Bioinspired Artificial Intelligence Applications 2023.

With rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), researchers have found many bioinspired AI applications, such as bioinspired images and speech processing, which can increase accuracy [...].

Stability and bioactivities evaluation of analytical grade C-phycocyanin during the storage of Spirulina platensis powder.

C-phycocyanin (C-PC) is a natural high-value blue phycobiliprotein from Spirulina platensis, which has wide biological applications in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics. However, the freshness of S. platensis powder (SPP) materials and C-PC purification play critical roles in evaluating the stability and bioactivities of C-PC, which severely affect its commercial application. This study investigated the effect of spray-dried SPP freshness on the biofunctional activities of analytical grade C-PC (AGC-PC). The yield of AGC-PC extracted from spray-dried SPP could reach 101.88 mg/g (75% recovery ratio) after purification by reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) system. The half-life period (t1/2 ) of AGC-PC stability at 60°C and 8000 lux light could remain 171.70 min and 176.11 h within 6 months storage of spray-dried SPP. The emulsifying activity index (EAI) and foaming capacity (FC) of AGC-PC from fresh-dried SPP showed maximum values of 68.64 m2 /g and 252.9%, respectively. The EC50 of AGC-PC from fresh spray-dried SPP on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline -6-sulfonic acid (ABTS+·) scavenging activity could reach 63.76 and 92.93 mg/L, respectively. The EC50 of AGC-PC from fresh spray-dried SPP on proteinase inhibition and anti-lipoxygenase activity were 302.96 and 178.8 mg/L, respectively. The stability and biofunctional activities of AGC-PC remained stable within 6 months storage of SPP, and then rapidly decreased after 9 months storage due to the disintegration of the trimeric (αß)3 and hexameric (αß)6 forms of C-PC. It is concluded that the optimal storage period of SPP for preparation of AGC-PC in commercial use should be less than 6 months. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The C-phycocyanin (C-PC) from dried Spirulina platensis powder (SPP) has been widely applied in food nutritional, florescent markers, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc, due to its blue color, fluorescence, and antioxidant properties. However, the effect of dried SPP freshness on the stability and functional activity of C-PC has been rarely reported. This study found that the thermostability, photostability, emulsifying, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities of analytical grade C-PC (AGC-PC) significantly decreased after 6 months storage of SPP. Based on investigations, we have proposed that the suitable storage time of dried SPP for preparation of AGC-PC in commercial application should be within 6 months.

Critical behaviors of nonlinear contagion models with recurrent mobility patterns.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the nonlinearity property of contagion processes in epidemic spreading on social networks with various structures. In this paper, we propose a nonlinear contagion model in networked metapopulations to investigate the critical behavior of epidemics with recurrent mobility patterns. First, we build up a discrete-time Markovian chain model to formulate the spreading of susceptible-infected-susceptible-like diseases. Additionally, we develop a practicable framework to analyze the impact of mobility on the epidemic threshold and derive the theoretical condition for the transition of an epidemic from a local to a global scale. This transition is associated with multiple discontinuous phase changes. We validate our analytical results through extensive numerical simulations on both regular and heterogeneous networks. Our findings offer a useful tool to discuss the implementation of prevention strategies such as quarantine and lockdown.

FEUSNet: Fourier Embedded U-Shaped Network for Image Denoising.

Deep convolution neural networks have proven their powerful ability in comparing many tasks of computer vision due to their strong data learning capacity. In this paper, we propose a novel end-to-end denoising network, termed Fourier embedded U-shaped network (FEUSNet). By analyzing the amplitude spectrum and phase spectrum of Fourier coefficients, we find that low-frequency features of an image are in the former while noise features are in the latter. To make full use of this characteristic, Fourier features are learned and are concatenated as a prior module that is embedded into a U-shaped network to reduce noise while preserving multi-scale fine details. In the experiments, we first present ablation studies on the Fourier coefficients' learning networks and loss function. Then, we compare the proposed FEUSNet with the state-of-the-art denoising methods in quantization and qualification. The experimental results show that our FEUSNet performs well in noise suppression and preserves multi-scale enjoyable structures, even outperforming advanced denoising approaches.

Is a fish bone at a parallel angle in the throat more likely to fall out automatically？.

