Search

Abstract Dark photons in the MeV to GeV range with kinetic mixing of the order of ≲ 10 −4 − 10 −3 can be produced in significant numbers at low energy colliders such as Belle II. Their decay length can be macroscopic raising the hope for a fairly clean search via displaced vertices as proposed in [1]. However, even this is not background free. Here, we calculate and discuss problematic backgrounds from displaced photon conversion and discuss their potential impact on the sensitivity. In addition we also briefly consider the dangers of prompt backgrounds.

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors face debilitating long-term psychosocial consequences, including social isolation and depression. TBI modifies neurovascular physiology and behavior but the chronic physiological implications of altered brain perfusion on social interactions are unknown. Adult C57/BL6 male mice received a moderate cortical TBI, and social behaviors were assessed at baseline, 3-, 7-, 14-, 30-, and 60-days post injury (dpi). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI, 9.4T) using dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion weighted MRI were acquired. At 60dpi mice underwent histological angioarchitectural mapping. Analysis utilized standardized protocols followed by cross-correlation metrics. Social behavior deficits at 60dpi emerged as reduced interactions with a familiar cage-mate (partner) that mirrored significant reductions in cerebral blood flow (CBF) at 60dpi. CBF perturbations were dynamic temporally and across brain regions including regions known to regulate social behavior such as hippocampus, hypothalamus, and rhinal cortex. Social isolation in TBI-mice emerged with a significant decline in preference to spend time with a cage mate. Cortical vascular density was also reduced corroborating the decline in brain perfusion and social interactions. Thus, the late emergence of social interaction deficits mirrored the reduced vascular density and CBF in regions known to be involved in social behaviors. Vascular morphology and function improved prior to the late decrements in social function and our correlations strongly implicate a linkage between vascular density, cerebral perfusion, and social interactions. Our study provides a clinically relevant timeline of alterations in social deficits alongside functional vascular recovery that can guide future therapeutics.

The combination of various fuels in an internal combustion engine is a major area of research in the field, aimed at conserving fossil fuels and reducing environmental pollution. This paper examines the performance and pollution emissions of a DA465QE Towner engine using a biogas/gasoline hybrid fuel in a light truck engine. Results show that when the engine runs on methane, the cycle indicator work is reduced by up to 13% compared to gasoline. When running on biogas M6C4, the cycle indicator work decreases the most by 27% compared to gasoline, and when running at high speeds, the engine power increases. The optimal gasoline content blended with M7C3 biogas is 30%, with the cycle indicator work and NOx emission increasing quickly and CO and HC emissions decreasing sharply with less than 30% gasoline content.

Objectives: Quality of surgery has recently become an essential topic in the prognosis of colon cancer. Complete mesocolic excision for colon cancer has recently gained popularity with high-quality surgery. Patient specimens after complete mesocolic excision with central vessel ligation procedures have an integrity of the mesocolon and the yield of three fields of lymph node harvest. We apply the glacial acid, absolute ethanol, water, and formaldehyde solution to each specimen based on the Japanese classification of lymph node groups and station numbers. We aim to identify the distribution and status of lymph node metastasis according to each tumor site and some pathological characteristics related to this disease. Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed on 45 laparoscopic complete mesocolic excision surgery patients. Results: 2791 lymph nodes were harvested after complete mesocolic excision surgery. The average number was 62.0 ± 22.3 nodes. The mean tumor size (in the largest dimension) was 4.2 ± 1.8 cm. The average length of the resected bowel segments was 29.1 ± 7.7 cm. There are 63 (2.3%) node metastases in 2791 lymph nodes, in which 17/45 (37.8%) patients had pN(+). The minimum positive node size was 1 mm. The positive pericolic lymph nodes (station 1) accounted for the highest rate, with 53 nodes (1.9%). The number of lymph nodes in young age ⩽60 is more significant than in older. The results were similar, with a more significant node retrieval in the group with a tumor size >4.5 cm and specimen length >25 cm. The number of lymph nodes in lower tumor invasive (pT1,3) was smaller than pT4. Our research shows that the cecum, ascending, and descending colon had greater nodes than others, with a mean number of 78.6, 74.2, and 71.3, respectively. Conclusions: The metastasis and harvested lymph nodes accounted for the highest rate of colon cancer in station 1 and the lowest rate in station 3. The number of retrieved lymph nodes was significantly associated with tumor location, size, specimen length, and patient age.

Background and Aims: The result of individual and group culture embryo studies remained conflicting. Several studies assumed that the blastulation rate was lower when culturing embryos separately. Meanwhile, there has been little information on whether individual culture can affect embryo ploidy status. This study was designed to find a relationship between culture strategies and the embryo’s ploidy status in IVF/PGT-A cycles. Method: 91 IVF/PGT-A cycles with at least four zygotes enrolled in a randomized control trial from September 2021 to June 2022 in Tam Anh general hospital. Zygotes from each cycle were randomly assigned to individual culture(10 ul/drop) or group cultured of 3-5 zygotes (50 ul/drop). Among those, 280 blastocysts derived from biopsy-all cycles (137 from individual culture and 143 from group culture) and already determined for ploidy status were to be analyzed. Information of the embryo, including maternal age, paternal age, day of the biopsy, embryo quality (excellent, good, fair, poor), blastocoele expansion (2-6), ICM score (A, B, C), TE score (A, B, C), and PGT-A result (euploid, aneuploidy or else) was collected and analyzed along with the type of culture. Simple and multiple regression analyses using generalized linear mixed model were applied to evaluate the relation between embryo ploidy status as the dependent variable and independent factors. Results: The rates of euploid, aneuploidy and other results of embryos cultured individually were 39.4%, 37.2%, and 23.4%, respectively. These results did not yield a significant difference compared with the cultured group. There was no relationship between culture strategies and the aneuploidy rate of the embryos (OR = 1.16, CI 0.64-2.13). However, biopsy days 6-7 and decreasing grade of TE might be related factors for a higher rate of aneuploidy. Conclusion: Culture embryos individually or in groups hadnot yet shown any effect on embryo’s ploidy status.

