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Abstract To recharge lithium‐ion batteries quickly and safely while avoiding capacity loss and safety risks, a novel electrode design that minimizes cell polarization at a higher current is highly desired. This work presents a dual‐layer electrode (DLE) technology via sequential coating of two different anode materials to minimize the overall electrode resistance upon fast charging. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and distribution of relaxation times analysis revealed the dynamic evolution of electrode impedances in synthetic graphite (SG) upon a change in the state of charge (SOC), whereas the natural graphite (NG) maintains its original impedance regardless of SOC variation. This disparity dictates the sequence of the NG and SG coating layers within the DLE, considering the temporal SOC gradient developed upon fast charging. Simulation and experimental results suggest that DLE positioning NG and SG on the top (second‐layer) and bottom (first‐layer), respectively, can effectively reduce the overall resistance at a 4 C‐rate (15‐min charging), demonstrating two times higher capacity retention (61.0%) over 200 cycles than its counterpart with reversal sequential coating, and is higher than single‐layer electrodes using NG or NG/SG binary mixtures. Hence, this study can guide the combinatorial sequence for multi‐layer coating of various active materials for a lower‐resistivity, thick‐electrode design.

Screen summarization aims to generate concise textual descriptions that communicate the crucial contents and functionalities of a mobile user interface (UI) screen. A UI screen consists of objects with a hierarchical structure that are tightly interconnected, and each object contains multimodal data such as images, texts, and bounding boxes. Considering these characteristics, previous works encoded the absolute position of objects at the view hierarchy to extract the semantic representation of the UI screen. However, the importance of the hierarchical dependency between objects in the UI structure was overlooked. In this study, we propose an object-wise hierarchical dependency-based Transformer named OHiFormer. OHiFormer considers the objects on the UI screen as tokens in natural language processing and leverages the Transformer to capture the mutual relationships between objects. Moreover, OHiFormer includes a modified self-attention mechanism using structural relative position encoding to represent the hierarchically connected UI. Experimental results demonstrate that OHiFormer outperforms benchmark models in the BLEU 1, BLEU 2, BLEU 3, BLEU 4, ROUGE-L, and CIDEr metrics by 3.63%, 2.1%, 0.12%, 1.8%, 2.38%, and 17.58%, respectively, on the Screen Summarization dataset. Furthermore, our proposed UI structural representation method achieves remarkable performance on complex UIs with numerous objects compared to other structural position encoding methods. Finally, a visualization of the self-attention heatmaps demonstrates how OHiFormer reflects the hierarchical dependencies between objects. By reflecting hierarchical dependencies hidden in the visual layout of the UI, OHiFormer not only improves the quality of summaries but also offers the potential for applications in mobile apps and systems containing numerous interactive objects.

Abstract Safety is one of the important factors constraining the distribution of clinical drugs on the market. Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is the leading cause of safety problems produced by drug side effects. Therefore, the DILI risk of approved drugs and potential drug candidates should be assessed. Currently, in vivo and in vitro methods are used to test DILI risk, but both methods are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive. To overcome these problems, many in silico methods for DILI prediction have been suggested. Previous studies have shown that DILI prediction models can be utilized as prescreening tools, and they achieved a good performance. However, there are still limitations in interpreting the prediction results. Therefore, this study focused on interpreting the model prediction to analyze which features could potentially cause DILI. For this, five publicly available datasets were collected to train and test the model. Then, various machine learning methods were applied using substructure and physicochemical descriptors as inputs and the DILI label as the output. The interpretation of feature importance was analyzed by recognizing the following general-to-specific patterns: (i) identifying general important features of the overall DILI predictions, and (ii) highlighting specific molecular substructures which were highly related to the DILI prediction for each compound. The results indicated that the model not only captured the previously known properties to be related to DILI but also proposed a new DILI potential substructural of physicochemical properties. The models for the DILI prediction achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) of 0.88–0.97 and an area under the Precision-Recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.81–0.95. From this, we hope the proposed models can help identify the potential DILI risk of drug candidates at an early stage and offer valuable insights for drug development.