PURPOSE: To investigate the factors influencing the spontaneous expulsion of fish bone foreign bodies in the throat of children. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted between January 2018 and December 2021 of children hospitalized with fishbone foreign bodies in the throat, and subsequent electronic rhinolaryngoscopy to analyze the factors influencing the spontaneous expulsion of these foreign bodies. RESULTS: The effect of foreign body angle on the rate of dislodgement was found to be statistically significant. Parallel angle was more likely to dislodge relative to vertical (RR = 2.495, 95% CI 1.515-4.109, P = 0.000); inclined angle was more likely to dislodge relative to vertical (RR = 2.121, 95% CI 1.284-3.505, P = 0.003). For the three fish bone foreign body angles (vertical, inclined, and parallel), the percentage of dislodgement showed a linear trend (0.278, 0.600, and 0.723), indicating that the percentage of dislodgement appeared to increase with the increase of fish bone foreign body inclination angle (Ptrend = 0.000). CONCLUSION: There is a high rate of natural expulsion of fish bone foreign body from children's throat, and the rate of expulsion increases with the increase of the foreign body inclination angle.

A retrospective study of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for peripheral T-cell lymphoma: pre-transplant patients with partial remission benefit from post-transplant maintenance therapy.

Background: Whether autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) improves the survival of patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) remains controversial. Some studies have demonstrated that the efficacy of ASCT is superior in patients with complete remission (CR), whereas patients with partial remission (PR) remain vulnerable to relapse after ASCT, resulting in decreased survival rates. Maintenance therapy after chemotherapy may reduce the relapse rate of PTCL and improve survival; however, the role of maintenance therapy after ASCT in PTCL remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to analyze the efficacy of ASCT and post-transplant maintenance therapy in PTCL. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 69 patients with PTCL who underwent ASCT at our center between November 2001 and November 2021. According to the patients' intention, thirty patients received post-transplant maintenance treatment, whereas 39 did not. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) between the groups were compared using the log-rank test. Results: At a median follow-up of 36 months, the entire cohort's 3-year OS and PFS were 67.8% and 53.0%, respectively. The 3-year OS and PFS of patients with CR1, CR2, and PR were 85.3% and 65.4%, 80.0% and 60.0%, and 38.4% and 32.0%, respectively (OS: P=0.001; PFS: P=0.003). The relapse rates between the groups with or without maintenance therapy were 26.7% vs. 52.2%, the 3-year OS was 86.0% vs. 54.2% (P=0.004), and the 3-year PFS was 73.3% vs. 37.5% (P=0.004). Further analysis revealed that the efficacy of maintenance therapy was not significant in patients with CR1 and CR2, whereas patients with PR benefited from maintenance therapy. The relapse rate of patients with PR who received or did not receive maintenance therapy was 33.3% vs. 78.7%, 3-year OS was 66.7% vs. 21.9% (P=0.007), and 3-year PFS was 66.7% vs. 12.5% (P=0.004). Conclusions: Patients with CR in PTCL benefit from ASCT, and post-transplant maintenance therapy reduces the relapse rate and significantly improves OS and PFS in patients with PR.

[Cochlear electrode array misplacement into the superior semicircular canal: a case report and literature review].

Electrode array misplacement is a rare complication of cochlear implant. This article reports an 11-year-old boy who was mistakenly implanted the cochlear electrode array into the superior semicircular canal during the initial cochlear implant. After the diagnosis was confirmed, he underwent a second cochlear implant and the electrode array were successfully implanted into the cochlea. This article conducted a systematic review of the literature on electrode array misplacement, and the causes of electrode array misplacement were analyzed from different implantation position.

Preparation and Characterization of Intracellular and Exopolysaccharides during Cycle Cultivation of Spirulina platensis.

The dried cell weight (DCW) of Spirulina platensis gradually decreased from 1.52 g/L to 1.18 g/L after five cultivation cycles. Intracellular polysaccharide (IPS) and exopolysaccharide (EPS) content both increased with increased cycle number and duration. IPS content was higher than EPS content. Maximum IPS yield (60.61 mg/g) using thermal high-pressure homogenization was achieved after three homogenization cycles at 60 MPa and an S/I ratio of 1:30. IPS showed a more fibrous, porous, and looser structure, and had a higher glucose content and Mw (272.85 kDa) compared with EPS, which may be indicative of IPS's higher viscosity and water holding capacity. Although both carbohydrates were acidic, EPS had stronger acidity and thermal stability than IPS; this was accompanied by differences in monosaccharide. IPS exhibited the highest DPPH (EC50 = 1.77 mg/mL) and ABTS (EC50 = 0.12 mg/mL) radical scavenging capacity, in line with IPS's higher total phenol content, while simultaneously showing the lowest HO• scavenging and ferrous ion chelating capacities; thus characterizing IPS as a superior antioxidant and EPS as a stronger metal ion chelator.

