Personalized Healthcare System for Chronic Disease Care in Cloud Environment

The rapid increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases is an important public healthcare issue in many countries, which accelerates many studies on a healthcare system that can, whenever and wherever, extract and process patient data. A patient with a chronic disease conducts self‐management in an out‐of‐hospital environment, particularly in an at‐home environment, so it is important to provide integrated and personalized healthcare services for effective care. To help provide effective care for chronic disease patients, we propose a service flow and a new cloud‐based personalized healthcare system architecture supporting both at‐home and at‐hospital environments. The system considers the different characteristics of at‐hospital and at‐home environments, and it provides various chronic disease care services. A prototype implementation and a predicted cost model are provided to show the effectiveness of the system. The proposed personalized healthcare system can support cost‐effective disease care in an at‐hospital environment and personalized self‐management of chronic disease in an at‐home environment.     

HF RFID Reader Antenna with Loop Switch for Avoiding Magnetic Coupling

This paper studies the magnetic coupling between two adjacent loop antennas that are parallel to each other in a plane and presents a new practical method to avoid the resulting magnetic coupling interference. The study focuses on the high frequency radio‐frequency identification (RFID) system for casino applications, where several loop antennas are closely built into a game table to monitor gaming chips. In this case, neighboring loop antennas may severely interfere with each other by magnetic coupling, which leads to the malfunction of the RFID system. In this paper, we present a practical loop antenna with a new loop switch circuit for avoiding magnetic coupling. The loop switch circuit is integrated with a matching circuit and automatically operated by using an interrogating signal from a reader. We verified the validity of the proposed design by showing that an RFID reader with the proposed antenna can exactly and separately read the gaming chips placed on the different betting zones of a game table.     

一种基于颜色尺度不变和FANN搜索的图像匹配算法

针对彩色图像匹配大多数仅利用图像灰度特征,忽视彩色信息,在颜色相近区域易造成误匹配的问题,引入颜色不变量,提出一种用于彩色图像的颜色尺度不变匹配算法.该算法首先将图像的RGB 颜色模型转换到高斯颜色模型.随后,通过计算颜色不变量代替灰度信息作为输入,建立多尺度空间,并使用 SIFT 算法提取特征点,构建特征描述子.最后,选择其中一幅图的特征描述矢量为基准,利用FANN算法在另一幅图的特征描述矢量中,寻找基准图像特征矢量的最优解即匹配对,从而完成两幅图像的匹配.实验证明,相对于传统的SIFT图像匹配算法,本文的算法匹配正确率更高,图像匹配质量更好.     

广域复杂流体系统中基于无线传感网的数据保存关键技术研究进展

流体系统包括城市供水管网、天然气供给管网等,是具有经济和社会价值的重要基础设施。它们具有分布地域广、结构复杂、规模庞大、难以检测等特点,在出现泄漏、污染等异常时难以快速发现和准确定位。随着传感器技术、通信技术、微机电技术等的发展,利用无线传感网来对系统进行监测成为研究热点。由于在流体系统中通信困难,数据被监测到后很难实时传送给用户,只能暂时保存在传感器节点(简称节点)上,等待适当的时刻再进行上传。但是,节点具有体积微小、易损坏、存储容量小、通信能力弱、能量有限等特点,如何可靠地存储大量的数据是一个难点问题。目前,已有部分工作对这个问题进行了研究。为了解该领域研究的进展,文中对相关工作进行了细致地分析、对比、归纳和总结,介绍了它们的优缺点,并对未来的研究方向进行了探讨。     

储油罐内壁铁锈硫化及氧化反应

储罐内壁铁锈在低温有水的条件下与储罐中的硫化氢气体反应生成硫铁化物．硫铁化物的氧化放热是引起含硫油品储罐着火的主要原因．采用X-射线衍射仪鉴定铁锈成份,对铁锈主要成分室温下进行硫化及硫化产物的氧化实验,绘制硫化及硫化产物氧化反应温度-时间曲线,并鉴定分析硫化产物及硫化产物的氧化产物,研究对含硫储罐自燃的作用．结果表明,铁锈主要成分为Fe2O3和Fe3O4,室温硫化产物均为FeS,但FeS形状与其来源有关．形状、致密性不同,致使氧化自燃性不同．Fe2O3硫化产物比Fe3O4硫化产物的氧化自燃性高,对引发储罐自燃的危险性大．     

Fluid Biomarkers in HPV and Non-HPV Related Oropharyngeal Carcinomas: From Diagnosis and Monitoring to Prognostication—A Systematic Review

Biomarkers are crucial in oncology, from detection and monitoring to guiding management and predicting treatment outcomes. Histological assessment of tissue biopsies is currently the gold standard for oropharyngeal cancers, but is technically demanding, invasive, and expensive. This systematic review aims to review current markers that are detectable in biofluids, which offer promising non-invasive alternatives in oropharyngeal carcinomas (OPCs). A total of 174 clinical trials from the PubMed search engine in the last 5 years were identified and screened by 4 independent reviewers. From these, 38 eligible clinical trials were found and subsequently reviewed. The biomarkers involved, categorized by human papillomavirus (HPV)-status, were further divided according to molecular and cellular levels. Recent trials investigating biomarkers for both HPV-positive and HPV-negative OPCs have approaches from various levels and different biofluids including plasma, oropharyngeal swabs, and oral rinse. Promising candidates have been found to aid in detection, staging, and predicting prognosis, in addition to well-established factors including HPV-status, drinking and smoking status. These studies also emphasize the possibility of enhancing prediction results and increasing statistical significance by multivariate analyses. Liquid biopsies offer promising assistance in enhancing personalized medicine for cancer treatment, from lowering barriers towards early screening, to facilitating de-escalation of treatment. However, further research is needed, and the combination of liquid biopsies with pre-existing methods, including in vivo imaging and invasive techniques such as neck dissections, could also be explored in future trials.     

EGFR T751_I759delinsN Mutation in Exon19 Detected by NGS but Not by Real-Time PCR in a Heavily-Treated Patient with NSCLC

The detection of driver gene mutations can determine appropriate treatment strategies for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by identifying the presence of an effective druggable target. Mutations in the gene encoding the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are common driver mutations in NSCLC that can be effectively targeted by the use of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). However, without the detection of driver mutations, appropriate therapeutic decisions cannot be made. The most commonly applied methods for detecting driver gene mutations are assays based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR). However, the underlying mechanism of PCR-based assays limits the detection of rare mutations. Therefore, patients harboring rare mutations may not receive optimal treatment. We report a heavily-treated patient with NSCLC who harbored a T751_I759delinsN mutation in exon 19 of EGFR that was not detected by real-time PCR but was successfully detected by next-generation sequencing (NGS). The detection of a driver mutation using NGS resulted in the administration of targeted therapy, leading to favorable progression-free survival for the patient. Our report highlights the importance and potential of routine NGS testing among NSCLC patients for whom traditional assays fail to detect driver mutations when determining treatment options.     

欧盟碳关税落地对中欧贸易的影响及应对策略

2023 年 5 月 16 日,欧盟宣布将碳边境调节机制(Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism,CBAM)法案文本在《欧盟官方公报》上正式发布,并于次日(2023 年 5 月 17 日)正式生效,这是全球首个碳关税机制。欧盟是中国第二大贸易伙伴和第二大出口市场,欧盟开征碳关税必将对中国的对欧出口贸易和经济发展造成较大影响。该文对欧盟 CBAM 的发展历程、最新动态、具体内容和征收方法做了详细介绍,并在此基础上,依据中国海关进出口统计数据,分析了 CBAM 对中欧贸易的影响。目前,受影响较大的行业主要是钢铁和铝,但是未来,欧盟还将对 CBAM 进行重新评估,以确定是否扩大征收范围。中国应积极采取各种应对策略,以维护外贸企业的合法权益。     

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Patterns of the SWEET Gene Family in Bletilla striata and its Responses to Low Temperature and Oxidative Stress

SWEETs (sugars will eventually be exported transporters), a well-known class of sugar transporters, are involved in plant growth and development, sugar transport, biotic and abiotic stresses, etc. However, to date, there have been few investigations of SWEETs in Orchidaceae. In this study, 23 SWEET genes were identified in Bletilla striata for the first time, with an MtN3/saliva conserved domain, and were divided into four subgroups by phylogenetic tree. The same subfamily members had similar gene structures and motifs. Multiple cis-elements related to sugar and environmental stresses were found in the promoter region. Further, 21 genes were localized on 11 chromosomes and 2 paralogous pairs were found via intraspecific collinearity analysis. Expression profiling results showed that BsSWEETs were tissue-specific. It also revealed that BsSWEET10 and BsSWEET18 were responsive to low temperature and oxidative stresses. In addition, subcellular localization study indicated that BsSWEET15 and BsSWEET16 were localized in the cell membrane. This study provided important clues for the in-depth elucidation of the sugar transport mechanism of BsSWEET genes and their functional roles in response to abiotic stresses.     

SHMT2 Induces Stemness and Progression of Head and Neck Cancer

Various enzymes in the one-carbon metabolic pathway are closely related to the development of tumors, and they can all be potential targets for cancer therapy. Serine hydroxymethyltransferase2 (SHMT2), a key metabolic enzyme, is very important for the proliferation and growth of cancer cells. However, the function and mechanism of SHMT2 in head and neck cancer (HNC) are not clear. An analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data showed that the expression of SHMT2 was higher in tumor tissue than in normal tissue, and its expression was significantly associated with male sex, aggressive histological grade, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and lymphovascular invasion in HNC. SHMT2 knockdown in FADU and SNU1041 cell lines significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, and invasion. Additionally, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses using TCGA data revealed that SHMT2 was closely related to cancer stem cell regulation and maintenance. Furthermore, we found that silencing SHMT2 inhibited the expression of stemness markers and tumor spheroid formation compared with a control group. On the contrary, stemness markers were significantly increased after SHMT2 overexpression in HEP-2 cells. Interestingly, we found that knocking down SHMT2 reduced the expression of genes related to the Notch and Wnt pathways. Finally, silencing SHMT2 significantly reduced tumor growth and decreased stemness markers in a xenograft model. Taken together, our study suggests that targeting SHMT2 may play an important role in inhibiting HNC progression.