Biotemplate-Assisted Growth of ZnO in Gas Sensors for ppb-Level NO2 Detection.

With the growing concern over the adverse effects of environmental pollution on human health, the combination of environmentally friendly and nontoxic biomaterials with metal oxide semiconductor materials for electronic devices has emerged as a prominent trend in current research. In this study, we utilized 150 mg apple biotemplates to assist in the hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanospheres. It successfully achieved high sensitivity for detecting 35 and 350 ppb NO2 at room temperature, with responses of 13.74 and 132.44%, respectively. Simultaneously, the 5-cycle repeatability and multiple-gas selectivity exhibited significant improvements. The ZnO nanospheres demonstrated enhanced sensing performance compared to pure ZnO nanorods, which is attributed to the following mechanisms: reason I, the modified surface morphology increasing the surface-to-volume ratio; reason II, an increase in oxygen vacancies, leading to reduced crystallinity and a higher electron concentration; reason III, incorporation of carbon elements on the nanostructure surface to increase active sites. The novel gas sensor assisted by the apple pectin biotemplate offers a promising solution for NO2 gas detection, featuring low operating temperatures, low concentrations, and high response sensitivity.

Cyclizine-induced proinflammatory responses through Akt-NFκB pathway in macrophages.

Cyclizine exhibits sedation and treatment of nausea, vomiting, and motion sickness due to antihistaminic and antimuscarinic effects. Cyclizine has the potential for abuse due to the hallucinogenic and euphoric effect. The response of overdose and illegal abuse of cyclizine includes confusion, tremors, chest pain, ataxia, seizures, and lead to suicide. Macrophage plays the important role in the innate immunity. However, over activation of macrophages results in pro-inflammatory responses in peripheral tissues. In the present study, cyclizine was found to enhanced the generation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, and IL-6. We further found that secretion of nitrogen oxide (NO) induced by cyclizine via expression of inducible nitric oxide synthases (iNOS). Cyclizine exhibited parallel stimulation of phosphorylation of nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) p65, and its up-stream factor Akt. These results indicated that the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, pro-inflammatory mediators, and adhesion molecules would be induced by cyclizine via activation of Akt-NFκB pathway in macrophages.

Degradable Carrageenan as a Substrate and Resistive Material for Flexible Applications.

In recent years, due to the environmental impact caused by electronic waste, decomposable components have become one of the most important topics in the world. In this study, the carrageenan material extracted from red algae was used as the resistance-switching layer of electronic components, and potassium was added to the carrageenan as a substrate (CK). CK has the advantages of excellent mechanical properties, transparency, and decomposability. In addition, the In/carrageenan/Ag/CK (ICACK) device exhibits good memory properties with a high ON/OFF ratio exceeding 107 and a retention time exceeding 104 s. Due to the doping of potassium ions, the ICACK element has a fairly good bending performance. Although bending or stretching under a small radius of curvature will not have a great impact on the electrical performance, it shows that in the future wearable or good potential in the field of implantable devices.

Patient-reported motor chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy impacts function in advanced colorectal cancer survivors receiving chemotherapy: A cross-sectional study.

AIMS: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy limits cancer survivors' compliance with chemotherapy and impaired function. This study aimed to examine separate impacts of clinician-assessed, patient-reported sensory and motor chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy on physical/role function and functional interference in advanced colorectal cancer survivors receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: A cross-sectional, correlational design utilizing convenience sampling enrolled 75 stage III or IV colorectal cancer adults undergoing chemotherapy. Participants filled out the Patient Neurotoxicity Questionnaire, Identification Pain Questionnaire, and Peripheral Neuropathy Scale. Then, a trained research nurse conducted a brief neurological assessment using the Total Neuropathy Scale - clinical version. RESULTS: The prevalence of sensory and motor chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy was from 34.7% to 54.7% and from 16.0% to 17.3%, respectively. Further, 20% of participants suffered from neuropathic pain. A low correlation between clinician-assessed and patient-reported chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy was detected. The function was significantly impacted by patient-reported motor chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. CONCLUSIONS: This study was superior in utilizing the brief and valid patient-reported and clinician-assessed tools to measure sensory and motor chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Moreover, the identification of patient-reported motor symptoms has the largest influence on function in advanced colorectal cancer survivors. Nurses may use the brief and easily administered tools in clinical settings for effective screening and early detection of motor and sensory chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy to prevent functional decline in advanced colorectal cancer survivors. However, this study was still limited because of the cross-sectional design, small sample size, sample heterogeneity, and recruiting participants from only one medical center.

GPR97 triggers inflammatory processes in human neutrophils via a macromolecular complex upstream of PAR2 activation.

Neutrophils play essential anti-microbial and inflammatory roles in host defense, however, their activities require tight regulation as dysfunction often leads to detrimental inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Here we show that the adhesion molecule GPR97 allosterically activates CD177-associated membrane proteinase 3 (mPR3), and in conjugation with several protein interaction partners leads to neutrophil activation in humans. Crystallographic and deletion analysis of the GPR97 extracellular region identified two independent mPR3-binding domains. Mechanistically, the efficient binding and activation of mPR3 by GPR97 requires the macromolecular CD177/GPR97/PAR2/CD16b complex and induces the activation of PAR2, a G protein-coupled receptor known for its function in inflammation. Triggering PAR2 by the upstream complex leads to strong inflammatory activation, prompting anti-microbial activities and endothelial dysfunction. The role of the complex in pathologic inflammation is underscored by the finding that both GPR97 and mPR3 are upregulated on the surface of disease-associated neutrophils. In summary, we identify a PAR2 activation mechanism that directs neutrophil activation, and thus inflammation. The PR3/CD177/GPR97/PAR2/CD16b protein complex, therefore, represents a potential therapeutic target for neutrophil-mediated inflammatory diseases.

Microfluidic Sliding Paper-Based Device for Point-of-Care Determination of Albumin-to-Creatine Ratio in Human Urine.

A novel assay platform consisting of a microfluidic sliding double-track paper-based chip and a hand-held Raspberry Pi detection system is proposed for determining the albumin-to-creatine ratio (ACR) in human urine. It is a clinically important parameter and can be used for the early detection of related diseases, such as renal insufficiency. In the proposed method, the sliding layer of the microchip is applied and the sample diffuses through two parallel filtration channels to the reaction/detection areas of the microchip to complete the detection reaction, which is a simple method well suited for self-diagnosis of ACR index in human urine. The RGB (red, green, and blue) value intensity signals of the reaction complexes in these two reaction zones are analyzed by a Raspberry Pi computer to derive the ACR value (ALB and CRE concentrations). It is shown that the G + B value intensity signal is linearly related to the ALB and CRE concentrations with the correlation coefficients of R2 = 0.9919 and R2 = 0.9923, respectively. It is additionally shown that the ALB and CRE concentration results determined using the proposed method for 23 urine samples were collected from real suffering chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients are in fine agreement with those acquired operating a traditional high-reliability macroscale method. Overall, for point-of-care (POC) CKD diagnosis and monitoring in clinical applications, the results prove that the proposed method offers a convenient, real time, reliable, and low-spending solution for POC CKD diagnosis.

The Development of Two High-Yield and High-Quality Functional Rice Cultivars Using Marker-Assisted Selection and Conventional Breeding Methods.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important crop worldwide. Functional rice has exhibited health benefits. The aim of this study was to use marker-assisted selection (MAS) to introgress two genes, GE (giant embryo) and OsALDH7 (aldehyde dehydrogenase, golden-like endosperm) into colored rice and obtain high yield functional rice. CNY103108 and CNY103107 are two rice lines with golden-like endosperms and giant embryos. They were used as the donor parents. CNY922401, an elite purple waxy rice line, and TNGSW26, an indica red waxy rice cultivar were used as the recurrent parents. Foreground selection of the progenies was completed using functional markers for GE and OsALDH7, and background selection was completed using molecular markers to recover the background of the recurrent parents. MAS results showed a purple functional rice population (PFR) (CNY922401/CNY103108), with the recovery rate of the recurrent parental genome as 91.3%, and a red functional rice population (RFR) (TNGSW26/CNY103107) with the recovery as 89.8%. After five-season yield trials and several antioxidant activities analyses, PFR32 and RFR13 lines, which have similar yields and antioxidant activities, were selected as the recurrent parents with a golden-like endosperm and a giant embryo. For a biofortification purpose, they can become valuable products and be adapted to the current agricultural community.

Serum P-Cresyl Sulfate Level Is an Independent Marker of Peripheral Arterial Stiffness as Assessed Using Brachial-Ankle Pulse Wave Velocity in Patients with Non-Dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 3 to 5.

p-Cresyl sulfate (PCS) is a uremic toxin that causes cardiovascular injury and progression in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Peripheral arterial stiffness (PAS) as measured using the brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) is considered a valuable predictor of cardiovascular event risk in the general population. The study investigated the correlation between serum PCS levels and PAS (baPWV > 18.0 m/s) in 160 patients with stage 3−5 CKD. Liquid chromatography−mass spectrometry was used to assay serum PCS levels. PAS was detected in 54 patients (33.8%), and it was linked to older age, a higher prevalence of hypertension, higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure, higher serum calcium−phosphorus product and PCS levels, and lower height and body weight. Multivariable logistic regression analysis for independent factors associated with PAS illustrated that, in addition to age and diastolic blood pressure, serum PCS levels exhibited an odds ratio (OR) of 1.098 (95% confidence interval = 1.029−1.171, p = 0.005). These findings demonstrated that serum PCS levels were associated with PAS among patients with stage 3−5 CKD.

Solution-Processed Organic Photodetectors with Renewable Materials.

An organic photodetector prepared by a simple solution method based on renewable citrus pectin with an optimized concentration of aluminum nitrate (AlC05) is introduced herein. The effects of different concentrations of aluminum nitrate on the morphology and optical properties were investigated through various characterization methods. An AlC concentration of 0.5 mg/mL was found to provide the highest on/off ratio and acceptable rise and decay times. Also, the optimized device (Al/AlC0.5/ITO) exhibited good stability and repeatability at a 0.1 V bias under 440 nm visible light. Based on these results, citrus pectin materials were successfully used to fabricate an organic photodetector with a simple and cost-efficient fabrication process, while taking into account environmental commitments.

State-of-the-Art Capability of Convolutional Neural Networks to Distinguish the Signal in the Ionosphere.

Recovering and distinguishing different ionospheric layers and signals usually requires slow and complicated procedures. In this work, we construct and train five convolutional neural network (CNN) models: DeepLab, fully convolutional DenseNet24 (FC-DenseNet24), deep watershed transform (DWT), Mask R-CNN, and spatial attention-UNet (SA-UNet) for the recovery of ionograms. The performance of the models is evaluated by intersection over union (IoU). We collect and manually label 6131 ionograms, which are acquired from a low-latitude ionosonde in Taiwan. These ionograms are contaminated by strong quasi-static noise, with an average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) equal to 1.4. Applying the five models to these noisy ionograms, we show that the models can recover useful signals with IoU > 0.6. The highest accuracy is achieved by SA-UNet. For signals with less than 15% of samples in the data set, they can be recovered by Mask R-CNN to some degree (IoU > 0.2). In addition to the number of samples, we identify and examine the effects of three factors: (1) SNR, (2) shape of signal, (3) overlapping of signals on the recovery accuracy of different models. Our results indicate that FC-DenseNet24, DWT, Mask R-CNN and SA-UNet are capable of identifying signals from very noisy ionograms (SNR < 1.4), overlapping signals can be well identified by DWT, Mask R-CNN and SA-UNet, and that more elongated signals are better identified by all models.

Low serum 3-methyl histidine level is associated with aortic stiffness in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

3-Methylhistidine (3MH) is an indicator of muscle catabolism. Subclinical protein malnutrition is an independent predictor of aortic stiffness (AS). We aimed to study the relationship between serum 3MH level and AS among patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity was applied to measure AS of 110 MHD patients. Serum 3MH levels were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. AS was defined as cfPWV >10 m/s. Forty-five (40.9%) patients were categorized as having AS. Multivariable logistic (odds ratio: 0.792, p < 0.001) and linear (ß = -0.322, p < 0.001) regression analysis revealed that serum 3MH is an independent factor associated with AS among MHD patients. The diagnostic power of 3MH for AS in patients undergoing MHD was 0.691 (95% CI: 0.595-0.775, p = 0.0002). Low serum 3MH levels could be a potential biomarker related to AS among MHD patients.

Submergence Gene Sub1A Transfer into Drought-Tolerant japonica Rice DT3 Using Marker-Assisted Selection.

Flash flooding is a major environmental stressor affecting rice production worldwide. DT3 is a drought-tolerant, recurrent parent with a good yield, edible quality, and agronomic traits akin to those of an elite Taiwanese variety, Taiken9 (TK9). Progenies carrying Sub1A can enhance submergence stress tolerance and can be selected using the marker-assisted backcross (MAB) breeding method. For foreground selection, Sub1A and SubAB1 were utilized as markers on the BC2F1, BC3F1, and BC3F2 generations to select the submergence-tolerant gene, Sub1A. Background selection was performed in the Sub1A-BC3F2 genotypes, and the percentages of recurrent parent recovery within individuals ranged from 84.7-99.55%. BC3F3 genotypes (N = 100) were evaluated for agronomic traits, yield, and eating quality. Four of the eleven BC3F4 lines showed good yield, yield component, grain, and eating quality. Four BC3F4 lines, SU39, SU40, SU89, and SU92, exhibited desirable agronomic traits, including grain quality and palatability, consistent with those of DT3. These genotypes displayed a high survival rate between 92 and 96%, much better compared with DT3 with 64%, and demonstrated better drought tolerance compared to IR64 and IR96321-345-240. This study provides an efficient and precise MAB strategy for developing climate-resilient rice varieties with good grain quality for flood-prone regions.

A Semi-Supervised Transfer Learning with Dynamic Associate Domain Adaptation for Human Activity Recognition Using WiFi Signals.

Human activity recognition without equipment plays a vital role in smart home applications, freeing humans from the shackles of wearable devices. In this paper, by using the channel state information (CSI) of the WiFi signal, semi-supervised transfer learning with dynamic associate domain adaptation is proposed for human activity recognition. In order to improve the CSI quality and denoising of CSI, we carried out missing packet filling, burst noise removal, background estimation, feature extraction, feature enhancement, and data augmentation in the data pre-processing stage. This paper considers the problem of environment-independent human activity recognition, also known as domain adaptation. The pre-trained model is trained from the source domain by collecting a complete labeled dataset of all of the CSI of human activity patterns. Then, the pre-trained model is transferred to the target environment through the semi-supervised transfer learning stage. Therefore, when humans move to different target domains, a partial labeled dataset of the target domain is required for fine-tuning. In this paper, we propose a dynamic associate domain adaptation called DADA. By modifying the existing associate domain adaptation algorithm, the target domain can provide a dynamic ratio of labeled dataset/unlabeled dataset, while the existing associate domain adaptation algorithm only allows target domains with the unlabeled dataset. The advantage of DADA is that it provides a dynamic strategy to eliminate different effects on different environments. In addition, we further designed an attention-based DenseNet model, or AD, as our training network, which is modified by an existing DenseNet by adding the attention function. The solution we proposed was simplified to DADA-AD throughout the paper. The experimental results show that for domain adaptation in different domains, the accuracy of human activity recognition of the DADA-AD scheme is 97.4%. It also shows that DADA-AD has advantages over existing semi-supervised learning schemes.

Recovery of Ionospheric Signals Using Fully Convolutional DenseNet and Its Challenges.

The technique of active ionospheric sounding by ionosondes requires sophisticated methods for the recovery of experimental data on ionograms. In this work, we applied an advanced algorithm of deep learning for the identification and classification of signals from different ionospheric layers. We collected a dataset of 6131 manually labeled ionograms acquired from low-latitude ionosondes in Taiwan. In the ionograms, we distinguished 11 different classes of the signals according to their ionospheric layers. We developed an artificial neural network, FC-DenseNet24, based on the FC-DenseNet convolutional neural network. We also developed a double-filtering algorithm to reduce incorrectly classified signals. That made it possible to successfully recover the sporadic E layer and the F2 layer from highly noise-contaminated ionograms whose mean signal-to-noise ratio was low, SNR = 1.43. The Intersection over Union (IoU) of the recovery of these two signal classes was greater than 0.6, which was higher than the previous models reported. We also identified three factors that can lower the recovery accuracy: (1) smaller statistics of samples; (2) mixing and overlapping of different signals; (3) the compact shape of signals.

Lab-on-Paper Devices for Diagnosis of Human Diseases Using Urine Samples-A Review.

In recent years, microfluidic lab-on-paper devices have emerged as a rapid and low-cost alternative to traditional laboratory tests. Additionally, they were widely considered as a promising solution for point-of-care testing (POCT) at home or regions that lack medical infrastructure and resources. This review describes important advances in microfluidic lab-on-paper diagnostics for human health monitoring and disease diagnosis over the past five years. The review commenced by explaining the choice of paper, fabrication methods, and detection techniques to realize microfluidic lab-on-paper devices. Then, the sample pretreatment procedure used to improve the detection performance of lab-on-paper devices was introduced. Furthermore, an in-depth review of lab-on-paper devices for disease measurement based on an analysis of urine samples was presented. The review concludes with the potential challenges that the future development of commercial microfluidic lab-on-paper platforms for human disease detection would face.

Use of the Taguchi Method to Optimize an Immunodetection System for Quantitative Analysis of a Rapid Test.

In this research, the Taguchi method was used to optimize the detection accuracy and reproducibility of an immunodetection system used for a quantitative analysis of a rapid test. Furthermore, the standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CV) between the theoretical value and the measured value of the self-made simulated rapid test became smaller, and the linearity became higher. The results thus indicated that the immunodetection system became more reliable. In the present research, a camera was used to capture an image containing the control line (C line) and the test line (T line) in the self-made simulated rapid test. The captured image was then analyzed, and the grayscales of the C line and T line were calculated. The Taguchi method was used to adjust the light intensity of the light-emitting diode (LED) and the camera parameters in the immunodetection system to determine the optimal parameters by which to optimize the performance of the immunodetection system. The goal of the present research was to obtain a measurement with a minimum SD and CV between the detected grayscales and the grayscales of the self-made simulated rapid test, thus indicating successful development of a practical, stable, and accurate immunodetection system. To mimic the color expression in an actual rapid test, the ratio of the red, green, blue (RGB) components of the self-made simulated rapid test had to be adjusted to closely fit the color expression of the actual rapid test. After the RGB ratio was set, the Taguchi method was used to optimize the parameters for the purpose of detection. When the optimal parameters were found, the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio) had been increased from -12.89 dB to -10.91 dB, which means the accuracy of the color detection had been improved. Compared to the original detection system, the quality loss had been reduced to 33.1%.

Embedded Immunodetection System for Fecal Occult Blood.

In this paper, a rapid test system with high sensitivity, linearity, and stability is presented for fecal occult blood (FOB) detection. The coloration results of the immune response are used as the basis for the determination of the detection target in combination with an immunochromatographic strip. The rapid test system can be used to detect and calculate the concentration of the sample, so detection of the immune coloration response is more accurate in a quantitative analysis. The system is composed of both hardware and software. The programs used for the analysis and programmed by Python include the main program, polarization calibration, QR Code decoding, Bluetooth transmission, and image processing. After verification of each part of the system, it was found that the rapid test system successfully detects from 0 ng/mL to 400 ng/mL of FOB with coefficients of variation (CV) below 3.7% and 1000 ng/mL with a CV only at 7.41%.

