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Nanocellulose-based membranes have attracted intense attention in bioelectronic devices due to their low cost, flexibility, biocompatibility, degradability, and sustainability. Herein, we demonstrate a flexible ionic diode using a cross-linked bipolar membrane fabricated from positively and negatively charged cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs). The rectified current originates from the asymmetric charge distribution, which can selectively determine the direction of ion transport inside the bipolar membrane. The mechanism of rectification was demonstrated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy with voltage biases. The rectifying behavior of this kind of ionic diode was studied by using linear sweep voltammetry to obtain current–voltage characteristics and the time dependence of the current. In addition, the performance of cross-linked CNF diodes was investigated while changing parameters such as the thickness of the bipolar membranes, the scanning voltage range, and the scanning rate. A good long-term stability due to the high density cross-linking of the diode was shown in both current–voltage characteristics and the time dependence of current.

This paper develops and analyzes a stochastic derivative-free optimization strategy. A key feature is the state-dependent adaptive variance. We prove global convergence in probability with algebraic rate and give the quantitative results in numerical examples. A striking fact is that convergence is achieved without explicit information of the gradient and even without comparing different objective function values as in established methods such as the simplex method and simulated annealing. It can otherwise be compared to annealing with state-dependent temperature.

Culinary medicine is a popular approach to health promotion, but most programs focus on patient or provider-facing education. While laudable, these efforts do not represent the full potential for culinary medicine to impact community health. We describe a novel approach to culinary medicine at a federally qualified health center (FQHC), the HOPE Clinic: Bite of HOPE Small Food Business Development (SFBD) program. Describe the design and implementation of the Bite of HOPE SFBD program and examine initial response to the program through interviews and focus groups with past participants. The SFBD program aims to create healthy food outlets by supporting local small businesses with education, resources, and mentorship support. Former participants in the SFBD program were invited to participate in focus groups and interviews exploring their experience and perceived program impact. Three focus groups (n= 10) and nine in-depth interviews were conducted. Most participants were Black or Hispanic and all operated their businesses in the community surrounding HOPE Clinic. Five themes emerged from the data including perceived program purpose, program discovery, motivating factors to participation, perceived program impact, and suggestions for improvement. Participants expressed high satisfaction with the program and positive changes in both business development and personal eating habits. There is an opportunity to leverage the culinary medicine model to support local small food business and improve community health. The Bite of HOPE SFBD program offers an example of how clinic-based resources can expand into the surrounding environment.Culinary medicine is an increasingly popular way to teach individuals about healthy eating, but most programs offer classes only to patients or healthcare providers. This study explores a new type of culinary medicine program that focuses on improving community health by teaching small food business owners about healthy eating and sustainability. In this paper, we describe the small food business program and explore how business owners reacted to participating in the program. We discussed the small food business development (SFBD) program with 19 former participants through focus groups and interviews. Former participants expressed high satisfaction with the program and positive changes in both business development and personal eating habits. Program suggestions were focused on ways to increase access to the program information. The SFBD program described here offers an example of how culinary medicine can be used to enhance community nutrition and economic health by offering education and support to local food purveyors and professionals.

The real-world breakdown of immune adverse events was different without the identification of associated factors.

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST I lead a double life. At home I rebut email and text messages from conservative friends in other states who have been taken in by right-wing propaganda. [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST FRIDAY AFTERNOON of Labor Day weekend, a breaking-news alert in my inbox revealed that President Donald Trump had signed an executive order intended to help small businesses [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST Greg David has mellowed since he left the helm of our newsroom a decade ago. During his 23 years as editor, he insisted on expertise not only [...]

