SenStick: Comprehensive Sensing Platform with an Ultra Tiny All-In-One Sensor Board for IoT Research

We propose a comprehensive sensing platform called SenStick, which is composed of hardware (ultra tiny all-in-one sensor board), software (iOS, Android, and PC), and 3D case data. The platform aims to allow all the researchers to start IoT research, such as activity recognition and context estimation, easily and efficiently. The most important contribution is the hardware that we have designed. Various sensors often used for research are embedded in an ultra tiny board with the size of 50 mm (W) × 10 mm (H) × 5 mm (D) and weight around 3 g including a battery. Concretely, the following sensors are embedded on this board: acceleration, gyro, magnetic, light, UV, temperature, humidity, and pressure. In addition, this board has BLE (Bluetooth low energy) connectivity and capability of a rechargeable battery. By using 110 mAh battery, it can run more than 15 hours. The most different point from other similar boards is that our board has a large flash memory for logging all the data without a smartphone. By using SenStick, all the users can collect various data easily and focus on IoT data analytics. In this paper, we introduce SenStick platform and some case studies. Through the user study, we confirmed the usefulness of our proposed platform

Study of hepatic toxicity in small liver tumors after photon or proton therapy based on factors predicting the benefits of proton

Objectives: In a previous study of hepatic toxicity, the following three factors were identified to predict the benefits of proton beam therapy (PBT) for hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) with a maximum diameter of ≤5 cm and Child-pugh grade A (CP-A): number of tumors (1 vs ≥2), the location of tumors (hepatic hilum or others), and the sum of the diameters of lesions. The aim of this study is to analyze the association between these three factors and hepatic toxicity. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients of CP-A treated with PBT or photon stereotactic body radiotherapy (X-ray radiotherapy, XRT) for HCC ≤5 cm. For normal liver dose, the V5, V10, V20 (volumes receiving 5, 10, and 20 Gy at least), and the mean dose was evaluated. The albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) and CP score changes from the baseline were evaluated at 3 and 6 months after treatment. Results: In 89 patients (XRT: 48, PBT: 41), those with two or three (2-3) predictive factors were higher normal liver doses than with zero or one (0-1) factor. In the PBT group, the ALBI score worsened more in patients with 2-3 factors than those with 0-1 factor, at 3 months (median: 0.26 vs 0.02, p = 0.032) and at 6 months (median: 0.35 vs 0.10, p = 0.009). The ALBI score change in the XRT group and CP score change in either modality were not significantly different in the number of predictive factors. Conclusion: The predictive factor numbers predicted the ALBI score change in PBT but not in XRT. Advances in knowledge: This study suggest that the number of predictive factors previously identified (0-1 vs 2-3) were significantly associated with dosimetric parameters of the normal liver in both modalities. In the proton group, the number of predictive factors was associated with a worsening ALBI score at 3 and 6 months, but these associations were not found in the photon SBRT group.A correction has been published: British Journal of Radiology, Volume 97, Issue 1155, March 2024, Page 694https://doi.org/10.1093/bjr/tqad05

The Closely Related RNA helicases, UAP56 and URH49, Preferentially Form Distinct mRNA Export Machineries and Coordinately Regulate Mitotic Progression

UAP56 and URH49, closely related RNA helicases in humans, form different mRNA export machineries, the hTREX complex and the AREX complex, respectively. These helicases regulate different sets of genes, among which are mitotic factors. Consistent with their target genes, each helicase is required for a different step in the mitotic process