The DiseaseConnect (http://disease-connect.org) is a web server for analysis and visualization of a comprehensive knowledge on mechanism-based disease connectivity. The traditional disease classification system groups diseases with similar clinical symptoms and phenotypic traits. Thus, diseases with entirely different pathologies could be grouped together, leading to a similar treatment design. Such problems could be avoided if diseases were classified based on their molecular mechanisms. Connecting diseases with similar pathological mechanisms could inspire novel strategies on the effective repositioning of existing drugs and therapies. Although there have been several studies attempting to generate disease connectivity networks, they have not yet utilized the enormous and rapidly growing public repositories of disease-related omics data and literature, two primary resources capable of providing insights into disease connections at an unprecedented level of detail. Our DiseaseConnect, the first public web server, integrates comprehensive omics and literature data, including a large amount of gene expression data, Genome-Wide Association Studies catalog, and text-mined knowledge, to discover disease–disease connectivity via common molecular mechanisms. Moreover, the clinical comorbidity data and a comprehensive compilation of known drug–disease relationships are additionally utilized for advancing the understanding of the disease landscape and for facilitating the mechanism-based development of new drug treatments.
We present new optical switch devices based on a bi-stable microelectromechanical structure driven by two sets of one-directional movable electrothermal V-beam actuators. In conjunction with the movement translation link structure, or T-shaped end of the switch body, and buckle springs, the first V-beam actuator set can drive the in-plane moving reflective shutter from one rest position to the second stable position, while the second V-beam actuator set is able to drive the reflective shutter back to the original rest position. The transmission state of the optical switch device could be one of these bi-stable positions, and the switching state will be the counter position. Thus, the bi-directional motion capability is realized by using a pair of V-beam actuator sets with opposite directions of motion. We have optimized the design of V-beam actuators according to the application requirements. The preliminary results prove the application feasibility.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an immunomodulatory protein (Ling Zhi-8, LZ-8) on wound healing in rat liver tissues after monopolar electrosurgery. Animals were sacrificed for evaluations at 0, 3, 7, and 28 days postoperatively. It was found that the wound with the LZ-8 treatment significantly increases wound healing. Western blot analysis clearly indicated that the expression of NF-κB was decreased at 3, 7, and 28 days when liver tissues were treated with LZ-8. Moreover, caspase-3 activity of the liver tissue also significantly decreases at 7 and 28 days, respectively. DAPI staining and TUNEL assays revealed that only a minimal dispersion of NF-κB was found on the liver tissue treated with LZ-8 at day 7 as compared with day 3 and tissues without LZ-8 treatment. Similarly, apoptosis was decreased on liver tissues treated with LZ-8 at 7 days when compared to the control (monopolar electrosurgery) tissues. Therefore, the analytical results demonstrated that LZ-8 induced acceleration of wound healing in rat liver tissues after monopolar electrosurgery.
This paper describes the feasibility study result for a variable optical attenuator (VOA) realized by a new concept of self-assembled polysilicon structures and a continuously position-controllable curved beam actuator based on surface micromachining technology. The self-assembly mechanism includes a residual stress induced curved beam which lifts up the reflective mirror shutter first. This self-assembled reflective pop-up shutter is locked and fixed on a curved polysilicon beam actuator which is connected with a polysilicon frame clamped on the substrate. Secondly, a set of polysilicon scratch drive actuators drives the frame, curved beam actuator and shutter moving forward and sliding into the space between the two ends of the input and output fiber ports. The optical attenuation range of the proposed VOA is determined by the vertical position of the self-assembled reflective shutter which is controlled depending on the applied voltage value. This new VOA has demonstrated continuous attenuation capability and wide attenuation range. This device demonstrates 70 dB attenuation range and less than 1 dB insertion loss.
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