Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is usually caused by coronary thrombosis. However, the short half-life, lack of targetability and inevitable ischemia/reperfusion injury secondary to ...revascularization, which characterizes tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) limit its thrombolytic efficacy for AMI. To address the targeted and site-specific delivery of tPA, the current study reports the construction of a thrombus-targeting and responsive biomimetic nanoparticle (PTPN) for spatiotemporal treatment of AMI. PTPN was constituted by the thrombus microenvironment- responsive phenylboronic acid (PBA) nanocarrier, antioxidant molecular protocatechualdehyde (PC) and tPA with thrombolytic effect, which were enclosed by the platelet membrane. The thrombus-targeting capability of the platelet membrane enabled the adhesion of PTPN to damaged endothelial cells. The nanoparticle disintegrated under slightly acid condition and re-opened the infarct-related artery during the period of ischemia. Sequentially, ROS induced by blood reperfusion was eliminated by PC released from particle disintegration, and the cardiomyocyte mitochondrial function was protected from reperfusion injury. Therefore, this thrombus-specific/responsive biomimetic nanomedicine provides a spatiotemporal paradigm for AMI treatment with promising clinical translation prospects.
Left hemisphere injury can cause right spastic arm paralysis and aphasia, and recovery of both motor and language functions shares similar compensatory mechanisms and processes. Contralateral ...cervical seventh cross transfer (CC7) surgery can provide motor recovery for spastic arm paralysis by triggering interhemispheric plasticity, and self‐reports from patients indicate spontaneous improvement in language function but still need to be verified. To explore the improvements in motor and language function after CC7 surgery, we performed this prospective observational cohort study. The Upper Extremity part of Fugl‐Meyer scale (UEFM) and Modified Ashworth Scale were used to evaluate motor function, and Aphasia Quotient calculated by Mandarin version of the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB‐AQ, larger score indicates better language function) was assessed for language function. In 20 patients included, the average scores of UEFM increased by .40 and 3.70 points from baseline to 1‐week and 6‐month post‐surgery, respectively. The spasticity of the elbow and fingers decreased significantly at 1‐week post‐surgery, although partially recurred at 6‐month follow‐up. The average scores of WAB‐AQ were increased by 9.14 and 10.69 points at 1‐week and 6‐month post‐surgery (P < .001 for both), respectively. Post‐surgical fMRI scans revealed increased activity in the bilateral hemispheres related to language centrals, including the right precentral cortex and right gyrus rectus. These findings suggest that CC7 surgery not only enhances motor function but may also improve the aphasia quotient in patients with right arm paralysis and aphasia due to left hemisphere injuries.
This study explores the effects of contralateral cervical seventh nerve (CC7) transfer surgery on patients with chronic right spastic arm paralysis and aphasia due to left hemispheric injuries. The motor function of the paralysed upper limb (measured by UEFM and MAS) and language function (assessed by WAB‐AQ) were significantly increased after the surgery compared with pre‐surgical evaluations.
Concept mapping-based language learning (CMLL) has attracted increasing attention from the research community. Many studies have investigated non-technology-based CMLL (NTCMLL) and technology-based ...CMLL (TCMLL); however, the literature reveals no reviews comparing the two, which is needed because this can identify the differentiated applicability of technology-and non-technology-based CM activities for assisting language learning. Accordingly, the present study reviews 26 studies comparing NTCMLL with TCMLL regarding publication nature, theoretical framework, target language, learning outcomes, CM activities, and technologies used for concept mapping. The results show that (a) NTCMLL and TCMLL studies have become popular since 2016; (b) meaningful learning was the most common theoretical support; (c) English was the most commonly investigated language; (d) the most discussed learning outcomes were language acquisition and psychological states; (e) individual concept mapping was frequently used; and (f) ready-made tools were applied more than researchers’ self-developed systems. We also identify the similarities and differences between NTCMLL and TCMLL studies while discussing the important implications for their future design.
•Advances in the application of MNP for different skin malignancies are sorted out.•The synergistic treatment of MNP for skin malignancy is summarized.•Symptom management and indicator monitoring ...ability of MNP are explored.•Translation challenges in production, storage, and side effects are addressed.
