Search Results (15)

Oxidative stress destabilizes microRNA homeostasis in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), driving apoptosis and the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, which contribute to age-related macular degeneration. We investigated whether Quantum Molecular Resonance (QMR^®) electrostimulation, alone or combined with Patient Blood-Derived (PBD) secretoma, can reprogram the RPE miRNome and mitigate stress-induced damage. Human ARPE-19 cells were exposed to tert-butyl-hydroperoxide and treated with QMR^®, PBD secretome, or their combination. The deep sequencing of small RNAs at 24 h and 72 h, followed by differential expression and pathway enrichment analyses, delineated treatment-driven miRNA signatures. Oxidative stress deregulated > 50 miRNAs, enriching pro-apoptotic, fibrotic, and inflammatory pathways. QMR^® restored roughly 40% of these miRNAs and upregulated additional cytoprotective species such as miR-590-3p, a known regulator of the NF-κB and NLRP3 pathways according to validated target databases. While these observations suggest the potential involvement of inflammatory and stress-related cascades, functional assays will be required to directly confirm such effects. Secretome treatment preferentially increased anti-inflammatory miR-146a-5p and regenerative miR-204-5p while suppressing pro-fibrotic let-7f-5p. Combined QMR^® + secretome triggered the broadest miRNA response, normalizing over two-thirds of stress-altered miRNAs. These changes are predicted to influence antioxidant, anti-apoptotic, and anti-fibrotic pathways, although they did not translate into additional short-term cytoprotection compared with QMR^® alone. These data indicate that QMR^® and PBD secretome modulate complementary miRNA programs that converge on stress response networks. This broader molecular reprogramming may reflect regulatory complementarity, but functional validation is needed to determine whether it provides benefits beyond those observed with QMR^® alone. These findings offer molecular insights into potential non-invasive, cell-free strategies for retinal degeneration, although in vivo validation will be required before any clinical translation to Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) therapy. Full article

Objectives: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) rehabilitation aims to assess the impact of pain reduction on kinesiophobia and outpatient welfare, emphasizing the interconnectedness of biopsychosocial factors in the rehabilitative process. Methods: The study involved a sample of KOA patients undergoing outpatient physical therapy. Forty patients (n = 40), aged 40–88, with acute or chronic knee osteoarthritis (Kellegren-Lawrence staging score I–II–III) were collected in Patients undergoing physical therapy using quantum molecular resonance (QMR) technology. The analysis employed a cross-lagged panel model to examine the relationships between perceived pain, kinesiophobia, and quality of life during the rehabilitative plan. Results: Rehabilitation significantly reduced pain levels and kinesiophobia while improving the quality of life for outpatients. The analysis demonstrated that pain reduction had a substantial causal influence on kinesiophobia and life conditions, both immediately following treatment and during follow-up. Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of considering biopsychosocial factors in KOA rehabilitative treatment, highlighting the dynamic interplay between pain perception, kinesiophobia, and quality of life throughout the rehabilitation process. Full article

Flying ad hoc networks (FANETs) have highly dynamic and energy-limited characteristics. Compared with traditional mobile ad hoc networks, their nodes move faster and their topology changes more frequently. Therefore, the design of routing protocols faces greater challenges. The existing routing schemes rely on frequent and fixed-interval Hello transmissions, which exacerbates network load and leads to high communication energy consumption and outdated location information. MP-QGRD combined with the extended Kalman filter (EKF) is used for node position prediction, and the Hello packet transmission interval is dynamically adjusted to optimize neighbor discovery. At the same time, reinforcement learning methods are used to comprehensively consider link stability, energy consumption, and communication distance for routing decisions. The simulation results show that compared to QMR, QGeo, and GPSR, MP-QGRD has an increased packet delivery rate, end-to-end latency, and communication energy consumption by 10%, 30%, and 15%, respectively. Full article

Objectives: The identification of methods to improve the endometrial receptivity (ER) is increasingly of interest. The effect of the electromagnetic field associated with Quantum Molecular Resonance (QMR) on ER was investigated here. Methods: Ishikawa cells were used to evaluate the effects of QMR both on the expression of a group of genes involved in ER, i.e., HOXA10, HOXA11, LIF, ITGB3, and ITGAV, and on cell toxicity. Endometrial samples were obtained from six patients during routine diagnostic procedures, four of which were subsequently used to assess the transcriptional response to QMR through microarray. Results: Compared to unexposed controls, a single exposure of Ishikawa cells to QMR for 20 min was associated with a significant and power-dependent up-regulation of all the selected ER-related genes up to 8 power units (PU). Repeated exposure to QMR, up to three consecutive days, showed a significant up-regulation of all the selected genes at power values of 4 PU, from day two onwards. Negligible cytotoxicity was observed. Gene set enrichment analysis, on microarray data of endometrial biopsies stimulated for three consecutive days at 4 PU, showed a significant enrichment of specific gene sets, related to the proteasome system, the cell adhesion, the glucocorticoid receptor, and cell cycle pathways. Conclusions: Our results suggest a possible favorable impact of QMR on ER. Full article

This study aims to explore how public amenities, such as school location, commercial centers, health centers, highways, and distance to the central business district (CBD) shape the development of a metropolitan area. To do so, a case study based on the Québec Metropolitan Region (QMR-Canada) is proposed. Using Landsat satellite images from 1986 to 2022, the research employs a Random Forest Classification algorithm, leveraging features like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Modified Built-up Index (MBI) to map and quantify changes in built-up areas over time. The originality of this study lies in its use of a panel logistic model to systematically assess the influence of these factors on urban growth. Results show that urban development tends to decrease with distance from CBDs, though significant urban sprawl was observed between 1996 and 2002. The model highlights key periods—1996, 2002, and 2007—as pivotal in shaping development. Statistically significant effects were found for proximity to CBDs, main roads, and education centers, while commercial and health centers had no notable impact. Full article

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic degenerative disease characterized by progressive joint damage leading to significant disability. Although rehabilitative treatment methods for KOA have been widely implemented, the optimal integrated instrumental physical therapy approach remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effect of Quantum Molecular Resonance (QMR) on pain reduction as the primary outcome and the functional improvement in activity daily living (ADL) as a secondary outcome. The study was designed as a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial in an outpatient setting. Fifty-four (N = 54) patients were enrolled and then randomized into three groups according to a simple randomization list: Group 1 (intensive protocol, N = 22), Group 2 (extensive protocol, N = 21), and a Sham group (N = 11). Patients were evaluated over time with scales assessing pain and function. Treatment was performed with the QMR model electro-medical device, which generates alternating electric currents characterized by high frequency (4–64 MHz). The results showed that QMR had a positive effect with respect to the Sham group in terms of pain and function (p < 0.01), and intensive treatment was more effective than the extensive treatment in terms of “speed of response” to the treatment (p < 0.05). In conclusion, QMR in KOA could be effective in slowing the progression of clinical symptoms and improving patients’ pain and functionality and thus quality of life. Future studies will be necessary to investigate further treatment algorithms and therapeutic associations with rehabilitative exercise. Full article

The Qinling Mountain Range (QMR), where more than 500 hominin fossils and Paleolithic sites have been preserved, was a major center of hominin evolution and settlement and an important link for the hominin migration and dispersal between the north and the south during the Pleistocene in China. The rich culture remains and the related data make it possible and meaningful to study the characteristics and mechanisms of hominin occupation and dispersal in the region. This paper has summarized and analyzed the geographical distributions and chronologies of 55 dated hominin fossils and Paleolithic sites in the QMR to date. By combining them with the evidence from the loess–paleosol sequence, a relatively continuous and chronological sequence of hominin occupation and dispersal has been established, in which we have identified five stages, viz. ~before 1.2 Ma, the sporadic occurrence stage of early hominin occupation; ~1.2–0.7 Ma, the initial expansion stage; ~0.7–0.3 Ma, the stability and maintenance stage; ~0.3–0.05 Ma, the large-scale expansion stage; ~0.05–0.01 Ma, the sharp decline stage of the record of hominin occupation. We conclude that the environmental and ecosystem changes associated with the MPT drove early hominins to disperse southwards across the QMR. In addition, the evidence suggests that the hominin occupation and dispersal here was broadly continuous during both glacial and interglacial scales from early to late Pleistocene, and that the southern QMR provided a glacial refuge. Full article

Small lakes (areas ranging from 0.01 km² to 1 km²) are highly sensitive to climate change and human activities. However, few studies have investigated the long-term intra-annual trends in the number and area of small lakes and their driving mechanisms in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP). As a significant water tower in northwest China, the Qilian Mountains region (QMR) in the QTP is essential for sustaining regional industrial and agricultural production, biodiversity, and human well-being. We conducted an analysis of the dynamics of small lakes in the QMR region. In this study, we employed Geodetector and examined nine factors to investigate the driving mechanisms behind the long-term variations in the small lake water bodies (SLWBs). We specifically focused on understanding the effects of single-factor and two-factor interactions. The results indicate that the number and area of small lakes had a fluctuating trend from 1987 to 2020. Initially, there was a decrease followed by an increase, which was generally consistent with trends in the large lakes on the QTP. All basins had far more expanding than shrinking lakes. The area of seasonal SLWBs in each basin was increasing more rapidly than permanent SLWBs. The distribution and trends in the area and number of small lakes varied widely across elevation zones. Runoff, snow depth, and temperature contributed the most to SLWB changes. Human activities and wind speed contributed the least. However, the main drivers varied across basins. The impact of two-factor interactions on SLWB changes in basins was greater than that of single factors. Our results provide useful information for planning and managing water resources and studies of small lakes. Full article

This study aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory effects of Quantum Molecular Resonance (QMR) technology in an in vitro model of osteoarthritis-related inflammation. The study used THP-1-derived macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide and hyaluronic acid fragments to induce the expression of inflammatory cytokines and nitrosative stress. QMR treatment inhibited COX-2 and iNOS protein expression and activity and reduced NF-κB activity. Furthermore, QMR treatment led to a significant reduction in peroxynitrite levels, reactive nitrogen species that can form during inflammatory conditions, and restored tyrosine nitration values to those similar to sham-exposed control cells. We also investigated the effect of QMR treatment on inflammasome activation and macrophage polarization in THP-1-derived macrophages. Results showed that QMR treatment significantly decreased NLRP3 and activated caspase-1 protein expression levels and downregulated IL-18 and IL-1β protein expression and secretion. Finally, our findings indicate that QMR treatment induces a switch in macrophage polarization from the M1 phenotype to the M2 phenotype. Full article

Effective energy expenditure is critical for maintaining body weight (BW). However, underlying mechanisms contributing to increased BW remain unknown. We characterized the role of brain angiogenesis inhibitor-3 (BAI3/ADGRB3), an adhesion G-protein coupled receptor (aGPCR), in regulating BW. A CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing approach was utilized to generate a whole-body deletion of the BAI3 gene (BAI3^−/−). In both BAI3^−/− male and female mice, a significant reduction in BW was observed compared to BAI3^+/+ control mice. Quantitative magnetic imaging analysis showed that lean and fat masses were reduced in male and female mice with BAI3 deficiency. Total activity, food intake, energy expenditure (EE), and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) were assessed in mice housed at room temperature using a Comprehensive Lab Animal Monitoring System (CLAMS). While no differences were observed in the activity between the two genotypes in male or female mice, energy expenditure was increased in both sexes with BAI3 deficiency. However, at thermoneutrality (30 °C), no differences in energy expenditure were observed between the two genotypes for either sex, suggesting a role for BAI3 in adaptive thermogenesis. Notably, in male BAI3^−/− mice, food intake was reduced, and RER was increased, but these attributes remained unchanged in the female mice upon BAI3 loss. Gene expression analysis showed increased mRNA abundance of thermogenic genes Ucp1, Pgc1α, Prdm16, and Elov3 in brown adipose tissue (BAT). These outcomes suggest that adaptive thermogenesis due to enhanced BAT activity contributes to increased energy expenditure and reduced BW with BAI3 deficiency. Additionally, sex-dependent differences were observed in food intake and RER. These studies identify BAI3 as a novel regulator of BW that can be potentially targeted to improve whole-body energy expenditure. Full article

This study is to evaluate a novel Quantum Molecular Resonance energy device as a laparoscopic bipolar vessel sealer. The majority of conventional bipolar energy-based vessel sealing devices utilize energy at frequencies between 300 kHz and 500 kHz. The use of such frequencies has disadvantages including unintended damage to surrounding tissues and excessive surgical smoke production. Here, we developed a bipolar energy source using Quantum Molecular Resonance (QMR) energy of 4–64 MHz and combined this into a laparoscopic vessel sealer. We investigate the microscopic tissue effect and surgeon’s experiences of the laparoscopic bipolar vessel sealer using a novel QMR energy source through animal experiments. QMR energy sources showed higher sealing success rates (100% vs. 66.7%) and a higher burst pressure (963 mmHg vs. 802 mmHg) of the sealed vessels compared to LigaSure™. Histological analysis showed less vessel wall injury in the QMR energy source (55.0% vs. 73.9%). In the laparoscopic setting experiments, compared to LigaSure™, QMR energy sources showed statistically significantly less smoke formation (p = 0.014), less tissue carbonization (p = 0.013), and less stickiness (p = 0.044) during sealing tissues. A novel QMR energy source for a laparoscopic bipolar vessel sealer could produce a better sealing performance and less surrounding tissue damage. Full article

The observed precipitation was suggestive of abundant precipitation in upstream Qilian mountains and low precipitation in the downstream oasis and desert in an endorheic basin. However, precipitation in mountains generated from the recycled moisture over oasis and desert areas has rarely been studied. The climatological patterns of water vapor from 1980 to 2017 in the Qilian Mountain Region (QMR) and Hexi Corridor Region (HCR) were investigated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim reanalysis dataset and the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application, Version 2 reanalysis dataset. The results suggest that the precipitable water content decreases from the adjacent to the mountain areas. There are two channels that transport water vapor from the HCR to the QMR in the low troposphere (surface—600 hPa), suggesting that parts of recycled moisture generated from evapotranspiration over the oasis and desert of the HCR is transported to the QMR, contributing to the abundant precipitation in the QMR. This indicates that the transport mechanism is probably because of the “cold and wet island effect” of the cryosphere in QMR. This is likely one of the essential mechanisms of the water cycle in endorheic river basins, which has rarely been reported. Full article

During the last decade, the research on Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) has improved exponentially in real-life scenarios to provide optimized transport network performance. It is a matter of importance that alert messages are delivered promptly to prevent vehicular traffic problems. The fact is an ITS system per se could be a part of a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) which is an extension of a wireless network. In all sorts of wireless ad hoc networks, the network topology is subjected to change due to the mobility of network nodes; therefore, an existing explored route between two nodes could be demolished in a minor fraction of time. When it comes to the VANETs, the topology likely changes due to the high velocity of nodes. On the other hand, time is a crucial factor playing an important role in message handling between the network’s nodes. In this paper, we propose Time delay-based Multipath Routing (TMR) protocol that effectively identifies an optimized path for packet delivery to the destination vehicle with a minimal time delay. Our algorithm gives a higher priority to alert messages compared to normal messages. It also selects the routes with the short round-trip time (RTT) within the RTT threshold. As a result, our algorithm would realize two goals. Firstly, it would speed up the data transmission rate and deliver data packets, particularly warning messages, to the destination vehicle promptly and therefore avoid vehicular problems such as car accidents. Secondly, the TMR algorithm reduces the data traffic load, particularly of the normal messages, to alleviate the pressure on the network and therefore avoids network congestion and data collisions. This, in turn, lessens the packets’ retransmissions. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed protocol, the TMR has been compared with the other protocols such as AOMDV, FF-AOMDV, EGSR, QMR, and ISR. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed protocol proves its excellent performance compared to other protocols. Full article

Many real-life processes are black-box problems, i.e., the internal workings are inaccessible or a closed-form mathematical expression of the likelihood function cannot be defined. For continuous random variables, likelihood-free inference problems can be solved via Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). However, an optimal alternative for discrete random variables is yet to be formulated. Here, we aim to fill this research gap. We propose an adjusted population-based MCMC ABC method by re-defining the standard ABC parameters to discrete ones and by introducing a novel Markov kernel that is inspired by differential evolution. We first assess the proposed Markov kernel on a likelihood-based inference problem, namely discovering the underlying diseases based on a QMR-DTnetwork and, subsequently, the entire method on three likelihood-free inference problems: (i) the QMR-DT network with the unknown likelihood function, (ii) the learning binary neural network, and (iii) neural architecture search. The obtained results indicate the high potential of the proposed framework and the superiority of the new Markov kernel. Full article

Numerous obesity studies have coupled murine models with non-invasive methods to quantify body composition in longitudinal experiments, including X-ray computed tomography (CT) or quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (QMR). Both microCT and QMR have been separately validated with invasive techniques of adipose tissue quantification, like post-mortem fat extraction and measurement. Here we report a head-to-head study of both protocols using oil phantoms and mouse populations to determine the parameters that best align CT data with that from QMR. First, an in vitro analysis of oil/water mixtures was used to calibrate and assess the overall accuracy of microCT vs. QMR data. Next, experiments were conducted with two cohorts of living mice (either homogenous or heterogeneous by sex, age and genetic backgrounds) to assess the microCT imaging technique for adipose tissue segmentation and quantification relative to QMR. Adipose mass values were obtained from microCT data with three different resolutions, after which the data were analyzed with different filter and segmentation settings. Strong linearity was noted between the adipose mass values obtained with microCT and QMR, with optimal parameters and scan conditions reported herein. Lean tissue (muscle, internal organs) was also segmented and quantified using the microCT method relative to the analogous QMR values. Overall, the rigorous calibration and validation of the microCT method for murine body composition, relative to QMR, ensures its validity for segmentation, quantification and visualization of both adipose and lean tissues. Full article