Systematically exploring repurposing effects of antihypertensives.

With availability of voluminous sets of observational data, an empirical paradigm to screen for drug repurposing opportunities (i.e., beneficial effects of drugs on nonindicated outcomes) is feasible. In this article, we use a linked claims and electronic health record database to comprehensively explore repurposing effects of antihypertensive drugs. We follow a target trial emulation framework for causal inference to emulate randomized controlled trials estimating confounding adjusted effects of antihypertensives on each of 262 outcomes of interest. We then fit hierarchical models to the results as a form of postprocessing to account for multiple comparisons and to sift through the results in a principled way. Our motivation is twofold. We seek both to surface genuinely intriguing drug repurposing opportunities and to elucidate through a real application some study design decisions and potential biases that arise in this context.

Friction force reduction for electrical terminals using graphene coating.

Multi-layer graphene, serving as a conductive solid lubricant, is coated on the metal surface of electrical terminals. This graphene layer reduces the wear and the friction between two sliding metal surfaces while maintaining the same level of electrical conduction when a pair of terminals engage. The friction between the metal surfaces was tested under dry sliding in a cyclical insertion process with and without the graphene coating. Comprehensive characterizations were performed on the terminals to examine the insertion effects on graphene using scanning electron microscopy, four-probe resistance characterization, lateral force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. With the thin graphene layers grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition on gold (Au) and silver (Ag) terminals, the insertional forces can be reduced by 74 % and 34 % after the first cycle and 79 % and 32 % after the 10th cycle of terminal engagement compared with pristine Au and Ag terminals. The resistance of engaged terminals remains almost unchanged with the graphene coating. Graphene stays on the terminals to prevent wear-out during the cyclic insertional process and survives the industrial standardized reliability test through high humidity and thermal cycling with almost no change.

Controlled doping of transition metal dichalcogenides by metal work function tuning in phthalocyanine compounds.

We explored surface charge transfer interaction between a family of phthalocyanine (Pc) compounds and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Comparing the device characteristics of TMD field-effect transistors (FETs), we demonstrate both p-type and n-type doping of TMDs by tuning the work function of the metal substitution in the Pc compound. Our findings suggest a near linear correlation between the metal work function and doping level. Such doping predictability has yet to be achieved whereas we provide here the first report of its kind.