Investigating the Potential of Perovskite Nanocrystal-Doped Liquid Scintillator: A Feasibility Study.

Liquid scintillators are extensively employed as targets in neutrino experiments and in medical radiography. Perovskite nanocrystals are recognized for their tunable emission spectra and high photoluminescence quantum yields. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using perovskites as an alternative to fluor, a substance that shifts the wavelengths. The liquid scintillator candidates were synthesized by doping perovskite nanocrystals with emission wavelengths of 450, 480, and 510 nm into fluor PPO with varying nanocrystal concentrations in a toluene solvent. The several properties of the perovskite nanocrystal-doped liquid scintillator were measured and compared with those of a secondary wavelength shifter, bis-MSB. The emission spectra of the perovskite nanocrystal-doped liquid scintillator exhibited a distinct monochromatic wavelength, indicating energy transfer from PPO to the perovskite nanocrystals. Using a 60Co radioactive source setup with two photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), the light yields, pulse shape, and wavelength shifts of the scintillation events were measured. The light yields were evaluated based on the observed Compton edges from γ-rays, and compared across the synthesized samples. A decrease (or increase) in area-normalized PMT pulse height was observed at higher perovskite nanocrystal (or PPO) concentrations. The results demonstrated the sufficient potential of perovskite nanocrystals as an alternative to traditional wavelength shifters in a liquid scintillator.

Feasibility Study on the Discrimination of Fluor Concentration in the Liquid Scintillator Using PMT Waveform and Short-Pass Filter.

Neutrinos are difficult to detect because they weakly interact with matter, making their properties least known. The response of the neutrino detector depends on the optical properties of the liquid scintillator (LS). Monitoring any characteristic changes in the LS helps to understand the temporal variation of detector response. In this study, a detector filled with LS was used to study the characteristics of the neutrinos detector. We investigated a method to distinguish the concentrations of PPO and bis-MSB, which are fluors added to LS, through a photomultiplier tube (PMT) acting as an optical sensor. Conventionally, it is very challenging to discriminate the flour concentration dissolved in LS. We employed the information of pulse shape and PMT coupled with the short-pass filter. To date, no literature report on a measurement using such an experimental setup has been published. As the concentration of PPO was increased, changes in the pulse shape were observed. In addition, as the concentration of bis-MSB was increased, a decrease in the light yield was observed in the PMT equipped with the short-pass filter. This result suggests the feasibility of real-time monitoring of LS properties, which are correlated with the fluor concentration, using a PMT without extracting the LS samples from the detector during the data acquisition process.

Leveraging Deep Representations of Radiology Reports in Survival Analysis for Predicting Heart Failure Patient Mortality.

Utilizing clinical texts in survival analysis is difficult because they are largely unstructured. Current automatic extraction models fail to capture textual information comprehensively since their labels are limited in scope. Furthermore, they typically require a large amount of data and high-quality expert annotations for training. In this work, we present a novel method of using BERT-based hidden layer representations of clinical texts as covariates for proportional hazards models to predict patient survival outcomes. We show that hidden layers yield notably more accurate predictions than predefined features, outperforming the previous baseline model by 5.7% on average across C-index and time-dependent AUC. We make our work publicly available at https://github.com/bionlplab/heart_failure_mortality.

Transdermal granisetron versus palonosetron for prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting following moderately emetogenic chemotherapy: a multicenter, randomized, open-label, cross-over, active-controlled, and phase IV study.