Impact of Top Electrodes on the Nonvolatile Resistive Switching Properties of Citrus Thin Films.

Natural citrus thin films on an indium tin oxide (ITO)/glass substrate were synthesized using the solution method for resistive random access memory (RRAM) applications. The results indicated that the citrus memory device possessed stable resistive switching behavior. For a clear understanding of the role of the interface reaction between the top metal electrode and the citrus film, we investigated the influences of various top electrode (TE) materials on the resistive switching in TE/citrus/ITO devices. In comparison with Au/citrus/ITO and Ti/citrus/ITO devices, the Al/citrus/ITO device can be reproduced with a DC voltage of more than 100 times while only showing a slight decrease in the ON/OFF ratio. In addition, the Al/citrus/ITO device exhibited a high ON/OFF ratio of over 104 and an outstanding uniformity, which was attributed to the fast formation of a native oxide layer (AlOx), as confirmed by the line scan analysis. This indicated that the interface layer, created by the redox reaction between the Al electrode and citrus film, played an important role in the resistive switching properties of TE/citrus/ITO structures. These findings can serve as design guidelines for future bio-based RRAM devices.

Mg17Al12 phase in magnesium alloy waste facilitating the Ni2+ reduction in nickel plating wastewater.

A process for recycling Ni2+ in Ni-plating wastewater was investigated. This study employed Mg alloy flash waste to reduce the Ni2+ in the wastewater into metallic Ni. Fine second-phase Mg17Al12 in a network is the critical point for promoting the reduction reaction of Ni2+. The microstructures of the Mg alloy flash scrap and the die-cast Mg alloy scrap waste fulfilled the requirement. The Mg17Al12 is like a catalyst for the quick reduction of the Ni2+ ions into pure Ni metal. Contrarily, pure Mg (not containing Mg17Al12 particles) and gravity-cast AZ91D Mg alloy (having coarse Mg17Al12 particles) were not suitable for being used for the Ni2+ wastewater treatment. Based on the above results and discussion, using the Mg alloy flash scrap waste for treating the laboratory-made Ni2+-containing wastewater, the wastewater initially with ∼5600 ppm of Ni2+ ions could be reduced to ∼20 ppm in 2 h. When applying the Mg alloy flash scrap for the Ni plating wastewater from industry, the concentration of Ni2+ was able to be reduced from ∼16,670 ppm to ∼1434 ppm in 10 min for the wastewater at 90 °C.

Developmental exposure to diesel exhaust upregulates transcription factor expression, decreases hippocampal neurogenesis, and alters cortical lamina organization: relevance to neurodevelopmental disorders.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) during development and/or in adulthood has been associated in many human studies with both neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: In the present study, C57BL/6 J mice were exposed to environmentally relevant levels (250+/-50 µg/m3) of diesel exhaust (DE) or filtered air (FA) during development (E0 to PND21). The expression of several transcription factors relevant for CNS development was assessed on PND3. To address possible mechanistic underpinnings of previously observed behavioral effects of DE exposure, adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus and laminar organization of neurons in the somatosensory cortex were analyzed on PND60. Results were analyzed separately for male and female mice. RESULTS: Developmental DE exposure caused a male-specific upregulation of Pax6, Tbr1, Tbr2, Sp1, and Creb1 on PND3. In contrast, in both males and females, Tbr2+ intermediate progenitor cells in the PND60 hippocampal dentate gyrus were decreased, as an indication of reduced adult neurogenesis. In the somatosensory region of the cerebral cortex, laminar distribution of Trb1, calbindin, and parvalbumin (but not of Ctip2 or Cux1) was altered by developmental DE exposure. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide additional evidence to previous findings indicating the ability of developmental DE exposure to cause biochemical/molecular and behavioral alterations that may be involved in neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD.