Analysis of factors that promote the participation of patients with chronic diseases in shared decision making on medication: a cross-sectional survey in Hubei Province, China.

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) improves the health status of patients with chronic diseases, especially in the condition of poly-medicated patients. This study aims to find the factors associated with participation of patients with chronic diseases in SDM on medication.

Methods: A total of 1,196 patients with chronic diseases were selected in Hubei Province of China using cluster sampling methods.

A Rapid Method of the Rock Mass Surface Reconstruction for Surface Deformation Detection at Close Range.

Characterizing the surface deformation during the inter-survey period could assist in understanding rock mass progressive failure processes. Moreover, 3D reconstruction of rock mass surface is a crucial step in surface deformation detection. This study presents a method to reconstruct the rock mass surface at close range in a fast way using the improved structure from motion-multi view stereo (SfM) algorithm for surface deformation detection.

Accuracy Improvement of Binocular Vision Measurement System for Slope Deformation Monitoring.

This paper studies the limitations of binocular vision technology in monitoring accuracy. The factors affecting the surface displacement monitoring of the slope are analyzed mainly from system structure parameters and environment parameters. Based on the error analysis theory, the functional relationship between the structure parameters and the monitoring error is studied.

Non-Contact Measurement of the Surface Displacement of a Slope Based on a Smart Binocular Vision System.

The paper presents an intelligent real-time slope surface deformation monitoring system based on binocular stereo-vision. To adapt the system to field slope monitoring, a design scheme of concentric marking point is proposed. Techniques including Zernike moment edge extraction, the least squares method, and k-means clustering are used to design a sub-pixel precision localization method for marker images.

Toward industrial production of isoprenoids in Escherichia coli: Lessons learned from CRISPR-Cas9 based optimization of a chromosomally integrated mevalonate pathway.

Escherichia coli has been the organism of choice for the production of different chemicals by engineering native and heterologous pathways. In the present study, we simultaneously address some of the main issues associated with E. coli as an industrial platform for isoprenoids, including an inability to grow on sucrose, a lack of endogenous control over toxic mevalonate (MVA) pathway intermediates, and the limited pathway engineering into the chromosome.

A High-Speed Target-Free Vision-Based Sensor for Bus Rapid Transit Viaduct Vibration Measurements Using CMT and ORB Algorithms.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has become an increasing source of concern for public transportation of modern cities. Traditional contact sensing techniques during the process of health monitoring of BRT viaducts cannot overcome the deficiency that the normal free-flow of traffic would be blocked. Advances in computer vision technology provide a new line of thought for solving this problem.

Production of jet fuel precursor monoterpenoids from engineered Escherichia coli.

Monoterpenes (C isoprenoids) are the main components of essential oils and are possible precursors for many commodity chemicals and high energy density fuels. Monoterpenes are synthesized from geranyl diphosphate (GPP), which is also the precursor for the biosynthesis of farnesyl diphosphate (FPP). FPP biosynthesis diverts the carbon flux from monoterpene production to C products and quinone biosynthesis.

Structure-guided enzymology of the lipid A acyltransferase LpxM reveals a dual activity mechanism.

Gram-negative bacteria possess a characteristic outer membrane, of which the lipid A constituent elicits a strong host immune response through the Toll-like receptor 4 complex, and acts as a component of the permeability barrier to prevent uptake of bactericidal compounds. Lipid A species comprise the bulk of the outer leaflet of the outer membrane and are produced through a multistep biosynthetic pathway conserved in most Gram-negative bacteria. The final steps in this pathway involve the secondary acylation of lipid A precursors.

Characterization of an Acinetobacter baumannii lptD Deletion Strain: Permeability Defects and Response to Inhibition of Lipopolysaccharide and Fatty Acid Biosynthesis.

Unlabelled: Lipid A on the Gram-negative outer membrane (OM) is synthesized in the cytoplasm by the Lpx pathway and translocated to the OM by the Lpt pathway. Some Acinetobacter baumannii strains can tolerate the complete loss of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) resulting from the inactivation of early LPS pathway genes such as lpxC. Here, we characterized a mutant deleted for lptD, which encodes an OM protein that mediates the final translocation of fully synthesized LPS to the OM.

Principal component analysis of proteomics (PCAP) as a tool to direct metabolic engineering.

Targeted proteomics is a convenient method determining enzyme expression levels, but a quantitative analysis of these proteomic data has not been fully explored yet. Here, we present and demonstrate a computational tool (principal component analysis of proteomics, PCAP) that uses quantitative targeted proteomics data to guide metabolic engineering and achieve higher production of target molecules from heterologous pathways. The method is based on the application of principal component analysis to a collection of proteomics and target molecule production data to pinpoint specific enzymes that need to have their expression level adjusted to maximize production.

[Research on high-order Windkessel model for assessing vascular compliance].

In this paper, we propose the construction of a fifth-order Windkessel model, and give complete mathematical solutions for this model. Utilizing the diastolic pulse wave analytical methods, we derived the parameters of the mathematical model. The parameters were further applied to estimate arterial compliance, blood flow inertia, peripheral resistance and other indices.

Enhancing the deceleration capacity index of heart rate by modified-phase-rectified signal averaging.

Deceleration capacity (DC) of heart rate is a novel indicator of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. In this paper, we proposed a modified DC index based on improved phase-rectified signal averaging (PRSA) algorithm. Sinusoidal analysis is applied to elucidate the rationality of the improved PRSA.