Explore the vast range of titles available.

Although the automotive industry has been among the sectors that best-understands the importance of drivers’ affect, the focus of design and research in the automotive field has long emphasized the visceral aspects of exterior and interior design. With the adoption of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), endowing ‘semi-autonomy’ to the vehicles, however, the scope of affective design should be expanded to include the behavioural aspects of the vehicle. In such a ‘shared-control’ system wherein the vehicle can intervene in the human driver’s operations, a certain degree of ‘intrusive feelings’ are unavoidable. For example, when the Lane Keeping Assistance System (LKAS), one of the most popular examples of ADAS, operates the steering wheel in a dangerous situation, the driver may feel interrupted or surprised because of the abrupt torque generated by LKAS. This kind of unpleasant experience can lead to prolonged negative feelings such as irritation, anxiety, and distrust of the system. Therefore, there are increasing needs of investigating the driver’s affective responses towards the vehicle’s dynamic behaviour. In this study, four types of intrusive feelings caused by LKAS were identified to be proposed as a quantitative performance indicator in designing the affectively satisfactory behaviour of LKAS. A metric as well as a statistical data analysis method to quantitatively measure the intrusive feelings through the vehicle sensor log data.

Three-dimensional motion capture analysis is considered the gold standard for any movement research. Motion capture data were recorded for 7 healthy female participants with no prior throwing experience to investigate the learning process for overarm throwing during a selected period. Participants were monitored 3 times a week for 5 weeks. Each session consisted of 15 dominant and 15 nondominant hand side overarm throws. A total of 3,150 trials were recorded and preprocessed (labeling reflective markers) for further analysis. The presented dataset can provide valuable information about upper extremity kinematics of the learning process of overarm throwing without any kind of feedback. Furthermore, this dataset may be used for more advanced analysis techniques, which could lead to more insightful information.

Although the automotive industry has been among the sectors that best-understands the importance of drivers' affect, the focus of design and research in the automotive field has long emphasized the visceral aspects of exterior and interior design. With the adoption of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), endowing 'semi-autonomy' to the vehicles, however, the scope of affective design should be expanded to include the behavioural aspects of the vehicle. In such a 'shared-control' system wherein the vehicle can intervene in the human driver's operations, a certain degree of 'intrusive feelings' are unavoidable. For example, when the Lane Keeping Assistance System (LKAS), one of the most popular examples of ADAS, operates the steering wheel in a dangerous situation, the driver may feel interrupted or surprised because of the abrupt torque generated by LKAS. This kind of unpleasant experience can lead to prolonged negative feelings such as irritation, anxiety, and distrust of the system. Therefore, there are increasing needs of investigating the driver's affective responses towards the vehicle's dynamic behaviour. In this study, four types of intrusive feelings caused by LKAS were identified to be proposed as a quantitative performance indicator in designing the affectively satisfactory behaviour of LKAS. A metric as well as a statistical data analysis method to quantitatively measure the intrusive feelings through the vehicle sensor log data.

Genome editing is crucial for genetic engineering of organisms for improved traits, particularly in microalgae due to the urgent necessity for the next generation biofuel production. The most advanced CRISPR/Cas9 system is simple, efficient and accurate in some organisms; however, it has proven extremely difficult in microalgae including the model alga Chlamydomonas . We solved this problem by delivering Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) comprising the Cas9 protein and sgRNAs to avoid cytotoxicity and off-targeting associated with vector-driven expression of Cas9. We obtained CRISPR/Cas9-induced mutations at three loci including MAA7 , CpSRP43 and ChlM , and targeted mutagenic efficiency was improved up to 100 fold compared to the first report of transgenic Cas9-induced mutagenesis. Interestingly, we found that unrelated vectors used for the selection purpose were predominantly integrated at the Cas9 cut site, indicative of NHEJ-mediated knock-in events. As expected with Cas9 RNPs, no off-targeting was found in one of the mutagenic screens. In conclusion, we improved the knockout efficiency by using Cas9 RNPs, which opens great opportunities not only for biological research but also industrial applications in Chlamydomonas and other microalgae. Findings of the NHEJ-mediated knock-in events will allow applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in microalgae, including “safe harboring” techniques shown in other organisms.

