An in-depth survey on Deep Learning-based Motor Imagery Electroencephalogram (EEG) classification.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) build a communication path between human brain and external devices. Among EEG-based BCI paradigms, the most commonly used one is motor imagery (MI). As a hot research topic, MI EEG-based BCI has largely contributed to medical fields and smart home industry. However, because of the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the non-stationary characteristic of EEG data, it is difficult to correctly classify different types of MI-EEG signals. Recently, the advances in Deep Learning (DL) significantly facilitate the development of MI EEG-based BCIs. In this paper, we provide a systematic survey of DL-based MI-EEG classification methods. Specifically, we first comprehensively discuss several important aspects of DL-based MI-EEG classification, covering input formulations, network architectures, public datasets, etc. Then, we summarize problems in model performance comparison and give guidelines to future studies for fair performance comparison. Next, we fairly evaluate the representative DL-based models using source code released by the authors and meticulously analyse the evaluation results. By performing ablation study on the network architecture, we found that (1) effective feature fusion is indispensable for multi-stream CNN-based models. (2) LSTM should be combined with spatial feature extraction techniques to obtain good classification performance. (3) the use of dropout contributes little to improving the model performance, and that (4) adding fully connected layers to the models significantly increases their parameters but it might not improve their performance. Finally, we raise several open issues in MI-EEG classification and provide possible future research directions.

Structural Heredity in Catalysis: CO2 Self-Selective CeO2 Nanocrystals for Efficient Photothermal CO2 Hydrogenation to Methane.

The chemical inertness of CO2 molecules makes their adsorption and activation on a catalyst surface one of the key challenges in recycling CO2 into chemical fuels. However, the traditional template synthesis and chemical modification strategies used to tackle this problem face severe structural collapse and modifier deactivation issues during the often-needed post-processing procedure. Herein, a CO2 self-selective hydrothermal growth strategy is proposed for the synthesis of CeO2 octahedral nanocrystals that participate in strong physicochemical interactions with CO2 molecules. The intense affinity for CO2 molecules persists during successive high-temperature treatments required for Ni deposition. This demonstrates the excellent structural heredity of the CO2 self-selective CeO2 nanocrystals, which leads to an outstanding photothermal CH4 productivity exceeding 9 mmol h-1 mcat -2 and an impressive selectivity of >99%. The excellent performance is correlated with the abundant oxygen vacancies and hydroxyl species on the CeO2 surface, which create many frustrated Lewis-pair active sites, and the strong interaction between Ni and CeO2 that promotes the dissociation of H2 molecules and the spillover of H atoms, thereby greatly benefitting the photothermal CO2 methanation reaction. This self-selective hydrothermal growth strategy represents a new pathway for the development of effective catalysts for targeted chemical reactions.

Identifying genes associated with resistance to KRAS G12C inhibitors via machine learning methods.

BACKGROUND: Targeted therapy has revolutionized cancer treatment, greatly improving patient outcomes and quality of life. Lung cancer, specifically non-small cell lung cancer, is frequently driven by the G12C mutation at the KRAS locus. The development of KRAS inhibitors has been a breakthrough in the field of cancer research, given the crucial role of KRAS mutations in driving tumor growth and progression. However, over half of patients with cancer bypass inhibition show limited response to treatment. The mechanisms underlying tumor cell resistance to this treatment remain poorly understood. METHODS: To address above gap in knowledge, we conducted a study aimed to elucidate the differences between tumor cells that respond positively to KRAS (G12C) inhibitor therapy and those that do not. Specifically, we analyzed single-cell gene expression profiles from KRAS G12C-mutant tumor cell models (H358, H2122, and SW1573) treated with KRAS G12C (ARS-1620) inhibitor, which contained 4297 cells that continued to proliferate under treatment and 3315 cells that became quiescent. Each cell was represented by the expression levels on 8687 genes. We then designed an innovative machine learning based framework, incorporating seven feature ranking algorithms and four classification algorithms to identify essential genes and establish quantitative rules. RESULTS: Our analysis identified some top-ranked genes, including H2AFZ, CKS1B, TUBA1B, RRM2, and BIRC5, that are known to be associated with the progression of multiple cancers. CONCLUSION: Above genes were relevant to tumor cell resistance to targeted therapy. This study provides important insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying tumor cell resistance to KRAS inhibitor treatment.

Construction and mechanism study of lignin-based polyurethane with high strength and high self-healing properties.

Lignin is a natural polymer with abundant functional groups with great application prospects in lignin-based polyurethane elastomers with self-healing abilities. In this study, a lignin self-healing polyurethane (PUDA-L) was specially designed using lignin as the raw material of polyurethane, combining lignin with Diels-Alder (DA) bond and hydrogen bonds. The experimental results showed that PUDA-L was prepared with good thermal stability, fatigue resistance, shape memory effect, excellent mechanical strength, and self-healing ability by partially replacing the crosslinking agents with bio-based lignin and hydroxylated modified lignin to increase the hydroxyl content. Polyurethane has a tensile strength of up to 29 MPa and an elongation at break of up to 500 %. The excellent self-healing ability of PUDA-L originates from the internal DA bonds and cross-linked hydrogen bonds. After the dumbbell sample was fused and heated at 130 °C for 4 h, the elastomer could be completely healed, the tensile strength was restored to 29 MPa, and the self-healing efficiency was up to 100 %. The developed PUDA-L elastomer has promising applications in sensors and smart skins.

The influence of dimming-induced luminance change on driving safety in tunnels.

Although dimming the light in tunnels brings salient benefits to energy saving, the effects of dimming-induced luminance changes on driving safety have been rarely explored. Adopting the visual performance experiment, the present study investigated the impacts of the dimming-induced luminance change rate (V) on the safety of driver's perception, judgment, and operation in the threshold zone of the tunnel under different seasons and weather conditions. The results show that the reaction times (RTs), pupil area change rate (v p), and blink frequency (f b), increased with the increase of V. When the luminance before the beginning of dimming (L) was higher, drivers reacted faster and stood a lower level of the mental load and fatigue. Compared with decreasing the luminance through dimming, when increasing the luminance through dimming, the present study found that each of the visual performance indices was about 10% lower, and the changes with V became smaller. Based on the safety thresholds of RT, v p, and f b, the present study obtained the thresholds of V which can meet the safety requirements of driver's perception, judgment, and operation. Finally, a theoretical model between the thresholds of V and L was developed, and this model will shed light on the control of V in the threshold zone of the tunnel under different seasons and weather conditions.

Joint effects of micro-sized polystyrene and chlorpyrifos on zebrafish based on multiple endpoints and gut microbial effects.

Microplastics often co-occur with a variety of organic contaminants in aquatic environment and pose combined risks to aquatic wildlife. Here, we investigated joint effects of micro-sized polystyrene (mPS, 5 µm) and an organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos on zebrafish, using multiple endpoints at both fish individual and gut microbiota levels. It was revealed that mPS ingested by zebrafish accumulated in gut and liver, and caused oxidative stress, hyperactive swimming performance and histological damages in fish, and induced disorders and diversity alterations of the gut microbial community. More importantly, mPS exhibited considerable adsorption capacity against chlorpyrifos, and those adsorbing chlorpyrifos presented greater effects on fish individuals but no different effects on gut microbiota compared to single mPS exposure. Together with body residues of chlorpyrifos in zebrafish, it was proposed that the joint effects between mPS and chlorpyrifos were attributed to the chlorpyrifos released from mPS within zebrafish. The present results provided a comprehensive understanding of joint effects of mPS and contaminants co-occurring in the environment and emphasized the importance of considering the adsorbed chemicals in toxicological studies of microplastics.

Influence of ultraviolet-aging and adsorbed pollutants on toxicological effects of polyvinyl chloride microplastics to zebrafish.

