Omnidirectional Printing of PEDOT:PSS for High-Conductivity Spanning Structures.

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), a prominent conducting polymer, holds significance in both industry and academia. However, prevailing fabrication techniques struggle to build spanning features of PEDOT:PSS with both high electrical conductivity and fine resolution due to layerwise assembly in the xy plane. Here, we report an "omnidirectional printing and secondary doping" strategy to construct spanning, filamentary and out-of-plane 3D PEDOT:PSS with high conductivity. The pristine PEDOT:PSS suspension is homogeneously concentrated to form a printable ink with high solids (∼15 wt %) consisting of entangled PEDOT:PSS nanofibrils. Such ink shows a high storage modulus G' (43531 Pa) and a high yield stress τy (4325 Pa), thereby enabling omnidirectional printing. Secondary doping with sulfuric acid or other polar solvents is used to induce a synergetic process of PSS loss, conformational change, phase separation, and crystallinity enhancement in the printed structures, resulting in a remarkable enhancement of conductivity in dehydrated (65,378 S/m) and swollen (7190 S/m) states. As a proof-of-concept, 2D grids with a feature size of 15 µm and 3D overhanging arches are fabricated for high-performance transparent glass heaters and 3D interconnection, respectively. This work promises great potential for the development of advanced flexible electronics, wearable devices, and bioelectronics.

Physical activity and risk of gallstone disease: A Mendelian randomization study.

Objective: Given the association between physical activity and the reduced risk of gallstone disease as suggested in observational studies, a Mendelian randomization study was conducted to evaluate the causal nature of this association in genetic epidemiology. Study: Including self-reported and accelerometer-based physical activity traits, the independent genetic variants associated with physical activity were selected from the corresponding genome-wide association studies as instrumental variables. The summary-level data for gallstone disease were sourced from the UK Biobank (7,682 cases and 455,251 non-cases) and FinnGen consortium (23,089 cases and 231,644 non-cases). Then, two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis was conducted. Inverse-variance weight (IVW), weighted median, and Mendelian randomization-Egger regression were determined through Mendelian randomization analyses. To ensure the robustness of the results, sensitivity analyses were also carried out in the study. Results: The negative causality between the genetically predicted accelerometer-based "average acceleration" physical activity and the risk of gallstone disease was suggested in the UK Biobank study (p = 0.023, OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87-0.99), and accelerometer-based "overall activity" physical activity and the risk of gallstone disease in the UK Biobank study (p = 0.017, OR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.17-0.84). With accelerometer-based "average acceleration" physical activity negatively correlated with gallstone disease in the FinnGen consortium data (p = 0.001, OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.90-0.97). As for self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, however, there was no causality observed in both pieces of data. Conclusion: Our studies provide the evidence suggesting a casual association between physical activities and gallstone disease through analysis of genetic data. As indicated by the research results, there is a possibility that a higher level of physical activities could mitigate the risk of gallstone disease.

Clinical value and feasibility of CT pulmonary angiography with personalized injection of contrast agent in pulmonary embolism.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the clinical value and feasibility of CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) with personalized injection of contrast agent in pulmonary embolism (PE). METHODS: In the present retrospective study, 130 patients who underwent CTPA examination in our hospital from June 2019 to May 2020 were evaluated. Among them, 67 cases were detected by CTPA with personalized injection of contrast agent as the observation group (Obs group), and 63 cases were detected by CTPA with bolus-tracking (BT) as the control group (Con group). The specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of the detection in the two groups were compared. The image quality score and superior vena cava artifact score of the two diagnostic methods were compared. Additionally, the volumetric CT dose index (CTDIvol) and dose length product (DLP) of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: The Obs group yielded a significantly higher specificity in diagnosing PE than the Con group (P<0.05), but there were no significant differences between the two groups in the sensitivity and accuracy (P>0.05). The image quality score and superior vena cava artifact score of the two groups were not significantly different (P>0.05), and the Obs group showed significantly lower CTDIvol and DLP than the Con group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: CTPA with personalized injection of contrast agent has good diagnostic value for PE, with good imaging effect and safe profile, and has a lower radiation dose requirement.

Genetically predicted physical activity is associated with lower serum urate concentrations.

BACKGROUND: Physical activity (PA) is considered to play an important role in the reduced gout risk. However, the epidemiology results are inconsistent and causality remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the causal relationship of PA with serum urate concentrations and gout risk by a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHOD: Two genome-wide association studies (GWASs) from UK Biobank were used to identify instrumental variables for self-reported moderate-to-vigorous PA (including 377,234 European individuals), accelerometer-measured 'average acceleration' PA (including 91,084 European individuals) and accelerometer-measured overall PA (including 91,105 European individuals). The summary data for serum urate (including 110,347 European individuals) and gout (including 2,115 cases and 67,259 controls) were derived from GWAS of Global Urate Genetics Consortium. Moreover, reverse direction Mendelian randomization study was conducted. The inverse-variance weighted, weighted median, Mendelian randomization Egger regression, simple mode and weighted mode and Mendelian Randomization Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier were methods we performed. RESULT: Genetic predisposition to accelerometer-measured 'average acceleration' PA [beta = -0.038; 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.060,-0.015; P = 0.001] and accelerometer-measured overall PA (beta = -0.339; 95% CI = -0.522,-0.156; P = 2.8E-4) were significantly associated with decreased serum urate concentrations. Besides, there was no evidence supporting the causal association between PA and gout risk. In the reverse direction analysis, genetic predisposition to both urate and gout were not associated with PA being investigated. CONCLUSIONS: In MR study, we found that PA may reduce serum urate concentrations but not the risk of gout. Moreover, serum urate concentrations and gout were not associated with PA.