The rising incidence of cutaneous malignancies presents ongoing therapeutic challenges. While surgery is the primary treatment modality, its limitations, including complications such as non-healing wounds and scarring, necessitate adjunctive therapies for optimal outcomes. But conventional methods like chemotherapy and phototherapy often fail to meet these needs. In response, microneedle patches (MNPs) have emerged, offering simultaneous delivery of multiple therapies directly to tumor sites. This review delves into three critical aspects of MNPs in treating skin malignancies: 1) what are the therapeutic combinations for different tumors? 2) what potential does MNP offer in the management of tumor-related symptoms? and 3) how to select suitable materials and design rational structures for enhanced therapeutic efficacy? Focusing on skin melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma, we examine MNPs’ capacity for integrated multi-therapy, as well as their role in managing hemorrhage, pain, postoperative wounds, scars, and tumor indicators. Additionally, considerations for MNP storage, transportation, and side effects are discussed, emphasizing material selection and structural design. The review also discussed the ongoing dilemmas and future perspectives of MNPs in the clinical translation and application for cutaneous malignancies.
A Regression Approach to Music Emotion Recognition Yi-Hsuan Yang; Yu-Ching Lin; Ya-Fan Su ...
IEEE transactions on audio, speech, and language processing,
02/2008, Letnik:
16, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Content-based retrieval has emerged in the face of content explosion as a promising approach to information access. In this paper, we focus on the challenging issue of recognizing the emotion content ...of music signals, or music emotion recognition (MER). Specifically, we formulate MER as a regression problem to predict the arousal and valence values (AV values) of each music sample directly. Associated with the AV values, each music sample becomes a point in the arousal-valence plane, so the users can efficiently retrieve the music sample by specifying a desired point in the emotion plane. Because no categorical taxonomy is used, the regression approach is free of the ambiguity inherent to conventional categorical approaches. To improve the performance, we apply principal component analysis to reduce the correlation between arousal and valence, and RReliefF to select important features. An extensive performance study is conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the regression approach for predicting AV values. The best performance evaluated in terms of the R 2 statistics reaches 58.3% for arousal and 28.1% for valence by employing support vector machine as the regressor. We also apply the regression approach to detect the emotion variation within a music selection and find the prediction accuracy superior to existing works. A group-wise MER scheme is also developed to address the subjectivity issue of emotion perception.
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•Printing ink of polyvinyl formate was wet-spinning and mold into 3D elastic architectures.•3D PPy@PVFm was fabricated into wearable electronic sensors.•PPy@PVFm stably and ...sensitively recognized physical movements over a wide range.•High DE led to shortening coagulation, improving hydrophobicity, and extending flexibility.
Polymer based 3D printings are generally generated from the melt fluids or gels instead of polymer solution. Inspired by continuous wet-spinning of polymer fiber, we explored a new polyvinyl formate (PVFm) printing ink which was directly coagulated by water and mold into designed 3D elastic architectures layer-by-layer. The degree of esterification (DE), chemical structure, morphology, and mechanical properties of PVFm were all investigated. Furthermore, 3D PVFm was coated by polypyrrole (PPy) via in-situ polymerization to fabricate wearable flexible electronic sensors. The relative resistance changes and sensitivity of PPy@PVFm on monitoring physical strain and pressure were characterized. Results show that PPy@PVFm could stably and sensitively recognize human body activities through relative changes in resistance in a wide range of linear relationship. Therefore, a new protocol is readily to realize a strategy of 3D wet-spinning printing and wearable flexible electronic sensors.
FinTech is an emerging financial innovation model that promotes a "technological anti-corruption" effect. Credit corruption is a worldwide problem; however, previous studies have not focused on the ...anti-corruption effect of FinTech. This study first uses micro data from FinTech companies to construct city-level FinTech measurement indicators in China. An objective measurement of credit corruption is then formed by separating the expenditures for credit corruption from total business entertainment expenses. This study empirically explores the impact of FinTech on credit corruption using a sample of Chinese listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2011 to 2019. The results show that FinTech can significantly curb credit corruption, and that the expenditures for credit corruption of local companies are lower with better regional FinTech. These findings are valid after addressing endogeneity issues and conducting a series of robustness tests. The results of the heterogeneity test show that FinTech offers greater advantages for risk identification, information mining, and inclusive development than traditional finance. The curbing effect on credit corruption is stronger in companies with better intrinsic quality, more transparent information disclosure, located in less financially developed and more corrupt regions. Economic consequence analysis suggests that FinTech can correct resource misallocation caused by credit corruption and promote corporate investment efficiency. These findings are valuable for policy practices for technological anti-corruption in the financial sector.
