A mosquito proboscis-inspired cambered microneedle patch for ophthalmic regional anaesthesia.

INTRODUCTION: One of the methods for pain management involves the use of local anesthesia, which numbs sensations in specific body regions while maintaining consciousness. OBJECTIVES: Considering the certain limitations (e.g., pain, the requirement of skilled professionals, or slow passive diffusion) of conventional delivery methods of local anesthetics, developing alternative strategies that offer minimally invasive yet therapeutically effective delivery systems is of great concern for ophthalmic regional anesthesia. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this study, a rapidly dissolving cambered microneedle (MNs) patch, composed of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) and hyaluronic acid (HA) and served as a delivery system for lidocaine (Lido) in local anesthesia, was developed taking inspiration from the mosquito proboscis's ability to extract blood unnoticed. The lidocaine-containing MNs patch (MNs@Lido) consisted of 25 microneedles with a four-pronged cone structure (height: 500 µm, base width: 275 µm), arranged in a concentric circle pattern on the patch, and displays excellent dissolubility for effective drug delivery of Lido. After confirming good cytocompatibility, MNs@Lido was found to possess adequate rigidity to penetrate the cornea without causing any subsequent injury, and the created corneal pinhole channels completely self-healed within 24 h. Interestingly, MNs@Lido exhibited effective analgesic effects for local anesthesia on both heel skin and eyeball, with the sustained anesthetic effect lasting for at least 30 min. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the mosquito proboscis-inspired cambered MNs patch provides rapid and painless local anesthesia, overcoming the limitations of conventional delivery methods of local anesthetics, thus opening up new possibilities in the treatment of ophthalmic diseases.

Machine Learning Tools to Assist the Synthesis of Antibacterial Carbon Dots.

Introduction: The emergence and rapid spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria (MRB) caused by the excessive use of antibiotics and the development of biofilms have been a growing threat to global public health. Nanoparticles as substitutes for antibiotics were proven to possess substantial abilities for tackling MRB infections via new antimicrobial mechanisms. Particularly, carbon dots (CDs) with unique (bio)physicochemical characteristics have been receiving considerable attention in combating MRB by damaging the bacterial wall, binding to DNA or enzymes, inducing hyperthermia locally, or forming reactive oxygen species. Methods: Herein, how the physicochemical features of various CDs affect their antimicrobial capacity is investigated with the assistance of machine learning (ML) tools. Results: The synthetic conditions and intrinsic properties of CDs from 121 samples are initially gathered to form the raw dataset, with Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) being the output. Four classification algorithms (KNN, SVM, RF, and XGBoost) are trained and validated with the input data. It is found that the ensemble learning methods turn out to be the best on our data. Also, ε-poly(L-lysine) CDs (PL-CDs) were developed to validate the practical application ability of the well-trained ML models in a laboratory with two ensemble models managing the prediction. Discussion: Thus, our results demonstrate that ML-based high-throughput theoretical calculation could be used to predict and decode the relationship between CD properties and the anti-bacterial effect, accelerating the development of high-performance nanoparticles and potential clinical translation.

Capsulotomy enlargement after femtosecond laser treatment among cataract patients of different age groups: a retrospective case series.

PURPOSE: Larger-than-planned capsulotomies can occur, yet their association with age and eye parameters remains poorly understood. This study aimed to assess capsulotomy enlargement after femtosecond laser treatment in cataract surgery and to explore a possible correlation of capsulotomy enlargement with age and eye parameters. METHODS: This retrospective case series included consecutive patients diagnosed with cataracts between 05/2018 and 11/2019. Among them, patients within the age ranges of <18, 18-49, and ≥50 years were assigned to the childhood cataract (CC), young adult cataract (YAC), and age-related cataract (ARC) groups, respectively. The capsulotomy enlargement ratio (CER), age, degree of cataract, lens thickness (LT), axial length, and anterior chamber depth were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 155 participants (179 eyes) were enrolled. The CER was significantly different among the three groups (CC: 1.245 vs. YAC: 1.060 vs. ARC: 1.029, P<0.001). The CER was found to be independently associated with both age (ß=-0.011 (0.001), P<0.001) and LT (ß=-0.049 (0.017), P=0.006) in the CC group, but it was only independently correlated with age (ß=-0.004 (0.001), P=0.002) in the YAC group and LT (ß=-0.014 (0.007), P=0.048) in the ARC group. CONCLUSIONS: Capsulotomy enlargement can occur after femtosecond laser treatment in cataract surgery, especially in the non-adult group. Age was a determinant of the CER in CC and YAC groups, while LT was an independent determinant of the CER in CC and ARC groups. These two factors should be taken into consideration for more precise sized capsulotomy.

