Towards low-energy-light-driven bistable photoswitches: ortho-fluoroaminoazobenzenes.

Thermally stable photoswitches that are driven with low-energy light are rare, yet crucial for extending the applicability of photoresponsive molecules and materials towards, e.g., living systems. Combined ortho-fluorination and -amination couples high visible light absorptivity of o-aminoazobenzenes with the extraordinary bistability of o-fluoroazobenzenes. Herein, we report a library of easily accessible o-aminofluoroazobenzenes and establish structure-property relationships regarding spectral qualities, visible light isomerization efficiency and thermal stability of the cis-isomer with respect to the degree of o-substitution and choice of amino substituent. We rationalize the experimental results with quantum chemical calculations, revealing the nature of low-lying excited states and providing insight into thermal isomerization. The synthesized azobenzenes absorb at up to 600 nm and their thermal cis-lifetimes range from milliseconds to months. The most unique example can be driven from trans to cis with any wavelength from UV up to 595 nm, while still exhibiting a thermal cis-lifetime of 81 days.

Two-Year Changes in Neighborhood Juvenile Arrests After Implementation of a Park-Based Afterschool Mental Health Promotion Program in Miami-Dade County, Florida, 2015-2017.

Objectives. To examine the association of Fit2Lead, an afterschool park-based youth mental health promotion program, and neighborhood juvenile arrests (2015-2017) in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Methods. We tracked juvenile (ages 12-17 years) arrest rates over 2 years of program implementation across zip codes matched by (1) park and (2) baseline sociodemographics and youth arrests. Fit2Lead mental and physical health, meditation, resilience, and life skills activities were offered in 12 high-need areas for youths (n = 501) aged 12 to 17 years. We tested the association of Fit2Lead implementation (binary variable) and change in juvenile arrest rates by zip code, adjusting for area-level gender, age, race/ethnicity, single-parent households, and poverty. Results. Fit2Lead was offered in areas composed of 48% male youths, 60% Hispanics, 29% non-Hispanic Blacks, 33% single-parent households, and 33% of residents living in poverty. After covariate adjustment, zip codes with Fit2Lead implementation showed a significant mean reduction (P < .001) in youth arrests per 10 000 youths aged 12 to 17 years per year compared with zip codes without program implementation (b = -6.9; 95% confidence interval = -9.21, -4.65). Conclusions. Park-based programs may have the potential to promote mental health and resilience, and also to prevent violence among at-risk youths.

Economic burden of managing Type 2 diabetes mellitus: Analysis from a Teaching Hospital in Malaysia.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease that consumes a large amount of health-care resources. It is essential to estimate the cost of managing T2DM to the society, especially in developing countries. Economic studies of T2DM as a primary diagnosis would assist efficient health-care resource allocation for disease management. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to measure the economic burden of T2DM as the primary diagnosis for hospitalization from provider's perspective. METHODS: A retrospective prevalence-based costing study was conducted in a teaching hospital. Financial administrative data and inpatient medical records of patients with primary diagnosis (International Classification Disease-10 coding) E11 in the year 2013 were included in costing analysis. Average cost per episode of care and average cost per outpatient visit were calculated using gross direct costing allocation approach. RESULTS: Total admissions for T2DM as primary diagnosis in 2013 were 217 with total outpatient visits of 3214. Average cost per episode of care was RM 901.51 (US$ 286.20) and the average cost per outpatient visit was RM 641.02 (US$ 203.50) from provider's perspective. The annual economic burden of T2DM for hospitalized patients was RM 195,627.67 (US$ 62,104) and RM 2,061,520.32 (US$ 654,450) for those being treated in the outpatient setting. CONCLUSIONS: Economic burden to provide T2DM care was higher in the outpatient setting due to the higher utilization of the health-care service in this setting. Thus, more focus toward improving T2DM outpatient service could mitigate further increase in health-care cost from this chronic disease.

Color Bricks: Building Highly Organized and Strongly Absorbing Multicomponent Arrays of Terpyridyl Perylenes on Metal Oxide Surfaces.

Terpyridine-substituted perylenes containing cyclic anhydrides in the peri position were synthesized. The anhydride group served as an anchor for assembly of the terpyridyl-crowned chromophores as monomolecular layers on metal oxide surfaces. Further coordination with Zn(2+) ions allowed for layer-by-layer formation of supramolecular assemblies of perylene imides on the solid substrates. With properly selected anchor and linker molecules it was possible to build high quality structures of greater than ten successive layers by a simple and straightforward procedure. The prepared films were stable and had a broad spectral coverage and high absorbance. To demonstrate their potential use, the synthesized dyes were employed in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells, and electron injection from the perylene antennas to titanium dioxide was observed.

Khat chewing and health related quality of life: cross-sectional study in Jazan region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: The chewing of Khat leaves, a natural psychoactive substance is widely chewed in countries of East Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula, and is reported to be associated with a range of unfavorable health outcomes including khat dependence. The impact of Khat chewing on Health Related Quality of Life is yet to be explored. AIMS: to measure and compare the quality of life of the khat chewers and non-khat chewers using a short form health survey (SF36), and to assess factors associated with Khat chewing using SF36 in a sample of adult population in Jazan region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A total of 630 participants from two independent male populations of khat chewers and non-khat chewers were recruited into a cross-sectional survey study. A self administrative survey based on the SF-36 questionnaire was used to collect data on measures of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Socioeconomic data of the respondents were also collected for detailed analysis. Data analysis include: descriptive statistics, reliability tests (Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlation coefficient), and bivariate analysis (Chi square and Mann-Whitney U-test) to compare HRQoL of Khat chewers and non-Khat chewers. RESULTS: The odds of being a khat chewer were higher in respondents with a lower socioeconomic status. The SF-36 scores were significantly lower in all domains for respondents with khat chewing, indicating that non-khat chewers had higher health perceptions compared with those chewing khat. The overall mean score of HRQoL for non-khat chewers was 92.7% (SD 5.53) compared with 63.5% (SD 21.73) for the khat chewing group. The study had shown good internal consistency and reproducibility across the eight subscales of SF-36 questionnaire (α 0.74-0.95). The Mann-Whitney U-test showed a significant difference between khat chewers and non-khat chewers (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study measured and compared the quality of life of khat chewers and non-khat chewers using a generic health survey (SF36). The study had shown that khat chewing is associated with lower quality of life (HRQoL) and lower socioeconomic status. However in future a more refined SF36 developed especially for Khat chewers can provide more useful information.

Problems of group dynamics in problem based learning sessions.

BACKGROUND: Beneficial effects of Problem Based Learning (PBL) in medical education are often emphasized. However, there is another side of the coin. This study was conducted to find out frequency of PBL group problems in our setup and the influence of these problems on students' learning. We also compared the perception of students and tutors as regard to frequency and level of hindrance caused by these problems in PBL sessions. METHODS: This cross sectional study was conducted at Foundation University Medical College, Islamabad. 100 students of 3rd year MBBS of 2011 and their 17 PBL tutors were asked to fill a questionnaire. They were asked to rank the factors according to frequency (perceived frequency) and according to the level of hindrance to learning these factors are causing. All data was entered and analysed using SPSS-12. RESULTS: Students ranked "Dominant student" as the most important problem and. "Psychosocial factors" as the least important problem. Tutors ranked "Quiet student" as the-most important problem and "Personality clash" as the least important factor. Student's ranked "Dominant student" as the problem causes most hindrance and "Quiet student" as the problem causing least hindrance. Tutors ranked "Lack of commitment" as the problem causing most hindrance and "Personality clash" as the problem causing least hindrance. There was good agreement between the students and the tutors on all the factors regarding important problem except "Lateness, absenteeism" (p = 0.04) and "Personality clash" (p = 0.001). Similarly there was good agreement between the students and the tutors on all the factors regarding hindrance except "Lack of commitment" (p = 0.015) and "Personality clash" (p = 0.023). CONCLUSION: The present study showed that from both students' and tutors' perspectives, the ranking of most important problems that can disturb PBL session function and the level of hindrance they cause were statistically similar for majority of the problems.

Pulmonary tuberculosis masquerading as a mass cancer lesion: A rare case report and review of literature.

