Merging multi-OMICs with proteome integral solubility alteration unveils antibiotic mode of action

Antimicrobial resistance is responsible for an alarming number of deaths, estimated at 5 million per year. To combat priority pathogens, like Helicobacter pylori, the development of novel therapies is of utmost importance. Understanding the molecular alterations induced by medications is critical for the design of multi-targeting treatments capable of eradicating the infection and mitigating its pathogenicity. However, the application of bulk omics approaches for unraveling drug molecular mechanisms of action is limited by their inability to discriminate between target-specific modifications and off-target effects. This study introduces a multi-omics method to overcome the existing limitation. For the first time, the Proteome Integral Solubility Alteration (PISA) assay is utilized in bacteria in the PISA-Express format to link proteome solubility with different and potentially immediate responses to drug treatment, enabling us the resolution to understand target-specific modifications and off-target effects. This study introduces a comprehensive method for understanding drug mechanisms and optimizing the development of multi-targeting antimicrobial therapies

The effects of yam gruel on lowering fasted blood glucose in T2DM rats

© 2020 Xinjun Lin et al., published by De Gruyter 2020. There is increasing evidence of the linkage between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and gut microbiota. Based on our previous studies, we investigated the hypoglycemic mechanisms of yam gruel to provide a scientific basis for its popularization and application. Wistar rats were randomly divided into control and T2DM model groups. Rats in the model group were stimulated by a high-sugar/high-fat diet combined with an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin to induce T2DM. The T2DM rats were further subdivided randomly into three groups: (1) DM, (2) DM + yam gruel, and (3) DM + metformin. After 4 weeks of intervention, the changes in gut microbiota, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) (acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid), the expression of G protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR43), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), peptide YY (PYY), and fasted blood glucose (FBG) levels were observed. Yam gruel intervention elevated the abundance of probiotic bacteria and increased the expression of SCFAs, GPR43 receptor, GLP-1, and PYY. It also reduced FBG levels. We conclude that yam gruel can lower FBG by promoting the growth of probiotic bacteria, increasing the content of SCFAs, and enhancing the expression of GPR43 receptor to increase the content of GLP-1 and PYY in serum

Study on real-time industrial control networks

Boosted by business trends such as Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions such as real-time Ethernet and wireless technologies have been increasingly deployed in the industrial automation sector. Higher fluctuation and less predictability in terms of customer demand promoted by Industry 4.0 can be overcome by improving the flexibility of the system via network-based control. However, closing control loops over a shared communication network means that the system performance can be highly dependent on the quality of the communication services which transfer control variables (e.g., set-point and measurement) between controllers, sensors and actuators. It is of great importance to design a common networking solution to meet real-time (and wireless) requirements in networked control systems, and maintain the backward compatibility to distributed control systems where soft real-time communication is sufficient. This thesis firstly reviews existing Ethernet-like IIoT technologies and suggests a generic communication model with multiple data channels. The scheduling of data transmissions in different channels is presented, and wireless extension scheme is suggested to integrate wireless segments into the network. The communication model is defined so that a communication backbone can be established for all types of network-based control applications, such as motion control and path tracking of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). Next, the quality of service (QoS) of the hybrid network, including cycle time, end-to-end delay and communication reliability is analyzed. Finally, a typical industrial automation system with motion control and remote AGV tracking applications is presented and discussed to demonstrate the performance of the networking scheme proposed in the thesis where a hybrid network possessing various real-time characteristics is able to satisfy multiple types of control applications described in the case study. The benefits of the solution, i.e., flexibility and scalability, can be significant to fulfil dynamic market demands in the next generation automation systems powered by Industry 4.0.Doctor of Philosoph

Embedded implementation of model predictive control

105 p.Model Predictive Control (MPC) refers to a type of computer control technology that utilizes an explicit process model to predict the future response of a plant. It has become an established control technology in the petrochemical industry, and it is currently being increasingly applied in many other sectors. MPC outperforms other control strategies through its ability to deal with constraints. Constrained MPC can be formulated as a Quadratic Programming (QP) problem, which therefore is central to MPC. Interior Point Method (IPM) and Active Set Method (ASM) are two schemes commonly employed to solve QP problems.Master of Science (Computer Control and Automation

UTX Affects Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation through PTEN Signaling

