A self-driving laboratory advances the Pareto front for material properties.

Useful materials must satisfy multiple objectives, where the optimization of one objective is often at the expense of another. The Pareto front reports the optimal trade-offs between these conflicting objectives. Here we use a self-driving laboratory, Ada, to define the Pareto front of conductivities and processing temperatures for palladium films formed by combustion synthesis. Ada discovers new synthesis conditions that yield metallic films at lower processing temperatures (below 200 °C) relative to the prior art for this technique (250 °C). This temperature difference makes possible the coating of different commodity plastic materials (e.g., Nafion, polyethersulfone). These combustion synthesis conditions enable us to to spray coat uniform palladium films with moderate conductivity (1.1 × 105 S m-1) at 191 °C. Spray coating at 226 °C yields films with conductivities (2.0 × 106 S m-1) comparable to those of sputtered films (2.0 to 5.8 × 106 S m-1). This work shows how a self-driving laboratoy can discover materials that provide optimal trade-offs between conflicting objectives.

The effects of curcumin intake on wound healing and metabolic status in patients with diabetic foot ulcer: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of curcumin intake on wound healing and metabolic status in patients with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). The current randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted among 60 patients with grade 3 DFU. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups (30 participants each group), received either 80 mg nanocurcumin daily for 12 weeks or placebo. Primary endpoints in this study were serum insulin levels and insulin resistance. Curcumin intake significantly decreased fasting plasma glucose (p = .02), insulin (p = .01), insulin resistance (p = .02), and significantly increased insulin sensitivity (p = .008) compared with the placebo. Moreover, curcumin intake led to a significant reduction in total- (p < .001), LDL-cholesterol (p < .001), and a significant increase in total antioxidant capacity (TAC) (p < .001) and total glutathione (GSH) (p = .01) compared with the placebo. However, there was no significant improvement in wound healing parameters. Overall, our study demonstrated that nanocurcumin intake in patients with DFU resulted in a significant improvement of glycemic control, total- and LDL-cholesterol, TAC, and GSH but did not affect the indicators of ulcer size.

Electronic Structure and Conformational Properties of Polybenzimidazole-Based Ionenes-A Density Functional Theory Investigation.

Polybenzimidazole-based ionenes are explored for use in both alkaline anion-exchange membrane fuel cells and alkaline polymer electrolyzers. Poly-(hexamethyl-p-terphenylbenzimidazolium) (HMT-PMBI), the material of interest in this article, is exceptionally hydroxide-stable and water-insoluble. The impact of the degree of methylation on conformations and electronic structure properties of HMT-PMBI oligomers, from the monomer to the pentamer, is studied with density functional theory calculations. Optimization studies are presented for both the gas phase and in the presence of implicit water. In addition, time-dependent density functional theory is employed to generate the UV-vis absorption spectra of the studied systems. Results are insightful for experimentalists and theorists investigating the impact of synthetic and environmental conditions on the conformation and electronic properties of polybenzimidazole-based membranes.

Virtual Materials Intelligence for Design and Discovery of Advanced Electrocatalysts.

Similar to advancements gained from big data in genomics, security, internet of things, and e-commerce, the materials workflow could be made more efficient and prolific through advances in streamlining data sources, autonomous materials synthesis, rapid characterization, big data analytics, and self-learning algorithms. In electrochemical materials science, data sets are large, unstructured/heterogeneous, and difficult to process and analyze from a single data channel or platform. Computer-aided materials design together with advances in data mining, machine learning, and predictive analytics are expected to provide inexpensive and accelerated pathways towards tailor-made functionally optimized energy materials. Fundamental research in the field of electrochemical energy materials focuses primarily on complex interfacial phenomena and kinetic electrocatalytic processes. This perspective article critically assesses AI-driven modeling and computational approaches that are currently applied to those objects. An application-driven materials intelligence platform is introduced, and its functionalities are scrutinized considering the development of electrocatalyst materials for CO2 conversion as a use case.

Effect of intra-amygdala injection of lipopolysaccharide on kindling epileptogenesis in adult rats.

BACKGROUND: Contribution of neuroinflammation and epilepsy in the mature brain has elicited contradictory results with either excitatory or inhibitory effects. The amygdala is one of the main parts of the limbic system susceptible to insults that lead to neuroinflammation and epilepsy. This study evaluates the effect of chronic inflammation of the rat amygdala induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on kindling epileptogenesis. METHODS: LPS (5µg/rat) was infused once daily into the basolateral amygdala (BLA) of adult rats. Daily electrical stimulation (150 - 300 µA, 100 Hz, monophasic square wave stimulus of 1 msec per wave, 2 sec duration) was delivered into BLA 30 min after LPS injections until the animals became fully kindled. RESULTS: LPS had no significant effect on the development of focal and generalized seizures. CONCLUSION: The type of neural system exposed to LPS and its specific electrophysiological properties seems to ascertain the final excitatory or inhibitory outcome.

The effects of altered ultrasound parameters on the recovery of sciatic nerve injury.

BACKGROUND: Initial studies have shown that low-energy ultrasound stimulates living tissue cells to reduce regeneration or speed up their recovery. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of various ultrasound parameters on the speed of recovery in injured sciatic nerves. METHODS: NMRI mice (n = 200) with injured left paw, caused by crushing their sciatic nerves, were randomly selected. The animals were exposed to ultrasound radiation with various frequencies, intensities, and exposure time. They were allocated into 20 groups (19 treatment and 1 control groups). Sciatic functional index (SFI) test was used to evaluate the difference between the groups with respect to functional efficiency of the sciatic nerve and its recovery. RESULTS: The results of SFI test obtained from the 14th day showed a significant difference among the groups (P<0.05). On the 14th day after treatment, one of the groups (US11) recovered up to 90%. CONCLUSION: Altered ultrasound exposure parameters had more favorable outcomes compared with our previous work.