Key Clinical Message: Despite being generally treatable and preventative, pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is one of the most common infectious agents that cause death. Misdiagnosis of TB frequently leads to unwarranted diagnostic procedures and postpones the start of treatment. Abstract: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) can present with various unusual radiological and clinical characteristics. Misdiagnosis of TB frequently leads to unwarranted diagnostic procedures and postpones the start of treatment. Here, we describe a 50-year-old man who presented with a cancerous-type lesion on radiological findings and atypical symptoms that led to an initial diagnosis of lung cancer. However, histopathology and biopsy of the lung lesion revealed chronic granulomatous inflammation with caseous necrosis, confirming PTB as the true cause, with no further indications of malignancy.

LASU: An efficient and stable phthalocyanine dye with tolerable safety profile for self-disinfecting anti-COVID textiles activated by ambient light.

BACKGROUND: Recent COVID crisis has demonstrated that modern society urgently needs an accessible protection against mass infections, especially viruses, as the new strains are appearing at an ever-increasing pace and cause severe harm to the population and the world economy. METHODS: We have developed an efficient phthalocyanine photosensitizer LASU, that is suitable for dyeing textiles and allows to prepare reusable self-disinfecting fabrics with strong antiviral properties. The safety profile of LASU was evaluated in accredited laboratories by several in vitro assays according to the OECD-guidelines. RESULTS: The textiles impregnated with LASU phthalocyanine showed a significant antiviral photodynamic effect even under moderate indoor and outdoor light. The dye did not show any genotoxic potential in human lymphocyte micronucleus assay. It showed a possible indication for eye irritation in human EpiOcular™ model and was phototoxic when tested in mouse BALB/c 3T3 cell test in the presence and absence of UVA-irradiation. CONCLUSION: Novel phthalocyanine-dyed textiles are suitable for general use as self-disinfecting antiviral barriers and materials in hospitals, households, and public places. The safety profile of LASU is the phototoxic effect which is related to LASU´s mode of action.

2,2-Disubstituted 4-acylthio-3-oxobutyl groups as esterase- and thermolabile protecting groups of phosphodiesters.

Five different 2,2-disubstituted 4-acylthio-3-oxobutyl groups have been introduced as esterase-labile phosphodiester protecting groups that additionally are thermolabile. The phosphotriesters 1-3 were prepared to determine the rate of the enzymatic and nonenzymatic removal of such groups at 37 °C and pH 7.5 by HPLC-ESI-MS. Additionally, (1)H NMR spectroscopic monitoring was used for structural characterization of the intermediates and products. When treated with hog liver esterase, these groups were removed by enzymatic deacylation followed by rapid chemical cyclization to 4,4-disubstituted dihydrothiophen-3(2H)-one. The rate of the enzymatic deprotection could be tuned by the nature of the 4-acylthio substituent, the benzoyl group and acetyl groups being removed 50 and 5 times as fast as the pivaloyl group. No alkylation of glutathione could be observed upon the enzymatic deprotection. The half-life for the nonenzymatic deprotection varied from 0.57 to 35 h depending on the electronegativity of the 2-substituents and the size of the acylthio group. The acyl group evidently migrates from the sulfur atom to C3-gem-diol obtained by hydration of the keto group and the exposed mercapto group attacks on C1 resulting in departure of the protecting group as 4,4-disubstituted 3-acyloxy-4,5-dihydrothiophene with concomitant release of the desired phosphodiester.

The role of government policy, social infrastructure and Fengshui in intending to buy tourism real estate.

