World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 2019) as pandemic on March 11, 2020. Ever since then, the virus is undergoing different mutations, with a high rate of ...dissemination. The diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19 are critical in bringing the situation under control. COVID-19 virus replicates in the lungs after entering the upper respiratory system, causing pneumonia and mortality. Deep learning has a significant role in detecting infections from the Computed Tomography (CT). With the help of basic image processing techniques and deep learning, we have developed a two stage cascaded 3D UNet to segment the contaminated area from the lungs. The first 3D UNet extracts the lung parenchyma from the CT volume input after preprocessing and augmentation. Since the CT volume is small, we apply appropriate post-processing to the lung parenchyma and input these volumes into the second 3D UNet. The second 3D UNet extracts the infected 3D volumes. With this method, clinicians can input the complete CT volume of the patient and analyze the contaminated area without having to label the lung parenchyma for each new patient. For lung parenchyma segmentation, the proposed method obtained a sensitivity of 93.47%, specificity of 98.64%, an accuracy of 98.07%, and a dice score of 92.46%. We have achieved a sensitivity of 83.33%, a specificity of 99.84%, an accuracy of 99.20%, and a dice score of 82% for lung infection segmentation.
Skin cancer is the most prevalent genre of all cancers. Melanoma, being the deadliest of all skin cancers, calls for the requirement of an automated Artificial Intelligence-based skin diagnosis ...system to assist physicians with early diagnosis. We propose a fusion of conventional therapeutic approaches and deep learning frameworks to identify skin lesions. The work explores the scope of employing image data, handcrafted lesion features, and patient-centric metadata together to diagnose skin cancers effectively. We combined the image features transfer-learned from EfficientNets, colour and texture information extracted from the images, and patients’ preprocessed metadata to produce the final hybrid model. They were fed to a multi-input single-output (MISO) model to fine-tune an artificial neural network classifier. Multiple MISO models were trained with their backbones substituted with EfficientNets B4 through B7. The predicted labels from these, along with a separate set of models trained with only image data and metadata were ensembled using majority soft voting. We experimented with weighing the models based on their contribution to ensemble accuracy and ensemble sensitivity. Each model was trained and evaluated using the well-known ISIC2018 and ISIC2019 datasets. The extreme imbalance in the datasets necessitates the use of appropriate evaluation metrics. ISIC2018 tested 90.49% sensitive and 97.76% specific, whereas the larger and more divergent dataset ISIC2019 rated 85.58% sensitive and 98.29% specific. The network is by far the finest compared to most other research in the field.
The tumour suppressor p53 is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer, with more than half of all human tumours carrying mutations in this particular gene. Intense efforts to develop drugs ...that could activate or restore the p53 pathway have now reached clinical trials. The first clinical results with inhibitors of MDM2, a negative regulator of p53, have shown efficacy but hint at on-target toxicities. Here, we describe the current state of the development of p53 pathway modulators and new pathway targets that have emerged. The challenge of targeting protein-protein interactions and a fragile mutant transcription factor has stimulated many exciting new approaches to drug discovery.
We report a flexible battery-type electrode based on binder-free nickel cobalt layered double hydroxide nanosheets adhered to nickel cobalt layered double hydroxide nanoflake arrays on nickel fabric ...(NC LDH NFAs@NSs/Ni fabric) using facile and eco-friendly synthesis methods. Herein, we utilized discarded polyester fabric as a cost-effective substrate for in situ electroless deposition of Ni, which exhibited good flexibility, light weight, and high conductivity. Subsequently, the vertically aligned NC LDH NFAs were grown on Ni fabric by means of a hot-air oven-based method, and fluffy-like NC LDH NS branches are further decorated on NC LDH NFAs by a simple electrochemical deposition method. The as-prepared core–shell-like nanoarchitectures improve the specific surface area and electrochemical activity, which provides the ideal pathways for electrolyte diffusion and charge transportation. When the electrochemical performance was tested in 1 M KOH aqueous solution, the core–shell-like NC LDH NFAs@NSs/Ni fabric electrode liberated a maximum areal capacity of 536.96 μAh/cm2 at a current density of 2 mA/cm2 and excellent rate capability of 78.3% at 30 mA/cm2 (420.5 μAh/cm2) with a good cycling stability. Moreover, a fabric-based hybrid supercapacitor (SC) was assembled, which achieves a stable operational potential window of 1.6 V, a large areal capacitance of 1147.23 mF/cm2 at 3 mA/cm2, and a high energy density of 0.392 mWh/cm2 at a power density of 2.353 mW/cm2. Utilizing such high energy storage abilities and flexible properties, the fabricated hybrid SC operated the wearable digital watch and electric motor fan for real-time applications.