Summary: Neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation and differentiation in the developing brain is a complex process precisely regulated by intrinsic and extrinsic signals. Although epigenetic modification has been reportedly involved in the regulation of the cerebral cortex, whether UTX, an H3K27me3 demethylase, regulates the development of cerebral cortex during the embryonic period is unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that Utx deficiency by knockdown and conditional knockout increases NSC proliferation and decreases terminal mitosis and neuronal differentiation. Furthermore, we find that impairment of cortical development caused by lack of Utx is less significant in males than in females. In addition, UTX demethylates H3K27me3 at the Pten promoter and promotes Pten expression. P-AKT and P-mTOR levels are increased in the Utx conditional knockout cortices. Finally, Utx or Pten overexpression can rescue the impairment of brain development caused by Utx loss. These findings may provide important clues toward deciphering brain diseases. : In this article, Jiao and colleagues show that UTX is a critical regulator of neural progenitor cell proliferation and neurogenesis. When Utx is suppressed, the generation of neurons and terminal mitosis are affected. This study states that UTX controls the development of embryonic cortex through Pten in a sex-specific manner. Keywords: neural stem cells, UTX, proliferation, differentiation, H3K27me

Performance evaluation of industrial Ethernet protocols for networked control application

Boosted by trends such as Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0, industrial Ethernet networks (EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT and PROFINET IRT as top-3 players) have been commonly deployed in industrial automation. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical guideline for selecting the right protocol in industrial networked control systems (NCSs) by comparing the performance of these protocols. Communication delays are discussed, formulated and evaluated with a study of a typical NCS. Simulation results demonstrate that with different frame packing, media access scheme, etc., EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT and PROFINET IRT offer different levels of real-time capabilities which lead to different control performance.Economic Development Board (EDB)The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) [grant number S11-1669-IPP]

Towards an IIoT-Based architecture for baggage handling systems

This paper presents an IIoT-enabled architecture for the baggage handling system (BHS) at airports. Instead of the static control over physical objects as in the current practice, the new structure powered by the IIoT leads to more dynamic and intelligent operations. The infrastructure collects more data as compared to the current implementations and makes use of the data to figure out the optimal configurations for the subsystems inside the BHS. Eventually, the control system is capable of autonomous adjustments according to the operating condition for achieving optimized performance.EDB (Economic Devt. Board, S’pore)Published versio

Anticipating Corporate Financial Performance from CEO Letters Utilizing Sentiment Analysis

With the emergence and tremendous growth of text mining, a computer-assisted approach for capturing sentiment viewpoints from textual data is gradually becoming a promising field, particularly when researchers are increasingly facing the problem of filtering bunches of useless information without capturing the essence in the big data era. This study aims at observing and classifying the sentiment orientation in CEO letters, digging the main corporate social responsibility (CSR) themes, and examining the effectiveness of CEO letters’ sentiment on forecasting financial performance. A specific sentiment dictionary has been proposed to identify and classify the sentiment orientation in CEO letters by utilizing the appraisal theory. Additionally, the qualitative data analysis software NVivo is applied to explore the CSR topics. Furthermore, a modified Altman’s Z-score model and machine-learning approach are employed to predict financial performance. The results of preliminary evaluations validate that approximately 62.14% of the texts represent positive polarity even when companies are not in a promising economic situation. The CSR themes mainly focus on business ethical responsibility, particularly ethical activities. Among various machine-learning approaches, the logistic regression approach is appropriate for predicting financial performance with the state-of-the-art accuracy of 70.46 %. The encouraging results indicate that the sentiment information inCEO letters is a vital factor for anticipating financial performance. This work not only offers a new analytic framework for associating linguistic theory with computer science and economic models but will also improve stakeholders’ decision-making

Locomotion Control System Design for the LOCH Humanoid Robot

Abstract-Design of the locomotion control system for the LOCH robot is presented in this paper. Gait planning and control algorithm for uneven terrain is also considered. The LOCH robot is an adult-sized biped humanoid robot. It adopts the distributed control structure based on CAN bus, and uses a Linux operating system as the software platform. The architecture of both the hardware and software system is introduced. The emphasis is then put onto the biped planning and control. An on-line planner is designed on the basis of the inverted arm model. It generates walking gaits adaptively according to user inputs and floor flatness changes. In handling uneven floor, an imaginary foot approach is proposed to convert the problem into flat floor planning. Stability control and compliant landing control are also investigated. Both experiments and simulations are performed to show the effectiveness of the proposed design