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Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease frequently associated with airway inflammation and remodeling. The development of asthma involves various inflammatory phenotypes that impact therapeutic effects, and macrophages are master innate immune cells in the airway that exert diverse functions including phagocytosis, antigen presentation, and pathogen clearance, playing an important role in the pathogeneses of asthma. Recent studies have indicated that autophagy of macrophages affects polarization of phenotype and regulation of inflammation, which implies that regulating autophagy of macrophages may be a potential strategy for the treatment of asthma. Thus, this review summarizes the signaling pathways and effects of macrophage autophagy in asthma, which will provide a tactic for the development of novel targets for the treatment of this disease.

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is increasingly interested in supporting exertion experiences so more people can benefit from physical activity. So far, most systems have focused on sensing and presenting information to the user via screens to support the exertion experience. Interestingly, emerging technology can also act on the exerting user's body based on sensed information, granting researchers the potential to develop technology that not only “presents” but also “acts” on information throughout an integrated exertion experience. As a result, design opportunities surrounding computing machinery as contextually aware exertion partners are now available. However, there are currently no frameworks to guide the design of human–computer integration in an exertion context. To contribute to closing this gap, we designed three eBike systems to investigate different forms of integration with the exerting user and we studied the resulting user experiences. Based on the results of these three case studies, we present the first framework, including associated design tactics, to offer guidance on how to design human–computer integration in an exertion context.

Ingestible sensors have become smaller and more powerful and allow us to envisage new human-computer interactions and bodily play experiences inside our bodies. Users can swallow ingestible sensors, which facilitate interior body sensing functions that provide data on which play experiences can be built. We call bodily play that uses ingestible sensors as play technologies “ingestible play”, and we have adopted a research-through-design approach to investigate three prototypes. For each prototype, we conducted a field study to understand the player experiences. Based upon these results and practical design experiences, we have developed a design framework for ingestible play. We hope this work can guide future design of ingestible play; inspire the design of play technologies inside the human body to expand the current bodily play design space; and ultimately extend our understanding of how to design for the human body by considering the bodily experience of one’s interior body.

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the CCP officially claimed that Chinese women achieved an equal position as men, and the Confucian patriarchal family was deconstructed. This article is an ongoing exploration of Maoist gender discourse by analysing the image of female warriors in the revolutionary opera film, The Red Detachment of Women (1972) which was made and popularised during the Cultural Revolution. This article finds that Maoist gender discourse failed to deconstruct the Confucian patriarchy. The image of female warriors in the revolutionary opera films was a reproduction of the patriarchal narrative of Hua Mulan, which served an ethical symbol of loyalty and filial daughter in the discourse of Confucian patriarchy. Similar to Mulan, the masculinised image of female warriors in the revolutionary opera films cannot be identified as a feminist representation yet a cultural and ethical symbol of filial daughter that leads to women’s subordination to men’s needs.

We present Sonic Straws, a beverage-based gustosonic system that allows users to experience playful personalized sounds via drinking through straws. The system consists of two straws, a customized lid, and a holder containing a microcontroller. It performs a sensing process via the two straws connected to the microcontroller to sense capacitance, which then generates sounds played back through a speaker. Our aim is to support a playful way of drinking in everyday life because we believe that interactive technology offers unique opportunities to enrich drinking experiences. Ultimately, with our work, we aim to inspire and guide designers working with playful gustosonic interactions to experience eating/drinking as play.

This study concerns the Japanese mobile game Tabi Kaeru (2017), ‘旅かえる’, or Travel Frog as it is known in English. We explore Travel Frog’s astonishing success in China in early 2018 despite no marketing campaign or Chinese localization of this Japanese language game. First outlining the game and its development, we then trace its reception in Chinese and Western social media and its popularity among Chinese players. Combining comparative media and digital ethnographic methodologies, we explore the role of Internet influencers and investigate North Asian cultural commonalities such as Buddhist Zen philosophy, work ethic, and family values examining how they may have contributed to the popularity of the game. Recognizing the cultural appeal of this game outside its native language, we call for an interrogation of the process of games localization as a factor in the success of videogames. This article brings a rare examination of the transnational impact of games by exploring how they are transmitted through contemporary social media and interpreted through enduring cultural connections.

