Application of Multiple Sensors in Monitoring Land Subsidence in Central Taiwan

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on bilateral asymmetry and joint angles of the lower limb for females when crossing obstacles

Abstract Background Gait asymmetry is often accompanied by the bilateral asymmetry of the lower limbs. The transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technique is widely used in different populations and scenarios as a potential tool to improve lower limb postural control. However, whether cerebral cortex bilateral tDCS has an interventional effect on postural control as well as bilateral symmetry when crossing obstacles in healthy female remains unknown. Methods Twenty healthy females were recruited in this prospective study. Each participant walked and crossed a height-adjustable obstacle. Two-way repeated ANOVA was used to evaluate the effect of group (tDCS and sham-tDCS) and height (30%, 20%, and 10% leg length) on the spatiotemporal and maximum joint angle parameters for lower limb crossing obstacles. The Bonferroni post-hoc test and paired t-test were used to determine the significance of the interaction effect or main effect. The statistically significant differences were set at p < 0.05. Results The Swing time (SW) gait asymmetry (GA), Stance time (ST) GA, leading limb hip-knee-ankle maximum joint angles and trailing limb hip-knee maximum joint angles decreased in the tDCS condition compared to the sham-tDCS condition at 30%, 20% leg’s length crossing height except for 10% leg’s length, whereas there was a significant decrease in SW/ST GA between the tDCS condition and the sham-tDCS condition at 30%, 20%, 10% leg’s length crossing height (P < 0.05). Conclusion We conclude that tDCS intervention is effective to reduce bilateral asymmetry in spatio-temporal parameters and enhance dynamic balance in female participants during obstacle crossing when the heights of the obstacles were above 10% of the leg’s length. Trial registration No ChiCTR2100053942 (date of registration on December 04, 2021). Prospectively registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry

Clinical application of computerized evaluation and re-education biofeedback prototype for sensorimotor control of the hand in stroke patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hemianaesthesia patients usually exhibit awkward and inefficient finger movements of the affected hands. Conventionally, most interventions emphasize the improvement of motor deficits, but rarely address sensory capability and sensorimotor control following stroke. Thus it is critical for stroke patients with sensory problems to incorporate appropriate strategies for dealing with sensory impairment, into traditional hand function rehabilitation programs. In this study, we used a custom-designed computerized evaluation and re-education biofeedback (CERB) prototype to analyze hand grasp performances, and monitor the training effects on hand coordination for stroke patients with sensory disturbance and without motor deficiency.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The CERB prototype was constructed to detect momentary pinch force modulation for 14 sub-acute and chronic stroke patients with sensory deficiency and 14 healthy controls. The other ten chronic stroke patients (ranges of stroke period: 6–60 months) were recruited to investigate the effects of 4-weeks computerized biofeedback treatments on the hand control ability. The biofeedback procedures provide visual and auditory cues to the participants when the interactive force of hand-to-object exceeded the target latitude in a pinch-up-holding task to trigger optimal motor strategy. Follow-up measurements were conducted one month after training. The hand sensibility, grip forces and results of hand functional tests were recorded and analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The affected hands of the 14 predominant sensory stroke patients exhibited statistically significant elevation in the magnitude of peak pinch force (p = 0.033) in pinching and lifting-up tasks, and poor results for hand function tests (p = 0.005) than sound hands did. In addition, the sound hands of patients were less efficient in force modulation (p = 0.009) than the hands of healthy subjects were. Training with the biofeedback system produced significant improvements in grip force modulation (p = 0.020) and better performances in the subtests of pin insertion (p = 0.019), and lifting of lightweight objects (p = 0.005).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The CERB prototype can provide momentary and interactive information for quantitative assessing and re-educating force modulation appropriately for stroke patients with sensory deficits. Furthermore, the patients could transfer the learned strategy to improve hand function.</p

Use of an Intramedullary Allogenic Fibular Strut Bone and Lateral Locking Plate for Distal Femoral Fracture with Supracondylar Comminution in Patients over 50 Years of Age

