Coded transmissions for space links affected by solar scintillation: Baseband analysis

A thorough analysis of the behavior of error‐correcting codes over space links affected by solar scintillation is presented. The relevant channel parameters are fixed through the development of a model based on real missions' data. Both telecommand and telemetry links are considered in fast and slow fading conditions. Besides classical coherent modulation schemes, the possibility to use noncoherent modulation schemes is considered, to eliminate the problem of phase tracking. For the case of channels with very slow fading, the use of external interleavers or erasure coding is proposed to cope with error bursts.     

Thermodiffusion‐Assisted Pyroelectrics—Enabling Rapid and Stable Heat and Radiation Sensing

Sensors for monitoring temperature, heat flux, and thermal radiation are essential for applications such as electronic skin. While pyroelectric and thermoelectric effects are suitable candidates as functional elements in such devices, both concepts show individual drawbacks in terms of zero equilibrium signals for pyroelectric materials and small or slow response of thermoelectric materials. Here, these drawbacks are overcome by introducing the concept of thermodiffusion‐assisted pyroelectrics, which combines and enhances the performance of pyroelectric and ionic thermoelectric materials. The presented integrated concept provides both rapid initial response upon heating and stable synergistically enhanced signals upon prolonged exposure to heat stimuli. Likewise, incorporation of plasmonic metasurfaces enables the concept to provide both rapid and stable signals for radiation‐induced heating. The performance of the concept and its working mechanism can be explained by ion–electron interactions at the interface between the pyroelectric and ionic thermoelectric materials.     

A glucose-specific metric to assess predictors and identify models

In diabetes, the mean square error (MSE) metric is extensively used for assessing glucose prediction methods and identifying glucose models. One limitation of this metric is that, by equally treating errors in hypo-, eu-, and hyperglycemia, it is not able to weight the different clinical impact of errors in these three situations. In this paper, we propose a new cost function, which overcomes this limitation and can be used in place of MSE for several scopes, in particular for assessing the quality of glucose predictors and identifying glucose models. The new metric called glucose-specific MSE (gMSE) modifies MSE with a Clark error grid inspired penalty function, which penalizes overestimation in hypoglycemia and underestimation in hyperglycemia, i.e., the most harmful conditions on a clinical perspective. From a mathematical point of view, gMSE retains sensitivity of MSE and inherits some of its important mathematical features, in particular it has no local minima, simplifying the optimization. This makes it suitable for model identification purposes also. First, the goodness of it is demonstrated by means of three experiments, designed ad hoc to evidence its sensitivity to accuracy, precision, and distortion in glucose predictions. Second, a prediction assessment problem is presented, in which two real prediction profiles are compared. Results show that the MSE chooses the worst clinical situation, while gMSE correctly selects the situation with less clinical risk. Finally, we also demonstrate that models identified minimizing gMSE are more accurate in potentially harmful situations (hypo- and hyperglycemia) than those obtained by MSE.     

6‐Dihydroparadol,a Ginger Constituent,Enhances Cholesterol Efflux from THP‐1‐Derived Macrophages

1 Scope

Ginger is reported to be used for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Cholesterol efflux from macrophage foam cells is an important process in reverse cholesterol transport, whose increase may help to prevent or treat CVD. In this study, we investigated the effects of 6‐dihydroparadol from ginger on macrophage cholesterol efflux.

2 Methods and results

We show that 6‐dihydroparadol concentration‐dependently enhances both apolipoprotein A1‐ and human plasma–mediated cholesterol efflux from cholesterol‐loaded THP‐1‐derived macrophages using macrophage cholesterol efflux assay. 6‐Dihydroparadol increases protein levels of both ATP‐binding cassette transporters A1 and G1 (ATP‐binding cassette transporter A1 [ABCA1] and ATP‐binding cassette transporter G1 [ABCG1]) according to Western blot analysis. The ABCA1 inhibitor probucol completely abolishes 6‐dihydroparadol‐enhanced cholesterol efflux. Furthermore, increased ABCA1 protein levels in the presence of 6‐dihydroparadol were associated with both increased ABCA1 mRNA levels and increased ABCA1 protein stability. Enhanced ABCG1 protein levels were only associated with increased protein stability. Increased ABCA1 protein stability appeared to be the result of a reduced proteasomal degradation of the transporter in the presence of 6‐dihydroparadol.

3 Conclusion

We identified 6‐dihydroparadol from ginger as a novel promoter of cholesterol efflux from macrophages that increases both ABCA1 and ABCG1 protein abundance. This newly identified bioactivity might contribute to the antiatherogenic effects of ginger.     

Development and applications of surface-activated chemical ionization

This review regards the recently developed ionization source named surface-activated chemical ionization (SACI) that employs an interaction with a surface placed at low voltage for the activation of the ionization of sample molecules to increase the sensitivity in the analysis of various compounds of biological and clinical interest. These results are due to the strong chemical noise decrease and the increase of ionization efficiency. This ionization source has been employed for the analysis of various compounds of different molecular mass and polarity (addicted and pharmaceutical drugs, amino acids, steroids, peptides, and proteins). The SACI development theoretical mechanism, benefits, disadvantages, applications, and future developments are reported and discussed.