The automotive industry plays a crucial role in national and global economic development. Vietnam and the ASEAN-5 countries are commented to be active in the automotive international production network but mainly participate in the low-value-added segments of the global value chains (GVC). This study aims to identify Vietnam’s position and level of participation in the global automotive value chain and compare them to the other ASEAN-5 nations. The paper uses the orthodox and modern trade-related GVC indicators built by Koopman et al. (2010) to accomplish the research objective. The results show that Vietnam and the ASEAN-5 countries located downstream of the global automotive value chain often have less potential to gain more value-added than the upstream position, despite their high level of participation. Compared to ASEAN-5 countries, Vietnam still needs to catch up. Although Vietnam’s auto industry has made many positive changes, it still mainly produces simple products and currently participates in the least added value segment in the global automotive value chain. The underdeveloped support industry in Vietnam is the main cause of this situation. The study makes several practical policy recommendations for Vietnam based on the research findings to improve its position in the production network for the automotive sector in the following years. AcknowledgmentThe authors would like to thank the VNU University of Economics and Business, Hanoi, for financing the Research Project, number BBQT.04.2022.

Abstract Providing an anodic potential in a bio‐electrochemical system to the obligate aerobe Pseudomonas putida enables anaerobic survival and allows the cells to overcome redox imbalances. In this setup, the bacteria could be exploited to produce chemicals via oxidative pathways at high yield. However, the absence of anaerobic growth and low carbon turnover rates remain as obstacles for the application of such an electro‐fermentation technology. Growth and carbon turnover start with carbon uptake into the periplasm and cytosol. P. putida KT2440 has three native transporting systems for glucose, each differing in energy and redox demand. This architecture previously led to the hypothesis that internal redox and energy constraints ultimately limit cytoplasmic carbon utilization in a bio‐electrochemical system. However, it remains largely unclear which uptake route is predominantly used by P. putida under electro‐fermentative conditions. To elucidate this, we created three gene deletion mutants of P. putida KT2440, forcing the cells to exclusively utilize one of the routes. When grown in a bio‐electrochemical system, the pathway mutants were heavily affected in terms of sugar consumption, current output and product formation. Surprisingly, however, we found that about half of the acetate formed in the cytoplasm originated from carbon that was put into the system via the inoculation biomass, while the other half came from the consumption of substrate. The deletion of individual sugar uptake routes did not alter significantly the secreted acetate concentrations among different strains even with different carbon sources. This means that the stoichiometry of the sugar uptake routes is not a limiting factor during electro‐fermentation and that the low rates might be caused by other reasons, for example energy limitations or a yet‐to‐be‐identified oxygen‐dependent regulatory mechanism.

Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) resulting from traumatic brain injury is a serious issue, often leading to death or long-term disability if not promptly diagnosed. Currently, doctors primarily use Computerized Tomography (CT) scans to detect and precisely locate a hemorrhage, typically interpreted by radiologists. However, this diagnostic process heavily relies on the expertise of medical professionals. To address potential errors, computer-aided diagnosis systems have been developed. In this study, we propose a new method that enhances the localization and segmentation of ICH lesions in CT scans by using multiple images created through different data augmentation techniques. We integrate residual connections into a U-Net-based segmentation network to improve the training efficiency. Our experiments, based on 82 CT scans from traumatic brain injury patients, validate the effectiveness of our approach, achieving an IOU score of 0.807 ± 0.03 for ICH segmentation using 10-fold cross-validation.

Recent advancements in autonomous mobile robots have led to significant progress in area coverage tasks. However, challenges persist in optimizing the efficiency and computational complexity of complete coverage path planner (CCPP) algorithms for multi-robot systems, particularly in scenarios requiring revisiting or a double pass in specific locations, such as cleaning robots addressing spilled consumables. This paper presents an innovative approach to tackling the double-pass complete coverage problem using an autonomous inter-reconfigurable robot path planner. Our solution leverages a modified Glasius bio-inspired neural network (GBNN) to facilitate double-pass coverage through inter-reconfiguration between two robots. We compare our proposed algorithm with traditional multi-robot path planning in a centralized system, demonstrating a reduction in algorithm iterations and computation time. Our experimental results underscore the efficacy of the proposed solution in enhancing the efficiency of area coverage tasks. Furthermore, we discuss the implementation details and limitations of our study, providing insights for future research directions in autonomous robotics.

I. BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Many studies have shown predicted value for embryo development potential or morpho-kinetic parameters. This study aims to determine the correlation between the embryo morpho-kinetic parameters up to the cleavage stage and blastocyst implantation capability in frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles. II. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on 383 good-quality blastocysts of FET cycles from March 2020 to December 2022 at Tam Anh General Hospital. The study evaluated the differences in parameters, including tPNa, tPNf, t2 - t8, cc1, cc2, cc3, s2, s3, and abnormal division (direct, reverse cleavage) between the implant and non-implant groups. Using R’s rpart package, a hierarchical implantation model was created using the decision tree approach. The prognostic value of the model was assessed using ROC. III. RESULTS: 383 blastocysts from 368 FET cycles were examined in our study, of which 222 (57.9%) were implanted and 161 (42.1%) were not. Timing parameters of implanted embryos tended to be longer than that in the non-implanted group, and the division process of blastomeres was more synchronized, however not statistically. Embryos with direct cleavage had a significantly reduced implantation rate compared with non-direct groups (29.0% and 61.0%, p < 0.05) Analysis of morpho-kinetic parameters enabled us to develop a hierarchical model that places the direct cleavage, tPNa, and cc1 as the variables with the best prognosis of implantation. The AUC value of the model was 0.641. IV. CONCLUSION: The study showed that morpho-kinetic parameters at the early division stage have the predictive value of blastocyst implantation and can supplement traditional morphological assessment in embryo selection.

Morgagni hernia is a rare congenital diaphragmatic hernia associated with the minor retro-xiphoid region between the sternal and costal attachments. The bilateral and complicated Morgagni hernia occurred exceptionally rarely, at a rate of 4% and 6.5%. An 81-year-old woman with occasional constipation went to the emergency department for epigastric pain and vomiting 3 days before. She could no longer pass gas that caused abdominal distention. Clinical examination and ultrasound showed partial bowel obstruction, an unspecified cause. She received nil per os, nasogastric decompression. The abdominal and chest computed tomography Scan showed the bilateral diaphragmatic hernia, and the dilated loops of the cecum and ascending colon were 7 cm. She required an emergency operation to resolve the etiology of bowel obstruction. The midline incision was chosen to release the hernia contents and repair the posterior sternal defects with Polypropylene mesh. An abdominal approach can solve a bilateral incarcerated Morgagni hernia.

Summary: Background: The power to predict kidney allograft outcomes based on non-invasive assays is limited. Assessment of operational tolerance (OT) patients allows us to identify transcriptomic signatures of true non-responders for construction of predictive models. Methods: In this observational retrospective study, RNA sequencing of peripheral blood was used in a derivation cohort to identify a protective set of transcripts by comparing 15 OT patients (40% females), from the TOMOGRAM Study (NCT05124444), 14 chronic active antibody-mediated rejection (CABMR) and 23 stable graft function patients ≥15 years (STA). The selected differentially expressed transcripts between OT and CABMR were used in a validation cohort (n = 396) to predict 3-year kidney allograft loss at 3 time-points using RT-qPCR. Findings: Archetypal analysis and classifier performance of RNA sequencing data showed that OT is clearly distinguishable from CABMR, but similar to STA. Based on significant transcripts from the validation cohort in univariable analysis, 2 multivariable Cox models were created. A 3-transcript (ADGRG3, ATG2A, and GNLY) model from POD 7 predicted graft loss with C-statistics (C) 0.727 (95% CI, 0.638–0.820). Another 3-transcript (IGHM, CD5, GNLY) model from M3 predicted graft loss with C 0.786 (95% CI, 0.785–0.865). Combining 3-transcripts models with eGFR at POD 7 and M3 improved C-statistics to 0.860 (95% CI, 0.778–0.944) and 0.868 (95% CI, 0.790–0.944), respectively. Interpretation: Identification of transcripts distinguishing OT from CABMR allowed us to construct models predicting premature graft loss. Identified transcripts reflect mechanisms of injury/repair and alloimmune response when assessed at day 7 or with a loss of protective phenotype when assessed at month 3. Funding: Supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic under grant NV19-06-00031.

Mangan dioxit (MnO2) được tổng hợp trực tiếp trên nền graphen oxit (GO). Chúng tôi nghiên cứu quá trình khử điện hoá vật liệu α-MnO2/GO bằng hai kỹ thuật chính là von-ampe vòng (CV) và điện thế thời gian (i-T). Các mẫu vật liệu được đặc trưngằng phổ FT-IR, phổ Raman, diện tích bề mặt và phân tích tổng trở điện hoá. Cấu trúc α-MnO2 được xác định thông qua phổ FT-IR và phổ Raman tại các bước sóng kích thích dao động 507 và 642,5 cm–1. Vật liệu khử α-MnO2/ErGOCV và α-MnO2/ErGOi-T có tổng trở điện hoá thấp (0,188 và 0,147 kΩ) và diện tích bề mặt lớn gấp 1,7 lần so với vật liệu α-MnO2/GO. Các tính ưu việt của vật liệu composite α-MnO2/ErGO thúc đẩy khả năng chuyển điện tử và tăng cường hoạt tính xúc tác điện hoá của sensor oxy hoá khử trên bề mặt của điện cực đã được biến tính. Ở các điều kiện thí nghiệm thích hợp, phương pháp LS-AdCSV sử dụng điện cực biến tính α-MnO2/ErGO có thể áp dụng để phân tích đồng thời chloramphenicol và tinidazole. Hàm lượng chloramphenicol trong thuốc mỡ tra mắt xác định trên điện cực này có giá trị đúng với số liệu ghi trên nhãn.

ABSTRACT Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a leading cause of health care-associated infections. Additionally, over the decades, the spread of community-associated (CA-MRSA) clones has become a serious problem. The aim of this study was to gain data on the current epidemiology of MRSA in Slovakia. Between January 2020 and March 2020, single-patient MRSA isolates (invasive and/or colonizing) were collected in Slovakia from hospitalized inpatients (16 hospitals) or outpatients (77 cities). Isolates were characterized via antimicrobial susceptibility testing, spa typing, SCCmec typing, the detection of mecA/mecC, genes coding for Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), and the arcA gene (part of the arginine catabolic mobile element [ACME]). Out of 412 isolates, 167 and 245 originated from hospitalized patients and outpatients, respectively. Inpatients were most likely older (P

Abstract Floor cleaning robots are widely used in public places like food courts, hospitals, and malls to perform frequent cleaning tasks. However, frequent cleaning tasks adversely impact the robot’s performance and utilize more cleaning accessories (such as brush, scrubber, and mopping pad). This work proposes a novel selective area cleaning/spot cleaning framework for indoor floor cleaning robots using RGB-D vision sensor-based Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) network, deep learning algorithms, and an optimal complete waypoints path planning method. In this scheme, the robot will clean only dirty areas instead of the whole region. The selective area cleaning/spot cleaning region is identified based on the combination of two strategies: tracing the human traffic patterns and detecting stains and trash on the floor. Here, a deep Simple Online and Real-time Tracking (SORT) human tracking algorithm was used to trace the high human traffic region and Single Shot Detector (SSD) MobileNet object detection framework for detecting the dirty region. Further, optimal shortest waypoint coverage path planning using evolutionary-based optimization was incorporated to traverse the robot efficiently to the designated selective area cleaning/spot cleaning regions. The experimental results show that the SSD MobileNet algorithm scored 90% accuracy for stain and trash detection on the floor. Further, compared to conventional methods, the evolutionary-based optimization path planning scheme reduces 15% percent of navigation time and 10% percent of energy consumption.

Abstract In this study, we work in the framework of the Next-to-Minimal extension of the Standard Model (NMSSM) extended by six singlet leptonic superfields. Through the mixing with the three doublet leptonic superfields, the non-zero tiny neutrino masses can be generated through the inverse seesaw mechanism. While R-parity is conserved in this model lepton number is explicitly violated. We quantify the impact of the extended neutrino sector on the NMSSM Higgs sector by computing the complete one-loop corrections with full momentum dependence to the Higgs boson masses in a mixed on-shell- $$\overline{\text{ DR }}$$ DR ¯ renormalization scheme, with and without the inclusion of CP violation. The results are consistently combined with the dominant two-loop corrections at $$\mathcal{O}(\alpha _t(\alpha _s+\alpha _t))$$ O ( α t ( α s + α t ) ) to improve the predictions for the Higgs mixing and the loop-corrected masses. In our numerical study we include the constraints from the Higgs data, the neutrino oscillation data, the charged lepton flavor-violating decays $$l_i \rightarrow l_j + \gamma $$ l i → l j + γ , and the new physics constraints from the oblique parameters S, T, U. We present in this context the one-loop decay width for $$l_i \rightarrow l_j + \gamma $$ l i → l j + γ . The loop-corrected Higgs boson masses are included in the Fortran code NMSSMCALC-nuSS.

Background and Aims: Tubal patency assessment is an important part of routine infertility work-up. It has been suggested that hysterosalpingography should no longer be considered as a ‘first line’ diagnostic procedure. We aimto determine the accuracy of an alternative technique, hysterosalpingo-foam sonography (HyFoSy), in tubal patency assessment in infertile women. Methods: This prospective study was conducted at My Duc Hospital and was approved by the institutional ethics committee (25/2019/MD). Infertile women who were scheduled for undegoing laparoscopy during infertility investigation. A visual analogue scale (VAS) score for perception of pain during HyFoSy was used. Laparoscopywith dye chromotubation, was performed on the same day and used as a gold standard. Clinicians performing laparoscopy were blinded to HyFoSy results. Sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value (NPV, PPV)and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. A sample size of 455 women was needed to demonstrate a non-exceeding 8% of fluctuation hypothesis of the two sensitivity and specificity (power 0.80, two-sided alpha 5%, loss to follow-up 5%). Results: Between 2019 and 2022, we recruited 455 women. Five women had inconclusive HyFoSy results, three women withdrew consents. Data analysis was performed on 447 women (868 tubes). The sensitivity and specificity of HyFoSy, as compared to laparoscopy, were 0.76 (95% CI 0.72–0.80) and 0.71 (95% CI 0.67–0.75), respectively. HyFoSy gave a PPV of 0.72 (95% CI 0.69–0.76) and a NPV of 0.75 (95% CI 0.72–0.78). 50% of women reported no pain. No adverse events were reported. Conclusion: HyFoSy is a well-tolerated, safe, and reliable technique compared to laparoscopy for tubal patency assessment.

Floor-cleaning robots are primarily designed to clean on a single floor, while multi-floor environments are usually not considered target applications. However, it is more efficient to have an autonomous floor-cleaning robot that can climb stairs and reach the next floors in a multi-floor building. To operate in such environments, the ability of a mobile robot to autonomously traverse staircases is very important. For this operation, staircase detection and localization are essential components for planning the traversal route on staircases. This article describes a deep learning approach using a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based robot operation system (ROS) framework for staircase detection, localization, and maneuvering of the robot to the detected stair. We present a real-time object detection framework to detect staircases in incoming images. We also localize these staircases using a contour detection algorithm to detect the target point: a point close to the center of the first step, and an angle of approach to the target point with respect to the current location of the robot. Experiments are performed with data from images captured on different types of staircases at different viewpoints/angles. The experimental results show that the presented approach can achieve an accuracy of 95% and a recall of 86.81%. A total runtime of 155 ms is taken to identify the presence of a staircase and the detection of the first step in the working environment, as well as being able to locate the target point with an accuracy of ±2 cm, ±1 degree.

There has been an ongoing demand for monitoring landslides due to the heavy economic losses and casualties caused by such natural disasters. In this paper, we introduce a swift landslide detection system that can detect and segment landslides occurring on roads. To tackle the challenges of data collection, we propose an automatic annotation procedure to create a new landslide dataset consisting of 2963 images, termed the LandslidePTIT dataset. Additionally, we construct a novel deep-learning architecture that can perform both classification and segmentation tasks well from a few annotated images of landslides. Specifically, the model consists of four main modules that are delicately designed to solve the few-shot segmentation problem using landslide images, namely hypercorrection construction, attentive squeeze block, a cross-feature layer, and broadcast and squeeze layer. Experimental results exhibit the superiority of the proposed method in comparison with competitive baselines, in terms of both quantitative and qualitative manners.

