Amphibious epidermal area networks for uninterrupted wireless data and power transfer.

The human body exhibits complex, spatially distributed chemo-electro-mechanical processes that must be properly captured for emerging applications in virtual/augmented reality, precision health, activity monitoring, bionics, and more. A key factor in enabling such applications involves the seamless integration of multipurpose wearable sensors across the human body in different environments, spanning from indoor settings to outdoor landscapes. Here, we report a versatile epidermal body area network ecosystem that enables wireless power and data transmission to and from battery-free wearable sensors with continuous functionality from dry to underwater settings. This is achieved through an artificial near field propagation across the chain of biocompatible, magneto-inductive metamaterials in the form of stretchable waterborne skin patches-these are fully compatible with pre-existing consumer electronics. Our approach offers uninterrupted, self-powered communication for human status monitoring in harsh environments where traditional wireless solutions (such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or cellular) are unable to communicate reliably.

In vitro investigation of ultrasound-induced oxidative stress on human lens epithelial cells.

The effect of ultrasound exposure on human lens epithelial cells (HLE-B3) was investigated in vitro, specifically on the generation of oxidative stress upon ultrasound application using various clinically-relevant settings. In addition to ultrasound-induced heat effects, oxidative stress has been recently proposed as one of the main mechanisms for ultrasound-induced effects on human cells. In this work, the levels of biocompatibility and generation of oxidative stress by exposure of ultrasound to HLE-B3 were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively by the MTT assay, Live/Dead assay, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and intracellular calcium level. Oxidative stress induction is traditionally achieved through administrations of H2O2 and thus the administration of H2O2 was used as the positive control group for comparison herein. Concerning the administrations of H2O2 are considered invasive and may potentially have side effects, ultrasound as physical stimulation could be a safer and non-invasive method to induce similar oxidative stress environments. The effect of ultrasound on cell viability and induction of oxidative stress increases with ultrasound intensity. The result reveals that the continuous ultrasound has a positive impact on the oxidative stress levels but does negatively on the cell viability, as compared to the pulsed ultrasound. Furthermore, our work demonstrates that the exposure of 58 kPa continuous ultrasound without microbubbles can maintain acceptable cell viability and produce oxidative stress effects similar to the traditional administrations of H2O2. In summary, exposure of ultrasound can generate oxidative stress comparable to traditional administrations of H2O2. The effect of generating oxidative stress is adjustable through ultrasound parameters, including the pulsed or continuous wave, the intensity of ultrasound and addition of microbubbles.