High-throughput screening of encapsulated islets using wide-field lens-free on-chip imaging

Islet microencapsulation is a promising solution to diabetes treatment, but its quality control based on manual microscopic inspection is extremely low-throughput, highly variable and laborious. This study presents a high-throughput islet-encapsulation quality screening system based on lens-free on-chip imaging with a wide field-of-view of 18.15 cm^2, which is more than 100 times larger than that of a lens-based optical microscope, enabling it to image and analyze ~8,000 microcapsules in a single frame. Custom-written image reconstruction and processing software provides the user with clinically important information, such as microcapsule count, size, intactness, and information on whether each capsule contains an islet. This high-throughput and cost-effective platform can be useful for researchers to develop better encapsulation protocols as well as perform quality control prior to transplantation

Clinical efficacy and safety of platinum-containing neoadjuvant immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of platinum-containing neoadjuvant immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer. Methods Sixty-four patients with PD-L1 positive triple-negative breast cancer were enrolled and randomly divided into the control（n = 32）and observation groups（n = 32）. In the control group，preoperative chemotherapy regimen of albumin-bound paclitaxel plus cisplatin（TP）was given，while the observation group received platinum-containing neoadjuvant immunotherapy--combined with programmed death receptor-1（PD-1）inhibitor carrilizumab on the basis of TP chemotherapy regimen of control group. At 4 weeks post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy，whether modified radical surgery or breast-conserving surgery was chosen based on surgical indications，and whether axillary lymph node dissection was performed according to intraoperative sentinel lymph node biopsy results. The objective response rate，disease control rate，pathological complete response rate，breast conservation rate，axillary lymph node exemption rate，T lymphocyte subset levels，hypoxia-inducible factor-1αlevels，vascular endothelial growth factor levels，and the incidence of adverse reactions were compared between two groups. Results After 6 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy，the objective remission rate，pathological complete remission rate，and elevated level of CD4+ T lymphocytes in the observation group were higher than those in the control group（all P < 0.05）. The levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor in the observation group were lower than those in the control group（all P < 0.05）. Although the disease control rate，breast conservation rate and exemption rate of axillary lymph node dissection were relatively high in the observation group，the difference was not significant when compared with that in the control group（P > 0.05）. There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between two groups（P > 0.05）. Conclusion Platinum-containing neoadjuvant immunotherapy is efficacious and safe for triple-negative breast cancer，which reduces the tumor load and improves clinical prognosis of the patients

ERNIE-mmLayout: Multi-grained MultiModal Transformer for Document Understanding

Recent efforts of multimodal Transformers have improved Visually Rich Document Understanding (VrDU) tasks via incorporating visual and textual information. However, existing approaches mainly focus on fine-grained elements such as words and document image patches, making it hard for them to learn from coarse-grained elements, including natural lexical units like phrases and salient visual regions like prominent image regions. In this paper, we attach more importance to coarse-grained elements containing high-density information and consistent semantics, which are valuable for document understanding. At first, a document graph is proposed to model complex relationships among multi-grained multimodal elements, in which salient visual regions are detected by a cluster-based method. Then, a multi-grained multimodal Transformer called mmLayout is proposed to incorporate coarse-grained information into existing pre-trained fine-grained multimodal Transformers based on the graph. In mmLayout, coarse-grained information is aggregated from fine-grained, and then, after further processing, is fused back into fine-grained for final prediction. Furthermore, common sense enhancement is introduced to exploit the semantic information of natural lexical units. Experimental results on four tasks, including information extraction and document question answering, show that our method can improve the performance of multimodal Transformers based on fine-grained elements and achieve better performance with fewer parameters. Qualitative analyses show that our method can capture consistent semantics in coarse-grained elements.Comment: Accepted by ACM Multimedia 202

Efficient characterization on the interlayer shear strengths of 3D printing polymers

Shear strength measurement becomes increasingly important because three-dimensional (3D) printing materials are used in load-bearing structures subjected to a combined normal and shear stress state. Hence, this paper presents a combined experimental and numerical investigation of the interlayer shear strength measurement approach, and its application to four kinds of 3D printing polymers including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), and polylactic acid (PLA) made with fused deposition modeling (FDM), and polyamide 12 (PA12) made with selective laser sintering (SLS). First, a traditional Iosipescu shear specimen was employed to validate the uniform shear strain field using digital image correlation. Second, a new necking-shaped shear specimen was proposed to measure the shear strength efficiently with the aid of an effective alignment assistant beam. Third, 3D finite element analysis was conducted to highlight the stress comparisons of the Iosipescu shear specimen and the necking-shaped shear specimen. In order to quantify the anisotropic strengths, three kinds of shear specimens with different build directions were designed and tested. The results demonstrated that the minimum shear strength of a 3D printing polymer specimen was the interlayer shear strength when the shear force was acting along the printing surface. Our measurement was consistent with the shear strength measurements of the same type of 3D printing PA reported by other researchers. Moreover, our measurement was more conservative and accurate due to the pure shear stress state of all specimens

A systematic investigation on the minimum tensile strengths and size effects of 3D printing polymers

