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Patients with type 1 diabetes and their physicians have long desired a fully closed-loop artificial pancreas (AP) system that can alleviate the burden of blood glucose regulation. Although deep reinforcement learning (DRL) methods theoretically enable adaptive insulin dosing control, they face numerous challenges, including safety and training efficiency, which have hindered their clinical application. This paper proposes a safe and efficient adaptive insulin delivery controller based on DRL. It employed ten tricks to enhance the proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm, improving training efficiency. Additionally, a dual safety mechanism of 'proactive guidance + reactive correction' was introduced to reduce the risks of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia and to prevent emergencies. Performance evaluations in the Simglucose simulator demonstrate that the proposed controller achieved an 87.45% time in range (TIR) median, superior to baseline methods, with a lower incidence of hypoglycemia, notably eliminating severe hypoglycemia and treatment failures. These encouraging results indicate that the DRL-based fully closed-loop AP controller has taken an essential step toward clinical implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One of the main aims of the updated Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System Version 2 (PI-RADS v2) is to diminish variation in the interpretation and reporting of prostate imaging, especially among readers with varied experience levels. This study aimed to retrospectively analyze diagnostic consistency and accuracy for prostate disease among six radiologists with different experience levels from a single center and to evaluate the diagnostic performance of PI-RADS v2 scores in the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer (PCa). Methods: From December 2014 to March 2016, 84 PCa patients and 99 benign prostatic shyperplasia patients who underwent 3.0T multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging before biopsy were included in our study. All patients received evaluation according to the PI-RADS v2 scale (1–5 scores) from six blinded readers (with 6 months and 2, 3, 4, 5, or 17 years of experience, respectively, the last reader was a reviewer/contributor for the PI-RADS v2). The correlation among the readers' scores and the Gleason score (GS) was determined with the Kendall test. Intra-/inter-observer agreement was evaluated using κ statistics, while receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curve analyses were performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the scores. Results: Based on the PI-RADS v2, the median κ score and standard error among all possible pairs of readers were 0.506 and 0.043, respectively; the average correlation between the six readers' scores and the GS was positive, exhibiting weak-to-moderate strength (r = 0.391, P = 0.006). The AUC values of the six radiologists were 0.883, 0.924, 0.927, 0.932, 0.929, and 0.947, respectively. Conclusion: The inter-reader agreement for the PI-RADS v2 among the six readers with different experience is weak to moderate. Different experience levels affect the interpretation of MRI images.

Background: Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) is a globally acceptable standardization for multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) in prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis. The American College of Radiology revised the PI-RADS to address the limitations of version 1 in December 2014. This study aimed to determine whether the PI-RADS version 2 (PI-RADS v2) scoring system improves the diagnostic accuracy of mp-MRI of the prostate compared with PI-RADS v1. Methods: This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board. A total of 401 consecutive patients, with clinically suspicious PCa undergoing 3.0 T mp-MRI (T2-weighted imaging + diffusion-weighted imaging + DCE) before transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy between June 2013 and July 2015, were included in the study. All patients were scored using the 5-point PI-RADS scoring system based on either PI-RADS v1 or v2. Receiver operating characteristics were calculated for statistical analysis. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy were compared using McNemar′s test. Results: PCa was present in 150 of 401 (37.41%) patients. When we pooled data from both peripheral zone (PZ) and transition zone (TZ), the areas under the curve were 0.889 for PI-RADS v1 and 0.942 for v2 (P = 0.0001). Maximal accuracy was achieved with a score threshold of 4. At this threshold, in the PZ, similar sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were achieved with v1 and v2 (all P > 0.05). In the TZ, sensitivity was higher for v2 than for v1 (96.36% vs. 76.36%, P = 0.003), specificity was similar for v2 and v1 (90.24% vs. 84.15%, P = 0.227), and accuracy was higher for v2 than for v1 (92.70% vs. 81.02%, P = 0.002). Conclusions: Both v1 and v2 showed good diagnostic performance for the detection of PCa. However, in the TZ, the performance was better with v2 than with v1.

