This paper proposed a triangular inequality-based rewiring method for the rapidly exploring random tree (RRT)-Connect robot path-planning algorithm that guarantees the planning time compared to the ...RRT algorithm, to bring it closer to the optimum. To check the proposed algorithm's performance, this paper compared the RRT and RRT-Connect algorithms in various environments through simulation. From these experimental results, the proposed algorithm shows both quicker planning time and shorter path length than the RRT algorithm and shorter path length than the RRT-Connect algorithm with a similar number of samples and planning time.
Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a common autoimmune disease, and its prevalence is rapidly increasing. Both genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to the development of HT. Recently, viral ...infection has been suggested to act as a trigger of HT by eliciting the host immune response and subsequent autoreactivity. We analyzed the features of HT through bioinformatics analysis so as to identify the markers of HT development. We accessed public microarray data of HT patients from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and obtained differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under HT. Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG-pathway-enrichment analyses were performed for functional clustering of our protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Utilizing ranked gene lists, we performed a Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) by using the clusterprofiler R package. By comparing the expression signatures of the huge perturbation database with the queried rank-ordered gene list, a connectivity map (CMap) analysis was performed to screen potential therapeutic targets and agents. The gene expression profile of the HT group was in line with the general characteristics of HT. Biological processes related to the immune response and viral infection pathways were obtained for the upregulated DEGs. The GSEA results revealed activation of autoimmune-disease-related pathways and several viral-infection pathways. Autoimmune-disease and viral-infection pathways were highly interconnected by common genes, while the HLA genes, which are shared by both, were significantly upregulated. The CMap analysis suggested that perturbagens, including SRRM1, NLK, and CCDC92, have the potential to reverse the HT expression profile. Several lines of evidence suggested that viral infection and the host immune response are activated during HT. Viral infection is suspected to act as a key trigger of HT by causing autoimmunity. SRRM1, an alternative splicing factor which responds to viral activity, might serve as potential marker of HT.
Herbal combinations are regarded as basic strategy in oriental medicine with various purposes. Ephedrae herba (EH) and Coicis semen (CS) are two herbal medicines used to treat obesity in many herbal ...prescriptions, yet the effect and significance of this herbal pair have not been evaluated.
This study is to elucidate the effect of a novel herbal pair, EH-CS, on obesity and identify the key synergistic mechanism underlying it.
We investigated the network of herbs comprising the anti-obesity herbal prescriptions. Using the tools of network pharmacology, we investigated the compound-target interactions of EH and CS in combination to predict their effects in combination. Five EH-CS samples with different EH to CS ratios were prepared to investigate their efficacies in adipocytes.
1-mode network analysis of herbs in prescriptions based on literature review revealed the importance of EH-CS in anti-obesity prescriptions. The herbal combination comprised of equivalent weights (1:1) of EH and CS most potently reduced mature adipocyte adiposity, although several markers of adipogenesis and lipid synthesis were more suppressed by pure EH. PTGS2 (COX-2 gene) expression, a common target of EH and CS as deduced by compound-target network analysis, was affected by EH-CS extract treatments. However, EH at high concentration (25 μg/ml) notably increased PTGS2 expression without adversely affecting cell viability. However, EH-CS combination of the same concentration markedly decreased PTGS2 gene expression.
These results show that the compounds in CS and EH act in concert to enhance the pharmacological effect of EH, but control unexpected effects of EH treatment.
Resembling a concealed "organ" in a holobiont, trillions of gut microbes play complex roles in the maintenance of homeostasis, including participating in drug metabolism. The conventional opinion is ...that most of any drug is metabolized by the host and that individual differences are principally due to host genetic factors. However, current evidence indicates that only about 60% of the individual differences in drug metabolism are attributable to host genetics. Although most common chemical drugs regulate the gut microbiota, the gut microbiota is also known to be involved in drug metabolism, like the host. Interestingly, many traditional herbal medicines and derived compounds are biotransformed by gut microbiota, manipulating the compounds' effects. Accordingly, the gut microbiota and its specified metabolic pathways can be deemed a promising target for promoting drug efficacy and safety. However, the evidence regarding causality and the corresponding mechanisms concerning gut microbiota and drug metabolism remains insufficient, especially regarding drugs used to treat metabolic disorders. Therefore, the present review aims to comprehensively summarize the bidirectional roles of gut microbiota in the effects of herbal medicine in metabolic diseases to provide vital clues for guiding the clinical application of precision medicine and personalized drug development.
In this letter, we consider the device-to-device (D2D) communication in cellular networks, where both the cellular user (CU) and the D2D receiver (DR) decode information and harvest the energy. ...Unlike the conventional D2D communications, we figure out that it is possible for the D2D pair to communicate without degrading the performance of the CU. Based on this observation, two schemes changing time duration of the D2D transmission are investigated for the D2D rate maximization subject to maintaining the CU performance. By analytically comparing the performance of the two schemes, we obtain useful insights into the D2D transmission in simultaneous wireless information and power transfer cellular networks. Furthermore, utilizing this analysis, a closed-form scheme is proposed for fading channels.
Bimetallic core–satellite nanoparticles are widely exploited in surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)‐based applications due to their enhanced optical properties compared to single‐component ...metallic nanoparticles (MNPs). In addition, anisotropic hybrid nanostructures containing both MNPs and polymeric compartments constitute a new class of functional nanomaterials for photonic applications because they show different functionalities and physicochemical characteristics at two distinct compartments. Herein, synthesis of two kinds of anisotropic bimetallic core–satellite–poly(aniline) nanohybrids (ABCPNs) using small or polymeric ligand‐coated gold nanospheres or gold nanorods as seeds is reported. The ABCPNs exhibit enhanced optical properties due to a local electromagnetic field generated in the narrow interparticle gap between core and satellite nanoparticles. Furthermore, a SERS‐based quantitative analysis of autoantibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptide using the ABCPNs as SERS nanoprobes for a diagnosis of early rheumatoid arthritis is demonstrated, suggesting that these multifunctional nanostructures will be potential for advanced SERS‐based biosensors.
Two kinds of anisotropic bimetallic core–satellite–poly(aniline) nanohybrids are developed as surface‐enhanced Raman scattering nanoprobes to detect autoantibodies of cyclic citrullinated peptide via magnetic field‐based separation using magnetic bead.
Thyroid hormones are essential for the regulation of energy homeostasis and metabolic processes. However, the relationship between thyroid function and host gut microbial communities is not properly ...understood. To determine whether and how gut microbiota is associated with thyroid function, metagenomics analysis of the bacterial population in fecal samples of rat models of hyperthyroidism (induced by levothyroxine) and hypothyroidism (induced by propylthiouracil or thyroidectomy) was conducted through 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Our results revealed that all thyroid dysfunction models were definitely established and gut microbial composition varied according to different thyroid functional status. The relative abundance of Ruminococcus was significantly higher in the hyperthyroidism group (HE) vs both the normal and hypothyroidism groups (HO) while S24‐7 was significantly higher in the HO group. The population of Prevotellaceae and Prevotella were significantly lower in the HO group vs the normal. Firmicutes and Oscillospira were significantly higher in the SHO (surgery‐induced hypothyroidism) group, while Prevotellaceae and Prevotella showed lower abundance in the SHO group than the SHAM group. Present results suggest that thyroid functions may have the potential to influence the profile of gut microbiota and could be used as foundation to investigate interaction mechanism between thyroid and gut microbiome.
Long Range (LoRa), a low power and wide-area modulation scheme based on chirp spread spectrum, is the most popular and widely adopted Internet of Things (IoT) technique in industry. A notable and ...interesting property of LoRa modulation is the quasi-orthogonality of signals modulated under different spreading factors (SFs). Unfortunately, in the literature, there has been no analytical effort to establish the theoretical validity of such quasi-orthogonality. This article, for the first time, theoretically tackles the quasi-orthogonality of the LoRa modulation. First, we derive in both continuous- and discrete-time domains the cross-correlation between two nonsynchronized LoRa signals with different SFs, based on which we analyze the quasi-orthogonality of the LoRa modulation and draw some useful engineering insights. Particularly, we analytically show that in the continuous-time domain, the quasi-orthogonality is guaranteed if one of the SFs of the two LoRa signals is large enough; while, in the discrete-time domain, the quasi-orthogonality is ensured if the maximum of the SFs is large enough. Furthermore, for practical values of the SF, the maximum squared magnitudes of the cross-correlation in the continuous- and discrete-time domains are shown to be 1.14% and 1.08%, respectively, compared to their peak values. We demonstrate the validity and accuracy of our analysis through extensive numerical simulations.
In this paper, we consider a new design problem of optimizing a linear transceiver for correlated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) interference channels in the presence of channel state ...information (CSI) errors, which is a more realistic and practical scenario than those considered in the previous studies on uncorrelated MIMO interference channels. By taking CSI errors into account, the optimization problem is initially formulated to minimize the average mean square error (MSE) under the general power constraints. Since the objective function is not jointly convex in precoders and receive filters, we split the original problem into two convex subproblems, and then linear precoders and receive filters are obtained by solving two subproblems iteratively. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is guaranteed to converge to a local minimum. The numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly reduce the sensitivity to CSI errors compared with the existing robust schemes in the correlated MIMO interference channel.
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