To achieve the simultaneous and unobtrusive breathing rate (BR) and heart rate (HR) measurements during nighttime, we leverage a far-infrared imager and an infrared camera equipped with IR-Cut lens ...and an infrared lighting array to develop a dual-camera imaging system. A custom-built cascade face classifier, containing the conventional Adaboost model and fully convolutional network trained by 32K images, was used to detect the face region in registered infrared images. The region of interest (ROI) inclusive of mouth and nose regions was afterwards confirmed by the discriminative regression and coordinate conversions of three selected landmarks. Subsequently, a tracking algorithm based on spatio-temporal context learning was applied for following the ROI in thermal video, and the raw signal was synchronously extracted. Finally, a custom-made time-domain signal analysis approach was developed for the determinations of BR and HR. A dual-mode sleep video database, including the videos obtained under environment where illumination intensity ranged from 0 to 3 Lux, was constructed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system and algorithms. In linear regression analysis, the determination coefficient (R2) of 0.831 had been observed for the measured BR and reference BR, and this value was 0.933 for HR measurement. In addition, the Bland-Altman plots of BR and HR demonstrated that almost all the data points located within their own 95% limits of agreement. Consequently, the overall performance of the proposed technique is acceptable for BR and HR estimations during nighttime.
Intestinal inflammation is frequently associated with an alteration of the gut microbiota, termed dysbiosis, which is characterized by a reduced abundance of obligate anaerobic bacteria and an ...expansion of facultative Proteobacteria such as commensal E. coli. The mechanisms enabling the outgrowth of Proteobacteria during inflammation are incompletely understood. Metagenomic sequencing revealed bacterial formate oxidation and aerobic respiration to be overrepresented metabolic pathways in a chemically induced murine model of colitis. Dysbiosis was accompanied by increased formate levels in the gut lumen. Formate was of microbial origin since no formate was detected in germ-free mice. Complementary studies using commensal E. coli strains as model organisms indicated that formate dehydrogenase and terminal oxidase genes provided a fitness advantage in murine models of colitis. In vivo, formate served as electron donor in conjunction with oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor. This work identifies bacterial formate oxidation and oxygen respiration as metabolic signatures for inflammation-associated dysbiosis.
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•Genes encoding respiratory pathways are overrepresented in the dysbiotic microbiome•Utilization of microbiota-derived formate enhances E. coli fitness in the inflamed gut•Formate concentrations in the gut are elevated during inflammation-associated dysbiosis•During gut inflammation, formate utilization by E. coli requires oxygen respiration
Intestinal inflammation is associated with changes in the microbiota composition (dysbiosis), such as the expansion of the commensal Enterobacteriaceae population. Hughes and Winter et al. show that utilization of microbiota-derived formate as electron donor and oxygen as terminal electron acceptor contribute to the bloom of Enterobacteriaceae in the inflamed gut.
Chronic inflammation and gut microbiota dysbiosis, in particular the bloom of genotoxin-producing
strains, are risk factors for the development of colorectal cancer. Here, we sought to determine ...whether precision editing of gut microbiota metabolism and composition could decrease the risk for tumor development in mouse models of colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Expansion of experimentally introduced
strains in the azoxymethane/dextran sulfate sodium colitis model was driven by molybdoenzyme-dependent metabolic pathways. Oral administration of sodium tungstate inhibited
molybdoenzymes and selectively decreased gut colonization with genotoxin-producing
and other Enterobacteriaceae. Restricting the bloom of Enterobacteriaceae decreased intestinal inflammation and reduced the incidence of colonic tumors in two models of CAC, the azoxymethane/dextran sulfate sodium colitis model and azoxymethane-treated,
-deficient mice. We conclude that metabolic targeting of protumoral Enterobacteriaceae during chronic inflammation is a suitable strategy to prevent the development of malignancies arising from gut microbiota dysbiosis.