Microplastics (MPs) undergo various aging processes and interact with diverse pollutants in the environment. In the present study, we investigated the influence of ultraviolet (UV) aging on the adsorption of organic pollutants by polyvinyl chloride microplastics (mPVC) and explored toxicity variations among pristine, aged, and pollutant-loaded mPVCs to zebrafish. Irradiation of UV for 30 d significantly changed the physiochemical properties of mPVC, leading to more oxygen-containing groups and free radicals (1O2, ·O2-, and ·OH) on mPVC surfaces. The aging process reduced the adsorption of mPVC against a hydrophobic compound chlorpyrifos (CPF) but enhanced the adsorption against a moderately hydrophilic compound erythromycin (ERY). Ingestion of CPF- and ERY-loaded mPVCs resulted in bioaccumulation of the two compounds in zebrafish, suggesting a carrier effect of mPVCs. In toxicity tests, the aged mPVC caused severer gut damages, stronger oxidative stresses, and greater interference with the gut microbiota in zebrafish than the pristine mPVC. The CPF and ERY-loaded mPVCs produced lower oxidative stresses in zebrafish than mPVCs alone, due to fewer radicals on mPVC surfaces after the adsorption of organic contaminants. Notably, the CPF and ERY-loaded mPVCs presented greater effects on fish swimming behaviors and gut microbial compositions, which was associated with the released CPF and ERY from mPVCs within the zebrafish. Overall, the present study demonstrated significant influences of UV-aging and the adsorbed pollutants on the toxicological effects of MPs and highlighted the necessity to perform toxicity studies of MPs using more environmentally relevant MPs.

A fast lasso-based method for inferring higher-order interactions.

Large-scale genotype-phenotype screens provide a wealth of data for identifying molecular alterations associated with a phenotype. Epistatic effects play an important role in such association studies. For example, siRNA perturbation screens can be used to identify combinatorial gene-silencing effects. In bacteria, epistasis has practical consequences in determining antimicrobial resistance as the genetic background of a strain plays an important role in determining resistance. Recently developed tools scale to human exome-wide screens for pairwise interactions, but none to date have included the possibility of three-way interactions. Expanding upon recent state-of-the-art methods, we make a number of improvements to the performance on large-scale data, making consideration of three-way interactions possible. We demonstrate our proposed method, Pint, on both simulated and real data sets, including antibiotic resistance testing and siRNA perturbation screens. Pint outperforms known methods in simulated data, and identifies a number of biologically plausible gene effects in both the antibiotic and siRNA models. For example, we have identified a combination of known tumour suppressor genes that is predicted (using Pint) to cause a significant increase in cell proliferation.

Luminance stepped decreasing ratio of the tunnel entrance enhanced lighting based on visual performance.

To achieve a safe and comfortable entrance enhanced lighting environment of tunnels, visual performance experiments under the dynamic and static luminance environments were carried out to investigate the influence of the luminance variation forms and stepped decreasing ratio k' of the tunnel entrance enhanced lighting on the driver's comprehensive visual performance. The application effect was further verified by real vehicle experiments and field luminance measurements. The results of the dynamic and static experiments show that compared with the continuous and smooth decrease of the luminance according to the International Commission on Illumination (CIE), when facing the stepped decrease of luminance, drivers tend to withstand greater visual operation stress and a more tense psychological state. After the stepped decrease of the luminance, the driver's average and instantaneous reaction both slow down, while the amplitude of the slowdown decreases with the increase of k' and increases with the increase of the luminance level. The results of the real vehicle experiments show that increasing k' of Threshold Zones 1 and 2 and Transition Zones 1 and 2 to 0.7, 0.6, 0.5, and 0.5, respectively, can effectively relieve driver's psychological tension and enhance the visual performance. For practical engineering applications, it should be combined with daylight reduction facilities, thus avoiding the increase of energy consumption of the tunnel entrance enhance lighting.

Outward Movement of Targeting Ligands from a Built-In Reserve Pool in Nuclease-Resistant 3D Hierarchical DNA Nanocluster for in Vivo High-Precision Cancer Therapy.