Adenomyosis is defined as the presence of ectopic nests of endometrial glands and stroma within the myometrium. Adenomyosis is a common cause of dysmenorrhea, menorrhagia, and chronic pelvic pain but is often underdiagnosed. Despite its prevalence and severity of symptoms, its pathogenesis and etiology are poorly understood. Our previous study showed that aberrant activation of β-catenin results in adenomyosis through epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Using transcriptomic and ChIP-seq analysis, we identified activation of TGF-β signaling in the uteri of mutant mice that expressed dominant stabilized β-catenin in the uterus. There was a strong positive correlation between β-catenin and TGF-β2 proteins in women with adenomyosis. Furthermore, treatment with pirfenidone, a TGF-β inhibitor, increased E-cadherin expression and reduced cell invasiveness in Ishikawa cells with nuclear β-catenin. Our results suggest that β-catenin activates TGF-β-induced epithelial–mesenchymal transition in adenomyosis. This finding describes the molecular pathogenesis of adenomyosis and the use of TGF-β as a potential therapeutic target for adenomyosis.Uterine disease: Regulatory pathways identifiedA regulatory link between two proteins involved in the progression of a debilitating uterine condition highlights a potential therapeutic target. Adenomyosis involves the invasion of cells from the inner lining of the uterus (the endometrium) into the uterine muscle wall (the myometrium), resulting in heavy, prolonged periods and chronic pain. The aberrent activation of a protein called β-catenin triggers adenomyosis, but the precise mechanisms are unclear. A team led by Jung-Ho Shin at the Korea University Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea, and Jae-Wook Jeong, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, USA, used sequencing techniques in mice and human tissue samples to identify the pathways governed by β-catenin in adenomyosis. They found that the Tgf-β2 gene is directly regulated by β-catenin in the uterus. TGF-β2 levels were elevated in human adenomyosis lesions, suggesting the protein could be a therapeutic target.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305859.].

Lithium–oxygen batteries allow oxygen to be reduced at the battery’s cathode when a current is drawn; in present-day batteries, this results in formation of Li 2 O 2 , but it is now shown that another high energy density material, namely LiO 2 , with better electronic conduction can be used instead as the discharge product, if the electrode is decorated with iridium nanoparticles. A lithium-superoxide-based battery Nonaqueous lithium–air batteries have a much superior theoretical gravimetric energy density compared to conventional lithium ion batteries, and thus have the potential for making long-range electric vehicles a reality. Batteries based on sodium and potassium superoxides have recently been reported, but thermodynamically unstable lithium superoxide (LiO 2 ), with its potential high energy density, has proved more problematic. This paper demonstrates that crystalline LiO 2 can be stabilized in a Li–O 2 battery by using a suitable cathode material — reduced graphene oxide decorated with iridium nanoparticles. A battery based on this new lithium–oxygen chemistry was demonstrated through 40 cycles before failure, achieving high efficiency and good capacity. Batteries based on sodium superoxide and on potassium superoxide have recently been reported 1 , 2 , 3 . However, there have been no reports of a battery based on lithium superoxide (LiO 2 ), despite much research 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 into the lithium–oxygen (Li–O 2 ) battery because of its potential high energy density. Several studies 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 of Li–O 2 batteries have found evidence of LiO 2 being formed as one component of the discharge product along with lithium peroxide (Li 2 O 2 ). In addition, theoretical calculations have indicated that some forms of LiO 2 may have a long lifetime 17 . These studies also suggest that it might be possible to form LiO 2 alone for use in a battery. However, solid LiO 2 has been difficult to synthesize in pure form 18 because it is thermodynamically unstable with respect to disproportionation, giving Li 2 O 2 (refs 19 , 20 ). Here we show that crystalline LiO 2 can be stabilized in a Li–O 2 battery by using a suitable graphene-based cathode. Various characterization techniques reveal no evidence for the presence of Li 2 O 2 . A novel templating growth mechanism involving the use of iridium nanoparticles on the cathode surface may be responsible for the growth of crystalline LiO 2 . Our results demonstrate that the LiO 2 formed in the Li–O 2 battery is stable enough for the battery to be repeatedly charged and discharged with a very low charge potential (about 3.2 volts). We anticipate that this discovery will lead to methods of synthesizing and stabilizing LiO 2 , which could open the way to high-energy-density batteries based on LiO 2 as well as to other possible uses of this compound, such as oxygen storage.

