Effect of α-Lipoic Acid on the Development of Human Skin Equivalents Using a Pumpless Skin-on-a-Chip Model

Owing to the prohibition of cosmetic animal testing, various attempts have recently been made using skin-on-a-chip (SOC) technology as a replacement for animal testing. Previously, we reported the development of a pumpless SOC capable of drug testing with a simple drive using the principle that the medium flows along the channel by gravity when the chip is tilted using a microfluidic channel. In this study, using pumpless SOC, instead of drug testing at the single-cell level, we evaluated the efficacy of α-lipoic acid (ALA), which is known as an anti-aging substance in skin equivalents, for skin tissue and epidermal structure formation. The expression of proteins and changes in genotyping were compared and evaluated. Hematoxylin and eosin staining for histological analysis showed a difference in the activity of fibroblasts in the dermis layer with respect to the presence or absence of ALA. We observed that the epidermis layer became increasingly prominent as the culture period was extended by treatment with 10 μM ALA. The expression of epidermal structural proteins of filaggrin, involucrin, keratin 10, and collagen IV increased because of the effect of ALA. Changes in the epidermis layer were noticeable after the ALA treatment. As a result of aging, damage to the skin-barrier function and structural integrity is reduced, indicating that ALA has an anti-aging effect. We performed a gene analysis of filaggrin, involucrin, keratin 10, integrin, and collagen I genes in ALA-treated human skin equivalents, which indicated an increase in filaggrin gene expression after ALA treatment. These results indicate that pumpless SOC can be used as an in vitro skin model similar to human skin, protein and gene expression can be analyzed, and it can be used for functional drug tests of cosmetic materials in the future. This technology is expected to contribute to the development of skin disease models.     

基于多通道的ICU脑血管疾病死亡风险预测模型

死亡风险预测指根据病人临床体征监测数据来预测未来一段时间的死亡风险。对于ICU病患，通过死亡风险预测可以有针对性地对病人做出临床诊断，以及合理安排有限的医疗资源。基于临床使用的MEWS和Glasgow昏迷评分量表，针对ICU病人临床监测的17项生理参数，提出一种基于多通道的ICU脑血管疾病死亡风险预测模型。引入多通道概念应用于BiLSTM模型，用于突出每个生理参数对死亡风险预测的作用。采用Attention机制用于提高模型预测精度。实验数据来自MIMIC [Ⅲ]数据库，从中提取3?080位脑血管疾病患者的16?260条记录用于此次研究，除了六组超参数实验之外，将所提模型与LSTM、Multichannel-BiLSTM、逻辑回归（logistic regression）和支持向量机（support vector machine, SVM）四种模型进行了对比分析，准确率Accuracy、灵敏度Sensitive、特异性Specificity、AUC-ROC和AUC-PRC作为评价指标，实验结果表明，所提模型性能优于其他模型，AUC值达到94.3%。     

Shared human–robot path following control of an unmanned ground vehicle

This paper considers the shared path following control of an unmanned ground vehicle by a single person. A passive measure of human intent is used to blend the human and machine inputs in a mixed initiative approach. The blending law is combined with saturated super-twisting sliding mode speed and heading controllers, so that exogenous disturbances can be counteracted via equivalent control. It is proven that when the proposed blending law is used, the combined control signals from both the human and automatic controller respect the actuator magnitude constraints of the machine. To demonstrate the approach, shared control experiments are performed using an unmanned ground vehicle, which follows a lawn mower pattern shaped path.     

Transglycosylation Activity of Engineered Bifidobacterium Lacto-N-Biosidase Mutants at Donor Subsites for Lacto-N-Tetraose Synthesis

The health benefits of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) make them attractive targets as supplements for infant formula milks. However, HMO synthesis is still challenging and only two HMOs have been marketed. Engineering glycoside hydrolases into transglycosylases may provide biocatalytic routes to the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides. Lacto-N-biosidase from Bifidobacterium bifidum (LnbB) is a GH20 enzyme present in the gut microbiota of breast-fed infants that hydrolyzes lacto-N-tetraose (LNT), the core structure of the most abundant type I HMOs. Here we report a mutational study in the donor subsites of the substrate binding cleft with the aim of reducing hydrolytic activity and conferring transglycosylation activity for the synthesis of LNT from p-nitrophenyl β-lacto-N-bioside and lactose. As compared with the wt enzyme with negligible transglycosylation activity, mutants with residual hydrolase activity within 0.05% to 1.6% of the wild-type enzyme result in transglycosylating enzymes with LNT yields in the range of 10–30%. Mutations of Trp394, located in subsite -1 next to the catalytic residues, have a large impact on the transglycosylation/hydrolysis ratio, with W394F being the best mutant as a biocatalyst producing LNT at 32% yield. It is the first reported transglycosylating LnbB enzyme variant, amenable to further engineering for practical enzymatic synthesis of LNT.     

一种X射线环焊缝图像质量评价方法

为了缩小增强后环焊缝图像质量主客观评价的差距,提出了一种基于人眼视觉的无参考质量评价指标。通过分析人眼的视觉特性,建立图像模糊评价模型,设定主观评价方法;主客观评价值进行曲线拟合,经验证,评价结果与主观评价结果具有线性拟合关系,评价结果接近人眼最佳视觉,验证了评价指标的可行性。     

Effects of Electromagnetic Waves with LTE and 5G Bandwidth on the Skin Pigmentation In Vitro

With the rapid growth of wireless communication devices, the influences of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on human health are gathering increasing attention. Since the skin is the largest organ of the body and is located at the outermost layer, it is considered a major target for the health effects of EMF. Skin pigmentation represents one of the most frequent symptoms caused by various non-ionizing radiations, including ultraviolet radiation, blue light, infrared, and extremely low frequency (ELF). Here, we investigated the effects of EMFs with long-term evolution (LTE, 1.762 GHz) and 5G (28 GHz) bandwidth on skin pigmentation in vitro. Murine and Human melanoma cells (B16F10 and MNT-1) were exposed to either LTE or 5G for 4 h per day, which is considered the upper bound of average smartphone use time. It was shown that neither LTE nor 5G exposure induced significant effects on cell viability or pigmentation. The dendrites of MNT-1 were neither lengthened nor regressed after EMF exposure. Skin pigmentation effects of EMFs were further examined in the human keratinocyte cell line (MNT-1-HaCaT) co-culture system, which confirmed the absence of significant hyper-pigmentation effects of LTE and 5G EMFs. Lastly, MelanoDerm™, a 3D pigmented human epidermis model, was irradiated with LTE (1.762 GHz) or 5G (28 GHz), and image analysis and special staining were performed. No changes in the brightness of MelanoDerm™ tissues were observed in LTE- or 5G-exposed tissues, except for only minimal changes in the size of melanocytes. Collectively, these results imply that exposure to LTE and 5G EMFs may not affect melanin synthesis or skin pigmentation under normal smartphone use condition.     

Dependence of grip strength on shoulder position and its implications for ergonomics practice

Grip strength (GS) variability due to positional changes in the upper extremity joints is of importance while designing workstations and work methods. This study was conducted to analyze the GS variations due to positional changes at shoulder joint when some important variables were under control. The GSs of dominant and nondominant hands were measured in eight shoulder (0°, 45°, 90°, and 135° of flexion and abduction) and standard test positions (STP). One hundred and thirteen subjects 20–30 years old completed the study. At the dominant side, no significant difference was observed in the pairwise comparisons between STP and the others. Maximum and minimum GSs were obtained in 0° abduction and 45° flexion and abduction, respectively. At the nondominant side, GSs were significantly lower (p < 0.001) in the corresponding test positions and demonstrated more variability. The findings of this study can contribute to the available knowledge to guide occupational ergonomists in their practices.     

萝卜硫素介导Akt/p70S6K信号传导诱导人鼻咽癌CNE-2细胞凋亡

目的:研究萝卜硫素对人鼻咽癌CNE-2细胞增殖、凋亡的影响及其对Akt/p70S6K信号传导的作用。方法:采用CCK-8实验分析萝卜硫素对CNE-2细胞生长增殖的影响，流式细胞仪检测萝卜硫素对CNE-2细胞凋亡率及细胞周期分布的影响，Western blot技术检测CNE-2细胞中调控细胞周期的相关蛋白及Akt/p70S6K信号通路关键蛋白的表达水平。结果:采用萝卜硫素干预CNE-2细胞后，细胞增殖抑制率及凋亡率相对于对照组呈浓度依赖的方式显著增高，差异有统计学意义（P<0.05）；流式细胞仪分析提示，萝卜硫素干预能够将细胞停留在S期及G2/M期，并且萝卜硫素还能抑制细胞周期蛋白Cyclin A、Cyclin B、Cyclin D、Cyclin E以及CDK/p34的表达水平，与对照组相比差异有统计学意义（P<0.05）；此外，萝卜硫素还能抑制Akt/p70S6K信号通路关键蛋白p-Akt及p70S6K蛋白表达水平（P<0.05），但萝卜硫素与Akt激动剂IGF-I共同处理细胞后，上述蛋白表达量与对照组相比没有统计学差异（P>0.05）。结论:萝卜硫素可能通过干扰CNE-2细胞中Akt/p70S6K信号传导而发挥有效的抗增殖及促凋亡的作用。     

基于Kinect的自适应跑步机行走速度估计方法

自适应跑步机是康复医疗和人体工程学的研究热点,也是虚拟现实运动输入设备的重要组成部分。针对自适应跑步机上人体位置相对地面几乎无变化,很难通过简单的位置差分获得到人体运动速度的问题,提出了一种适应性广、无标记点、非接触式的行走速度估计方法。将Kinect采集到的人体关节点位置数据通过四元数标定、高斯滤波和三次样条插值处理后,用步长修正算法计算出行走时的步态时空参数。基于步态时空参数估计使用者在自适应跑步机上行走时的速度。在固定速度的跑步机上,通过将速度估计值与所设定的跑步机实际速度进行对比,验证了速度估计算法有效性,该速度估计算法可以适用于自适应跑步机的控制算法开发。