Nanostructures made entirely of DNAs display great potential as chemotherapeutic drug carriers but so far cannot achieve sufficient clinic therapy outcomes due to off-target toxicity. In this contribution, an aptamer-embedded hierarchical DNA nanocluster (Apt-eNC) is constructed as an intelligent carrier for cancer-targeted drug delivery. Specifically, Apt-eNC is designed to have a built-in reserve pool in the interior cavity from which aptamers may move outward to function as needed. When surface aptamers are degraded, ones in reserve pool can move outward to offer the compensation, thereby magically preserving tumor-targeting performance in vivo. Even if withstanding extensive aptamer depletion, Apt-eNC displays a 115-fold enhanced cell targeting compared with traditional counterparts and at least 60-fold improved tumor accumulation. Moreover, one Apt-eNC accommodates 5670 chemotherapeutic agents. As such, when systemically administrated into HeLa tumor-bearing BALB/c nude mouse model, drug-loaded Apt-eNC significantly inhibits tumor growth without systemic toxicity, holding great promise for high precision therapy.

Photoreversible Bond-Based Shape Memory Polyurethanes with Light-Induced Self-Healing, Recyclability, and 3D Fluorescence Encryption.

Developing a shape memory polyurethane with high mechanical properties, excellent self-healing has become a huge challenge for the development of smart materials. Herein, we report the design and fabrication of a shape memory polyurethane network terminated with coumarin units (HEOMC-PU) to address this conundrum. The synthesized HEOMC-PU exhibits exceptional mechanical performance with a breaking elongation of 746% and toughness of 55.5 MJ·m-3. By utilizing the dynamically reversible behavior of coumarin units to repair the damaged network, the efficient self-healing performance (99.2%) of HEOMC-PU is obtained. In addition, the prepared network and light-induced dynamic reversibility endow the HEOMC-PU with both liquid-state remoldability and solid-state plasticity, respectively, enabling polyurethane to be recycled and processed multiple times. Furthermore, based on the fluorescence responsive characteristic of coumarin, HEOMC-PU with a fluorescent pattern can be deformed into specific three-dimensional configurations by combining photolithography, self-healing, and the shape memory effect. Such a multilevel and multidimensional anti-counterfeiting platform with rewritable fluorescent patterns and reconfigurable shapes can open up a new encryption approach for future intelligent anti-counterfeiting.

Optimal exposure targets for vancomycin in the treatment of neonatal coagulase-negative Staphylococcus infection: A retrospective study based on electronic medical records.

BACKGROUND: The currently advocated ratio of area under the curve (AUC) over 24 h to minimum inhibitory concentration (AUC/MIC) > 400 and AUC < 600 mg h/L as the therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) target of vancomycin is based on data from multiple observational studies in adult patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. It may not be applicable to newborns with coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) infection. We conducted a retrospective study to identify the optimal exposure targets for vancomycin in the treatment of neonatal CoNS infection. METHODS: Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, serum vancomycin concentration, demographics, clinical data, and related laboratory data of newborns who received vancomycin intravenous infusion from June 1, 2016 to February 1, 2021 were collected retrospectively. The AUC was calculated using the maximum a posteriori Bayesian (MAPB) method. The vancomycin exposure threshold of AUC/MIC for efficacy and AUC for toxicity (acute kidney injury, AKI) were determined based on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The correlation between vancomycin exposure and both clinical effect and nephrotoxicity was analyzed using logistic multivariate regression. RESULTS: In total, 153 patients and 245 vancomycin concentrations (160 trough and 85 peak concentrations) were included. The ROC curve analysis showed that the exposure thresholds of AUC/MIC for clinical efficacy and AUC for nephrotoxicity were 281 and 602 mg h/L, respectively. The multivariate regression analysis showed that AUC/MIC > 280 was a predictor of efficacy (OR: 13.960, 95% CI: 1.891-103.078, P < 0.05) and AUC > 600 mg h/L was associated with AKI (OR: 9.008, 95% CI: 2.706-29.983, P < 0.05). The vancomycin AUC/MIC threshold for treating neonatal CoNS infection with vancomycin is lower than the currently advocated AUC/MIC >400. CONCLUSION: The optimal exposure targets for vancomycin in neonatal CoNS infection were AUC/MIC > 280 and AUC < 600 mg h/L.

Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of Calcium Sulfate Whisker-Reinforced Cement-Based Composites.

This study aims to investigate the effect of calcium sulfate whisker (CSW) on the properties and microstructure of cement-based composites. Further, nanosilica (NS) was used as a comparison. The results show that the compressive strength and fracture toughness of cement-based composites increased by 10.3% and 10.2%, respectively, with 2% CSW. The flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, and fracture energy increased by 79.7, 34.8 and 28.7%, respectively, with 1% CSW. With the addition of CSW, shrinkage deformation was aggravated, and the capillary water absorption coefficients were clearly reduced. Compared with NS, CSW-reinforced cement-based composites show better tensile, flexural, and fracture properties and smaller shrinkage deformations and capillary water absorption coefficients. The residual mechanical properties of all groups improve when the treating temperature is lower than 400 °C and decline rapidly when the temperature goes over 600 °C. When treated at 900 °C, the residual mechanical properties are 40% less than those at ambient temperature, with the NS group showing the best performance, followed by the control group and the CSW group. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests show that the addition of CSW improves the microstructure of the matrix. CSW can reinforce and toughen composites by generating ettringite and whisker pullout, whisker breakage, crack bridging, and crack deflection at the microstructure level.

Combined effects of nanosized polystyrene and erythromycin on bacterial growth and resistance mutations in Escherichia coli.

Toxicological effects of nanoplastics have been demonstrated in a variety of organisms, yet their impacts on bacteria, especially on the antibiotic resistance evolution remain under explored. Herein, we report individual and combined effects of nano-polystyrene (nano-PS) and erythromycin (ERY) on growth and resistance mutations of Escherichia coli. The toxicity of nano-PS was dependent on size and functional modifications, with 30 nm and amino-modified PS (PS-NH2, 200 nm) showing the greatest toxicity. Adsorption of nano-PS onto bacterial surface and the subsequent increase of intracellular ROS or the probable mechanical damage were considered as the primary toxic mechanisms. Furthermore, nano-PS increased the bacterial resistance mutations, which was due to the oxidative damage to DNA and the SOS response. In addition, PS-NH2 presented synergistic effects with ERY while non-modified PS had no impact, although both of them showed adsorption capacity to ERY. This was likely because the positively charged PS-NH2 acted as a carrier of ERY and enhanced the interactions between ERY and the bacteria. Our findings raised the concerns about the risk of nanoplastics in accelerating the bacterial resistance evolution, and highlighted the necessity of including combined effects of nanoplastics and co-contaminants in risk assessment.

Curcumol inhibits EBV-positive Nasopharyngeal carcinoma migration and invasion by targeting nucleolin.

Metastasis is a major cause of recurrence and death in patients with EBV-positive Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Previous reports documented that curcumol has both anti-cancer and anti-viral effects, but there is little literature systematically addressing the mechanism of curcumol in EBV-positive tumors. Previously we found that nucelolin (NCL) is a target protein of curcumol in CNE2 cells, an EBV-negative NPC, and in this experiment, we reported a critical role for NCL in promoting migration and invasion of C666-1 cells, an EBV-positive NPC, and found that the expression of NCL determined the level of curcumol's efficacy. Mechanistically, NCL interacted with Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen 1 (EBNA1) to activate VEGFA/VEGFR1/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which in turn promoted NPC cell invasion and metastasis. Moreover, further study showed that the differential expression of NCL and curcumol intervention only had a regulatory effect on the nuclear accumulation of VEGFR1, which strengthened the anti-cancer effect of curcumol mediated through NCL. Our findings indicated that curcumol exerted anti EBV-positive NPC invasion and metastasis by downregulating EBNA1 and inhibiting VEGFA/VEGFR1/PI3K/AKT signaling by targeting NCL, which provides a novel pharmacological basis for curcumol's clinical use in treating patients with EBV-positive NPC.