Abstract Targeted therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) provides survival benefits to a majority of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, resistance to TKI almost always develops after treatment. Although genetic and epigenetic alterations have each been shown to drive resistance to TKI in cell line models, clinical evidence for their contribution in the acquisition of resistance remains limited. Here, we employed liquid biopsy for simultaneous analysis of genetic and epigenetic changes in 122 Vietnamese NSCLC patients undergoing TKI therapy and displaying acquired resistance. We detected multiple profiles of resistance mutations in 51 patients (41.8%). Of those, genetic alterations in EGFR, particularly EGFR amplification (n = 6), showed pronounced genome instability and genome-wide hypomethylation. Interestingly, the level of hypomethylation was associated with the duration of response to TKI treatment. We also detected hypermethylation in regulatory regions of Homeobox genes which are known to be involved in tumor differentiation. In contrast, such changes were not observed in cases with MET (n = 4) and HER2 (n = 4) amplification. Thus, our study showed that liquid biopsy could provide important insights into the heterogeneity of TKI resistance mechanisms in NSCLC patients, providing essential information for prediction of resistance and selection of subsequent treatment.

BackgroundThis study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and assess the relationship between the PHQ-9 domain and demographics and health behaviors in Vietnamese people.Materials and MethodsThe PHQ9 was administered to 899 participants. Exploratory factor and reliability analyses were performed. Tobit regression and Ordered logistic regression were further performed to determine factors associated with the PHQ-9 score and characteristics of depression.ResultsThe 2-factor model of PHQ-9, including factor 1 “Somatic” and factor 2 “Cognitive/Affective,” showed good psychometric properties. The Cronbach’s alpha value showed high internal consistency in two factors (0.84 and 0.80, respectively). Gender, health behavior exercising, drinking, and health status had associations with both factors of the PHQ-9 model.ConclusionThe PHQ-9 scale is a valid and reliable instrument to assess depression in the Vietnam population. This scale can be a useful screening tool for depression; however, further validation studies in other populations are required.

Summary Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) is a microorganism of interest for various industrial processes, yet its strictly aerobic nature limits application. Despite previous attempts to adapt P. putida to anoxic conditions via genetic engineering or the use of a bioelectrochemical system (BES), the problem of energy shortage and internal redox imbalance persists. In this work, we aimed to provide the cytoplasmic metabolism with different monosaccharides, other than glucose, and explored the physiological response in P. putida KT2440 during bioelectrochemical cultivation. The periplasmic oxidation cascade was found to be able to oxidize a wide range of aldoses to their corresponding (keto‐)aldonates. Unexpectedly, isomerization of the ketose fructose to mannose also enabled oxidation by glucose dehydrogenase, a new pathway uncovered for fructose metabolism in P. putida KT2440 in BES. Besides the isomerization, the remainder of fructose was imported into the cytoplasm and metabolized. This resulted in a higher NADPH/NADP+ ratio, compared to glucose. Comparative proteomics further revealed the upregulation of proteins in the lower central carbon metabolism during the experiment. These findings highlight that the choice of a substrate in BES can target cytosolic and periplasmic oxidation pathways, and that electrode‐driven redox balancing can drive these pathways in P. putida under anaerobic conditions.

Paragangliomas are uncommon neuroendocrine neoplasms that occur in characteristic locations. While parasympathetic paragangliomas are mainly located at the head and neck, sympathetic paragangliomas are mostly located below the neck. Among parasympathetic paragangliomas, pheochromocytomas are the most common. Ninety percent of cases of pheochromocytomas arise within the adrenal gland. We report a case of a 63-year-old woman with an extra-adrenal pheochromocytoma of the organ of Zuckerkandl detected by CT and MRI and subsequently confirmed by postoperative histology and immunohistochemistry.

Monitoring the safe social distancing then conducting efficient sterilization in potentially crowded public places are necessary but challenging especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work presents the 3D human space-based surveillance system enabling selective cleaning framework. To this end, the proposed AI-assisted perception techniques is deployed on Toyota Human Support Robot (HSR) equipped with autonomous navigation, Lidar, and RGBD vision sensor. The human density mapping represented as heatmap was constructed to identify areas with the level being likely the risks for interactions. The surveillance framework adopts the 3D human joints tracking technique and the accumulated asymmetrical Gaussian distribution scheme modeling the human location, size, and direction to quantify human density. The HSR generates the human density map as a grid-based heatmap to perform the safe human distance monitoring task while navigating autonomously inside the pre-built map. Then, the cleaning robot uses the levels of the generated heatmap to sterilize by the selective scheme. The experiment was tested in public places, including food court and wet market. The proposed framework performance analyzed with standard performance metrics in various map sizes spares about 19 % of the disinfection time and 15 % of the disinfection liquid usage, respectively.

Self-reconfigurable robots present advanced solutions for various automation applications in domains, e.g., planetary exploration, rescue missions, cleaning, and maintenance. These robots have the ability to change their morphology according to given requirements or adapt to new circumstances, which, for example, can overcome constraints while navigating within a working environment. However, the autonomous navigation of self-reconfigurable robots is more complex than that of robots with fixed shape because of the intrinsic complexity of robot motions, especially in complicated obstacle environments. To address this challenge, we present a novel path planning method for reconfigurable robots in this study. The technique is inspired by the similarity between a robot motion path and a heat conduction path at the steady-state. In the heat transfer analysis domain, feasible moving locations are modeled as materials with high conductivity, while obstacles are considered thermal insulators, and the initial and destination positions are assigned as heat sink and heat source, respectively. The temperature profile and gradient calculated by finite element analysis are used to indicate the possible moving directions from the heat sink to the heat source. Based on the temperature gradient ascent, a step-wise conductivity reaching algorithm is developed to optimize robot paths using customized multi-objective functions that take the costs of morphology changes, path smoothness, and safety into account. The proposed path planning method is successfully applied to the hinged-tetro self-reconfigurable robot and demonstrated on several virtual environments and a real-world testbed environment.

Retroperitoneal gastrointestinal tumor is the rarest subtype among 3 subtypes of extragastrointestinal tumors, which are uncommon stromal tumors. We herein report a case of a 55-year-old man with retroperitoneal gastrointestinal tumor detected by magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed by postoperative histology and immunohistochemistry.

