Facile synthesis of MnWO4/BiOI nanocomposites and their efficient photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical activities under the visible-light irradiation

The novel MnWO4/BiOI nanocomposite materials were successfully synthesized by a precipitation deposition method. The as-prepared photocatalyst was characterized by XRD, SEM, EDAX, UV-DRS, FT-IR, TEM and BET techniques. The as-prepared MnWO4/BiOI nanocomposites were further utilized to study the degradation of the Celestin blue aqueous solution under visible-light irradiation. Absorption range and band gap energy, which are responsible for the observed photocatalyst behavior, were investigated by the DRS spectroscopy. The photocatalytic test suggested that MnWO4/BiOI nanocomposites possess a higher activity for the degradation of these pollutants than the pure BiOI and MnWO4 under the visible-light irradiation. Among the as-prepared nanocomposites, the one of 3% MnWO4/BiOI displays the best photocatalytic activity of the degradation. Factors, such as the effect of the catalyst dosage, the solution pH and the initial dye concentration affecting the photocatalytic activity were investigated. The investigations of the adsorption kinetics and isotherm demonstrate that the adsorption process follows the pseudo-first-order kinetic model and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, respectively. Keywords: MnWO4-BiOI, Nanocomposite, Visible light, Celestin blue, Photocatalytic activit

Improving speech communication in the age of face masks: A study on EMD denoising method by subjective speech comparison

The widespread use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges to effective communication. This study investigates the application of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) denoising method to enhance the quality of acoustic signals affected by face masks. The EMD technique utilizes a Fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the intrinsic mode function to distinguish noise from the signal and improve the acoustic signal. The EMD-enhanced speech signal is compared to the acquired speech signal using Comparison Mean Opinion Scores (CMOS), and the spectral subtraction speech enhancement signal is also evaluated using CMOS. The results from various experimental conditions consistently demonstrate the superior performance of EMD denoising in producing enhanced signals. Specifically, the EMD method outperforms the spectral subtraction method in improving speech signal quality affected by face masks. These findings underscore the effectiveness of the EMD denoising method in improving the quality of speech signals impacted by face masks, highlighting its potential for enhancing communication in challenging acoustic environments

Communication with old people

Predicted drug-target-disease associations using OMIM. For each human protein target crystal structure, the top 40-ranked drugs were associated with a disease through their predicted target. (XLSX 464 kb

Additional file 5: Table S5. of DrugGenEx-Net: a novel computational platform for systems pharmacology and gene expression-based drug repurposing

Consensus drug rank list for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. (XLS 51 kb

Additional file 2: Table S2. of DrugGenEx-Net: a novel computational platform for systems pharmacology and gene expression-based drug repurposing

Validations of predicted drug-disease associations from the literature. (XLS 38 kb

Identification of BRCA1 Deficiency Using Multi-Analyte Estimation of BRCA1 and Its Repressors in FFPE Tumor Samples from Patients with Triple Negative Breast Cancer

<div><p>Purpose</p><p>Apart from germ-line BRCA1-mutated breast cancers, a significant proportion of women with sporadic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) sub-type are known to harbour varying levels of BRCA1-dysfuction. There is currently no established diagnostic method to identify these patients.</p><p>Methods</p><p>The analysis was performed on 183 primary breast cancer tumor specimens from our longitudinal case-series archived as formalin-fixed-paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks comprising 71 TNBCs and 112 Hormone receptor positive HER2 negative (HR+HER2-) tumors. Transcript levels of BRCA1 and two of its repressors ID4 and microRNA182 were determined by TaqMan quantitative PCR. BRCA1 protein was detected immunohistochemically with the MS110 antibody.</p><p>Results</p><p>The representation of BRCA1 and its repressor ID4 as a ratio led to improved separation of TNBCs from HR+HER2- compared to either measure by itself. We then dichotomised the continuous distribution of each of the three measurements (Protein, MIRNA and transcript:repressor ratio) into categories of <b><i>deficient (0)</i></b> and <b><i>adequate (1)</i></b>. A composite BRCA1 Deficiency Score (BDS) was computed by the addition of the score for all three measures. Samples deficient on 2 or more measures were deemed to be BRCA1 deficient; and 40% of all TNBCs met this criterion.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>We propose here a simple multi-level assay of BRCA1 deficiency using the BRCA1:ID4 ratio as a critical parameter that can be performed on FFPE samples in clinical laboratories by the estimation of only 3 bio-markers. The ease of testing will hopefully encourage adoption and clinical validation.</p></div

BRCA1 Deficiency Score (BDS).

<p>BRCA1 Deficiency Score (BDS): Amalgamated scores range from a low of 0 to a high of 3. Scores of 0 and 1 are almost exclusively seen in TNBCs. Scores of 2 and 3 were seen in both HR+HER2- as well as TNBCs. 23/27 HR+HER2- tumors scored adequate on all measures and hence had a score of 3. This method of selection classified 40% of TNBCs being BRCA1 deficient and only 3% of HR+HER2-ve to be BRCA1 deficient.</p

Transnscript abundance of BRCA1 and ID4 in TNBC Vs HR+HER2-ve tumors.

<p>Transcript abundance of BRCA1 and ID4 in HR+HER2-veand TNBCs. Median expression of BRCA1 and ID4 transcripts is significantly different in the two groups; *p = 0.008 for BRCA1, and **p = 0.001 for ID4, (Mann Whitney U Test). The high ranges of BRCA1 are exclusively HR+, and the high-ranges of ID4 are all TNBCs.</p

Relationship between BRCA1 and ID4.

<p>Relationship between BRCA1 and ID4.A four quadrant plot with “cut-off” lines for both transcripts that are at 1 SD above the mean value of all specimens. The upper right quadrant representing high ID4 and high BRCA1 is empty. The upper left quadrant of high ID4 and low BRCA1 is almost exclusively TNBCs while the lower right quadrant of high BRCA1 and low ID4 is exclusively luminal tumors.</p