SlAction: Non-intrusive, Lightweight Obstructive Sleep Apnea Detection using Infrared Video

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent sleep disorder affecting approximately one billion people world-wide. The current gold standard for diagnosing OSA, Polysomnography (PSG), involves an overnight hospital stay with multiple attached sensors, leading to potential inaccuracies due to the first-night effect. To address this, we present SlAction, a non-intrusive OSA detection system for daily sleep environments using infrared videos. Recognizing that sleep videos exhibit minimal motion, this work investigates the fundamental question: "Are respiratory events adequately reflected in human motions during sleep?" Analyzing the largest sleep video dataset of 5,098 hours, we establish correlations between OSA events and human motions during sleep. Our approach uses a low frame rate (2.5 FPS), a large size (60 seconds) and step (30 seconds) for sliding window analysis to capture slow and long-term motions related to OSA. Furthermore, we utilize a lightweight deep neural network for resource-constrained devices, ensuring all video streams are processed locally without compromising privacy. Evaluations show that SlAction achieves an average F1 score of 87.6% in detecting OSA across various environments. Implementing SlAction on NVIDIA Jetson Nano enables real-time inference (~3 seconds for a 60-second video clip), highlighting its potential for early detection and personalized treatment of OSA.Comment: Accepted to ICCV CVAMD 2023, poste

Development of near-white surface of Ca(OH)2-Na2CO3-activated coal bottom ash

This study demonstrated that the Ca(OH)2-Na2CO3 activation produced a near-white surface of hardened samples having a high lightness index using dark coal-fired bottom ash. In this study, the lightness index (L*) (index of black (0) to white (1 00)) of raw dark bottom ash was 36.73, but after the activation, the hardened sample showed a significantly increased L* (77.93) (i.e., 112.2% L* increase) with a near-white surface. The Ca(OH)2- Na2CO3-activation also decreased the values of a* (index of green to red) and b*(index of blue to yellow), implying the removal of chromatic colors. However, this whitening effect significantly depended on the particle size of raw bottom ash, controlled by the milling process, and the produced amounts of white reaction products (particularly, C-S-H (gel) and CaCO3), affected by the milling process and substituted ratios with fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). The compressive strength of the 100 wt% bottom ash sample was only 5.3 MPa at three days, but it was enhanced to have enough strength over 7.4-10.3 MPa (adequate for structural bricks) without losing the surface brightness noticeably (L* > 70) by the milling process or by substituting bottom ash with fly ash or GGBFS

Examination of sulfate resistance of nano-alumina added ordinary Portland cement paste, focusing on the two different crystallinity of nano-aluminas

This study examined the influence of the crystallinity of added nano-alumina on the sulfate resistance of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) paste. Two crystalline types of nano-aluminas (a-and ?-phase) were incorporated in cement pastes, which were exposed to sulfate solution. In the results, both paste samples having a- and ?-phase aluminas had accelerated compressive strength loss and increased length expansion compared to the sample without alumina addition. In particular, the rapidly decreased dynamic elastic modulus of the nano-alumina added samples postulates the greatly increased internal stress likely by the increased formation of volume expansive reaction products, such as ettringite, which was supported by the XRD and TG results. The greater ettringite formation in the nano-alumina added samples was likely due to reactive AH(3) (=Al(OH)(3)) gel formation as the higher consumption degree of portlandite in the alumina added samples indirectly indicates the active AH(3) gel formation, resulting in additional ettringite formation from the reaction of AH(3) with Na2SO4 solution. A further degree of sulfate attack was observed in the ?-alumina added sample for the long-term Na2SO4 exposure (180 days) mainly due to the greater degree of gypsum formation inducing more internal expansive stress compared to the a-alumina added sample

Exosome-based photoacoustic imaging guided photodynamic and immunotherapy for the treatment of pancreatic cancer

