Terminal Deoxynucleotidyl Transferase Extension-Dominated In Situ Signal Attenuation-Free Electrochemical Platform and Its Logic Gate Manipulation

Signal generation of traditional electrochemical biosensors suffers from the random diffusion of electroactive probes in a electrolyte solution, which is accompanied by poor reaction kinetics and low signal stability from complex biological systems. Herein, a novel circuit system with autonomous compensation solution ohmic drop (noted as “fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV)”) is developed to solve the above problems, and employed to achieve terminal deoxynucleotide transferase (TdT) and its small molecule inhibitor analysis. At first, a typical TdT-mediated catalytic polymerization in the conditions of original DNA, deoxythymine triphosphate (dTTP) and Hg2+ is applied for the electrode assembly. The novel electrochemical method can provide some unattenuated signals due to in-situ Hg redox reaction, thus improving reaction kinetics and signal stability. This approach is mainly dependent on TdT-mediated reaction, so it can be applied properly for TdT investigation, and a detection limit of 0.067 U/mL (S/N=3) is achieved successfully. More interesting, we also mimic the function of TdT-related signal communication in various logic gates such as YES, NOT, AND, N-IMPLY, and AND-AND-N-IMPLY cascade circuit. This study provides a new method for the detection of TdT biomarkers in many types of diseases and the construction of a signal attenuation-free logic gate.

Osseus: A Method Based on Artificial Intelligence and Electromagnetic Waves for Ancillary Diagnosis of Osteoporosis

Background: Osteoporosis is characterized by low bone mineral density, which causes fractures and compromises people's quality of life. Diagnostic devices for assessing this health condition, such as Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), are very costly. Therefore, it is impracticable to meet the demand for tests in Brazil's 5,568 municipalities. Given that, we proposed a pre-clinical validation of a prototype developed to aid bone mineral density classification. Thus, Osseus integrates a microcontroller with other peripheral devices to measure the electromagnetic permittivity at the middle phalanx of the middle finger, with two antennas operating in the 2.45 GHz frequency range. Using Artificial Intelligence to identify risk factors alongside signal attenuation measurement indicates the need for DXA. Results: We conducted tests with plaster, Galliformes, and porcine bones. Comparison of the measurements of the original and mechanically altered samples have demonstrated that the device can handle the complexity of the tissues within the bone structure and characterize its microarchitecture. Conclusions: Osseus is a prototype and has been preliminarily validated. There is a lack of validation studies with the reference/gold standard that are currently under development. Osseus enables early detection of osteoporosis, reduces costs, and optimizes high-complexity testing referrals.

Potential of Optical Frequency Domain Imaging for Differentiation Between Early and Advanced Coronary Atherosclerosis

Purpose Optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) is widely used to characterize lipidic-atherosclerotic plaques, shown as signal-poor regions with diffuse borders, in clinical setting. Given that lipid components are common to both fibroatheroma (FA) and pathological intimal thickening (PIT), it is unclear whether OFDI can be used to accurately distinguish between FA and PIT. This study evaluated the differences in OFDI findings between FA and PIT in comparison with histopathology. Methods A total of 631 histological cross-sections from 14 autopsy hearts were analyzed for the comparison between OFDI and histological images. Of those, 190 (30%) sections were diagnosed with PIT and 120 (19%) with FA. All OFDI images were matched with histology and the OFDI signal attenuation rate was calculated from an exponential. The lipid length was measured longitudinally, and the lipid arc was measured with a protractor centered in the center of the lumen. Results There was no significant difference in the OFDI signal attenuation rate between FA and PIT (3.09 ± 1.04 versus 2.79 ± 1.20, p = 0.13). However, the lipid length was significantly longer and the maximum lipid arc was significantly larger in FA than in PIT (7.5 [4.3–10.3] mm versus 4.3 [2.7–5.8] mm, p < 0.0001, and 125 [101–174]° versus 96 [74–131]°, p < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusions OFDI may be capable of discriminating advanced lipid plaques from early stage atherosclerosis based on the longitudinal and circumferential extent of signal-poor region.

An Attenuation Model of Node Signals in Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

Wireless underground sensor networks (WUSN) consist of sensor nodes that are operated in the soil medium. To evaluate the signal attenuation law of WUSN nodes, in this study, a WUSN node signal transmission test platform was built in the laboratory. The signal intensity data of WUSN nodes under different experimental conditions were obtained by orthogonal test. The WUSN node signal attenuation model was established. The test results show that the transmission of WUSN node signals in the soil medium is seriously affected by soil moisture content, node burial depth, soil compactness, and horizontal distance between nodes. The R2 of the models was between 0.790 and 0.893, and the RMSE of the models was between 2.489 and 4.192 dbm. Then, the WUSN node signal attenuation model involving the four factors was established. The R2 and RMSE of the model were, respectively, 0.822 and 4.87 dbm. The WUSN node signal attenuation model established in this paper can facilitate WUSN node deployment.

Exploring arterial tissue microstructural organization using non-Gaussian diffusion magnetic resonance schemes

The purpose of this study was to characterize the alterations in microstructural organization of arterial tissue using higher-order diffusion magnetic resonance schemes. Three porcine carotid artery models namely; native, collagenase treated and decellularized, were used to estimate the contribution of collagen and smooth muscle cells (SMC) on diffusion signal attenuation using gaussian and non-gaussian schemes. The samples were imaged in a 7 T preclinical scanner. High spatial and angular resolution diffusion weighted images (DWIs) were acquired using two multi-shell (max b-value = 3000 s/mm2) acquisition protocols. The processed DWIs were fitted using monoexponential, stretched-exponential, kurtosis and bi-exponential schemes. Directionally variant and invariant microstructural parametric maps of the three artery models were obtained from the diffusion schemes. The parametric maps were used to assess the sensitivity of each diffusion scheme to collagen and SMC composition in arterial microstructural environment. The inter-model comparison showed significant differences across the considered models. The bi-exponential scheme based slow diffusion compartment (Ds) was highest in the absence of collagen, compared to native and decellularized microenvironments. In intra-model comparison, kurtosis along the radial direction was the highest. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate the efficacy of higher order dMRI schemes in mapping constituent specific alterations in arterial microstructure.

Smart Bluetooth beacon based on LoRa Positioning method and system research

In the era of the Internet of Everything, applications based on real-time location continue to appear in various industries. The indoor and outdoor positioning, analysis and management of personnel and objects can effectively improve the efficiency of production and management, which is of great significance to many industries. The use of Bluetooth beacon positioning has the advantages of low energy consumption, low cost, and fast data transmission speed. However, in real life, there are two obstacles to receiving signals, which are easily affected by the environment and the need for frequent on-site maintenance. This paper designs and implements a new type of LoRa-based smart Bluetooth beacon, which can be quickly connected to LoRa. Online monitoring and remote control can achieve better adaptation to the environment, and can fit a better signal attenuation model in the deployment environment in real time. Traditional signal strength positioning solutions have their own limitations. In order to improve the positioning accuracy of the Bluetooth beacon and the universality of the algorithm, in view of the low deployment density of beacons, the positioning accuracy is not good and the anchor circle has various situations, an optimized weighted centroid positioning scheme integrating greedy strategy is proposed.

Ultra-Narrow SPP Generation from Ag Grating

In this study, we investigate the potential of one-dimensional plasmonic grating structures to serve as a platform for, e.g., sensitive refractive index sensing. This is achieved by comparing numerical simulations to experimental results with respect to the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in the mid-infrared region. The samples, silver-coated poly-silicon gratings, cover different grating depths in the range of 50 nm–375 nm. This variation of the depth, at a fixed grating geometry, allows the active tuning of the bandwidth of the SPP resonance according to the requirements of particular applications. The experimental setup employs a tunable quantum cascade laser (QCL) and allows the retrieval of angle-resolved experimental wavelength spectra to characterize the wavelength and angle dependence of the SPP resonance of the specular reflectance. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulations. As a tendency, shallower gratings reveal narrower SPP resonances in reflection. In particular, we report on 2.9 nm full width at half maximum (FWHM) at a wavelength of 4.12 µm and a signal attenuation of 21%. According to a numerical investigation with respect to a change of the refractive index of the dielectric above the grating structure, a spectral shift of 4122nmRIU can be expected, which translates to a figure of merit (FOM) of about 1421 RIU−1. The fabrication of the suggested structures is performed on eight-inch silicon substrates, entirely accomplished within an industrial fabrication environment using standard microfabrication processes. This in turn represents a decisive step towards plasmonic sensor technologies suitable for semiconductor mass-production.