Adhesion strategies that rely on mechanical interlocking or molecular attractions between surfaces can suffer when coming into contact with liquids. Thus far, artificial wet and dry adhesives have ...included hierarchical mushroom-shaped or porous structures that allow suction or capillarity, supramolecular structures comprising nanoparticles, and chemistry-based attractants that use various protein polyelectrolytes. However, it is challenging to develop adhesives that are simple to make and also perform well-and repeatedly-under both wet and dry conditions, while avoiding non-chemical contamination on the adhered surfaces. Here we present an artificial, biologically inspired, reversible wet/dry adhesion system that is based on the dome-like protuberances found in the suction cups of octopi. To mimic the architecture of these protuberances, we use a simple, solution-based, air-trap technique that involves fabricating a patterned structure as a polymeric master, and using it to produce a reversed architecture, without any sophisticated chemical syntheses or surface modifications. The micrometre-scale domes in our artificial adhesive enhance the suction stress. This octopus-inspired system exhibits strong, reversible, highly repeatable adhesion to silicon wafers, glass, and rough skin surfaces under various conditions (dry, moist, under water and under oil). To demonstrate a potential application, we also used our adhesive to transport a large silicon wafer in air and under water without any resulting surface contamination.
We aimed to develop a novel prediction model for early neurological deterioration (END) based on an interpretable machine learning (ML) algorithm for atrial fibrillation (AF)-related stroke and to ...evaluate the prediction accuracy and feature importance of ML models. Data from multicenter prospective stroke registries in South Korea were collected. After stepwise data preprocessing, we utilized logistic regression, support vector machine, extreme gradient boosting, light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), and multilayer perceptron models. We used the Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) method to evaluate feature importance. Of the 3,213 stroke patients, the 2,363 who had arrived at the hospital within 24 h of symptom onset and had available information regarding END were included. Of these, 318 (13.5%) had END. The LightGBM model showed the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.772; 95% confidence interval, 0.715-0.829). The feature importance analysis revealed that fasting glucose level and the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale score were the most influential factors. Among ML algorithms, the LightGBM model was particularly useful for predicting END, as it revealed new and diverse predictors. Additionally, the effects of the features on the predictive power of the model were individualized using the SHAP method.
In this study, we propose a new spectral clustering framework that can auto-tune the parameters of the clustering algorithm in the context of speaker diarization. The proposed framework uses ...normalized maximum eigengap (NME) values to estimate the number of clusters and the parameters for the threshold of the elements of each row in an affinity matrix during spectral clustering, without the use of parameter tuning on the development set. Even through this hands-off approach, we achieve a comparable or better performance across various evaluation sets than the results found using traditional clustering methods that apply careful parameter tuning and development data. A relative improvement of 17% in the speaker error rate on the well-known CALLHOME evaluation set shows the effectiveness of our proposed spectral clustering with auto-tuning.
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•Microplastics are ubiquitous in the waters and fish of the Han River.•Tributaries play an important role as sources of microplastic into the mainstream.•Abundance of microplastics in ...Han River was influenced by depth.•Most microplastics in the Han River and its tributaries were fragments.•Microplastics in fish was influenced by habitats rather than feeding habit.
Microplastic pollution has been paid attention due to the possibly global threat to human health and ecosystem in recent years. In this study, we investigated the distribution of microplastics in the Han River and its tributaries, South Korea, and in six species of inhabiting fish, namely carp (C. carpio), crucian carp (C. cuvieri), bluegill (L. macrochirus), bass (M. salmoides), catfish (S. asotus), and snakehead (C. argus). We found that the concentration of microplastics in the surface waters (0 m) was 0–42.9 particles/m3 (mean: 7.0 ± 12.9 particles/m3) compared to 20.0–180.0 particles/m3 (mean: 102.0 ± 50.3 particles/m3) at a depth of 2 m. Concentrations in the river tributaries ranged from 1.2 to 234.5 particles/m3 (mean: 91.1 ± 72.3 particles/m3). The most common types the plastic identified were polyethylene (PE), silicone, and polystyrene, while polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethylene, and polyester dominated in the tributaries. With respect to shape, >73% of the recovered microplastics were fragments and the rest were fibers in the water. We also measured the concentration of microplastics in the intestines of fish, which ranged from 4 to 48 particles/fish (mean: 22.0 ± 16.0 particles/fish). The most common types of plastic found in the sampled fish were polytetrafluoroethylene (PFTE), polyethylene (PE), and rayon, and >94% of all the microplastic found in fish was in the form of fragments with the remainder being fibers. The concentrations of microplastic in the gills of fish ranged from 1 to 16 particles/fish (mean: 8.3 ± 6.0 particles/fish). In contrast, no microplastic was found in the flesh of the sampled fish. Our results imply that the ingestion of microplastics by fish is more closely related to habitat rather than feeding habits.
This study enhances infrared communication security in nuclear power plants' secondary systems, addressing the risk of mechanical and cyber failures. A novel random address generator, employing an ...innovative S-box, was developed to secure IoT sensor data transmissions to gateway nodes, mitigating eavesdropping, interference, and replay attacks. We introduced a structured IR communication protocol, generating unique, encrypted addresses to prevent unauthorized access. Key-dependent S-boxes, based on a compound chaotic map system, significantly improved encryption, increasing data transmission randomness and uniqueness. Entropy analysis and reduced duplicated addresses confirmed the effectiveness of our method, with the Hash-CCM algorithm showing the highest entropy and fewest duplicates. Integrating advanced cryptographic techniques into IR systems significantly enhances nuclear power plants' security, contributing to the protection of critical infrastructure from cyber threats and ensuring operational integrity.
Infection is associated with occurrence and worsening of heart failure (HF). However, studies on the association of susceptibility and severe complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) with ...HF history are limited. From the Korean nationwide COVID‐19 data set, 212,678 participants with at least one severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) test were included between January 1 and June 4, 2020. To investigate the association of HF with susceptibility and severe complications of COVID‐19, 1:4 ratio propensity score matching (PSM) and logistic regression analysis were performed. The primary outcome was a composite outcome of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and death. After PSM, COVID‐19 PCR positivity did not show a significant difference according to HF history in multivariable analysis (odds ratio OR: 0.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.79–1.04), p = 0.146). Of 7630 individuals with confirmed COVID‐19 infection, 310 (4.1%) had HF history. The overall primary outcome occurred in 426 (5.6%) individuals, including 159 (2.1%) cases of mechanical ventilation, 254 (3.3%) cases of ICU admission, and 215 (2.8%) cases of death. In multivariate logistic analysis, presence of HF history was associated independently with primary outcome (OR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.42–2.79, p < 0.001), particularly mortality (OR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.36–3.00, p < 0.001). Our study demonstrated that HF history is associated poor prognosis, particularly mortality, in COVID‐19. Patients with HF can have severe complication if infected with COVID‐19; therefore, careful management are necessary.
Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is a transcription factor that plays a crucial role in various biological processes, including immune response, inflammation, cell growth and survival, and development. ...NF-κB is critical for human health, and aberrant NF-κB activation contributes to development of various autoimmune, inflammatory and malignant disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel diseases, multiple sclerosis and malignant tumors. Thus, inhibiting NF-κB signaling has potential therapeutic applications in cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Poor oral hygiene can provoke transient bacteremia and systemic inflammation, a mediator of atrial fibrillation and heart failure. This study aims to investigate association of oral hygiene ...indicators with atrial fibrillation and heart failure risk in Korea.
We included 161,286 subjects from the National Health Insurance System-Health Screening Cohort who had no missing data for demographics, past history, or laboratory findings. They had no history of atrial fibrillation, heart failure, or cardiac valvular diseases. For oral hygiene indicators, presence of periodontal disease, number of tooth brushings, any reasons of dental visit, professional dental cleaning, and number of missing teeth were investigated.
