process optimization

Strategic allocation of metabolic flux is essential for achieving a higher production performance in genetically engineered organisms. Flux optimization between cell growth and chemical production has led to the establishment of cost-effective chemical production methods in microbial cell factories. This effect is amplified when utilizing a low-cost carbon source. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), crucial in pharmaceuticals and biodegradable polymers, can be efficiently produced from acetate, a cost-effective substrate...

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis was long regarded as an inflammatory disease limited to the skin. Data from dermatologic, rheumatologic and cardiologic research now show it to be a systemic disease, for which the term psoriatic disease is used. METHODS: This paper is based on a selective literature search with special attention to the findings of clinical trials and other current publications, as well as the recommendations of international guidelines. RESULTS: Immunologically mediated inflammation of the skin, arteries, bones, and joints is a central feature of psoriatic disease...

Since the 1980s, the paddlewheel effect has been suggested as a mechanism to boost lithium-ion diffusion in inorganic materials via the rotation of rotor-like anion groups. However, it remains unclear whether the paddlewheel effect, defined as large-angle anion group rotations assisting Li hopping, indeed exists; furthermore, the physical mechanism by which the anion-group dynamics affect lithium-ion diffusion has not yet been established. In this work, we differentiate various types of rotational motions of anion groups and develop quaternion-based algorithms to detect, quantify, and relate them to lithium-ion motion in ab initio molecular dynamics simulations...

Online and real-time analysis of a chemical process is a major analytical challenge that can drastically change the way the chemical industry or chemical research operates. With in situ analyses, a new and powerful understanding of chemistry can be gained; however, building robust tools for long-term monitoring faces many challenges, including compensating for instrument drift, instrument replacement, and sensor or probe replacement. Accounting for these changes by recollecting calibration data and rebuilding quantification models can be costly and time-consuming...

Vision Transformer (ViT) architectures are becoming increasingly popular and widely employed to tackle computer vision applications. Their main feature is the capacity to extract global information through the self-attention mechanism, outperforming earlier convolutional neural networks. However, ViT deployment and performance have grown steadily with their size, number of trainable parameters, and operations. Furthermore, self-attention's computational and memory cost quadratically increases with the image resolution...

Multilabel feature selection solves the dimension distress of high-dimensional multilabel data by selecting the optimal subset of features. Noisy and incomplete labels of raw multilabel data hinder the acquisition of label-guided information. In existing approaches, mapping the label space to a low-dimensional latent space by semantic decomposition to mitigate label noise is considered an effective strategy. However, the decomposed latent label space contains redundant label information, which misleads the capture of potential label relevance...

This article is concerned with the secure state estimation problem for artificial neural networks (ANNs) subject to unknown-but-bounded noises, where sensors and the remote estimator are connected via open and bandwidth-limited communication networks. Using the encoding-decoding mechanism (EDM) and the Paillier encryption technique, a novel homomorphic encryption scheme (HES) is introduced, which aims to ensure the secure transmission of measurement information within communication networks that are constrained by bandwidth...

In modern neuroscience, observing the dynamics of large populations of neurons is a critical step of understanding how networks of neurons process information. Light-field microscopy (LFM) has emerged as a type of scanless, high-speed, three-dimensional (3D) imaging tool, particularly attractive for this purpose. Imaging neuronal activity using LFM calls for the development of novel computational approaches that fully exploit domain knowledge embedded in physics and optics models, as well as enabling high interpretability and transparency...

Detecting infrared small targets under cluttered background is mainly challenged by dim textures, low contrast and varying shapes. This paper proposes an approach to facilitate infrared small target detection by learning contrast-enhanced shape-biased representations. The approach cascades a contrast-shape encoder and a shape-reconstructable decoder to learn discriminative representations that can effectively identify target objects. The contrast-shape encoder applies a stem of central difference convolutions and a few large-kernel convolutions to extract shape-preserving features from input infrared images...

Neural Architecture Search (NAS) has emerged as a promising tool in the field of AutoML for designing more accurate and efficient architectures. The majority of NAS works employ a weight-sharing technique to reduce the search cost by sharing the weights of a supernet, which is a composite of all architectures produced from the search space. Nonetheless, this method has a significant drawback in that negative interference may arise when candidate architectures share the same weights. This issue becomes even more severe in multi-task searches, where a supernet is shared across tasks...

