Browse Articles

RF communication between dual band implantable and on body antennas for biotelemetry application

Abstract This paper investigates two antennas for implantable communication, which are a wide-band, low-profile transmitting antenna with a circular polarization (CP) merit immersed in a lossy medium and a corresponding wide-band, low-profile receiving antenna with a linear polarization (LP) merit placed on human tissue. The first antenna is implantable inside a human body for sensing, monitoring, and transmitting various vital signs, while the second antenna acts as a nearby receiving end. These antennas work in the 2.4-2.4835 GHz and 5.725-5.875 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands. The main features of the designed transmitting antenna are its simplicity, the wide-band characteristics, which preserve the detuning effect caused by environmental heterogeneity, and the CP property at both operational ISM bands. Moreover, for introducing an electrically small antenna footprint with proper performance, the implantable antenna is designed with an entire size of 25.4 (5 $$\times$$ 5 $$\times$$ 1.016) $$\hbox {mm}^3$$ . This antenna is designed and dissected in a homogeneous skin model (HSM) as well as a three-layer phantom. On the other hand, the wide-band receiving antenna is designed on flexible material for patients’ comfort with a compact size of 134.6 ( $$20\times 26.5\times 0.254$$ ) $$\hbox {mm}^3$$ . In addition, the implantable antenna performance is evaluated in a chicken slab as well as a saline solution, while the on-body antenna is placed on the chicken slab to measure its reflection coefficient. The measured impedance BWs of the implantable antenna are 13.04 % and 33.2 % in the chicken slab while 19.5% and 25.2 % in the saline solution at the two ISM bands, respectively. While, the measured impedance BWs of the on-body antenna are 24% and 50.4 % at two operating ISM frequencies. Finally, the measured transmission coefficient between the two antennas is evaluated.

Single-cell landscape of dynamic changes in CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells and exhausted T cells in hepatocellular carcinoma

Impact of incorporating wheat straw together with basal nitrogen ratio on panicle formation and grain yield in rice

Complex congenital heart and lung defects as a cause of hydrops fetalis in French bulldogs –micro-CT with contrast study

Feasibility of remote robot empowered teleultrasound scanning for radioactive patients

Studying the impact of chitosan salicylaldehyde/schiff base/CuFe2O4 in PC3 cells via theoretical studies and inhibition of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling

Abstract In this elucidation, the nucleophilic attack of salicyladehyde with chitosan, which was obtained from the shrimp shell, afforded the cellulose aldehyde (Schiff base), and then the dispersion of CuFe2O4 on the surface of cellulose aldehyde gave the novel nanomaterial of bimetallic oxide, which was confirmed through spectral analysis such as FT-IR, NMR, SEM, and XRD analysis. Moreover, the anti-proliferative effect of chitosan, chitosan salicylaldehyde, and chitosan salicylaldehyde/CuFe2O4 was evaluated in PC3 human prostate cancer cells and HSF normal human skin fibroblasts. After 48 h, PC3 cell proliferation was significantly inhibited by chitosan salicylaldehyde/CuFe2O4 and chitosan salicylaldehyde (IC50 = 35.3 and 45.55 µg/ml, respectively) without any effects on normal HSF cells. The mRNA expression levels of PI3K, AKT, mTOR, and CCND1 were examined in PC3-treated cells by using QRT-PCR, and the results demonstrated that, by down-regulating the expression levels of these genes, chitosan salicylaldehyde/CuFe2O4 significantly affected prostate cancer cell proliferation, progression, and autophagy more than chitosan salicylaldehyde. Furthermore, the docking stimulation of the chitosan derivatives with different proteins showed the presence of CuFe2O4 particles effect on the interaction inside their pockets and increased the activities, and it’s related to biological evaluation. Additionally, the theoretical investigation of these chitosan derivatives and the determination of their physical descriptors showed the activity of bimetallic oxide and the presence of electrostatic hydrogen bond interaction. Finally, these findings may suggest that chitosan salicylaldehyde/CuFe2O4 has a promising anticancer impact against prostate cancer.

