Smooth, Chemically Altered Nucleating Platform for Abrupt Performance Enhancement of Ultrathin Cu-Layer-Based Transparent Electrodes.

Rapid advances in flexible optoelectronic devices necessitate the concomitant development of high-performance, cost-efficient, and flexible transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs). This Letter reports an abrupt enhancement in the optoelectronic characteristics of ultrathin Cu-layer-based TCEs via Ar+-mediated modulation of the chemical and physical states of a ZnO support surface. This approach strongly regulates the growth mode for the subsequently deposited Cu layer, in addition to marked alteration to the ZnO/Cu interface states, resulting in exceptional TCE performance in the form of ZnO/Cu/ZnO TCEs. The resultant Haacke figure of merit (T10/Rs) of 0.063 Ω-1, 53% greater than that of the unaltered, otherwise identical structure, corresponds to a record-high value for Cu-layer-based TCEs. Moreover, the enhanced TCE performance in this approach is shown to be highly sustainable under severe simultaneous loadings of electrical, thermal, and mechanical stresses.

Recent Trends of Bioanalytical Sensors with Smart Health Monitoring Systems: From Materials to Applications.

Smart biosensors attract significant interest due to real-time monitoring of user health status, where bioanalytical electronic devices designed to detect various activities and biomarkers in the human body have potential applications in physical sign monitoring and health care. Bioelectronics can be well integrated by output signals with wireless communication modules for transferring data to portable devices used as smart biosensors in performing real-time diagnosis and analysis. In this review, the scientific keys of biosensing devices and the current trends in the field of smart biosensors, (functional materials, technological approaches, sensing mechanisms, main roles, potential applications and challenges in health monitoring) will be summarized. Recent advances in the design and manufacturing of bioanalytical sensors with smarter capabilities and enhanced reliability indicate a forthcoming expansion of these smart devices from laboratory to clinical analysis. Therefore, a general description of functional materials and technological approaches used in bioelectronics will be presented after the sections of scientific keys to bioanalytical sensors. A careful introduction to the established systems of smart monitoring and prediction analysis using bioelectronics, regarding the integration of machine-learning-based basic algorithms, will be discussed. Afterward, applications and challenges in development using these smart bioelectronics in biological, clinical, and medical diagnostics will also be analyzed. Finally, the review will conclude with outlooks of smart biosensing devices assisted by machine learning algorithms, wireless communications, or smartphone-based systems on current trends and challenges for future works in wearable health monitoring.

Unitig-centered pan-genome machine learning approach for predicting antibiotic resistance and discovering novel resistance genes in bacterial strains.

In current genomic research, the widely used methods for predicting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) often rely on prior knowledge of known AMR genes or reference genomes. However, these methods have limitations, potentially resulting in imprecise predictions owing to incomplete coverage of AMR mechanisms and genetic variations. To overcome these limitations, we propose a pan-genome-based machine learning approach to advance our understanding of AMR gene repertoires and uncover possible feature sets for precise AMR classification. By building compacted de Brujin graphs (cDBGs) from thousands of genomes and collecting the presence/absence patterns of unique sequences (unitigs) for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we determined that using machine learning models on unitig-centered pan-genomes showed significant promise for accurately predicting the antibiotic resistance or susceptibility of microbial strains. Applying a feature-selection-based machine learning algorithm led to satisfactory predictive performance for the training dataset (with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of > 0.929) and an independent validation dataset (AUC, approximately 0.77). Furthermore, the selected unitigs revealed previously unidentified resistance genes, allowing for the expansion of the resistance gene repertoire to those that have not previously been described in the literature on antibiotic resistance. These results demonstrate that our proposed unitig-based pan-genome feature set was effective in constructing machine learning predictors that could accurately identify AMR pathogens. Gene sets extracted using this approach may offer valuable insights into expanding known AMR genes and forming new hypotheses to uncover the underlying mechanisms of bacterial AMR.

Neflamapimod induces vasodilation in resistance mesenteric arteries by inhibiting p38 MAPKα and downstream Hsp27 phosphorylation.

