The mechanical properties of cells influence their cellular and subcellular functions, including cell adhesion, migration, polarization, and differentiation, as well as organelle organization and ...trafficking inside the cytoplasm. Yet reported values of cell stiffness and viscosity vary substantially, which suggests differences in how the results of different methods are obtained or analyzed by different groups. To address this issue and illustrate the complementarity of certain approaches, here we present, analyze, and critically compare measurements obtained by means of some of the most widely used methods for cell mechanics: atomic force microscopy, magnetic twisting cytometry, particle-tracking microrheology, parallel-plate rheometry, cell monolayer rheology, and optical stretching. These measurements highlight how elastic and viscous moduli of MCF-7 breast cancer cells can vary 1,000-fold and 100-fold, respectively. We discuss the sources of these variations, including the level of applied mechanical stress, the rate of deformation, the geometry of the probe, the location probed in the cell, and the extracellular microenvironment.
This retrospective cohort study is to investigate the association between herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections and dementia, and the effects of anti-herpetic medications on the risk involved, using ...Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). We enrolled a total of 33,448 subjects, and identified 8362 with newly diagnosed HSV infections and 25,086 randomly selected sex- and age-matched controls without HSV infections in a ratio of 1:3, selected from January 1, to December 31, 2000. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate the risk of developing dementia in the HSV cohort. This analysis revealed an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.564 (95% CI: 2.351-2.795,
P
< 0.001) for the development of dementia in the HSV-infected cohort relative to the non-HSV cohort. Thus, patients with HSV infections may have a 2.56-fold increased risk of developing dementia. A risk reduction of dementia development in patients affected by HSV infections was found upon treatment with anti-herpetic medications (adjusted HR = 0.092 95% CI 0.079-0.108,
P
< 0.001). The usage of anti-herpetic medications in the treatment of HSV infections was associated with a decreased risk of dementia. These findings could be a signal to clinicians caring for patients with HSV infections. Further research is, therefore, necessary to explore the underlying mechanism(s) of these associations.
This paper develops a novel short-term load forecasting model that hybridizes several machine learning methods, such as support vector regression (SVR), grey catastrophe (GC (1,1)), and random forest ...(RF) modeling. The modeling process is based on the minimization of both SVR and risk. GC is used to process and extract catastrophe points in the long term to reduce randomness. RF is used to optimize forecasting performance by exploiting its superior optimization capability. The proposed SVR-GC-RF model has higher forecasting accuracy (MAPE values are 6.35% and 6.21%, respectively) using electric loads from Australian-Energy-Market-Operator; it can provide analytical support to forecast electricity consumption accurately.
•This paper hybridizes grey catastrophe and random forest with support vector regression for short-term load forecasting.•The proposed model overcomes the drawbacks, including singleness, randomness, low accuracy, and overfitting.•Experimental results reveal that the proposed model has greater forecasting accuracy than three alternative models.
Graphene quantum dots (GQD) with an average size of 3.1 nm were incorporated into a mesoporous porphyrinic zirconium-based metal–organic framework (MOF) by direct impregnation to render the ...donor–acceptor charge transfer from GQDs to porphyrinic linkers. The hybrid material still possesses around half porosity of the pristine MOF and shows a 100-fold higher electrical conductivity compared to that of the parent MOF. By utilizing the porphyrinic linkers as catalytically active units, the GQD–MOF material exhibits a better electrochemical sensing activity toward nitrite in aqueous solutions compared to both the pristine MOF and GQD.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a prominent cancer worldwide, particularly in Taiwan. By integrating omics analyses in 50 matched samples, we uncover in Taiwanese patients a predominant mutation ...signature associated with cytidine deaminase APOBEC, which correlates with the upregulation of APOBEC3A expression in the APOBEC3 gene cluster at 22q13. APOBEC3A expression is significantly higher in tumors carrying APOBEC3B-deletion allele(s). High-level APOBEC3A expression is associated with better overall survival, especially among patients carrying APOBEC3B-deletion alleles, as examined in a second cohort (n = 188; p = 0.004). The frequency of APOBEC3B-deletion alleles is ~50% in 143 genotyped oral squamous cell carcinoma -Taiwan samples (27A3B
:89A3B
:27A3B
), compared to the 5.8% found in 314 OSCC-TCGA samples. We thus report a frequent APOBEC mutational profile, which relates to a APOBEC3B-deletion germline polymorphism in Taiwanese oral squamous cell carcinoma that impacts expression of APOBEC3A, and is shown to be of clinical prognostic relevance. Our finding might be recapitulated by genomic studies in other cancer types.Oral squamous cell carcinoma is a prevalent malignancy in Taiwan. Here, the authors show that OSCC in Taiwanese show a frequent deletion polymorphism in the cytidine deaminases gene cluster APOBEC3 resulting in increased expression of A3A, which is shown to be of clinical prognostic relevance.
Greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili) is an important fishery resource with a circumglobal distribution from tropical to temperate waters. Here, we investigated the spawning migration and habitat ...utilization of S. dumerili in the East China Sea (ECS). Archival tags were attached to 22 adult fish to examine their horizontal and vertical movements and estimate the spawning ground. S. dumerili were captured and released in the coastal waters of eastern Taiwan on November of 2016 and 2017. Information from seven pop‐up satellite archival tags and seven depth–temperature recorders was recovered. Almost all of the fish stayed in the Taiwanese exclusive economic zone. Most individuals moved from released site to the southern edge of the ECS and showed behavior associated with the topographic features in winter (November to December). These phenomena may be related to foraging and be driven by oceanographic features such as the seasonal monsoon and the Kuroshio. The fish then migrated to the south offshore area of Taiwan in January and February. During their southward migration, the fish experienced a slowly elevated water temperature regime (SETR), which is one of the environmental factors that induce final oocyte maturation. In the spawning season (February to April), tagged females exhibited continuous diel vertical movements (DVMs) after experiencing the SETR. These continuous DVMs were observed over a wide geographic range from north to south in the Kuroshio off eastern Taiwan. Our study demonstrated that the putative spawning ground of S. dumerili must extend further in a north–south direction than predicted in a previous study.