Endogenous stem cell-driven in situ bone tissue formation has recently garnered increasing attention. Therefore, our study sought to refine methods to enhance the migration and subsequent osteogenic differentiation of these cells. Our innovative approach involves using an injectable hydrogel that combines click cross-linking sites and a BMP-2 mimetic peptide (BP) with hyaluronic acid (HA). This injectable formulation, hereinafter referred to as SPa + Cx-HA-BP, incorporates a substance P analog peptide (SPa) with Cx-HA-BP, proving versatile for in vitro and in vivo applications without cytotoxicity. The controlled release of SPa creates a gradient that guides endogenous stem cells towards the Cx-HA scaffold from specific tissue niches. Both Cx-HA and SPa+Cx-HA induced minimal changes in the expression of genes associated with osteogenic differentiation. In contrast, these genes were robustly induced by both SPa + Cx-HA+BP and SPa + Cx-HA-BP, in which BP was respectively integrated via physical and chemical methods. Remarkably, chemically incorporating BP (Cx-HA-BP) resulted in 4–9 times higher osteogenic gene expression than physically mixed BP in Cx-HA+BP. This study validates the role of SPa role in guiding endogenous stem cells toward the hydrogel and underscores the substantial impact of sustained BP presence within the hydrogel. Collectively, our findings offer valuable insights for the development of innovative strategies to promote endogenous stem cell-based tissue regeneration. The developed hydrogel effectively guides stem cells from their natural locations and facilitates sustained osteogenic differentiation, thus holding great promise for applications in regenerative medicine.

Focusing on reducing the fear of crime among elementary school students, this study examined the relationship between pedestrian volume and fear of crime in elementary school zones. For this, we i) identified why and where in the school zones students fear crime, by conducting a survey among fifth and sixth grade students of two elementary schools; ii) calculated the volume of pedestrian traffic across the school zones through local integration analysis of axial map, and iii) determined the relationship between fear of crime and pedestrian volume and the difference in patterns of fear of crime perceived by the students depending on the pedestrian volume. The results indicated a higher prevalence of fear of crime in places with low and high pedestrian volumes compared with those with an average volume. Notably, in high pedestrian traffic areas, despite improvement in natural surveillance, the major determinants of high fear of crime were human factors, such as strangers and peers who bully. The findings will help architects, building engineers, and urban planners effectively plan and design schools and public facilities in school zones. Moreover, it will enable policy makers develop effective and accurate guidelines regarding positioning patrol personnel or surveillance.

Transformers have demonstrated significant promise for computer vision tasks. Particularly noteworthy is SwinUNETR, a model that employs vision transformers, which has made remarkable advancements in improving the process of segmenting medical images. Nevertheless, the efficacy of training process of SwinUNETR has been constrained by an extended training duration, a limitation primarily attributable to the integration of the attention mechanism within the architecture. In this article, to address this limitation, we introduce a novel framework, called the MetaSwin model. Drawing inspiration from the MetaFormer concept that uses other token mix operations, we propose a transformative modification by substituting attention-based components within SwinUNETR with a straightforward yet impactful spatial pooling operation. Additionally, we incorporate of Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) blocks after each MetaSwin block of the encoder and into the decoder, which aims at segmentation performance. We evaluate our proposed MetaSwin model on two distinct medical datasets, namely BraTS 2023 and MICCAI 2015 BTCV, and conduct a comprehensive comparison with the two baselines, i.e., SwinUNETR and SwinUNETR+SE models. Our results emphasize the effectiveness of MetaSwin, showcasing its competitive edge against the baselines, utilizing a simple pooling operation and efficient SE blocks. MetaSwin’s consistent and superior performance on the BTCV dataset, in comparison to SwinUNETR, is particularly significant. For instance, with a model size of 24, MetaSwin outperforms SwinUNETR’s 76.58% Dice score using fewer parameters (15,407,384 vs 15,703,304) and a substantially reduced training time (300 vs 467 mins), achieving an improved Dice score of 79.12%. This research highlights the essential contribution of a simplified transformer framework, incorporating basic elements such as pooling and SE blocks, thus emphasizing their potential to guide the progression of medical segmentation models, without relying on complex attention-based mechanisms.

Abstract Background In South Korea, commercial postpartum care centres, known as Sanhujoriwons, have emerged as important institutions aiding mothers’ physical recovery after childbirth. Although previous studies have measured mothers’ satisfaction level with Sanhujoriwons, this study applies Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to identify the factors influencing first-time mothers’ satisfaction with Sanhujoriwons. Methods This descriptive correlational study involved 212 first-time mothers admitted to Sanhujoriwons for two weeks with their new-borns (healthy babies weighing at least 2.5 kg) after giving birth after 37 weeks of pregnancy. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire at five postpartum care centres in the metropolitan area of South Korea from October to December 2021, on the day of the mothers’ discharge. This study considered ecological factors such as perceived health status, postpartum depression, childcare stress, maternal identity at the individual level; partnership with Sanhujoriwon staff at the microsystem level; and the Sanhujoriwons’ education support system at the exo-system level. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis using the SPSS 25.0 Win program. Results The mean score of satisfaction with Sanhujoriwons was 59.67 ± 10.14 out of 70, indicating a high level of satisfaction. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that satisfaction with Sanhujoriwons was significantly affected by the perceived health status (β = 0.19, p

