Sample entropy analysis of EEG signals via artificial neural networks to model patients' consciousness level based on anesthesiologists experience.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, as it can express the human brain's activities and reflect awareness, have been widely used in many research and medical equipment to build a noninvasive monitoring index to the depth of anesthesia (DOA). Bispectral (BIS) index monitor is one of the famous and important indicators for anesthesiologists primarily using EEG signals when assessing the DOA. In this study, an attempt is made to build a new indicator using EEG signals to provide a more valuable reference to the DOA for clinical researchers. The EEG signals are collected from patients under anesthetic surgery which are filtered using multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) method and analyzed using sample entropy (SampEn) analysis. The calculated signals from SampEn are utilized to train an artificial neural network (ANN) model through using expert assessment of consciousness level (EACL) which is assessed by experienced anesthesiologists as the target to train, validate, and test the ANN. The results that are achieved using the proposed system are compared to BIS index. The proposed system results show that it is not only having similar characteristic to BIS index but also more close to experienced anesthesiologists which illustrates the consciousness level and reflects the DOA successfully.This research is supported by the Center forDynamical Biomarkers and Translational Medicine, National Central University, Taiwan, which is sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant no. MOST103-2911-I-008-001). Also, it is supported by National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology in Taiwan (Grant nos. CSIST-095-V301 and CSIST-095-V302)

Lightweight and highly conductive silver nanoparticles functionalized meta-aramid nonwoven fabric for enhanced electromagnetic interference shielding

High-performance electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding material that that can function properly under extreme working conditions is critical for their practical applications. Herein, flexible and highly conductive meta-aramid (PMIA) nonwoven fabrics were fabricated by combining polydopamine (PDA) modification and electroless silver plating. The PDA modification greatly enhanced the efficient deposition of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and the interfacial cohesion between the AgNPs and the PMIA fibers. The silver-coated PMIA nonwoven fabric exhibited an electrical conductivity as high as 0.29 Ω/sq, an excellent EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of 92.6 dB and a high absolute EMI SE of 8194.7 dB cm^{2} g^{−1}. In addition, the silver-coated PMIA nonwoven fabric maintained high electrical conductivity and EMI SE after being subjected to washing, bending and torsion deformations, high/low temperature, strong acidic/alkaline solutions and different organic solvents. These results have clearly demonstrated that PMIA nonwoven fabric can be made highly electrically conductive by using a simple and highly scalable method. It holds great promise for the applications in EMI shielding materials that can be used in various harsh conditions

Flexible and Highly Conductive AgNWs/PEDOT:PSS Functionalized Aramid Nonwoven Fabric for High-Performance Electromagnetic Interference Shielding and Joule Heating

High-performance multifunctional textiles are highly demanded for human health-related applications. In this work, a highly conductive nonwoven fabric is fabricated by coating silver nanowires (AgNWs)/poly(3,4-ethyl enedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) on a poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) nonwoven fabric through a multistep dip coating process. The as-prepared PMIA/AgNWs/PEDOT:PSS composite nonwoven fabric shows an electrical resistance as low as 0.92 ± 0.06 Ω sq−1 with good flexibility. The incorporation of the PEDOT:PSS coating layer improves the adhesion between AgNWs and PMIA nonwoven fabric, and also enhances the thermal stability of the composite nonwoven fabric. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding and Joule heating performances of the PMIA/AgNWs/PEDOT:PSS composite nonwoven fabric are also investigated. The results show that the average EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of the single-layer nonwoven fabric in X-band is as high as 56.6 dB and retains a satisfactory level of SE after being washed, bended, and treated with acid/alkali solution and various organic solvents. The composite nonwoven fabric also exhibits low voltage-driven Joule heating performance with reliable heating stability and repeatability. It can be envisaged that the multifunctional PMIA/AgNWs/PEDOT:PSS nonwoven fabric with reliable stability and chemical robustness can be used in EMI shielding devices and personal thermal management products

Electrohydrodynamic printing of a dielectric elastomer actuator and its application in tunable lenses