Unlike isotropic homogenous materials, 3D printing polymers are anisotropic in terms of their strength and fracture toughness properties, according to previous research. Therefore, the lowest strength must be accurately measured before the extensive application of any 3D printing materials. Certain 3D printing materials have been increasingly employed in large structures; therefore, the size effect of their strengths has become very important. In this work, we performed a systematic experimental investigation on the minimum strengths and size effects of four common 3D printing polymers made by fusion deposition modeling and injection molding. Three types of tensile specimens with very different cross-sectional areas were selected. For each material system, two types of specimens with different printing surface angles were employed. The results from 200 specimens demonstrated that the minimum tensile strengths in the build direction of some specimens were only 25% that of the other directions in the same specimens, and 59% of the injection-molded specimens composed of the same material. No general conclusion on the size effects of the tensile strengths could be made for most specimens. Only the strengths along the build direction decreased up to 72% in two types of specific specimens if their cross-sectional areas increased by 60 times. Although their strengths were anisotropic, the stiffness properties of the 3D printing polymers were isotropic. Digital image correlation measurements showed that the Young's moduli of all specimens composed of the same material were similar. A dual-notch mechanics model was employed to explain the anisotropic strengths, and a fractography analysis supported the size effect

Prepartum body conditions affect insulin signaling pathways in postpartum adipose tissues in transition dairy cows

Abstract Background Overconditioned dairy cows are susceptible to excessive lipolysis and increased insulin resistance during the transition period. The associations among body fat reserve, insulin resistance, and lipolysis in adipose tissues (AT) remain to be elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether excessive fat reserves influence the insulin signaling pathway in AT postpartum. Results Twenty multiparous dairy cows were selected and assigned to one of two groups, according to prepartum body condition score (BCS): Control group (BCS = 3.0–3.5; n = 10) and Overconditioned group (BCS ≥ 4.0; n = 10). Blood samples were collected on days −14, −7, −4, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14 relative to parturition. Subcutaneous AT were collected on day 2 following parturition for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analyses. No differences were observed between the two groups in serum glucose, non-esterified fatty acids, β-hydroxybutyric acid, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α, insulin, or leptin concentrations during the experimental period. Compared with the control cows, the overconditioned cows had lower serum triglyceride levels and higher adiponectin concentrations. In the AT postpartum, insulin receptor mRNA and protein levels were lower in the overconditioned cows than in the control cows, and no differences were found in glucose transporter 4 mRNA. Compared with the control cows, the overconditioned cows had lower mRNA levels of TNFα and higher mRNA levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) in AT postpartum. The phosphorylated protein kinase B (AKT) content and phosphorylation rate of AKT were increased in the overconditioned cows compared with the control cows, which suggested that the downstream insulin signaling in AT was affected. Conclusions In the present study, transition dairy cows with higher BCS did not show more fat mobilization. The changes of insulin signaling pathway in AT postpartum of overconditioned cows may be partly related to the expression of PPARγ and TNFα, and the secretion of adiponectin

Significant Shear Failure Difference among Additively Manufactured Polymers Using Different Techniques

Because additively manufactured materials are increasingly being used in load-bearing structures, strength research has become critical. Surprisingly, numerous studies have reported the tensile strength measurements, but only a few studies have presented meaningful results for the shear strength measurements of additively manufactured polymers. Hence, this paper proposes a combined experimental and numerical investigation of a new interlayer shear strength measurement approach, and it targeted the applications of the same polyamide (PA12) specimens made with fused deposition modeling (FDM) and selective laser sintering (SLS). A necking-shaped shear specimen was developed to measure the pure shear strengths with the aid of a three-dimensional (3D) finite element analysis. The results showed that the specimens made with FDM and SLS exhibited totally different shear failure behaviors. The ultimate shear strength of the FDM-PA specimens had more than a 32% increase over that of the SLS-PA specimens. An interface mechanics assumption was employed to explore the different shear failure mechanisms with the support of a fractography analysis

Identification of Arginine and Its "Downstream" Molecules as Potential Markers of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. Arginine is a semiessential amino acid in humans and is essential for several biological pathways in malignant and normal cells, such as ornithine and N1, N12-diacetylspermine (DiAcSpm). This study aimed to determine the role of arginine and these downstream molecules in BC. Plasma arginine, ornithine, and arginine-to-ornithine ratio (AOR) were analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Urine samples were measured by the colloid gold aggregation to test determination of urinary diAcSpm. A principal component analysis was performed to evaluate the results observed between breast tumor and control characteristics. Differences in individual metabolite concentrations between BC patients and controls were tested by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyses. Student's t tests were used to detect the differences between two groups of normally distributed variables, and Wilcoxon sign rank tests were performed for asymmetrically distributed variables. As we analyzed, BC patients had lower plasma arginine and arginine/ornithine level, and higher plasma ornithine and urinary DiAcSpm concentrations as compared with control patients (P = 0.028, 0.020, 0.002, and 0.011, respectively). And the ROC curve was drawn and the area under the curve of the metabolites was calculated to be 0.659 (P = 0.028), 0.645 (P = 0.045), 0.7233 (P = 0.002), 0.683 (P = 0.011), respectively. In addition, our analysis showed that arginine concentrations and AOR had a positive correlation with ER status, while ornithine had a negative correlation with T stage (P = 0.042, 0.083, 0.023, respectively). In conclusion, arginine and these downstream molecules were biomarkers for BC. More studies are needed to highlight the theoretical strengths. (C) 2016 IUBMB Life, 68(10):817-822, 201