In recent years, several countries have increasingly promoted digital health to improve medical care quality and precision medicine. Concerns such as how to employ and manage medical data, including ...physiological signals and medical images, have emerged as one of the core issues in eHealth. The National Health Insurance of Taiwan has gradually generated cross-hospital medical image databases since the year 2018, including lung cancer, brain tumor, breast tumor, liver tumor, and coronary arterial diseases. Digitized medical image data can be stored in cloud databases or be transmitted via computer networks or wireless transmissions. However, patient confidentiality and transmission infosecurity are serious concerns in public channels or spaces, which raises the question of how to prevent data from being stolen, tampered, or peeked after receipt by unauthorized people. Hence, infosecurity has become an important issue in the digital era. This study proposes hash transformation with multi-secret keys and an optimization-based controller to engage a novel cryptographic method to encrypt and decrypt digital medical images in a health information system. Both the gradient descent (GD) and the particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based controllers are implemented to search the decryption key parameters. For a case study in breast elastography and X-ray images consisting of 150 benign tumors and 150 malignant tumors, the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is used to evaluate the similarity of two images between the original images and the decrypted images. Conclusively, the PSO-based controller performed better than the GD-based controller and traditional cryptographic methods in terms of recovery reliability.
Few previous studies have established Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) cut-off values using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and applied these values to compare predictors of ...anhedonia between clinical and nonclinical groups.
To determine the optimal cut-off values for the SHAPS and use them to identify predictors of anhedonia in clinical and nonclinical groups in Taiwan.
This cross-sectional and correlational study used convenience sampling to recruit 160 patients from three hospitals and 412 students from two universities in northern Taiwan. Data analysis included receiver operating characteristic curve, univariate and multivariate analyses.
The optimal SHAPS cut-off values were 29.5 and 23.5 for the clinical and nonclinical groups, respectively. Moreover, two-stage analysis revealed that participants in the clinical group who perceived themselves as nondepressed, and participants in the nonclinical group who did not skip classes and whose fathers exhibited higher levels of care and protection were less likely to attain the cut-off values. Conversely, participants in the nonclinical group who reported lower academic satisfaction and were unwilling to seek help from family or friends were more likely to attain the cut-off values.
Our findings highlight the importance of optimal cut-off values in screening for depression risk within clinical and nonclinical groups. Accordingly, the development of comprehensive, individualised programmes to monitor variation trends in SHAPS scores and relevant predictors of anhedonia across different target populations is crucial.
In this paper, we present a copper(I)-catalyzed nitrile-addition/
-arylation ring-closure cascade for the synthesis of 5,11-dihydro-6
-indolo3,2-
quinolin-6-ones from 2-(2-bromophenyl)-
...-(2-cyanophenyl)acetamides. Using CuBr and
-BuONa in dimethylformamide (DMF) as the optimal reaction conditions, the cascade reaction gave the target products, in high yields, with a good substrate scope. Application of the cascade reaction was demonstrated on the concise total syntheses of alkaloid isocryptolepine. Further optimization of the products from the cascade reaction led to 3-chloro-5,12-bis2-(dimethylamino)ethyl-5,12-dihydro-6
-1,3dioxolo4',5':5,6indolo3,2-
quinolin-6-one (
), which exhibited the characteristic DNA topoisomerase-I inhibitory mechanism of action with potent in vitro anticancer activity. Compound
actively inhibited ARC-111- and SN-38-resistant HCT-116 cells and showed in vivo activity in mice bearing human HCT-116 and SJCRH30 xenografts. The interaction of
with the Top-DNA cleavable complex was revealed by docking simulations to guide the future optimization of 5,11-dihydro-6
-indolo3,2-
quinolin-6-ones as topoisomerase-I inhibitors.
New classes of antibiotics with different mechanisms of action are urgently required for combating antimicrobial resistance. Blestriacin, a dihydro-biphenanthrene with significant antibacterial ...activity, was recently isolated from the fibrous roots of
. Here, we report the further characterization of the antimicrobial potential and mode of action of blestriacin. The phenanthrene compound inhibited the growth of all tested clinical isolates of
including methicillin-resistant
(MRSA). The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of blestriacin against these pathogens ranged from 2 to 8 μg/mL. Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) tests were conducted, and the results demonstrated that blestriacin was bactericidal against
. This effect was confirmed by the time-kill assays. At bactericidal concentrations, blestriacin caused loss of membrane potential in
and
and disrupted the bacterial membrane integrity of the two strains. The spontaneous mutation frequency of
to blestriacin was determined to be lower than 10
. The selection and whole genome sequencing of the blestriacin -resistant mutants of
indicated that the development of blestriacin resistance in
involves mutations in multi-genes. All these observations can be rationalized by the suggestion that membrane is a biological target of blestriacin.