Printed paper-based electronics offers solutions to rising energy concerns by supplying flexible, environmentally friendly, low-cost infrastructure for portable and wearable electronics. Herein, we demonstrate a scalable spray-coating approach to fabricate tailored paper poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/cellulose nanofibril (CNF) electrodes for all-printed supercapacitors. Layer-by-layer spray deposition was used to achieve high-quality electrodes with optimized electrode thickness. The morphology of these electrodes was analyzed using advanced X-ray scattering methods, revealing that spray-coated electrodes have smaller agglomerations, resulting in a homogeneous film, ultimately suggesting a better electrode manufacturing method than drop-casting. The printed paper-based supercapacitors exhibit an areal capacitance of 9.1 mF/cm2, which provides enough energy to power electrochromic indicators. The measured equivalent series resistance (ESR) is as low as 0.3 Ω, due to improved contact and homogeneous electrodes. In addition, a demonstrator in the form of a self-powered wearable wristband is shown, where a large-area (90 cm2) supercapacitor is integrated with a flexible solar cell and charged by ambient indoor light. This demonstration shows the tremendous potential for sequential coating/printing methods in the scaling up of printed wearables and self-sustaining systems.

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST SOME YEARS AGO Crain's began accepting op-ed submissions and publishing two to four each month. Now we receive that many every day, run as many as we [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist Good journalism requires a healthy amount of skepticism. That was obvious to me when I started in this business in 1991, earning $6 an hour converting syrupy [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist A street acrobat recently jumped over six volunteers just outside City Hall. It was an impressive feat of athleticism, no doubt, but the real performance was the [...]

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic is correlated with decreased physical activity (PA). Transitioning to remote work may impact people’s acceptability and preferences for remotely delivered behavioral interventions, including PA. The objective was to examine perceptions of COVID-19 impacts on PA engagement and motivation, and perspectives related to remotely delivered PA interventions.Design Cross-sectional small-group interview.Setting Harris County, Texas. Participants: Insufficiently active, overweight/obese adults (16 healthy adults [aged 25–52 years], and 7 cancer survivors [aged 50–74 years]).Method Group discussion was guided by semi-structured questions. Audio-transcribed data (278 pages) was analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s process centering identification, analysis, organization, description, and reports.Results Overall, participants expressed a decreased level of PA due to the pandemic. Difficulties (e.g., care-taking activities, working from home, and safety concerns) negatively affected motivation. Participants indicated high acceptability of remotely delivered PA interventions, with advantages of virtual technology features (e.g., did not have to maintain a gym membership) and even accountability in maintaining a PA routine (e.g., using virtual groups to engage in community support).Conclusion Participants described COVID-19 negatively affects access to PA opportunities yet also expressed willingness to engage in remotely delivered PA interventions instead of in-person programs because of their COVID-19 experiences. Remote interventions can greatly increase accessibility and offer opportunities to provide personalized motivation and accountability that people need to be more physically active.

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST There's an old saying in political circles that the most dangerous place to be is between Sen. Charles Schumer and a camera. The truth is, most elected [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist One of my sons, 16, just finished his summer job. As first jobs go, it was rather glamorous: He was a ballperson at the U.S. Open, on [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist The de Blasio administration's push to consolidate the city's carting industry has shifted into high gear. Two agencies released a report showing that designating one company to [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist Is Vision Zero working? Are Bill de Blasio's housing goals realistic? u How'd the city collect $10 billion more in taxes without hiking rates? Is the hotel [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST Another day, another taxi lawsuit. This time it's buyers of medallions to operate handicapped-accessible taxis who say they were ripped off by the city. Their suit charges [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist and Andrew J. Hawkins Taxis warn of industrywide collapse The conventional wisdom that Mayor Bill de Blasio sought to cap Uber's growth as a favor to the [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST JULY WAS SUPPOSED to be a big month for businesses that generate a lot of food waste: Composting was to be made mandatory for them, albeit with [...]

Byline: Andrew J. Hawkins and Erik Engquist De Blasio, Cuomo: They have issues You'd think Mayor Bill de Blasio would have hypothermia by now, given how much cold water Gov. [...]

