DEVELOPMENT AND ASSESSMENT OF ADVANCED ASSISTIVE ROBOTIC MANIPULATORS USER INTERFACES

Text BoxAssistive Robotic Manipulators (ARM) have shown improvement in self-care and increased independence among people with severe upper extremity disabilities. With an ARM mounted on the side of an electric powered wheelchair, an ARM may provide manipulation assistance, such as picking up object, eating, drinking, dressing, reaching out, or opening doors. However, existing assessment tools are inconsistent between studies, time consuming, and unclear in clinical effectiveness. Therefore, in this research, we have developed an ADL task board evaluation tool that provides standardized, efficient, and reliable assessment of ARM performance. Among powered wheelchair users and able-bodied controls using two commercial ARM user interfaces – joystick and keypad, we found that there were statistical differences between both user interface performances, but no statistical difference was found in the cognitive loading. The ADL task board demonstrated highly correlated performance with an existing functional assessment tool, Wolf Motor Function Test. Through this study, we have also identified barriers and limits in current commercial user interfaces and developed smartphone and assistive sliding-autonomy user interfaces that yields improved performance. Testing results from our smartphone manual interface revealed statistically faster performance. The assistive sliding-autonomy interface helped seamlessly correct the error seen with autonomous functions. The ADL task performance evaluation tool may help clinicians and researchers better access ARM user interfaces and evaluated the efficacy of customized user interfaces to improve performance. The smartphone manual interface demonstrated improved performance and the sliding-autonomy framework showed enhanced success with tasks without recalculating path planning and recognition

Ultrasound sonication with microbubbles disrupts blood vessels and enhances tumor treatments of anticancer nanodrug

Ultrasound (US) sonication with microbubbles (MBs) has the potential to disrupt blood vessels and enhance the delivery of drugs into the sonicated tissues. In this study, mouse ear tumors were employed to investigate the therapeutic effects of US, MBs, and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) on tumors. Tumors started to receive treatments when they grew up to about 15 mm3 (early stage) with injection of PLD 10 mg/kg, or up to 50 mm3 (medium stage) with PLD 6 (or 4) mg/kg. Experiments included the control, PLD alone, PLD + MBs + US, US alone, and MBs + US groups. The procedure for the PLD + MBs + US group was that PLD was injected first, MB (SonoVue) injection followed, and then US was immediately sonicated on the tumor. The results showed that: (1) US sonication with MBs was always able to produce a further hindrance to tumor growth for both early and medium-stage tumors; (2) for the medium-stage tumors, 6 mg/kg PLD alone was able to inhibit their growth, while it did not work for 4 mg/kg PLD alone; (3) with the application of MBs + US, 4 mg/kg PLD was able to inhibit the growth of medium-stage tumors; (4) for early stage tumors after the first treatment with a high dose of PLD alone (10 mg/kg), the tumor size still increased for several days and then decreased (a biphasic pattern); (5) MBs + US alone was able to hinder the growth of early stage tumors, but unable to hinder that of medium stage tumors. The results of histological examinations and blood perfusion measurements indicated that the application of MBs + US disrupts the tumor blood vessels and enhances the delivery of PLD into tumors to significantly inhibit tumor growth

The Enhanced metastatic potential of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells with sorafenib resistance

Acquired resistance towards sorafenib treatment was found in HCC patients, which results in poor prognosis. To investigate the enhanced metastatic potential of sorafenib resistance cells, sorafenib-resistant (SorR) cell lines were established by long-term exposure of the HCC cells to the maximum tolerated dose of sorafenib. Cell proliferation assay and qPCR of ABC transporter genes (ABCC1-3) were first performed to confirm the resistance of cells. Migration and invasion assays, and immunoblotting analysis on the expression of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulatory proteins were performed to study the metastatic potential of SorR cells. The expression of CD44 and CD133 were studied by flow cytometry and the gene expressions of pluripotency factors were studied by qPCR to demonstrate the enrichment of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in SorR cells. Control (CTL) and SorR cells were also injected orthotopically to the livers of NOD-SCID mice to investigate the development of lung metastasis. Increased expressions of ABCC1-3 were found in SorR cells. Enhanced migratory and invasive abilities of SorR cells were observed. The changes in expression of EMT regulatory proteins demonstrated an activation of the EMT process in SorR cells. Enriched proportion of CD44+ and CD44+CD133 + cells were also observed in SorR cells. All (8/8) mice injected with SorR cells demonstrated lung metastasis whereas only 1/8 mouse injected with CTL cells showed lung metastasis. HCC cells with sorafenib resistance demonstrated a higher metastatic potential, which may be due to the activated EMT process. Enriched CSCs were also demonstrated in the sorafenib resistant cells. This study suggests that advanced HCC patients with acquired sorafenib resistance may have enhanced tumor growth or distant metastasis, which raises the concern of long-term sorafenib treatment in advanced HCC patients who have developed resistance of sorafenib. © 2013 Chow et al.published_or_final_versio

Gravitational Fermion Production in Inflationary Cosmology

We revisit the gravitational production of massive Dirac fermions in inflationary cosmology with a focus on clarifying the analytic computation of the particle number density in both the large and the small mass regimes. For the case in which the masses of the gravitationally produced fermions are small compared to the Hubble expansion rate at the end of inflation, we obtain a universal result for the number density that is nearly independent of the details of the inflationary model. The result is identical to the case of conformally coupled scalars up to an overall multiplicative factor of order unity for reasons other than just counting the fermionic degrees of freedom.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur

FLJ10540 is associated with tumor progression in nasopharyngeal carcinomas and contributes to nasopharyngeal cell proliferation, and metastasis via osteopontin/CD44 pathway

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is well-known for its highly metastatic characteristics, but little is known of its molecular mechanisms. New biomarkers that predict clinical outcome, in particular the ability of the primary tumor to develop metastatic tumors are urgently needed. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of FLJ10540 in human NPC development. METHODS: A bioinformatics approach was used to explore the potentially important regulatory genes involved in the growth/metastasis control of NPC. FLJ10540 was chosen for this study. Two co-expression strategies from NPC microarray were employed to identify the relationship between FLJ10540 and osteopontin. Quantitative-RT-PCR, immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry analysis were used to investigate the mRNA and protein expression profiles of FLJ10540 and osteopontin in the normal and NPC tissues to confirm microarray results. TW01 and Hone1 NPC cells with overexpression FLJ10540 or siRNA to repress endogenous FLJ10540 were generated by stable transfection to further elucidate the molecular mechanisms of FLJ10540-elicited cell growth and metastasis under osteopontin stimulation. RESULTS: We found that osteopontin expression exhibited a positive correlation with FLJ10540 in NPC microarray. We also demonstrated comprehensively that FLJ10540 and osteopontin were not only overexpressed in NPC specimens, but also significantly correlated with advanced tumor and lymph node-metastasis stages, and had a poor 5-year survival rate, respectively. Stimulation of NPC parental cells with osteopontin results in an increase in FLJ10540 mRNA and protein expressions. Functionally, FLJ10540 transfectant alone, or stimulated with osteopontin, exhibited fast growth and increased metastasis as compared to vehicle control with or without osteopontin stimulation. Conversely, knockdown of FLJ10540 by siRNA results in the suppression of NPC cell growth and motility. Treatment with anti-CD44 antibodies in NPC parental cells not only resulted in a decrease of FLJ10540 protein, but also affected the abilities of FLJ10540-elicited cell growth and motility in osteopontin stimulated-NPC cells. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that FLJ10540 may be critical regulator of disease progression in NPC, and the underlying mechanism may involve in the osteopontin/CD44 pathway

Polycythemia vera as a presentation of renal angiomyolipoma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Angiomyolipoma is a common benign renal tumor composed of thick-walled blood vessels, smooth muscle, and adipose tissue. It may be found incidentally during workup for suspected renal disease. Although angiomyolipoma may present as a palpable, tender renal mass with flank pain and gross or microscopic hematuria, many patients are asymptomatic. Erythrocytosis is an unusual presentation, and malignant transformation may be suspected. This report describes a rare case of a woman diagnosed with renal angiomyolipoma and polycythemia vera. The report discusses the differential diagnosis using erythropoietin, erythropoietin-receptor and Janus kinase 2.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 79-year-old Chinese woman was diagnosed with erythrocytosis according to World Health Organization criteria. An upper left renal pole angiomyolipoma was successfully ablated after multiple phlebotomy treatments. Red cell count immediately returned to normal, but gradually increased after 4 months. Polycythemia vera was finally diagnosed by positive mutation of Janus kinase 2 and negative erythropoietin protein expression. Her clinical symptoms improved with regular phlebotomy and hydroxyurea treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Concurrent occurence of angiomyolipoma and polycythemia vera is rare. Polycythemia vera can be easily missed. Polycythemia vera can be confirmed with high specificity and sensitivity by the acquired somatic mutation. Surgical intervention for this renal tumor should be avoided unless malignancy or renal cell carcinoma is suspected or to prevent spontaneous rupture of larger tumors.</p

Computer-aided screening of aspiration risks in dysphagia with wearable technology: a Systematic Review and meta-analysis on test accuracy

Aspiration caused by dysphagia is a prevalent problem that causes serious health consequences and even death. Traditional diagnostic instruments could induce pain, discomfort, nausea, and radiation exposure. The emergence of wearable technology with computer-aided screening might facilitate continuous or frequent assessments to prompt early and effective management. The objectives of this review are to summarize these systems to identify aspiration risks in dysphagic individuals and inquire about their accuracy. Two authors independently searched electronic databases, including CINAHL, Embase, IEEE Xplore® Digital Library, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science (PROSPERO reference number: CRD42023408960). The risk of bias and applicability were assessed using QUADAS-2. Nine (n = 9) articles applied accelerometers and/or acoustic devices to identify aspiration risks in patients with neurodegenerative problems (e.g., dementia, Alzheimer’s disease), neurogenic problems (e.g., stroke, brain injury), in addition to some children with congenital abnormalities, using videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) as the reference standard. All studies employed a traditional machine learning approach with a feature extraction process. Support vector machine (SVM) was the most famous machine learning model used. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the classification accuracy and identify risky swallows. Nevertheless, we decided not to conclude the meta-analysis findings (pooled diagnostic odds ratio: 21.5, 95% CI, 2.7–173.6) because studies had unique methodological characteristics and major differences in the set of parameters/thresholds, in addition to the substantial heterogeneity and variations, with sensitivity levels ranging from 21.7% to 90.0% between studies. Small sample sizes could be a critical problem in existing studies (median = 34.5, range 18–449), especially for machine learning models. Only two out of the nine studies had an optimized model with sensitivity over 90%. There is a need to enlarge the sample size for better generalizability and optimize signal processing, segmentation, feature extraction, classifiers, and their combinations to improve the assessment performance.Systematic Review Registration: (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/), identifier (CRD42023408960)