Exosomes, which are released from all cells and take part in cell-to-cell communication, have been utilized as drug delivery vehicles in many recent studies. Immunotherapy is an emerging technology which uses patients' innate immune systems. In immunotherapy, immune cells are stimulated through antibodies, the other immune cells and genetic modifications for the purposes of, for instance, cancer therapy. In this study, tumor-derived re-assembled exosome (R-Exo) was simultaneously utilized as both a drug delivery carrier and an immunostimulatory agent. A chlorin e6 photosensitizer was loaded into tumor-derived exosomes during exosomal re-assembly. After this modification, R-Exo retains its original average size and has the same membrane proteins, which allows for targeting of tumor cells. Chlorin e6-loaded R-Exo (Ce6-R-Exo) can be visualized by photoacoustic imaging and can efficiently generate reactive oxygen species inside tumor cells under laser irradiation. In addition, Ce6-R-Exo increased the release of cytokines from immune cells, which indicates that these modified exosomes can be used as an immunotherapeutic agent. In conclusion, we developed a novel strategy that enables photoacoustic imaging-guided photodynamic and immune-combination therapy for the treatment of cancer with tumor-derived Ce6-R-Exo. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.FALS

The calcineurin inhibitor Sarah (Nebula) exacerbates Aβ42 phenotypes in a Drosophila model of Alzheimer's disease

Expression of the Down syndrome critical region 1 (DSCR1) protein, an inhibitor of the Ca2+-dependent phosphatase calcineurin, is elevated in the brains of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) or Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although increased levels of DSCR1 were often observed to be deleterious to neuronal health, its beneficial effects against AD neuropathology have also been reported, and the roles of DSCR1 on the pathogenesis of AD remain controversial. Here, we investigated the role of sarah (sra; also known as nebula), a Drosophila DSCR1 ortholog, in amyloid-β42 (Aβ42)-induced neurological phenotypes in Drosophila. We detected sra expression in the mushroom bodies of the fly brain, which are a center for learning and memory in flies. Moreover, similar to humans with AD, Aβ42-expressing flies showed increased Sra levels in the brain, demonstrating that the expression pattern of DSCR1 with regard to AD pathogenesis is conserved in Drosophila. Interestingly, overexpression of sra using the UAS-GAL4 system exacerbated the rough-eye phenotype, decreased survival rates and increased neuronal cell death in Aβ42-expressing flies, without modulating Aβ42 expression. Moreover, neuronal overexpression of sra in combination with Aβ42 dramatically reduced both locomotor activity and the adult lifespan of flies, whereas flies with overexpression of sra alone showed normal climbing ability, albeit with a slightly reduced lifespan. Similarly, treatment with chemical inhibitors of calcineurin, such as FK506 and cyclosporin A, or knockdown of calcineurin expression by RNA interference (RNAi), exacerbated the Aβ42-induced rough-eye phenotype. Furthermore, sra-overexpressing flies displayed significantly decreased mitochondrial DNA and ATP levels, as well as increased susceptibility to oxidative stress compared to that of control flies. Taken together, our results demonstrating that sra overexpression augments Aβ42 cytotoxicity in Drosophila suggest that DSCR1 upregulation or calcineurin downregulation in the brain might exacerbate Aβ42-associated neuropathogenesis in AD or DS

Coriandrum sativum Suppresses A beta 42-Induced ROS Increases, Glial Cell Proliferation, and ERK Activation

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common neurodegenerative disease, has a complex and widespread pathology that is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) in the brain and various cellular abnormalities, including increased oxidative damage, an amplified inflammatory response, and altered mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling. Based on the complex etiology of AD, traditional medicinal plants with multiple effective components are alternative treatments for patients with AD. In the present study, we investigated the neuroprotective effects of an ethanol extract of Coriandrum sativum (C. sativum) leaves on Aβ cytotoxicity and examined the molecular mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects. Although recent studies have shown the benefits of the inhalation of C. sativum oil in an animal model of AD, the detailed molecular mechanisms by which C. sativum exerts its neuroprotective effects are unclear. Here, we found that treatment with C. sativum extract increased the survival of both Aβ-treated mammalian cells and Aβ42-expressing flies. Moreover, C. sativum extract intake suppressed Aβ42-induced cell death in the larval imaginal disc and brain without affecting Aβ42 expression and accumulation. Interestingly, the increases in reactive oxygen species levels and glial cell number in AD model flies were reduced by C. sativum extract intake. Additionally, C. sativum extract inhibited the epidermal growth factor receptor- and Aβ-induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). The constitutively active form of ERK abolished the protective function of C. sativum extract against the Aβ42-induced eye defect phenotype in Drosophila. Taken together, these results suggest that C. sativum leaves have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and ERK signaling inhibitory properties that are beneficial for patients with AD. © 2016 World Scientific Publishing Company.