Urine source separation, as an innovative concept for the reuse of microlevel nutrients in human urine, has drawn increasing attention recently. Consequently, removing coexisting pharmaceuticals in ...urine is necessary for further reuse. This study is the first to apply the solar-driven persulfate process (Solar/PS) to the investigation of cephradine (CFD) and caffeine (CAF) degradation in synthetic human urine. The results showed that significantly more degradation of CFD and CAF occurs with the Solar/PS process than with persulfate oxidation and direct sunlight photolysis, respectively. The generated reactive species ·OH, SO4·–, O2·– and 1O2 were identified in the Solar/PS process. While SO4·– played a dominant role at pH 6, it played a minor role at pH 9 due to the lower amount generated under alkaline conditions. The presence of chloride and ammonia negatively impacted the photodegradation of both compounds. In contrast, bicarbonate exhibited no effect on CAF but enhanced CFD degradation owing to its amino-acid-like structure, which has a higher reactivity toward CO3·–. Although total organic carbon (TOC) was partially mineralized after 6 h of operation, no Microtox® toxicity was observed.
Display omitted
•CAF and CFD were effectively removed in synthetic urine via the Solar/PS process.•SO4·– contributed dominantly at pH 6, while·OH played a major role at pH 9.•Cl- and NH3 in synthetic urine had a negative impact on CAF and CFD degradation.•HCO3- in synthetic urine exhibited no effect on CAF but enhanced CFD degradation.•No Microtox® toxicity was observed in synthetic urine after the operation.
Cell surface properties of microorganisms provide abundant information for their physiological status and fate choice. However, current methods for analyzing cell surface properties require labeling ...or fixation, which can alter the cell activity. This study establishes a label-free, rapid, noninvasive, and quantitative analysis of cell surface properties, including the presence and the dimension of epistructure, down to the single-cell level and at the nanometer scale. Simultaneously, electrorotation provides dielectric properties of intracellular contents. With the combined information, the growth phase of microalgae cells can be identified. The measurement is based on electrorotation of single cells, and an electrorotation model accounting for the surface properties is developed to properly interpret experimental data. The epistructure length measured by electrorotation is validated by scanning electron microscopy. The measurement accuracy is satisfactory in particular in the case of microscale epistructures in the exponential phase and nanoscale epistructures in the stationary phase. However, the measurement accuracy for nanoscale epistructures on cells in the exponential phase is offset by the effect of a thick double layer. Lastly, a diversity in epistructure length distinguishes exponential phase from stationary phase.
Summary
Objective
This study aimed to explore the effects of theory of mind (ToM) and related potential risk factors, including cognitive functions, psychiatric status, and seizure‐related clinical ...variables, on social functioning in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
Methods
Sixty‐seven patients with intractable TLE who were potential candidates for epilepsy surgery and 30 matched controls were included. All participants completed four tasks measuring different levels of ToM (False Belief, Faux Pas Recognition, Implication Stories, and Visual Cartoon), the Symptom Checklist‐90‐Revised (SCL‐90‐R), the Social and Occupational Functioning Scale for Epilepsy (SOFSE), and neuropsychological tests.
Results
The patients exhibited impairments in both basic and advanced ToM. Multiple regression analyses revealed the following: (1) the SOFSE total score was significantly predicted by the Faux Pas Recognition (FPR), Global Severity Index (GSI) score of the SCL‐90‐R, and Full‐Scale intelligence quotient (IQ) of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), which accounted for 38%, 11%, and 8% of the variance, respectively; and (2) the FPR was a significant predictor of all SOFSE subscales, whereas the GSI score contributed substantially to the Interpersonal Relationships, Communication, and Occupation subscales of the SOFSE.
Significance
Advanced ToM, measured by impaired faux pas recognition, is a relatively strong predictor of poor social functioning in surgical candidates for intractable TLE. Identifying ToM impairment may help plan nonpharmacologic treatment for improving social functions in patients with intractable TLE.
Anti-cancer activity of catechin nanoemulsions prepared from Oolong tea leaf waste was studied on prostate cancer cells DU-145 and DU-145-induced tumors in mice. Catechin nanoemulsions composed of ...lecithin, Tween-80 and water in an appropriate proportion was prepared with high stability, particle size of 11.3 nm, zeta potential of -67.2 mV and encapsulation efficiency of 83.4%. Catechin nanoemulsions were more effective than extracts in inhibiting DU-145 cell growth, with the IC
being 13.52 and 214.6 μg/mL, respectively, after 48 h incubation. Furthermore, both catechin nanoemulsions and extracts could raise caspase-8, caspase-9 and caspase-3 activities for DU-145 cell apoptosis, arresting the cell cycle at S and G2/M phases. Compared to control, catechin nanoemulsion at 20 μg/mL and paclitaxel at 10 μg/mL were the most effective in reducing tumor volume by 41.3% and 52.5% and tumor weight by 77.5% and 90.6% in mice, respectively, through a decrease in EGF and VEGF levels in serum.
Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are lysosomal storage diseases in which mutations of genes encoding for lysosomal enzymes cause defects in the degradation of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). The accumulation ...of GAGs in lysosomes results in cellular dysfunction and clinical abnormalities. The early initiation of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) can slow or prevent the development of severe clinical manifestations. MPS I and II newborn screening has been available in Taiwan since August 2015. Infants who failed the recheck at recall were referred to MacKay Memorial Hospital for a detailed confirmatory diagnosis.
From August 2015 to November 2017, 294,196 and 153,032 infants were screened using tandem mass spectrometry for MPS I and MPS II, respectively. Of these infants, 84 suspected cases (eight for MPS I; 76 for MPS II) were referred for confirmation. Urinary first-line biochemistry examinations were performed first, including urinary GAG quantification, two-dimensional electrophoresis, and tandem mass spectrometry assay for predominant disaccharides derived from GAGs. If the results were positive, a confirmative diagnosis was made according to the results of leukocyte enzymatic assay and molecular DNA analysis. Leukocyte pellets were isolated from EDTA blood and used for fluorescent α-iduronidase (IDUA) or iduronate-2-sulfatase (IDS) enzymatic assay. DNA sequencing analysis was also performed.
Normal IDS and IDUA enzyme activities were found in most of the referred cases except for four who were strongly suspected of having MPS I and three who were strongly suspected of having MPS II. Of these infants, three with novel mutations of the IDS gene (c.817C > T, c.1025A > G, and c.311A > T) and four with two missense mutations of the IDUA gene (C.300-3C > G, c.1874A > C; c.1037 T > G, c.1091C > T) showed significant deficiencies in IDS and IDUA enzyme activities (< 5% of mean normal activity), respectively. Urinary dermatan sulfate and heparan sulfate quantitative analyses by tandem mass spectrometry also demonstrated significant elevations. The prevalence rates of MPS I and MPS II in Taiwan were 1.35 and 1.96 per 100,000 live births, respectively.
The early initiation of ERT for MPS can result in better clinical outcomes. An early confirmatory diagnosis increases the probability of receiving appropriate medical care such as ERT quickly enough to avoid irreversible manifestations. All high risk infants identified in this study so far remain asymptomatic and are presumed to be affected with the attenuated disease variants.
While recent progress has significantly boosted few-shot classification (FSC) performance, few-shot object detection (FSOD) remains challenging for modern learning systems. Existing FSOD systems ...follow FSC approaches, ignoring critical issues such as spatial variability and uncertain representations, and consequently result in low performance. Observing this, we propose a novel Dual-Awareness Attention (DAnA) mechanism that enables networks to adaptively interpret the given support images. DAnA transforms support images into query-position-aware (QPA) features, guiding detection networks precisely by assigning customized support information to each local region of the query. In addition, the proposed DAnA component is flexible and adaptable to multiple existing object detection frameworks. By adopting DAnA, conventional object detection networks, Faster R-CNN and RetinaNet, which are not designed explicitly for few-shot learning, reach state-of-the-art performance in FSOD tasks. In comparison with previous methods, our model significantly increases the performance by 47% (+6.9 AP), showing remarkable ability under various evaluation settings.
Abstract
Glycoprotein non-metastatic B (GPNMB) is a transmembrane protein overexpressed in numerous cancers including triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC). It has been linked to promote cancer ...aggressiveness and implicated as a novel target for GPNMB-expressing cancers. In current study, we aimed to explore the clinical significance of GPNMB in TNBC. Among 759 specimens, immunohistochemistry (IHC) exhibited GPNMB expressions were variable in different subtypes and significantly higher in TNBC. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed GPNMB overexpression in TNBC was associated with worse prognosis especially distant metastasis (
P
= 0.020, HR = 2.515, CI 1.154–5.480). Multivariate analysis showed GPNMB expression was an independent prognostic factor in terms of recurrence and distant metastasis (
P
= 0.008, HR = 3.22, CI 1.36–7.61;
P
= 0.017, HR = 3.08, CI 1.22–7.74). In silico analysis showed high mRNA expression of GPNMB was associated with distant metastasis and GPNMB was overexpressed in TNBC. Furthermore, GPNMB positively correlated with epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulators, mesenchymal marker vimentin, MMP and integrins. The protein levels of Twist and MMP2 were upregulated by GPNMB overexpression in TNBC cells. GPNMB-enhanced cell invasion was attenuated by broad spectrum MMP inhibitor (GM 6001) and the selective inhibitor of MMP-2 (ARP100). In summary, GPNMB expression is prevalent in TNBC and may be implicated as a prognostic biomarker in patients with TNBC.
PDF
