Predicting the Classification of Home Oxygen Therapy for Post-COVID-19 Rehabilitation Patients Using a Neural Network

Objective: We evaluated the accuracy of a neural network to classify and predict the possibility of home oxygen therapy at the time of discharge from hospital based on patient information post-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at admission. Methods: Patients who survived acute treatment with COVID-19 and were admitted to the Amagasaki Medical Co-operative Hospital during August 2020–December 2021 were included. However, only rehabilitation patients (n = 88) who were discharged after a rehabilitation period of at least 2 weeks and not via home or institution were included. The neural network model implemented in R for Windows (4.1.2) was trained using data on patient age, gender, and number of days between a positive polymerase chain reaction test and hospitalization, length of hospital stay, oxygen flow rate required at hospitalization, and ability to perform activities of daily living. The number of training trials was 100. We used the area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity as evaluation indicators for the classification model. Results: The model of states at rest had as AUC of 0.82, sensitivity of 75.0%, specificity of 88.9%, and model accuracy of 86.4%. The model of states on exertion had an ACU of 0.82, sensitivity of 83.3%, specificity of 81.3%, and model accuracy of 81.8%. Conclusion: The accuracy of this study’s neural network model is comparable to that of previous studies recommended by Japanese Guidelines for the Physical Therapy and is expected to be used in clinical practice. In future, it could be used as a more accurate clinical support tool by increasing the sample size and applying cross-validation.     

Chemometric Analysis of Urinary Volatile Organic Compounds to Monitor the Efficacy of Pitavastatin Treatments on Mammary Tumor Progression over Time

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine are potential biomarkers of breast cancer. Previously, our group has investigated breast cancer through analysis of VOCs in mouse urine and identified a panel of VOCs with the ability to monitor tumor progression. However, an unanswered question is whether VOCs can be exploited similarly to monitor the efficacy of antitumor treatments over time. Herein, subsets of tumor-bearing mice were treated with pitavastatin at high (8 mg/kg) and low (4 mg/kg) concentrations, and urine was analyzed through solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Previous investigations using X-ray and micro-CT analysis indicated pitavastatin administered at 8 mg/kg had a protective effect against mammary tumors, whereas 4 mg/kg treatments did not inhibit tumor-induced damage. VOCs from mice treated with pitavastatin were compared to the previously analyzed healthy controls and tumor-bearing mice using chemometric analyses, which revealed that mice treated with pitavastatin at high concentrations were significantly different than tumor-bearing untreated mice in the direction of healthy controls. Mice treated with low concentrations demonstrated significant differences relative to healthy controls and were reflective of tumor-bearing untreated mice. These results show that urinary VOCs can accurately and noninvasively predict the efficacy of pitavastatin treatments over time.     

Two-dimensional hydrophilic interaction chromatography coupling anion-exchange and hydrophilic interaction columns for separation of 2-pyridylamino derivatives of neutral and sialylated N-glycans

A novel chromatographic approach coupling anion-exchange (diethylaminoethylene) and hydrophilic-interaction (amide or zwitterionic type) columns was developed for the separating of 2-pyridylamino derivatives of N-glycans (PA-N-glycans). This is a kind of on-line, two-dimensional (2D) separation approach in hydrophilic-interaction chromatography (called the 2D-HILIC method), analogous to that of coupling cation- (or anion-, or mixed ion-) exchange and reversed-phase columns in hydrophobic interaction (reversed-phase) chromatography. The efficiency of the 2D-HILIC method was tested with biantennary neutral and sialylated PA-N-glycan standards by properly combining linear gradient elutions of water-acetonitrile and spiked-salt (ammonium acetate) elutions. The retention time RSDs of all the peaks in three sequential runs of a 100 min cycle are less than 0.52%, which indicates a reasonably good repeatability of the 2D-HILIC method. Then, the method was applied to a complex mixture of PA-N-glycans from human serum proteins. It was demonstrated that the neutral PA-N-glycans and mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasialylated PA-N-glycans are able to be eluted in turn according to the number of sialic acids in an automated (programmed) single run.     

Origin of low melting point of ionic liquids: dominant role of entropy

Ionic liquids (ILs) are salts with an extremely low melting point. Substantial efforts have been made to address their low melting point from the enthalpic standpoint (i.e. interionic interactions). However, this question is still open. In this study, we report our findings that entropic (large fusion entropy), rather than enthalpic, contributions are primarily responsible for lowering the melting point in many cases, based on a large thermodynamic dataset. We have established a computational protocol using molecular dynamics simulations to decompose fusion entropy into kinetic (translational, rotational, and intramolecular vibrational) and structural (conformational and configurational) terms and successfully applied this approach for two representatives of ILs and NaCl. It is revealed that large structural contribution, particularly configurational entropy in the liquid state, plays a deterministic role in the large fusion entropy and consequently the low melting point of the ILs.

