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This paper proposes a design process based on the aspects of structure, configuration, and function. A mechatronic integrated design combining a switched reluctance motor with a planetary gear train (PGT) reducer is developed systematically. First, feasible design concepts are generated from the identified design requirements and constraints by considering existing SRMs and PGT reducers. The integration elements are selected to fit the design requirements. Then, detailed design and analysis are performed regarding the performance of the PGTS as well as the electromagnetic characteristics and output performance of the motor. In addition, the Taguchi method is employed to identify the optimal electrical parameters and geometric configuration of the motor. Finally, the output characteristics of the integrated device and existing design are compared. The integrated design has a 12.94% higher average torque, 40.74% lower torque ripple, and 9.10% smaller axial space.

Introduction In Taiwan, given the discrepancy between current treatment guidelines and reimbursement options, patients might require a tool to support their decision-making process when selecting a regimen for metastatic colorectal cancer, especially therapeutic strategies, and subsequent costs, along with efficacy and safety outcomes. Therefore, we developed a patient decision aid (PDA) to support patients in choosing between treatment options recommended based on the current evidence and those reimbursed by the Taiwanese National Health Insurance. Methods By carefully reviewing the updated data and then interpreting the clinical tool, we conducted a needs assessment using a serial questionnaire to test for a step-by-step adjustment of the PDA. Results Patients, their relatives, and medical team members were most concerned about outcomes, such as overall survival, progression-free survival, objective response rate, tumor shrinkage to resectable status, total medical cost, severe gastrointestinal perforation, and severe skin reaction. After a serial alpha test for quality, we performed quantitative evaluation and beta tests, revealing average scores of more than 4 points (on a scale of 1–5) for both perceptibility and utility. Conclusions The present findings suggest that PDAs are useful and supplement the shared decision-making practice, helping patients make decisions about preferences and consider the pros and cons of treatment regimens, along with insurance reimbursement options.

To ensure the repeatability in a screwing task, the robot manipulators have to be calibrated regularly. If the allowable position error of the manipulator is increased, then the frequency of stopping a production line and calibrating the manipulators can be lower; therefore, the cost can be also decreased. This paper presents an innovative device for enlarging the allowable misalignment (DEAM) with five mechanisms, namely detecting, trigger, positioning, pin-and-stopper, and screwing mechanisms. By scanning around the target threaded hole, the screw can be precisely positioned at the location where the hole is detected by the probe. The motion and force analysis are carried out and verified through computer-aided simulation, and the sensitivity of the linkage tolerance is analyzed to ensure that the output position error of the mechanism does not affect the function of the device. Finally, the performance of the innovative device is verified by prototype testing, and the allowable misalignment is enlarged by about 6 times for an M6 screw.

Isoflavones are the major bioactive components in soybeans. Sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ions (SWATH) is a kind of data-independent acquisition (DIA), such that all fragments of each precursor will be preserved in a SWATH-Mass Spectrometry (SWATH-MS) run. In this study, a high-throughput SWATH-MS method for the determination of 12 isoflavones in soybeans was established. Furthermore, amino acids, saponins can be semi-quantitated from the same SWATH-MS data. Combination of targeted quantification and untargeted profiling with SWATH, all bioactive compounds were analyzed within 5 min in 10 min run time, and the method had good linear regression with r2 > 0.99. The precisions (RSD %) of the intra-day and inter-day analyses ranged from 2.11% to 18.7%, and the accuracies (RE%) ranged from −14.39% to 17.48%. The matrix effect ranged from 88.66% to 114.82%. Moreover, 7 varieties of soybeans were analyzed and compared with this robust screening method.

Treatment guidelines for colorectal cancer (CRC) indicate that surgical intervention within 4 weeks or 8 weeks after bevacizumab therapy might increase the risk of postoperative complications and mortality, especially in patients who received emergent operation. Therefore, we aimed to assess the association between different surgical timings, emergent or elective surgery, and the risk of postoperative mortality.Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database and Taiwan Cancer Registry, we identified patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who underwent surgery within 1 year of receiving bevacizumab between January 2010 and December 2017. The primary outcomes were 30-day, 60-day, and in-hospital mortality; the secondary outcomes were hospital stay, 30-day readmission rate, and surgical complications. Multivariate analysis was used to adjust for confounders.This study included 2,047 patients. In the multivariate analysis, patients who underwent emergent operation and had higher Charlson scores had a significantly higher mortality rate. Patients with a longer interval to surgery, more cycles of bevacizumab treatment, and distal metastectomy had the opposite result. In subgroup analysis, patients who received emergent operation within 28 days had the highest surgical mortality.The interval to operation among mCRC patients who receive bevacizumab treatment should exceed 4 weeks to avoid additional risk of mortality whether patients receiving elective or emergent operation. Patients who received emergent operation within 28 days of bevcizumab infusion had the highest risk of mortality.

Colorectal ESD is difficult because of the poor maneuverability and difficulty of mucosal flap creation. Diving, Lifting and Horizontal (DLH) dissection technique and loop-clip traction are two different methods to facilitate mucosal trimming and adequate mucosal flap creation. We combined the advantages of these two techniques (DLH+T) in our daily practice colorectal ESD since July 2020.The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes of DLH+T dissection compared with the conventional dissection.We retrospectively reviewed the clinical using DLH+T dissection compared with the conventional dissection since January 2018 at a single tertiary care institution. Postoperative short-term outcomes were investigated after the procedure including mucosal flap creation time, dissection time, dissection speed, en bloc resection rate, and perioperative complications.28 lesions were in DLH+T dissection group and 39 lesions in the conventional dissection group. The outcomes including en bloc resection rate, dissection speed, and complication between the two groups were similar. The mean mucosal flap creation time (p = 0.035) and the mean dissection speed (p = 0.041) of the DLH+T dissection group was significantly shorter and faster.DLH dissection followed by loop-clip traction (DLH+T) technique is a useful technique for safe, efficient, and adequate mucosal flap creation, which can increase the dissection speed and may prevent complication, especially in biopsy-related submucosal fibrosis.

Conventional lesion-up colorectal ESD has the potential risk of iatrogenic perforation due to the knife’s direction toward the muscular layer of the bowel wall. If we rotate the endoscope to the proper position, the mucosal flap is easy to be lifted down by tip attachment and the knife is easy to approach the proper dissection plane, which may prevent the perforation and facilitate difficult ESD. We aimed to retrospectively assess the safety and efficacy of this rotating technique compared with the conventional lesion-up dissection regardless of shape, location, or size of the tumor, and investigated in short- and long-term outcomes following the ESD procedure. 41 lesions were enrolled into rotating technique group and 37 lesions in lesion-up group. The dissection speed was significantly faster in the rotating technique group (p = 0.023). R0 resection rate was significantly higher in rotating technique group (p = 0.008). The rate of perioperative complication was significantly higher in lesion-up method group (p = 0.003). Local recurrence was higher in lesion-up group (p = 0.001). Recurrence-free rate was higher in rotating technique group (p = 0.018). The endoscope rotating is a useful technique for difficult colorectal ESD due to easy approaching the proper dissection plane. This technique also increases the rate of en bloc resections, R0 resections regardless of size, shape, and location and improves dissection speed without increasing the incidence of adverse events.

Gonadal artery is susceptible to accidental injury due to their anatomical proximity to the colon and rectum. There are few literature reviews focusing on this injury during colorectal surgery. We conduct a retrospective study to evaluate the incidence and the clinical significance of these injuries in terms of testicular size and testicular enhancement on the contrast CT scan. Patients’ characteristic data included age, body mass index (BMI), diagnosis, operation type, cause of gonadal artery injury, side of injury, level of injury, method of vessel ligation, and follow-up period. We measured the testicular sizes before and after gonadal artery injury and measured the enhancement level by recording the mean attenuation value on the injury side and non-injury side of the testis on the CT scan. The incidence of gonadal artery injury was 3.61% and 15 male patients with this injury were enrolled. There were 5 patients with iatrogenic injury and 10 patients with non-iatrogenic injury due to advanced tumor or inflammation. No patients had any complaints of testicular discomforts or atrophy after the surgery. The testicular sizes before and after the surgery showed no significant difference (p = 0.877). The mean attenuation values of the injury side and non-injury side of the testis also showed no significant difference (p = 0.79). Gonadal artery injury during colorectal surgery is not a rare complication. To prevent this injury, knowledge of the anatomy and staying in the proper plane of dissection are the key points. In patients with gonadal artery injury during colorectal surgery, sacrifice of the gonadal artery is safe without clinical significance in terms of testicular size and testicular enhancement on the contrast CT scan.

Although many ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared transmission spectroscopy techniques have been applied to chicken egg studies, such techniques are not suitable for duck eggs because duck eggshells are much thicker than chicken eggshells. In this study, a high-transmission spectrometer using an equilateral prism as a dispersive element and a flash lamp as a light source was constructed to nondestructively detect the transmission spectrum of duck eggs and monitor the pickling of eggs. The evolution of egg transmittance was highly correlated with the albumen during pickling. The transmittance exponentially decays with time during this period, and the decay rate is related to the pickling rate. The colors of the albumen and yolk remain almost unchanged in the first stage. A multiple linear regression analysis model that realizes a one-to-one association between the days of pickling and the transmission spectra was constructed to determine the pickling duration in the second stage. The coefficient of determination reached 0.88 for a single variable, wavelength, at 590 nm. This method can monitor the maturity of pickled eggs in real time and does not require the evolution of light transmittance.

A walking machine is equipped with leg mechanisms so that it can move across uneven ground. In this study, feasible leg mechanisms for walking machines are generated through the Creative Mechanism Design Methodology, including the steps of existing designs analysis, generalization, specialization, and particularization. One design of a linkage mechanism with eight links and ten joints is selected at the first step. Then, according to the concepts of generalization and specialization, one of the kinematic generalized chains with the same number of links and joints is chosen, and five feasible specialized chains are generated by assigning the frame, thigh link, calf link, and the crank, sequentially. Moreover, by applying feature encoding, two of the feasible designs are obtained by removing the results that cannot fit the motion characteristics, and the corresponding mechanism sketches are presented through particularization. One of the innovation designs is selected, and the dimensional synthesis is made through the techniques in geometric constraint programming. Finally, the motion characteristics are determined to verify its feasibility through theorical determination and computer simulation. The analysis results can be used to explore kinetics and mechanism advantage.

As a special plant for train maintenance in northern Taiwan, the Taipei Railway Workshop was founded in 1885 and moved in 2011, reflecting the changes in Taiwan&rsquo, s history, transportation, and industrial technology. Now, it is planned to change the maintenance plant into a railway museum in the form of an in situ site. This study briefly introduces the historical background and present situation of the Taipei Railway Workshop and takes its forging workshop as the object for investigation and exhibition planning. According to the preservation and maintenance methods of the cultural heritage of the museum, the investigation process proposed includes four steps: Site exploration, object registration, object research, and exhibition planning. The work area in the plant is divided into shaping and forging areas, as based on the categories of the machines on the site of the forging workshop. In this study, a total of 85 industrial relics in the forging workshop are registered for systematic research. The working conditions, including machine parts for train maintenance, manufacturing processes of parts, and the relationship between in-line on-site machines and tools, of the forging workshop before closing are restored, as based on the principles of machine manufacturing, literature, and retired workers&rsquo, oral histories. Finally, an in situ exhibition plan of the forging workshop is put forward based on the results of the object research.

Network coding is a promising technology proven to improve the performance of wireless networks. To successfully design a quality-of-service (QoS)-satisfied routing protocol with network coding, the bandwidth consumption of a coding host should be determined. Furthermore, coding opportunities should be increased to improve network capacity. Nevertheless, it is challenging to determine whether a host can be a coding host and to determine the bandwidth consumption of a coding host in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). In this paper, we first present and define the coding conditions to identify a coding host. The bandwidth consumption of a coding host is then estimated under the contention-based wireless networks with a random access mechanism. Finally, we propose a bandwidth-satisfied and coding-aware multicast routing protocol (BCMRP). By taking into account the residual bandwidth of the carrier-sense neighbors of the forwarders, the proposed protocol can satisfy the bandwidth requirements of the requested flow and other ongoing flows. As a consequence of considering coding opportunities in multicast tree construction, the proposed multicast protocol can reduce the total bandwidth consumption. The simulation results show that BCMRP outperforms the prior multicast routing protocols in receiving ratio, admission ratio, and total bandwidth consumption.

Due to significant advances in wireless modulation technologies, some MAC standards such as 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g can operate with multiple data rates for QoS-constrained multimedia communication to utilize the limited resources of MANETs more efficiently. In this paper, by means of measuring the busy/idle ratio of the shared radio channel, a method for estimating one-hop delay is first suggested. Then, by constructing a multicast tree, a delay-sensitive multicast protocol for real-time applications in multirate MANETs is proposed. In order to increase the network capacity, the proposed multicast protocol intends to minimize the sum of the total transmission time of the forwarders and the total blocking time of the blocked hosts, by taking the neighboring information of the forwarders into account and properly adjusting the data rates of the forwarders. Simulation results show that the proposed delay estimation method is more accurate, as compared with previous works. Besides, the proposed multicast protocol can induce higher network capacity, while satisfying the delay requirement.

The ancient European mechanical clock with automata is one of the indicators of manufacturing technology, and the clocks exported to Asia offer evidence of cultural exchange at that time. The Gilded Copper Rising and Falling Pavilion Clock Inlaid with Gemstones is one of the ingenious mechanical work made in Britain and exported to China in the 18th century. Although it's well preserved in the Forbidden City in Beijing (Palace Museum currently), the internal mechanical structure is not open to the public, because of its historical value. In order to reconstruct the pagoda automaton attached to the clock, structural analysis is presented according to the text records of the other four clocks with similar automata. A systematic design approach is proposed herein. The feasible mechanisms are synthesized by going through generalization, specialization, and particularization. As the result, nine, three, and four feasible mechanisms with linkage, gear, and cam are generated, respectively. One of the feasible designs with the largest output motion range is selected, and dimensional synthesis is made to achieve the motion characteristics. Its performance is verified through prototype testing.

Ropes have been widely used in mechanical devices for a long time as a unique component with characteristics of flexibility and rigidity. Many records in ancient books show the applications of rope in the machines to a variety of transmission purposes. From the viewpoint of mechanisms, 15 devices in Chinese, Arabian, and Japanese ancient books are analyzed and classified based on its mechanical characteristic of flexibility and rigidity.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has well-known associations with obesity and metabolic syndrome, and has emerged as a salient public health issue worldwide. Recent results from a systematic review suggested that lean and obese patients with NAFLD shared altered metabolic and cardiovascular profiles (1). Patients with NAFLD, irrespective of whether they are lean or obese, have similar risks of cardiovascular diseases (2) and related mortality (3,4), hepatocellular carcinoma (5,6), extrahepatic cancers (7), and other liver disease complications (8). Although there is a lower prevalence of NAFLD in the lean (lean-NAFLD) patient population than in the obese patient population, a gradient of increasing prevalence in lean-NAFLD was noted (9). In addition, lean-NAFLD patients share a similar metabolic milieu with those who are obese, which warrants clinicians' attention (10). Prevalence rates in the United States were approximately 7% and 28% in lean and obese patients, respectively, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (11). In general, body mass indexes (BMIs) in Asians are lower than those in Westerners. However, the prevalence of lean-NAFLD varies from 7% to 19% across different Asian countries (12,13). Genetic predisposition and regional heterogeneity have been reported to be 2 important factors attributable for the development of lean-NAFLD (12). Therefore, we suspected that lean-NAFLD would show different clinical characteristics in Asia. Lean people with hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, high fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, and high homoeostatic model assessment–insulin resistance (HOMR) indices have an increased risk of developing NAFLD (1). However, the utility of metabolic factors, such as the HOMR index, are limited in clinical practice. Liver biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosing NAFLD; however, it is rather invasive. Bedogni et al. (14) developed the fatty liver index (FLI), which accurately separates patients with NAFLD. Yang et al. (15) also suggested that FLI was a reliable noninvasive predictor of NAFLD in both Asian and Western populations. The relationship between NAFLD and individual metabolic syndrome component values or liver enzyme levels has been widely investigated (1). However, there is a degree of uncertainty with validating FLI and metabolic factors with respect to their ability to predict lean-NAFLD, especially in general Asian populations. Thus, we conducted a retrospective study and aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors of lean-NAFLD in a population of patients attending routine health checkups in southern Taiwan. Additionally, the roles of FLI and metabolic factors in the prediction of lean-NAFLD were also validated.

