Theory of thermoreversible gelation and anomalous concentration fluctuations in polyzwitterion solutions.

We present a theoretical framework to investigate thermoreversible phase transitions within polyzwitterion systems, encompassing macrophase separations (MPS) and gelation. In addition, we explore concentration fluctuations near critical points associated with MPS, as well as tricritical and bicritical points at the intersection of MPS and gelation. By utilizing mean-field percolation theory and field theory formalism, we derive the Landau free energy in terms of polyzwitterion concentration with fixed dipole strengths and other experimental variables, such as temperatures and salt concentrations. As the temperature decreases, the dipoles can form cross-links, resulting in polyzwitterion associations. The associations can grow to a gel network and enhance the propensity for MPS, including liquid-liquid, liquid-gel, and gel-gel phase separations. Remarkably, the associations also impact critical behaviors. Using the renormalization group technique, we find that the critical exponents of the polyzwitterion concentration correlation functions significantly deviate from those in the Ising universality class due to the presence of polyzwitterion associations, leading to crossover critical behaviors.

Active dynamics of charged macromolecules.

We study the role of active coupling on the transport properties of homogeneously charged macromolecules in an infinitely dilute solution. An enzyme becomes actively bound to a segment of the macromolecule, exerting an electrostatic force on it. Eventually, thermal fluctuations cause it to become unbound, introducing active coupling into the system. We study the mean-squared displacement (MSD) and find a new scaling regime compared to the thermal counterpart in the presence of hydrodynamic and segment-segment electrostatic interactions. Furthermore, the study of segment-segment equal-time correlation reveals the swelling of the macromolecule. Further, we derive the concentration equation of the macromolecule with active binding and study how the cooperative diffusivity of the macromolecules get modified by its environment, including the macromolecules itself. It turns out that these active fluctuations enhance the effective diffusivity of the macromolecules. The derived closed-form expression for diffusion constant is pertinent to the accurate interpretation of light scattering data in multi-component systems with binding-unbinding equilibria.

Effects of an Interactive e-Book on Enhancing Nursing Students' Knowledge, Confidence, and Learning Self-efficacy of Nursing Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Interactive e-books offer multimedia and interactive features that make them particularly suitable for learning nursing skills and also allow for easy content updating, ensuring that students learn the most current skills based on the latest clinical guidelines. PURPOSE: To examine the effectiveness of an interactive e-book in increasing nursing students' knowledge, confidence, and learning self-efficacy of performing nasogastric tube feeding. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 62 nursing students, with the experimental group using an interactive e-book for learning whereas the comparison group using a printed textbook. RESULTS: The experimental group demonstrated significantly greater knowledge and confidence improvements than the comparison group, but no significant difference was found in learning self-efficacy. The experimental group was significantly more satisfied with the learning materials than the comparison group. CONCLUSIONS: Interactive e-books are more effective in enhancing nursing students' knowledge and confidence in performing nursing skills than printed textbooks.

Recent advances in g-C3N4-based photo-enzyme catalysts for degrading organic pollutants.

In recent years, photocatalytic reactions have shown great potential in degrading organic pollutants because of their simple operation and no secondary pollution. Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is one of the most frequently used photocatalyst materials in the field of photocatalysis because it is a form of photocatalytic material with facile synthesis, no metal, visible light response, and strong stability. Enzyme-catalyzed degradation has received extensive attention due to its broad selectivity, high efficiency, and environmental friendliness. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP), one of several oxidoreductases utilized for pollutant degradation, has a wide range of applications due to its mild reaction conditions and high stability. Exploring efficient platforms for immobilizing g-C3N4 and HRP to develop photo-enzyme-coupled catalysis is an attractive practical topic. The coupling effect of g-C3N4 and HRP improves the carrier separation efficiency and generates more active species, which finally realize the solar-driven non-selective destruction of organic pollutants. We describe the alteration of g-C3N4 and the immobilization of HRP in detail in this study, and we outline recent developments in the photo-enzyme coupling of g-C3N4 and HRP.