Predicting the hub interactome of COVID-19 and oral squamous cell carcinoma: uncovering ALDH-mediated Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation via salivary inflammatory proteins

Enhancing epigenetic aging clocks in cetaceans: accurate age estimations in small endangered delphinids, killer whales, pilot whales, belugas, humpbacks, and bowhead whales

Abstract This study presents refined epigenetic clocks for cetaceans, building on previous research that estimated ages in several species from bottlenose dolphins to bowhead and humpback whales using cytosine methylation levels. We combined publicly available data (generated on the HorvathMammalMethylChip40 platform) from skin (n = 805) and blood (n = 286) samples across 13 cetacean species, aged 0 to 139 years. By combining methylation data from different sources, we enhanced our sample size, thereby strengthening the statistical validity of our clocks. We used elastic net regression with leave one sample out (LOO) and leave one species out (LOSO) cross validation to produce highly accurate blood only (Median Absolute Error [MAE] = 1.64 years, r = 0.96), skin only (MAE = 2.32 years, r = 0.94) and blood and skin multi-tissue (MAE = 2.24 years, r = 0.94) clocks. In addition, the LOSO blood and skin (MAE = 5.6 years, repeated measures r = 0.83), skin only (MAE = 6.22 years, repeated measures r = 0.81), and blood only (MAE = 4.11 years, repeated measures r = 0.95) clock analysis demonstrated relatively high correlation toward cetacean species not included within this current data set and provide evidence for a broader application of this model. Our results introduce a multi-species, two-tissue clock for broader applicability across cetaceans, alongside single-tissue multi-species clocks for blood and skin, which allow for more detailed aging analysis depending on the availability of samples. In addition, we developed species-specific clocks for enhanced precision, resulting in four blood-specific clocks and eight skin-specific clocks for individual species; all improving upon existing accuracy estimates for previously published species-specific clocks. By pooling methylation data from various studies, we increased our sample size, significantly enhancing the statistical power for building accurate clocks. These new epigenetic age estimators for cetaceans provide more accurate tools for aiding in conservation efforts of endangered cetaceans.

Evaluating experimentally the viability of employing hybrid nanofluids as an operating fluid in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger

Abstract The use of hybrid nanofluids (HNF) in heat transfer applications has become the subject of studies during recent periods. Its ability to transfer heat is superior to single nanofluids, and this has been proven in many research. Shell and tube heat exchanger is one of the most common types and are therefore always under research to improve their performance. This study is a practical study that examines the effectiveness of HNF in their use as operating fluids in shell-and-tube heat exchangers instead of traditional operating fluids. A laboratory heat exchanger was used to complete this study. A group of HNF (MWCNTs- Al2O3/water) was synthesized at different concentration rates ranging from 0.4 to 2%. Tests were conducted for Reynolds values in the range from 2500 to 12,560. By measuring the variables in the tests and calculating some factors the results showed that, in comparison between the use of HNF and distilled water, it was found that there is an increase in the value of the Nusselt number for the HNF over the distilled water in a range of 10- 28.5%. The effectiveness increased when using the HNF by up to 22.7% compared to distilled water. Through experiments, an equation was deduced to calculate the value of the Nusselt number. There is good agreement between the results of this research and previous literature.

Author Correction: Spatially modulated structural colour in bird feathers

Synthesis, characterization and toxicity assessment of chlorantraniliprole nanoemulsion against Helicoverpa armigera

Two chromatographic methods for analyzing paracetamol in spiked human plasma with its toxic metabolite, N-acetyl parabenzoquinone imine and its antidote, N-acetyl-l-cysteine

Abstract Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol (APAP), is a highly utilized pharmaceutical agent on a global scale, particularly in the field of pediatrics. Regrettably, an overdose of APAP, resulting from the predominant oxidation, has the potential to trigger acute liver injury. The study’s goal was to find an easy, accurate, and selective way to measure APAP, N-acetyl para benzoquinone imine (NAPQI) (an APAP metabolite that is harmful), and N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) (an antidote). Two different chromatographic methods were used. The HPTLC method, which used silica gel 60 F254 as a stationary phase and a developing liquid made up of methanol, ethyl acetate, and glacial acetic acid (8:2:0.2, v/v/v) and a UV detection at 254 nm. The HPLC method was developed using a mobile phase consisting of water, methanol, and formic acid in a proportion of (70:30:0.15, v/v/v). The stationary phase used in the approach was a C18 column. Analytes quantification was established utilizing a UV detector operating at a wavelength of 254 nm. The present methods make it possible to measure the amount of APAP in plasma samples. When it comes to pharmacokinetics or medication levels in children’s plasma, for example, this may be also very helpful. The current methods can quantify NAPQI, which is helpful in figuring out drug concentrations in individuals with APAP intoxication diagnoses. Additionally, the current approaches can estimate NAC as an antidote; as a result, this study is a complete study because it can analyse drug, toxic metabolite, and antidote in one analytical run. Using the innovative blue applicability grade index software, which measures the practicality of procedures, both methodologies were compared with a reported methods. Additionally, the achievement of the eco-friendliness profile of the designed procedures was assessed. Both techniques passed the ICH validation tests.

Delving into biomarkers and predictive modeling for CVD mortality: a 20-year cohort study

Forsythia suspensa leaf fermented tea extracts attenuated oxidative stress in mice via the Ref-1/HIF-1α signal pathway and modulation of gut microbiota

Identification of new ClpC1-NTD binders for Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug development

Enhancing depression recognition through a mixed expert model by integrating speaker-related and emotion-related features

Exploring the anticancer potential of Hewittia malabarica through phytochemical analysis and molecular docking study

Efficacy of 3D-printed patient specific implant for orbital wall fracture repair in a series of 40 patients

An algorithm for cardiac disease detection based on the magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract In experiments to detect heart disease on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) medical images, existing object detection models face several challenges including low accuracy and unreliable detection results. To tackle these issues, this article proposes an innovative method for Object Detection in cardiac MRI medical images called SA-YOLO. This method is based on the YOLOv8 model but introduces several key modifications. Firstly, the standard Spatial Pyramid Pooling Fast module is replaced with a Multi-Channel Spatial Pyramid Pooling module. Secondly, an attention mechanism combining the ideas of Squeeze-Excitation and Coordinate Attention designed, and integrated into the Neck part of the baseline model. Subsequently, the bounding box regression loss function CIoU loss of the model was replaced with the iSD-IoU loss that combines shape loss and distance loss. Finally, comparative experiments were conducted on the Automated Cardiac Diagnosis Challenge cardiac MRI image dataset where it was found that SA-YOLOv8 achieved better results in detecting cardiac pathologies, and improvement of 7.4% in mAP0.5 value and 5.1% in mAP0.5-0.95 value compared to the baseline model.

Insights from serial cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging show early progress in diastolic dysfunction relates to impaired right ventricular deformation

Abstract Latent pulmonary vascular disease is a distinct feature already in the early pathophysiology of masked heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and associated with reduced right ventricular (RV) functional reserve. We hypothesized that serial real-time cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging at rest and during exercise-stress may detect early progress in pathophysiological alterations in HFpEF. Patients presenting with exertional dyspnoea and signs of diastolic dysfunction (E/e’>8, left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction > 50%) were prospectively enrolled in the HFpEF Stress Trial (NCT03260621). Rest and exercise-stress echocardiography, CMR and right heart catheterisation were performed at baseline. Pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) was used for classification of HFpEF (≥ 15/25mmHg at rest/during exercise-stress) and non-cardiac dyspnoea (NCD). Repeat rest and exercise-stress CMR was performed in median 2.94 years after recruitment during which timeframe some HFpEF patients had undergone interatrial shunt device (IASD) implantation. Cardiovascular events were assessed after 4 years.Serial CMR scans were available for NCD n  = 10, HFpEF n  = 10 and HFpEF with IASD implantation following baseline diagnosis n  = 6. RV long axis strain at rest and during exercise-stress decreased in HFpEF ( p  = 0.007 for both) but neither in NCD nor HFpEF with IASD. In contrast, in NCD, an improvement in LA LAS during exercise-stress ( p  = 0.028) was noted. There were no functional alterations in HFpEF patients who had undergone IASD implantation. RV functional deterioration may be a pathophysiological feature during early-stage disease progress in HFpEF. In this observational study RV functional deterioration was detected in HFpEF patients only but not patients with NCD and patients with HFpEF that were treated with IASD placement. These findings should next be explored in adequately powered future research trials. Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03260621 (First posted date 24/08/2017).