Estimating long-term time-resolved indoor PM2.5 of outdoor and indoor origin using easily obtainable inputs

To evaluate the separate impacts on human health and establish effective control strategies, it is crucial to estimate the contribution of outdoor infiltration and indoor emission to indoor PM_2.5 in buildings. This study used an algorithm to automatically estimate the long-term time-resolved indoor PM_2.5 of outdoor and indoor origin in real apartments with natural ventilation. The inputs for the algorithm were only the time-resolved indoor/outdoor PM_2.5 concentrations and occupants’ window actions, which were easily obtained from the low-cost sensors. This study first applied the algorithm in an apartment in Tianjin, China. The indoor/outdoor contribution to the gross indoor exposure and time-resolved infiltration factor were automatically estimated using the algorithm. The influence of outdoor PM_2.5 data source and algorithm parameters on the estimated results was analyzed. The algorithm was then applied in four other apartments located in Chongqing, Shenyang, Xi'an, and Urumqi to further demonstrate its feasibility. The results provided indirect evidence, such as the plausible explanations for seasonal and spatial variation, to partially support the success of the algorithm used in real apartments. Through the analysis, this study also identified several further development directions to facilitate the practical applications of the algorithm, such as robust long-term outdoor PM_2.5 monitoring using low-cost light-scattering sensors.     

Diphenyl-Methane Based Thyromimetic Inhibitors for Transthyretin Amyloidosis

Thyromimetics, whose physicochemical characteristics are analog to thyroid hormones (THs) and their derivatives, are promising candidates as novel therapeutics for neurodegenerative and metabolic pathologies. In particular, sobetirome (GC-1), one of the initial halogen-free thyromimetics, and newly synthesized IS25 and TG68, with optimized ADME-Tox profile, have recently attracted attention owing to their superior therapeutic benefits, selectivity, and enhanced permeability. Here, we further explored the functional capabilities of these thyromimetics to inhibit transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis. TTR is a homotetrameric transporter protein for THs, yet it is also responsible for severe amyloid fibril formation, which is facilitated by tetramer dissociation into non-native monomers. By combining nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, computational simulation, and biochemical assays, we found that GC-1 and newly designed diphenyl-methane-based thyromimetics, namely IS25 and TG68, are TTR stabilizers and efficient suppressors of TTR aggregation. Based on these observations, we propose the novel potential of thyromimetics as a multi-functional therapeutic molecule for TTR-related pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases.     

A Case Report of Germline Compound Heterozygous Mutations in the BRCA1 Gene of an Ovarian and Breast Cancer Patient

The germline carrier of the BRCA1 pathogenic mutation has been well proven to confer an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Despite BRCA1 biallelic pathogenic mutations being extremely rare, they have been reported to be embryonically lethal or to cause Fanconi anemia (FA). Here we describe a patient who was a 48-year-old female identified with biallelic pathogenic mutations of the BRCA1 gene, with no or very subtle FA-features. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and breast cancer at the ages of 43 and 44 and had a strong family history of breast and gynecological cancers.     

Distributed De La Garza algorithm for load-balancing routing in wireless sensor networks

Large scale wireless sensor networks raise many challenges in the design of efficient and effective routing algorithm due to their complexity and hardware constraints. However, the scalability challenge may be mitigated from a macroscopic perspective. One example is the distributed De la Garza iteration (DDLGI) algorithm for global routing load-balancing, based on a set of partial differential equations iteratively solved by the De la Garza method. We theoretically analyze the parallelism of DDLGI and illustrate that the region of interest may impact the degree of parallelism and error. Furthermore, though DDLGI always converges, the slow convergence and long-range information exchange problems may lead to excess energy consumption in communication. Thus, we propose various enhanced De la Garza routing (E-DLGR) algorithms to alleviate the energy consumption problem by which nodes may exchange less information and only need to exchange information with closer nodes to complete each iteration. Our theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed E-DLGR algorithms may have less transmission overhead, thus further reducing energy consumption, and converge faster while still maintaining adequate accuracy.

     

Accelerated multi-contrast high isotropic resolution 3D intracranial vessel wall MRI using a tailored k-space undersampling and partially parallel reconstruction strategy

Objective

To develop a 3D multi-contrast IVW protocol with 0.5-mm isotropic resolution and a scan time of 5 min per sequence.

Materials and methods

Pre-contrast T1w VISTA, DANTE prepared PDw VISTA, SNAP, and post-contrast T1w VISTA were accelerated using cartesian undersampling with target ordering method (CUSTOM) and self-supporting tailored k-space estimation for parallel imaging reconstruction (STEP). CUSTOM + STEP IVW was compared to full-sample IVW, SENSE-accelerated IVW, and CUSTOM + zero-filled Fourier reconstruction in normal volunteers and subjects with intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD). Image quality, vessel delineation, CSF suppression, and blood suppression were compared.

Results

CUSTOM + STEP vessel wall delineation was comparable to full-sample IVW and better than SENSE IVW for vessel wall delineation on T1w VISTA and luminal contrast on SNAP. Average image quality and wall depiction were significantly improved using STEP reconstruction compared with zero-filled Fourier reconstruction, with no significant difference in CSF or blood suppression.

Conclusions

CUSTOM + STEP allowed multi-contrast 3D 0.5-mm isotropic IVW within 30 min. Although some quantitative and qualitative scores for CUSTOM − STEP were lower than fully sampled IVW, CUSTOM + STEP provided comparable vessel wall delineation as full-sample IVW and was superior to SENSE. CUSTOM + STEP IVW was well tolerated by patients and showed good delineation of ICAD plaque.