Optical lenses driven by dielectric elastomer (DE) actuators with tunable focal lengths are presented here. They are inspired by the architecture of the crystalline lens and the ciliary muscle of the human eye and have prompted a growing interest. The most commonly used DEs in tunable lenses have often required highly transparent films and also the need to encapsulate clear liquid silicone to act as the lens. There is a restriction on the properties of the tunable lens imposed by materials limitations. Here, the fabrication of a fully 3D printed tunable lens with an inhomogeneous structure is described. It exhibited a 29% change in focal length from 33.6 mm to 26.1 mm under a dynamic driving voltage signal control. Furthermore, it displayed excellent stability when the focal length was tuned from far to near (30.1 mm to 25.3 mm) for 200 cycles. The tunable lens obtained mimics the working principle of the human eye in auto adjusting the focal length and has evident potential applications in imaging, information storage, beam steering and bifocal technology

The Eyes Have It: Sex and Sexual Orientation Differences in Pupil Dilation Patterns

Recent research suggests profound sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. These results, however, are based on measures of genital arousal, which have potential limitations such as volunteer bias and differential measures for the sexes. The present study introduces a measure less affected by these limitations. We assessed the pupil dilation of 325 men and women of various sexual orientations to male and female erotic stimuli. Results supported hypotheses. In general, self-reported sexual orientation corresponded with pupil dilation to men and women. Among men, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in bisexual-identified men. In contrast, among women, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in heterosexual-identified women. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. Because the measure of pupil dilation is less invasive than previous measures of sexual response, it allows for studying diverse age and cultural populations, usually not included in sexuality research

Quark Delocalization, Color Screening and Dibaryons

The quark delocalization and color screening model, a quark potential model, is used for a systematic search of dibaryon candidates in the $u,d$ and $s$ three flavor world. Color screening which appears in unquenched lattice gauge calculations and quark delocalization (which is similar to electron delocalization in molecular physics) are both included. Flavor symmetry breaking and channel coupling effects are studied. The model is constrained not only by baryon ground state properties but also by the $N$-$N$ scattering phase shifts. The deuteron and zero energy di-nucleon resonance are both reproduced qualitatively. The model predicts two extreme types of dibaryonic systems: ``molecular'' like the deuteron, and highly delocalized six-quark systems among which only a few narrow dibaryon resonances occur in the $u,d$ and $s$ three flavor world. Possible high spin dibaryon resonances are emphasized.Comment: 20 pages, latex, no figure

Automated Analysis of Craniofacial Morphology Using Magnetic Resonance Images

Quantitative analysis of craniofacial morphology is of interest to scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines, such as anthropology, developmental biology, and medicine. T1-weighted (anatomical) magnetic resonance images (MRI) provide excellent contrast between soft tissues. Given its three-dimensional nature, MRI represents an ideal imaging modality for the analysis of craniofacial structure in living individuals. Here we describe how T1-weighted MR images, acquired to examine brain anatomy, can also be used to analyze facial features. Using a sample of typically developing adolescents from the Saguenay Youth Study (N = 597; 292 male, 305 female, ages: 12 to 18 years), we quantified inter-individual variations in craniofacial structure in two ways. First, we adapted existing nonlinear registration-based morphological techniques to generate iteratively a group-wise population average of craniofacial features. The nonlinear transformations were used to map the craniofacial structure of each individual to the population average. Using voxel-wise measures of expansion and contraction, we then examined the effects of sex and age on inter-individual variations in facial features. Second, we employed a landmark-based approach to quantify variations in face surfaces. This approach involves: (a) placing 56 landmarks (forehead, nose, lips, jaw-line, cheekbones, and eyes) on a surface representation of the MRI-based group average; (b) warping the landmarks to the individual faces using the inverse nonlinear transformation estimated for each person; and (3) using a principal components analysis (PCA) of the warped landmarks to identify facial features (i.e. clusters of landmarks) that vary in our sample in a correlated fashion. As with the voxel-wise analysis of the deformation fields, we examined the effects of sex and age on the PCA-derived spatial relationships between facial features. Both methods demonstrated significant sexual dimorphism in craniofacial structure in areas such as the chin, mandible, lips, and nose

Towards personalised allele-specific CRISPR gene editing to treat autosomal dominant disorders