SPNet: a size-variant progressive network for aero-optical thermal radiation effects correction.

When an aircraft is flying at a high speed, the airflow meets the optical cover and is compressed, resulting in aero-optical thermal radiation effects that degrade image quality. In this paper, based on the inherent characteristic that the degrade level of the thermal radiation bias field remains consistent regardless of image size, a size-variant progressive aero-optical thermal radiation effects correction network (SPNet) is proposed. First, SPNet uses two sub-networks to progressively correct degraded image, first and second sub-networks are responsible for learning coarse and accurate thermal radiation bias fields respectively. Second, we introduce the multi-scale feature upsampling module (MFUM) to leverage the multi-scale information of the features and promote inter-channel information interaction. Third, we propose an adaptive feature fusion module (AFFM) to dynamically fuse features from different scales by assigning different weights. At last, a multi-head self-attention feature extraction module (MSFEM) is proposed to extract global information feature maps. Compared with state-of-the-art thermal radiation effects correction methods, experiments on both simulated and real degraded images demonstrate the performance of our proposed method.

Blind Additive Gaussian White Noise Level Estimation from a Single Image by Employing Chi-Square Distribution.

The additive Gaussian white noise (AGWN) level in real-life images is usually unknown, for which the empirical setting will make the denoising methods over-smooth fine structures or remove noise incompletely. The previous noise level estimation methods are easily lost in accurately estimating them from images with complicated structures. To cope with this issue, we propose a novel noise level estimation scheme based on Chi-square distribution, including the following key points: First, a degraded image is divided into many image patches through a sliding window. Then, flat patches are selected by using a patch selection strategy on the gradient maps of those image patches. Next, the initial noise level is calculated by employing Chi-square distribution on the selected flat patches. Finally, the stable noise level is optimized by an iterative strategy. Quantitative, with association, to qualitative results of experiments on synthetic real-life images validate that the proposed noise level estimation method is effective and even superior to the state-of-the-art methods. Extensive experiments on noise removal using BM3D further illustrate that the proposed noise level estimation method is more beneficial for achieving favorable denoising performance with detail preservation.

Case Report: Successful engraftment of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells using CAR-T cell therapy as the conditioning regimen in R/R Ph+ B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background: Consolidative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells (allo-HSCs) after chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) therapy is an emerging modality in hematologic malignancies. Knowledge about the success of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) after CAR-T therapy without a conditioning regimen is limited. Case presentation: We report a patient with relapsed/refractory (R/R) Ph+ B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who underwent anti-CD19 CAR-T immunotherapy. After 1 month of treatment, bone marrow hyperplasia remained reduced with no hematopoietic improvements. In line with this, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) were extracted from an HLA-matched sibling donor and administered to the patient on day 33 after CAR-T cell therapy to support hematopoiesis. On day 40, the level of immature bone marrow lymphocytes was at 0% and minimal residual disease-negative, and the fusion gene BCR/ABL 190 was negative. Chimerism analysis showed full donor chimerism. Three months after CAR-T cells infusion, the patient was still in complete remission with full donor chimerism. However, decreased liver function with skin pigmentation and festering, indicative of acute graft versus host disease, was noted. The treatment was halted owing to financial reasons. Conclusion: We report the successful engraftment of allogeneic HSCs using CAR-T cell therapy as a conditioning regimen for R/R B-ALL patients.

Rice Protein Peptides Alleviate Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis via the Keap1-Nrf2 Signaling Pathway and Regulating Gut Microbiota.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with increasing incidence, causes a range of gastrointestinal symptoms and brings distress and impact on the health and lives of patients. The aim of this study was to explore the protective effects of industrially produced rice protein peptides (RPP) on dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute colitis in mice and the potential mechanisms. The results showed that RPP treatment alleviated the symptoms of colitis in mice, including weight loss, colon shortening, and injury, decreased the level of disease activity index (DAI), regulated the balance of inflammatory factors and oxidation, activated Kelch-like ECH-associating protein 1 (Keap1)-nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway, regulated the expression of related antioxidant proteases, and promoted the expression of intestinal tight junction proteins. In addition, RPP maintained intestinal mucosal barrier function and alleviated acute colitis caused by DSS treatment in mice by increasing the value of F/B, increasing the relative abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Akkermansia, and regulating the level of short-chain fatty acids. In conclusion, RPP alleviated colitis symptoms through the Keap1-Nrf2 signaling pathway and regulating gut microbiota, which had the potential as dietary supplements or functional foods.