Air pollution is a global problem, which poses serious environmental concerns and health risks. In light of this, a key aspect of the challenge of managing air pollution is effective monitoring, which requires reliable high‐sensitivity sensors with strong selectivity and long‐term stability. Layered materials represent an emergent class of materials with extraordinary electronic properties and physicochemical properties, and, therefore, are a highly attractive prospect for this field. Here, such a sensor for NO2 based on GaSe is presented. An ultrahigh sensitivity of 0.5 part per billion (p.p.b.) is achieved at room temperature, and the NO2 selectivity ratios with respect to other likely interfering environmental gases are larger than 100. Moreover, no great degradation is observed after 10 days of air exposure. As a practical demonstration, the GaSe‐based sensors are also used to detect vehicle exhaust emission, and wearable GaSe‐based NO2 sensors are presented and tested. Based on the results obtained in this work, it is believed that GaSe‐based sensors can be used for the detection of NO2 in real‐world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accumulating evidences proved the important roles of circulating IgA1-containing immune complexes (cIgA1) in IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Galactose-deficient IgA1 (Gd-IgA1) and glycan-specific IgG antibody have been identified as major components in cIgA1. Before, Gd-IgA1 was reported as a vital factor in IgAN, partly via of its pathogenic role to induce mesangial cells activation. However, we still lack direct evidences to clarify the biological effect of glycan-specific IgG antibody in IgAN.Methods: In the present study, we enrolled 35 IgAN patients and 17 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Using uniform aberrant glycosylated IgA1 molecules, and IgG from different individuals, we in vitro prepared IgG-ddIgA1 complexes, and compared the biological differences among these immune complexes regarding their proliferative and inflammatory effects on mesangial cells.Results: IgG-ddIgA1 complexes from both patients with IgA nephropathy (IgAN-IgG-dd-IgA1) and healthy controls (HC-IgG-dd-IgA1) could induce the proliferation of mesangial cells and up-regulate expression of MCP-1, IL-6 and CXCL1. The levels of mesangial cells proliferation induced by IgAN-IgG-dd-IgA1 were significantly higher than those induced by HC-IgG-dd-IgA1 (1.10 ± 0.05 vs. 1.03 ± 0.03; p < 0.001). However, the levels of secreted MCP-1, IL-6 and CXCL1 from mesangial cells challenged by IgAN-IgG-dd-IgA1 and HC-IgG-dd-IgA1 were comparable.Conclusions: We found that glycan-specific IgG antibodies derived from patients with IgAN had the biological effect to induce mesangial cells proliferation. Moreover, in the present study we also established a method for in vitro preparation of pathogenic IgG-ddIgA1 complexes, which could be applied in future studies exploring IgAN pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the method of maintaining the controlled freezing point and the effect of controlled freezing-point vacuum drying ( CFVD) on the quality of M uraenesox cinereus fillets were investigated. The quality assessment was based on color, 5-inosine monophosphate ( IMP), free amino acids ( FAAs) and volatile compounds. Furthermore, comparisons were made among CFVD samples, those dried by hot air drying ( HAD) and vacuum freeze drying ( VFD). The results showed that the fillet temperature can be controlled within the scope of controlled freezing point by setting the vacuum pressure at 10-12 mbar, turning on the cold trap 40 min after CFVD (at −1 ± 1C) and regulating the heating plate temperature during the drying period. The highest increase in IMP (22.17%) and FAA content (34.54%) compared with the fresh fillets as well as the best color were observed in CFVD fillets. As to the carbonyl compounds, the major contributors to the odor and flavor of fresh fillets, the amount and types were the largest in HAD fillets, while the HAD fillets showed the significant browning. Therefore, CFVD is an effective method to control browning and increase the taste of fillets compared with HAD and VFD. Practical Applications Fish is a greatly perishable product because of its high protein content. Drying has been shown to be an efficient method of conservation. Controlled freezing-point vacuum drying ( CFVD) has been developed. In this study, the key technology challenge of CFVD and its effect on color and flavor of fillet, as well as the differences among the hot air drying and vacuum freeze drying, have been studied. The result shows that CFVD enables best quality in appearance and taste, which is quite helpful to establish an optimal drying condition for a more nutritious and high-quality dried products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]