Two organic–inorganic hybrid zinc phosphites incorporating 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(imidazol-1-ylmethyl)benzene (TIMB) molecules were synthesized under hydro(solvo)thermal methods and structurally ...characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXD). Interestingly, the solvent ratio of water to dimethylformamide induced the formation of a new compound of Zn2(TIMB)0.5(HPO3)2·3H2O (1) and our previously reported structure of Zn2(TIMB)0.5(HPO3)2·H2O (2). Additionally, their dehydrated crystals (1a and 2a) were prepared through heat treatment at 150 °C. SCXD and powder X-ray diffraction showed that all four compounds share the same framework formula of Zn2(TIMB)0.5(HPO3)2 but exhibit a huge difference in their inorganic components and final structures. In 1 and 1a, the inorganic units formed two-dimensional zincophosphite layers, while in 2 and 2a, they formed one-dimensional chains. The inorganic parts of 1 (1a) and 2 (2a) were bridged with TIMB linkers, resulting in 3D structures with rectangular and tubular windows, respectively. Furthermore, 1 was coated on the screen-printed carbon electron as a hybrid material, displaying excellent performance while having a linear relationship with an R 2 value of 0.99 within the concentration range of 10–10 to 10–6 mol/L for detecting tryptamine (Try) molecules. Moreover, the results showed that 1 exhibits an ultralow limit of detection of 5.43 × 10–11 mol/L and high specificity toward Try over histamine, ascorbic acid, uric acid, and glucose. The synthesis, structural diversity, stability, and sensing ability are also discussed.
In this paper, we propose an autonomous navigation system architecture for indoor mobile robots that combines the advantages of end-to-end (E2E) autonomous driving and traditional navigation ...algorithms. The architecture aims to overcome the challenges of traditional navigation algorithms relying heavily on high-precision localization and E2E struggling to make good decisions when unable to detect target objects. A neural network is trained using deep reinforcement learning in a simulated environment, and the approach of behavior cloning is introduced to stabilize the training process. With this approach, the trained neural network can make action decisions based solely on 2D LiDAR data and images captured by cameras, eliminating the reliance on high-precision localization systems and overcoming the challenges of traditional navigation algorithms. In real-world environments, the YOLO-v7-tiny model is used for object detection in indoor settings. When the target object is far away, A* and DWA algorithms are employed for path planning to ensure safe and efficient navigation. These algorithms can find the globally optimal path and perform local obstacle avoidance, thus achieving autonomous navigation in indoor environments.
This study aimed to assess the use of the high-hydrostatic-pressure (HHP) method (200-600 MPa, 5 min) for bleaching mustard pickle products as an alternative to the conventional method of sulfite ...addition. The aerobic plate count (APC) and lactic acid bacteria count (LAB) of the samples decreased with the increase in pressure, and the yeast count decreased to no detectable levels. Next, compared with the control group (no high-pressure treatment) the
* (lightness),
(whiteness), Δ
(color difference), and texture (hardness and chewiness) of the HHP-processed samples, which increased significantly with increasing pressure, while the
(redness) and
(yellowness) values decreased slightly. This indicates that HHP processing gave the mustard pickle a harder texture and a brighter white color and appearance. Furthermore, when the mustard pickle was treated with HHP 400 and 600 MPa for 5 min and stored at 25 °C for 60 days, it was found that the APC and LAB counts in the HHP-processed group recovered rapidly and did not differ from those in the control group (the non-HHP treated group) but significantly delayed the growth of yeast, the increase in pH value, and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN). The high-throughput sequencing (HTS) analysis revealed that the predominant bacterial genera in the non-HHP-treated mustard pickle were
(74%),
(12%), and
(6%); after 60 days of storage,
(80%) became dominant. However, after 60 days of storage,
(92%) became dominant in the samples processed at 400 MPa, while
(52%),
(17%), and
(17%) became dominant in the samples processed at 600 MPa. This indicated that the HHP treatment changed the lactic acid bacterial flora of the mustard pickle during the storage period. Overall, it is recommended to treat the mustard pickle with HHP above 400 MPa for 5 min to improve its texture and color and delay the deterioration of quality during storage. Therefore, HHP technology has the potential to be developed as a treatment technique to replace the addition of sulfite.
