Search

Optical biosensors have a significant impact on various aspects of our lives. In many applications of optical biosensors, fluidic chambers play a crucial role in facilitating controlled fluid delivery. It is essential to achieve complete liquid replacement in order to obtain accurate and reliable results. However, the configurations of fluidic chambers vary across different optical biosensors, resulting in diverse fluidic volumes and flow rates, and there are no standardized guidelines for liquid replacement. In this paper, we utilize COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element analysis software, to investigate the optimal fluid volume required for two types of fluidic chambers in the context of the oblique-incidence reflectivity difference (OI-RD) biosensor. We found that the depth of the fluidic chamber is the most crucial factor influencing the required liquid volume, with the volume being a quadratic function of the depth. Additionally, the required fluid volume is also influenced by the positions on the substrate surface bearing samples, while the flow rate has no impact on the fluid volume.

The oblique-incidence reflectivity difference (OI-RD) microscope is a label-free detection system for microarrays that has many successful applications in high throughput drug screening. The increase and optimization of the detection speed of the OI-RD microscope will enable it to be a potential ultra-high throughput screening tool. This work presents a series of optimization methods that can significantly reduce the time to scan an OI-RD image. The wait time for the lock-in amplifier was decreased by the proper selection of the time constant and development of a new electronic amplifier. In addition, the time for the software to acquire data and for translation stage movement was also minimized. As a result, the detection speed of the OI-RD microscope is 10 times faster than before, making the OI-RD microscope suitable for ultra-high throughput screening applications.

Objective To analyze the clinical features and prognostic factors of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) encephalitis. Methods A total of 51 patients with HSV-1 encephalitis hospitalized in He'nan Provincial People's Hospital from January 2018 to September 2023 were selected, and their clinical data, laboratory and imaging examination results were recorded. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was used to evaluate the prognosis of patients and the recovery of neurological function after brain injury. Univariate and multivariate stepwise Logistic regression analyses were screened for risk factors of adverse prognosis of HSV-1 encephalitis. Results The main symptoms of 51 cases were fever and headache. The serological examination results showed increased white blood cell count (14 cases), increased neutrophil count (14 cases), decreased lymphocyte count (8 cases), and decreased serum sodium level (17 cases). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination by lumbar puncture showed increased CSF pressure (18 cases), increased white blood cell count (28 cases), increased protein (32 cases), and increased glucose (15 cases). There were 48 patients who underwent head MRI examination, and 43 patients (89.58%) showed obvious brain region involvement on head MRI, among which 35 patients (72.92%) with positive MRI showed typical unilateral or bilateral temporal and frontal lobe involvement, and 8 cases (16.67%) with increased cerebral pia mater enhancement. 66.67% (34/51) of the patients recovered completely within 6 months after discharge, 21.57% (11/51) of the patients had sequelae, and the fatality rate was 11.76% (6/51). There were 34 (66.67%) patients with good prognosis and 17 (33.33%) patients with adverse prognosis. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed age increased (OR = 1.090, 95%CI: 1.020-1.200; P = 0.023) and increased CSF glucose level (OR = 23.800, 95%CI: 23.800-1250.000; P = 0.030) were risk factors for adverse prognosis in HSV-1 encephalitis patients. Conclusions Increased aging and CSF glucose level are risk factors for the adverse prognosis in HSV - 1 encephalitis patients. In clinical practice, it is necessary to master the clinical characteristics of patients with HSV-1 encephalitis, so as to achieve early detection, diagnosis and treatment.

Since 2017, human encephalitis caused by pseudorabies virus (PRV) has been reported in 28 cases in China. The clinical symptoms include fever, headache, seizures, focal neurological loss, disturbance of consciousness, etc.. This disease has the high disability rate and fatality rate. PRV is mainly transmitted through close contact with infected pigs or their excrement, or spread via blood-borne. Patients are mostly practitioners in the live pig industry chain. Early diagnosis and treatment are critical to the prognosis of patients. Therefore, this article reviews the progress on diagnosis and treatment of human encephalitis caused by PRV, in order to improve the clinical diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Abstract Background Joubert Syndrome (JS) is a rare genetic developmental disorder. We are aiming for increasing awareness of this disease especially kidney involvement in children with JS. Methods Clinical and genetic data of 17 cases of JS in Beijing children’s hospital in the past 21 years were collected retrospectively. Results Twelve males and 5 females, aged from 12d to 15y8m. The most common involvement was neurological system involvement. The second most common involvement was renal involvement: end stage kidney disease in 6 cases (35%), hematuria in 5 cases (29%), proteinuria in 5 cases (29%), renal diffuse lesions in 4 cases (24%), renal cystic lesions in 2 cases (12%), and echogenic enhancement of parenchyma in 2 cases (12%). 10 cases did genetic tests. 3 cases with renal deficiency all had RPGRIP1L gene mutation. Conclusions The most common involvement of JS is neurological involvement, and the second is renal involvement. Pediatricians should improve awareness of JS and conduct systemic evaluation of children. More attention should be paid to renal involvement which may be onset hidden but fatal. Early recognition and diagnosis are the goals to delay the start to dialysis and improve quality of patients’ life. The RPGRIP1L gene mutation maybe the most common gene mutation in JS and may have correlations with renal involvement.