Neflamapimod, a selective inhibitor of p38 mitogen activated protein kinase alpha (MAPKα), is under clinical investigation for its efficacy in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Here, we investigated if neflamapimod-mediated acute inhibition of p38 MAPKα could induce vasodilation in resistance-size rat mesenteric arteries. Our pressure myography data demonstrated that neflamapimod produced a dose-dependent vasodilation in mesenteric arteries. Our Western blotting data revealed that acute neflamapimod treatment significantly reduced the phosphorylation of p38 MAPKα and its downstream target heat-shock protein 27 (Hsp27) involved in cytoskeletal reorganization and smooth muscle contraction. Likewise, non-selective inhibition of p38 MAPK by SB203580 attenuated p38 MAPKα and Hsp27 phosphorylation, and induced vasodilation. Endothelium denudation or pharmacological inhibition of endothelium-derived vasodilators such as nitric oxide (NO) and prostacyclin (PGI2) had no effect on such vasodilation. Neflamapimod-evoked vasorelaxation remained unaltered by the inhibition of smooth muscle cell K+ channels. Altogether, our data for the first time demonstrates that in resistance mesenteric arteries, neflamapimod inhibits p38 MAPKα and phosphorylation of its downstream actin-associated protein Hsp27, leading to vasodilation. This novel finding may be clinically significant and is likely to improve systemic blood pressure and cognitive deficits in AD and DLB patients for which neflamapimod is being investigated.

Large-Scale Piezoelectric-Based Systems for More Electric Aircraft Applications.

A new approach in the development of aircraft and aerospace industry is geared toward increasing use of electric systems. An electromechanical (EM) piezoelectric-based system is one of the potential technologies that can produce a compactable system with a fast response and a high power density. However, piezoelectric materials generate a small strain, of around 0.1-0.2% of the original actuator length, limiting their potential in large-scale applications. This paper reviews the potential amplification mechanisms for piezoelectric-based systems targeting aerospace applications. The concepts, structural designs, and operation conditions of each method are summarized and compared. This review aims to provide a good understanding of piezoelectric-based systems toward selecting suitable designs for potential aerospace applications and an outlook for novel designs in the near future.

Coronavirus Infection Prevention by Wearing Masks.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) [2019-nCoV; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)] was first detected in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. In current status, spread of COVID-19 in person-to-person could be caused mainly by respiratory droplets, which leads to the spread of the influenza virus in both community and clinicians. Thus, in order to reduce the risk of that, the urgent management strategies against COVID-19 are to block transmission, isolation, protection, and using drug or vaccine updated on an ongoing basis. unfortunately, no drugs or vaccines still has yet been allowed to treat patients with COVID-19, so the rapid detection of effective intercessions against COVID-19 is seemed a major challenge on the all world. Herein, this article attempts summarizing to introduce the characterization of COVID-19, the influence of droplets travel in person-to-person transmission and the effect of wearing masks in the infection prevention of influenza virus, as well as understanding its advantage and role in the coronavirus infection prevention.

Recycling performance of graphene oxide-chitosan hybrid hydrogels for removal of cationic and anionic dyes.

Water is one of the most important resources for human survival and development. Efficient wastewater treatment techniques such as coagulation, filtration, ozonation, and reverse osmosis have been studied to remove toxic materials from water. Implementation of adsorption columns has been proven to be an efficient wastewater treatment method, particularly for the removal of organic contaminants. In this study, we present the preparation of an eco-friendly graphene oxide-chitosan (GC) composite hydrogel column (GCCHC) and its application as a broad-spectrum adsorbent for wastewater treatment. The GCCHC shows a high removal capacity towards different contaminants including both cationic dyes [methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB)] and anionic dyes [methylene orange (MO) and congo red (CR)]. Moreover, the samples can be regenerated and recycled without loss of contaminant removal capacity over successive adsorption and washing cycles.

A randomized trial to assess the immediate impact of acupuncture on quantitative sensory testing, pain, and functional status.

In this randomized clinical trial, we examined whether the effect of true acupuncture can be differentiated from sham acupuncture (pain and functionality) by analyzing quantitative sensory testing (QST) profiles in chronic pain participants. We recruited 254 healthy or chronic back and neck pain participants. Healthy subjects were included to control for a possible effect of acupuncture on baseline QST changes. Study participants received 6 sessions (twice weekly) of true acupuncture, sham acupuncture, or no acupuncture treatment (routine care). Quantitative sensory testing profiles, pain scores, and functionality profile were obtained at baseline (visit 1) and after 3 (visit 4) or 6 sessions (visit 7). A total of 204 participants were analyzed. We found no QST profile changes among 3 groups (P = 0.533 and P = 0.549, likelihood ratio tests) in either healthy or chronic pain participants. In chronic back and neck pain participants, true acupuncture reduced pain (visit 4: difference in mean [DIM] = -0.8, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.4 to -0.1, adjusted P = 0.168; visit 7: DIM = -1.0, 95% CI: -1.7 to -0.3, adjusted P = 0.021) and improved functional status including physical functioning (DIM = 14.21, 95% CI: 5.84-22.58, adjusted P = 0.003) and energy/fatigue (DIM = 12.28, 95% CI: 3.46-21.11, adjusted P = 0.021) as compared to routine care. Our results indicate that QST was not helpful to differentiate between true acupuncture and sham acupuncture (primary outcome) in this study, although true acupuncture reduced pain and improved functionality (secondary outcomes) when compared with routine care.