Accumulating evidence indicates that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are abundant in the human transcriptome. However, their involvement in biological processes, including pluripotency, remains mostly ...undescribed. We identified a subset of circRNAs that are enriched in undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and demonstrated that two, circBIRC6 and circCORO1C, are functionally associated with the pluripotent state. Mechanistically, we found that circBIRC6 is enriched in the AGO2 complex and directly interacts with microRNAs, miR-34a, and miR-145, which are known to modulate target genes that maintain pluripotency. Correspondingly, circBIRC6 attenuates the downregulation of these target genes and suppresses hESC differentiation. We further identified hESC-enriched splicing factors (SFs) and demonstrated that circBIRC6 biogenesis in hESCs is promoted by the SF ESRP1, whose expression is controlled by the core pluripotency-associated factors, OCT4 and NANOG. Collectively, our data suggest that circRNA serves as a microRNA "sponge" to regulate the molecular circuitry, which modulates human pluripotency and differentiation.
Epidemiological control and public health monitoring during the outbreaks of infectious viral diseases rely on the ability to detect viral pathogens. Here we demonstrate a rapid, sensitive, and ...selective nanotechnology-enhanced severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection based on the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) responses from the plasma-engineered, variant-specific antibody-functionalized silver microplasma-engineered nanoassemblies (AgMEN) interacting with the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and nucleocapsid (N) proteins. The three-dimensional (3D) porous AgMEN with plasmonic-active nanostructures provide a high sensitivity to virus detection via the remarkable SERS signal collection. Moreover, the variant-specific antibody-functionalization on the SERS-active AgMEN enabled the high selectivity of the SARS-CoV-2 S variants, including wild-type, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron, under the simulated human saliva conditions. The exceptional ultrahigh sensitivity of our SERS biosensor was demonstrated via SARS-CoV-2 S and N proteins at the detection limit of 1 fg mL−1 and 0.1 pg mL−1, respectively. Our work demonstrates a versatile SERS-based detection platform can be applied for the ultrasensitive detection of virus variants, infectious diseases, and cancer biomarkers.
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•Plasma-engineered SERS sensors can detectSARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike antigens in artificial saliva.•Antibody-functionalized SERS sensors can detectSARS-CoV-2 wild-type, Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants.•The developed SERS sensors can be used asa precise quantitative diagnostic tool.
Nanofiltration (NF) is one of the key technologies for wastewater recycling and clean water production. However, current nanofiller-based NF membranes have been hampered by the inefficient separation ...due to the low water transportation and self-fouling of the membranes. Here we report a unique self-diagnosis bioresource-derived nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs)-based thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane with controlled optical properties and tuned porous nanostructures for ultrahigh water transportation and purification. Our detailed experimental and calculation studies suggest that the NGQDs with nanoscale sizes and abundant surface functional groups can induce the formation of desired porous structures during the membrane fabrication, leading an ultrahigh water permeability of 289 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 (LMHB) and remarkable 99.96% separation efficiency of various organic dyes. Moreover, the stable photoluminescence (PL) emission of NGQD membranes enables the PL-based monitoring of dye-fouling during the water purification. Our work provides a green manufacturing of nanomaterials-based membranes with defined structures and an understating of molecular transport in nanoscale.
•Photoluminescent chitosan-derived NGQD-based membrane with tunable porous nanostructures are fabricated by simple and scalable microplasma engineering.•The plasma-engineered NGQD-based membranes show exceptional water permeability of 289 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 and superior separation performance of methylene blue up to 99.96%.•The plasma-engineered NGQD-based membranes process the unique properties of photoluminescent-based monitoring of dye fouling during the clean water production.
•A facile plasma engineering is developed to fabricate NGQD Pebax-based membranes.•NGQD membranes show high CO2 permeability and exceptional CO2/N2 selectivity.•NGQD membranes enable sensitive ...monitoring of CO2 concentrations from 0 to 500 ppm.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture, separation and utilization with membrane-based technologies are important for the development of carbon neutral society. However, conventional membranes are facing the difficulties of energy-consuming fabrication, expensive and toxic chemicals, and low efficient performance. Here, we report the CO2-Philic, optical-active nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dot (NGQD)-embedded polyether-block-amide (Pebax)-based membranes for highly efficient CO2 separation and sensitive on-line CO2 detection. The NGQDs with abundant surface functionalities are synthesized from bioresource chitosan using a customized microplasma process. The plasma-engineered NGQDs with defined zero-dimensional (0D) geometry, surface functional groups and nitrogen dopants can enhance the CO2-philicity for CO2 capture and separation. Moreover, the NGQDs can not only generate the angstrom (Å)-level channels, but also tune the morphologies, pore structures, crystallinities of the nanophases, and functional groups of the Pebax-based membranes, leading to extremely high CO2 separation performance with a 415 Barrer CO2 permeability and a 125 CO2/N2 selectivity. Furthermore, the stable solid-state PL emission of the fabricated GQD@Pebax membranes enables the sensitive on-line monitoring of CO2 concentrations during the CO2 separation. Our work provides an understanding of the CO2 capture and transport with nanomaterials-based composites and a plasma engineering of advanced functional materials for clean energy, environmental and biomedical applications.
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