During median follow-up of 10.5 years, 4911 (3.0%) cases of atrial fibrillation and 7971 (4.9%) cases of heart failure occurred. In multivariate analysis after adjusting age, sex, socioeconomic status, regular exercise, alcohol consumption, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, current smoking, renal disease, history of cancer, systolic blood pressure, blood and urine laboratory findings, frequent tooth brushing (≥3 times/day) was significantly associated with attenuated risk of atrial fibrillation (hazard ratio: 0.90, 95% confidence interval (0.83-0.98)) and heart failure (0.88, (0.82-0.94)). Professional dental cleaning was negatively (0.93, (0.88-0.99)), while number of missing teeth ≥22 was positively (1.32, (1.11-1.56)) associated with risk of heart failure.
Improved oral hygiene care was associated with decreased risk of atrial fibrillation and heart failure. Healthier oral hygiene by frequent tooth brushing and professional dental cleaning may reduce risk of atrial fibrillation and heart failure.
We report complete sequences of chloroplast (cp) genome and 45S nuclear ribosomal DNA (45S nrDNA) for 11 Panax ginseng cultivars. We have obtained complete sequences of cp and 45S nrDNA, the ...representative barcoding target sequences for cytoplasm and nuclear genome, respectively, based on low coverage NGS sequence of each cultivar. The cp genomes sizes ranged from 156,241 to 156,425 bp and the major size variation was derived from differences in copy number of tandem repeats in the ycf1 gene and in the intergenic regions of rps16-trnUUG and rpl32-trnUAG. The complete 45S nrDNA unit sequences were 11,091 bp, representing a consensus single transcriptional unit with an intergenic spacer region. Comparative analysis of these sequences as well as those previously reported for three Chinese accessions identified very rare but unique polymorphism in the cp genome within P. ginseng cultivars. There were 12 intra-species polymorphisms (six SNPs and six InDels) among 14 cultivars. We also identified five SNPs from 45S nrDNA of 11 Korean ginseng cultivars. From the 17 unique informative polymorphic sites, we developed six reliable markers for analysis of ginseng diversity and cultivar authentication.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Infection is associated with the occurrence, recurrence, and progression of atrial fibrillation (AF), and is also closely related to poor prognosis. However, studies of the relationship between ...infectivity and severe complications of coronavirus infectious disease‐19 (COVID‐19) with a history of AF are limited. To estimate infectivity and severity of complications in COVID‐19 patients with a history of AF, this study was done. From the Korean nationwide COVID‐19 dataset, 212 678 participants with at least one severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (COVID‐19) test were included between January 1 and June 4, 2020. AF was defined according to at least two outpatient hospital visits or one admission with an ICD‐10 code of “I48” before the COVID‐19 test. To investigate the association of AF with infectivity and severe complications of COVID‐19, 1:4 ratio propensity score matching (PSM) was performed. Severe complications of COVID‐19 were defined as a composite outcome of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit admission, and death within 2 months after COVID‐19 diagnosis. Among 212 678 participants who underwent the COVID‐19 test, there were 7713 COVID‐19 positive patients. After PSM, COVID‐19 PCR positivity did not show a significant difference according to the presence of AF (odds ratio OR: 0.79, 95% confidence interval CI: 0.60–1.04). Of 7713 COVID‐19 patients, 62 (0.8%) had a history of AF and severe complications occurred in 444 (5.7%) patients. After PSM, AF was associated with the development of severe complications (OR: 2.04, 95% CI: 1.10–3.79) and mortality (OR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.01–4.31) of COVID‐19. We found that AF was associated with an increased risk of severe complications in COVID‐19 infected patients.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
It has been known that the presence of comorbidities is associated with worse outcomes in COVID‐19 infection.
Based on the Korean nationwide COVID‐19 dataset, 212 678 participants underwent the COVID‐19 real‐time reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction test (January 1–June 4, 2020), we evaluated the infectivity and severe complications of COVID‐19 according to the presence of atrial fibrillation.
COVID‐19 positivity rate did not differ according to the presence of atrial fibrillation.
Among patients infected with COVID‐19, the presence of atrial fibrillation was significantly associated with increased risk for severe complications and mortality within 2 months after COVID‐19 diagnosis.
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