Cardiac seismocardiography analysis using 2- elements accelerometer sensor array and beamforming technique

Human heart contains a lot of informations that indicate the condition of its operation and health. The informations can be extracted using image, acoustic, electric and vibration signal. The problem with current technology is that it suffers badly with noise and other unwanted interference. To address this noise issue with the latest technology is echocardiography, a diagnostic tool for diagnosing on cardiac contractility and valvular disease. However, this device is quite costly and labour intensive which requires a specialist who is expert and enough experience in using this equipment. Furthermore, most of medical institutes unable to afford the cost of equipment facility. This study aimed to investigate the application of a non-invasive cardiac diagnostic approach using an accelerometer sensor array, coupled with a directional filtering approach to remove the unwanted noise. This work proposed the utilization of directional filtering method to remove noise using body vibration sensor by employing adaptive beamforming method without altering the signal information. Seismocardiography (SCG) was used to capture body vibration signals recorded via vibration sensor that collects information related to the heart pumping activities and later diagnosed the heart disease. The sensor array was used to collect SCG signal for 28 cycle data from normal and abnormal heart conditions of subjects in supine position. It was found that signal of heart disease information in SCG was overlapped with the noise signal. A directional denoising method which comprised of Delay and Sum (DAS) beamforming and Linearly Constrained Minimum Variance (LCMV) beamforming algorithm were applied, and the performance were compared. The result of signal to noise ratio (SNR) for DAS beamforming algorithm on normal subject was 7.11dB and abnormal subject was 4.13dB. For LCMV beamforming algorithm, normal subject was 10.85dB and abnormal subject is 7.04dB. Based on these results, it showed that the LCMV beamforming performed better than DAS as indicated in the SNR improvement by 30%. This SNR improvement represents the better accuracy of heart disease diagnosis

Electrochemically amplified molecular beacon biosensor for ultrasensitive DNA sequence-specific detection of Legionella sp

An electrochemically amplified molecular beacon (EAMB) biosensor is constructed using thiolated hairpin DNA-ferrocene probes on gold electrode. The switching from “on” to “off” states of individual probes in the presence of complementary DNA target influences the electrode potential, besides the current, owing to changes in surface density of the electroactive hairpin DNA-ferrocene probes. The EAMB biosensor demonstrates linear range over 8 orders of magnitude with ultrasensitive detection limit of 2.3 × 10−14 M for the quantification of a 21-mer DNA sequence. Its applicability is tested against PCR amplicons derived from genomic DNA of live Legionella pneumophila. Excellent specificity down to one and three nucleotides mismatches in another strain of L. pneumophila and a different bacterium species, respectively, is demonstrated

Proteins from Lignosus tigris with selective apoptotic cytotoxicity towards MCF7 cell line and suppresses MCF7-xenograft tumor growth

Background Lignosus tigris, a recently discovered species of the unique Lignosus family, has been traditionally used by the indigenous communities in Peninsular Malaysia to treat various ailments and as an alternative medicine for cancer treatment. The L. tigris cultivar sclerotia (Ligno TG-K) was found to contain numerous bioactive compounds with beneficial biomedicinal properties and the sclerotial extract exhibited potent antioxidant activity. However, the anticancer property of the Ligno TG-K including in vitro and in vivo antitumor effects as well as its anticancer active compounds and the mechanisms has yet to be investigated. Methods The cytotoxicity of the Ligno TG-K against human breast (MCF7), prostate (PC3) and lung (A549) adenocarcinoma cell lines was evaluated using MTT cytotoxicity assay. The cytotoxic mechanisms of the active high molecular weight proteins (HMWp) fraction were investigated through detection of caspases activity and apoptotic-related proteins expression by Western blotting. The in vivo antitumor activity of the isolated HMWp was examined using MCF7 mouse xenograft model. Shotgun LC-MS/MS analysis was performed to identify the proteins in the HMWp. Results and Discussion Cold water extract of the sclerotia inhibited proliferation of MCF7, A549 and PC3 cells with IC50 ranged from 28.9 to 95.0 µg/mL. Bioassay guided fractionation of the extract revealed that HMWp exhibited selective cytotoxicity against MCF7 cells via induction of cellular apoptosis by the activation of extrinsic and intrinsic signaling pathways. HMWp activated expression of caspase-8 and -9 enzymes, and pro-apoptotic Bax protein whilst inhibiting expression of tumor survivor protein, Bcl-2. HMWp induced tumor-cell apoptosis and suppressed growth of tumor in MCF-7 xenograft mice. Lectins, serine proteases, RNase Gf29 and a 230NA deoxyribonuclease are the major cytotoxic proteins that accounted for 55.93% of the HMWp. Conclusion The findings from this study provided scientific evidences to support the traditional use of the L. tigris sclerotia for treatment of breast cancer. Several cytotoxic proteins with high abundance have been identified in the HMWp of the sclerotial extract and these proteins have potential to be developed into new anticancer agents or as adjunct cancer therapy

SARS-CoV-2 in migrant worker dormitories: Geospatial epidemiology supporting outbreak management

10.1016/j.ijid.2020.11.148INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES103389-394completedcomplete

Empagliflozin in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Background The effects of empagliflozin in patients with chronic kidney disease who are at risk for disease progression are not well understood. The EMPA-KIDNEY trial was designed to assess the effects of treatment with empagliflozin in a broad range of such patients. Methods We enrolled patients with chronic kidney disease who had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of at least 20 but less than 45 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) of body-surface area, or who had an eGFR of at least 45 but less than 90 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2) with a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (with albumin measured in milligrams and creatinine measured in grams) of at least 200. Patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin (10 mg once daily) or matching placebo. The primary outcome was a composite of progression of kidney disease (defined as end-stage kidney disease, a sustained decrease in eGFR to < 10 ml per minute per 1.73 m(2), a sustained decrease in eGFR of & GE;40% from baseline, or death from renal causes) or death from cardiovascular causes. Results A total of 6609 patients underwent randomization. During a median of 2.0 years of follow-up, progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes occurred in 432 of 3304 patients (13.1%) in the empagliflozin group and in 558 of 3305 patients (16.9%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64 to 0.82; P < 0.001). Results were consistent among patients with or without diabetes and across subgroups defined according to eGFR ranges. The rate of hospitalization from any cause was lower in the empagliflozin group than in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78 to 0.95; P=0.003), but there were no significant between-group differences with respect to the composite outcome of hospitalization for heart failure or death from cardiovascular causes (which occurred in 4.0% in the empagliflozin group and 4.6% in the placebo group) or death from any cause (in 4.5% and 5.1%, respectively). The rates of serious adverse events were similar in the two groups. Conclusions Among a wide range of patients with chronic kidney disease who were at risk for disease progression, empagliflozin therapy led to a lower risk of progression of kidney disease or death from cardiovascular causes than placebo