of minimizing decision uncertainty, improving quality of life, and reducing futile treatment.

Prediction of Incident Hypertension Within the Next Year: Prospective Study Using Statewide Electronic Health Records and Machine Learning.

Background: As a high-prevalence health condition, hypertension is clinically costly, difficult to manage, and often leads to severe and life-threatening diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and validate prospectively a risk prediction model of incident essential hypertension within the following year.

Methods: Data from individual patient electronic health records (EHRs) were extracted from the Maine Health Information Exchange network.

Integrative functional genomics identifies regulatory mechanisms at coronary artery disease loci.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity, driven by both genetic and environmental risk factors. Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies have identified >150 loci associated with CAD and myocardial infarction susceptibility in humans. A majority of these variants reside in non-coding regions and are co-inherited with hundreds of candidate regulatory variants, presenting a challenge to elucidate their functions.

Prognostic and Functional Significance of MAP4K5 in Pancreatic Cancer.

Objectives: MAP4K5 plays an important role in regulating a range of cellular responses and is involved in Wnt signaling in hematopoietic cells. However, its functions in human malignancies have not been studied. The major objectives of this study are to examine the expression, functions and clinical significance of MAP4K5 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

Personal photograph enhancement using internet photo collections.

Given the growth of Internet photo collections, we now have a visual index of all major cities and tourist sites in the world. However, it is still a difficult task to capture that perfect shot with your own camera when visiting these places, especially when your camera itself has limitations, such as a limited field of view. In this paper, we propose a framework to overcome the imperfections of personal photographs of tourist sites using the rich information provided by large-scale Internet photo collections.

Distinguishing texture edges from object boundaries in video.

One of the most fundamental problems in image processing and computer vision is the inherent ambiguity that exists between texture edges and object boundaries in real-world images and video. Despite this ambiguity, many applications in computer vision and image processing often use image edge strength with the assumption that these edges approximate object depth boundaries. However, this assumption is often invalidated by real world data, and this discrepancy is a significant limitation in many of today's image processing methods.

Automatic view synthesis by image-domain-warping.

Today, stereoscopic 3D (S3D) cinema is already mainstream, and almost all new display devices for the home support S3D content. S3D distribution infrastructure to the home is already established partly in the form of 3D Blu-ray discs, video on demand services, or television channels. The necessity to wear glasses is, however, often considered as an obstacle, which hinders broader acceptance of this technology in the home.

Recent trends in hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction.

Rates of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) hospitalizations for elderly Medicare patients decreased during the previous decade. However, trends in population rates of AMI hospitalizations for all adults by subgroups have not been described. Using data from a large all-payer administrative database of hospitalizations, we calculated annual AMI hospitalization rates from 2001 through 2007.

Expanding the safety net of specialty care for the uninsured: a case study.

Objective: To describe core principles and processes in the implementation of a navigated care program to improve specialty care access for the uninsured.

Study Setting: Academic researchers, safety-net providers, and specialty physicians, partnered with hospitals and advocates for the underserved to establish Project Access-New Haven (PA-NH). PA-NH expands access to specialty care for the uninsured and coordinates care through patient navigation.

Project Access-New Haven: improving access to specialty care for patients without insurance.

Background: Poor access to specialty care among uninsured adults threatens the delivery of quality health care and may contribute to the misuse and overuse of emergency departments and hospitals.

Intervention: We sought to improve access to specialty care through a program called Project Access-New Haven (PA-NH),which engages specialty physicians and hospitals to volunteer in a coordinated-care model for the uninsured. Patient navigators guide patients through the health-care network and help to alleviate administrative obstacles.