Principle and performance of Concanavalin A-sugar affinity based closed-loop insulin delivery system

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Increased expression of CD55 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Purpose: To analyze the expression of complement delay-accelerating factor (CD55) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathologic features, including survival rate. Methods: Eighty-two nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues were evaluated for CD55 expression using immunohistochemistry. The association between CD55 expression and various clinicopathological characteristics including overall survival was analyzed. Results: Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the protein expression of CD55 detected in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues was higher than that in the normal nasopharyngeal tissue (P=0.003). In addition, high levels of CD55 protein were positively correlated with the status of lymph node metastasis (P=0.02) and distant metastasis (P=0.01), and clinical stage (P=0.002) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Patients with positive CD55 expression had a significantly shorter overall survival time than did patients with negative CD55 expression (P=0.001). Multivariate analysis suggested that the expression pattern of CD55 protein was an independent prognostic indicator (P=0.009) for the survival of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Conclusion: The data from this study suggest, for the first time, that CD55 is frequently expressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its expression is associated with decreased patient survival; therefore, CD55 expression may be a potential unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Simultaneous Prediction of Soil Properties Using Multi_CNN Model

Soil nutrient prediction based on near-infrared spectroscopy has become the main research direction for rapid acquisition of soil information. The development of deep learning has greatly improved the prediction accuracy of traditional modeling methods. In view of the low efficiency and low accuracy of current soil prediction models, this paper proposes a soil multi-attribute intelligent prediction method based on convolutional neural networks, by constructing a dual-stream convolutional neural network model Multi_CNN that combines one-dimensional convolution and two-dimensional convolution, the intelligent prediction of soil multi-attribute is realized. The model extracts the characteristics of soil attributes from spectral sequences and spectrograms respectively, and multiple attributes can be predicted simultaneously by feature fusion. The model is based on two different-scale soil near-infrared spectroscopy data sets for multi-attribute prediction. The experimental results show that the RP2 of the three attributes of Total Carbon, Total Nitrogen, and Alkaline Nitrogen on the small dataset are 0.94, 0.95, 0.87, respectively, and the RP2 of the attributes of Organic Carbon, Nitrogen, and Clay on the LUCAS dataset are, respectively, 0.95, 0.91, 0.83, And compared with traditional regression models and new prediction methods commonly used in soil nutrient prediction, the multi-task model proposed in this paper is more accurate

Tactile and Thermal Sensors Built from Carbon–Polymer Nanocomposites—A Critical Review

This paper provides a critical review of tactile and thermal sensors which are built from carbon nanomaterial-filled polymer composites (CNPCs). To make the review more comprehensive and systematic, the sensors are viewed as a system, and a general knowledge architecture for a system called function-context-behavior-principle-state-structure (FCBPSS) is employed to classify information as well as knowledge related to CNPC sensors. FCBPSS contains six basic concepts, namely, F: function, C: context, B: behavior, P: principle, and SS: state and structure. As such, the principle that explains why such composites can work as temperature and pressure sensors, various structures of the CNPC sensor, which realize the principle, and the behavior and performance of CNPC sensors are discussed in this review. This review also discusses the fabrication of the CNPC sensor. Based on the critical review and analysis, the future directions of research on the CNPC sensor are discussed; in particular, the need to have a network of CNPC sensors that can be installed on curved bodies such as those of robots is elaborated

Model for the Patterns of Salt-Spray-Induced Chloride Corrosion in Concretes under Coupling Action of Cyclic Loading and Salt Spray Corrosion

In this study, the patterns of chloride ion erosion of unsaturated concrete subjected to the coupling action of cyclic loading and salt spray corrosion were experimentally studied, and Fick’s Second Law was used to fit the variation patterns of chloride concentration to obtain the chloride diffusion coefficient. Accordingly, we have established a mathematical model that describes chloride transport in unsaturated concrete and accounts for the effects of gas flow, water migration, convection diffusion, and capillary action. This model is composed of three equations—the gas flow equation, the solution flow equation, and the solute convection⁻diffusion equation. The COMSOL numerical analysis software was subsequently used to obtain solutions for this model, based on parameters such as porosity and the chloride diffusion coefficient. Subsequently, the saturation, relative permeability, and the chloride ion concentration during the first corrosion cycle were analyzed. The numerical results were consistent with the experimental values and were therefore superior to the values obtained using Fick’s Second Law

Pathogenic Elizabethkingia miricola Infection in Cultured Black-Spotted Frogs, China, 2016

Multiregional outbreaks of meningitis-like disease caused by Elizabethkingia miricola were confirmed in black-spotted frog farms in China in 2016. Whole-genome sequencing revealed that this amphibian E. miricola strain is closely related to human clinical isolates. Our findings indicate that E. miricola can be epizootic and may pose a threat to humans

Meso-structure and fracture mechanism of mudstone at high temperature

The meso-structure mineral composition and fracture mechanism of uniaxial compressed mudstone samples at high temperature were analyzed by XRD and scanning electron microscopy. The effect of temperature on mudstone composition and fracture mechanism were studied from a meso-structural perspective, and the relationship between meso-structure and macro-mechanical characteristics at high temperature was revealed. The findings demonstrated that the fluctuation in diffraction intensity of kaolinite in the mudstone caused the fluctuation in its mechanical properties. The overall structure underwent a phase change around 600 °C, which led to the sudden change in the mechanical properties of mudstone samples. When the temperature reached 600 °C, the crystalline state worsened and kaolinite disappeared; however, some illite was produced, indicating that the chemical reaction of the structure and sudden drop of bearing capacity of the mudstone. Mudstone fracturing at high temperature involves mainly intergranular and transgranular fractures, which are typical in micro-brittle tensile failure. Considering the macro-fracture characteristics of mudstone, the results suggested that macro-fracture under external force corresponds to the meso-fracture. Keywords: Mudstone, Mineral composition, SEM, Meso-fracture, Macro-fractur

Highly Sensitive and Flexible Copper Oxide/Graphene Non‐Enzymatic Glucose Sensor by Laser Direct Writing

Abstract Accurate and convenient detection of human blood glucose levels is an effective method for early diagnosis of diabetes and prevention of complications. The flexible and wearable electrochemical glucose sensor with low cost, fast responsiveness, good stability, reliability, and high sensitivity has attracted much attention in monitoring glucose concentration. The preparation of a conductive layer with catalytic activity on a flexible substrate is the key to making a wearable glucose sensor. Here, graphene composite materials sintered with copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles are successfully prepared on a polyimide film by laser direct writing method and fabricated a flexible non‐enzymatic glucose sensor using laser‐engraved graphene (LEG) as a conductive electrode. The CuO/LEG sensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 619.43 μA mm−1 cm−2 in 0–3 mm glucose and 462.96 μA mm−1 cm−2 in 0–8 mm glucose. In addition, the CuO/LEG sensor shows good reproducibility, high anti‐interference capability, and long‐term stability. It also presents good bending stability, which can maintain 82.40% initial current after 100 times bending. Moreover, the CuO/LEG sensor has an obvious step‐ampere response in the detection of sweat samples, indicating the great potential of wearable sweat sensors

3D Bioprinting of the Sustained Drug Release Wound Dressing with Double-Crosslinked Hyaluronic-Acid-Based Hydrogels

Hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogels are widely used in biomedical applications due to their excellent biocompatibility. HA can be Ultraviolet (UV)-crosslinked by modification with methacrylic anhydride (HA-MA) and crosslinked by modification with 3,3′-dithiobis(propionylhydrazide) (DTP) (HA-SH) via click reaction. In the study presented in this paper, a 3D-bioprinted, double-crosslinked, hyaluronic-acid-based hydrogel for wound dressing was proposed. The hydrogel was produced by mixing HA-MA and HA-SH at different weight ratios. The rheological test showed that the storage modulus (G’) of the HA-SH/HA-MA hydrogel increased with the increase in the HA-MA content. The hydrogel had a high swelling ratio and a high controlled degradation rate. The in vitro degradation test showed that the hydrogel at the HA-SH/HA-MA ratio of 9:1 (S9M1) degraded by 89.91% ± 2.26% at 11 days. The rheological performance, drug release profile and the cytocompatibility of HA-SH/HA-MA hydrogels with loaded Nafcillin, which is an antibacterial drug, were evaluated. The wound dressing function of this hydrogel was evaluated by Live/Dead staining and CCK-8 assays. The foregoing results imply that the proposed HA-SH/HA-MA hydrogel has promise in wound repair applications