The resident stem cell for skeletal muscle is the satellite cell. On the 50th anniversary of its discovery in 1961, we described the history of skeletal muscle research and the seminal findings made during the first 20 years in the life of the satellite cell (Scharner and Zammit 2011, doi: 10.1186/2044-5040-1-28). These studies established the satellite cell as the source of myoblasts for growth and regeneration of skeletal muscle. Now on the 60th anniversary, we highlight breakthroughs in the second phase of satellite cell research from 1980 to 2000. These include technical innovations such as isolation of primary satellite cells and viable muscle fibres complete with satellite cells in their niche, together with generation of many useful reagents including genetically modified organisms and antibodies still in use today. New methodologies were combined with description of endogenous satellite cells markers, notably Pax7. Discovery of the muscle regulatory factors Myf5, MyoD, myogenin, and MRF4 in the late 1980s revolutionized understanding of the control of both developmental and regerenative myogenesis. Emergence of genetic lineage markers facilitated identification of satellite cells in situ, and also empowered transplantation studies to examine satellite cell function. Finally, satellite cell heterogeneity and the supportive role of non-satellite cell types in muscle regeneration were described. These major advances in methodology and in understanding satellite cell biology provided further foundations for the dramatic escalation of work on muscle stem cells in the 21st century.

Mobile applications and paired devices allow individuals to self-monitor physical activity, dietary intake, and weight fluctuation concurrently. However, little is known regarding patterns of use of these self-monitoring technologies over time and their implications for weight loss. The objectives of this study were to identify distinct patterns of self-monitoring technology use and to investigate the associations between these patterns and weight change. We analyzed data from a 6-month weight loss intervention for school district employees with overweight or obesity (N= 225). We performed repeated measures latent profile analysis (RMLPA) to identify common patterns of self-monitoring technology use and used multiple linear regression to evaluate the relationship between self-monitoring technology use and weight change. RMLPA revealed four distinct profiles: minimal users(n= 65, 29% of sample), activity trackers(n= 124, 55%), dedicated all-around users(n= 25, 11%), and dedicated all-around users with exceptional food logging(n= 11, 5%). The dedicated all-around users with exceptional food logging lost the most weight (X2[1,225] = 5.27, p= .0217). Multiple linear regression revealed that, adjusting for covariates, only percentage of days of wireless weight scale use (B= −0.05, t(212) = −3.79, p< .001) was independently associated with weight loss. We identified distinct patterns in mHealth self-monitoring technology use for tracking weight loss behaviors. Self-monitoring of weight was most consistently linked to weight loss, while exceptional food logging characterized the group with the greatest weight loss. Weight loss interventions should promote self-monitoring of weight and consider encouraging food logging to individuals who have demonstrated consistent use of self-monitoring technologies.Mobile applications and paired devices now enable users to track their physical activity levels, dietary intake, and weight fluctuations all in one user interface. We know that tracking each of these behaviors generally facilitates weight loss, but it is not clear how people with overweight or obesity may tend to use these multiple functions together when trying to lose weight. In a sample of 225 school district employees with overweight or obesity, we investigated whether there were common patterns in tracking these behaviors over time, and whether patterns were associated with weight loss. We identified groups reflecting four common patterns, which we termed the minimal users(n= 65, 29%), activity trackers(n= 124, 55%), dedicated all-around users(n= 25, 11%), and dedicated all-around users with exceptional food logging(n= 11, 5% of sample). The dedicated all-around users with exceptional food loggingwas the only group that reliably lost weight and was characterized by high tracking of activity, diet, and weight. Overall, regular use of the weight scale was most strongly associated with weight loss. It may be useful to broadly encourage self-monitoring of weight, and selectively encourage food logging to individuals amenable to this self-monitoring technology.

Byline: Erik Engquist I took part in a panel discussion recently on discerning spin from truth when politicians speak. I estimated that 90% of what they say is spin. But [...]

Byline: Chris Bragg, Erik Engquist and Andrew J. Hawkins Times Square faces character issue When participants in a Times Square Alliance focus group are asked what bothers them about the [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist Gov. Andrew Cuomo stopped by our office six months ago, fielding questions on the record about a range of topics, such as his freshly disbanded Moreland Commission. [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST AND NICHOLAS WELLS THE STORY OF NEW YORK is inarguably one about its people: who they are, where they reside and work, how they live and die. [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist and Chris Bragg Check cashers try lending a hand Customers can do a lot more at check-cashing businesses than turn paper into greenbacks. They can pay utility [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist A decade ago, a friend visiting from Minnesota was taking the subway with me from Manhattan to my lifelong neighborhood of Park Slope. She's an urban planner, [...]