Abstract For multifunctional wearable sensing systems, problems related to wireless and continuous communication and soft, noninvasive, and disposable functionality issues should be solved for precise physiological signal detection. To measure the critical transitions of pressure, temperature, and skin impedance when continuous pressure is applied on skin and tissue, we developed a sensor for decubitus ulcers using conventional analog circuitry for wireless and continuous communication in a disposable, breathable fabric-based multifunctional sensing system capable of conformal contact. By integrating the designed wireless communication module into a multifunctional sensor, we obtained sensing data that were sent sequentially and continuously to a customized mobile phone app. With a small-sized and lightweight module, our sensing system operated over 24 h with a coin-cell battery consuming minimum energy for intermittent sensing and transmission. We conducted a pilot test on healthy subjects to evaluate the adequate wireless operation of the multifunctional sensing system when applied to the body. By solving the aforementioned practical problems, including those related to wireless and continuous communication and soft, noninvasive, and disposable functionality issues, our fabric-based multifunctional decubitus ulcer sensor successfully measured applied pressure, skin temperature, and electrical skin impedance.

Abstract Background Although metastasis is the foremost cause of cancer-related death, a specialized mechanism that reprograms anchorage dependency of solid tumor cells into circulating tumor cells (CTCs) during metastatic dissemination remains a critical area of challenge. Methods We analyzed blood cell-specific transcripts and selected key Adherent-to-Suspension Transition (AST) factors that are competent to reprogram anchorage dependency of adherent cells into suspension cells in an inducible and reversible manner. The mechanisms of AST were evaluated by a series of in vitro and in vivo assays. Paired samples of primary tumors, CTCs, and metastatic tumors were collected from breast cancer and melanoma mouse xenograft models and patients with de novo metastasis. Analyses of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and tissue staining were performed to validate the role of AST factors in CTCs. Loss-of-function experiments were performed by shRNA knockdown, gene editing, and pharmacological inhibition to block metastasis and prolong survival. Results We discovered a biological phenomenon referred to as AST that reprograms adherent cells into suspension cells via defined hematopoietic transcriptional regulators, which are hijacked by solid tumor cells to disseminate into CTCs. Induction of AST in adherent cells 1) suppress global integrin/ECM gene expression via Hippo-YAP/TEAD inhibition to evoke spontaneous cell–matrix dissociation and 2) upregulate globin genes that prevent oxidative stress to acquire anoikis resistance, in the absence of lineage differentiation. During dissemination, we uncover the critical roles of AST factors in CTCs derived from patients with de novo metastasis and mouse models. Pharmacological blockade of AST factors via thalidomide derivatives in breast cancer and melanoma cells abrogated CTC formation and suppressed lung metastases without affecting the primary tumor growth. Conclusion We demonstrate that suspension cells can directly arise from adherent cells by the addition of defined hematopoietic factors that confer metastatic traits. Furthermore, our findings expand the prevailing cancer treatment paradigm toward direct intervention within the metastatic spread of cancer.

Polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) has the ability to regenerate skin cells and improve the skin barrier and wound healing. This study investigated the possibility of replacing animal-derived PDRN with plant-derived PDRN. To test this, the adventitious roots of Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer), which is commonly used to treat various diseases, were suspension-cultivated through tissue culture; subsequently, PDRN was purified using microfluidization, an ultra-high-pressure physical grinding method. The results showed that purified Panax PDRN was effective in healing skin wounds and enhancing the skin barrier. Panax PDRN promoted the proliferation of keratinocytes and fibroblasts by increasing the expression of fibronectin, filaggrin, Ki-67, Bcl-2, inhibin beta A, and Cyclin D1. It also acted as an agonist of the adenosine A2A receptor and induced the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase, adenosine triphosphate-dependent tyrosine kinase, and mitogen-activated protein kinase. This activated signal transduction, thereby regenerating skin cells and strengthening the barrier. These results were not only observed in skin cells but also in an artificial skin model (KeraSkinTM). The use of plant-derived PDRN instead of animal-derived PDRN can promote animal welfare and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, Panax PDRN can potentially be a new plant-derived PDRN (PhytoPDRN) that may be utilized in the treatment of various skin diseases.

