Bio-inspired Adaptable Facade Control Reflecting User\u27s Behavior

The purpose of this research is to develop the process of methodology in designing adaptable façade. This study focuses on the processes of façade operation control for each resident’s unit according to the user’s lifestyle. This study aims to develop the design methods that are applicable to the adaptable facade, which is inspired by the design inspiration of the biomimicry. The ideal façade to increase comfort in internal space is an adaptable façade that can constantly respond to changes in the environments. This chapter attempts in active adoption of adaptable facade that makes it possible to respond to changing requirements and environments, eventually enabling the creation of customized services for users. This chapter explores the processes of designing an adaptable façade controlled by three rules inspired by the behaviors of flocks of birds. This chapter shows how adopted bird intelligence can produce various façade controls. Also, this chapter demonstrates biomimetic façade control that has been implemented by behavior-based design. Through this demonstration, this chapter identifies the potentials of biomimetic design in facade using rules of bird flocking as source of design inspiration. This study concludes that a behavior-based approach provides flexibly responding façade to environments increasing users’ quality of life

CReHate: Cross-cultural Re-annotation of English Hate Speech Dataset

English datasets predominantly reflect the perspectives of certain nationalities, which can lead to cultural biases in models and datasets. This is particularly problematic in tasks heavily influenced by subjectivity, such as hate speech detection. To delve into how individuals from different countries perceive hate speech, we introduce CReHate, a cross-cultural re-annotation of the sampled SBIC dataset. This dataset includes annotations from five distinct countries: Australia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our thorough statistical analysis highlights significant differences based on nationality, with only 59.4% of the samples achieving consensus among all countries. We also introduce a culturally sensitive hate speech classifier via transfer learning, adept at capturing perspectives of different nationalities. These findings underscore the need to re-evaluate certain aspects of NLP research, especially with regard to the nuanced nature of hate speech in the English language

Use of Undergraduates as Participants in Clothing and Textiles Research

Social science researchers (e.g., psychology, marketing) have questioned the practice of using undergraduates (UGs) as research participants; by the end of the 20th century, the use of UGs in consumer behavior research was trending upward. Peterson (2001, p. 451) reported that for the Journal of Consumer Research, “the percentage using college students has steadily increased, from 23% in the first volume to 89% in the most recent volume.” Further, he noted that “86% of the empirically based articles appearing in the Journal of Consumer Psychology since its inception in 1992 have employed college students as subjects” (p. 451). Similar figures have been reported in psychology journals (Sherman, Buddie, Dragan, End, & Finney, 1999)

Promoting Thermal Conductivity of Alumina-Based Composite Materials by Systematically Incorporating Modified Graphene Oxide

Small amounts of thermally conductive graphene oxide (GO) and modified GO are systematically introduced as a second filler to thermal interface materials (TIMs) consisting of alumina (Al2O3) particles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The surface of GO is covalently linked with an organic moiety, octadecylamine (ODA), to significantly improve the miscibility and dispersity of GO across the TIM matrix. Subsequently, two series of PDMS-Al2O3 composite TIMs are manufactured as a function of GO and ODA-GO content (0.25 wt%–2.5 wt%) to understand the effect of these second additives. The incorporation of GO into the Al2O3-PDMS composite materials generally increases the thermal conductivity (TC), ranging from 18% to 29%. Conversely, the use of ODA-GO further enhances the overall performance of TIMs (22–54%) by facilitating the dispersion degree of GO across the composite matrix. The great improvement in TC is presumably related to the formation of conductive pathways by uniformly integrating 2D-type GO flakes across spherical Al2O3 particle networks. The ability to simply regulate the polarity of the thermally conductive second filler can provide an idea for designing cost-effective and practical TIM-2-type pads that can be commercially applicable in between an integrated heat spreader and a heat sink

A peptide encoded by a highly conserved gene belonging to the genus Streptomyces shows antimicrobial activity against plant pathogens