Gear mechanisms were wildly used in variety of purposes from the 2nd century BC in ancient China. There were several books with mechanical illustrations that described the structures and functions of gear mechanisms in ancient China. However, there has never been any record of their appearance or invention in ancient manuscripts. Since gear mechanisms can be used in changing the direction of the source power, some primary devices were added on gear train to transmit the power and generate the function of drawing water. Therefore, the water lifting devices with gears usually have similar topological structures. This work summarized authors’ research for the structural analyses of water lifting devices with gears that were described in ancient Chinese books. The historical development of gear mechanisms in ancient China is briefly introduced first. Then, in the viewpoint of modern mechanisms, the functions and components of water lifting devices with gears are analyzed and presented.

The Blossoming Flower Clock is an ingenious timepiece made in the 18th century and now preserved in Beijing Palace Museum, China. It generally cannot be disassembled and examined due to its historical value, and hence the inner mechanisms of the clock are unknown. This study provides a systematic design approach for reconstructing the five automata in the clock, namely time keeping, music playing, ducks swimming, flowers blossoming, and figures posturing. For the first two automata, practicable mechanical structures are inferred based on a classification and analysis of known technological customs and practice at the time. A total of seven feasible mechanisms are proposed for the time-keeping automaton, while three possible mechanisms are presented for the music-playing automaton. For the remaining automata, the structural characteristics and design constraints of the associated mechanisms are derived by means of a systematic motion analysis. By applying the concepts of generalization and specialization, a total of seven feasible mechanisms are synthesized for the ducks-swimming automaton, while six mechanisms are presented for the flowers-blossoming automaton and figures-posturing automaton. The proposed methodology is formalized in the form of a flow chart. Overall, the present results suggest that the proposed method provides a useful approach for reconstructing the unknown internal workings of mechanical devices.

Triple‑negative breast cancers (TNBCs) lack the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Therefore, hormone or targeted therapies are not effective in the treatment of TNBC and thus the development of novel therapeutic strategies is crucial. Methotrexate (MTX), a folate antagonist, has been used in the treatment of various types of cancer; however, the anticancer effects of MTX treatment on breast cancer have thus far been ineffective. Vitamin E variants and derivatives have been applied for cancer therapy. Previous studies have indicated that vitamin E variants and derivatives exert distinct anticancer effects on different types of cancer. However, whether MTX plus vitamin E variants or its derivatives can inhibit TNBC remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine the anticancer effects and mechanisms of action of MTX in combination with vitamin E variants (α‑tocopherol) and derivatives (α‑tocopherol succinate) on TNBC. In the present study, MTT assay and western blot analysis were used to determine the cell survival rates and protein levels. The results demonstrated that combination treatment with MTX and α‑tocopherol suppressed TNBC cell proliferation. In addition, various concentrations of MTX exerted distinct cytotoxic effects on α‑tocopherol succinate‑treated cells. Furthermore, high‑dose MTX enhanced α‑tocopherol succinate‑induced anticancer activity; however, low‑dose MTX inhibited α‑tocopherol succinate‑induced anticancer activity. The present study also demonstrated that caspase‑3 activation and poly(adenosine diphosphate‑ribose) polymerase cleavage were observed in the α‑tocopherol succinate/MTX‑treated cells. In conclusion, the findings of the present study demonstrated that high‑dose MTX enhanced anticancer activity in α‑TOS‑treated TNBC, while low‑dose MTX reduced anticancer activity in α‑TOS‑treated TNBC.