Abstract The structural stability of medical devices is established by managing stress distribution in response to organ movement. Veins abruptly dilate upon arterial grafting due to the mismatched tissue property, resulting in flow disturbances and consequently stenosis. Vascular cast is designed to wrap the vein‐artery grafts, thereby adjusting the diameter and property mismatches by relying on the elastic fixity. Here, a small bridge connection in the cast structure serves as an essential element to prevent stress concentrations due to the improved elastic fixity. Consequently, the vein dilation is efficiently suppressed, healthy (laminar and helical) flow is induced effectively, and the heathy functions of vein grafting are promoted, as indicated by the flow directional alignment of endothelial cells with arterialization, muscle expansion, and improved contractility. Finally, collaborative effects of the bridge drastically suppress stenosis with patency improvement. As a key technical point, the advantages of the bridge addition are validated via the computational modeling of fluid–structure interaction, followed by a customized ex vivo set‐up and analyses. The calculated effects are verified using a series of cell, rat, and canine models towards translation. The bridge acted like “Little Dutch boy” who saved the big mass using one finger by supporting the cast function.

Non‐invasive screening for bladder cancer is crucial for treatment and postoperative follow‐up. This study combines digital microfluidics (DMF) technology with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) for urine analysis and introduces a novel non‐invasive bladder cancer screening technique. Initially, the DMF was utilized to perform preliminary screening and enrichment of urine exfoliated cells from 54 participants, followed by cell staining and FLIM analysis to assess the viscosity of the intracellular microenvironment. Subsequently, a deep learning residual convolutional neural network was employed to automatically classify FLIM images, achieving a three‐class prediction of high‐risk (malignant), low‐risk (benign), and minimal risk (normal) categories. The results demonstrated a high consistency with pathological diagnosis, with an accuracy of 91% and a precision of 93%. Notably, the method is sensitive for both high‐grade and low‐grade bladder cancer cases. This highly accurate non‐invasive screening method presents a promising approach for bladder cancer screening with significant clinical application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total internal reflection (TIR) is useful for interrogating physical and chemical processes that occur at the interface between two transparent media. Yet prism-coupled TIR imaging microscopes suffer from limited sensing areas due to the fact that the interface (the object plane) is not perpendicular to the optical axis of the microscope. In this paper, we show that an electrically tunable lens can be used to rapidly and reproducibly correct the focal length of an oblique-incidence scanning microscope (OI-RD) in a prism-coupled TIR geometry. We demonstrate the performance of such a correction by acquiring an image of a protein microarray over a scan area of 4 cm² with an effective resolution of less than 20 microns. The electronic focal length tuning eliminates the mechanical movement of the illumination lens in the scanning microscope and in turn the noise and background drift associated with the motion.

Narrative coherence reflects parents' ability to provide a believable, clear, relevant, and internally consistent story about their child. Parents demonstrating more narrative coherence have been theorized to show higher parental sensitivity, but this has not been examined in a normative sample, nor across the transition to parenthood, and only once in fathers. The aim of this study was to examine stability and change in narrative coherence across the transition to parenthood in mothers and fathers, as well as the relation between pre- and postnatal narrative coherence and postnatal parental sensitivity. The sample consisted of 105 primiparous expecting parents. Narrative coherence was measured at 36-weeks pregnancy and when the child was 4 months old, using the Five Minute Speech Sample procedure. Parental sensitivity was observed in three episodes. Results demonstrated that narrative coherence was moderately stable (correlations) across the transition to parenthood in fathers only. Both mothers' and fathers' narrative coherence improved over time. Furthermore, mothers and fathers were overall equally coherent, and maternal and paternal narrative coherence were positively interrelated during pregnancy only. Lastly, our findings showed weak evidence for the theorized link between narrative coherence and parental sensitivity: only postnatal narrative coherence predicted paternal sensitivity, only during free play. Our findings give new insight in the development of narrative coherence across the transition to parenthood, and how it relates to actual parenting. More research is needed to confirm our findings and further explore this topic.