bSRWPSO-FKNN: A boosted PSO with fuzzy K-nearest neighbor classifier for predicting atopic dermatitis disease

IntroductionAtopic dermatitis (AD) is an allergic disease with extreme itching that bothers patients. However, diagnosing AD depends on clinicians’ subjective judgment, which may be missed or misdiagnosed sometimes.MethodsThis paper establishes a medical prediction model for the first time on the basis of the enhanced particle swarm optimization (SRWPSO) algorithm and the fuzzy K-nearest neighbor (FKNN), called bSRWPSO-FKNN, which is practiced on a dataset related to patients with AD. In SRWPSO, the Sobol sequence is introduced into particle swarm optimization (PSO) to make the particle distribution of the initial population more uniform, thus improving the population’s diversity and traversal. At the same time, this study also adds a random replacement strategy and adaptive weight strategy to the population updating process of PSO to overcome the shortcomings of poor convergence accuracy and easily fall into the local optimum of PSO. In bSRWPSO-FKNN, the core of which is to optimize the classification performance of FKNN through binary SRWPSO.ResultsTo prove that the study has scientific significance, this paper first successfully demonstrates the core advantages of SRWPSO in well-known algorithms through benchmark function validation experiments. Secondly, this article demonstrates that the bSRWPSO-FKNN has practical medical significance and effectiveness through nine public and medical datasets.DiscussionThe 10 times 10-fold cross-validation experiments demonstrate that bSRWPSO-FKNN can pick up the key features of AD, including the content of lymphocytes (LY), Cat dander, Milk, Dermatophagoides Pteronyssinus/Farinae, Ragweed, Cod, and Total IgE. Therefore, the established bSRWPSO-FKNN method practically aids in the diagnosis of AD

Facile Preparation of β-Cyclodextrin-Modified Polysulfone Membrane for Low-Density Lipoprotein Adsorption via Dopamine Self-Assembly and Schiff Base Reaction

A facile method for the immobilization of β-cyclodextrin on polysulfone membranes with the aim of selectively adsorbing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was established, which is based on the self-assembly of dopamine on the membrane followed by the Schiff base reaction with mono-(6-ethanediamine-6-deoxy)-β-cyclodextrin. The surface modification processes were validated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Surface wettability and surface charge of the membranes were investigated through the water contact angle and zeta potential analysis. The cyclodextrin-modified polysulfone membrane (PSF-CD) showed good resistance to protein solutions, as shown by the measurement of BSA adsorption. The assessment of BSA adsorption revealed that the cyclodextrin-modified polysulfone membrane (PSF-CD) exhibited excellent resistance to protein solutions. To investigate the adsorption and desorption behaviors of the membranes in single-protein or binary-protein solutions, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was employed. The results revealed that the PSF-CD possessed remarkable adsorption capacity and higher affinity for LDL in both single-protein and binary-protein solutions, rendering it a suitable material for LDL apheresis

Semaphorin-1a-like gene plays an important role in the embryonic development of silkworm, Bombyx mori.

Fuyin-lethal red egg (Fuyin-lre) is a red egg mutant discovered from the germplasm resource Fuyin of Bombyx mori. The embryo of Fuyin-lre stops developing at the late stage of gastrulation due to chromosome structural variation. In this work, precise mutation sites at both ends of the mutated region were determined, and two inserted sequences with lengths of 1232 bp and 1845 bp were obtained at both ends of the mutation region. Interestingly, a bmmar1 transposon was detected in the inserted 1845 bp sequence. Bmmar1 possesses features of the Tcl/mariner superfamily of transposable elements (TEs), which belongs to class II TEs that use a DNA-mediated "cut and paste" mechanism to transpose. This finding suggests that Fuyin-lre mutation might be related to the "cut and paste" action of bmmar1. The mutation resulted in the deletion of 9 genes in the mutation region, of which the red egg gene re (BMSK0002766) did not affect embryonic development of B. mori, and the BMSK0002765 gene was unexpressed during the early stage of embryonic development. The RNA interference results of the remaining 7 genes suggest that the semaphorin-1a-like gene (BMSK0002764) had a major contribution to the embryonic lethality of Fuyin-lre

Microphase Structure, Crystallization Behavior, and Wettability Properties of Novel Fluorinated Copolymers Poly(perfluoroalkyl acrylate-<i>co</i>-stearyl acrylate) Containing Short Perfluorohexyl Chains

Novel fluorinated copolymers of stearyl acrylate (SA) and (perfluorohexyl)­ethyl acrylate (C₆A), (perfluorohexyl)­ethyl methacrylate (C₆MA), 2-[[[[2-(perfluorohexyl)]-sulfonyl]­methyl] amino]­ethyl acrylate (C₆SA), and methacrylate (C₆SMA) were synthesized via miniemulsion copolymerization. The extremely hydrophobic monomers perfluoroalkyl acrylate (FA) and SA acted as the reactive costabilizer in the miniemulsion system. The microstructure and surface wetting properties of the copolymers were characterized by ¹H NMR, FT-IR, and dynamic contact angle test. The crystallization behaviors and fine surface structures of the copolymer films were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) analysis. The self-assembled aggregation and roughness of the copolymer films were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results showed that the fluorinated side chains interrupted and impeded the crystallizable side chains of SA from forming complete crystals. And the <i>T</i>_m and Δ<i>H</i>_f of the copolymers were decreased as a consequence of this effect. The fluorinated side chains in P­(C₆A/SA) and P­(C₆MA/SA) arranged between the crystallizable hydrocarbon side chains of SA, while the crystallization structure of fluorinated and nonfluorinated pendant groups existed all at once in copolymers P­(C₆SA/SA) and P­(C₆SMA/SA). The four copolymers exhibited very low surface free energy and excellent dynamic water repellency attributed to the restriction of perfluoroalkyl groups combined with crystallization of stearyl pendant groups

Novel Fluorinated Polymers Containing Short Perfluorobutyl Side Chains and Their Super Wetting Performance on Diverse Substrates

Because the emission of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was completely prohibited in 2015, the widely used poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances with long perfluoroalkyl groups must be substituted by environmentally friendly alternatives. In this study, one kind of potential alternative (i.e., fluorinated polymers with short perfluorobutyl side chains) has been synthesized from the prepared monomers {i.e., (perfluorobutyl)­ethyl acrylate (C₄A), (perfluorobutyl)­ethyl methacrylate (C₄MA), 2-[[[[2-(perfluorobutyl)]­sulfonyl]­methyl]­amino]­ethyl acrylate (C₄SA), and methacrylate (C₄SMA)}, and the microstructure, super wetting performance, and applications of the synthesized fluorinated polymers were systematically investigated. The thermal and crystallization behaviors of the fluoropolymer films were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis, respectively. Dynamic water-repellent models were constructed. The stable low surface energy and dynamic water- and oil-repellent properties of these synthesized fluorinated polymers with short perfluorobutyl side chains were attributed to the synergetic effect of amorphous fluorinated side chains in perfluoroalkyl acrylate and crystalline hydrocarbon pendant groups in stearyl acrylate. Outstanding water- and oil-repellent properties of fabrics and any other substrates could be achieved by a facile dip-coating treatment using a fluorinated copolymer dispersion. As a result, we believe that our prepared fluorinated copolymers are potential candidates to replace the fluoroalkylated polymers with long perfluorinated chains in nonstick and self-cleaning applications in our daily life