Lactic acid (2-Hydroxypropanoic acid) is generated from pyruvic acid under anaerobic condition in skeletal muscles, brain, red blood cells, and kidney. Lactate in normal human subjects get cleared ...very quickly at a rate of 320mmol/L/hr, mostly by liver metabolism and re-conversion of lactate back to pyruvate. Measurement of lactate level in serum is required for the differential diagnosis and medical management of hyperlactatemia, cardiac arrest and resuscitation, sepsis, reduced renal excretion, hypoxia induced cancer, decreased extra hepatic metabolism, intestinal infarction and lactic acidosis. Determination of lactate is also important in dairy products and beverages to access their quality. Among the various methods available for detection of lactate, most are complicated, nonspecific, less sensitive and require time-consuming sample pretreatment, expensive instrumental set-up and trained persons to operate, specifically for chromatographic methods. Biosensing methods overcome these drawbacks, as these are simple, fast, specific and highly sensitive. Lactate biosensors reported so far, work optimally within 3–180s, between pH, 5.5–8.5 and temperature 22°C to 37°C and lactate concentration ranging from 10 to 2000µM. These biosensors have been employed to measure lactate level in embryonic cell culture, beverages, urine, and serum samples and reused upto 200-times within a period of 7–216 days. This review presents the principles, merits and demerits of various analytical methods for lactate determination with special emphasis on lactate biosensors. The future perspective for improvement of analytic performance of lactate biosensors are discussed.
•Determination of lactic acid in biological material is required in medical diagnosis and food & beverages.•Chemical, enzymatic, chromatographic, Surface plasma resonance methods for lactate determination have certain demerits.•Biosensing methods for lactate determination are simple, rapid, specific and sensitive.•Classification, principles and analytic characteristics of various lactate biosensors are discussed and compared.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most common psychiatric disorders of childhood, and there is great interest in understanding its neurobiological basis. A prominent ...neurodevelopmental hypothesis proposes that ADHD involves a lag in brain maturation. Previous work has found support for this hypothesis, but examinations have been limited to structural features of the brain (e. g., gray matter volume or cortical thickness). More recently, a growing body of work demonstrates that the brain is functionally organized into a number of large-scale networks, and the connections within and between these networks exhibit characteristic patterns of maturation. In this study, we investigated whether individuals with ADHD (age 7.2-21.8 y) exhibit a lag in maturation of the brain's developing functional architecture. Using connectomic methods applied to a large, multisite dataset of resting state scans, we quantified the effect of maturation and the effect of ADHD at more than 400,000 connections throughout the cortex. We found significant and specific maturational lag in connections within default mode network (DMN) and in DMN interconnections with two task positive networks (TPNs): frontoparietal network and ventral attention network. In particular, lag was observed within the midline core of the DMN, as well as in DMN connections with right lateralized prefrontal regions (in frontoparietal network) and anterior insula (in ventral attention network). Current models of the pathophysiology of attention dysfunction in ADHD emphasize altered DMN-TPN interactions. Our finding of maturational lag specifically in connections within and between these networks suggests a developmental etiology for the deficits proposed in these models.
Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) have attracted particular interest in the development of various electronic and energy storage devices due to their one-dimensional structure, good conductivity, fast charge ...transportation and direct contact to the current collector. Herein, we have successfully deposited the binder-free nickel-cobalt layered double hydroxide nanosheets on Ag NWs-fenced carbon cloth (NC LDH NSs@Ag@CC) by a facile electrochemical deposition method with a chronoamperometry voltage of −1.0V for 120s. The electrically conductive and superhydrophilic nature of the hybrid nanocomposite electrode led to relatively high areal capacitance (1133.3 mF cm−2 at 1mAcm−2) and good cycling stability (80.47% after 2000 cycles) compared to the electrode prepared without Ag NWs. Using such hierarchical NC LDH NSs@Ag@CC as a positive electrode, we further fabricated a flexible asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) with activated carbon coated CC as a negative electrode. The as-assembled ASC exhibited maximum operational potential window of 1.6V, high areal capacitance of 230.2 mF cm−2 and excellent cycling stability of 88.1% with remarkable energy densities at all the charge-discharge conditions (78.8 μWh cm−2 at the power density of 785 μW cm−2 and 40 μWh cm−2 at the high power density of 12.1mWcm−2, respectively)
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•Conductive Ag NWs are uniformly decorated on carbon cloth fibers (Ag@CC).•The highly conductive features and hydrophilicity of Ag@CC induce the dense growth of NC LDH NSs.•Ag NWs provide the effective pathways for electron transportation during the redox process of NC LDH NSs.•The areal capacitance of the electrode with Ag NWs is 2.3 times higher than the electrode without Ag NWs.•The assembled asymmetric supercapacitor delivers high energy and power densities.
Flavonoids: an overview Panche, A. N.; Diwan, A. D.; Chandra, S. R.
Journal of nutritional science (Cambridge),
2016, Letnik:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Flavonoids, a group of natural substances with variable phenolic structures, are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, bark, roots, stems, flowers, tea and wine. These natural products are well known ...for their beneficial effects on health and efforts are being made to isolate the ingredients so called flavonoids. Flavonoids are now considered as an indispensable component in a variety of nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, medicinal and cosmetic applications. This is attributed to their anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties coupled with their capacity to modulate key cellular enzyme function. Research on flavonoids received an added impulse with the discovery of the low cardiovascular mortality rate and also prevention of CHD. Information on the working mechanisms of flavonoids is still not understood properly. However, it has widely been known for centuries that derivatives of plant origin possess a broad spectrum of biological activity. Current trends of research and development activities on flavonoids relate to isolation, identification, characterisation and functions of flavonoids and finally their applications on health benefits. Molecular docking and knowledge of bioinformatics are also being used to predict potential applications and manufacturing by industry. In the present review, attempts have been made to discuss the current trends of research and development on flavonoids, working mechanisms of flavonoids, flavonoid functions and applications, prediction of flavonoids as potential drugs in preventing chronic diseases and future research directions.
Genetic and pathological studies link α-synuclein to the etiology of Parkinson's disease (PD), but the normal function of this presynaptic protein remains unknown. α-Synuclein, an acidic lipid ...binding protein, shares high sequence identity with β- and γ-synuclein. Previous studies have implicated synucleins in synaptic vesicle (SV) trafficking, although the precise site of synuclein action continues to be unclear. Here we show, using optical imaging, electron microscopy, and slice electrophysiology, that synucleins are required for the fast kinetics of SV endocytosis. Slowed endocytosis observed in synuclein null cultures can be rescued by individually expressing mouse α-, β-, or γ-synuclein, indicating they are functionally redundant. Through comparisons to dynamin knock-out synapses and biochemical experiments, we suggest that synucleins act at early steps of SV endocytosis. Our results categorize α-synuclein with other familial PD genes known to regulate SV endocytosis, implicating this pathway in PD.
► A new strategy for minimizing microalgal harvesting costs was developed. ► Lower harvesting efficiencies with higher flow rates were more cost effective. ► Centrifugation can potentially be a ...primary harvesting technique. ► Energy consumption and costs for various algal densities and lipids are provided.
Inefficient or energy-intensive microalgal harvesting strategies for biodiesel production have been a major setback in the microalgae industry. Harvesting by centrifugation is generally characterized by high capture efficiency (>90%) under low flow rates and high energy consumption. However, results from the present study demonstrated that by increasing the flow rates (>1L/min), the lower capture efficiencies (<90%) can be offset by the larger volumes of culture water processed through the centrifuge, resulting in net lower energy consumption. Energy consumption was reduced by 82% when only 28.5% of the incoming algal biomass was harvested at a rate of 18L/min by centrifugation. Harvesting algal species with a high lipid content and high culture density could see harvesting costs of $0.864/L oil using the low efficiency/high flow rate centrifugation strategy as opposed to $4.52/L oil using numbers provided by the Department of Energy for centrifugation harvesting.
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