Smart garments for monitoring physiological and biomechanical signals of the human body are key sensors for personalized healthcare. However, they typically require bulky battery packs or have to be ...plugged into an electric plug in order to operate. Thus, a smart shirt that can extract energy from human body motions to run body-worn healthcare sensors is particularly desirable. Here, we demonstrated a metal-free fiber-based generator (FBG) via a simple, cost-effective method by using commodity cotton threads, a polytetrafluoroethylene aqueous suspension, and carbon nanotubes as source materials. The FBGs can convert biomechanical motions/vibration energy into electricity utilizing the electrostatic effect with an average output power density of ∼0.1 μW/cm2 and have been identified as an effective building element for a power shirt to trigger a wireless body temperature sensor system. Furthermore, the FBG was demonstrated as a self-powered active sensor to quantitatively detect human motion.
Over the past few years, the rapid development of tactile sensing technology has contributed significantly to the realization of intuitional touch control and intelligent human-machine interaction. ...Apart from physical touch or pressure sensing, proximity sensing as a complementary function can extend the detection mode of common single functional tactile sensors. In this work, we present a transparent, matrix-structure dual functional capacitive sensor which integrates the capability of proximity and pressure sensing in one device, and the excellent spatial resolution offered by the isolated response of capacitive pixels enables us to realize precise location identification of approaching objects and loaded pressure with fast response, high stability and high reversibility.
Kidney stone also known as urolithiasis or nephrolithiasis, is one of the oldest diseases known to medicine, however, the gene expression changes and related kidney injury remains unclear.
A calculi ...rat model was developed via ethylene glycol- and ammonium chloride-induction. Integrated proteomic and transcriptomic analysis was performed to characterize the distinct gene expression profiles in the kidney of calculi rat. Differential expressed genes (DEGs) were sub-clustered into distinct groups according to the consistency of transcriptome and proteome. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment was performed to analyze the functions of each sub-group of DEGs. Immunohistochemistry was performed to validated the expression of identified proteins.
Five thousand eight hundred ninety-seven genes were quantified at both transcriptome and proteome levels, and six distinct gene clusters were identified, of which 14 genes were consistently dysregulated. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the calculi rat kidney was increased expression of injured & apoptotic markers and immune-molecules, and decreased expression of solute carriers & transporters and many metabolic related factors.
The present proteotranscriptomic study provided a data resource and new insights for better understanding of the pathogenesis of nephrolithiasis, will hopefully facilitate the future development of new strategies for the recurrence prevention and treatment in patients with kidney stone disease.
Proliferating trichilemmal tumor is a very rare benign tumor that has the potential to transition into a malignant tumor. PTT most commonly affects the scalps of women above 60 years old and is ...frequently misdiagnosed due to its rarity. Herein, we present a case of a 68-year-old man with a malignant proliferating trichilemmal tumor on his right thumb. X-ray image showed a soft tissue mass on his thumb accompanied by bone destruction, while
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F-FDG PET revealed a hypermetabolic mass in the first index with axillary lymph node metastasis.
Visual perception is profoundly modulated by spatial attention, which can selectively prioritize goal-related information. Previous studies found spatial attention facilitated the efficacy of ...neuronal communication between visual cortices with hierarchical organizations. In the primary visual cortex (V1), there is also a hierarchical connection between simple (S) and complex (C) cells. We wonder whether and how spatial attention modulates neuronal communication within V1, especially for neuronal pairs with heterogeneous visual input. We simultaneously recorded the pairs' activity from macaque monkeys when they performed a spatial-attention-involved task, then applied likelihood-based Granger causality analysis to explore attentional modulation of neuronal interactions. First, a significant attention-related decrease in Granger causality was found in S-C pairs, which primarily displayed in the S-to-C feedforward connection. Second, the interaction strength of the feedforward connection was significantly higher than that of the feedback under attend toward (AT) conditions. Although information flow did not alter as the attentional focus shifted, the strength of communications between target- and distractor-stimuli-covered neurons differed only when attending to complex cells' receptive fields (RFs). Furthermore, pairs' communications depended on the attentional modulation of neurons' firing rates. Our findings demonstrate spatial attention does not induce specific information flow but rather amplifies directed communication within V1.
The influence of spatial attention on neural interactions has been revealed even in early visual information processing stages. It resolves the process of competing for sensory information about ...objects perceived as targets and distractors. However, the attentional modulation of the interaction between pairs of neurons with non-overlapping receptive fields (RFs) is not well known. Here, we investigated the activity of anatomically distant neurons in two behaving monkeys’ primary visual cortex (V1), when they performed a spatial attention task detecting color change. We compared attentional modulation from the perspective of spike count correlations and Granger causality among simple and complex cells. An attention-related increase in spike count correlations and a decrease in Granger causality were found. The results showed that spatial attention significantly influenced only the interactions between rather than within simple and complex cells. Furthermore, we found that the attentional modulation of neuronal interactions changed with neuronal pairs’ preferred directions differences. Thus, we found that spatial attention increased the functional communications and competing connectivities when attending to the neurons’ RFs, which impacts the interactions only between simple and complex cells. Our findings enrich the model of simple and complex cells and further understand the way that attention influences the neurons’ activities.
Selective spatial attention enhances task performance at restricted regions within the visual field. The magnitude of this effect depends on the level of attentional load, which determines the ...efficiency of distractor rejection. Mechanisms of attentional load include perceptual selection and/or cognitive control involving working memory. Recent studies have provided evidence that microsaccades are influenced by spatial attention. Therefore, microsaccade activities may be exploited to help understand the dynamic control of selective attention under different load levels. However, previous reports in humans on the effect of attentional load on microsaccades are inconsistent, and it is not clear to what extent these results and the dynamic changes of microsaccade activities are similar in monkeys. We trained monkeys to perform a color detection task in which the perceptual load was manipulated by task difficulty with limited involvement of working memory. Our results indicate that during the task with high perceptual load, the rate and amplitude of microsaccades immediately before the target color change were significantly suppressed. We also found that the occurrence of microsaccades before the monkeys' detection response deteriorated their performance, especially in the hard task. We propose that the activity of microsaccades might be an efficacious indicator of the perceptual load.
Objective This meta-analysis aims to explore the association between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D) gene polymorphism and susceptibility to prostate cancer (PCa). ...Methods We searched studies related to ACE I/D polymorphism and susceptibility to PCa through PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus databases from inception to June 1, 2022. Five gene models, including allelic, dominant, recessive, homozygote, and heterozygote models, were analyzed. The pooled odds ratio (OR) was calculated using Stata 15.0 software. Publication bias was judged by the funnel plot and Egger's test, with the robustness of the findings verified by sensitivity analysis. Results Eight published articles (including ten studies) were identified. The pooled results showed that ACE I/D locus polymorphism was significantly correlated with the risk of PCa under all gene models except for the heterozygous model (D vs. I: OR= 1.58, 95% CI: 1.14-2.21; DD vs. DI+II: OR=1.68, 95% CI: 1.11-2.54; DD+DI vs. II: OR=1.76, 95% CI: 1.11-2.80; DI vs. II: OR= 1.44, 95% CI: 0.99-2.10; DD vs. II: OR= 2.12, 95% CI: 1.15-3.93). Subgroup analysis based on genotype frequencies in the control group meeting Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium showed statistically significant differences in all gene models. The funnel plot and Egger's test indicated no publication bias. The sensitivity analysis verified the robustness of the conclusions obtained in this meta-analysis. Conclusion ACE I/D locus polymorphism correlates to PCa risk. Allele D, genotype DD+DI, and DD at the ACE I/D locus increase susceptibility to PCa and can therefore serve as a potential diagnostic and screening molecular marker for PCa patients. Keywords: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), Susceptibility, Prostate cancer, Meta-analysis
Purpose: This study aimed to explore the predictive efficacy of radiomics analyses based on readout-segmented echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging (RESOLVE-DWI) for prognosis evaluation in ...nasopharyngeal carcinoma in order to provide further information for clinical decision making and intervention. Methods: A total of 154 patients with untreated NPC confirmed by pathological examination were enrolled, and the pretreatment magnetic resonance image (MRI)—including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps, T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging (CE-T1WI)—was collected. The Random Forest (RF) algorithm selected radiomics features and established the machine-learning models. Five models, namely model 1 (DWI + ADC), model 2 (T2WI + CE-T1WI), model 3 (DWI + ADC + T2WI), model 4 (DWI + ADC + CE-T1WI), and model 5 (DWI + ADC + T2WI + CE-T1WI), were constructed. The average area under the curve (AUC) of the validation set was determined in order to compare the predictive efficacy for prognosis evaluation. Results: After adjusting the parameters, the RF machine learning models based on extracted imaging features from different sequence combinations were obtained. The invalidation sets of model 1 (DWI + ADC) yielded the highest average AUC of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.79–0.81). The average AUCs of the model 2, 3, 4, and 5 invalidation sets were 0.72 (95% CI: 0.71–0.74), 0.66 (95% CI: 0.64–0.68), 0.74 (95% CI: 0.73–0.75), and 0.75 (95% CI: 0.74–0.76), respectively. Conclusion: A radiomics model derived from the MRI DWI of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma was generated in order to evaluate the risk of recurrence and metastasis. The model based on MRI DWI can provide an alternative approach for survival estimation, and can reveal more information for clinical decision-making and intervention.
Tumor markers can be diagnostically suggestive and are sometimes even related to prognostic prediction certain diseases. Multiple studies have shown the effectiveness in the prediction of prostate ...cancer (PCa) by the use of C-reactive protein (CRP). This meta-analysis was conducted to facilitate a conclusion regarding the values of CRP in the prediction of survival rate in patients with PCa.
Manuscripts were searched, identified, and collected from different databases; quality evaluation was performed according to the different search strategies involved. Information including the comparison between overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rate were retained from different studies in patients with evaluated or lowered CRP levels. Progression-free survival (PFS) was also recorded in relation to the log of CRP. Level of relevance was assessed using hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Heterogenicity testing was performed by using Cochran's Q test and Higgins I
statistics. When P value <0.05, the outcome was considered statistically significant.
A total 12 of manuscripts were included and evaluated from the 1,523 initially identified studies. The results of OS and PFS were 1.57 (95% CI: 1.34 to 1.85) and 1.50 (95% CI: 1.25 to 1.81), respectively. For CSS, the combined HR and 95% CI was 1.92 (95% CI: 1.36 to 2.70), which revealed a significant correlation between increased level of CRP and CSS in PCa patients.
This meta-analysis revealed that CRP value could be one of the critical indicators to predict the survival rate of PCa patients.
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