Electrically-Induced Actuation of Acrylic-Based Dielectric Elastomers in Excess of 500% Strain.

Conventional robots are typically actuated by hard actuators, while biological entities consist mostly of soft muscles. Being soft imparts a functionality of compliance, thereby greatly enhancing the range of actuation and the degrees of freedom. Here, we demonstrate a soft electromechanically-active polymer capable of an electrically-induced linear strain beyond 500% that is continuously tunable by voltage. Previous experiments on the same material have demonstrated that by harnessing and bypassing electromechanical instability, soft electroactive polymers may bi-stably switch between an actuated state and an uncharged state of about 323% linear strain. In this paper, we use theory to inspire the possibility of suppressing electromechanical instability using pre-stretch by applying a non-isotropic pre-stretch onto the membrane, so as to achieve an ultra-large actuation strain that is continuously tunable by voltage. This geometry that enables such a large magnitude of actuation is simple and highly amenable to integration in robotic systems. With an electrically-induced strain of at least two orders of magnitude larger than conventional actuators, we expect our demonstration to expand the range of application for soft actuators.

Complementary medicines in pregnancy: recommendations and information sources of healthcare professionals in Australia.

Background The use of oral complementary and alternative medicines, including herbal supplements, has been increasing in pregnant women worldwide despite limited safety data. The decision of healthcare professionals to recommend these products to pregnant patients is controversial and not well documented. Objective To explore the recommendations and information sources that healthcare professionals use to determine the safety of oral non-prescribed supplements during pregnancy. Setting An Australian metropolitan maternity hospital. Method An electronic survey was distributed to doctors, midwives, pharmacists, dietitians, lactation consultants and physiotherapists. Main outcome measure The nature of recommendations and information sources that healthcare professionals use to determine the safety of oral non-prescribed supplements during pregnancy. Results Responses were received from 54 healthcare professionals. Forty of 54 (74.1%) were concerned about the safety of their patients' supplements, while 35 of 54 (64.8%) felt that they had access to trustworthy safety information. Supplements most commonly recommended as safe to use were ginger (40.7%), probiotics (29.6%) and raspberry leaf (22.2%). Participants specifically requested further safety information for raspberry leaf, evening primrose oil, fish oil, probiotics, ginger, vitamin C, valerian, turmeric, blue cohosh and colloidal silver. Written resources most frequently consulted included MIMS® (61.1%) and 'Google Searches' (29.6%), and healthcare professionals most referred to were pharmacists (74.1%), doctors (22.2%), and naturopaths or herbalists (3.7%). Conclusion The recommendations of maternity heath care professionals and quality of information sources used varied. Further education and access to unbiased safety information is required to empower healthcare professionals to provide informed recommendations to pregnant patients.

The M2 muscarinic receptor mediates contraction through indirect mechanisms in mouse urinary bladder.

We investigated the contractile role of M2 muscarinic receptors in mouse urinary bladder. When measured in the absence of other agents, contractions elicited to the muscarinic agonist oxotremorine-M exhibited properties consistent with that expected for an M3 response in urinary bladder from wild-type and M2 knockout (KO) mice. Evidence for a minor M2 receptor-mediated contraction was revealed by a comparison of responses in M3 knockout and M2/M3 double knockout mice. Treatment of wild-type and M2 knockout urinary bladder with N-2-chloroethyl-4-piperidinyl diphenylacetate (4-DAMP mustard) caused a large inhibition of the muscarinic contractile response. The residual contractions were much smaller in M2 knockout bladder compared with wild type, suggesting that M2 receptors rescue the muscarinic contractile response in wild-type bladder following inactivation of M3 receptors with 4-DAMP mustard. When measured in the presence of prostaglandin F2alpha and isoproterenol or forskolin, oxotremorine-M mediated a potent contractile response in urinary bladder from M3 KO mice. This response exhibited an M2 profile in competitive antagonism studies and was completely absent in M2/M3 KO mice. Following 4-DAMP mustard treatment, oxotremorine-M elicited a contractile response in wild-type urinary bladder in the presence of KCl and isoproterenol or forskolin, and this response was diminished in M2 KO mice. Our results show that the M2 receptor mediates contractions indirectly in the urinary bladder by enhancing M3 receptor-mediated contractions and inhibiting relaxation. We also show that it is difficult to detect M2 receptor function in competitive antagonism studies under conditions where a simultaneous activation of M2 and M3 receptors occurs.