Correlation between Anterior Mitral Annular Plane Systolic Excursion and Left Atrial Appendage Stasis in Patients with Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) can lead to a decline in left atrial appendage (LAA) function, potentially increasing the likelihood of LAA thrombus (LAAT) and spontaneous echo contrast (SEC). Measuring LAA flow velocity through transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is currently the primary method for evaluating LAA function. This study aims to explore the potential correlation between anterior mitral annular plane systolic excursion (aMAPSE) and LAA stasis in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF).

Microvascular disease, modifiable risk factor profiles and incident arrhythmias in type 2 diabetes.

Background: To assess the roles of diabetic microvascular disease and modifiable risk factors and their combination in the development of arrhythmias.

Methods: We included participants with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who were free of arrhythmias during recruitment in the UK Biobank study. The associations of microvascular disease states (defined by the presence of retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy or chronic kidney disease), four modifiable arrhythmic risk factors (body mass index, smoking, systolic blood pressure and glycosylated haemoglobin) and their joint associations with incident arrhythmias were examined.

Microvascular burden and long-term risk of stroke and dementia in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: To examine the associations between microvascular disease (MVD) and risk of stroke, dementia, and their major subtypes among individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: We included 26,173 participants with T2DM from the UK Biobank who had no known stroke or dementia at baseline. MVD burden was reflected by the presence of retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, and chronic kidney disease.

Microvascular Disease, Cardiovascular Health, and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in Type 2 Diabetes: A UK Biobank Study.

Context: The interplay between cardiovascular health metrics (CVHMs) and microvascular disease (MVD) in relation to the risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) among individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains to be evaluated.

Objective: To investigate the role of MVD and CVHMs in the development of CHD among T2DM.

Design: We included 19 664 participants with T2DM from the UK Biobank who had CVHM data and were free of CHD during recruitment.

Inverse design of metasurfaces with customized transmission characteristics of frequency band based on generative adversarial networks.

In recent years, deep learning (DL) has demonstrated significant potential in the inverse design of metasurfaces, and the generation of metasurfaces with customized transmission characteristics of frequency band remains a challenging and underexplored area. In this study, we propose a DL-assisted method for the inverse design of transmissive metasurfaces. The method consists of a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based graph generator, an electromagnetic response predictor, and a genetic algorithm optimizer.

Lactoferrin alleviates Western diet-induced cognitive impairment through the microbiome-gut-brain axis.

Lactoferrin (Lf) has been shown to benefit cognitive function in several animal models. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, male C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into the control (CON), Western-style diets (WD), lactoferrin (Lf), and Lf + antibiotics (AB) groups. The Lf group was intragastrically administered with Lf, and the Lf + AB group additionally drank a solution with antibiotics.

Lipoprotein(a), family history of cardiovascular disease, and incidence of heart failure.

Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is a largely genetically determined biomarker for cardiovascular disease (CVD), while its potential interplay with family history (FHx) of CVD, a measure of both genetic and environmental exposures, remains unclear. We examined the associations of Lp(a) in terms of circulating concentration or polygenetic risk score (PRS), and FHx of CVD with risk of incident heart failure (HF). Included were 299,158 adults from the UK Biobank without known HF and CVD at baseline.

Early detection of myocardial fibrosis in cardiomyopathy in the absence of late enhancement: role of T1 mapping and extracellular volume analysis.

Objectives: To analyze myocardial fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients with no late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) using T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) and investigate the potential correlation with left ventricular (LV) dilation and dysfunction.

Methods: The study included 41 DCM patients without LGE and 79 healthy controls. T1 and ECV were compared between the two groups using multivariable logistic regression analysis.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of fluoroquinolone derivatives as microRNA-21 small-molecule inhibitors.

MicroRNA-21 (miRNA-21) is highly expressed in various tumors. Small-molecule inhibition of miRNA-21 is considered to be an attractive novel cancer therapeutic strategy. In this study, fluoroquinolone derivatives A1-A43 were synthesized and used as miRNA-21 inhibitors.

Association Between Long-Term HbA1c Variability and Functional Limitation in Individuals Aged Over 50 Years: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: As mean HbA1c provides incomplete information regarding glycemic variability, there has been considerable interest in the emerging association between glycemic variability and macrovascular events and with microvascular complications and mortality in adults with and without diabetes. However, the association between long-term glycemic variability, represented by visit-to-visit HbA1c variability, and functional limitations has not been clarified in previous literature. The present study aimed to explore the longitudinal association between long-term glycemic variability, represented by visit-to-visit HbA1c variability and functional limitations.

Noncontact Electromagnetic Wireless Recognition for Prosthesis Based on Intelligent Metasurface.

