New types of green practices called "non-optional" are trending in hotels replacing single-use mini toiletries in bathrooms and eliminating the use of plastic straws and plastic water bottles. This ...study examines how hotel guests' green practice skepticism affects their purchase intentions, revisit intentions, and word-of-mouth intentions toward five non-optional green practices. The results found that green practice skepticism of non-optional green practices did not have a negative impact on guests' behavioral intentions. Additionally, when bed linens and bath towels were changed every other day as a non-optional green practice, all of the behavioral intentions decreased significantly. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Lung cancer has a high mortality rate, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer. Patients have been observed to acquire resistance against various anticancer ...agents used for NSCLC due to L858R (or Exon del19)/T790M/C797S-EGFR mutations. Therefore, next-generation drugs are being developed to overcome this problem of acquired resistance. The goal of this study was to use artificial intelligence (AI) to discover drug candidates that can overcome acquired resistance and reduce the limitations of the current drug discovery process, such as high costs and long durations of drug design and production. To generate ligands using AI, we collected data related to tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) from accessible libraries and used LSTM (Long short term memory) based transfer learning (TL) model. Through the simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES) datasets of the generated ligands, we obtained drug-like ligands via parameter-filtering, cyclic skeleton (CSK) analysis, and virtual screening utilizing deep-learning method. Based on the results of this study, we are developing prospective EGFR TKIs for NSCLC that have overcome the limitations of existing third-generation drugs.
The demand for semiconductors and the necessity of developing the next-generation semiconductor have skyrocketed with recent technological advancements, such as next-generation mobile networks, cloud ...computing, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence. Accordingly, a new type of semiconductor cleaning technique that can minimize environmental impact and physical harm to the exceedingly thin structures in semiconductor chips must be developed. This work proposes a cleaning strategy for particle contamination on semiconductor wafer surfaces by utilizing jet flow created by bubble oscillation constrained in arrays of microcylinders. The variation in the maximum jet flow velocity caused by single bubble oscillation constrained in a microcylinder, which is affected by physical factors, such as applied voltage, frequency, and microcylinder dimensions, has been investigated. A wafer cleaning apparatus that comprised 9×9 arrays of microcylinders was designed based on experimental data on single bubble oscillation constrained in a microcylinder. The maximum jet flow velocity for the multi-arrays of microcylinders can be attained up to 148.5 mm/s, which is nearly five times the maximum value obtained from a single cylinder, even with a lower voltage applied than with a single microcylinder. The wafer cleaning apparatus removes particulates with different wettabilities and sizes from contaminated semiconductor wafers successfully with a high cleaning efficiency of up to 92.5%. The current effort makes an important contribution to the development of semiconductor cleaning techniques that can meet the requirements of current and next-generation semiconductor manufacturing in terms of yield, stability, and environmental pollution.
This paper presents a miniature robot designed for monitoring its surroundings and exploring small and complex environments by skating on the surface of water. The robot is mainly made of extruded ...polystyrene insulation (XPS) and Teflon tubes and is propelled by acoustic bubble-induced microstreaming flows generated by gaseous bubbles trapped in the Teflon tubes. The robot's linear motion, velocity, and rotational motion are tested and measured at different frequencies and voltages. The results show that the propulsion velocity is proportional to the applied voltage but highly depends on the applied frequency. The maximum velocity occurs between the resonant frequencies for two bubbles trapped in Teflon tubes of different lengths. The robot's maneuvering capability is demonstrated by selective bubble excitation based on the concept of different resonant frequencies for bubbles of different volumes. The proposed water skating robot can perform linear propulsion, rotation, and 2D navigation on the water surface, making it suitable for exploring small and complex water environments.
This paper presents a practical contamination detection system for camera lenses using image analysis with deep learning. The proposed system can detect contamination in camera digital images through ...contamination learning utilizing deep learning, and it aims to prevent performance degradation of intelligent vision systems due to lens contamination in cameras. This system is based on the object detection algorithm YOLO (v5n, v5s, v5m, v5l, and v5x), which is trained with 4000 images captured under different lighting and background conditions. The trained models showed that the average precision improves as the algorithm size increases, especially for YOLOv5x, which showed excellent efficiency in detecting droplet contamination within 23 ms. They also achieved an average precision (mAP@0.5) of 87.46%, recall (mAP@0.5:0.95) of 51.90%, precision of 90.28%, recall of 81.47%, and F1 score of 85.64%. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated the identification and removal of contamination on camera lenses by integrating a contamination detection system and a transparent heater-based cleaning system. The proposed system is anticipated to be applied to autonomous driving systems, public safety surveillance cameras, environmental monitoring drones, etc., to increase operational safety and reliability.
This paper proposes an acoustic bubble and magnetic actuation-based microrobot for enhancing multiphase drug delivery efficiency. The proposed device can encapsulate multiphase drugs, including ...liquids, using the two bubbles embedded within the microtube. Additionally, using the magnetic actuation of the loaded magnetic liquid metal, it can deliver drugs to target cells. This study visualized the flow patterns generated by the oscillating bubble within the tube to validate the drug release principle. In addition, to investigate the effect of the oscillation properties of the inner bubble on drug release, the oscillation amplitude of the inner bubble was measured under various experimental variables using a high-speed camera. Subsequently, we designed a microrobot capable of encapsulating bubbles, drugs, and magnetic liquid metal and fabricated it using microfabrication technology based on ultra-precision 3D printing. As a proof of concept, we demonstrated the transport and drug release of the microrobot encapsulating the drug in a Y-shaped channel simulating a blood vessel. The proposed device is anticipated to enhance the efficiency of drug therapy by minimizing drug side effects, reducing drug administration frequency, and improving the stability of the drug within the body. This paper is expected to be applicable not only to targeted drug delivery but also to various biomedical fields, such as minimally invasive surgery and cell manipulation, by effectively delivering multiphase drugs using the simple structure of a microrobot.