The herein investigated blossoming flower automaton is one of the ingenious mechanical devices made in the 18th century to entertain people. Although this automaton is still preserved in the Palace Museum in Beijing, its inner works are generally not open by the public, and the mechanical structure is unknown. A reconstruction design procedure for ancient automata with unclear mechanical structure is provided, including mechanism design and performance analysis. One of the reconstructed mechanisms of the blossoming flower automaton is selected, and an easy-making cam with circular-arc profile is used. The motion characteristics are checked not only by computer-aid modeling and simulation but also through the prototype manufacturing and testing with 3D printing components and image/video analysis software, and the numerical results are presented for a performance evaluation and characterization.

Supplemental material, Supplementary_Table_figure for Risk factors for Barrett’s esophagus in young adults who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in a health examination center by Pin-Chieh Wu, Yan-Hua Chen, Fu-Zong Wu, Kung-Hung Lin, Chiao-Lin Hsu, Chi-Shen Chen, Yu-Hsun Chen, Po-Hsiang Lin, Guang-Yuan Mar and Hsien-Chung Yu in Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology

A temporary loop stoma is often created after laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery. Peristomal adhesions may make stoma closure into a complicated operation. We demonstrated how to place the SurgiWrap® adhesion barrier film and evaluated the peristomal adhesion severity and feasibility of stoma closure. This is a retrospective case-control study. Patients were divided into a study group (placement of adhesion barrier film) and a control group (no placement). Patient characteristics, operative data, and severity of adhesions were recorded. We used logistic regression to probe the association between the variables and the adhesion severity. A total of 180 patients were identified with 60 in the study group and 120 in the control group. In the study group, the adhesion severity (p

We performed comprehensive studies on the photoluminescence properties of the carbon dots prepared from citric acid (C-dotsCA) and citric acid + ethylenediamine (C-dotsCA+EDA). The cryogenic experiment confirmed that the excitation dependent fluorescence and the spectral relaxation dynamics of the C-dots are associated with the presence of multiple emissive states/species in the C-dots instead of solvation dynamics. Moreover, we also compared the size of the C-dots estimated from the TEM/AFM images and fluorescence anisotropy methods. The experimental results indicate that the fluorescence anisotropy method not only avoids the formation of aggregates during the sample preparation processes, but also selectively detects the size of emissive C-dots in the solution. Therefore, the fluorescence anisotropy method is ideal for studying the size dependent optical properties of the C-dots.

The mechanical music automata have been developed since thousands years ago for mimicking sound of animals or playing a melody. They are documented and/or preserved in many countries, with solutions that reflect the evolution of mechanical manufacture and technology in these areas. In this article, a timeline of the ancient literature in both western and eastern countries is arranged to clarify the historical development of music-playing automata. The functional mechanical design parameters are arranged based on the four fundamental music characteristics as pitch, duration, intensity and timbre. Moreover, the mechanical music generators are also classified into wind, percussion, strings instruments and the steel music comb according to their composition. These music-playing automata are analyzed in four main units, namely power system, music generator, transmission and mechanical puppets. Finally, seven ancient automata are analyzed as illustrative examples from the viewpoint of mechanism design for these analysis and classification.

With Pd as the electrode, crystalline TiO2-based MIM capacitors were found to demonstrate improved leakage current performance when nitrogen plasma treatment was adopted due to the passivation of grain boundary related defects. Through the introduction of Ge nanocrystals into crystalline TiO2, the leakage current can be further suppressed by more than 3 orders of magnitude to 1.1 × 10−7 A cm−2 at −1 V while maintaining a high capacitance density of 25.2 fF μm−2. The major role of the nanocrystals is to trap electrons and then suppress leakage current by inducing the Coulomb blockade effect or building an internal field to compensate the applied external field. The MIM capacitor technology not only exhibits performance which is notably advantageous over other TiO2-based capacitors, it also possesses the capability to be implemented in low-leakage/high-reliability analog and mixed signal MIM capacitors for next generation circuits.

Endotoxemia is caused by excessive inflammation, but the immune system has various mechanisms to avoid collateral organ damage in endotoxemia. A handful of reports have shown that innate immune responses are suppressed by the adaptive immune system. However, the molecular mechanism by which adaptive immune cells suppress innate inflammatory responses is not clear. Here, we report that T cells are shown to interact with macrophages at the early stage of enodotoxemia and to prolong survival of mice through controlling TNF and IL-10 levels by macrophage CD40 stimulation. The cross-talk between CD40 and toll-like receptor (TLR4) signaling first mediates IL-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1) nuclear translocation and its binding to the IL-10 gene promoter in macrophages, without interfering with the NFκB pathway. IL-10 is then detected by macrophages in an autocrine fashion to destabilize Tnfa mRNA. To induce IRAK1-mediated IL-10 expression, signals from both CD40 and TLR4 are essential. CD40 signaling induces IRAK1 sumoylation in the presence of TNF receptor-associated factor 2 (TRAF2) and intracellular isoform of osteopontin (iOPN) whereas TLR4 signaling provides IFN regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) as a chaperone for sumoylated IRAK1 nuclear translocation. Interaction of T cells with macrophages was observed in the spleen in vivo after endotoxemia induction with LPS injection. Our study demonstrates a mechanistic basis for the immunosuppressive role of macrophage CD40 in LPS endotoxemia.

The problem of correlated data gathering in wireless sensor networks is studied in this paper. For the sake of efficiency, tree transmission structures are often used for data gathering. Previously, the problem of minimizing the total communication cost with a single-tree transmission structure was shown to be NP-hard. However, when the explicit communication approach is used, the total communication cost can be further reduced, provided a double-tree transmission structure is used and inverse links are allowed. This motivates us to devise a double-tree routing scheme in which two trees are used for data transmission, one carrying raw data and the other carrying encoded data. We show that with the double-tree routing scheme, the problem of minimizing the total communication cost remains NP-hard. A distributed algorithm for solving it is suggested. We show that under the simple correlation model, the algorithm has an approximation ratio of two. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the double-tree routing scheme.

We found that absence of osteopontin (OPN) in immunocompromised Rag2−/− mice, which lack T and B cells, made the mice extremely susceptible to an opportunistic fungus Pneumocystis, although immunocompetent OPN-deficient mice could clear Pneumocystis as well as wild-type mice. OPN has been studied as an extracellular protein, and the role of an intracellular isoform of OPN (iOPN) is still largely unknown. In this study, we elucidated the mechanism by which iOPN was involved in antifungal innate immunity. First, iOPN was essential for cluster formation of fungal receptors that detect Pneumocystis, including dectin-1, TLR2, and mannose receptor. Second, iOPN played a role as an adaptor molecule in TLR2 and dectin-1 signaling pathways and mediated ERK activation and cytokine production by zymosan, which simultaneously activates TLR2 and dectin-1 pathways. Third, iOPN enhanced phagocytosis and clearance of Pneumocystis. Our study suggests the critical involvement of iOPN in antifungal innate immunity.