An Improved Mechanistic-Empirical Creep Model for Unsaturated Soft and Stabilized Soils.

Soft soils are usually treated to mitigate their engineering problems, such as excessive deformation, and stabilization is one of most popular treatments. Although there are many creep models to characterize the deformation behaviors of soil, there still exist demands for a balance between model accuracy and practical application. Therefore, this paper aims at developing a Mechanistic-Empirical creep model (MEC) for unsaturated soft and stabilized soils. The model considers the stress dependence and incorporates moisture sensitivity using matric suction and shear strength parameters. This formulation is intended to predict the soil creep deformation under arbitrary water content and arbitrary stress conditions. The results show that the MEC model is in good agreement with the experimental data with very high R-squared values. In addition, the model is compared with the other classical creep models for unsaturated soils. While the classical creep models require a different set of parameters when the water content is changed, the MEC model only needs one set of parameters for different stress levels and moisture conditions, which provides significant facilitation for implementation. Finally, a finite element simulation analysis of subgrade soil foundation is performed for different loading levels and moisture conditions. The MEC model is utilized to predict the creep behavior of subgrade soils. Under the same load and moisture level, the deformation of soft soil is largest, followed by lime soil and RHA-lime-stabilized soil, respectively.

Crosstalk disrupts the production of motor imagery brain signals in brain-computer interfaces.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) target specific brain activity for neuropsychological rehabilitation, and also allow patients with motor disabilities to control mobility and communication devices. Motor imagery of single-handed actions is used in BCIs but many users cannot control the BCIs effectively, limiting applications in the health systems. Crosstalk is unintended brain activations that interfere with bimanual actions and could also occur during motor imagery. To test if crosstalk impaired BCI user performance, we recorded EEG in 46 participants while they imagined movements in four experimental conditions using motor imagery: left hand (L), right hand (R), tongue (T) and feet (F). Pairwise classification accuracies of the tasks were compared (LR, LF, LT, RF, RT, FT), using common spatio-spectral filters and linear discriminant analysis. We hypothesized that LR classification accuracy would be lower than every other combination that included a hand imagery due to crosstalk. As predicted, classification accuracy for LR (58%) was reliably the lowest. Interestingly, participants who showed poor LR classification also demonstrated at least one good TR, TL, FR or FL classification; and good LR classification was detected in 16% of the participants. For the first time, we showed that crosstalk occurred in motor imagery, and affected BCI performance negatively. Such effects are effector-sensitive regardless of the BCI methods used; and likely not apparent to the user or the BCI developer. This means that tasks choice is crucial when designing BCI. Critically, the effects of crosstalk appear mitigatable. We conclude that understanding crosstalk mitigation is important for improving BCI applicability. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version of this article contains supplementary material available (10.1007/s13755-021-00142-y).

CD226: An Emerging Role in Immunologic Diseases.

CD226, a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, is a functional protein initially expressed on natural killer and T cells. In recent years, the function of CD226 has been increasingly realized and researched. Accumulating evidence shows that CD226 is closely related to the occurrence of autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and tumors. Because of the CD226's increasing importance, the author herein discusses the structure, mechanism of action, and role of CD226 in various pathophysiological environments, allowing for further understanding of the function of CD226 and providing the basis for further research in related diseases.

Terlipressin in the treatment of neonatal refractory hypotension caused by septic shock: a case report.

BACKGROUND: While the clinical benefits of terlipressin (TP) have been reported in adults and children with refractory hypotension, data in neonates are limited. CASE: Herein, we report a case of off-label rescue TP therapy in a neonate with septic shock and persistent hypotension. The patient`s blood pressure was normalized, and tissue perfusion improved without serious adverse reactions. However, genetic testing revealed mitochondrial gene defects in the patient, and the parents subsequently elected to stop treatment after 25 doses of TP (20 µg/kg/min every 4 h for 100 h). CONCLUSION: While TP treatment appeared to help control hypotension and may prolong the survival time, there are no conclusive data regarding the safety and efficacy of TP in neonates.