Abstract CRISPR/Cas9 holds immense potential to treat a range of genetic disorders. Allele-specific gene disruption induced by non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) DNA repair offers a potential treatment option for autosomal dominant disease. Here, we successfully delivered a plasmid encoding S. pyogenes Cas9 and sgRNA to the corneal epithelium by intrastromal injection and acheived long-term knockdown of a corneal epithelial reporter gene, demonstrating gene disruption via NHEJ in vivo. In addition, we used TGFBI corneal dystrophies as a model of autosomal dominant disease to assess the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in two allele-specific systems, comparing cleavage using a SNP-derived PAM to a guide specific approach. In vitro, cleavage via a SNP-derived PAM was found to confer stringent allele-specific cleavage, while a guide-specific approach lacked the ability to distinguish between the wild-type and mutant alleles. The failings of the guide-specific approach highlights the necessity for meticulous guide design and assessment, as various degrees of allele-specificity are achieved depending on the guide sequence employed. A major concern for the use of CRISPR/Cas9 is its tendency to cleave DNA non-specifically at “off-target” sites. Confirmation that S. pyogenes Cas9 lacks the specificity to discriminate between alleles differing by a single base-pair regardless of the position in the guide is demonstrated

Evaluation of macrophage migration inhibitory factor as an imaging marker for hepatocellular carcinoma in murine models

Objective. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is considered as an important mediator in the pathogenesis of neoplasia. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether MIF could be used as a marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) detection. Material and methods. Biodistribution and whole-body autoradiography studies of 131I-labeled anti-MIF monoclonal antibody (McAb) and 131I-labeled control IgG were performed. The HCC-bearing mice were injected with 3.7 MBq of each agent and killed at 24, 48, and 72 h postinjection (p.i.). The organs, blood, and HCC tissues were removed from model mice, weighed, and counted using a gamma-counter. The expression of MIF mRNA and protein within HCC tissues was confirmed by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Results. HCCs in model mice could be adequately visualized at 24 h p.i. The target-to-non-target (T/NT) ratios were 6.72 ± 1.09 (24 h), 9.85 ± 0.81 (48 h), and 12.31 ± 0.57 (72 h) for 131I-labeled anti-MIF McAb group, whereas in the control group of 131I-IgG, T/NT ratios were 4.65 ± 0.63 (24 h), 6.12 ± 0.60 (48 h), and 8.23 ± 0.35 (72 h) (p < 0.05). MIF mRNA expression was twofold higher in the HCC tissues than in the healthy liver tissues. MIF protein expression was much higher in the HCC tissues than in controls. Conclusions. Our findings suggested that 131I-anti-MIF McAb could be rapidly and specifically localized in tumors. Thus, MIF could be used as a marker for HCC tumor detection

Nut consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation in the Physicians' Health Study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Atrial Fibrillation is highly prevalent in clinical practice affecting approximately 2.3 million people in USA and 4.5 million people in European Union. The aim of the study was to examine the association between nut consumption and incident atrial fibrillation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Prospective cohort of 21,054 male participants of Physicians' Health Study I. Nut consumption was estimated using food frequency questionnaire and incident atrial fibrillation was ascertained through yearly follow-up questionnaires. Cox regression was used to estimate relative risks of atrial fibrillation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The average age was 54.6 ± 9.5 years (40.7-87.1). During a mean follow up of 20 years (median 24 years), 3,317 cases of atrial fibrillation occurred. The crude incidence rate was 7.6, 7.4, 8.2, 7.9, and 6.8 cases/1000 person-years for people reporting nut consumption of rarely/never, 1-3/month, 1/per week, 2-6/week, and ≥ 7/week, respectively. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (95% CI) for incident atrial fibrillation were 1.00 (ref), 1.00 (0.90-1.11), 1.09 (0.97-1.21), 1.07 (0.95-1.21), and 0.91 (0.70-1.17) for nut consumption from the lowest to the highest category of nut consumption (p for trend 0.26). No statistically significant association between nut consumption and atrial fibrillation was found when stratified by body mass index (BMI < 25 vs ≥ 25 kg/m²) or age (< 65 vs. ≥ 65 years).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data did not show an association between nut consumption and incident atrial fibrillation among US male physicians.</p