Search

Abstract Background Pathologic scars, including keloids and hypertrophic scars, represent a common form of exaggerated cutaneous scarring that is difficult to prevent or treat effectively. Additionally, the pathobiology of pathologic scars remains poorly understood. We aim at investigating the impact of TEM1 (also known as endosialin or CD248), which is a glycosylated type I transmembrane protein, on development of pathologic scars. Methods To investigate the expression of TEM1, we utilized immunofluorescence staining, Western blotting, and single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) techniques. We conducted in vitro cell culture experiments and an in vivo stretch-induced scar mouse model to study the involvement of TEM1 in TGF-β-mediated responses in pathologic scars. Results The levels of the protein TEM1 are elevated in both hypertrophic scars and keloids in comparison to normal skin. A re-analysis of scRNA-seq datasets reveals that a major profibrotic subpopulation of keloid and hypertrophic scar fibroblasts greatly expresses TEM1, with expression increasing during fibroblast activation. TEM1 promotes activation, proliferation, and ECM production in human dermal fibroblasts by enhancing TGF-β1 signaling through binding with and stabilizing TGF-β receptors. Global deletion of Tem1 markedly reduces the amount of ECM synthesis and inflammation in a scar in a mouse model of stretch-induced pathologic scarring. The intralesional administration of ontuxizumab, a humanized IgG monoclonal antibody targeting TEM1, significantly decreased both the size and collagen density of keloids. Conclusions Our data indicate that TEM1 plays a role in pathologic scarring, with its synergistic effect on the TGF-β signaling contributing to dermal fibroblast activation. Targeting TEM1 may represent a novel therapeutic approach in reducing the morbidity of pathologic scars.

Process capability indices are widely utilized to evaluate process performance and drive continuous improvements in quality and productivity. Among these indices, the the-larger-the-better lifetime performance index is particularly noteworthy. For products with multiple components, an overall lifetime performance index is used, since it is a monotonically increasing function of the overall conforming rate and the relationship with each individual lifetime performance index can be determined. For products with the lifetime of the ith component following the Chen distribution, we investigate the maximum likelihood estimator for the overall lifetime performance index and the individual lifetime performance index based on the progressive type I interval censoring sample. Their asymptotic distributions for all lifetime performance indices are also derived. Once the target level for the overall lifetime performance index is specified, the desired level of individual lifetime performance index can be specified. By using the maximum likelihood estimator as the test statistic, a testing procedure to test whether the overall lifetime performance index has reached the target level is developed. The power analysis of the testing procedure is shown with figures, and some findings are summarized. At last, we use one practical example with two components to demonstrate how to implement this testing algorithmic procedure to test if the overall production process has reached the pre-assigned target level.

In the strength and conditioning field, a variety of training exercises are being applied to improve speed-related performance, but there is a lack of traditional strength training guides that can be used for training effectiveness. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a six-week traditional strength training program on elite rugby players and explore the relationships between the one repetition maximum (1RM) of traditional strength exercises and athletic performance. Twenty elite rugby players (age = 30.5 ± 1.5 years, mass = 96.7 ± 16.6 kg, height = 179.3 ± 6.0 cm) completed the strength training program, and 1RM values for bench press, squat, deadlift, and power clean, along with athletic performance metrics (20 m and 40 m sprints, vertical jump, broad jump, Bronco test, L-run), were measured before and after the training period. Medium effect sizes were observed in the deadlift (p = 0.04, d = 0.49) and bench press (p = 0.019, d = 0.57) 1RM, while the squat exhibited a very large effect size (p < 0.001, d = 2.08). Both before and after training, greater power clean 1RM demonstrated a strong correlation with each athletic performance test. However, bench press 1RM, both pre-and post-training, did not significantly associate with functional performances (p > 0.05). Notably, power clean 1RM showed the strongest correlation with athletic performance; despite being the most significant improvement in squat 1RM after the six-week training period, it was not associated with athletic performance outcomes in rugby players. This study underscores the varied impact of specific strength exercises on athletic performance, emphasizing the distinct role of power clean 1RM in predicting speed-related performance in male rugby players.

Background and objectives: Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) often results in quadricep atrophy. The purpose of this study was to compare the bilateral thickness of each quadricep component before and after ACLR. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study design. In 14 patients who underwent ACLR, bilateral quadricep muscle thicknesses were measured using a portable ultrasound device, 1 h before and 48–72 h after ACLR. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare muscle thickness pre- and post-ACLR between the limbs. Results: The primary finding was that the vastus intermedius (VI) muscle was significantly smaller in the reconstructed limb after ACLR compared to that in the healthy limb (Reconstructed limb; RCL = Pre-operated (PRE): 19.89 ± 6.91 mm, Post-operated(POST): 16.04 ± 6.13 mm, Healthy limb; HL = PRE: 22.88 ± 6.07, POST: 20.90 ± 5.78 mm, F = 9.325, p = 0.009, η2p = 0.418). Conclusions: The results represent a selective surgical influence on the quadricep muscle thickness. These findings highlight the need of advanced strengthening exercises in order to restore VI thickness after ACLR.

Traditional education models face great challenges from mobile devices, social networks and open courseware. Current professional knowledge and system design skills are inadequate for engineering-tracked students to thrive in a competitive job market and unpredictable professional contexts, which require them to develop unique ideas and innovations and know how to realize them. This study seeks to establish instructional arrangements in system engineering education to foster student creativity. A semester-long “embedded operating system (EOS)” course was offered as a trial system engineering course. In the paper, we explain the instructional challenges encountered and how these were addressed using the proposed Capability-Innovation-Motive (CIM) teaching model. Based on the CIM model, the EOS syllabus was redesigned to enhance student domain capabilities and build their innovative skills to help them better understand and manage abstract concepts discussed in the lectures. We then collected and analyzed student feedback by implementing Day Reconstruction Method (DRM). Analysis results show that the outcomes of both the best and worst final projects show a promising degree of creativity.

This paper introduces an Embedded Software Architecture for Intelligent Robot systems (ESAIR) that addresses the issues of parallel thread executions on multi-core processor platforms. ESAIR provides a thread scheduling interface to improve the execution performance of a robot system by assigning a dedicated core to a running thread on the fly and dynamically rescheduling the priority of the thread. In the paper, we describe the object-oriented design and the control functions of ESAIR. The modular design of ESAIR helps improve the software quality, reliability and scalability in research and real practice. We prove the improvement by realizing ESAIR on an autonomous robot, named AVATAR. AVATAR implements various human-robot interactions, including speech recognition, human following, face recognition, speaker identification, etc. With the support of ESAIR, AVATAR can integrate a comprehensive set of behaviors and peripherals with better resource utilization.

Localization in a wireless sensor network (WSN) becomes important for many modern applications, like landslide detection, precision agriculture, health care, and so forth. The more precise the position of an anchor node is, the more accurate the localization of a sensor node can be measured. Since the Global Positioning System (GPS) device cannot work properly indoor, some existing localization methods configure anchor nodes in a manual fashion. However, neither applying GPS modules nor manually configuring anchor nodes is suitable for a WSN and especially artificial errors of manual configuration may be propagated and affect the results of localization. In this paper, we propose an alternative method to estimate anchor node locations in an indoor environment. We collect the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) data from the anchor node when human is walking around them. Meanwhile, we use a wearable IMU-camera device to assist the moving trajectory estimation. We implement a monocular Visual Odometry with a human walking model to estimate moving trajectories. An Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) is used to estimate the anchor node location by fusing the RSSI data and moving trajectory. The experiment results show that the proposed method has lower estimation error when locating anchors.

Background and objectiveA number of studies have focused on the association between oral contraceptive (OC), hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) and reproductive factors and meningioma risk, but the results were inconsistent. Thus, a meta-analysis was performed to obtain more precise estimates of risk.MethodsWe conducted a literature search using PubMed and EMBASE databases to July 2013, without any limitations. Random effects models were used to summarize results.ResultsTwelve case-control and six cohort studies were included in this meta-analysis. We found that an increased risk of meningioma was associated with HRT use(RR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.01-1.40), postmenopausal women(RR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.07-1.64) and parity(RR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.00-1.40).No significant associations were observed for OC use (RR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.83-1.03), age at menarche(RR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.92-1.21), age at menopause(RR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.81-1.30), or age at first birth(RR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.80-1.10).ConclusionIn conclusion, the results of our study support the hypothesis that longer exposure to effect of female sex hormones may increase the risk of meningioma in women, yet additional studies are warranted to confirm our findings and identify the underlying biological mechanisms.