An intelligent sensing platform for detecting and identifying biochemical substances based on terahertz spectra.

This paper presents the development of an intelligent sensing platform dedicated to accurately identifying terahertz (THz) spectra obtained from various biochemical substances. The platform currently has two distinct identification modes, which focus on identifying five amino acids, namely phenylalanine, methionine, lysine, leucine, and threonine, and five carbohydrates, namely aspartame, fructose, glucose, lactose monohydrate, and sucrose based on their THz spectra. The first mode, called One-dimensional THz Spectrum Identification (OTSI), combines THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) with the proposed mini convolutional neural network (MCNN) model.

A prediction model for classifying maternal pregnancy smoking using California state birth certificate information.

Background: Systematically recorded smoking data are not always available in vital statistics records, and even when available it can underestimate true smoking rates.

Objective: To develop a prediction model for maternal tobacco smoking in late pregnancy based on birth certificate information using a combination of self- or provider-reported smoking and biomarkers (smoking metabolites) in neonatal blood spots as the alloyed gold standard.

Methods: We designed a case-control study where childhood cancer cases were identified from the California Cancer Registry and controls were from the California birth rolls between 1983 and 2011 who were cancer-free by the age of six.

Danish Population Based Study of Familial Epilepsy and Childhood Cancer.

Objective: Results from studies investigating the association between maternal or child epilepsy, use of anticonvulsants in pregnancy, and childhood cancer are inconsistent and at times contradictory.

Methods: Linking Danish national databases, we obtained epilepsy and childhood cancer diagnoses, and anticonvulsant use data. We estimated adjusted odds ratios of all or specific childhood cancers in relation to maternal or child epilepsy and anticonvulsant therapies using conditional logistic regression.

BIOMARKERS OF MATERNAL SMOKING AND THE RISK OF RETINOBLASTOMA IN OFFSPRING.

Purpose: Previous studies examining the risk of retinoblastoma with maternal smoking were inconclusive, likely due in part to the reliance on self-reported maternal smoking. This study uses biomarkers of tobacco smoking in neonatal dried blood spots to investigate associations between maternal smoking and retinoblastoma in offspring.

Methods: The authors randomly selected 498 retinoblastoma cases and 895 control subjects born between 1983 and 2011 from a population-based case-control study in California.

Maternal anemia and childhood cancer: a population-based case-control study in Denmark.

Background: Childhood cancer risk is associated with maternal health during pregnancy. Anemia in pregnancy is a common condition, especially in low-income countries, but a possible association between maternal anemia and childhood cancer has not been widely studied.

Methods: We examined the relation in a population-based study in Denmark (N = 6420 cancer cases, 160,485 controls).

Exposure to nitrosatable drugs during pregnancy and childhood cancer: A matched case-control study in Denmark, 1996-2016.

Background: Nitrosatable drugs can be synthesized to N-nitroso compounds in human stomach. In a pregnant woman, N-nitroso compounds can be translocated to the fetus through the placenta. Maternal exposure of nitrosatable compounds during pregnancy has been associated with childhood brain tumors and leukemia.

Maternal diabetes and childhood cancer risks in offspring: two population-based studies.

Background: The effect of maternal diabetes on childhood cancer has not been widely studied.

Methods: We examined this in two population-based studies in Denmark (N = 6420 cancer cases, 160,484 controls) and Taiwan (N = 2160 cancer cases, 2,076,877 non-cases) using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard regression adjusted for birth year, child's sex, maternal age and birth order.

Results: Gestational diabetes in Denmark [odds ratio (OR) = 0.

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 upregulation of γ-aminobutyric acid transporter 3 expression ameliorates cognitive impairment after traumatic brain injury in mice.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes neurotransmitter disturbances contributing to neuronal cell death and neurological deficits. In humans, brain injuries impair γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) uptake and ultimately result in cognitive impairment. GABA transporter 3 (GAT3) is a vital approach of GABA reuptake and catabolism.

Cohort study of familial viral hepatitis and risks of paediatric cancers.

Background: Although viral hepatitis causes paediatric hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatic and extrahepatic cancers in adults, there are few epidemiologic studies on paediatric-cancer risks from parental viral hepatitis. In a nationwide study in a viral hepatitis endemic region and with confirmation in another population-based sample, we examined associations between parental hepatitis B (HBV) and C (HCV) infections and risks of cancers in offspring.

Methods: We included all children born in Taiwan in 2004-2014 (N = 2 079 037) with 2160 cancer cases ascertained from the Cancer Registry.

complementary DNA is enriched in atrophic macular degeneration and triggers retinal pigmented epithelium toxicity via cytosolic innate immunity.

Long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1)–mediated reverse transcription (RT) of RNA into cytoplasmic complementary DNA (cDNA) has been implicated in retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) degeneration. The mechanism of cDNA–induced cytotoxicity and its relevance to human disease are unknown. Here we report that cDNA is highly enriched in the RPE of human eyes with geographic atrophy, an untreatable form of age-related macular degeneration.

Diagnostic values of MMP-7, MMP-9, MMP-11, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, CEA, and CA19-9 in patients with colorectal cancer.

Objective: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common and lethal malignancies. The identification of precise and noninvasive biomarkers is urgently needed to aid the early diagnosis and clinical management of CRC.

Methods: A total of 112 patients with CRC and 115 healthy control subjects were included in this study.

Cytoplasmic synthesis of endogenous complementary DNA via reverse transcription and implications in age-related macular degeneration.

retroelements propagate via retrotransposition by hijacking long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) reverse transcriptase (RT) and endonuclease activities. Reverse transcription of RNA into complementary DNA (cDNA) is presumed to occur exclusively in the nucleus at the genomic integration site. Whether cDNA is synthesized independently of genomic integration is unknown.

OCT Risk Factors for Development of Late Age-Related Macular Degeneration in the Fellow Eyes of Patients Enrolled in the HARBOR Study.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between OCT features and progression to late age related-macular degeneration (AMD) in the fellow eyes of patients enrolled in the Study of Ranibizumab Administered Monthly or on an As-needed Basis in Patients With Subfoveal Neovascular AMD (HARBOR) (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT00891735).

Design: Post hoc analysis of a phase 3 multicenter, prospective, randomized, double-masked, active treatment-controlled clinical trial.

Representation of Central Endothelial Cell Density by Analysis of Single Best Specular Microscopy Image Regardless of Cell Size Variance.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether a single best image can represent central endothelial cell density (ECD) in corneas of differing cell size coefficient of variance (CV).

Methods: Four hundred one healthy eyes but with variant CV values were enrolled. For each eye, three nonoverlapping central cornea endothelium images were obtained with Konan NSP-9900 specular microscope.

Reproducibility of Central Corneal Thickness Measurements in Normal Eyes Using the Zeiss Cirrus 5000 HD-OCT and Pentacam HR.

Objectives: To determine the repeatability and reproducibility of Central Corneal Thickness (CCT) measurements using two different anterior segment imaging modalities, including those obtained with the new anterior segment lens attachments for the Cirrus 5000 HD-OCT.

Methods: A total of 32 eyes from 16 normal volunteers (8 male, 8 female) were enrolled in this prospective study. CCT was measured by the same examiner using the Cirrus 5000 HD-OCT and Pentacam HR.

cGAS drives noncanonical-inflammasome activation in age-related macular degeneration.

Geographic atrophy is a blinding form of age-related macular degeneration characterized by retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) death; the RPE also exhibits DICER1 deficiency, resultant accumulation of endogenous Alu-retroelement RNA, and NLRP3-inflammasome activation. How the inflammasome is activated in this untreatable disease is largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that RPE degeneration in human-cell-culture and mouse models is driven by a noncanonical-inflammasome pathway that activates caspase-4 (caspase-11 in mice) and caspase-1, and requires cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)-dependent interferon-β production and gasdermin D-dependent interleukin-18 secretion.

Increasing Prescription Opioid and Heroin Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2014: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis.

Objectives: To assess cohort effects in prescription opioid and heroin overdose mortality in the United States.

Methods: Using the National Center for Health Statistics' multiple-cause-of-death file for 1999 to 2014, we performed an age-period-cohort analysis of drug overdose mortality in the United States.

Results: Compared with those born in 1977 and 1978, individuals born between 1947 and 1964 experienced excess risks of prescription opioid overdose death (e.

Resveratrol Ameliorates Pressure Overload-induced Cardiac Dysfunction and Attenuates Autophagy in Rats.

Pressure overload has an important role in heart failure, inducing excessive autophagy in cardiac myocytes that is considered to be pathogenic. Resveratrol has been reported to improve cardiac dysfunction induced by pressure overload, but it has been unclear whether resveratrol ameliorates cardiac dysfunction by regulating autophagy. In this study, heart failure was induced in rats by constriction of the abdominal aorta.

Effect of yangxinkang tablets on chronic heart failure: A multi-center randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Objectives: To investigate the safety and efficacy of yangxinkang tablets in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and syndrome of qi and yin deficiency, blood stasis, and water retention.

Methods: In a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trail, 228 patients with CHF New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II or III in stage C were assigned by randomized block method to two groups in a 1:1 ratio to undergo either conventional Western treatment or conventional treatment plus yangxinkang tablets for 4 weeks. The outcome measure were effect of cardiac function, Chinese medicine (CM) syndromes, scores of symptoms, signs, and quality of life measured by Minnesota Living with heart failure questionnaire (MLHFQ) before and after the treatment.

Regulation of pepc gene expression in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 and its effects on cyclic electron flow around photosystem I and tolerances to environmental stresses.

Since pepc gene encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) has been cloned from Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 and other cyanobacteria, the effects of pepc gene expression on photosynthesis have not been reported yet. In this study, we constructed mutants containing either upregulated (forward) or downregulated (reverse) pepc gene in Anabaena sp.

Recombinant expression and functional analysis of a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii bacterial-type phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase gene fragment.

To investigate the function of a bacterial-type phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC2) derived from photosynthetically-grown Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a fragment of the pepc2 gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. After optimal induction for 6 h, PEPC activity in the reverse mutant was lower than wild type (0.9 vs.

Long-acting preparations of exenatide.

Exenatide has been widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, its short plasma half-life of 2.4 hours has limited its clinical application.

[The effect of genetic polymorphism of the exon 2 of the beta-lactoglobulin gene on the milk composition in Chinese Holstein].

Objective: In order to study the effect of the polymorphism at the exon2 region of the (3-LG allele gene on milk composition and yield.

Methods: The single-strand conformation polymorphism method (PCR-SSCP) was used to analyze for polymorphism the exon2 region of the 3-LG gene (NCBI accession number: DQ489319) in Chinese Holstein.

Results: Eight SSCP patterns were detected in the fragments: ab, abc, abd, abe, abcd, abce, abde and abcde, and the patterns frequencies as follows: 0.