Open source board based acoustofluidic transwells for reversible disruption of the blood–brain barrier for therapeutic delivery

Ke Wang,Chao Sun,Povilas Dumčius,Hongxin Zhang,Hanlin Liao,Zhenlin Wu,Liangfei Tian,Wang Peng,Yongqing Fu,Jun Wei,Meng Cai,Yi Zhong,Xiaoyu Li,Xin Yang,Min Cui 한국생체재료학회 2023 생체재료학회지 Vol.27 No.00

Background Blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a crucial but dynamic structure that functions as a gatekeeper for the central nervous system (CNS). Managing sufficient substances across the BBB is a major challenge, especially in the development of therapeutics for CNS disorders. Methods To achieve an efficient, fast and safe strategy for BBB opening, an acoustofluidic transwell (AFT) was developed for reversible disruption of the BBB. The proposed AFT was consisted of a transwell insert where the BBB model was established, and a surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer realized using open-source electronics based on printed circuit board techniques. Results In the AFT device, the SAW produced acousto-mechanical stimulations to the BBB model resulting in decreased transendothelial electrical resistance in a dose dependent manner, indicating the disruption of the BBB. Moreover, SAW stimulation enhanced transendothelial permeability to sodium fluorescein and FITC-dextran with various molecular weight in the AFT device. Further study indicated BBB opening was mainly attributed to the apparent stretching of intercellular spaces. An in vivo study using a zebrafish model demonstrated SAW exposure promoted penetration of sodium fluorescein to the CNS. Conclusions In summary, AFT effectively disrupts the BBB under the SAW stimulation, which is promising as a new drug delivery methodology for neurodegenerative diseases.

SLC39A10 promotes malignant phenotypes of gastric cancer cells by activating the CK2-mediated MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways

Ren Xiaojuan,Feng Chao,Wang Yubo,Chen Pu,Wang Simeng,Wang Jianling,Cao Hongxin,Li Yujun,Ji Meiju,Hou Peng 생화학분자생물학회 2023 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.55 No.-

Solute carrier family 39 member 10 (SLC39A10) belongs to a subfamily of zinc transporters and plays a key role in B-cell development. Previous studies have reported that its upregulation promotes breast cancer metastasis by enhancing the influx of zinc ions (Zn2+); however, its role in gastric cancer remains totally unclear. Here, we found that SLC39A10 expression was frequently increased in gastric adenocarcinomas and that SLC39A10 upregulation was strongly associated with poor patient outcomes; in addition, we identified SLC39A10 as a direct target of c-Myc. Functional studies showed that ectopic expression of SLC39A10 in gastric cancer cells dramatically enhanced the proliferation, colony formation, invasiveness abilities of these gastric cancer cells and tumorigenic potential in nude mice. Conversely, SLC39A10 knockdown inhibited gastric cancer cell proliferation and colony formation. Mechanistically, SLC39A10 exerted its carcinogenic effects by increasing Zn2+ availability and subsequently enhancing the enzyme activity of CK2 (casein kinase 2). As a result, the MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways, two major downstream effectors of CK2, were activated, while c-Myc, a downstream target of these two pathways, formed a vicious feedback loop with SLC39A10 to drive the malignant progression of gastric cancer. Taken together, our data demonstrate that SLC39A10 is a functional oncogene in gastric cancer and suggest that targeting CK2 is an alternative therapeutic strategy for gastric cancer patients with high SLC39A10 expression.

Accurate and Robust Surface Measurement Using Optimal Structured Light Tracking Method

WANG, Shi,KIM, Hyongsuk,LIN, Chun-Shin,CHEN, Hongxin The Institute of Electronics, Information and Comm 2010 IEICE transactions on information and systems Vol.93 No.2

<P>Structured light vision systems are based on the fact that the pixel location of light in an image has a unique association with the object depth. However, their applications are mainly limited to the properties of the object surface and the lighting conditions. This paper presents a robust vision system for accurate acquisition of 3-D surface data based on optimal structured light. To achieve depth measurement for a dynamic scene, the data acquisition must be performed with only a single image. Our special arrangement makes the image of the light stripe remaining sharp while the background becomes blurred. Moreover, a dynamic programming approach is proposed to track the optimal path while the laser beam is invisible or divergent under extreme condition. The principle and necessary mathematics for implementing the algorithm are presented. The robustness of the system against uncalibrated errors is demonstrated.</P>

Hybrid Algorithm for Interpolation Based on Macro-block Gray Value Gradient under H.264

왕실(Wang, Shi),진홍신(Chen, Hongxin),유현중(Yoo Hyun-Joong),김형석(Kim, Hyong-Suk) 한국산학기술학회 2009 한국산학기술학회논문지 Vol.10 No.2

H.264에서는 2-D 6-tap wiener filter가 1/2 화소의 위치로부터 1/4 화소 위치를 보간해 내는데 사용되고 있다. 이 방법은 비교적 간단하지만 이웃 화소들의 변화율을 무시하고, 4 방향의 이웃 화소들의 영향만 고려하게 되므로, 결과적으로 저역 필터의 특성을 갖게 된다. 그런데, 큐빅 보간 법을 사용하면 보다 넓은 영역의 화소 값을 고려하여 보간하는 장점은 있지만 계산이 복잡하다는 단점이 있다. 이 연구에서는 H.264에서 bilinear와 cubic 보간 법을 사용할 경우의 특성들을 해석하여, 임의의 큰 블록에 보다 적합한 보간 방법을 자동 선택할 수 있도록 하였다. 실험에서 물체영상의 움직임 탐색과 보간에 요구되는 계산 량을 보간의 정밀화를 통하여 대폭 감소시킬 수 있음을 보였다. H.264 suggests applying a 2-D 6-tap wiener filter to realize the interpolation for half-pixel positions, followed by a bilinear interpolation to get the data of quarter-pixels precision. This method is comparatively simpler; however, it only considers the affection of 4-connection neighborhood ignoring the influence that comes from the changing rate between respective neighborhoods. As a result, it has the characteristics of a Low-pass filter under the risk of losing high-frequency weights. The Cubic interpolation uses the gray-values within the larger regions of points to be sampled for interpolation. Nevertheless, the cubic interpolation is more complicated and computational. We give a deep analysis on the features while applying both bilinear and cubic interpolation in H.264 presenting a proper selection of interpolation algorithm with respect to specific distribution of gray-value in a certain grand block. The experiments point out that load for motion searching and interpolation are reduced when promoting the precision of interpolation simultaneously.

Mobile Robot Localization Based on Hexagon Distributed Repeated Color Patches in Large Indoor Area

진홍신(Hongxin Chen),왕실(Shi Wang),한후석(Hoosek Han),김형석(Hyongsuk Kim) 제어로봇시스템학회 2009 제어·로봇·시스템학회 논문지 Vol.15 No.4

This paper presents a new mobile robot localization method for indoor robot navigation. The method uses hexagon distributed color-coded patches on the ceiling and a camera is installed on the robot facing the ceiling to recognize these patches. The proposed “cell-coded map”, with the use of only seven different kinds of color-coded landmarks distributed in hexagonal way, helps reduce the complexity of the landmark structure and the error of landmark recognition. This technique is applicable for navigation in an unlimited size of indoor space. The structure of the landmarks and the recognition method are introduced. And 2 rigid rules are also used to ensure the correctness of the recognition. Experimental results prove that the method is useful.

Localization for Mobile Robot Based on Colorful Patches on Planar Ceiling

Shi Wang,Hyongsuk Kim,Hongxin Chen,Michal Strzelecki 제어로봇시스템학회 2007 제어로봇시스템학회 합동학술대회 논문집 Vol.2007 No.12

천정 부착 칼라 패치 배열을 이용한 이동로봇의 자기위치 인식

왕실(Shi Wang),진홍신(Hongxin Chen),마이클스트르젤레키(Michal Stzelecki),김형석(Hyongsuk Kim) 제어로봇시스템학회 2008 제어·로봇·시스템학회 논문지 Vol.14 No.2

A localization system to estimate the position as well as movement direction of mobile robots is proposed in this paper. This system implements a camera fixed on a robot and color patches evenly distributed and mounted on the planar ceiling. Different permutations of patch colors code information about robot localization. Thus, extraction of color information from patch images leads to estimation of robot position. Additionally, simple geometric indicators are combined with patch colors to estimate robot"s movement direction. Since only the distribution of patch colors has to be known, the analysis of patch images to is relatively fast and simple. The proposed robot localization system has been successfully tested for navigation of sample mobile robot. Obtained test results indicate the robustness and reliability of proposed technique for robot navigation.

Concatenated spatially-localized random forests for hippocampus labeling in adult and infant MR brain images

Zhang, Lichi,Wang, Qian,Gao, Yaozong,Li, Hongxin,Wu, Guorong,Shen, Dinggang Elsevier 2017 Neurocomputing Vol.229 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Automatic labeling of the hippocampus in brain MR images is highly demanded, as it has played an important role in imaging-based brain studies. However, accurate labeling of the hippocampus is still challenging, partially due to the ambiguous intensity boundary between the hippocampus and surrounding anatomies. In this paper, we propose a concatenated set of spatially-localized random forests for multi-atlas-based hippocampus labeling of adult/infant brain MR images. The contribution in our work is two-fold. <I>First</I>, each forest classifier is trained to label just a specific sub-region of the hippocampus, thus enhancing the labeling accuracy. <I>Second</I>, a novel forest selection strategy is proposed, such that each voxel in the test image can automatically select a set of optimal forests, and then dynamically fuses their respective outputs for determining the final label. <I>Furthermore</I>, we enhance the spatially-localized random forests with the aid of the auto-context strategy. In this way, our proposed learning framework can gradually refine the tentative labeling result for better performance. Experiments show that, regarding the large datasets of both adult and infant brain MR images, our method owns satisfactory scalability by segmenting the hippocampus accurately and efficiently.</P>

High Performance Object Recognition with Application of the Size and Rotational Invariant Feature of the Fourier Descriptor to the 3D Information of Edges

왕실(Shi Wang),진홍신(Hongxin Chen),이준호(junho I),임해평(Haiping Lin),김형석(Hyongsuk Kim),김종만(Jongman Kim) 대한전자공학회 2008 電子工學會論文誌-CI (Computer and Information) Vol.45 No.6

3차원 정보로부터 정확한 에지를 추출하고 푸리 변환하여 물체를 인식할 수 있는 고 효율의 물체 인식방법을 제안하였다. 물체의 윤곽은 인식에 유용한 많은 정보를 포함하고 있지만, 정확한 윤곽정보를 얻기가 어려우며, 정확한 윤곽정보를 얻었다고 하더라도 물체의 크기나 방향 마다 윤곽이 달라지기 때문에 물체 인식에 획기적 대안으로 활용되지 못하고 있다. 제안한 물체 인식 알고리즘은 1) 레이저 스캔 디바이스를 사용하여 얻는 3 차원 물체정보로부터 정밀한 물체 윤곽을 획득하고 2) 크기 및 회전 불변한 푸리에 표시 자를 이용하여 윤곽을 표현함으로써, 필요 데이터 베이스의 크기를 대폭 줄인다. 이렇게 얻어진 물체에 대한 푸리에 표식자 정보는 미리 준비된 푸리에 표식자 데이터 베이스로부터 최적 정합되는 물체를 찾아 인식한다. 이 알고리즘은 MPEG7 Part B의 방대한 영상 데이터 베이스를 대상으로 실험하였으며, 그에 대한 결과를 논문에 포함시켰다. A high performance object recognition algorithm using Fourier description of the 3D information of the objects is proposed. Object boundaries contain sufficient information for recognition in most of objects. Howeveer, it is not well utilized as the key solution of the object recognition since obtaining the accurate boundary information is not easy. Also, object boundaries vary highly depending on the size or orientation of object. The proposed object recognition algorithm is based on 1) the accurate object boundaries extracted from the 3D shape which is obtained by the laser scan device, and 2) reduction of the required database using the size and rotational invariant feature of the Fourier Descriptor. Such Fourier information is compared with the database and the recognition is done by selecting the best matching object. The experiments have been done on the rich database of MPEG 7 Part B.

Precise Localization for Mobile Robot Based on Cell-coded Landmarks on the Ceiling

진홍신(Chen Hongxin),왕실(Wang Shi),양창주(Changju Yang),이준호(junho Lee),김형석(Hyongsuk Kim) 대한전자공학회 2009 電子工學會論文誌-CI (Computer and Information) Vol.46 No.2

실내 로봇의 자율 운행에 효과적인 새로운 로봇 위치 계산 방법을 제안하였다. 천정에 칼라 코드로 만든 위치 지시용 랜드마크를 부착하고, 천정을 향해 설치된 카메라에 의해 랜드마크가 인식되게하는 구조이다. 칼라 랜드마크에 사용한 코드는 9개의 다른 조합이 되도록 하여 상대적 위치를 지시하게 하며, 위치 계산이 모듈로 9 계산에 의해 용이하도록 하는 특별한 배치방법을 사용하였다. 천정에 부착된 랜드마크 인식을 기반으로 한 위치 계산 알고리즘이므로, 실내에서 사용하는 것을 특징으로 하며, 상대적인 위치 코드를 사용하므로 사용 넓이에 제한이 없다. 이 논문에서는 랜드마크의 구조와 인식방법을 소개하며, 위치계산 결과의 정확성 실험결과도 제시하였다. This paper presents a new mobile robot localization method for indoor robot navigation. The method uses color-coded landmarks on the ceiling and a camera is installed on the robot facing the ceiling. The proposed “cell-coded map”, with the use of only nine different kinds of color-coded landmarks distributed in a particular way, helps reduce the complexity of the landmark structure. This technique is applicable for navigation in an unlimited size of indoor space. The structure of the landmarks and the recognition method are introduced. And 2 rigid rules are also used to ensure the correctness of the recognition. Experimental results prove that the method is useful.