The 2-week schedule of hypofractionated radiotherapy as a salvage treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has previously exhibited promising results; this study aimed to assess its long-term ...clinical outcomes in patients with recurrent HCC ineligible for curative treatments.
We retrospectively enrolled 77 patients (84 lesions) with HCC who were treated with hypofractionated radiotherapy between December 2008 and July 2013. Primary inclusion criteria were HCC unsuitable for curative treatments and HCC located within 2 cm of a critical normal organ. We administered 3.5-5 Gy/fraction for 2 weeks, resulting in a total dose of 35-50 Gy.
The median follow-up period was 33.6 (range, 4.8-78.3) months. The 3- and 5-year overall survival rates were 52.3% and 40.9%, respectively, and local control rates were 79.5% and 72.6% in all treated lesions, respectively. The 5-year local control rate was better in the higher radiation dose group than in the lower radiation dose group (50 Gy: 79.7% vs. < 50 Gy: 66.1%); however, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.493). We observed grade ≥ 3 hepatic toxicity in 2 (2.6%) patients and grade 3 gastrointestinal bleeding in 1 (1.3%) patient. However, grade ≥ 4 toxicity was not observed after hypofractionated radiotherapy.
The 2-week schedule of hypofractionated radiotherapy for recurrent HCC exhibited good local control and acceptable treatment-related toxicity during the long-term follow-up period. Thus, this fractionation schedule can be a potential salvage treatment option for recurrent HCC, particularly for tumors located close to a radiosensitive gastrointestinal organ.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, different types of vaccines, such as inactive, live-attenuated, messenger RNA (mRNA), and protein subunit, have been developed against SARS-CoV-2. This has ...unintentionally created a unique scenario where heterologous prime-boost vaccination against a single virus has been administered to a large human population. Here, we aimed to analyze whether the immunization order of vaccine types influences the efficacy of heterologous prime-boost vaccination, especially mRNA and protein-based vaccines. We developed a new mRNA vaccine encoding the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein of the influenza virus using the 3'-UTR and 5'-UTR of muscle cells (mRNA-HA) and tested its efficacy by heterologous immunization with an HA protein vaccine (protein-HA). The results demonstrated higher IgG2a levels and hemagglutination inhibition titers in the mRNA-HA priming/protein-HA boosting (R-P) regimen than those induced by reverse immunization (protein-HA priming/mRNA-HA boosting, P-R). After the viral challenge, the R-P group showed lower virus loads and less inflammation in the lungs than the P-R group did. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the heterologous prime-boost groups had differentially activated immune response pathways, according to the order of immunization. In summary, our results demonstrate that the sequence of vaccination is critical to direct desired immune responses. This study demonstrates the potential of a heterologous vaccination strategy using mRNA and protein vaccine platforms against viral infection.
Display omitted
•This paper presents acoustic bubble-based drug manipulation (carrying, releasing, penetrating) for microrobotic targeted drug delivery.•The electromagnetic actuation for driving the ...microrobot is investigated.•The drug manipulation (carrying, releasing, and penetrating) using the acoustic bubble actuation is investigated, respectively.•The proposed targeted drug delivery technology is demonstrated using a fabricated microrobot and electromagnetic system in a C-shaped channel.•The proposed technology can transport liquid forms of drugs in an aqueous medium and remotely manipulate drugs without complex mechanical parts.
This paper presents a new type of microrobotic drug delivery technology where an electromagnetically actuated untethered microrobot swimming inside human blood vessels performs targeted drug delivery operations: carrying, releasing, and penetrating drugs to target tissues using acoustic excitation of bubbles. The novel microrobot is capable of not only transporting liquid forms of drugs in an aqueous medium but also wirelessly manipulating drugs without using complex mechanical parts. For the electromagnetic actuation of a microrobot, an electromagnetic system consisting of a pair of Helmholtz and Maxwell electric coils is fabricated. Using the developed electromagnetic system, the actuation of the microrobot made of a cylindrical neodymium magnet is successfully demonstrated in a T-shaped channel. For the drug manipulation, selective acoustic excitation of bubbles is investigated. The drug release actuation is studied using a microtube which is a drug container consisting of two bubbles with different volumes. Then, the effect of acoustic bubble-induced microstreaming on the drug penetration to tissues is investigated for three different conditions: pure diffusion, penetration with an acoustic wave, and microstreaming using an agarose gel. As a proof of concept, the proposed sequential drug manipulation (carrying, releasing, and penetrating) is experimentally demonstrated using the prototype of a microrobot enabling propulsion in a low Reynolds number environment using an electromagnetic system and drug manipulation using acoustic bubbles in a C-shaped channel filled with liquid. The proposed microrobot can be applied to various biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery, cell manipulation, and microsurgery.
PDF