["Tragus flap" combined with "Z" modification method in the surgical correction of congenital tragal deformity in children and literature review].

Objective:To explore the clinical effect of "tragus flap" combined with "Z" modification method in the surgical correction of congenital tragal deformity in children. Methods:The clinical data of 36 children with congenital tragal deformity who were operated in Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from June 2016 to June 2021 were retrospectively summarized, 30 children（35 ears）with congenital tragal malformation had a natural "tragus flap" structure. During the operation, "tragus flap" combined with "Z" modification method was used to reconstruct the tragus. For the depressed deformity around the tragus, the cartilage and fascia tissue around the tragus were used for filling.In the other 6 cases （8 ears）, because the natural "tragus flap" structure was not found, the tragus was reconstructed by other methods, and a relatively satisfactory tragus structure was obtained. The overall effect was satisfactory. Results:No obvious complications were observed during and after the operation. No obvious scar and cartilage hyperplasia were found during the follow-up of 1-12 months. The reconstructed tragus has a good three-dimensional shape, and the depression at the tragus has been well corrected, which is close to the healthy side. The children with bilateral tragus deformity basically achieve bilateral symmetrical tragus, which is satisfactory to the children and their parents. Conclusion:Although the clinical manifestations of congenital tragal malformation are various， "tragus flap" combined with "Z" modification method for tragus reconstruction can be used for most cases. The method not only has shorter operation time, less skin scar and fewer complications, but also can obtain more natural tragus structure.

Multiple hydrolyses of rice straw by domesticated paddy soil microbes for methane production via liquid anaerobic digestion.

The aim of this study was to investigate the hydrolysis of rice straw (RS) using domesticated paddy soil microbes (DPSMs) with swine wastewater (SW) as the nitrogen source and the multiple hydrolyses for CH4 production via liquid anaerobic digestion (L-AD). Three hydrolyses of RS with a 45% inoculation ratio (IR) under the conditions of a carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N ratio) of 40, temperature of 37 °C, inoculum/substrate ratio (I/S ratio) of 2:1, and immersion depth of 6.0 cm were optimal, attaining maximum volatile fatty acids (VFAs) after five days, possibly owing to the synergistic effect of aerobic microbes (Firmicutes and Actinomycetes) and anaerobic microbes (Bacteroidetes and Acidobacteria). After three hydrolyses, the degradation rates of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin in RS were 88.45%, 83.19% and 70.09%, respectively. The accumulative CH4 production reached 462.11 mL/g VS after three hydrolyses, and its curve fitted well with the modified Gompertz model (R2 > 0.984).

Tragal remnant flap reconstruction method for congenital tragal malformation in children.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical effect of tragal remnant flap for congenital tragal malformation in children. METHODS: The clinical data of 23 children with congenital tragal malformation hospitalized in our department from May 2017 to May 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Congenital tragal malformation has various names and clinical manifestations. It is a kind of rare congenital auricle malformation, which can exist alone or in combination with other malformations. About 78.3% of the children with congenital tragal malformation had a natural tragal remnant flap; The rest of the children without tragal remnant flap were repaired by skin flap＆cartilage reconstruction method (SFC-RM). For the depressed deformity around the tragus, the cartilage and fascia tissue around the tragus were used for filling. The overall effect was satisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: Most children with congenital tragal malformation have natural tragal remnant flap. Tragal remnant flap reconstruction method (TRE-RM) not only has shorter operation time, less trauma, faster healing，fewer complications, but also can obtain more natural tragus appearance.

Industrially Produced Rice Protein Ameliorates Dextran Sulfate Sodium-Induced Colitis via Protecting the Intestinal Barrier, Mitigating Oxidative Stress, and Regulating Gut Microbiota.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) poses a threat to health and compromises the immune system and gut microflora. The present study aimed to explore the effects of rice protein (RP) purified from rice dregs (RD) on acute colitis induced by dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) and the underlying mechanisms. Results showed that RP treatment could alleviate the loss of body weight, colon shortening and injury, and the level of disease activity index, repair colonic function (claudin-1, ZO-1 and occludin), regulate inflammatory factors, and restore oxidative balance (malondialdehyde (MDA), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and total antioxidant capability (T-AOC)) in mice. Also, RP treatment could activate the Kelch-like ECH-associating protein 1 (Keap1)-nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway, mediate the expression of downstream antioxidant protease (NQO-1, HO-1, and Gclc), regulate gut microbiota by enhancing the relative abundance of Akkermansia and increasing the value of F/B, and adjust short-chain fatty acid levels to alleviate DSS-induced colitis in mice. Thus, RP may be an effective therapeutic dietary resource for ulcerative colitis.

Study on isothermal crystallization kinetics of Zr55.7Cu22.4Ni7.2Al14.7 bulk amorphous alloy.

Zr55.7Cu22.4Ni7.2Al14.7 alloy bars were prepared by copper mold suction casting, and the structure and thermodynamic properties of the prepared specimens were characterized by X-ray diffractometer and differential scanning calorimeter. Furthermore, isothermal crystallization mechanism and crystallization activation energy were investigated by Johnson-Mehl-Avrami model and Arrhenius equation. The results show that the structure of the specimen is amorphous. The glass transition temperature (Tg), onset crystallization temperature (Tx) and crystallization peak temperature (Tp) are 713 K, 779 K, and 781 K, respectively, and supercooled liquid region ([Formula: see text]) is 66 K. The crystallization incubation times are shortened and the crystallization transformation rates increase with temperature rising. As the crystallization volume fraction increases, the crystallization nucleation rate shows a trend of first increasing and subsequently decreasing, while the activation energy decreases monotonously, in the same time, the crystallization behavior transforms from interface-controlled to diffusion-controlled growth. The thermal stability of amorphous alloy is also discussed.

[A preliminary study on low temperature plasma obliteration for pyriform sinus fistula by visual laryngoscope].

Objective:To investigate the effect of low-temperature plasma obliteration for pyriform sinus fistula by visual laryngoscope. Methods:The clinical data of 29 cases with congenital pyriform sinus fistula receiving low temperature plasma obliteration by visual laryngoscope during March 2019 to August 2021 was retrospectively analyzed in department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery of Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. Nineteen cases accepted the pyriform sinus fistula probing + fistula obliteration, 6 cases accepted the pyriform sinus fistula probing + fistula obliteration + neck abscess incision and drainage, and 4 cases with cervical abscess accepted the pyriform sinus fistula probing + fistula obliteration. Results:All cases had no obvious complications. Two cases had vocal cord impairment after operations and recovered after one month. There was no recurrence in 2 to 30 months follow up, with mean 16 months follow up. Conclusion:Low-temperature plasma obliteration of pyriform sinus fistula by visual laryngoscope is a safe and effective surgical method with little trauma and short hospital stay. It could be the first choice for the treatment of pyriform sinus fistula. Incision and drainage of neck abscess and pyriform sinus fistula obliteration could be performed concurrently.

[Magnetic foreign body in bilateral nasal cavity in children:a case report].

In recent years, with the increase of magnetic toys, the intake of magnetic foreign bodies is an increasing problem in pediatric emergency.The strong suction of the magnetic foreign body can lead to necrosis, perforation, and infection of surrounding tissues.The site of magnetic foreign body injury is mainly the esophagus, intestines, stomach, a few in the pharynx, etc.This requires early assessment and appropriate intervention to avoid further harm.Because of its unique physical properties, magnetic foreign bodies in bilateral nasal cavity are rarely reported. Now we have a case of a bilateral magnetic foreign body in the nasal cavity.

In situ design of advanced titanium alloy with concentration modulations by additive manufacturing.

Additive manufacturing is a revolutionary technology that offers a different pathway for material processing and design. However, innovations in either new materials or new processing technologies can seldom be successful without a synergistic combination. We demonstrate an in situ design approach to make alloys spatially modulated in concentration by using laser-powder bed fusion. We show that the partial homogenization of two dissimilar alloy melts­Ti-6Al-4V and a small amount of 316L stainless steel­allows us to produce micrometer-scale concentration modulations of the elements that are contained in 316L in the Ti-6Al-4V matrix. The corresponding phase stability modulation creates a fine scale­modulated ß + α' dual-phase microstructure that exhibits a progressive transformation-induced plasticity effect, which leads to a high tensile strength of ~1.3 gigapascals with a uniform elongation of ~9% and an excellent work-hardening capacity of >300 megapascals. This approach creates a pathway for concentration-modulated heterogeneous alloy design for structural and functional applications.