Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are important biomolecular markers in health and disease. Down syndrome, or Trisomy 21, is the most frequently occurring chromosomal abnormality in live-born children. Here, we highlight associations between SNPs in several important enzymes involved in the one-carbon folate metabolic pathway and the elevated maternal risk of having a child with Down syndrome. Our survey highlights that the combination of SNPs may be a more reliable predictor of the Down syndrome phenotype than single SNPs alone. We also describe recent links between SNPs in p53 and its related pathway proteins and Down syndrome, as well as highlight several proteins that help to associate apoptosis and p53 signaling with the Down syndrome phenotype. In addition to a comprehensive review of the literature, we also demonstrate that several SNPs reside within the same regions as these Down syndrome-linked SNPs, and propose that these closely located nucleotide changes may provide new candidates for future exploration.
This paper reports our investigation on a model predictive control (MPC) with constraints for continuous diabetes management, and its implementation on the microcontroller of our artificial pancreas. The operational constraints for the MPC are rate of change, amplitude and output constraints, while the associated optimization problem is solved using a primal-dual interior-point algorithm based on predicatorcorrector method. Our real-time implantable close-loop system is able to achieve desired diabetes management by maintaining the blood sugar level at less than 140 mg/dl, and consistently within the range of 70-120 mg/dl. Experimental results demonstrate that the low power 16-bit microcontroller in our prototype artificial pancreas can provide sufficient computational power with our computational efficient embedded system solution.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.