Imaging examinations, such as chest X-ray (CXR) images, can be used for early detection of diseases inside the human body, such as lung cancer, and cardiopulmonary-related diseases; however, they may ...contain patients' private information, which raises concerns about the security levels of medical images in internet of medical things (IoMT) systems. The promising authorization protocol algorithm in 5th-generation networking technology can protect medical image confidentiality, recoverability, and availability. Hence, we propose a symmetric cryptography protocol based on the Riemann-Lebesgue (R-L) -based key generator and a machine learning (ML)-based cryptography scheme for CXR image infosecurity. The R-L-based key generator uses the composite function", g(x)sin((1/2+N)x)", to dynamically produce the oscillation function by controlling the terms of the nonlinear function", g(x)", and frequency", N", which are used to produce the randomnumber seed and to select non-ordered numbers and nonrepeated 256 secret keys in the key space. The ML-based scheme uses these random secret keys to train an image encryptor and decryptor, respectively. Based on the diffusion method, the ML-based cryptography scheme is used to change image pixel values. For evaluation experiments, CXR images are collected from the National Institutes of Health Chest X-ray database and used to evaluate image quality after encryption and decryption processes. For different cardiopulmonary-related disease images, the number of pixel change rates (NPCR) and unified averaged changed intensity (UACI) are used to evaluate the security level and decryption quality. The experimental results show an average NPCR of 99.6% and average UACI of 32.61% between plain and cipher images for evaluating the security level, enabling further online diagnosis applications in IoMT systems.
Abstract
Vital signs such as heart rate (HR) and respiration rate (RR) are essential physiological parameters that are routinely used to monitor human health and bodily functions. They can be ...continuously monitored through contact or contactless measurements performed in the home or a hospital. In this study, a contactless Doppler radar W‐band sensing system was used for short‐range, contactless vital sign estimation. Frequency‐modulated continuous wave (FMCW) measurements were performed to reduce the influence of a patient's micromotion. Sensing software was developed that can process the received chirps to filter and extract heartbeat and breathing rhythm signals. The proposed contactless sensing system eliminates the need for the contact electrodes, electric patches, photoelectric sensors, and conductive wires used in typical physiological sensing methods. The system operates at 76–81 GHz in FMCW mode and can detect objects on the basis of changes in frequency and phase. The obtained signals are used to precisely monitor a patient's HR and RR with minimal noise interference. In a laboratory setting, the heartbeats and breathing rhythm signals of healthy young participants were measured, and their HR and RR were estimated through frequency‐ and time‐domain analyses. The experimental results confirmed the feasibility of the proposed W‐band mm‐wave radar for contactless and short‐range continuous detection of human vital signs.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a powerful technique with the capabilities of conformal deposition and precise thickness control of thin films up to atomic level. In this study, the advantages of ...ALD are exploited to fabricate plasmonic nanostructures with high chemical resistance and sensitivity. An ultrathin, highly conformal Al2O3 shell layer was deposited by ALD upon Ag nanoparticles for the preparation of Ag/Al2O3 core-shell plasmonic nanostructures. The Al2O3 shell effectively serves as an anti-corrosion protective layer for Ag nanoparticles against the detrimental environment because of its conformal step coverage, pinhole-free structure, and chemical inertness. The shape of the Ag nanoparticles turns into spherical-like particles after the ALD process. An enhancement factor as large as ∼106 of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) from Ag/Al2O3 core-shell plasmonic nanostructures is achieved, indicating that the plasmonic sensitivity of Ag nanoparticles is not significantly degraded by the ultrathin Al2O3 shell layer. The result demonstrates that the conformal protective layer prepared by ALD facilitates the practical use of plasmonic chips in a variety of applications.
•An ultrathin and conformal Al2O3 shell layer was deposited by ALD on Ag nanostructures.•Significant SERS enhancement of 106 is achieved by the Ag/Al2O3 core-shell nanostructures.•The SERS enhancement is not significantly degraded by the ultra-thin Al2O3 shell layer.•The Al2O3 layer provides effective chemical resistance to detrimental surroundings.
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