The genus Streptomyces has been unceasingly highlighted for the versatility and diversity of the antimicrobial agents they produce. Moreover, it is a heavily sequenced taxon in the phylum Actinobacteria. In this study, 47 sequence profiles were identified as proteins highly conserved within the genus Streptomyces. Significant hits to the 38 profiles were found in more than 2000 Streptomyces genomes, 11 of which were further conserved in more than 90% of Actinobacterial genomes analyzed. Only a few genes corresponding to these sequence profiles were functionally characterized, which play regulatory roles in the morphology and biosynthesis of antibiotics. Here a highly conserved sequence, namely, SHC-AMP (Streptomyces highly conserved antimicrobial peptide), which exhibited antimicrobial activity against bacterial and fungal plant pathogens, was reported. In particular, Arabidopsis thaliana was effectively protected against infection with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 by treatment with this peptide. Results indicated the potential application of this peptide as an antimicrobial agent for control of plant diseases. Our results suggest putative target genes for controlling Streptomyces spp., including the one exhibiting antimicrobial activity against a wide range of phytopathogens

Bespoke Nanoparticle Synthesis and Chemical Knowledge Discovery Via Autonomous Experimentations

The optimization of nanomaterial synthesis using numerous synthetic variables is considered to be extremely laborious task because the conventional combinatorial explorations are prohibitively expensive. In this work, we report an autonomous experimentation platform developed for the bespoke design of nanoparticles (NPs) with targeted optical properties. This platform operates in a closed-loop manner between a batch synthesis module of NPs and a UV- Vis spectroscopy module, based on the feedback of the AI optimization modeling. With silver (Ag) NPs as a representative example, we demonstrate that the Bayesian optimizer implemented with the early stopping criterion can efficiently produce Ag NPs precisely possessing the desired absorption spectra within only 200 iterations (when optimizing among five synthetic reagents). In addition to the outstanding material developmental efficiency, the analysis of synthetic variables further reveals a novel chemistry involving the effects of citrate in Ag NP synthesis. The amount of citrate is a key to controlling the competitions between spherical and plate-shaped NPs and, as a result, affects the shapes of the absorption spectra as well. Our study highlights both capabilities of the platform to enhance search efficiencies and to provide a novel chemical knowledge by analyzing datasets accumulated from the autonomous experimentations

Intrathecal delivery of recombinant AAV1 encoding hepatocyte growth factor improves motor functions and protects neuromuscular system in the nerve crush and SOD1-G93A transgenic mouse models

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neuromuscular disease resulting from motor neuron degeneration that causes muscle weakness, paralysis, and eventually respiratory failure. We investigated whether recombinant adeno-associated virus encoding human hepatocyte growth factor (rAAV-HGF) could generate beneficial effects in two mouse models with neuromuscular problems when intrathecally delivered to the subarachnoid space. We chose AAV serotype 1 (rAAV1) based on the expression levels and distribution of HGF protein in the lumbar spinal cord (LSC). After a single intrathecal (IT) injection of rAAV1-HGF, the protein level of HGF in the LSC peaked on day 14 and thereafter gradually decreased over the next 14 weeks. rAAV1-HGF was initially tested in the mouse nerve crush model. IT injection of rAAV1-HGF improved mouse hindlimb strength and rotarod performance, while histological analyses showed that the length of regenerated axons was increased and the structure of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) was restored. rAAV1-HGF was also evaluated in the SOD1-G93A transgenic (TG) mouse model. Again, rAAV1-HGF not only improved motor performance but also increased the survival rate. Moreover, the number and diameter of spinal motor neurons (SMNs) were increased, and the shape of the NMJs restored. Data from in vitro motor cortical culture experiments indicated that treatment with recombinant HGF protein (rHGF) increased the axon length of corticospinal motor neurons (CSMNs). When cultures were treated with an ERK inhibitor, the effects of HGF on axon elongation, protein aggregation, and oxidative stress were suppressed, indicating that ERK phosphorylation played an important role(s). Taken together, our results suggested that HGF might play an important role(s) in delaying disease progression in the SOD1-G93A TG mouse model by reducing oxidative stress through the control of ERK phosphorylation.This research was supported in part by grant (no. HI16C1222) of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) under the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea

The additive effect of herbal medicines on lifestyle modification in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is difficult to manage because of its complex pathophysiological mechanism. There is still no effective treatment other than lifestyle modification (LM) such as dietary modifications, regular physical activity, and gradual weight loss. Herbal medicines from traditional Chinese Medicine and Korean Medicine have been shown to be effective in the treatment of NAFLD based on many randomized controlled trials. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the additive effects of herbal medicines on LM in the treatment of NAFLD.Methods: Two databases (PubMed and Cochrane library) were searched using keywords related to NAFLD and herbal medicines. Then the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the therapeutic effects of herbal medicines combined with LM were selected. The pooled results were analyzed as mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for continuous data, and risk ratio (RR) with 95% CI for dichotomous data.Results and Discussion: Eight RCTs with a total of 603 participants were included for this review study. Participants were administered with multi-herbal formulas (Yiqi Sanju Formula, Tiaogan Lipi Recipe, and Lingguizhugan Decoction) or single-herbal extracts (Glycyrrhiza glabra L., Magnoliae offcinalis, Trigonella Foenum-graecum L. semen, Portulaca oleracea L., and Rhus Coriaria L. fructus) along with LM for 12 weeks. The meta-analysis showed a significant improvement in ultrasoundbased liver steatosis measured by odds ratio (OR) in the herbal medicine group than those with LM alone (OR = 7.9, 95% CI 0.7 to 95.2, p < 0.1). In addition, herbal medicines decreased the levels of aspartate transferase (MD -7.5, 95% CI -13.4 to −1.7, p = 0.01) and total cholesterol (MD -16.0, 95% CI -32.7 to 0.7, p = 0.06) more than LM alone. The meta-analysis partially showed clinical evidence supporting the additive benefits of herbal medicines for NAFLD in combination with LM. Whereas, it is necessary to provide a solid basis through higher-quality studies using a specific herbal medicine

The BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism Affects the Vulnerability of the Brain Structural Network

Val66Met, a naturally occurring polymorphism in the human brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene resulting in a valine (Val) to methionine (Met) substitution at codon 66, plays an important role in neuroplasticity. While the effect of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on local brain structures has previously been examined, its impact on the configuration of the graph-based white matter structural networks is yet to be investigated. In the current study, we assessed the effect of the BDNF polymorphism on the network properties and robustness of the graph-based white matter structural networks. Graph theory was employed to investigate the structural connectivity derived from white matter tractography in two groups, Val homozygotes (n = 18) and Met-allele carriers (n = 55). Although there were no differences in the global network measures including global efficiency, local efficiency, and modularity between the two genotype groups, we found the effect of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on the robustness properties of the white matter structural networks. Specifically, the white matter structural networks of the Met-allele carrier group showed higher vulnerability to targeted removal of central nodes as compared with those of the Val homozygote group. These findings suggest that the central role of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism in regards to neuroplasticity may be associated with inherent differences in the robustness of the white matter structural network according to the genetic variants. Furthermore, greater susceptibility to brain disorders in Met-allele carriers may be understood as being due to their limited stability in white matter structural connectivity

Growth and development alter susceptibility to acute renal injury.

Many of the studies of acute renal injury have been conducted in young mice usually during their rapid growth phase; yet, the impact of age or growth stage on the degree of injury is unknown. To address this issue, we studied three forms of injury (endotoxemic-, glycerol-, and maleate-induced) in mice ranging in age from adolescence (3 weeks) to maturity (16 weeks). The severity of injury within each model significantly correlated with weight and age. We also noticed a progressive age-dependent reduction in renal cholesterol content, a potential injury modifier. As the animals grew and aged they also exhibited stepwise decrements in the mRNAs of HMG CoA reductase and the low density lipoprotein receptor, two key cholesterol homeostatic genes. This was paralleled by decreased amounts of RNA polymerase II and the transcription factor SREBP1/2 at the reductase and lipoprotein receptor gene loci as measured by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Our study shows that the early phase of mouse growth can profoundly alter renal susceptibility to diverse forms of experimental acute renal injury