The development of floor cleaning robots is an emerging area in robotics. Maximizing the area coverage is a foremost mission for a floor cleaning robot. Reconfigurable floor cleaning robots outperform floor cleaning robots with fixed morphology in the aspect of area coverage. A reconfigurable robot should be more flexible in changing its morphologies by considering the shapes of objects occupied in an environment to gain more coverage. Nevertheless, the state of the art methods of tiling robots considers only a limited number of morphologies for the reconfiguration, which is not sufficient to match the shape of an object. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel method to synthesize an appropriate morphology for a reconfigurable robot in accordance with the shape of an object. The proposed concept is named hTetro-Infi since it is not limited to a finite number of morphologies. The major novelty of the proposed concept overt the state of the art is the consideration of an infinite number of morphologies for the reconfiguration without sticking into a limited number of morphologies. Feedforward Neural Network (FNN) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) were used for determining the hinge angle required for synthesizing a given morphology. Different configurations of FNNs and ANFISs were trained and evaluated to find the most suitable configurations. The area coverage performance of the proposed hTetro-Infi was compared against that of the state of the art methods of an existing class of tiling robots, which considers only a limited number of morphologies, through simulations. According to the statistical conclusions, the proposed hTetro-Infi is capable of significantly improving area coverage compared to an existing tiling-theory based floor cleaning robot. Furthermore, the area coverage improvement of hTetro-Infi is noteworthy. Therefore, the proposed concept is beneficial in improving the abilities of a reconfigurable cleaning robot. Real-world experiments with the hardware platform of the robot for evaluating the performance is expected to be conducted in the next phase of the work. Furthermore, consideration of hTetro-Infi for navigation through confined areas is proposed for future work.

Reconfigurable robots have received broad research interest due to the high dexterity they provide and the complex actions they could perform. Robots with reconfigurability are perfect candidates in tasks like exploration or rescue missions in environments with complicated obstacle layout or with dynamic obstacles. However, the automation of reconfigurable robots is more challenging than fix-shaped robots due to the increased possible combinations of robot actions and the navigation difficulty in obstacle-rich environments. This paper develops a systematic strategy to construct a model of hinged-Tetromino (hTetro) reconfigurable robot in the workspace and proposes a genetic algorithm-based method (hTetro-GA) to achieve path planning for hTetro robots. The proposed algorithm considers hTetro path planning as a multi-objective optimization problem and evaluates the performance of the outcome based on four customized fitness objective functions. In this work, the proposed hTetro-GA is tested in six virtual environments with various obstacle layouts and characteristics and with different population sizes. The algorithm generates Pareto-optimal solutions that achieve desire robot configurations in these settings, with O-shaped and I-shaped morphologies being the more efficient configurations selected from the genetic algorithm. The proposed algorithm is implemented and tested on real hTetro platform, and the framework of this work could be adopted to other robot platforms with multiple configurations to perform multi-objective based path planning.

Routine cleaning the pavement is an essential requirement to maintain a sustainable environment for social life. The different width and type of pavements raise the challenges for autonomous vehicles with fixed shape to operate effectively. In this paper, we introduce the vision based reconfiguration of self-reconfigurable pavement sweeping robot called Panthera, which can adjust its frame width to ease the cleaning tasks to become friendly with different pavement geometry. The expansion and compression operations of the Panthera width are implemented by rotating one high torque motor connecting with the lead screw rod to change the opening angle of linkage hinges. The Panthera cleaning and locomotion operations are synchronized with changing the robot width according to the output of detected pavement width. To this end, the segmented pavement leveraged on the masked based deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is used as input for the proposed closed-loop feedback control method, enabling the robot to adjust the requirement of changing the width during locomotion accurately. The proposed PID scheme takes into account the robot kinematic design with the flexibility of width changing modes. The experiments were carried out in real environments demonstrated the autonomous reconfiguration robot width with various locomotion scenarios on pavements of varying width.

Fixed morphology cleaning robots mostly face significant challenges in cleaning the narrow spaces in the environment. To overcome this, a new class of self-reconfigurable floor cleaning robot, hTetrakis, made of four triangular blocks, is built. This paper focuses on the modeling and controller design of the locomotion and reconfiguration mechanism of the platform. The locomotion of the platform with respect to the velocity of the wheels is formulated based on the kinematic analysis. By modeling the system in Simscape multibody toolbox of Matlab, the maneuverability of the platform is studied. The reconfiguration of the platform is studied based on the dynamics of individual block about the hinged joint. The control architecture of this platform has two distinct Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers to eliminate the position error during reconfiguration, and to maintain the platform's velocity. The coverage path planning of the platform is based on the classical Travelling Salesman Problem which finds the optimal sequence of waypoints as per the minimal energy consumption. Real time experiments are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes in terms of eliminating the velocity errors, and maintaining the desired trajectory.

Maintenance of ship hull involves routine tasks during dry-docking that includes inspection, paint stripping, and re-painting. Among those, paint stripping is always seen as harmful for human operators and a time-consuming task. To reduce human risk, cost, and environmental cleanliness, the shipping maintenance industries started using robotic solutions. However, most of such robotic systems cannot operate fully autonomous since it requires human in the loop to monitor the cleaning efficiency. To this end, a novel autonomous self-evaluating hull cleaning robot called Hornbill is presented in this paper. The proposed robot is capable of navigating autonomously on the hull surface and perform water jet blasting to strip off the paint coating. The robot is also enabled with a Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) based self-evaluating scheme that benchmarks cleaning efficiency. We evaluated the proposed robot's performance by conducting experimental trials on a metal plate under three different paint coatings. While performing the paint stripping task in every experimental trial, the self-evaluating scheme would generate the heat map that depicts the plate's cleanliness. The results indicate that the proposed self-evaluating system could successfully generate high accurate cleanliness heat maps in all considered scenarios, which simplifies the checkup process for paint inspectors.

Applying the automation in covering the areas entirely eases manual jobs in various domestic fields such as site investigation, search, rescue, security, cleaning, and maintenance. A self-reconfigurable robot with adjustable dimensions is a viable answer to improve the coverage percentage for predefined map areas. However, the shape-shifting of this robot class also adds to the complexity of locomotion components and the need for an optimal complete coverage strategy for this new type of robot. The typical complete coverage route, including the least times of shape-shifting, the shortest navigation route, and the minimum travel time, is presented in the article. By splitting the map into the sub-areas similar to the self-reconfigurable robot's available shapes, the robot can design the ideal tileset and optimal navigation strategies to cover the workspace. To this end, we propose a Complete Tileset Energy-Aware Coverage Path Planning (CTPP) framework for a tiling self-reconfigurable robot named hRombo with four rhombus-shaped modules. The robot can reconfigure its base structure into seven distinct forms by activating the servo motors to drive the three robot hinges connecting robot modules. The problem of optimal path planning assisting the proposed hRombo robot to clear optimally all predefined tiles within the arbitrary workspace is considered a classic Travel Salesman Problem (TSP), and this TSP is solved by the reinforcement learning (RL) approach. The RL's reward function and action space are based on robot kinematic and the required energies, including transformation, translation, and orientation actions, to move the robot inside the workspace. The CTPP for the hRombo robot is validated with conventional complete coverage methods in simulation and real workspace conditions. The results showed that the CTPP is suitable for producing Pareto plans that enable robots to navigate from source to target in different workspaces with the least consumed energy and time among considered methods.

Optimizing the coverage path planning (CPP) in robotics has become essential to accomplish efficient coverage applications. This work presents a novel approach to solve the CPP problem in large complex environments based on the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) leveraging the grid-based maps. The proposed algorithm applies the cellular decomposition methods to decompose the environment and generate the coverage path by recursively solving each decomposed cell formulated as TSP. A solution to TSP is determined by training Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) with Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) layers using Reinforcement Learning (RL). We validated the proposed method by systematically benchmarked with other conventional methods in terms of path length, execution time, and overlapping rate under four different map layouts with various obstacle density. The results depict that the proposed method outperforms all considered parameters than the conventional schemes. Moreover, simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach is scalable to the larger grid-maps and guarantees complete coverage with efficiently generated coverage paths.

The study aims to examine the factors affecting sustainable tourism development. First, the paper presents the literature review to show the related theories and overview of the tourism sector in Vietnam. Secondly, the research model and hypotheses are represented to test the relationships between influencing factors and sustainable tourism development. Finally, 329 questionnaires had been collected from state management agencies and tourism enterprises. By using SPSS and Smart-PLS-SEM, the research shows that seven factors were affecting on sustainable tourism development in Vietnam. Specifically, social engagement has the strongest effect on sustainable tourism development, followed by state managerial competence respectively, tourism service quality, the quality of tourism human resource, infrastructure development, material tourism facilities and tourism resource.

Pedestrian bridge is the optimal transport solution when crossing roads in large cities, especially suitable for Hanoi’s transport system, and the bridge is also considered as an architectural work of urban landscape. Currently, with 70 Pedestrian bridges in Hanoi, it is still not enough to meet the demand for use and ensure urban traffic safety in the city. Especially, traffic violations when crossing roads are also common, pedestrians sometimes hesitate to use pedestrian bridges, and this shows the ineffective development of the pedestrian bridge system. In this study, based on the results of 300 social questionnaires with different walks of life and age brackets, and used that result to analyze the causes of ineffective use of pedestrian bridges. At the same time, giving directions on the construction and development of the pedestrian bridge system in the city to increase the efficiency and function of the pedestrian bridge, socialize the management and exploitation of pedestrian bridges in the Hanoi capital. We believe these outcomes would help support policymakers and service providers in improving the Pedestrian bridge projects’ efficiency.

Background Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most frequent mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract. Management of GIST patients is currently based on clinicopathological features and associated genetic changes. However, the detailed characteristics and molecular genetic features of GISTs have not yet been described in the Vietnamese population. Methods We first identified 155 patients with primary GIST who underwent surgery with primary curative intent between 2011 and 2014 at University Medical Center at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We evaluated the clinicopathological features and immunohistochemical reactivity to p53 and Ki-67 in these patients. Additionally, KIT genotyping was performed in 100 cases. Results The largest proportion of GISTs was classified as high-risk (43.2%). Of the 155 GISTs, 52 (33.5%) were positive for Ki-67, and 58 (37.4%) were positive for p53. The expression of Ki-67 and p53 were correlated with mitotic rate, tumor size, risk assessment, and tumor stage. Out of 100 GIST cases, KIT mutation was found in 68%, of which 62 (91.2%) were found in exon 11, two (2.9%) in exon 9, and four (5.8%) in exon 17. No mutation in exon 13 was identified. Additionally, KIT mutations did not correlate with any clinicopathological features. Conclusions The expression of Ki-67 and p53 were associated with high-risk tumors. Mutations in exon 11 were the most commonly found, followed by exon 17 and exon 9. Additionally, KIT mutation status was not correlated with any recognized clinicopathological features.

This study focuses on assessing the technical efficiency of enterprises across 63 provinces of Vietnam from 2015 to 2018 and the factors affecting their technical efficiency, in which we focus on two factors: business diversification and ICT index. In this research, we use the DEA method to group effective and ineffective enterprises, then use the GMM method to estimate the factors affecting to the firm’s performance. The research results show that the technical efficiency of enterprises in the provinces is quite small (about 10%), most of the enterprises have not achieved the technical efficiency due to the wasteful use of input factors. Research shows that business diversification and ICT both have a positive impact on efficiency, from which to increase technical efficiency, enterprises in provinces need to pay attention to business diversification and improve ICT index. in terms of the local government

Pavement in outdoor settings is an unstructured environment with sharp corners, varying widths, and pedestrian activity that poses navigation challenges while cleaning for autonomous systems. In this work, an approach towards navigating without collision in constrained pavement spaces using the optimal instantaneous center of rotation (ICR) is demonstrated using an in-house developed omnidirectional reconfigurable robot named Panthera. The Panthera reconfigurable design results in varying footprints, supported by passive linear joints along the robot width, with locomotion and steering action using four wheels independent steering drive (4WISD). The robot kinematics and perception sensors system are discussed. Further, the ICR selection is carried out using multi-objective optimization, considering functions for steering, varying width, distance, and clearance to avoid a collision. The framework is incorporated in a local navigation planner and demonstrated experimentally in real pavement settings. The results with optimal selection of ICR in two dimensional space within the robot footprint successfully perform smooth navigation in the constraint space. It is experimentally highlighted with four different scenarios, i.e., constraint conditions encountered by a robot during navigation. Moreover, the formulation of optimal selection of ICR while avoiding collision is generic and can be used for other mobile robot architectures.

RARA and RXRA contribute to myeloid maturation in both mice and humans, and deletion of Rxra and Rxrb augments leukemic growth in mice. While defining the domains of RXRA that are required for anti-leukemic effects in murine KMT2A-MLLT3 leukemia cells, we unexpectedly identified RXRA DT448/9PP as a constitutively active variant capable of inducing maturation and loss of their proliferative phenotype. RXRA DT448/9PP was associated with ligand-independent activity in reporter assays, with enhanced co-activator interactions, reduced engraftment in vivo, and activation of myeloid maturation transcriptional signatures that overlapped with those of cells treated with the potent RXRA agonist bexarotene, suggestive of constitutive activity that leads to leukemic maturation. Phenotypes of RXRA DT448/9PP appear to differ from those of two other RXRA mutations with forms of constitutive activity (F318A and S427F), in that DT448/9PP activity was resistant to mutations at critical ligand-interacting amino acids (R316A/L326A) and was resistant to pharmacological antagonists, suggesting it may be ligand-independent. These data provide further evidence that activated retinoid X receptors can regulate myeloid maturation and provide a novel constitutively active variant that may be germane for broader studies of retinoid X receptors in other settings.

Apixaban is indicated for the prevention of ischemic stroke in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), as well as for the prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Dose adjustment is based on age, weight, and serum creatinine in NVAF, while there are no recommended adjustment criteria for VTE. Such adjustment is unconventional compared to other commonly used medications. The objective of this manuscript is to critically analyze each apixaban dosing adjustment criterion and its associated outcomes. PubMed articles from March 2013 to March 2020 were selected with search terms “apixaban,” and “dose adjustment,” “adjustment,” or “adjustment criteria.” Pharmacokinetic studies demonstrated increased apixaban exposure in patients >65 years of age, those with extreme body weights, and those with advanced renal impairment, though post-hemodialysis dosing may off-set the elevated apixaban exposure. However, clinical data show that among patients > 75 years, < 60 kg, and with estimated glomerular filtration rate

The periodic cleaning pavement is a requirement for a clean environment in urban areas. The robot named Panthera introduced in this paper has the ability to change the width of the frame to help the cleaning tasks become suitable for different pavement types and friendly with the activities of the pedestrian. The Panthera cleaning operations which allow pedestrian walks freely on the pavement is modeled as a pedestrian robot cohabitant framework. To this end, the mask based deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is used to archive segmented label maps of pedestrians in color image, then the distance from detected objects to the robot is estimated and tracked by averaging filtered depth values in the corresponding region in the refined depth image. The width and the distance from the robot to the approaching pedestrians are used to adjust the robot width. The enlarging and squeezing operations of the Panthera width are conducted by rotating one motor to change the length of the lead screw rod and the angle linkage hinges from the information of encoders sensors. The experiments carried out on real environments demonstrated the autonomous avoiding pedestrians ability by the kinematic model of Panthera.

Extensive studies regarding complete coverage problems have been conducted, but a few tackle scenarios where the mobile robot is equipped with reconfigurable modules. The reconfigurability of these robots creates opportunities to develop new navigation strategies with higher dexterity; however, it also simultaneously adds in constraints to the direction of movements. This paper aims to develop a valid navigation strategy that allows tetromino-based self-reconfigurable robots to perform complete coverage tasks. To this end, a novel graph theory-based model to simulate the workspace coverage and make use of dynamic programming technique for optimal path searching and adaptive robot morphology shifting algorithms is proposed. Moreover, the influence of algorithms starting variables on workspace coverage outcome is analyzed thoughtfully in this paper. The simulation results showed that the proposed method is capable of generating navigation paths throughout the workspace, which ensures complete workspace coverage while minimizing the total number of actions performed by the robot.

Retinoid therapy transformed response and survival outcomes in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), but has demonstrated only modest activity in non-APL forms of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The presence of natural retinoids in vivo could influence the efficacy of pharmacologic agonists and antagonists. We found that natural RXRA ligands, but not RARA ligands, were present in murine MLL-AF9-derived myelomonocytic leukemias in vivo and that the concurrent presence of receptors and ligands acted as tumor suppressors. Pharmacologic retinoid responses could be optimized by concurrent targeting RXR ligands (e.g. bexarotene) and RARA ligands (e.g. all-trans retinoic acid, ATRA), which induced either leukemic maturation or apoptosis depending on cell culture conditions. Co-repressor release from the RARA:RXRA heterodimer occurred with RARA activation, but not RXRA activation, providing an explanation for the combination synergy. Combination synergy could be replicated in additional, but not all, AML cell lines and primary samples, and was associated with improved survival in vivo, although tolerability of bexarotene administration in mice remained an issue. These data provide insight into the basal presence of natural retinoids in leukemias in vivo and a potential strategy for clinical retinoid combination regimens in leukemias beyond acute promyelocytic leukemia.