Laser welding is an indispensable link in most types of industrial production. The realization of welding automation by industrial robots can greatly improve production efficiency. In the research ...and development of the welding seam tracking system, information on the position of the weld joint needs to be obtained accurately. For laser welding images with strong and complex interference, a weld tracking module was designed to capture real-time images of the weld, and a total of 737, 1920 × 1200 pixel weld images were captured using the device, of which 637 were used to create the dataset, and the other 100 were used as images to test the segmentation success rate. Based on the pixel-level segmentation capability of the semantic segmentation network, this study used an encoder-decoder architecture to design a lightweight network structure and introduced a channel attention mechanism. Compared to ERF-Net, SegNet, and DFA-Net, the network model in this paper has a fast segmentation speed and higher segmentation accuracy, with a success rate of 96% and remarkable segmentation results.
A large number of proteins transferred by the Legionella pneumophila Dot/Icm system have been identified by various strategies. With no exceptions, these strategies are based on one or more ...characteristics associated with the tested proteins. Given the high level of diversity exhibited by the identified proteins, it is possible that some substrates have been missed in these screenings. In this study, we took a systematic method to survey the L. pneumophila genome by testing hypothetical orfs larger than 300 base pairs for Dot/Icm-dependent translocation. 798 of the 832 analyzed orfs were successfully fused to the carboxyl end of β-lactamase. The transfer of the fusions into mammalian cells was determined using the β-lactamase reporter substrate CCF4-AM. These efforts led to the identification of 164 proteins positive in translocation. Among these, 70 proteins are novel substrates of the Dot/Icm system. These results brought the total number of experimentally confirmed Dot/Icm substrates to 275. Sequence analysis of the C-termini of these identified proteins revealed that Lpg2844, which contains few features known to be important for Dot/Icm-dependent protein transfer can be translocated at a high efficiency. Thus, our efforts have identified a large number of novel substrates of the Dot/Icm system and have revealed the diverse features recognizable by this protein transporter.
Microneedle puncture is a standard minimally invasive treatment and surgical method, which is widely used in extracting blood, tissues, and their secretions for pathological examination, ...needle-puncture-directed drug therapy, local anaesthesia, microwave ablation needle therapy, radiotherapy, and other procedures. The use of robots for microneedle puncture has become a worldwide research hotspot, and medical imaging navigation technology plays an essential role in preoperative robotic puncture path planning, intraoperative assisted puncture, and surgical efficacy detection. This paper introduces medical imaging technology and minimally invasive puncture robots, reviews the current status of research on the application of medical imaging navigation technology in minimally invasive puncture robots, and points out its future development trends and challenges.
During Salmonella-induced gastroenteritis, mucosal inflammation creates a niche that favors the expansion of the pathogen population over the microbiota. Here, we show that Salmonella Typhimurium ...infection was accompanied by dysbiosis, decreased butyrate levels, and substantially elevated lactate levels in the gut lumen. Administration of a lactate dehydrogenase inhibitor blunted lactate production in germ-free mice, suggesting that lactate was predominantly of host origin. Depletion of butyrate-producing Clostridia, either through oral antibiotic treatment or as part of the pathogen-induced dysbiosis, triggered a switch in host cells from oxidative metabolism to lactate fermentation, increasing both lactate levels and Salmonella lactate utilization. Administration of tributyrin or a PPARγ agonist diminished host lactate production and abrogated the fitness advantage conferred on Salmonella by lactate utilization. We conclude that alterations of the gut microbiota, specifically a depletion of Clostridia, reprogram host metabolism to perform lactate fermentation, thus supporting Salmonella infection.
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•Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Tm) utilizes l-lactate as a nutrient during gut infection•Lactate used by S. Tm during infection is primarily host derived•Depletion of Clostridia from the microbiota alters host metabolism to produce lactate•Oxygen is the terminal electron acceptor for l-lactate utilization by S. Tm
Intestinal infection with Salmonella Typhimurium results in inflammation-induced dysbiosis. Gillis et al. demonstrate that depletion of commensal Clostridia reduces butyrate availability and subsequently alters host metabolism to produce lactate. Lactate oxidation by Salmonella enhances fitness in the gut and allows the pathogen to outcompete the microbiota.
