Deep Learning Based Cystoscopy Image Enhancement.

Endoscopy image enhancement technology provides doctors with clearer and more detailed images for observation and diagnosis, allowing doctors to assess lesions more accurately. Unlike most other endoscopy images, cystoscopy images face more complex and diverse image degradation because of their underwater imaging characteristics. Among the various causes of image degradation, the blood haze resulting from bladder mucosal bleeding make the background blurry and unclear, severely affecting diagnostic efficiency, even leading to misjudgment.

What Patients Want: A Qualitative Study of Patients' Perspectives on Optimizing the Hospital Discharge Process.

Background: Poor discharge planning can lead to increases in adverse drug events, hospital readmissions, and costs. Prior research has identified the pharmacist as an integral part of the discharge process.

Objectives: To gain patients' perspectives on the discharge process and what they would like pharmacists to do to ensure a successful discharge.

Revealing the Mechano-Electrochemical Coupling Behavior and Discharge Mechanism of Fluorinated Carbon Cathodes toward High-Power Lithium Primary Batteries.

Unclear reaction mechanisms and unsatisfactory power performance hinder the further development of advanced lithium/fluorinated carbon (Li/CF ) batteries. Herein, the mechano-electrochemical coupling behavior of a CF cathode is investigated by in situ monitoring strain/stress using digital image correlation (DIC) techniques, electrochemical methods, and theoretical equations. The DIC monitoring results present the distribution and dynamic evolution of the plane strain and indicate strong dependence toward the material structure and discharge rate.

Effects of various pine needle extracts on Chinese hamster ovary cell growth and monoclonal antibody quality.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are commonly used as "bio-machines" to pro-duce monoclonal antibodies (mAb) because of their ability to produce very complex proteins. In this study, we evaluated the effects of pine needle water extract (PNWE), pine needle ethanol extract (PNEE), and pine needle polysaccharide extract (PNPE) on the CHO cell growth, mAb production and quality using a Fed-batch culture process. PNPE maintained high VCD and viability, and the titer increase was correlated with its concentration.

Iron-Based Hollow Nanoplatforms for Cancer Imaging and Theranostics.

Over the past decade, iron (Fe)-based hollow nanoplatforms (Fe-HNPs) have attracted increasing attention for cancer theranostics, due to their high safety and superior diagnostic/therapeutic features. Specifically, Fe-involved components can serve as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents (CAs) and Fenton-like/photothermal/magnetic hyperthermia (MTH) therapy agents, while the cavities are able to load various small molecules (e.g.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Epitope Mapping for Antibodies.

Epitope mapping of the interactions between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Abs is challenging because of complexity in protein three-dimensional structures. Protein structure fingerprint technology was applied for epitope mapping of 44 SARS-CoV-2 Abs with three-dimensional structure complexes. The results defined how the epitopes were distributed on SARS-CoV-2 and how the patterns of six CDRs from Abs participated in neutralization.

Facile preparation of degradable multi-arm-star-branched waterborne polyurethane with bio-based tannic acid.

In this research, biodegradable multi-arm-star-branched waterborne polyurethanes (MWPUs) were prepared by incorporation of bio-based material (tannic acid, TA) in the structure of waterborne polyurethanes. The prepared MWPUs were characterized by UV-vis spectrometry and FT-IR spectrometry, confirming the presence of TA in MWPUs. The results of DSC and TGA demonstrated that the incorporation of TA remarkably enhanced the thermal stability of MWPUs.

and controllable synthesis of Ag NPs in tannic acid-based hyperbranched waterborne polyurethanes to prepare antibacterial polyurethanes/Ag NPs composites.

In this research, a simple and facile method was developed for preparation of antibacterial polyurethanes/Ag NPs composites, where tannic acid-based hyperbranched waterborne polyurethanes (THWPU) was employed as both reductant and stabilizer to and controllably synthesize Ag NPs at mild room temperature. The resultant Ag NPs in THWPU was confirmed by UV spectrophotometer, SEM and EDX. The effects of reaction temperature on the properties of the formed Ag NPs were investigated, and the results showed that the formed Ag NPs under room temperature and 80 °C were both spherical, whereas increasing the reaction temperature benefits for promoting the formation of Ag NPs and narrowing the size distribution of the formed Ag NPs.

Phytochemical profiles and antioxidant activity of brown rice varieties.

The phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of eight varieties of brown rice (BR) are reported. The total phenolic contents of BR ranged from 72.45 to 120.

Reduced amino acid specificity of mammalian tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase is associated with elevated mistranslation of Tyr codons.

Quality control operates at different steps in translation to limit errors to approximately one mistranslated codon per 10,000 codons during mRNA-directed protein synthesis. Recent studies have suggested that error rates may actually vary considerably during translation under different growth conditions. Here we examined the misincorporation of Phe at Tyr codons during synthesis of a recombinant antibody produced in tyrosine-limited Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells.

Assessment of stable isotope incorporation into recombinant proteins.

Stable isotope labeling combined with mass spectrometry has been widely used in a diverse set of applications in the biochemistry and biomedical fields. When stable isotope-labeled proteins are produced via metabolic labeling of cell culture, a comprehensive assessment of the labeling pattern is imperative. In this study, we present a set of mass spectrometry-based bioanalytical tools developed for quantitatively tracing the levels of the stable isotopes incorporated into the recombinant proteins (monoclonal antibodies and Fc fusion proteins expressed in different host systems) that include total mass analysis, peptide mapping analysis, and amino acid analysis.

AAV-mediated human PEDF inhibits tumor growth and metastasis in murine colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis model.

Background: Angiogenesis plays an important role in tumor growth and metastasis, therefore antiangiogenic therapy was widely investigated as a promising approach for cancer therapy. Recently, pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) has been shown to be the most potent inhibitor of angiogenesis. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors have been intensively studied due to their wide tropisms, nonpathogenicity, and long-term transgene expression in vivo.

Quantification of protein posttranslational modifications using stable isotope and mass spectrometry. II. Performance.

In this report, we examine the performance of a mass spectrometry (MS)-based method for quantification of protein posttranslational modifications (PTMs) using stable isotope labeled internal standards. Uniform labeling of proteins and highly similar behavior of the labeled vs nonlabeled analyte pairs during chromatographic separation and electrospray ionization (ESI) provide the means to directly quantify a wide range of PTMs. In the companion report (Jiang et al.

Quantification of protein posttranslational modifications using stable isotope and mass spectrometry I: principles and applications.

With the increased attention to quality by design (QbD) for biopharmaceutical products, there is a demand for accurate and precise quantification methods to monitor critical quality attributes (CQAs). To address this need we have developed a mass spectrometry (MS) based method to quantify a wide range of posttranslational modifications (PTMs) in recombinant proteins using stable isotope-labeled internal standard (SILIS). The SILIS was produced through metabolic labeling where ¹⁵N was uniformly introduced at every nitrogen atom in the studied proteins.