Large structural entropy makes salts liquid at room temperature.     

Measurements of velocity distributions with a laser doppler imaging system

A laser Doppler imaging system with a TV camera has been constructed and velocity distributions of fluid flow in cross sections of a rectangular channel have been measured. Consequently, it has been found that the system has some advantages in comparison with usual laser Doppler velocimeters, for example, the visualization of flow can be easily achieved.     

Carboxylic acid recognition of diamidine having a fluorescent 1,8-diphenylanthracene unit and its detection of amidinium-carboxylate and amidinium formation

A diphenylanthracene-based diamidine (1a) fluorescent probe for the detection of dicarboxylic acids has been designed and synthesized, which has an extended π-conjugation rather than a simple anthracene ring, in order to observe highly different fluorescence wavelengths after complex formation with dicarboxylic acids. The fluorescence spectra of the mixed solution of the diamidine 1a and carboxylic acids showed two different fluorescence bands, which corresponded to the complex formation (amidinium-carboxylate formation, λ_em?=?450?nm, light blue color) and dissociated amidinium formation (λ_em?=?510?nm as a broad band, green color). The complexed and dissociated states were confirmed by DOSY NMR and TD-DFT calculations. These different fluorescence wavelengths may come from the differences in the dihedral angles between the phenyl rings at the 1,8-position and anthracene ring (difference in π-conjugation) of 1a under complex formation and dissociated amidinium formation. The proposed mechanism for the observation of the different fluorescence wavelengths (complex formation and amidinium formation) was also confirmed by the fluorescence study of diamidine 1b which causes restricted rotation of the phenyl rings by substitution of the steric methyl groups, and observed the same fluorescence spectra for the complex formation and amidinium formation (400, 420, 450?nm as a vibrational structure of anthracene ring). These fluorescence characteristics of the diamidine 1a are also applicable for the detection of α,ω?dicarboxylic acids.     

Freezing transition of wetting film of tetradecane on tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide solutions

We have performed ellipsometry and surface tensiometry at tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) aqueous solution surface coexisting with tetradecane lens as a function of the molality of TTAB and the temperature under atmospheric pressure. From the theoretical analysis of the coefficient of ellipticity, it was clarified that the liquid monolayer comprising the surfactant and alkane is formed at higher surfactant concentrations by the wetting transition of tetradecane lens on the aqueous solution, and the solid monolayer is formed by lowering temperature (freezing transition). The results of the surface tension measurement support the occurrence of wetting transition and the freezing transition. A phase diagram of the wetting film was constructed by ellipsometry and surface tensiometry, of which the mixed solid monolayer had never been reported before. From the thermodynamic analysis of the phase diagram, it is also demonstrated that the TTAB surface density decreases accompanied with the freezing transition, which agrees with surface densities of TTAB calculated from surface tension vs. concentration curves.     

Transformation of protoberberines into benzo[C]phenanthridines a novel and efficient synthesis of antitumor benzo[C]phenanthridine alkaloids,fagaronine and nitidine

Antileukemic benzo[C]phenanthridine alkaloids, fagaronine (1a) and nitidine (1c) were synthesized from the corresponding protoberberines through C₆-N bond fission and subsequent cyclization between C₆ and C₁₃ position of the protoberberines.     

Reversible light-driven structural changes between the mono- and bilayer stacking alignments in 4-octadecyloxystilbazolium arylcarboxylate films

The present investigation deals with the light-driven morphological changes in multilamella films of N-methyl-4-octadecyloxystilbazolium arylcarboxylates (C18OStz+X-) cast on glass slides. The results of XRD analysis show a photostimulated layer expansion and shrinkage of the stacked thin films along the c-axis under alternative illumination at >350 and 254 nm, respectively. It was revealed that such lamellar changes could be switched either way by a reversible transformation between the mono- and bilayer units in these stacked multilamella films. Moreover, such controlled structural adjustments in the alignment could be initiated by the photocyclodimerization of the stilbazolium moieties of the arylcarboxylate salts; i.e., a monolayer-to-bilayer transformation could be induced at a stage of only 10% cyclodimer formation. The photoinduced patterning on the surface of the films was also analyzed by SEM and fluorescence microscopic investigations.