HSV-1 not only in human vestibular ganglia but also in the vestibular labyrinth

Reactivation of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in the vestibular ganglion (VG) is the suspected cause of vestibular neuritis (VN). Recent studies reported the presence of HSV-1 DNA not only in human VGs but also in vestibular nuclei, a finding that indicates the possibility of viral migration to the human vestibular labyrinth. Distribution of HSV-1 DNA was determined in geniculate ganglia, VGs, semicircular canals, and macula organs of 21 randomly obtained human temporal bones by nested PCR. Viral DNA was detected in 48% of the labyrinths, 62% of the VGs, and 57% of the geniculate ganglia. The potential significance of this finding is twofold: (1) Inflammation in VN could also involve the labyrinth and thereby cause acute unilateral vestibular deafferentation. (2) As benign paroxysmal positional vertigo often occurs in patients who have had VN, it could also be a sequel of viral labyrinthitis. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel

Motion-resilient Heart Rate Monitoring with In-ear Microphones

With the soaring adoption of in-ear wearables, the research community has started investigating suitable in-ear heart rate (HR) detection systems. HR is a key physiological marker of cardiovascular health and physical fitness. Continuous and reliable HR monitoring with wearable devices has therefore gained increasing attention in recent years. Existing HR detection systems in wearables mainly rely on photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors, however, these are notorious for poor performance in the presence of human motion. In this work, leveraging the occlusion effect that can enhance low-frequency bone-conducted sounds in the ear canal, we investigate for the first time \textit{in-ear audio-based motion-resilient} HR monitoring. We first collected the HR-induced sound in the ear canal leveraging an in-ear microphone under stationary and three different activities (i.e., walking, running, and speaking). Then, we devise a novel deep learning based motion artefact (MA) mitigation framework to denoise the in-ear audio signals, followed by an HR estimation algorithm to extract HR. With data collected from 20 subjects over four activities, we demonstrate that hEARt, our end-to-end approach, achieves a mean absolute error (MAE) of 5.46$\pm$6.50BPM, 12.34$\pm$9.24BPM, 14.22$\pm$10.69BPM and 15.44$\pm$11.43BPM for stationary, walking, running and speaking, respectively, opening the door to a new non-invasive and affordable HR monitoring with usable performance for daily activities. Not only does the performance hEARt outperform that of previous in-ear HR monitoring work, but is comparable (and even better whenever full-body motion is concerned) to that reported by in-ear PPG works

FactoryBricks: a New Learning Platform for Smart Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing industries are facing radical changes under the technological acceleration of Industry 4.0. The manufacturing workforce is not ready for such disruptions due to the lack of vertical skills on digital technologies. Production planning and control of manufacturing systems is often an experience-based art. Further, the companies need of offering training paths for long-life learning of their employees finds several obstacles in the availability of skilled trainers and the trainee’s low engagement with traditional learning models. This paper presents how the FactoryBricks project aims at overcoming the aforementioned issues. The project delivers effective training courses to enable the uptake of industrial technologies and smart manufacturing systems for professionals, either executives or technicians. Beside digital learning contents, the learners are offered an interaction with lab-scale models of production systems built with modular components such as LEGO®. The courses are designed in a modular way, and aim to teach manufacturing concepts in three main topics: (1) the physical system and its dynamics, (2) the physical-digital data connections for smart online analytics, and (3) the exploitation of digital models for production. The paper also presents the results of the prototypical implementation of the project

Vascular-confined multi-passage discoidal nanoconstructs for the low-dose docetaxel inhibition of triple-negative breast cancer growth

AbstractTaxane efficacy in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is limited by insufficient tumor accumulation and severe off-target effects. Nanomedicines offer a unique opportunity to enhance the anti-cancer potency of this drug. Here, 1,000 nm × 400 nm discoidal polymeric nanoconstructs (DPN) encapsulating docetaxel (DTXL) and the near infrared compound lipid-Cy5 were engineered. DPN were obtained by filling multiple times cylindrical wells in a poly(vinyl alcohol) template with a polymer mixture comprising poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEG-DA) chains together with therapeutic and imaging agents. The resulting "multi-passage" DPN exhibited higher DTXL loading, lipid-Cy5 stability, and stiffness as compared to the conventional "single-passage" approach. Confocal microscopy confirmed that DTXL-DPN were not taken up by MDA-MB-231 cells but would rather sit next to the cell membrane and slowly release DTXL thereof. Empty DPN had no toxicity on TNBC cells, whereas DTXL-DPN presented a cytotoxic potential comparable to free DTXL (IC50 = 2.6 nM ± 1.0 nM vs. 7.0 nM ± 1.09 nM at 72 h). In orthotopic murine models, DPN accumulated in TNBC more efficiently than free-DTXL. With only 2 mg/kg DTXL, intravenously administered every 2 days for a total of 13 treatments, DTXL-DPN induced tumor regression and were associated to an overall 80% survival rate as opposed to a 30% survival rate for free-DTXL, at 120 days. All untreated mice succumbed before 90 days. Collectively, this data demonstrates that vascular confined multi-passage DPN, biomimicking the behavior of circulating platelets, can efficiently deliver chemotherapeutic molecules to malignant tissues and effectively treat orthotopic TNBC at minimal taxane doses

Conocimiento, actitudes y percepciones sobre VIH/SIDA e infecciones de transmisión sexual en estudiantes ingresados a odontología y medicina de una universidad venezolana

En la lucha contra las infecciones de transmisión sexual (ITS) y la infección por el Virus de Inmunodeficiencia Humana (VIH)/Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida (SIDA) la formación y capacitación desde etapas tempranas de la carrera profesional requiere, entre otras cosas, conocer el nivel de conocimientos, actitudes y percepciones (CAP), que los estudiantes de las ciencias de la salud tienen al respecto, abordando no solo la carrera de medicina, sino otras, como es el caso de odontología. Por estas razones el objetivo de la presente investigación fue evaluar el nivel de CAP de una muestra de estudiantes de pregrado de primer año de ambas carreras de una universidad venezolana (Universidad Central de Venezuela), con respecto a las ITS e infección VIH/SIDA. Del total (n=120), 63,3% correspondió al sexo femenino; la edad promedio fue de 18,64 años. Con respecto a la proporción de respuestas correctas o en acuerdo de toda la muestra estudiada, se encontró que del total de preguntas, el rango de respuestas correctas o en acuerdo en la población evaluada estuvo entre 60% y 100,0%, respondiendo correctamente o en acuerdo en promedio 82,6% de las respuestas (±8,46), siendo significativamente mayor en estudiantes de medicina (84,92%±7,78%) que en estudiantes de odontología (80,29%±8,54%) (t=3,101; p=0,002). En términos generales se observó que los estudiantes evaluados tanto de odontología como de medicina de la principal universidad venezolana presentan un buen nivel de conocimiento básico como actitudes y percepciones adecuadas sobre el VIH/SIDA e ITS. Es importante tomar en consideración los resultados para futuros estudios y especialmente para intervenciones que permitan con ello tener una correcta actitud y percepción sobre el VIH/SIDA e ITS por parte de ellos