Supramolecular control over self-assembly and double thermoresponsive behavior of an amphiphilic block copolymer

A poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly[N, N-dimethylacrylamide-ran-2-acrylamidoethyl nonanoate] (PEG-b-P(DMA-AAEN)) block copolymer has been demonstrated to show double thermoresponsive behavior in aqueous solution in the presence of hydroxypropylated cyclodextrin (HPCD). The polymer itself is insoluble in water due to the presence of hydrophobic alkyl chain, however, with the presence of HPCD, fully dissolution of the polymer could be obtained indicating the formation of host-guest interaction between HPCD and the alkyl chain. The clear solution of HPCD/polymer complex showing a first thermoresponsiveness during heating and led to the formation of small micelles stabilized by PEG chains and DMA segments. Upon further heating of the aqueous solution, the small micelles aggregated and formed multimicellar aggregates. The reported double thermoresponsive behavior may provide a new strategy of designing smart polymeric systems, which can find broad applications in the fabrication of smart materials

MAVD: The First Open Large-Scale Mandarin Audio-Visual Dataset with Depth Information

Audio-visual speech recognition (AVSR) gains increasing attention from researchers as an important part of human-computer interaction. However, the existing available Mandarin audio-visual datasets are limited and lack the depth information. To address this issue, this work establishes the MAVD, a new large-scale Mandarin multimodal corpus comprising 12,484 utterances spoken by 64 native Chinese speakers. To ensure the dataset covers diverse real-world scenarios, a pipeline for cleaning and filtering the raw text material has been developed to create a well-balanced reading material. In particular, the latest data acquisition device of Microsoft, Azure Kinect is used to capture depth information in addition to the traditional audio signals and RGB images during data acquisition. We also provide a baseline experiment, which could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the dataset. The dataset and code will be released at https://github.com/SpringHuo/MAVD

Spatio-temporal prediction for distributed PV generation system based on deep learning neural network model

To obtain higher accuracy of PV prediction to enhance PV power generation technology. This paper proposes a spatio-temporal prediction method based on a deep learning neural network model. Firstly, spatio-temporal correlation analysis is performed for 17 PV sites. Secondly, we compare CNN-LSTM with a single CNN or LSTM model trained on the same dataset. From the evaluation indexes such as loss map, regression map, RMSE, and MAE, the CNN-LSTM model that considers the strong correlation of spatio-temporal correlation among the 17 sites has better performance. The results show that our method has higher prediction accuracy

RF self-interference cancellation using phase modulation and optical sideband filtering

A novel optical approach to implement RF self-interference cancellation for full-duplex communication using phase modulation and optical sideband filtering is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. Based on the inherent out-of-phase property between the left and right sidebands of phase-modulated signal and optical sideband filtering, the RF self-interference cancellation is achieved by tuning the delay time and amplitude in the optical domain. RF self-interference cancellation for single frequency and microwave with various bandwidth of 1MHz, 5MHz and 10 MHz is experimentally demonstrated to verify the proposed technique

Cytokine concentration in peripheral blood of patients with colorectal cancer

IntroductionThe role of tumour secretory cytokines and peripheral circulatory cytokines in tumour progression has received increasing attention; however, the role of tumour-related inflammatory cytokines in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unclear. In this study, the concentrations of various cytokines in the peripheral blood of healthy controls and patients with CRC at different stages were compared.MethodsPeripheral blood samples from 4 healthy participants and 22 colorectal cancer patients were examined. Luminex beads were used to evaluate concentration levels of 40 inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood samples.ResultsIn peripheral blood, compared with healthy controls and early stage (I + II) CRC patients, advanced CRC (III + IV) patients had increased concentrations of mononuclear/macrophage chemotactic-related proteins (CCL7, CCL8, CCL15, CCL2, and MIF), M2 polarization-related factors (IL-1β, IL-4), neutrophil chemotactic and N2 polarization-related cytokines (CXCL2, CXCL5, CXCL6, IL-8), dendritic cells (DCs) chemotactic-related proteins (CCL19, CCL20, and CCL21), Natural killer (NK) cell related cytokines (CXCL9, CXCL10), Th2 cell-related cytokines (CCL1, CCL11, CCL26), CXCL12, IL-2, CCL25, and CCL27, and decreased IFN-γ and CX3CL1 concentrations. The differential upregulation of cytokines in peripheral blood was mainly concentrated in CRC patients with distant metastasis and was related to the size of the primary tumour; however, there was no significant correlation between cytokine levels in peripheral blood and the propensity and mechanism of lymph node metastasis.DiscussionDifferent types of immune cells may share the same chemokine receptors and can co-localise in response to the same chemokines and exert synergistic pro-tumour or anti-tumour functions in the tumour microenvironment. Chemokines and cytokines affect tumour metastasis and prognosis and may be potential targets for treatment

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat