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Objective: We aid in neurocognitive monitoring outside the hospital environment by enabling app-based measurements of visual reaction time (saccade latency) and directional error rate in a cohort of subjects spanning the adult age spectrum. Methods: We developed an iOS app to record subjects with the frontal camera during pro- and anti-saccade tasks. We further developed automated algorithms for measuring saccade latency and directional error rate that take into account the possibility that it might not always be possible to determine the eye movement from app-based recordings. Results: To measure saccade latency on a tablet, we ensured that the absolute timing error between on-screen task presentation and the camera recording is within 5 ms. We collected over 235,000 eye movements in 80 subjects ranging in age from 20 to 92 years, with 96% of recorded eye movements either declared good or directional errors. Our error detection code achieved a sensitivity of 0.97 and a specificity of 0.97. Confirming prior reports, we observed a positive correlation between saccade latency and age while the relationship between directional error rate and age was not significant. Finally, we observed significant intra- and inter-subject variations in saccade latency and directional error rate distributions, which highlights the importance of individualized tracking of these visual digital biomarkers. Conclusion and Significance: Our system and algorithms allow ubiquitous tracking of saccade latency and directional error rate, which opens up the possibility of quantifying patient state on a finer timescale in a broader population than previously possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palladacycle complex [LsPdOAc]2 bearing 2‐phenyl benzothiazole was synthesized and characterized by NMR and X‐ray crystallography. [LsPdOAc]2 was used as a catalyst in the Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling reaction of 4‐bromotoluene with phenylboronic acid, which resulted in a conversion of >90% with 5 mol% of the Pd complex within 10 min at 60°C. The palladacycle complex [LsPdOAc]2 bearing 2‐phenyl benzothiazole was used as a catalyst in the Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling reaction. In a case of 4‐bomotoluene and phenylboronic acid with Cs2CO3 as a base in a 1:1 mixture solvent (3 mL) of DMF + H2O at 60 °C after 10 min, the conversion is 90 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific drug delivery to solid tumorsremains one of the challengesin cancer therapy. The aim of this study was to combine three drug-targetingstrategies, polymer-drug conjugate, ligand presentation and ultrasoundtreatment, to enhance the efficacy and selectivity of doxorubicin(DXR) to hepatoma cells. The conjugation of DXR to γ-poly(glutamicacids) (γ-PGA) decreased the cytotoxicity of DXR, while theconjugation of galactosamine (Gal) to the γ-PGA–DXR conjugaterestored the cytotoxic efficacy of DXR on hepatoma cells due to increaseduptake of DXR. Furthermore, low-intensity ultrasound treatment increasedthe cell-killing ability of γ-PGA–DXR conjugates by 20%.The in vitro results showed the potential of the γ-PGA–DXR–Galconjugate for future clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: Altered actin isoform expression occurs in some pathological conditions including muscular malignancies. This study was to investigate whether a similar event occurs in hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: Cellular RNA was extracted from cancerous and non-cancerous hepatoma tissues. Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR followed by cloning and sequencing was performed to obtain populations of actin sequences. Phylogenetic analysis was carried out to identify novel actin isoforms. Interaction between the novel actin isoform and other cellular proteins was examined by the yeast two-hybrid system. The relative amounts of the novel actin isoform in the cancerous and non-cancerous tissues were further assayed using real-time PCR with specific primers. Results: When compared between the cancerous and non-cancerous tissues, the proportion of non-β-actins in the cancerous parts increased significantly in three of four cases included. Among the non-β-actins, a novel group of isoforms was identified, temporarily named κ-actins. Two genetically closely related sequences, FKSG30 and an actin-like sequence in the Cat Eye syndrome region, were found to cluster with the κ-actins. Protein interaction assay indicated that the interaction between κ-actin and prefoldin 2 was greatly diminished. The relative amounts of κ-actin increased in 12 of 20 cancerous tissues assayed. Conclusions: A novel class of actin isoforms was expressed in some hepatocellular carcinoma tissues, replacing β-actins to become the major constituents of actin cytoskeleton. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Quantitative and accurate tracking of neurocognitive decline remains an ongoing challenge. We seek to address this need by focusing on robust and unobtrusive measurement of saccade latency - the time between the presentation of a visual stimulus and the initiation of an eye movement towards the stimulus - which has been shown to be altered in patients with neurocognitive decline or neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we present a novel, deep convolutional-neuralnetwork-based method to measure saccade latency outside of the clinical environment using a smartphone camera without the need for supplemental or special-purpose illumination. We also describe a model-based approach to estimate saccade latency that is less sensitive to noise compared to conventional methods. With this flexible and robust system, we collected over 11,000 saccade-latency measurements from 21 healthy individuals and found distinctive saccade-latency distributions across subjects. When analyzing intra-subject variability across time, we observed noticeable variations in the mean saccade latency and associated standard deviation. We also observed a potential learning effect that should be further characterized and potentially accounted for when interpreting saccade latency measurements.