BACKGROUND: Patients with cancer who have recently been diagnosed have distinct requirements compared to cancer survivors. It is crucial to take into account their unique needs to ensure that they make informed decisions and are receptive to the care provided. OBJECTIVE: This study suggested a framework titled Effectiveness of Patient-Centered Cancer Care that considers the needs of newly diagnosed patients with cancer and related work system factors. This study investigated how work system factors influence the perceptions of patient-centered care, quality of care, and associated outcomes among newly diagnosed patients with cancer...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to enhance the bioavailability of cannabidiol (CBD) using 3D Digital Light Processing (DLP)-printed microneedle (MN) transdermal drug delivery system. METHODS: CBD MN patch was fabricated and optimized using 3D DLP printing using CBD (8% w/v), Lithium phenyl-2,4,6-trimethylbenzoylphosphinate (LAP) (0.49% w/v), distilled water (20% w/v), and poly (ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate 550 (PEGDAMA 550) (up to 100% w/v)...

Multimodal in situ experiments during slot-die coating of thin films pioneer the way to kinetic studies on thin-film formation. They establish a powerful tool to understand and optimize the formation and properties of thin-film devices, e.g., solar cells, sensors, or LED films. Thin-film research benefits from time-resolved grazing-incidence wide- and small-angle x-ray scattering (GIWAXS/GISAXS) with a sub-second resolution to reveal the evolution of crystal structure, texture, and morphology during the deposition process...

We obtain large amounts of external information through our eyes, a process often considered analogous to picture mapping onto a camera lens. However, our eyes are never as still as a camera lens, with saccades occurring between fixations and microsaccades occurring within a fixation. Although saccades are agreed to be functional for information sampling in visual perception, it remains unknown if microsaccades have a similar function when eye movement is restricted. Here, we demonstrated that saccades and microsaccades share common spatiotemporal structures in viewing visual objects...

Gamma radiation (60 Co)-induced mutagenesis offers an alternative to develop rice lines by accelerating the spontaneous mutation process and increasing the pool of allelic variants available for breeding. Ionizing radiation works by direct or indirect damage to DNA and subsequent mutations. The technique can take advantage of in vitro protocols to optimize resources and accelerate the development of traits. This is achieved by exposing mutants to a selection agent of interest in controlled conditions and evaluating large numbers of plants in reduced areas...

BACKGROUND: Despite the use of validated guidelines in the management of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), processes to limit unnecessary brain scans are still not sufficient and need to be improved. The use of blood biomarkers represents a relevant adjunct to identify patients at risk for intracranial injury requiring computed tomography (CT) scan. CONTENT: Biomarkers currently recommended in the management of mTBI in adults and children are discussed in this review...

A microfluidic pump is presented that generates its pumping action via the EWOD (electrowetting-on-dielectric) effect. The flow is generated by the periodic movement of liquid-vapor interfaces in a large number (≈106 ) of microcavities resulting in a volume change of approx. 0.5 pl per cavity per pump stroke. The total flow resulting from all microcavities adds up to a few hundred nanolitres per cycle. Passive, topologically optimized, non-mechanical Tesla valves are used to rectify the flow. As a result, the micropump operates without any moving components...

An easy way of synthesizing low-cost carbon nanomaterials without the need for high-temperature processing approach is critical for energy storage applications because the demand has increased for affordable, long-term, and environmentally friendly synthesized carbon-based materials. Herein, we synthesized multilayered graphitic carbon nano-onions (CNOs) using an oil-wick flame pyrolysis approach, employing biowaste (chicken fat) oil as a cost-effective precursor. The prepared CNOs can provide enhanced ion movement and less resistance for electron transport by interconnecting CNO particles with one another...

Azido sugars hold great promise as substrates in numerous click-chemistry applications. However, the synthesis of activated azido sugars is limited by cost and complexity. Conventional chemical activation methods are intricate and time-consuming. In response, we have developed a process for the large-scale production of UDP-6-azido-GalNAc through enzymatic nucleotide sugar synthesis on a gram scale. Our optimization strategies encompassed refining the process parameters of an enzyme cascade featuring NahK from Bifidobacterium longum and AGX1 from Homo sapiens...

University students often experience sleep disturbances and disorders. Personal digital technologies present a great opportunity for sleep health promotion targeting this population. However, studies that engage university students in designing and implementing digital sleep health technologies are scarce. This study sought to understand how we could build digital sleep health technologies that meet the needs of university students through a co-design process. We conducted three co-design workshops with 51 university students to identify design opportunities and to generate features for sleep health apps through workshop activities...