Observation of Visual Quality after Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery Combined with Trifocal Intraocular Lens Implantation.

Objective: This study is the first observation of Alcon's PanOptix trifocal intraocular lens (IOL) implanted in 55 cataract patients with femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery. Methods: Fifty-five patients (63 eyes) with cataract were treated with femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery combined with trifocal IOL implantation. Visual acuity, defocus curve, higher order aberration (HOA), refractive stability, eyeglass removal rate, and satisfaction were evaluated and analyzed. Results: We found that the visual acuity of patients with near, intermediate, and distance vision was better than 0.1 LogMAR at 1, 3, and 6 months after the completion of surgery. The uncorrected near visual acuity (UCNVA), uncorrected intermediate visual acuity (UCIVA), and uncorrected distance visual acuity (UCDVA) of patients at 1, 3, and 6 months after surgery were compared with those before operation, showing statistical significance. Six months after the operation, all patients' surgical eyes had a smooth transition in the defocus range from +0D to -2.5D, and the visual acuity of the surgical eyes reached a level better than 0.1 LogMAR. The statistical results of 6-month follow-up showed that the eyeglass removal rate at near, intermediate, and far distances was 100%. At 6 months postoperatively, only 1 case had nocturnal glare, which affected life; 3 cases developed glare and halo but did not affect life. The patient satisfaction rate was 98.18%. Conclusions: Femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery with trifocal IOL implantation can remove the lens from the patient with satisfactory visual quality and significantly improve the postoperative satisfaction of the patient.

Preliminary Characterization of Phytochemicals and Polysaccharides in Diverse Coffee Cascara Samples: Identification, Quantification and Discovery of Novel Compounds.

Coffee cascara is the first and most significant by-product of the coffee processing industry, whose valorization has become an urgent priority to reduce harmful environmental impacts. This work aimed to provide an improved understanding of phytochemicals and polysaccharides in coffee cascara in order to offer information for the better evaluation of potential applications. Phytochemicals in 20 different coffee cascara samples were ultrasonically extracted and analyzed by HPLC-UV and HPLC-MS/MS. Four novel compounds were isolated for the first time from coffee cascara, including two still unknown tautomers (337 Da), and two dihydroflavonol glycosides (dihydromyricetin glycoside and dihydromyricetin rhamnosylglycoside). Their presence can contribute to the design of new value-added applications of coffee cascara. Chemical characterization of two polysaccharides from two of the coffee cascara pulp samples showed that they were mainly composed of homogalacturonan, with rhamnose and arabinose as minor neutral sugars. In addition, principal component analysis results indicated that coffee cultivar and/or country significantly impacted the phytochemical composition of coffee cascara, although differences may be reduced by the external environment and processing method. It is suggested that processing method should be carefully designed when generating coffee cascara from the same cultivar and country/farm.

[Own experience on acupuncture sensation].

To summarize professor SUN Xuequan's own experience on the acupuncture sensation. Professor SUN Xuequan puts forward his opinion through the sensation of acupuncture on himself, from the aspects of the expression, the material basis, the distinction and the clinical significance of acupuncture sensation, etc. Professor SUN thinks that the production and conduction direction of acupuncture sensation have their material basis and objectively exist, based on which, professor SUN puts forward the amount of acupuncture stimulation and the total amount of acupuncture stimulation. Professor SUN believes that the amount of acupuncture stimulation is the main basis for the individual reinforcing and reducing of acupuncture. The amount of acupuncture stimulation is related to the depth and intensity of acupuncture, the time of the needle retention, the number of needles, etc. The reinforcing and reducing of acupuncture are relative to the deficiency and excess of the disease, and they are the reaction of acupuncture for body. The tolerance degree of the individual to the stimulation of acupuncture is also the main factor affecting the reinforcing and reducing.

Using function approximation to analyze the sensitivity of MLP with antisymmetric squashing activation function.

Sensitivity analysis on a neural network is mainly investigated after the network has been designed and trained. Very few have considered this as a critical issue prior to network design. Piche's statistical method (1992, 1995) is useful for multilayer perceptron (MLP) design, but too severe limitations are imposed on both input and weight perturbations. This paper attempts to generalize Piche's method by deriving an universal expression of MLP sensitivity for antisymmetric squashing activation functions, without any restriction on input and output perturbations. Experimental results which are based on, a three-layer MLP with 30 nodes per layer agree closely with our theoretical investigations. The effects of the network design parameters such as the number of layers, the number of neurons per layer, and the chosen activation function are analyzed, and they provide useful information for network design decision-making. Based on the sensitivity analysis of MLP, we present a network design method for a given application to determine the network structure and estimate the permitted weight range for network training.