Background and Objectives: Distal femoral fracture is a severe injury that makes surgery challenging, particularly comminuted fractures in the supracondylar region. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of distal femoral fracture treated with the application of an intramedullary fibular allogenic bone strut in open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) with precontoured locking plates in patients over 50 years of age. Materials and Methods: The study retrospectively enrolled 202 patients over 50 years of age with traumatic comminuted distal femoral fracture (AO/OTA 33-A3, 33-C2 and 33-C3) treated with ORIF with a locking plate from January 2016 to December 2019. The two groups were divided into patients who received an intramedullary allogenic bone strut and those who did not. Patients were followed for at least 1 year, with their function scores and radiographic data recorded. Results: A total of 124 patients were recruited, comprising 60 men and 64 women with an average age of 62.4 ± 8.5 years. The 36 patients who had received an intramedullary allogenic fibular bone strut reported lower postoperative pain scores at 1 month and lower postoperative Knee Society Scores (KSS) at 3 months than the control group. The application of an intramedullary allogenic fibular bone strut appeared to be significantly correlated with better 3-month postoperative KSS. Conclusions: The ORIF of distal femoral comminuted fracture with an intramedullary allogenic fibular bone strut can reduce pain and improve knee function in the early stages of postoperative rehabilitation and may reduce the time to union in patients over 50 years of age

Concordant and Discordant Regulation of Target Genes by miR-31 and Its Isoforms

<div><p>It has been shown that imprecise cleavage of a primary or precursor RNA by Drosha or Dicer, respectively, may yield a group of microRNA (miRNA) variants designated as “isomiR”. Variations in the relative abundance of isoforms for a given miRNA among different species and different cell types beg the question whether these isomiRs might regulate target genes differentially. We compared the capacity of three miR-31 isoforms (miR-31-H, miR-31-P, and miR-31-M), which differ only slightly in their 5′- and/or 3′-end sequences, to regulate several known targets and a predicted target, Dicer. Notably, we found isomiR-31s displayed concordant and discordant regulation of 6 known target genes. Furthermore, we validated a predicted target gene, Dicer, to be a novel target of miR-31 but only miR-31-P could directly repress Dicer expression in both MCF-7 breast cancer cells and A549 lung cancer cells, resulting in their enhanced sensitivity to cisplatin, a known attribute of Dicer knockdown. This was further supported by reporter assay using full length 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of Dicer. Our findings not only revealed Dicer to be a direct target of miR-31, but also demonstrated that isomiRs displayed similar and disparate regulation of target genes in cell-based systems. Coupled with the variations in the distribution of isomiRs among different cells or conditions, our findings support the possibility of fine-tuning gene expression by miRNAs.</p> </div

Nephroprotective Role of Chrysophanol in Hypoxia/Reoxygenation-Induced Renal Cell Damage via Apoptosis, ER Stress, and Ferroptosis

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is caused by hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R), which is a kidney injury produced by a variety of causes, resulting in the remaining portion of the kidney function being unable to maintain the balance for performing the tasks of waste excretion metabolism, and electrolyte and acid-base balance. Many studies have reported the use of Chinese medicine to slow down the progression and alleviate the complications of chronic renal failure. Chrysophanol is a component of Rheum officinale Baill, a traditional Chinese medicine that has been clinically used to treat renal disease. We aimed to study the nephroprotective effect of chrysophanol on hypoxia/ reoxygenation (H/R)-induced cell damage. The results showed that chrysophanol prevented H/R-induced apoptosis via downregulation of cleaved Caspase-3, p-JNK, and Bax but upregulation of Bcl-2 expression. In contrast, chrysophanol attenuated H/R-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress via the downregulation of CHOP and p-IRE1α expression. Our data demonstrated that chrysophanol alleviated H/R-induced lipid ROS accumulation and ferroptosis. Therefore, we propose that chrysophanol may have a protective effect against AKI by regulating apoptosis, ER stress, and ferroptosis

Concordant and discordant regulation of known target genes by isomiR-31s.

<p>The sequences of isomiRs of miR-31. MiR-31-H, miR-31-P, and miR-31-M represent hsa-miR-31, ptr-miR-31, and mmu-miR-31 in miRBase, respectively (A). CEBPα, STK40, and E2F2 mRNA expression in MDA-MB-231 cells (B), MCF-7 cells (C), and in HCT116 cells (D) were detected by RT-qPCR after transfection with synthetic oligos of isomiR-31s. The mRNA level of each gene was normalized to GAPDH mRNA. The normalized mRNA level of Neg-ctrl transfectant was set as 1.0 and then those of other isomiR-31 transfections were relative to it. The proteins levels of Fzd3 (E), MMP16 (F), and MCM2 (G) were determined in MDA-MB-231 cells transfected with 100 nM synthetic oligos by immunoblotting. GAPDH protein served as the internal control for normalization. The normalized protein level of Neg-ctrl transfectant was set as 1.0 for comparison to those of isomiR-31 transfectants. The data represent the average of 3 independent experiments with standard deviations (*<i>P</i><0.05; **<i>P</i><0.01; ***<i>P</i><0.001, t-test).</p

The isomiRs of miR-31 display differential ability in repressing Dicer expression.

<p>Immunoblotting of Dicer in MCF-7 cells transfected with 100 nM synthetic oligos purchased from Ambion (A) and Dharmacon (B). Immunoblotting of Dicer in MDA-MB-231 cells (C), in A549 cells (D), and in HCT116 (E) transfected with 100 nM synthetic oligos (Ambion). Relative expression of Dicer mRNA in MCF-7 cells transfected with miRNA synthetic oligos (Ambion) (F). Data were presented as relative expression level to Neg-ctrl transfectant. Neg-ctrl, negative control oligo.</p

MiR-31-P enhanced the sensitivity of cancer cells to cisplatin treatment.

<p>IsomiR-31 transfected MCF-7 breast cancer cells (A) and A549 lung cancer cells (B) were incubated with cisplatin at the indicated concentrations. At 48 h, the numbers of surviving cells were analyzed by Alamar Blue reagent and the percentages of cell survival were listed. The percentage of surviving cells of each transfected groups treated with DMSO was set as 100% to calculate the percentages of surviving cells of cisplatin treated cells at the indicated concentration. Comparing to the negative control transfected cells, miR-31-P enhanced the sensitivity of both cancer cells to cisplatin treatment (*<i>P</i><0.05; **<i>P</i><0.01, t-test). The statistical significance of the differential sensitivity to cisplatin of MCF-7 (C) and A549 (D) cells transfected with various isomiR-31s was further examined by nonlinear regression analysis (GraphPad Prism software version 5.01). Nonlinear regression analysis was used to provide the best fitted sigmoid curves by plotting the percentages of cell survival against the drug concentrations (*<i>P</i><0.05; **<i>P</i><0.01, ANOVA). The data represent the average of 3 independent experiments with standard deviations.</p

The most abundant isoform and the composition of miR-31 populations vary among five human cells.

<p>IsomiR-31s in MCF-7, HCT116, and LNCaP cells was analyzed by deep sequencing and compared to the reported miR-31 isoforms in human embryonic stem cell (hES)/embryonic body (hEB) culled from the supplementary data of Morin <i>et.al. </i><a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058169#pone.0058169-Morin1" target="_blank">[23]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0058169#pone.0058169-Voellenkle1" target="_blank">[32]</a>. The miR-31 precursor sequence is shown at the bottom. The sequences, which is underlined with thick line or marked with <b>^*</b>, is the current annotated miR-31 of human in miRBase (version 18.0). The occurrence of each sequence read is represented as the count shown in number. The percentage of each sequence indicates its occurrence in the whole population of miR-31 isoforms. In the miR-31 profile of HCT116 cells, most of sequences with counts of less than 10 were omitted from this figure. ^#, the data were culled from the report of Morin <i>et al</i>. H, hsa-miR-31; the miR-31-H form. M, mmu-miR-31; the miR-31-M form. P, ptr-miR-31; the miR-31-P form.</p