IntroductionMutations in ADAMTS9 cause nephronophthisis-related ciliopathies (NPHP-RC), which are characterized by multiple developmental defects and kidney diseases. Patients with NPHP-RC usually have normal glomeruli and negligible or no proteinuria. Herein, we identified novel compound-heterozygous ADAMTS9 variants in two siblings with NPHP-RC who had glomerular manifestations, including proteinuria.MethodsTo investigate whether ADAMTS9 dysfunction causes NPHP and glomerulopathy, we differentiated ADAMTS9 knockout human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into kidney organoids. Single-cell RNA sequencing was utilized to elucidate the gene expression profiles from the ADAMTS9 knockout kidney organoids.ResultsADAMTS9 knockout had no effect on nephron differentiation; however, it reduced the number of primary cilia, thereby recapitulating renal ciliopathy. Single-cell transcriptomics revealed that podocyte clusters express the highest levels of ADAMTS9, followed by the proximal tubules. Loss of ADAMTS9 increased the activity of multiple signaling pathways, including the Wnt/PCP signaling pathway, in podocyte clusters.ConclusionsMutations in ADMATS9 cause a glomerulotubular nephropathy in kidney and our study provides insights into the functional roles of ADMATS9 in glomeruli and tubules.

Abstract Background The establishment and maintenance of functional neural connections relies on appropriate distribution and localization of mitochondria in neurites, as these organelles provide essential energy and metabolites. In particular, mitochondria are transported to axons and support local energy production to maintain energy-demanding neuronal processes including axon branching, growth, and regeneration. Additionally, local protein synthesis is required for structural and functional changes in axons, with nuclear-encoded mitochondrial mRNAs having been found localized in axons. However, it remains unclear whether these mRNAs are locally translated and whether the potential translated mitochondrial proteins are involved in the regulation of mitochondrial functions in axons. Here, we aim to further understand the purpose of such compartmentalization by focusing on the role of mitochondrial initiation factor 3 (mtIF3), whose nuclear-encoded transcripts have been shown to be present in axonal growth cones. Results We demonstrate that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) induces local translation of mtIF3 mRNA in axonal growth cones. Subsequently, mtIF3 protein is translocated into axonal mitochondria and promotes mitochondrial translation as assessed by our newly developed bimolecular fluorescence complementation sensor for the assembly of mitochondrial ribosomes. We further show that BDNF-induced axonal growth requires mtIF3-dependent mitochondrial translation in distal axons. Conclusion We describe a previously unknown function of mitochondrial initiation factor 3 (mtIF3) in axonal protein synthesis and development. These findings provide insight into the way neurons adaptively control mitochondrial physiology and axonal development via local mtIF3 translation.

This study seeks to elucidate the intricate relationship between various air pollutants and the incidence of rhinitis in Seoul, South Korea, wherein it leveraged a vast repository of data and machine learning techniques. The dataset comprised more than 93 million hospital visits (n = 93,530,064) by rhinitis patients between 2013 and 2017. Daily atmospheric measurements were captured for six major pollutants: PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, CO, and SO2. We employed traditional correlation analyses alongside machine learning models, including the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), random forest (RF), and gradient boosting machine (GBM), to dissect the effects of these pollutants and the potential time lag in their symptom manifestation. Our analyses revealed that CO showed the strongest positive correlation with hospital visits across all three categories, with a notable significance in the 4-day lag analysis. NO2 also exhibited a substantial positive association, particularly with outpatient visits and hospital admissions and especially in the 4-day lag analysis. Interestingly, O3 demonstrated mixed results. Both PM10 and PM2.5 showed significant correlations with the different types of hospital visits, thus underlining their potential to exacerbate rhinitis symptoms. This study thus underscores the deleterious impacts of air pollution on respiratory health, thereby highlighting the importance of reducing pollutant levels and developing strategies to minimize rhinitis-related hospital visits. Further research considering other environmental factors and individual patient characteristics will enhance our understanding of these intricate dynamics.

Adapalene (AD) is an FDA-approved drug that shows good therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of acne vulgaris. However, due to its negative charge, AD cannot efficiently penetrate across the also negatively-charged skin membrane. This study is the first to assess the treatment of acne vulgaris using electrostatically optimized AD emulsions prepared using anionic AD with methoxy polyethylene glycol-b-poly(ε-caprolactone) (MC) as an anionic emulsifier coupled with a newly synthesized MC with different contents of an amine pendant-group (MC-[NH2]x) as a cationic emulsifier. The AD emulsion prepared using MC-[NH2]x with high cationic charge potential was significantly stable in the short-term studies compared with anionic MC or no emulsifier. Furthermore, the AD emulsion prepared with the cationic MC-[NH2]x emulsifier provided a two or three times stronger therapeutic effect against acne vulgaris than the AD emulsion prepared with the anionic MC emulsifier or no emulsifier in an animal study. Additionally, the AD emulsion with high cationic charge potential exerted a remarkable inhibition of macrophage expression, as confirmed by histological analysis. Therefore, the electrostatic interaction between the negatively-charged skin membrane and the AD emulsion prepared with the cationic MC-[NH2]x emulsifier provides a promising therapeutic strategy for acne vulgaris.