The mucosal inflammatory response induced by Salmonella serovar Typhimurium creates a favorable niche for this gut pathogen. Conventional wisdom holds that S. Typhimurium undergoes an incomplete ...tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle in the anaerobic mammalian gut. One change during S. Typhimurium-induced inflammation is the production of oxidized compounds by infiltrating neutrophils. We show that inflammation-derived electron acceptors induce a complete, oxidative TCA cycle in S. Typhimurium, allowing the bacteria to compete with the microbiota for colonization. A complete TCA cycle facilitates utilization of the microbiota-derived fermentation product succinate as a carbon source. S. Typhimurium succinate utilization genes contribute to efficient colonization in conventionally raised mice, but provide no growth advantage in germ-free mice. Mono-association of gnotobiotic mice with Bacteroides, a major succinate producer, restores succinate utilization in S. Typhimurium. Thus, oxidative central metabolism enables S. Typhimurium to utilize a variety of carbon sources, including microbiota-derived succinate.
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•During gut colonization, S. Typhimurium performs a complete, oxidative TCA cycle•Host-derived alternative electron acceptors impact S. Tm central metabolism•Uptake of C4-dicarboxylates enhances S. Tm fitness in the inflamed intestine•Utilization of microbiota-derived succinate supports growth of S. Tm in the gut lumen
Spiga et al. show that during colonization of the intestinal lumen, the enteric pathogen S. Typhimurium performs a complete TCA cycle. This oxidative central metabolism enables S. Typhimurium to utilize the microbiota-derived fermentation product succinate as a nutrient and to compete with the microbiota for colonization of the intestinal tract.
Type VI secretion systems (T6SSs) are widespread multi-component machineries that translocate effectors into either eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells, for virulence or for interbacterial competition. ...Herein, we report that the T6SS-4 from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis displays an unexpected function in the transportation of Zn2+ to combat diverse stresses and host immunity. Environmental insults such as oxidative stress induce the expression of T6SS-4 via OxyR, the transcriptional factor that also regulates many oxidative response genes. Zinc transportation is achieved by T6SS-4-mediated translocation of a novel Zn2+-binding protein substrate YezP (YPK_3549), which has the capacity to rescue the sensitivity to oxidative stress exhibited by T6SS-4 mutants when added to extracellular milieu. Disruption of the classic zinc transporter ZnuABC together with T6SS-4 or yezP results in mutants that almost completely lost virulence against mice, further highlighting the importance of T6SS-4 in resistance to host immunity. These results assigned an unconventional role to T6SSs, which will lay the foundation for studying novel mechanisms of metal ion uptake by bacteria and the role of this process in their resistance to host immunity and survival in harmful environments.
Let
G
be a nontrivial connected graph with a vertex-coloring
c
:
V
(
G
)
→
{
1
,
2
,
…
,
q
}
,
q
∈
N
. For a set
S
⊆
V
(
G
)
and
|
S
|
≥
2
, a subtree
T
of
G
satisfying
S
⊆
V
(
T
)
is said to be an
S
...-Steiner tree or simply
S
-tree. The
S
-tree
T
is called a vertex-rainbow
S
-tree if the vertices of
V
(
T
)
\
S
have distinct colors. Let
k
be a fixed integer with
2
≤
k
≤
|
V
(
G
)
|
, if every
k
-subset
S
of
V
(
G
) has a vertex-rainbow
S
-tree, then
G
is said to be vertex-rainbow
k
-tree connected. The
k
-vertex-rainbow index of
G
, denoted by
r
v
x
k
(
G
)
, is the minimum number of colors that are needed in order to make
G
vertex-rainbow
k
-tree connected. In this paper, we study the 3-vertex-rainbow index of unicyclic graphs and complementary graphs, respectively.
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