This study aimed to develop an algorithm for the automatic detecting chest percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD) and evaluating catheter positions on chest radiographs using deep learning. This retrospective study included 1,217 chest radiographs (proper positioned: 937; malpositioned: 280) from a total of 960 patients underwent chest PCD from October 2017 to February 2023. The tip location of the chest PCD was annotated using bounding boxes and classified as proper positioned and malpositioned. The radiographs were randomly allocated into the training, validation sets (total: 1,094 radiographs; proper positioned: 853 radiographs; malpositioned: 241 radiographs), and test datasets (total: 123 radiographs; proper positioned: 84 radiographs; malpositioned: 39 radiographs). The selected AI model was used to detect the catheter tip of chest PCD and evaluate the catheter's position using the test dataset to distinguish between properly positioned and malpositioned cases. Its performance in detecting the catheter and assessing its position on chest radiographs was evaluated by per radiographs and per instances. The association between the position and function of the catheter during chest PCD was evaluated. In per chest radiographs, the selected model's accuracy was 0.88. The sensitivity and specificity were 0.86 and 0.92, respectively. In per instance, the selected model's the mean Average Precision 50 (mAP50) was 0.86. The precision and recall were 0.90 and 0.79 respectively. Regarding the association between the position and function of the catheter during chest PCD, its sensitivity and specificity were 0.93 and 0.95, respectively. The artificial intelligence model for the automatic detection and evaluation of catheter position during chest PCD on chest radiographs demonstrated acceptable diagnostic performance and could assist radiologists and clinicians in the early detection of catheter malposition and malfunction during chest percutaneous catheter drainage.

The South Korean government effectively contained the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak primarily associated with a religious group. We conducted SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing of 66 cases to investigate connections among the initial South Korean cases and the religious group outbreak. We assessed the accuracy of genomic investigation by comparing the whole genome sequences with comprehensive contact tracing records. Five transmission clusters were estimated among the 15 initial cases. The six close-contact cases and two potential exposure pairs identified by contact tracing showed two or fewer nucleotide base differences. Additionally, we identified two transmission clusters that were phylogenetically distinct from the initial clusters, sharing common G11083T, G26144T, and C14805T markers. The strain closest to the two additional clusters was identified from a pair of identical sequences isolated from individuals who traveled from Wuhan to Italy. Our findings provide insights into the origins of community spread of COVID-19.

This study was aimed at preparing zirconia samples via additive manufacturing (AM) and subtractive manufacturing (SM) and testing the following aspects: (1) the manufacturing accuracy of the zirconia samples and (2) the bond strength of porcelain to zirconia to evaluate the applicability of the zirconia fabricated by AM in dental clinics. We used three milling machines for SM (AR, K5, and UP) and a 3D printer for AM (AO). The manufacturing accuracy of the zirconia specimen in the internal and marginal areas was evaluated by superimposing techniques to calculate the root mean square (RMS) values. The bond strengths of porcelain to zirconia prepared via SM and AM were measured using a universal testing machine. The internal and marginal RMS values of the zirconia prepared by AM (AO) were within the range of those of the zirconia prepared by SM (AR, K5, and UP). Moreover, the bond strength value of the zirconia prepared by AM (35.12 ± 4.09 MPa) was significantly higher than that of the zirconia prepared by SM (30.26 ± 5.20 MPa). Therefore, AM technology has significant potential for applications in dentistry.