Mice with hepatocyte-specific deletion of autophagy-related 7 (Atg7ΔHep mice) develop hepatoma, suggesting that autophagy deficiency could be a factor in the initiation of tumorigenesis. We have shown that FGF21 is induced as a ‘mitokine’ when Atg7 is disrupted in insulin target tissues such as the liver, which could affect systemic metabolism through endocrine activity. Since FGF21 or other endocrine FGF such as FGF19 can affect tumor growth, we hypothesized that FGF21 produced by Atg7-knockout (KO) hepatocytes may affect the behavior of Atg7-KO hepatoma in an autocrine manner. We, thus, crossed Atg7ΔHep mice with systemic Fgf21-KO (Fgf21−/−) mice to generate Atg7ΔHepFgf21−/− mice. The number and size of hepatoma of Atg7ΔHep mice were significantly increased by additional Fgf21 KO. The proliferation of Atg7-KO hepatocyte was significantly increased by Fgf21 KO. pYAP1/YAP1 representing YAP1 degradation was significantly decreased in the liver of Atg7ΔHepFgf21−/− mice compared to Atg7ΔHepFgf21+/+ mice. Consistently, expression of YAP1/TAZ downstream genes was significantly increased in the liver of Atg7ΔHepFgf21−/− mice compared to Atg7ΔHepFgf21+/+ mice, which could explain the increased size of hepatoma in Atg7ΔHepFgf21−/− mice. Accumulation of ROS and ROS-mediated DNA damage were increased in the liver of Atg7ΔHepFgf21+/+ mice, which was further aggravated by additional Fgf21 KO probably due to the absence of positive effect of FGF21 on mitochondrial function, explaining the increased number of hepatoma in Atg7ΔHepFgf21−/− mice compared to Atg7ΔHepFgf21+/+ mice. These results show that FGF21 produced by autophagy-deficient hepatocytes could have autocrine or paracrine effects on the number and proliferation of autophagy-deficient hepatoma, suggesting that hormones or factors released from autophagy-deficient tumors can influence the behavior or prognosis of the tumor in addition to the effects on host metabolism.

A recently developed treatment strategy for lung cancer that combines immune checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy has been applied as a standard treatment for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC), and it has improved the outcomes of chemotherapy. Maintenance treatment with anti-PD-1 antibody (aPD-1) enhances the effect of immunochemical combination therapy and improves therapeutic efficacy, which contributes toward a significant improvement in patient survival rates. The AXL receptor tyrosine kinase (AXL), which is expressed in tumor cells, plays an essential role in the resistance of cancers to chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and stimulates signaling associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in metastatic cancer. AXL is thus an attractive target for controlling resistance to anti-tumor therapies. In this study, we examined the effect of AXL inhibitors on immune activation and tumor growth in TC1 and C3PQ mouse tumor models, in the context of clinical immunotherapy/chemotherapy and maintenance treatment, using an aPD-1 with/without pemetrexed. To determine the optimal timing for administration of SKI-G-801, an AXL inhibitor, we investigated its anti-tumor effects based on inclusion at the immunochemotherapy and maintenance therapy stages. We also performed flow cytometry-based immune profiling of myeloid cells and lymphoid cells at different points in the treatment schedule, to investigate the immune activation and anti-tumor effects of the AXL inhibitor. The addition of SKI-G-801 to the immune checkpoint inhibitor and chemotherapy stage, as well as the maintenance therapy stage, produced the best anti-tumor results, and significant tumor growth inhibition was observed in both the TC1 and C3PQ models. Both models also exhibited increased proportion of effector memory helper T cells and increased expression of CD86+ macrophages. Especially, regulatory T cells were significantly reduced in the TC1 tumor model and there was an increase in central memory cytotoxic T cell infiltration and an increased proportion of macrophages with high CD80 expression in the C3PQ tumor model. These results suggest increased infiltration of T cells, consistent with previous studies using AXL inhibitors. It is expected that the results from this study will serve as a stepping stone for clinical research to improve the existing standard of care.