Miniaturization and image optimization of a full-color holographic display system using a vibrating light guide.

In this study, a miniaturized full-color holographic reconstruction system that uses a single spatial light modulator to achieve full-color image reconstruction was developed. The reconstruction system uses a single light guide for light combination and is therefore less voluminous than conventional reconstruction systems. The experimental results demonstrated that the system had a full-color display, corrected light combination, and eliminated zero-order light. The vibrations of the light guide disrupted the temporal coherence of the laser beam, thus ensuring that the speckle in the reconstructed image was almost imperceptible to the human eye.

System impact and calibration method of power imbalances for a dual-polarization in-phase/quadrature optical transmitter.

For the latest 400-Gb/s or upcoming 1-Tb/s single-carrier optical fiber communications systems, dual-polarization quadrature amplitude modulation (DP-QAM) based on in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) optical transmitter is the only possible solution. In a coherent DP-IQ transmitter, the power difference between the I and Q branches or orthogonally polarized (X and Y) channels are known as the IQ or XY power imbalance, respectively. Uncompensated IQ and XY power imbalances are always troublesome and can significantly limit the performance in long-haul transmission. In this work, we first experimentally investigate the impact of IQ and XY power imbalances on various QAM formats and baud rates in high-speed transmission. A DP-16-QAM up to 86 GBd is investigated, aiming for beyond 400 Gb/s applications. Then, a convenient pre-calibration method based on optical interference is proposed and experimentally demonstrated to detect and compensate both the IQ and XY power imbalances. This method can use the existing modulator structure and low-speed photodiode in the DP-IQ transmitter to obtain the optical interference power by injecting a specific coded electrical signal. After adjusting the time skew of each channel, the power imbalance between two channels can be calibrated by minimizing the optical interference power. The results fit well with the given theoretical analysis, and the proposed technique can be adopted to the DP-IQ transmitter with different QAM formats.

Using social media data in diabetes care: bridging the conceptual gap between health providers and the network population.

BACKGROUND: Patients with diabetes who have poor health literacy about the disease may exhibit poor compliance and thus subsequently experience more complications. However, the conceptual gap of diabetes between health providers and the general population is still not well understood. Decoding concerns about diabetes on social media may help to close this gap. METHODS: Social media data were collected from the OpView social media platform. After checking the quality of the data, we analyzed the trends in people's discussions on the internet using text mining. The natural language process includes word segmentation, word counting and counting the relationships between the words. A word cloud was developed, and clustering analyses were performed. RESULTS: There were 19,565 posts about diabetes collected from forums, community websites, and Q&A websites in the summer (June, July, and August) of 2017. The three most popular aspects of diabetes were diet (33.2%), life adjustment (21.2%), and avoiding complications (15.6%). Most discussions about diabetes were negative. The negative/positive ratios of the top three aspects were avoiding complications (7.60), problem solving (4.08), and exercise (3.97). In terms of diet, the most popular topics were Chinese medicine and special diet therapy. In terms of life adjustment, financial issues, weight reduction, and a less painful glucometer were discussed the most. Furthermore, sexual dysfunction, neuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy were the most worrisome issues in avoiding complications. Using text mining, we found that people care most about sexual dysfunction. Health providers care about the benefits of exercise in diabetes care, but people are mostly concerned about sexual functioning. CONCLUSION: A conceptual gap between health providers and the network population existed in this real-world social media investigation. To spread healthy diabetic education concepts in the media, health providers might wish to provide more information related to the network population's actual areas of concern, such as sexual function, Chinese medicine, and weight reduction.

Boundaries of the Topologically Frustrated Dynamical State in Polymer Dynamics.

Using fluorescence microscopy and single-particle tracking, we have directly observed the dynamics of λ-DNA trapped inside poly(acrylamide-co-acrylate) hydrogels under an externally applied electric field. Congruent with the recent discovery of the nondiffusive topologically frustrated dynamical state (TFDS) that emerges at intermediate confinements between the traditional entropic barrier and reptation regimes, we observe the immobility of λ-DNA in the absence of an electric field. The electrophoretic mobility of the molecule is triggered upon application of an electric field with strength above a threshold value Ec. The existence of the threshold value to elicit mobility is attributed to a large entropic barrier, arising from many entropic traps acting simultaneously on a single molecule. Using the measured Ec which depends on the extent of confinement, we have determined the net entropic barrier of up to 130 kBT, which is responsible for the long-lived metastable TFDS. The net entropic barrier from multiple entropic traps is nonmonotonic with the extent of confinement and tends to vanish at the boundaries of the TFDS with the single-entropic barrier regime at lower confinements and the reptation regime at higher confinements. We present an estimate of the mesh size of the hydrogel that switches off the nondiffusive TFDS and releases chin diffusion in the heavily entangled state.

Non-zero dispersion-shifted ring fiber for the orbital angular momentum mode.

As the dimension of orbital angular momentum (OAM) is orthogonal to the other degrees of freedom for photon, such as wavelength, it can be utilized to further increase data capacity in the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems. However, the non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber (NZDSF) for the OAM mode has not yet been investigated or even proposed. In this work, we propose and design a ring fiber with low chromatic dispersion for the HE2,1 mode, which can serve as NZDSF for its corresponding OAM1,1 mode. A low dispersion of 3.3 ps/(nm·km) at 1550 nm and <2.9 ps/(nm·km) dispersion variation from 1530 to 1565 nm for the OAM1,1 mode is achieved in simulation, which satisfies the standard of the ITU-T G.655.C. The designed fiber with ring width from 1.5 µm to 3.5 µm can support the OAM1,1 mode within the C-band, and a large effective area of about 646 µm2 is obtained. We also note that the fiber with larger inner radius and ring width are more tolerant to the perturbations, such as fiber ellipticity and bending. In the fiber-based optical communication systems, the designed ring fiber could be used as a candidate for supporting OAM modes with low dispersion and reduced nonlinear effects.

BMI Trajectories as a Harbinger of Pre-Diabetes or Underdiagnosed Diabetes: an 18-Year Retrospective Cohort Study in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Although prior studies have examined BMI trajectories in Western populations, little is known regarding how BMI trajectories in Asian populations vary between adults with and without diabetes. OBJECTIVE: To examine how BMI trajectories vary between those developing and not developing diabetes over 18 years in an Asian cohort. DESIGN: Multilevel modeling was used to depict levels and rates of change in BMI for up to 18 years for participants with and without self-reported physician-diagnosed diabetes. PARTICIPANTS: We used 14,490 data points available from repeated measurements of 3776 participants aged 50+ at baseline without diabetes from a nationally representative survey of the Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging (TLSA1989-2007). MAIN MEASURES: We defined development of diabetes as participants who first reported diabetes diagnoses in 2007 but had no diabetes diagnoses at baseline. We defined the reference group as those participants who reported the absence of diabetes at baseline and during the entire follow-up period. KEY RESULTS: When adjusted for time-varying comorbidities and behavioral factors, higher level and constant increases in BMI were present more than 6.5 years before self-reported diabetes diagnosis. The higher BMI level associating with the development of diabetes was especially evident in females. Within 6.5 years prior to self-reported diagnosis, however, a wider range of decreases in BMI occurred (ßdiabetes = 1.294, P = 0.0064; ßdiabetes*time = 0.150, P = 0.0327; ßdiabetes*time (2) = -0.008, P = 0.0065). The faster rate of increases in BMI followed by a greater decline was especially prominent in males and individuals with BMI ≧24. CONCLUSIONS: An unintentional decrease in BMI in sharp contrast to the gradually rising BMI preceding that time may be an alarm for undiagnosed diabetes or a precursor to developing diabetes.