Noninvasive prediction of Blood Lactate through a machine learning-based approach.

We hypothesized that blood lactate concentration([Lac]blood) is a function of cardiopulmonary variables, exercise intensity and some anthropometric elements during aerobic exercise. This investigation aimed to establish a mathematical model to estimate [Lac]blood noninvasively during constant work rate (CWR) exercise of various intensities. 31 healthy participants were recruited and each underwent 4 cardiopulmonary exercise tests: one incremental and three CWR tests (low: 35% of peak work rate for 15 min, moderate: 60% 10 min and high: 90% 4 min). At the end of each CWR test, venous blood was sampled to determine [Lac]blood. 31 trios of CWR tests were employed to construct the mathematical model, which utilized exponential regression combined with Taylor expansion. Good fitting was achieved when the conditions of low and moderate intensity were put in one model; high-intensity in another. Standard deviation of fitting error in the former condition is 0.52; in the latter is 1.82 mmol/liter. Weighting analysis demonstrated that, besides heart rate, respiratory variables are required in the estimation of [Lac]blood in the model of low/moderate intensity. In conclusion, by measuring noninvasive cardio-respiratory parameters, [Lac]blood during CWR exercise can be determined with good accuracy. This should have application in endurance training and future exercise industry

Structural insights into the gating of DNA passage by the topoisomerase II DNA-gate.

Type IIA topoisomerases (Top2s) manipulate the handedness of DNA crossovers by introducing a transient and protein-linked double-strand break in one DNA duplex, termed the DNA-gate, whose opening allows another DNA segment to be transported through to change the DNA topology. Despite the central importance of this gate-opening event to Top2 function, the DNA-gate in all reported structures of Top2-DNA complexes is in the closed state. Here we present the crystal structure of a human Top2 DNA-gate in an open conformation, which not only reveals structural characteristics of its DNA-conducting path, but also uncovers unexpected yet functionally significant conformational changes associated with gate-opening. This structure further implicates Top2's preference for a left-handed DNA braid and allows the construction of a model representing the initial entry of another DNA duplex into the DNA-gate. Steered molecular dynamics calculations suggests the Top2-catalyzed DNA passage may be achieved by a rocker-switch-type movement of the DNA-gate

Comparison of power control schemes for relay sensor networks

[[abstract]]Three power control schemes for the space-time coded amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying scheme targeting at wireless sensor network applications are examined and compared. The opportunistic scheme performs the best by considering the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of the received signal. However, if the power for the relay is limited, the performance of the opportunistic scheme degrades due to the loss of active relay nodes that have better channel conditions. Since the battery lifetime of nodes for wireless sensor networks is limited and the loss of relay nodes is critical to system performance, we propose an SNR-constrained power reduction scheme to prolong the relay lifetime for the opportunistic scheme. It is demonstrated by computer simulation that the opportunistic scheme with SNR-constrained power reduction is power efficient and the relay lifetime of dense relay networks can be significantly prolonged. © 2007 IEEE.[[fileno]]2030137030003[[department]]電機工程學

Konsep Demokrasi Politik Dalam Islam

Coexistence of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with asthma appears to impair asthma control. Type-2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) respond to the cytokines of thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), interleukin (IL)-25 and IL-33, thus contributing to airway diseases such as CRS and asthma. We investigate whether the augmented Th2-cytokines in CRS might be related to sinonasal tract ILC2s corresponding to enhanced IL-25, IL-33 and TSLP release in severe asthmatics, and be involved in asthma control. Twenty-eight asthmatics (12 non-severe and 16 severe) with CRS receiving nasal surgery were enrolled. The predicted FEV1 inversely associated with CRS severity of CT or endoscopy scores. Higher expression of Th2-driven cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-9, and IL-13), TSLP, IL-25 and IL-33 in nasal tissues was observed in severe asthma. Severe asthmatics had higher ILC2 cell counts in their nasal tissues. ILC2 counts were positively correlated with Th2-cytokines. Nasal surgery significantly improved asthma control and lung function decline in severe asthma and CRS. The higher expression of IL-33/ILC2 axis-directed type 2 immune responses in nasal tissue of CRS brought the greater decline of lung function in severe asthma. ILC2-induced the upregulated activity of Th2-related cytokines in asthmatics with CRS may contribute to a recalcitrant status of asthma control

FLJ10540 is associated with tumor progression in nasopharyngeal carcinomas and contributes to nasopharyngeal cell proliferation, and metastasis via osteopontin/CD44 pathway

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is well-known for its highly metastatic characteristics, but little is known of its molecular mechanisms. New biomarkers that predict clinical outcome, in particular the ability of the primary tumor to develop metastatic tumors are urgently needed. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of FLJ10540 in human NPC development. METHODS: A bioinformatics approach was used to explore the potentially important regulatory genes involved in the growth/metastasis control of NPC. FLJ10540 was chosen for this study. Two co-expression strategies from NPC microarray were employed to identify the relationship between FLJ10540 and osteopontin. Quantitative-RT-PCR, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry analysis were used to investigate the mRNA and protein expression profiles of FLJ10540 and osteopontin in the normal and NPC tissues to confirm microarray results. TW01 and Hone1 NPC cells with overexpression FLJ10540 or siRNA to repress endogenous FLJ10540 were generated by stable transfection to further elucidate the molecular mechanisms of FLJ10540-elicited cell growth and metastasis under osteopontin stimulation. RESULTS: We found that osteopontin expression exhibited a positive correlation with FLJ10540 in NPC microarray. We also demonstrated comprehensively that FLJ10540 and osteopontin were not only overexpressed in NPC specimens, but also significantly correlated with advanced tumor and lymph node-metastasis stages, and had a poor 5-year survival rate, respectively. Stimulation of NPC parental cells with osteopontin results in an increase in FLJ10540 mRNA and protein expressions. Functionally, FLJ10540 transfectant alone, or stimulated with osteopontin, exhibited fast growth and increased metastasis as compared to vehicle control with or without osteopontin stimulation. Conversely, knockdown of FLJ10540 by siRNA results in the suppression of NPC cell growth and motility. Treatment with anti-CD44 antibodies in NPC parental cells not only resulted in a decrease of FLJ10540 protein, but also affected the abilities of FLJ10540-elicited cell growth and motility in osteopontin stimulated-NPC cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that FLJ10540 may be critical regulator of disease progression in NPC, and the underlying mechanism may involve in the osteopontin/CD44 pathway

Outcomes of patients with rodenticide poisoning at a far east poison center

BACKGROUND: Rodenticide poisoning remains a major public health problem in Asian countries. Nevertheless, very few data are available in world literature regarding the outcomes of these patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical outcomes of rodenticide poisonings in our hospital and to compare these data with published reports from other international poison centers. FINDINGS: We retrospectively examined the records of 20 patients with rodenticide poisoning (8 brodifacoum, 12 bromadiolone) who were referred to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between 2000 and 2011. It was found that most of the rodenticide patients were middle-aged adults. Both genders were equally affected and many patients had a past history of major depressive disorder or schizophrenia. Nevertheless, patients with bromadiolone were referred significantly sooner than patients with brodifacoum poisoning (0.1 ± 0.1 versus 5.5 ± 10.5, P < 0.001). Furthermore, it was found that patients with brodifacoum suffered higher incidences of ecchymosis (50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006) and hematuria (50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006) than patients with bromadiolone poisoning. Laboratory analysis also demonstrated a poorer hemostatic profile of patients with brodifacoum [prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), 4.3 ± 4.8 versus 1.0 ± 0.1, P = 0.032; PT prolongation, 50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006; activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) prolongation, 50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006] than patients with bromadiolone poisoning. At the end of analysis, no patient died of the poisoning. CONCLUSION: The favorable outcome (zero mortality rate) is comparable to the published reports from other international poison centers. Further studies are warranted

KINETIC DIFFERENCES IN LOWER EXTREMITY BETWEEN BASEBALL PITCHING FROM PITCHER’S MOUND AND FLAT-GROUND

The purpose of this study was to investigate the kinetic differences in lower extremity between pitching from a mound and flat-ground. A motion capture system and two force plates were used simultaneously to collect the dynamic data of 8 baseball male pitchers. The results revealed that pitching from the mound generated higher propulsive force at the trailing leg as well as greater braking force and vertical ground reaction force at the lead leg (p< .05). The trailing leg in the mound condition generated greater knee posterior joint force while the lead leg had greater axial joint force at ankle and knee, as well as greater extension moment at ankle, knee and hip (p< .05). It was concluded that pitching from the mound generated higher ground reaction force, which resulted in higher joint forces and moments and thus might increase stresses at lower extremity

PANet: A Physics-guided Parametric Augmentation Net for Image Dehazing by Hazing

Image dehazing faces challenges when dealing with hazy images in real-world scenarios. A huge domain gap between synthetic and real-world haze images degrades dehazing performance in practical settings. However, collecting real-world image datasets for training dehazing models is challenging since both hazy and clean pairs must be captured under the same conditions. In this paper, we propose a Physics-guided Parametric Augmentation Network (PANet) that generates photo-realistic hazy and clean training pairs to effectively enhance real-world dehazing performance. PANet comprises a Haze-to-Parameter Mapper (HPM) to project hazy images into a parameter space and a Parameter-to-Haze Mapper (PHM) to map the resampled haze parameters back to hazy images. In the parameter space, we can pixel-wisely resample individual haze parameter maps to generate diverse hazy images with physically-explainable haze conditions unseen in the training set. Our experimental results demonstrate that PANet can augment diverse realistic hazy images to enrich existing hazy image benchmarks so as to effectively boost the performances of state-of-the-art image dehazing models