With the development of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, hand gesture recognition techniques have attracted great attention owing to their excellent applications in developing human-machine interaction (HMI). Here, the authors propose a non-contact hand gesture recognition method based on intelligent metasurface. Owing to the advantage of dynamically controlling the electromagnetic (EM) focusing in the wavefront engineering, a transmissive programmable metasurface is presented to illuminate the forearm with more focusing spots and obtain comprehensive echo data, which can be processed under the machine learning technology to reach the non-contact gesture recognition with high accuracy.

Is replacing red meat with other protein sources associated with lower risks of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality? A meta-analysis of prospective studies.

Context: A high amount of red meat consumption has been associated with higher risks of coronary heart disease (CHD) and all-cause mortality in a single food-exposure model. However, this model may overlook the potentially differential influence of red meat on these outcomes depending on the foods replaced by red meat.

Objective: A PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis of prospective observational studies was performed to quantify the risks of CHD and all-cause mortality associated with the replacement of total, unprocessed, or processed red meat with fish/seafood, poultry, dairy, eggs, nuts, and legumes.

Discovery of Potent PROTACs Targeting EGFR Mutants through the Optimization of Covalent EGFR Ligands.

Drug resistance caused by epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation has largely limited the clinical use of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Herein, to overcome the intractable problem of drug resistance, proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) targeting EGFR mutants were developed by optimizing covalent EGFR ligands. Covalent or reversible covalent pyrimidine- or purine-containing PROTACs were designed, synthesized, and evaluated.

Intelligent metasurface with frequency recognition for adaptive manipulation of electromagnetic wave.

Due to the strong ability of recognizing electromagnetic (EM) environment and adaptively control of EM waves, the intelligent metasurfaces have received great attention recently. However, the intelligent metasurface with frequency recognition for adaptive manipulation of the EM waves has not been studied. Here, we propose a frequency-recognition intelligent metasurface to precisely control the spatial EM waves under the agile frequencies with the help of a real-time radio-frequency sensor and an adaptive feedback control system.

A Low-Cost Wearable Hand Gesture Detecting System Based on IMU and Convolutional Neural Network.

In this paper, a low-cost wearable hand gesture detecting system based on distributed multi-node inertial measurement units (IMUs) and central node microcontroller is presented. It can obtain hand kinematic information and transmit data to the remote processing terminal wirelessly. To have a comprehensive understanding of hand kinematics, a convolutional neural network (CNN) model on the terminal is proposed to recognize and classify gestures and the modified Denavit-Hartenberg notation is used to acquire finger spatial locations.

High-Efficiency Spatial-Wave Frequency Multiplication Using Strongly Nonlinear Metasurface.

In the past decades, metasurfaces have opened up a promising venue for manipulating lights and electromagnetic (EM) waves. In the field of nonlinearity, second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a research focus due to its diverse applications. There have been many researches for realizing SHG in optical regime using nonlinear characteristics of optical materials, but its efficiency is low.

Wavelength-dependent holographic impedance metasurfaces.

Impedance metasurface can establish a link between an electromagnetic surface wave and spatial wave and hence has attracted much attention of researchers in recent years. The holographic method, which is well known in the optical area, has also the great ability to shape the radiated beams in the microwave band by introducing the concept of surface impedance. Here, we propose a method to shape the radiated beams at two different wavelengths using single-layer multiplexing holographic impedance metasurface with in-plane feeding.

A hybrid method for real-time stimulation artefact removal during functional electrical stimulation with time-variant parameters.

. In this study, a hybrid method combining hardware and software architecture is proposed to remove stimulation artefacts (SAs) and extract the volitional surface electromyography (sEMG) in real time during functional electrical stimulations (FES) with time-variant parameters..

An Anti Stimulation Artifacts and M-waves Surface Electromyography Detector with a Short Blanking Time.

A surface electromyography (sEMG) detector, that not only removes stimulation artifacts entirely but also increases the recording time, has been developed in this paper. The sEMG detector consists of an sEMG detection circuit and a stimulation isolator. The sEMG detection circuit employs a stimulus isolate switch (SIS), a blanking (BLK) and non-linear feed-back (NFB) circuit to remove the artifacts and to increase the recording time.

Correlation of left atrial strain with left ventricular end-diastolic pressure in patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction.

Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) remains challenging to be assessed by echocardiography. We sought to explore the relationship between left atrial strain and left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by invasive left-heart catheterization. 55 consecutive individuals with LVEF > 50% underwent LV catheterization.

The efficacy and safety of intravenous tranexamic acid in hip fracture surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: The present meta-analysis was conducted to compare the efficacy and safety of intravenous application of tranexamic acid (TXA) with placebo in patients with hip fracture undergoing hip surgeries.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library were searched from inception until March 2018. A combined searching strategy of subject words and random words was adopted.