People typically purchase residential properties for two reasons: to live in or invest. However, both purposes necessitate careful consideration before deciding because high financial costs are involved, and housing loans are typically considered necessary for this purpose. Customers' demands are constantly changing, becoming more complicated with higher requirements. The focus of this research is on tourism real estate selection. This market in Vietnam is still new and emerging and has encountered numerous issues regarding government policy, finance, and land authorization for constructing, owning, and managing. Because the form of tourism real estate is still new, customers are hesitant about investing in or buying these properties. Hence, to compete in the current fiercely real estate industry, real estate firms must understand their customers' expectations by frequently involving customer research in the company's strategy. However, there is still a lack of research on the connection between these factors and individual expectations in the well-known philosophy of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), leading to behavioral intentions. Therefore, to fulfill the gap in the previous literature, this paper aims to investigate the connection between these factors with core variables of TPB, hence, addressing the current problems in the real estate industry. 471 valid respondents in Vietnam were collected for data analysis through two survey approaches. PLS-SEM was used to test hypotheses due to the relationship complication in the conceptual models. The results show that government policy influences attitudes and perceived behavioral control, whereas social infrastructure affects social norms and perceived behavioral control. Moreover, Fengshui ambient condition also positively influences all three core factors: attitudes, social norms, and perceived behavioral control. Finally, these factors impact on intention to buy tourism real estate. Through results, this paper has developed a purchase intention model through social aspects of the tourism real estate industry. In addition, this paper demonstrates the connection between social factors and individuals' expectations for a purchase intention, providing the importance of the government's role, architecture style, and social infrastructure in the marketing literature of the real estate industry. As a result, managers and governments need to take advantage of new releases of government regulations in time to enhance customers' positive attitudes toward purchasing tourism real estate. Moreover, social infrastructure and Fengshui conditions are crucial to establishing social norms and perceived control, aiming to leverage the intention to purchase tourism real estate. Thereby, recommendations of marketing strategies based on these findings were suggested to attain the optimal result for sales. Finally, this research also includes some limitations. Hence, suggestions for further research were also provided, such as possible moderation, possible mediating effects, or control of data bias.

Cost volume profit analysis for full paying patient services in Malaysia: A study protocol.

Dual practice within public hospitals, characterised by the concurrent provision of public and private healthcare services within public hospitals, has become a widespread phenomenon. With the participation of selected public hospitals, dual practice within public hospitals, also known as Full Paying Patient services, was an initiative the Ministry of Health Malaysia took in 2007 to retain senior specialist physicians in Malaysia. The revenue generated from the Full Paying Patient services aims to provide an avenue for public sector specialists to supplement their incomes while alleviating the Government's burden of subsidising healthcare for financially capable individuals. However, the effectiveness of Full Paying Patient services in recouping service delivery costs and yielding a profit is still uncertain after 16 years of implementation. This study is designed to evaluate the impact of Full Paying Patient inpatient services volume, revenue, and cost on profit versus loss at selected hospitals from 2017 to 2020. From the perspective of healthcare providers, we plan to perform a cost volume profit analysis. This analysis enables us to determine the break-even point, at which total revenues match total costs, along with no-loss and no-profit thresholds for Full Paying Patient services. This study has the potential to provide insights into how variations in service volume, cost, and pricing impact healthcare providers' profitability. It also offers critical financial information regarding the volume of services required to reach the break-even point. A comprehensive understanding of service volume, cost and pricing is imperative for making informed decisions to fulfil the objectives and ensure the sustainability of the FPP services.

Specialists' Dual Practice within Public Hospital Setting: Evidence from Malaysia.

In line with the commitment of the Malaysian government and Ministry of Health to prevent the brain drain of specialists from public hospitals, they have been permitted to perform dual practice within the public hospital setting (DPH) since 2007. DPH allowed them to hold jobs in both public and private practices within the same public hospitals that they are affiliated to, permitting these specialists to treat public and private patients. Nevertheless, the information regarding DPH in Southeast Asia region is still limited. This narrative review provides insight into the implementation of DPH in Malaysia. It highlights that DPH has been well-governed and regulated by the MOH while serving as a means to retain specialists in the public healthcare system by providing them with opportunities to obtain additional income. Such a policy has also reduced the financial burden of the government in subsidizing healthcare. However, as in other countries with similar policies, multiple challenges have arisen from the implementation of DPH in Malaysia despite its positive achievements and potentials. This paper concludes that proactive governance, monitoring, and regulation are key to ensure the success of DPH.

Impact of routine PCV7 (Prevenar) vaccination of infants on the clinical and economic burden of pneumococcal disease in Malaysia.

BACKGROUND: Pneumococcal disease is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death in children younger than 5 years of age worldwide. The World Health Organization recommends pneumococcal conjugate vaccine as a priority for inclusion into national childhood immunization programmes. Pneumococcal vaccine has yet to be included as part of the national vaccination programme in Malaysia although it has been available in the country since 2005. This study sought to estimate the disease burden of pneumococcal disease in Malaysia and to assess the cost effectiveness of routine infant vaccination with PCV7. METHODS: A decision model was adapted taking into consideration prevalence, disease burden, treatment costs and outcomes for pneumococcal disease severe enough to result in a hospital admission. Disease burden were estimated from the medical records of 6 hospitals. Where local data was unavailable, model inputs were obtained from international and regional studies and from focus group discussions. The model incorporated the effects of herd protection on the unvaccinated adult population. RESULTS: At current vaccine prices, PCV7 vaccination of 90% of a hypothetical 550,000 birth cohort would incur costs of RM 439.6 million (US$128 million). Over a 10 year time horizon, vaccination would reduce episodes of pneumococcal hospitalisation by 9,585 cases to 73,845 hospitalisations with cost savings of RM 37.5 million (US$10.9 million) to the health system with 11,422.5 life years saved at a cost effectiveness ratio of RM 35,196 (US$10,261) per life year gained. CONCLUSIONS: PCV7 vaccination of infants is expected to be cost-effective for Malaysia with an incremental cost per life year gained of RM 35,196 (US$10,261). This is well below the WHO's threshold for cost effectiveness of public health interventions in Malaysia of RM 71,761 (US$20,922).

Inpatient Case-mix Cost Vs Average Cost for Health Care Services in King Fahd Central Hospital, Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study.

Health care systems aim to deliver high-quality medical care while considering efficient resource usage and cost-effective forms of interventions. Such purposes require scientific tools or mechanisms which aid in cost assessment before the efforts of cost reduction are considered. Diagnosis-related groups based costing methodology (Case-mix) is considered one of the preferred costing approaches in the health care sector. King Fahd Central hospital Jazan, the only tertiary hospital in the Jazan region, was selected for case-mix system-based patient-level costing of health services. The study's objective was to estimate the cost per Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) per inpatient admission and compare it with the already established average cost of health care services for inpatients. We applied a cross-sectional retrospective approach to categorize the inpatients based on their diagnosis and procedures and then estimate the actual cost of health care services provided to inpatients during 2018 and compared it with the average cost of the health services. There was a considerable difference between DRG-based costing (SAR 269,663,897) and average costing (SAR 247,035,938). The Diagnosis Related Group costing was found to be more reliable and representative of the services provided to the patients and is recommended to be used for reimbursement purposes.

Moving towards sustainability: how do natural resources, financial development, and economic growth interact with the ecological footprint in Malaysia? A dynamic ARDL approach.

Without enhancing the quality of the environment, the goals of sustainable development remain unachievable. In order to minimize the damage to the planet, sustainable practices need to be considered. This study is conducted to identify some of the drivers behind the increasing sustainability issues and tried to investigate the impact of natural resources, financial development, and economic growth on the ecological footprint in Malaysia from the year 1980-2019 by utilizing the dynamic simulated autoregressive distribution lag approach. It was identified that financial development, economic growth, and natural resources are the determinants behind the upsurge of the ecological footprint as all three show a positive and significant effect on ecological footprint. However, in the long run, the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis was also validated in Malaysia. Therefore, it is recommended to increase awareness among the public regarding the adoption of sustainable practices in everyday life and to use green technologies that offer maximum efficiency and minimum damage to the environment in commercial and domestic activities. Finally, based on the research results, a comprehensive policy framework was proposed which could allow the Malaysian economy to attain the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 8, and 13.

Development of unit cost for the health services offered at King FAHD Central hospital Jazan, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Efficiency remains one of the most important drivers of decision making in health care system. Fund allocators need to receive structured information about the cost healthcare services from hospitals for better decisions related to resource allocation and budgeting. The objective of the study was to estimate the unit cost for health services offered to inpatients in King Fahd Central hospital (KFCH) Jazan during the financial year 2018. METHODS: We applied a retrospective approach using a top-down costing method to estimate the cost of health care services. Clinical and Administrative departments divided into cost centres, and the unit cost was calculated by dividing the total cost of final care cost centres into the total number of patients discharged in one year. The average cost of inpatient services was calculated based on the average cost of each ward and the number of patients treated. RESULTS: The average cost per patient stayed in KFCH was SAR 19,034, with the highest cost of SAR 108,561 for patients in the Orthopedic ward. The average cost of the patient in the Surgery ward, Plastic surgery, Neurosurgery, Medical ward, Pediatric ward and Gynecology ward was SAR 33,033, SAR 29,425, SAR 23,444, SAR 20,450, SAR 9579 and SAR 8636 respectively. CONCLUSION: This study provides necessary information about the cost of health care services in a tertiary care setting. This information can be used as a primary tool and reference for further studies in other regions of the country. Hence, this data can help to provide a better understanding of tertiary hospital costing in the region to achieve the privatization objective.

Expanding excitation wavelengths for azobenzene photoswitching into the near-infrared range via endothermic triplet energy transfer.

Developing azobenzene photoswitches capable of selective and efficient photoisomerization by long-wavelength excitation is an enduring challenge. Herein, rapid isomerization from the Z- to E-state of two ortho-functionalized bistable azobenzenes with near-unity photoconversion efficiency was driven by triplet energy transfer upon red and near-infrared (up to 770 nm) excitation of porphyrin photosensitizers in catalytic micromolar concentrations. We show that the process of triplet-sensitized isomerization is efficient even when the sensitizer triplet energy is substantially lower (>200 meV) than that of the azobenzene used. This makes the approach applicable for a wide variety of sensitizer-azobenzene combinations and enables the expansion of excitation wavelengths into the near-infrared spectral range. Therefore, indirect excitation via endothermic triplet energy transfer provides efficient and precise means for photoswitching upon 770 nm near-infared light illumination with no chemical modification of the azobenzene chromophore, a desirable feature in photocontrollable biomaterials.

First report on the molecular prevalence of Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (Mccp) in goats the cause of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in Balochistan province of Pakistan.

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (Mccp) is a disease of goats which causes high morbidity and mortality and is reported in many countries of the world. There are probably no reports on the molecular prevalence of Mccp, Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capricolum (Mcc) and Mycoplasma putrefaciens (Mp) in Balochistan and any other part of Pakistan. Thirty goats (n = 30) with marked respiratory symptoms were selected and procured from forty goat flocks in Pishin district of Balochistan in 2008. The genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from the lung samples (n = 30) of the slaughtered goats was purified and subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for the presence of Mycoplasma mycoides cluster members and Mp. The PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) was also used to further confirm the Mccp. Of the thirty lung samples 17 (56.67%) were positive for the molecular prevalence of Mcc, Mccp and Mp. In total the molecular prevalence was observed as 17.65% for Mccp (n = 3), 70.59% for Mcc (n = 12) and 11.76% for Mp (n = 2). The RFLP profile has also validated the PCR results of Mccp by yielding two bands of 190 and 126 bp. The results of PCR-RFLP coupled with the presence of fibrinous pleuropneumonia and pleurisy during postmortem of goats (n = 3) strongly indicated the prevalence of CCPP in this part of world. Moreover the prevalence of Mcc and Mp is also alarming in the study area. We report for the very first time the molecular prevalence of Mcc, Mccp, and Mp in the lung tissues of goats in the Pishin district of Balochistan, Pakistan.

An Index Case of Diffuse Alveolar Hemorrhage Secondary to Chikungunya.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus transmitted by mosquitoes, mostly by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. It is starting to become a very common entity in Pakistan, with a wide range of clinical manifestations. Here we report a case of a young male with CHIKV who presented with a clinical manifestation of diffuse alveolar hemorrhage which has not been observed so far in a patient suffering from this illness.

Light-fuelled freestyle self-oscillators.

Self-oscillation is a phenomenon where an object sustains periodic motion upon non-periodic stimulus. It occurs commonly in nature, a few examples being heartbeat, sea waves and fluttering of leaves. Stimuli-responsive materials allow creating synthetic self-oscillators fuelled by different forms of energy, e.g. heat, light and chemicals, showing great potential for applications in power generation, autonomous mass transport, and self-propelled micro-robotics. However, most of the self-oscillators are based on bending deformation, thereby limiting their possibilities of being implemented in practical applications. Here, we report light-fuelled self-oscillators based on liquid crystal network actuators that can exhibit three basic oscillation modes: bending, twisting and contraction-expansion. We show that a time delay in material response dictates the self-oscillation dynamics, and realize a freestyle self-oscillator that combines numerous oscillation modes simultaneously by adjusting the excitation beam position. The results provide new insights into understanding of self-oscillation phenomenon and offer new designs for future self-propelling micro-robots.