This makerspace-based assignment is designed to cultivate students' literate agency and their awareness of semiotic resources in two-year college contexts. The maker movement in education has been predominantly studied in business, science, and engineering fields and in four-year colleges. Networking translingual and transmodal scholarship and the maker movement, I devised a makerspace-based writing assignment as a scaffolding project to support students' analysis on their digital practices in the corequisite developmental writing courses and the composition courses in a community college. Although students' responses varied, I argue that this assignment can benefit two-year college students and offer social implications in multiple ways: it can promote students' access to the emerging trend of the maker movement and DIY fabrication culture; it encourages students to employ their multilingual and multimodal resources with an awareness of their changing literate ecologies; it can help them build their literate agency and transfer the maker mindset to other rhetorical environments such as their workplace or discipline-specific writing situations.

IPIN 2019 Competition, sixth in a series of IPIN competitions, was held at the CNR Research Area of Pisa (IT), integrated into the program of the IPIN 2019 Conference. It included two on-site real-time Tracks and three off-site Tracks. The four Tracks presented in this paper were set in the same environment, made of two buildings close together for a total usable area of 1000 m2 outdoors and and 6000 m2 indoors over three floors, with a total path length exceeding 500 m. IPIN competitions, based on the EvAAL framework, have aimed at comparing the accuracy performance of personal positioning systems in fair and realistic conditions: past editions of the competition were carried in big conference settings, university campuses and a shopping mall. Positioning accuracy is computed while the person carrying the system under test walks at normal walking speed, uses lifts and goes up and down stairs or briefly stops at given points. Results presented here are a showcase of state-of-the-art systems tested side by side in real-world settings as part of the on-site real-time competition Tracks. Results for off-site Tracks allow a detailed and reproducible comparison of the most recent positioning and tracking algorithms in the same environment as the on-site Tracks.

Cataracts are a prevalent ophthalmic disease worldwide, and research on the risk factors for cataracts occurrence is actively being conducted. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between nutrient intake and cataracts in the older adult population in Korea. We analyzed data from Korean adults over the age of 60 years (cataract: 2137, non-cataract: 3497) using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We performed univariate simple and multiple logistic regressions, adjusting for socio-demographic, medical history, and lifestyle, to identify the associations between nutrient intake and cataracts. A higher intake of vitamin B1 in the male group was associated with a lower incidence of cataracts. A lower intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin A, and a higher intake of vitamin B2 in the female group were associated with a higher incidence of cataracts. Our study demonstrated that polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin A, and vitamin B2 could affect the incidence of cataracts according to sex. The findings could be used to control nutrient intake for cataract prevention.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder defined by airway inflammation, chest pains, wheezing, coughing, and difficulty breathing that affects an estimated 300 million individuals globally. Although various studies have shown an association between air pollution and asthma, few studies have used statistical and machine learning algorithms to investigate the effect of each individual air pollutant on asthma. The purpose of this research was to assess the association between air pollutants and the frequency of hospital visits by asthma patients using three analysis methods: linear correlation analyses were performed by Pearson correlation coefficients, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and random forest (RF) models were used for machine learning-based analyses to investigate the effect of air pollutants. This research studied asthma patients using the hospital visit database in Seoul, South Korea, collected between 2013 and 2017. The data set included outpatient hospital visits (n = 17,787,982), hospital admissions (n = 215,696), and emergency department visits (n = 85,482). The daily atmospheric environmental information from 2013 to 2017 at 25 locations in Seoul was evaluated. The three analysis models revealed that NO2 was the most significant pollutant on average in outpatient hospital visits by asthma patients. For example, NO2 had the greatest impact on outpatient hospital visits, resulting in a positive association (r=0.331). In hospital admissions of asthma patients, CO was the most significant pollutant on average. It was observed that CO exhibited the most positive association with hospital admissions (I = 3.329). Additionally, a significant time lag was found between both NO2 and CO and outpatient hospital visits and hospital admissions of asthma patients in the linear correlation analysis. In particular, NO2 and CO were shown to increase hospital admissions at lag 4 in the linear correlation analysis. This study provides evidence that PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO, SO2, and O3 are associated with the frequency of hospital visits by asthma patients.

Aster glehni Fr. Schm. has been reported ameliorating effects on cognitive dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are poorly understood. Herein, we examined whether the ethanolic extract from leaves and stems of Aster glehni Fr. Schm. (EAG) could have biological effects for therapy-related AD. EAG exerted the neuroprotective effects in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells through extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB)/brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) pathway. In addition, EAG suppressed expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and productions of nitric oxide (NO), and pro-inflammatory cytokines by blocking nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) pathway in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated BV-2 microglial cells. This study also investigated that EAG possessed anti-neuroinflammatory effects in scopolamine-induced mice. Taken together, EAG and its caffeoylquinic acid could have anti-neurodegenerative properties derived from its ability to induce neuroprotection and anti-neuroinflammation.

The Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) conference holds an annual competition in which indoor localization systems from different research groups worldwide are evaluated empirically. The objective of this competition is to establish a systematic evaluation methodology with rigorous metrics both for real-time (on-site) and post-processing (off-site) situations, in a realistic environment unfamiliar to the prototype developers. For the IPIN 2018 conference, this competition was held on September 22nd, 2018, in Atlantis, a large shopping mall in Nantes (France). Four competition tracks (two on-site and two off-site) were designed. They consisted of several 1 km routes traversing several floors of the mall. Along these paths, 180 points were topographically surveyed with a 10 cm accuracy, to serve as ground truth landmarks, combining theodolite measurements, differential global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and 3D scanner systems. 34 teams effectively competed. The accuracy score corresponds to the third quartile (75th percentile) of an error metric that combines the horizontal positioning error and the floor detection. The best results for the on-site tracks showed an accuracy score of 11.70 m (Track 1) and 5.50 m (Track 2), while the best results for the off-site tracks showed an accuracy score of 0.90 m (Track 3) and 1.30 m (Track 4). These results showed that it is possible to obtain high accuracy indoor positioning solutions in large, realistic environments using wearable light-weight sensors without deploying any beacon. This paper describes the organization work of the tracks, analyzes the methodology used to quantify the results, reviews the lessons learned from the competition and discusses its future.

Bacillus subtilis is often exposed to diverse culture conditions with the aim of improving hygiene or food quality. This can lead to changes in the volatile metabolite profiles related to the quality of fermented foods. To comprehensively interpret the associated metabolic expressions, changes in intracellular primary and extracellular secondary volatile metabolites were investigated by exposing B. subtilis to an alkaline pH (BP, pH 8.0) and a high salt concentration (BS, 1 M). In particular, B. subtilis was cultured in a leucine-enriched medium to investigate the formation of leucine-derived volatile metabolites. This study observed metabolic changes in several metabolic pathways, including carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, and leucine degradation. The formation of proline (an osmolyte), furans, pyrrole, and monosaccharide sugars (glucose, galactose, and fructose) was enhanced in BS, whereas fatty acid derivatives (ketones and alcohols) increased in BP. In the case of leucine degradation, 3-methyl-butanal and 3-methylbutanol could be salt-specific metabolites, while the contents of 3-methylbutanoic acid and 3-methylbutylacetate increased in BP. These results show culture condition-specific metabolic changes, especially secondary volatile metabolites related to the sensory property of foods, in B. subtilis.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN), trigeminal neuralgia (TN), and diabetic neuropathy (DN), common causes of neuropathic pain encountered in pain clinics. Methods We investigated the period prevalence rate of CRPS, PHN, TN, and DN using data from a Korean national electronic database from 2009 to 2013. Results The prevalence of CRPS decreased slightly throughout the study period, while the prevalence of PHN increased from 2009 to 2013. The prevalence of TN was reduced over the same period. The prevalence of DN increased from 2009 to 2012 but decreased in 2013. All four neuropathic diseases were more prevalent in individuals aged over 70 years. The prevalence of CRPS, PHN, and TN were more common in women than in men, but DN showed no gender difference. Conclusion While the prevalence of CRPS and TN has decreased in Korea, that of PHN and DN has increased. With the exception of DN, the neuropathic diseases were more prevalent in women. Further studies are necessary to investigate the risk factors and socioeconomic burden for each disease, and national efforts are essential to limit the development of these preventable neuropathic diseases.

This paper presents a CMOS image sensor (CIS) with built-in lane detection computing circuits for automotive applications. We propose on-CIS processing with an edge detection mask used in the readout circuit of the conventional CIS structure for high-speed lane detection. Furthermore, the edge detection mask can detect the edges of slanting lanes to improve accuracy. A prototype of the proposed CIS was fabricated using a 110 nm CIS process. It has an image resolution of 160 (H) × 120 (V) and a frame rate of 113, and it occupies an area of 5900 μm × 5240 μm. A comparison of its lane detection accuracy with that of existing edge detection algorithms shows that it achieves an acceptable accuracy. Moreover, the total power consumption of the proposed CIS is 9.7 mW at pixel, analog, and digital supply voltages of 3.3, 3.3, and 1.5 V, respectively.