As an important part of a factory's automated production line, industrial robots can perform a variety of tasks by integrating external sensors. Among these tasks, grasping scattered workpieces on ...the industrial assembly line has always been a prominent and difficult point in robot manipulation research. By using RGB-D (color and depth) information, we propose an efficient and practical solution that fuses the approaches of semantic segmentation and point cloud registration to perform object recognition and pose estimation. Different from objects in an indoor environment, the characteristics of the workpiece are relatively simple; thus, we create and label an RGB image dataset from a variety of industrial scenarios and train the modified FCN (Fully Convolutional Network) on a homemade dataset to infer the semantic segmentation results of the input images. Then, we determine the point cloud of the workpieces by incorporating the depth information to estimate the real-time pose of the workpieces. To evaluate the accuracy of the solution, we propose a novel pose error evaluation method based on the robot vision system. This method does not rely on expensive measuring equipment and can also obtain accurate evaluation results. In an industrial scenario, our solution has a rotation error less than two degrees and a translation error < 10 mm.
To analyze the efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and glucocorticoid administration in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO).
Sixty patients with moderate to severe TAO treated ...in Jingzhou Central Hospital from January 2022 to June 2022 were selected and enrtolled in this study. The subjects were divided into experimental group (n=30) and control group (n=30) based on the random number table method. Glucocorticoid pulse therapy was provided in the control group, while MMF was given in the experimental group on the basis of Control group. Clinical activity score (CAS), quality of life (QOL), visual acuity, eyelid fissure width, intraocular pressure, and degree of exophthalmos were observed at the time of admission and at the 12
week and 24
post-treatment weeks. We compared the immune function (TRAb, IL-6, and CD4+/CD8+) of the two groups pre-treatment and 24 weeks post-treatment, and evaluated the clinical therapeutic effect.
The clinical effective rates at 12 and 24 weeks in the experimental group were higher (73.3% and 83.3%) than those in the control group (46.7% and 60.0%) (
0.05). After 12 weeks of treatment, patients' CAS scores, and bilateral lid fissure width decreased and right eye visual acuity increased in the control group compared with those before treatment (
0.05); further, after 24 weeks of treatment, patients' QOL scores and bilateral visual acuity increased and CAS scores, bilateral lid fissure width and proptosis decreased compared with those before treatment, and patients' QOL scores, CAS scores and bilateral proptosis improved more than those at 12 weeks of treatment (
0.05). Additionally, greater improvements were observed in the patients' QOL and CAS scores, and proptosis after 24-week treatment than after 12-week treatment (
<0.05). In the experimental group, the QOL score and binocular visual acuity increased, whereas the CAS score, intraocular pressure, lid width, and proptosis decreased after 12 weeks of treatment as compared to the values of these parameters in the pre-treatment period (
0.05); after 24 weeks of treatment, greater improvements were established in the ocular-related indexes improved compared to the pre-treatment period and after 12 weeks of treatment (
0.05). After 12 weeks of treatment, the patients in the experimental group had more considerable improvements in the right visual acuity, right intraocular pressure, and left lid fissure width than the control group (
0.05); at 24 weeks of treatment, patients in the experimental group had greater improvements in the QOL score, bilateral visual acuity, intraocular pressure, bilateral lid fissure width, and bilateral proptosis than the control group (
0.05). No significant differences were found in the values of TRAb, IL-6, and CD4+/CD8+ between the two groups before treatment (
>0.05); the values of TRAb, IL-6, and CD4+/CD8+ in the experimental group was significantly lower than those before treatment and in the control group after 24weeks of treatment. (
>0.05). No statistically significant difference was observed in the incidence of liver damage and menstrual disorders between the two groups during the 24 weeks of treatment (
>0.05).
The combination of oral MMF and glucocorticoid shock therapy is an effective drug for the treatment of patients with moderately active TAO.
The current study examines how a personal health story on a blog can influence individuals' perceived social norms, adopting the notion that social norms are "group identity-based codes of conduct". ...For that, we tested the effects of story framing and personal experience on perceived similarity, which interacts with social media metrics in forming perceived social norms. In an online experiment, college students (N = 220) were recruited to read a blogger's story in either a gain-frame (the blogger received the HPV vaccine and, thus, prevented cancer) or a loss-frame (the blogger did not receive the vaccine and, thus, developed cancer) with either high or low social media metrics. Participants reported that they were more similar with the blogger in the gain-framed story than the one in the loss-framed story, especially among those who have received the HPV. This perceived similarity was positively associated with both descriptive and injunctive norms; however, the positive association between similarity and descriptive norms disappeared when the blog had low social media metrics. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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