While many systems have successfully demonstrated functional integration of humans and technology, little attention has been paid to how technologies might experientially integrate to feel as part of humans. Our aim is to shed light on the importance of experiential integration and provide researchers with a scientifically driven foundation for future designs and investigations. The workshop will consist of hands-on experiments with novel body-illusions, discussions on experiential integration, and instructor-guided sessions on psychological concepts related to the design and evaluation of experiential integration.

Sexual consent has undergone a transformation toward an “enthusiastic” feminist model that emphasizes consent as an ongoing and voluntary process of negotiation and affirmation. This paper considers how such a model can advance understandings of consent in HCI research and design in relation to embodied interactions with emerging technologies that also occur outside of sexual interactions. We apply the popular “FRIES” model of sexual consent (Freely given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic and Specific) to three areas of embodied interaction: 1) bodily-play interactions, 2) persuasive interactions with smart technologies, and 3) intimate interactions with anthropomorphized devices. Based on erotic play practices, we contribute a “TEASE” process guideline (Traffic lights, Establish ongoing dialogue, Aftercare, Safewords, and Explicate soft/hard limits) to advance consensual practice in HCI and develop implementation scenarios.

Imaging capsules are ingestible sensors that capture the video of one's gastrointestinal tract for medical diagnosis. We believe that the capsule's experiential perspective is often overlooked by associated medical applications. This work explores the design of this experiential perspective through combining imaging capsules with digital play. We designed a playful wearable system called "InsideOut", where users play with the real-time video of their gastrointestinal tract captured by an imaging capsule. Based on an in-the-wild study, we derived four themes articulating the play experiences and discussed key design implications to guide future playful designs using imaging capsules. Our research highlights the opportunity of using medical imaging technologies to enable intriguing bodily play experiences. Furthermore, such experiences can deepen the players' engagement with and understanding of their bodies, ultimately contributing to a more playful and humanized health care agenda.

Prior psychology studies have shown that eating ice cream increases happiness, while human-computer interaction work has shown that interactive technology can enrich the eating experience. We explore the opportunity to combine these two through WeScream!, a playful social gustosonic system we designed-social gustosonic referring to the link between the acts of eating and listening as part of a social multisensory experience. WeScream! consists of two interdependent ice-cream cones that allow users to interact with musical sounds generated through the act of eating ice cream together. We report on an in-the-wild study that highlights how our system facilitated a "hard fun" experience through eating together, increased participants' awareness of relatedness, and drew shared attention to the ice cream's taste via increased face-to-face interaction. Drawing on these study insights, we also present three design tactics to guide designers in designing future social gustosonic experiences. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to a playful future of social eating experiences, supporting people in enjoying eating together.

A "creative city" can promote creativity among its citizens and provide them fulfilling lived experience. Such a concept has captivated city authorities worldwide, and motivated plenty of works to investigate how to make our cities more "creative". We argue that there is a need and an opportunity to design interactive technologies to push the creative city agenda. In this paper, we present WeMonet, a design prototype supporting citizens engaging in participatory street art creation via human-AI collaboration. Citizens' sketches are synthesized, enhanced to be more vivid through machine machine learning algorithms, and projected on a screen, forming a participatory artwork. WeMonet aims to promote citizens' engagement in creative practices and hence the city's creativity. More broadly speaking, we hope this work could inspire designers to consider the role of interaction design in the creative city agenda.

Ingestible sensors are pill-like digital sensors performing sensing functions inside the human body. Such technology is becoming increasingly common in clinical uses. However, we believe there exists an opportunity to also investigate ingestible sensors as design material for bodily play to facilitate intriguing bodily experiences. This argument is inspired by a long history of utilizing the intersection of medical technologies and play to bring about intriguing bodily experiences. By designing and investigating the user experience of three playful systems around ingestible sensors, we articulate a preliminary framework showing how ingestible sensors can be used as design material to support the design of playful bodily experiences.

The notion of gustosonic refers to the link between eating actions and listening within a combined multisensory experience. When it comes to designing celebratory technology for eating, i.e. technology that celebrates the experiential and playful aspects of eating, the use of sound has been mostly underexplored. In this paper, we present our work based on two case studies for the design of playful gustosonic experiences. Through an analysis of user experiences of our work, we propose a design framework for designing playful gustosonic experiences to understand the interrelationship between interactive sounds and eating experiences. Ultimately, with our work, we aim to inspire designers in creating gustosonic experiences supporting a more playful relationship with food.

There is an increasing trend in HCI to combine eating and technology. We highlight the potential of interactive technology to support an experiential perspective on eating, in particular, how interactive technology can support experiencing eating as play. To understanding this, we reflect on four playful interactive eating systems we designed and two other works to articulate five strategies: make eating challenging, break cultural norms, design across eating stages, reduce eating autonomy, and playfully extend the social aspect. For each, we also include practical implementation options to provide designers with initial guidance on how they can begin to support experiencing eating as play. Ultimately, with our work, we aim to facilitate a future where eating is more playful.

There is an increasing trend in utilizing interactive technology for bodily integrations, such as additional limbs and ingestibles. Prior work on bodily integrated systems mostly examined them from a productivity perspective. In this article, we suggest examining this trend also from an experiential, playful perspective, as we believe that these systems offer novel opportunities to engage the human body through play. Hence, we propose that there is an opportunity to design "bodily integrated play". By relating to our own and other's work, we present an initial set of design strategies for bodily integrated play, aiming to inform designers on how they can engage with such systems to facilitate playful experiences, so that ultimately, people will profit from bodily play's many physical and mental wellbeing benefits even in a future where machine and human converge.

Bodily play systems are becoming increasingly prevalent, with research aiming to understand the associated player experience. We argue that a more nuanced lexicon describing "bodily play experience" can be beneficial to drive the field forward. We provide game designers with two German words to communicate two different aspects of experience: "Erfahrung", referring to experience where one is actively engaged in and gains knowledge from; and "Erlebnis", referring to a tacit experience often translated as "lived experience". We use these words to articulate a suite of design strategies for bodily play experiences by referring to past design work. We conclude by discussing these two aspects of experience in conjunction with two previously established perspectives on the human body. We believe this more nuanced lexicon can provide a clearer understanding for designers about bodily play allowing them to guide players in gaining the many benefits from such experiences.

In the field of human-computer interaction, the term “integration” describes an emergent paradigm in which the human and the computer are tightly coupled. Our previous research has contributed to this paradigm through the design of “bodily integrated” systems, where the human body and the computing machinery are coupled in a way that allows bidirectional actuation. In this article, we build on this design research: we identify gaps in knowledge regarding bodily integration design and propose, in response, two key dimensions along which bodily integration systems can be categorized: bodily agency and bodily ownership. Conceiving each dimension from low to high allows us to define a four-quadrant design space that highlights key user experiences of bodily integration: Super-Body, Tele-Body, Chauffeured-Body, and Possessed-Body. We demonstrate how this design space can be used to analyze bodily integration design using three of our own bodily integration systems as illustrative examples. We also identify seven design strategies for interaction designers to design future bodily integration systems: turn-taking, safety, ease-in, movement, sensations & perceptions, personalization, and bystanders. Ultimately, we hope to advance the emergent integration paradigm through a body-centric design perspective.

In view of the complex structure of the ship bilge pump, the excitation source in the process of work is difficult to accurately determine the fault condition of the bilge pump through the vibration test data. Based on the theory of multi - body dynamics, rotor dynamics and electrical mechanics, the kinematics and kinetic equations of the bilge pump drive are established, and the dynamics, kinematics and vibration characteristics of bottom Pump drive analysis of the cabin is carried out. The frequency of the excitation force corresponding to the transmission mechanism is deduced, and the frequency of the excitation force of the main transmission is calculated.

There is an increasing trend that explores the convergence of digital play and eating to support a playful relationship with food. We note that interactive sound, although prevalent in digital game design, has only received limited attention in this trend. To contribute to an understanding of "playful gustosonic experiences", we present a design and study of a novel capacitive-sensing ice cream cone, "iScream!". In a study with 32 participants, the cone played four different sounds (a roaring, crunchy, giggling, and burping sound in order to explore fantasy facilitation, food congruency, anthropomorphism and bodily response) when eating ice cream. The results are two themes derived from six findings each, which detail how players explored the different auditory interaction possibilities with their eating actions while the sounds in turn modified those eating actions. Based on these findings, we present four design tactics for designers aiming to create playful gustosonic experiences to ultimately facilitate a more playful relationship with food.

Text selection relying on adjustment handles is a frequently used method on touchscreen mobile devices. However, this method suffers from limitations such as slow and unconformable interactions when dragging handles and being inadequate to select non-adjacent text for editing together. To address these limitations, this study proposes Text Pin, a novel technique that specifies the two ends of intended text by finger tapping rather than finger dragging. We designed mode-augmented handles to enable such operation. Experimental results show Text Pin was faster than default handle-based techniques on Android while maintaining comparable selection accuracy.

The pathogenesis of airway remodeling and airway inflammation is related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is correlated with TGF-β1 levels. Icariin is one of the major compounds in Epimedium brevicornum Maxim, and plays emerging roles in relieving cough and asthma, enhancing immunity, and anti-allergy. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism through which Icariin inhibits inflammatory and airway remodeling in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, 16HBE cells were stimulated with 10 ng/ml TGF-β1 for 24 hours to induce EMT model. Whereas pretreatment with Icariin could alleviate EMT both in concentration- and time-dependent manner, as was evidenced by the improved cell morphology, reduced migration, down-regulation of mesenchymal markers (N-cadherin, α-SMA), and up-regulation of epithelial marker (E-cadherin). In vivo, female BALB/c mice were exposed to 25 mg/ml house dust mites (HDM) extract for 5 days and followed by 2 days rest for 5 weeks to induce chronic asthma model. Of note, administration of Icariin could attenuate airway responsiveness, inflammation, and fibrosis, with improved scores based on the staining of H&E, PAS, and Sirius Red. In addition, Icariin reduced the levels of TGF-β1 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BLAF), serum, and lung tissue, and regulated the expression of EMT markers. At the molecular level, Icariin inhibits the phosphorylation of Smad-2, Smad-3, Erk, JNK, and p38 both in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, Icariin inhibits airway remodeling by attenuating TGF-β1-induced EMT through targeting Smad and MAPK signaling.

In this demonstration, we present iScream!, a novel gustosonic experience that generates unique digital sounds as a result of eating ice cream. The system uses capacitive sensing to detect eating actions and based on these actions, it plays out six different playful sounds to facilitate a playful eating experience. Our aim is to support a playful way of eating because we believe that interactive technology offers unique opportunities to facilitate novel engaging eating experiences. Ultimately, with this work, we aim to inspire and guide designers working with interactive playful gustosonic experiences, which open up new interaction possibilities to experience eating as play.

Ingestible sensors are pill-like sensors that people swallow mainly for medical purposes. We propose that ingestible sensors also offer unique opportunities to facilitate intriguing bodily experiences in a playful manner. To explore this, we present "HeatCraft", a two-player system that translates the user's body temperature measured by an ingestible sensor to localized thermal stimuli delivered through a waist belt equipped with heating pads. We conducted a study with 16 participants. The study revealed three design themes (Integration of body and technology, Integration of internal body and outside world, and Integration of play and life) along with some open challenges. In summary, this work contributes knowledge to the future design of playful experiences with ingestible sensors.

Recent HCI work on digital games highlighted the advantage for designers to take on a 1st person perspective on the human body (referring to the phenomenological "lived" body) and a 3rd person perspective (the material "fleshy" body, similar to looking in the mirror). This is useful when designing bodily play, however, we note that there is not much game design discussion on the 2nd person social perspective that highlights the unique interplay between human bodies. To guide designers interested in supporting players to experience their bodies as play, we describe how game designers can engage with the 2nd person social perspective through a set of design tactics based on four of our own play systems. With our work, we hope we can aid designers in embracing this 2nd person perspective so that more people can benefit from engaging their bodies through games and play.

A novel multi-response chemosensor L based on coumarin-chalcone-crown ether was designed and synthesized, which exhibited a high selectivity for the colorimetric detecting Al

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease. Icariside II has been reported to exert anti-inflammatory effect in multiple human diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of Icariside II on airway inflammation and remodeling in asthma. We established an asthma mouse model with ovalbumin (OVA) immunization. Histological analysis using H&E, PAS and Masson staining showed that administration of Icariside II attenuated OVA-induced airway inflammation and remodeling. Icariside II reduced the numbers of total white blood cells and eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). The levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-13 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 in peripheral blood and the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), eotaxin-1, CC-chemokine receptor-3 (CCR-3), Toll-like receptor (TLR)-2 and TLR-4 were significantly down-regulated in lung tissues of OVA-induced mouse model. These results suggested that Icariside II inhibited eosinophil activation and thus decreased eosinophils-induced airway inflammation and remodeling in asthma. Moreover, Icariside II suppressed TGF-β1-induced cell proliferation, migration, and CTGF expression in airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs). In both OVA-induced mouse model of asthma and TGF-β1-induced ASMCs, Icariside II decreased IκBα degradation, nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 and STAT3 phophorylation, indicating an inactivation of NF-κB and STAT3 in the presence of Icariside II. Therefore, we demonstrate that Icariside II attenuates eosinophils-induced airway inflammation and remodeling in asthmatic mice and inhibits TGF-β1-induced cell proliferation and migration in ASMCs via suppressing NF-κB and STAT3 signalings.

A novel multi-response chemosensor L based on coumarin-chalcone-crown ether was designed and synthesized, which exhibited a high selectivity for the colorimetric detecting Al3+ and Cu2+ and fluorescent recognizing Al3+ and Mg2+ in ethanol. L can monitor Al3+ and Cu2+ via distinct color changes from a slight yellow to pink and to orange, respectively. The sensor L can also monitor Al3+ and Mg2+ by fluorescence emission responses at 592 nm and 547 nm with low detection limits of 0.31 μM and 0.23 μM, respectively. The selectivity of L toward Al3+, Cu2+ and Mg2+ was not interfered by a large number of coexisting ions and was found to be reversible. By means of spectrometric titration, Job's plot, mass spectrometry, 1H NMR titration and IR spectroscopy analysis, it was unanimously confirmed that the sensor L had a stoichiometric ratio of 1:1 with Cu2+ and Mg2+, and 1:2 with Al3+. The order of the stability of the complexes formed by L and Al3+, Cu2+, Mg2+ was as follows: L-Al3+ > L-Cu2+ > L-Mg2+. At the same time, some possible bonding modes and sensing mechanisms were further proposed, and the optimized structure of the sensor L and its sensing mechanism for Al3+, Cu2+ and Mg2+ were confirmed by the calculations of DFT/B3LYP and TD-DFT methods in a suite of Gaussian 09 programs.

The advancement of sensor technology has provided new opportunities for bodily play and consequently enriched our bodily experiences. The emergence of ingestible sensors supports capturing the user's body data continuously. The intimacy between ingestible sensors and human body also shapes our bodily experiences. My research focuses on utilizing ingestible sensors to facilitate playful and engaging experiences in HCI using a Research through Design approach. This will lead to the development of ingestible interfaces, which allow the creation of novel and playful experiences. My work so far has explored the playful experiences that can be designed without crafting the relationships between the user's body and ingestible sensors. This research will contribute to the understanding of how to design playful experiences around ingestible sensors and ultimately inspire designers to create a wider range of future play experiences.

There is an increasing trend in interaction design to engage with food. We note that most prior work targets instrumental benefits (for example see food tracking apps to manage nutritional intake). In contrast, in this article, we highlight the potential of technology to support eating as a form of play. We reflect on our own work to articulate two design strategies for game designers on how they can facilitate playful eating experiences using novel technologies. Ultimately, with our work, we aim to facilitate a more playful engagement around the way we eat.

Ingestible sensors, such as capsule endoscopy and medication monitoring pills, are becoming increasingly popular in the medical domain, yet few studies have considered what experiences may be designed around ingestible sensors. We believe such sensors may create novel bodily experiences for players when it comes to digital games. To explore the potential of ingestible sensors for game designers, we designed a two-player game - the "Guts Game" - where the players play against each other by completing a variety of tasks. Each task requires the players to change their own body temperature measured by an ingestible sensor. Through a study of the Guts Game (N=14) that interviewed players about their experience, we derived four design themes: 1) Bodily Awareness, 2) Human-Computer Integration, 3) Agency, and 4) Uncomfortableness. We used the four themes to articulate a set of design strategies that designers can consider when aiming to develop engaging ingestible games.

Ingestible sensors are digital devices that can measure the user's body data after being swallowed and hence have great potential in medical use. Unfortunately, few studies have considered the playful experiences afforded by ingestible sensors. We believe that the use of localised sensations, such as those created by heat, to represent the data measured by ingestible sensors offers opportunities to support experiencing the body as play. To explore this opportunity, we introduce a two-player system called HeatCraft that uses an ingestible sensor to measure the users' body temperature and employs thermal stimuli to provide feedback. Similar to open-ended games, HeatCraft allows players to decide when and what to do in order to know more about their body, facilitating playful experiences of exploration and discovery. With this work, we aim to inspire game designers and HCI researchers to consider localised sensations when designing playful and engaging experiences around ingestible sensors.

We note a trend on utilizing interactive technology to extend human capacities through bodily cyborg-like integrations such as artificial limbs and implantables. This trend is often captured by the term "transhumanism", referring to the use of technology to extend human capacities. We find that many transhuman discussions appear to focus on instrumental benefits (i.e. exploiting opportunities to be more productive). We extend this by proposing engagement with transhumanism also from a perspective of "play". We reflect on our own and other's work to articulate three strategies for game designers on how they can engage with transhumanism when aiming to facilitate playful experiences. Ultimately, we aim to contribute to a more playful transhuman future.

Food sounds - sounds that certain foods make during eating through chewing, biting or licking - are key parts of the eating experience. They play an important role in establishing our perception about the palatability of food. We believe interactive technology offers unique opportunities to create novel playful experiences with food by playing with these sounds. In exploring this opportunity, we outline a structure on how we can explore playful sounds and present one case study of a novel interactive food experience: "The singing carrot". The singing carrot generates unique digital sounds while eating a carrot. Ultimately, with our work, we aim to inspire and guide designers working with interactive playful food sound.

We present the "Guts Game", a novel two-player mobile game involving ingestible devices. Our game requires the players to swallow a digital sensor that measures the user's body temperature continuously. Players need to change their body temperature to a certain degree to complete ingame tasks. Points are awarded to players upon completing these tasks. The game ends when one of the players excretes the sensor. The player who received more points at the end of the game wins. By introducing ingestible devices to the field of game design, we might be able to facilitate entertainment experiences for people who need to use ingestible devices for medical use. Furthermore, our work might also help game designers interested in developing novel and rich game experiences.

Background: This study aimed to explore the efficacy and safety of Ping Chuan Ke Li (PCKL) as an adjunctive therapy to oral montelukast compared with placebo plus montelukast for treating patients with chronic asthma (CAS). Methods: This randomized controlled trial involved 72 patients with CAS. They were randomly allocated to an intervention group or a control group, 36 subjects per group. Participants in the intervention group received PCKL and oral montelukast, while those in the control group received placebo and oral montelukast. The primary outcome was lung function, measured by forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1). The secondary outcomes included quality of life, measured by St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), and adverse events (AEs). Results: Compared to placebo plus montelukast, PCKL and montelukast revealed greater efficacy in lung function, measured by FEV1 (P

Interactive devices are increasingly used inside human bodies, such as pace makers and wireless pills. This trend has led to novel experiences with ingestible devices in the field of human-computer interaction on novel experiences people have with ingestible devices. We believe there is a missed opportunity to facilitate innovative game experiences using such devices. However, there is a lack of understanding on how to design games around ingestible devices. Therefore, this research investigates the design of ingestible games by using a wireless pill that can measure the user's core body temperature. We designed a game called "Guts Game". By investigating the game experience, we aim to gain an understanding towards ingestible game design and build a theoretical design framework around it. This research will contribute to a better understanding of ingestible game design and ultimately help designers to create a wider range of future play experiences.