Pharmaceutical eutectics are solid mixtures, where the crystals of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are finely divided in the phase-separated microstructures. The size reduction makes the eutectic formation a viable option to improve the dissolution rate of the poorly soluble APIs. In the present study, ibuprofen, naproxen, and sorafenib were investigated in terms of their phase behaviors with fatty alcohols, such as tetradecanol, octadecanol, and docosanol. Among the studied APIs, only ibuprofen was able to form eutectics with the fatty alcohols, and this was in agreement with the feasibility prediction based on the van ’t Hoff equation and solubility parameters. In vitro release behavior was significantly improved for the ibuprofen/octadecanol eutectic mixture, although the practical insolubility of octadecanol in water was the opposite of the outstanding hydrophilicity of usual eutectic formers. The feasibility prediction and the choice of eutectic formers in the present study will be useful in advancing the utility of the pharmaceutical eutectics.

Virtual simulation technology has been considered as a highly efficient and cost-effective solution for a soldier training system, and evolved into diverse combinations of hardware and software. To maximize the virtual reality effect within a restricted space, a locomotion interface such as an omni-directional treadmill is introduced as a major component of a virtual simulator, therefore real time interaction between human and the virtual simulator becomes very important. Displacement and heading changes of the trainee are crucial information to control the virtual simulator when we implement highly reactive motion control for the omni-directional treadmill and interaction control of the virtual contents. This paper proposes a control parameter estimation algorithm for the virtual training simulator by using two types of motion capture sensors and presents the experimental results. Kinematic joint positions are analyzed to estimate the trainee’s location and velocity for feedback and feedforward control of the omni-directional treadmill. The accuracy of two approaches is evaluated by comparing with the reference system, which gives a ground truth value.

Fabry disease is a rare lysosomal storage disorder resulting from the lack of α-Gal A gene activity. Globotriaosylceramide (GB3, ceramide trihexoside) is a novel endogenous biomarker which predicts the incidence of Fabry disease. At the early stage efficacy/biomarker study, a rapid method to determine this biomarker in plasma and in all relevant tissues related to this disease simultaneously is required. However, the limited sample volume, as well as the various levels of GB3 in different matrices makes the GB3 quantitation very challenging. Hereby we developed a rapid method to identify GB3 in mouse plasma and various tissues. Preliminary stability tests were also performed in three different conditions: short-term, freeze-thaw, long-term. The calibration curve was well fitted over the concentration range of 0.042–10 μg/mL for GB3 in plasma and 0.082–20 μg/g for GB3 in various tissues. This method was successfully applied for the comparison of GB3 levels in Fabry model mice (B6;129-Glatm1Kul/J), which has not been performed previously to the best of our knowledge.

Purpose: This article argues that transnational multilingual entrepreneurs, particularly immigrant Asian/American small business owners, negotiate their access to disaster recovery-related resources by tactically sharing their own user cases through translocal business networks and developing local ethnocultural collaborative entrepreneurships. Method: This study was based on a 9-month user experience study across 14 entrepreneurial sites in two cities located in U.S.-Mexico border regions. Results: User narratives from this study demonstrate that transnational multilingual small business workers tactically adopted nuanced collaboration tactics in navigating resource-constrained environments in post-pandemic workplace settings. Conclusion: The study findings suggest that the binary notion of use and non-use of multilingual resources and the arrangement of multilingual content in federal disaster relief programs should be reconsidered to better situate human-centered design for transnational multilingual users in workplaces in under-resourced disaster-specific bureaucratic writing contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many IIoT architectures, various devices connect to the edge cloud via gateway systems. For data processing, numerous data are delivered to the edge cloud. Delivering data to an appropriate edge cloud is critical to improve IIoT service efficiency. There are two types of costs for this kind of IoT network: a communication cost and a computing cost. For service efficiency, the communication cost of data transmission should be minimized, and the computing cost in the edge cloud should be alsominimized. Therefore, in this paper, the communication cost for data transmission is defined as the delay factor, and the computing cost in the edge cloud is defined as the waiting time of the computing intensity. The proposed method selects an edge cloud that minimizes the total cost of the communication and computing costs. That is, a device chooses a routing path to the selected edge cloud based on the costs. The proposed method controls the data flows in a mesh-structured network and appropriately distributes the data processing load. The performance of the proposed method is validated through extensive computer simulation. When the transition probability from good to bad is 0.3 and the transition probability from bad to good is 0.7 in wireless and edge cloud states, the proposed method reduced both the average delay and the service pause counts to about 25% of the existing method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]