The advancement of wearable technologies provides opportunities to continuously track individuals’ daily activity levels and sleep patterns over extended periods of time. These data are useful in examining the reciprocal relationships between physical activity and sleep at the intrapersonal level. The purpose of this study is to test the bidirectional relationships between daily activity levels and sleep duration. The current study analyzed activity and sleep data collected from a Fitbit device as part of a 6 month employer-sponsored weight loss program. A total of 105 overweight/obese adults were included (92% female, 70% obese, and 44% Hispanic). Multilevel models were used to examine (a) whether daily active and sedentary minutes predicted that night’s sleep duration and (b) whether sleep duration predicted active and sedentary minutes the following day. Potential extended effects were explored by using a 2 day average of the activity minutes/sleep duration as the predictor. No significant relationships between active minutes and sleep duration were found on a daily basis. However, having less sleep over two nights than one’s usual level was associated with an increased likelihood of engaging in some physical activity the following day. There was a significant bidirectional negative association between sedentary minutes and sleep duration for both the daily and 2 day models. Data from wearable trackers, such as Fitbit, can be used to investigate the daily within-person relationship between activity levels and sleep duration. Future studies should investigate other sleep metrics that may be obtained from wearable trackers, as well as potential moderators and mediators of daily activity levels and sleep.

High arterial lactate is associated with disturbed systemic physiology. Lactate can also be used as alternative cerebral fuel and it is involved in regulating cerebral blood flow. This study explored the relation of endogenous arterial lactate to systemic physiology, pressure autoregulation, cerebral energy metabolism, and clinical outcome in traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Eco-friendly and cost-effective materials and processes to manufacture functional substrates are crucial to further advance the area of printed electronics. One potential key component in the printed electronics platform is an electrically functionalized paper, produced by simply mixing common cellulosic pulp fibers with high-performance electroactive materials. Herein, an electronic paper including nanographite has been prepared using a standardized and scalable papermaking technique. No retention aid was needed to achieve a conducting nanographite loading as high as 50 wt %. The spontaneous retention that provides the integrity and stability of the nanographite paper, likely originates partially from an observed water-stable adhesion of nanographite flakes onto the fiber surfaces. The resulting paper exhibits excellent electrical characteristics, such as an in-plane conductivity of 107 S/cm and an areal capacitance of 9.2 mF/cm2, and was explored as the back-electrode in printed electrochromic displays.

Byline: Erik Engquist The Dennis Walcott exit interview Dennis Walcott has been on newspapers' front pages fewer times in his three years as city schools chancellor than his predecessor, Cathie [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST Since control of the city's school system was handed to the mayor in 2003, a bewildering array of statistics has been used to support or oppose the [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST For the dozen years of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's tenure, city government has been data-driven like never before. Seemingly every policy is associated with a statistical metric--and often [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST Two years ago, Anupam Singhal got a rude awakening when he sat down to do his tax return. He had spent the year working in London and [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist Rachel Sterne, 27 Chief digital officer CITY OF NEW YORK GROWING UP in Park Slope and Westchester County, Rachel Sterne and her three siblings got conflicting parental [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist Charles Best, 35 Chief executive DONORSCHOOSE.ORG THE FIRST THING a visitor notices at the midtown headquarters of DonorsChoose.org is large rubber balls where office chairs would normally [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist, Daniel Massey and Jeremy Smerd Leader's conduct roils labor group WHILE NATIONALLY, unions have rallied against attacks on their rights, the New York City Central Labor Council [...]

Byline: Erik Engquist and Jeremy Smerd The $20M fight for Cuomo agenda ANDREW CUOMO, who has $4.9 million in his campaign war chest, is raising more money to counter the [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST The passage of the state budget last week elevated some and enervated others across the landscape of New York politics. WINNERS David Paterson: Accounts of his tumultuous [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST EDWARD I. KOCH, the mayor of New York City from 1978 through 1989, recently finished America's Mayor, a biography of one of his predecessors, John Lindsay, by [...]

Byline: ERIK ENGQUIST The Downtown Brooklyn partnership, a local development corporation formed by the Bloomberg administration in 2006 to reshape the city's third-largest business district, has run into financial and [...]