BACKGROUND: Palonosetron is the second-generation 5-hydroxytryptamine 3 receptor antagonist (5-HT3RA) that has shown better efficacy than the first-generation 5-HT3RA for prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in patients receiving moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (MEC). Granisetron transdermal delivery system (GTDS), a novel transdermal formulation, was developed to deliver granisetron continuously over 7 days. This study compared the efficacy and tolerability of the GTDS to palonosetron for the control of CINV following MEC. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A total of 196 patients were randomized to GP or PG group. In this multicenter, randomized, open-label, cross-over, active-controlled, Phase IV study, GP group was assigned to receive transdermal granisetron (one GTDS patch, 7 days) in the first chemotherapy cycle, palonosetron (iv 0.25 mg/day, 1 days) in the second chemotherapy cycle before receiving MEC, and PG group was assigned to receive palonosetron in the first cycle and GTDS in the second cycle. Primary endpoint was the percentage of chemotherapy cycles achieving complete response (CR; defined as no emetic episodes and no rescue medication use) during the acute phase (0-24 h in post-chemotherapy; non-inferiority comparison with palonosetron). RESULTS: Total 333 cycles (165 in GTDS and 168 in palonosetron) were included in the per protocol analysis. The GTDS cycles showed non-inferiority to palonosetron cycles during the acute phase: CR was achieved by 124 (75.2 %) patients in the GTDS cycles and 134 (79.8 %) patients in the palonosetron cycles (treatment difference, -4.6 %; 95 % confidence interval, -13.6-4.4). There was no significant difference in CR rate during acute phase after the end of the first and second chemotherapy cycle between GP and PG group (p = 0.405, p = 0.074). Patients' satisfaction, assessed using Functional Living Index-Emesis (FLI-E), GTDS cycle were higher than those of palonosetron cycle in GP group (FLI-E score; median 1549.5 in GTDS cycle, median 1670.0 in palonosetron cycle). Both treatments were well tolerated and safe. CONCLUSION: Transdermal granisetron is a good alternative therapeutic option to palonosetron for preventing CINV after MEC.

A study on the prevention of salmonella infection by using the aggregation characteristics of lactic Acid bacteria.

Salmonella is one of the major pathogenic bacteria that cause food poisoning. This study investigated whether heat-killed as well as live Lactobacillus protects host animal against Salmonella infection. Live and heat-killed Lactobacillusacidophilus was administered orally to Sprague-Dawley rats for 2 weeks before the rats were inoculated with Salmonella. Rise in body temperature was moderate in the group that was treated with heat-killed bacteria as compared to the Salmonella control group. The mean amount of feed intake and water consumption of each rat in the heat-killed bacteria group were nearly normal. The number of fecal Salmonellae was comparable between the live and the heat-killed L. acidophilus groups. This finding shows that L. acidophilus facilitates the excretion of Salmonella. Moreover, the levels of pro inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)-1 beta, in the heat-killed L. acidophilus group were significantly lower when compared to the levels in the Salmonella control group. These results indicate that nonviable lactic acid bacteria also could play an important role in preventing infections by enteric pathogens such as Salmonella.

Surface EMG during the Push-up plus Exercise on a Stable Support or Swiss Ball: Scapular Stabilizer Muscle Exercise.

[Purpose] Scapular stabilizer strengthening exercise is crucial for shoulder rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to compare two types of push-up plus exercises, on a stable and unstable bases of support, using surface electromyography (EMG), to suggest an effective shoulder rehabilitation program. [Subjects and Methods] Ten healthy men volunteered for this study. All volunteers performed two sets of push-up plus exercise (standard push up and knee push up) on stable and unstable bases of support. The muscle activities of five important scapular stabilizer muscles (upper trapezius, middle trapezius, lower trapezius, serratus anterior, latissimus dorsi) were recorded during the exercise. [Results] The upper trapezius showed greater mean electric activation amplitude in the scapular retraction posture than in the scapular protraction posture, and the serratus anterior showed greater mean electric activation amplitude in the scapular protraction posture than in the scapular retraction posture. The root-mean-square normalized EMG values of the muscles were greater during the exercise performed on the unstable support than those on the stable support. [Conclusion] The standard push-up plus exercise on an unstable base of support helps to increase muscle activity, especially those of the upper/middle trapezius and serratus anterior.

Trichostatin A promotes the development of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos.

We studied the effects of trichostatin A (TSA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, on the development of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos by investigating (1) the optimal concentration and treatment time of TSA for development of bovine SCNT embryos, (2) the status of histone acetylation in TSA-treated and control SCNT embryos and (3) the expression of histone acetylation- and deacetylation-related genes in TSA-treated and control SCNT embryos. We observed that 50 nM TSA-treatment for 20 h following fusion resulted in more efficient in vitro development of bovine SCNT embryos to the blastocyst stage. In regard to histone H4K5 acetylation, half of the control SCNT embryos faintly displayed histone H4K5 signals 30 min after electrofusion, while most of the TSA-treated SCNT embryos displayed histone H4K5 signals within 30 min after electrofusion. Furthermore, the expressions of HDAC1 and HDAC2 in the blastocysts were significantly lower (P<0.05) in the TSA-treated SCNT than in the control SCNT. However, the expression of GCN5 and HAT1 did not differ between the TSA-treated and control SCNT. In conclusion, we demonstrated that TSA-treatment after SCNT in bovine embryos can dramatically improve the practical applications of current cloning techniques.

Production of recombinant human von Willebrand factor in the milk of transgenic pigs.

Von Willebrand factor (vWF), a large multimeric glycoprotein present in blood plasma, is a blood protein of the coagulation system. It is defective in von Willebrand disease and is involved in a large number of other diseases, including thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura-hemolytic uremic syndrome and heyde's syndrome. We have developed a line of transgenic swine harboring recombinant human von Willebrand factor (rhvWF) cDNA through microinjection of fertilized one-cell pig zygotes. Expression of rhvWF in the mammary gland and secretion of rhvWF into the milk of the transgenic swine were confirmed by immunohistochemical and western blot analyses, respectively, and rhvWF proteins were detected in milk from all lactating founder females at concentrations that were 28- to 56-folds greater than that in circulating human plasma. The amino acid sequence of rhvWF protein in the transgenic pig milk matched that of vWF produced from human blood plasma. This study provides evidence that production of rhvWF from transgenic pig milk is a potentially valuable technology and can be used as a cost-effective alternative in clinical applications.

Cloning and characterization of 5'-untranslated region of porcine beta casein gene (CSN2).

beta-Casein (CSN2) is a major milk protein in most mammals. The CSN2 gene is generally induced by lactogenic hormones bound to its promoter. The expression of this gene can be enhanced by signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) and glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Here, we analyzed the promoter and intron 1 regions of the porcine CSN2 gene. The porcine CSN2 promoter and intron 1 regions (-3098bp to +2446bp) were cloned into the pGL3-Basic vector containing the luciferase reporter gene (pCSN2-PEI). Lactogenic signals induced the transcription of porcine CSN2. By using AG490, a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, we demonstrated that STAT5 positively regulates the transcription of porcine CSN2. Further, seven STAT mutants were generated by site-directed mutagenesis. By performing electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs), we located a critical element for pCSN2-PEI transcription bound to STAT5 in the -102bp to -84bp region. The construct containing only the promoter region (pCSN2-P), however, did not exert any promotive effects on transcription in two cell types-a mouse mammary epithelial cell line (HC11) and porcine mammary gland epithelial cells (PMECs). Thus, the construct containing intron 1 of porcine CSN2 exerts an elevating effect on transcription. We suggest that the transcription of porcine CSN2 is regulated by lactogenic signals via the STAT5 site (-102bp to -84bp) and intron 1.

Recombinant human erythropoietin produced in milk of transgenic pigs.

We have developed a line of transgenic swine harboring recombinant human erythropoietin through microinjection into fertilized one cell pig zygotes. Milk from generations F1 and F2 transgenic females was analyzed, and hEPO was detected in milk from all lactating females at concentrations of approximately 877.9+/-92.8 IU/1 ml. The amino acid sequence of rhEPO protein in the transgenic pig milk matched that of commercial rhEPO produced from cultured animal cells. In addition, an F-36 cell line, which proliferates in the presence of hEPO or commercial EPO, was induced to synthesize erythroid by extracts from tg sow milk. This study provides evidence that production of purified rhEPO from transgenic pig milk is a potentially valuable technology, and can be used as a cost-effective alternative in clinical applications as well as providing other clinical advantages.