•Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) can have incomplete or inadequate sampling of the epileptogenic zone (EZ).•Distributed source modeling on the SEEG data can mitigate the challenge of the sampling ...error.•The sub-sampled data with at least one contact no more than 20 mm away from the EZ gave the comparable EZ detection.
Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) can define the epileptogenic zone (EZ). However, SEEG is susceptible to the sampling bias, where no SEEG recording is taken within a circumscribed EZ.
Nine patients with medically refractory epilepsy underwent SEEG recording, and brain resection got positive outcomes. Ictal neuronal currents were estimated by distributed source modeling using the SEEG data and individual’s anatomical magnetic resonance imaging. Using a retrospective leave-one-out data sub-sampling, we evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the current estimates using MRI after surgical resection or radio-frequency ablation.
The sensitivity and specificity in detecting the EZ were indistinguishable from either the data from all electrodes or the sub-sampled data (rank sum test: rank sum = 23719, p = 0.13) when at least one remaining electrode contact was no more than 20 mm away.
The distributed neuronal current estimates of ictal SEEG data can mitigate the challenge of delineating the boundary of the EZ in cases of missing an electrode implanted within the EZ and a required second SEEG exploration.
Distributed source modeling can be a tool for clinicians to infer the EZ by allowing for more flexible planning of the electrode implantation route and minimizing the number of electrodes.
Using 7-hydroxy-1-indanone as a prototype (I), which exhibits excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT), chemical modification has been performed at C(2)–C(3) positions by fusing benzene ...(molecule II) and naphthalene rings, (molecule III). I undergoes an ultrafast rate of ESIPT, resulting in a unique tautomer emission (λmax ∼530 nm), whereas excited-state equilibrium is established for both II and III, as supported by the dual emission and the associated relaxation dynamics. The forward ESIPT (normal to proton-transfer tautomer species) rates for II and III are deduced to be (30 ps)−1 and (22 ps)−1, respectively, while the backward ESIPT rates are (11 ps)−1 and (48 ps)−1. The ESIPT equilibrium constants are thus calculated to be 0.37 and 2.2 for II and III, respectively, giving a corresponding free energy change of 0.59 and −0.47 kcal/mol between normal and tautomer species. For III, normal and tautomer emissions in solid are maximized at 435 and 580 nm, respectively, achieving a white light generation with Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) (0.30, 0.27). An organic light-emitting diode based on III is also successfully fabricated with maximum brightness of 665 cd m–2 at 20 V (885 mA cm–2) and the CIE coordinates of (0.26, 0.35). The results provide the proof of concept that the white light generation can be achieved in a single ESIPT system.
Abstract
The current state of the COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis. To fight the novel coronavirus, one of the best-known ways is to block enzymes essential for virus replication. ...Currently, we know that the SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes about 29 proteins such as spike protein, 3C-like protease (3CLpro), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), Papain-like protease (PLpro), and nucleocapsid (N) protein. SARS-CoV-2 uses human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for viral entry and transmembrane serine protease family member II (TMPRSS2) for spike protein priming. Thus in order to speed up the discovery of potential drugs, we develop DockCoV2, a drug database for SARS-CoV-2. DockCoV2 focuses on predicting the binding affinity of FDA-approved and Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) drugs with the seven proteins mentioned above. This database contains a total of 3,109 drugs. DockCoV2 is easy to use and search against, is well cross-linked to external databases, and provides the state-of-the-art prediction results in one site. Users can download their drug-protein docking data of interest and examine additional drug-related information on DockCoV2. Furthermore, DockCoV2 provides experimental information to help users understand which drugs have already been reported to be effective against MERS or SARS-CoV. DockCoV2 is available at https://covirus.cc/drugs/.
This study investigated the potential of a Bacillus licheniformis-fermented feed additive (BLF) as an antibiotic substitute in weaning piglets. Ninety-six crossbred piglets were randomly allotted ...into four treatments with three replicate pens per treatment and eight pigs per pen. Piglets were fed diets as follows: a basal diet as control, a basal diet supplemented with bacitracin (30 mg/kg of bacitracin methylene disalicylate), a basal diet supplemented with BLF (1 g/kg of the Bacillus licheniformis-fermented feed additive), and a basal diet supplemented with bacitracin and BLF (15 mg/kg of bacitracin methylene disalicylate and 0.5 g/kg of the Bacillus licheniformis-fermented feed additive). The results showed that replacing all or half the bacitracin with BLF both reduced the incidence of diarrhea in weaning piglets from day 1 to 14. Principal coordinates analysis and a species abundance heat map showed that distinct clusters were formed between groups. Replacing all the bacitracin with BLF reduced bacterial evenness in the cecal digesta of weaning piglets, while the inhibitory effect on bacterial evenness was reversed in the group treated with bacitracin in combination with BLF. These results indicated that the half replacement of bacitracin with BLF was able to decrease the incidence of diarrhea and modify cecal microbiota composition in weaning piglets, suggesting that a Bacillus licheniformis-fermented feed additive has good potential as a suitable alternative to antibiotics use in the swine industry.
Diabetic foot ulcers remain one of the most difficult-to-treat complications of diabetes and may seriously threaten the life of patients since it frequently results in limb loss due to amputation, ...suggesting that an effective therapeutic strategy is still urgently needed. In this study, a chitosan-based heterogeneous composite hydrogel encapsulating perfluorocarbon emulsions, epidermal growth factor (EGF)-loaded chitosan nanoparticles, and polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) named PEENPPCH was developed for diabetic wound healing. The PEENPPCH could sustainably release EGF and PHMB in an ion-rich environment to exert antibacterial effects and promote cell growth for wound repair. In addition, the PEENPPCH can provide anti-inflammatory effects functioned by its main constituent of chitosan. Moreover, the PEENPPCH can proactively offer oxygen delivery through the incorporation of perfluorocarbon and, therefore, is able to alleviate hypoxia conditions on diabetic wounds. These functionalities enabled a markedly enhanced wound healing efficacy on diabetic rats treated with the PEENPPCHs, including thorough re-epithelization, a reduced inflammatory response, faster collagen deposition, and advanced collagen maturation resulting in a 95% of wound closure degree after 15 days that was 12.6% (p < 0.05) higher than the value of the group treated with the commercial dressing HeraDerm. Given the aforementioned advantages, together with the known merits of hydrogels, the developed PEENPPCH is anticipated to be a feasible tool for clinical diabetic wound treatment.
There is an apparent power deficit relative to the LambdaCDM prediction of the cosmic microwave background spectrum at large scales, which, though not yet statistically significant, persists from ...WMAP to Planck data. Proposals that invoke some form of initial condition for the inflation have been made to address this apparent power suppression, albeit with conflicting conclusions. By studying the curvature perturbations of a scalar field in the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker universe parameterized by the equation of state parameter w, we find that the large-scale spectrum at the end of inflation reflects the superhorizon spectrum of the initial state. The large-scale spectrum is suppressed if the universe begins with the adiabatic vacuum in a superinflation (w < -1 ) or positive-pressure (w > 0) era. In the latter case, there is however no causal mechanism to establish the initial adiabatic vacuum. On the other hand, as long as the universe begins with the adiabatic vacuum in an era with -1 < w < 0, even if there exists an intermediate positive-pressure era, the large-scale spectrum would be enhanced rather than suppressed. We further calculate the spectrum of a two-stage inflation model with a two-field potential and show that the result agrees with that obtained from the ad hoc single-field analysis.
Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA, Morquio A syndrome) is a rare autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the N‐acetylgalactosamine‐6‐sulfatase (GALNS) gene. We ...collected, analyzed, and uniformly summarized all published GALNS gene variants, thus updating the previous mutation review (published in 2014). In addition, new variants were communicated by seven reference laboratories in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and the United States. All data were analyzed to determine common alleles, geographic distribution, level of homozygosity, and genotype‐phenotype correlation. Moreover, variants were classified according to their pathogenicity as suggested by ACMG. Including those previously published, we assembled 446 unique variants, among which 68 were novel, from 1190 subjects (including newborn screening positive subjects). Variants' distribution was missense (65.0%), followed by nonsense (8.1%), splicing (7.2%), small frameshift deletions(del)/insertions(ins) (7.0%), intronic (4.0%), and large del/ins and complex rearrangements (3.8%). Half (50.4%) of the subjects were homozygous, 37.1% were compound heterozygous, and 10.7% had only one variant detected. The novel variants underwent in silico analysis to evaluate their pathogenicity. All variants were submitted to ClinVar (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/clinvar/) to make them publicly available. Mutation updates are essential for the correct molecular diagnoses, genetic counseling, prenatal and preimplantation diagnosis, and disease management.
In this mutation update, we collected, analyzed, classified and uniformly summarized all published GALNS gene variants. In addition, 68 new variants were communicated by seven reference laboratories in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and the United States.
Predictive maintenance is a proactive approach to maintenance in which equipment and machinery are monitored and analyzed to predict when maintenance is needed. Instead of relying on fixed schedules ...or reacting to breakdowns, predictive maintenance uses data and analytics to determine the appropriate time to perform maintenance activities. In industrial applications, machine boxes can be used to collect and transmit the feature information of manufacturing machines. The collected data are essential to identify the status of working machines. This paper investigates the design and implementation of a machine box based on the ROS framework. Several types of communication interfaces are included that can be adopted to different sensor modules for data sensing. The collected data are used for the application on predictive maintenance. The key concepts of predictive maintenance include data collection, a feature analysis, and predictive models. A correlation analysis is crucial in a feature analysis, where the dominant features can be determined. In this work, linear regression, a neural network, and a decision tree are adopted for model learning. Experimental results illustrate the feasibility of the proposed smart machine box. Also, the remaining useful life can be effectively predicted according to the trained models.
This study aimed to perform a preliminary screen of various waters for pollution by emerging contaminants and identifying potential cross-contamination problems in aquaculture systems. Specifically, ...the occurrence and distribution of 110 emerging contaminants (49 antibiotics, 49 other pharmaceuticals, and 12 industrial/household compounds) in 14 aquaculture sites (fish, shrimp, and shellfish ponds) and three surrounding aquatic environments in Taiwan were investigated. All the detected compounds were at nanogram per liter to sub-microgram per liter levels. Six pharmaceuticals that occurred at high concentrations and frequencies were ibuprofen (788 ng/L), lincomycin (624 ng/L), flumequine (331 ng/L), caffeine (276 ng/L), ifosfamide (220 ng/L), and cephalexin (172 ng/L). Other commonly detected emerging contaminants (with detection frequencies > 70%) were sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin-H
2
O, atenolol, methadone, benzotriazole, tolyltriazole, perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA). This work demonstrated the impact of aquaculture activities (i.e., usage of antibiotics) on the surrounding aquatic environments and, at the same time, how the surrounding anthropogenic activities impact aquaculture waters. Cross-contamination was observed between these two aquatic systems; emerging contaminants resulting from human activities, such as perfluorinated chemicals, anticorrosive substances, and anticancer and abused drugs, from the surrounding waters were found to be introduced into the aquaculture systems.
Rutin, also called quercetin-3-rhamnosyl glucoside, is a natural flavonol glycoside present in many plants. Rutin is used to treat various diseases, such as inflammation, diabetes, and cancer. For ...polymeric biomaterials, triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) is the most commonly used monomer and serves as a restorative resin, a dentin bonding agent and sealant, and a bone cement component. Overall, TEGDMA induces various toxic effects in macrophages, including cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and genotoxicity. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective mechanism of rutin in alleviating TEGDMA-induced toxicity in RAW264.7 macrophages. After treatment with rutin, we assessed the cell viability and apoptosis of TEGDMA-induced RAW264.7 macrophages using an methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay and Annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide assay, respectively. Subsequently, we assessed the level of genotoxicity using comet and micronucleus assays, assessed the cysteinyla aspartate specific proteinases (caspases) and antioxidant enzyme (AOE) activity using commercial kits, and evaluated the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) using a dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) assay. We evaluated the expression of heme oxygenase (HO)-1, the expression of nuclear factor erythroid 2 related factor (Nrf-2), and phosphorylation of AMP activated protein kinase (AMPK) using the Western blot assay. The results indicated that rutin substantially reduced the level of cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and genotoxicity of TEGDMA-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. Rutin also blocked the activity of caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 in TEGDMA-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. In addition, it decreased TEGDMA-induced ROS generation and AOE deactivation in macrophages. Finally, we found that TEGDMA-inhibited slightly the HO-1 expression, Nrf-2 expression, and AMPK phosphorylation would be revered by rutin. In addition, the HO-1 expression, Nrf-2 expression, and AMPK phosphorylation was enhanced by rutin. These findings indicate that rutin suppresses TEGDMA-induced caspase-mediated toxic effects through ROS generation and antioxidative system deactivation through the Nrf-2/AMPK pathway. Therefore, rutin has the potential to serve as a novel antitoxicity agent for TEGDMA in RAW264.7 macrophages.
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