The Development of a Portable ECG Monitor Based on DSP

AbstractWith the advent of global information, researches of Smart Home system are in the ascendant, the ECG real-time detection, and wireless transmission of ECG become more useful. In order to achieve the purpose we developed a portable ECG monitor which achieves the purpose of cardiac disease remote monitoring, and will be used in the physical and psychological disease surveillance in smart home system, we developed this portable ECG Monitor, based on the analysis of existing ECG Monitor, using TMS320F2812 as the core controller, which complete the signal collection, storage, processing, waveform display and transmission

Hybrid Particle and Kalman Filtering for Pupil Tracking in Active IR Illumination Gaze Tracking System

A novel pupil tracking method is proposed by combining particle filtering and Kalman filtering for the fast and accurate detection of pupil target in an active infrared source gaze tracking system. Firstly, we utilize particle filtering to track pupil in synthesis triple-channel color map (STCCM) for the fast detection and develop a comprehensive pupil motion model to conduct and analyze the randomness of pupil motion. Moreover, we built a pupil observational model based on the similarity measurement with generated histogram to improve the credibility of particle weights. Particle filtering can detect pupil region in adjacent frames rapidly. Secondly, we adopted Kalman filtering to estimate the pupil parameters more precisely. The state transitional equation of the Kalman filtering is determined by the particle filtering estimation, and the observation of the Kalman filtering is dependent on the detected pupil parameters in the corresponding region of difference images estimated by particle filtering. Tracking results of Kalman filtering are the final pupil target parameters. Experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness and feasibility of this method.Published versio

Career-Specific Parenting Practices and Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Among Chinese Adolescents: The Interactive Effects of Parenting Practices and the Mediating Role of Autonomy

This study examined the unique and interactive effects of various career-specific parenting practices (i.e., parental career support, interference, and lack of engagement) on Chinese high school students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (CDSE) as well as the mediating role of autonomy in such associations. Based on data from 641 Chinese high school students (47.6% male; mean age = 15.28 years old, SD = 0.49) in 2016, two moderated mediating effects were identified. Higher level of parental career engagement strengthened the positive association between parental career support and adolescents’ autonomy, which in turn, was associated positively with adolescents’ CDSE. Parental career interference related negatively with adolescents’ CDSE via autonomy when lack of parental career engagement was low, but related positively with adolescents’ CDSE via autonomy when lack of parental career engagement was high. These findings advance our understanding of the underlying processes between career-specific parenting practices and adolescents’ CDSE. Implications for practices were discussed

Elevated Levels of Urinary 8-Hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine, Lymphocytic Micronuclei, and Serum Glutathione S-Transferase in Workers Exposed to Coke Oven Emissions

To investigate associations among occupational exposure to coke oven emissions (COEs), oxidative stress, cytogenotoxic effects, change in the metabolizing enzyme glutathione S-transferase (GST), and internal levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in coke oven workers, we recruited 47 male coke oven workers and 31 male control subjects from a coke oven plant in northern China. We measured the levels of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in urine, micronucleated binucleated cells (BNMNs) in peripheral blood lymphocyte, and GST in serum. Our results showed that the group exposed to COEs had significantly increased levels of 1-OHP [median 5.7; interquartile range (IQR), 1.4–12.0 μmol/mol creatinine] compared with the control group (3; 0.5–6.4 μmol/mol creatinine). In addition, the median levels (IQR) of 8-OHdG, BNMNs, and GST were markedly increased in the exposed [1.9 (1.4–15.4) μmol/mol creatinine; 6 (2–8) per thousand; 22.1 (14.9–31.2) U/L, respectively] compared with controls [1.3 (1.0–4.0) μmol/mol creatinine, 2 (0–4) per thousand; and 13.1 (9.5–16.7) U/L, respectively]. These results appeared to be modified by smoking. However, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that exposure to COEs had the highest odds ratio among variables analyzed and that smoking was not a significant confounder of the levels of studied biomarkers. Overall, the present findings suggest that COE exposure led to increased internal PAH burden, genetic damage, oxidative stress, and GST activity. The consequences of the changes in these biomarkers, such as risk of cancer, warrant further investigations

Single-cell transcriptome and antigen-immunoglobin analysis reveals the diversity of B cells in non-small cell lung cancer

Background Malignant transformation and progression of cancer are driven by the co-evolution of cancer cells and their dysregulated tumor microenvironment (TME). Recent studies on immunotherapy demonstrate the efficacy in reverting the anti-tumoral function of T cells, highlighting the therapeutic potential in targeting certain cell types in TME. However, the functions of other immune cell types remain largely unexplored. Results We conduct a single-cell RNA-seq analysis of cells isolated from tumor tissue samples of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and identify subtypes of tumor-infiltrated B cells and their diverse functions in the progression of NSCLC. Flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry experiments on two independent cohorts confirm the co-existence of the two major subtypes of B cells, namely the naïve-like and plasma-like B cells. The naïve-like B cells are decreased in advanced NSCLC, and their lower level is associated with poor prognosis. Co-culture of isolated naïve-like B cells from NSCLC patients with two lung cancer cell lines demonstrate that the naïve-like B cells suppress the growth of lung cancer cells by secreting four factors negatively regulating the cell growth. We also demonstrate that the plasma-like B cells inhibit cancer cell growth in the early stage of NSCLC, but promote cell growth in the advanced stage of NSCLC. The roles of the plasma-like B cell produced immunoglobulins, and their interacting proteins in the progression of NSCLC are further validated by proteomics data. Conclusion Our analysis reveals versatile functions of tumor-infiltrating B cells and their potential clinical implications in NSCLC

The MAPK Kinase Kinase GmMEKK1 Regulates Cell Death and Defense Responses

MAPK signaling pathways play critical roles in plant immunity. Here, we silenced multiple genes encoding MAPKs using virus-induced gene silencing mediated by Bean pod mottle virus to identify MAPK genes involved in soybean (Glycine max) immunity. Surprisingly, a strong hypersensitive response (HR) cell death was observed when soybean MAPK KINASE KINASE1 (GmMEKK1), a homolog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) MEKK1, was silenced. The HR was accompanied by the overaccumulation of defense signaling molecules, salicylic acid (SA) and hydrogen peroxide. Genes involved in primary metabolism, translation/transcription, photosynthesis, and growth/development were down-regulated in GmMEKK1-silenced plants, while the expression of defense-related genes was activated. Accordingly, GmMEKK1-silenced plants were more resistant to downy mildew (Peronospora manshurica) and Soybean mosaic virus compared with control plants. Silencing GmMEKK1 reduced the activation of GmMPK6 but enhanced the activation of GmMPK3 in response to flg22 peptide. Unlike Arabidopsis MPK4, GmMPK4 was not activated by either flg22 or SA. Interestingly, transient overexpression of GmMEKK1 in Nicotiana benthamiana also induced HR. Our results indicate that GmMEKK1 plays both positive and negative roles in immunity and appears to differentially activate downstream MPKs by promoting GmMPK6 activation but suppressing GmMPK3 activation in response to flg22. The involvement of GmMPK4 kinase activity in cell death and in flg22- or SA-triggered defense responses in soybean requires further investigation

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure