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Adhesive hydrogel-based evaporative cooling, which necessitates no electricity input, holds promise for reducing energy consumption in thermal management. Herein, inspired by the surface attachment of mussel adhesive proteins via abundant dynamic covalent bonds and noncovalent interactions, we propose a facile strategy to fabricate a self-adhesive cooling hydrogel (Li-AA-TA-PAM) using a copolymer of acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AA) as the primary framework. The monomers formed hydrogen bonds between their carboxyl and amide groups, while tannic acid (TA), rich in catechol groups, enhances the adhesion of the hydrogel through hydrogen bonding. The hydrogel demonstrated strong adhesion to various material surfaces, including plastic, ceramic, glass, and metal. Even under high-speed rotation, it still maintains robust adhesion. The adhesion strength of the Li-AA-TA-PAM hydrogel to aluminum foil reached an impressive value of 296.875 kPa. Interestingly, the excellent contact caused by robust adhesion accelerates heat transfer, resulting in a rapid cooling performance, which mimics the perspiration of mammals. Lithium bromide (LiBr) with hydroactively sorptive sites is introduced to enhance sorption kinetics, thereby extending the effective cooling period. Consequently, the operation temperature of commercial polycrystalline silicon solar cells was reduced by 16 °C under an illumination of 1 kW m–2, and the corresponding efficiency of energy conversion was increased by 1.14%, thereby enhancing the output properties and life span of solar cells. The strategy demonstrates the potential for refrigeration applications using viscous gels.

Touchless hand gesture recognition is one of the hottest areas of the human–computer interaction (HCI). In this article, we propose a low-complexity air-digit-writing recognition method based on adaptive trajectory learning using a frequency modulated continuous wave multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar. The core idea of the proposed method is the adaptive learning trajectory, which includes the rough trajectory estimation, the effective trajectory interception, and the fine trajectory processing. First, the rough trajectory estimation is sequentially conducted by the clutter suppression, range object detection, direction of arrival (DOA) estimation, angle object detection, and centroid estimation. This could reduce the effective feature dimension and further the complexity of the following network and real-time system. Second, to remove the interference of redundant actions, the effective trajectory interception employs the proposed double adaptive thresholds gradient valley search (DAT-GVS) approach to detect the start and end of the hand gestures. Third, fine trajectory processing is performed by the position-shift, normalization, and resampling to eliminate the differences in hand gestures, including the position, size, and speed, and improve the generalization ability and accuracy. Moreover, in order to further reduce the computational complexity, a single-layer long short-term memory (LSTM) network is constructed for identification. Finally, the method is deployed on a commonly used micro unit control (MCU) to realize real-time system. The experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve an average accuracy of 99.6% in train and test split test, 98.24% in leave one subject out test, 97.4% in real-time test on trained people, and 97% in real-time test on untrained people.

The use of stimulus-responsive hydrogels in intelligent gel anti-counterfeiting systems is a promising method to encrypt and decrypt information. External stimuli such as light, heat, electricity, magnetism and pH can alter the output information, while a single stimulus will limit higher levels of anti-counterfeiting. Therefore, multiple stimuli should be synergistically used to enhance information security. In this study, a highly transparent sodium alginate-polyacrylamide (SA-PAM) hydrogel is designed as the matrix. An inorganic color-changing material, ammonium molybdate (Mo7), is used to impart the gel with photochromic characteristics. Furthermore, poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNI-PAM), a temperature-sensitive material, makes the gel undergo a bulk phase transition at the lowest critical phase transition temperature (LCST), which in turn alters macroscopic state of the gel. The LCST can also be controlled by adjusting the ratio of hydrophilic and hydrophobic monomers in the gel system. By using ultraviolet (UV) light as the “ink”, the information is input, and temperature is used as the “switch” to encrypt/decrypt the information. Overall, the hydrogel exhibits excellent photochromic ability and can be colored within 10 s, while exhibiting a maximum UV light absorption rate of 96.23%. The hydrogel can rapidly reveal or conceal the information based on the response of the hydrogel to light and heat stimuli, thus ensuring that the information remains secure. This paper presents a novel approach of utilizing photochromic hydrogels in the field of information encryption.

A novel approach for solving CC-OPF problems is proposed, where the uncertainties are evaluated based on polynomial approximate method and Cornish–Fisher expansion. Both the objective function and constraints are reformulated in the form of polynomials, and then the uncertainties can be evaluated directly, where Cornish–Fisher expansion is used to handle the chance constraints. After the original probabilistic model is reformed into a deterministic optimization model, the traditional optimization methods can be implemented, e.g., interior point method. Case studies on IEEE 9-bus system and 118-bus system show that this new method can efficiently solve the CC-OPF modeled by AC load flow equations.

Vital signs daily monitoring using a radar sensor is a popular and important contactless technique because of its advantage of penetrating the quilt, not leaking privacy, being sensitive to human micromotion, and so on. However, multiple people’s respiration rate estimation for the case of two people with arbitrary sleeping postures is still a challenging issue. In this article, we propose a continuous respiratory rate estimation approach based on phase features using array radar in home sleeping monitoring. The motivation of the proposed approach lies in that the phases can reflect the details of people’s breathing. Specifically, we acquire the possible clusters of people and the corresponding features of these clusters to determine the people number and their locations. Then, we obtain the possible phases of people and select candidate respiratory phases from these possible phases according to the phase shape similarity feature and the respiratory intensity feature. Subsequently, we calculate the candidate respiratory phases’ rates and associate people’s respiratory rates based on the respiratory frequency matching strategy which can reduce the mutual interference among multiple people. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can achieve an average mean accuracy of 97.4% in one-person cases, and 96.94% in two-person cases and show robustness to different sleeping positions, people number changing, and people sleeping postures.

To compare the on‐site diagnostic performance of contrast‐enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), computed tomography (CECT), and magnetic resonance imaging (CEMRI) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) across diverse practice settings. Between May 2019 and April 2022, a total of 2085 patients with 2320 pathologically confirmed focal liver lesions (FLLs) were enrolled. Imaging reports were compared with results from pathology analysis. Diagnostic performance was analyzed in defined size, high‐risk factors for HCC, and hospital volume categories. Three images achieved similar diagnostic performance in classifying HCC from 16 types of FLLs, including HCC ≤2.0 cm. For HCC diagnosis at low‐volume hospitals and HCC with high‐risk factors, the accuracy and specificity of CEUS were comparable to CECT and CEMRI, while the sensitivity of CEUS (77.4 and 89.5%, respectively) was inferior to CEMRI (87.0 and 92.8%, respectively). The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS + CEMRI and CEUS + CECT increased by 7.8 and 6.2% for HCC ≤2.0 cm, 8.0 and 5.0% for HCC with high‐risk factors, and 7.4 and 5.5% for HCC at low‐volume hospitals, respectively, compared with CEMRI/CECT alone. Compared with CECT and CEMRI, CEUS provides adequate diagnostic performance in clinical first‐line applications at high‐volume hospitals. Moreover, a higher diagnostic performance for HCC is achieved by combining CEUS with CECT/CEMRI compared with any single imaging technique.

In this study, phytic acid‐polydopamine functionalized GO (GO@PA@PDA) was first synthesized. The DOPO derivatives, hydroxyl‐terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and GO@PA@PDA were incorporated into waterborne polyurethane (WPU) by in situ polymerization. The chemical structure of GO@PA@PDA was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. A cone calorimeter test and a universal testing machine investigated the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of GO@PA@PDA modified waterborne polyurethane (GPD‐WPU). The results showed that the incorporation of GO@PA@PDA into WPU significantly enhanced the flame retardancy by reducing the heat release rate, total heat release, smoke production rate, and total smoke production. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the GPD‐WPU composite films increased with the dosage of GO@PA@PDA from 0 to 2.0 wt%, and decreased slightly afterward. The contact angle and atomic force microscope measurements showed that the addition of GO@PA@PDA increased the surface roughness of GPD‐WPU composite film, thereby improving the hydrophobicity of GPD‐WPU composite films. Afterward, GPD‐WPU as a finishing agent was coated on polyester fabric. The experimental results of limiting oxygen index (LOI) and the vertical burning test indicated that when the dosage of GO@PA@PDA was 2.5 wt% in GPD‐WPU, after‐flame time, after‐glow time, damage length and LOI value of the coated polyester fabric were 2.9 s, 0 s, 6.8 cm, and 28.6%, respectively.

Flood construction risk control occurs throughout the entire civil engineering construction phase and is an important issue that must be considered in engineering planning and design. However, risk analysis requires the coordination of indicators that affect each other in many aspects such as construction duration and potential losses, and there is a lack of corresponding multi-objective decision-making methods. The study takes the construction period of an earth and rock dam as an example, and based on the construction of a mathematical model of flood risk during the construction period of a civil engineering project, the flood risk is calculated through the Monte–Carlo simulation method. The multi-objective decision making model was then constructed by using the improved hierarchical analysis method of kernel entropy weighting to determine the weights of the decision indicators and introducing the approximate ideal solution ranking method to complete the multi-objective decision making model of the diversion scheme during the construction period. The results show that in the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve area comparison, the proposed method can reach 0.941. In the comprehensive F1 value change, the method gradually stabilises when the time reaches 0.98s, and the F1 value is 98.45%. In the practical application of the reservoir construction project, the method has an inflow accuracy of 96.355% and a running time of 0.182s, indicating that it can effectively avoid risks and is more efficient, providing a new technical reference for the safety of civil engineering flood construction.

The present study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of different types of PCR tests with the aim of determining which one performs best for detecting Helicobacter pyloriin stool samples. Related articles were searched from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science databases, Scopus, and Scholar Google. The quality of included studies was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool and RevMan5.4 software. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, DOR, PLR and NLR for the stool PCR test in detecting H. pyloriinfection were performed by Stata 15.0 software. Subgroup meta-analysis was performed by Open Meta-analyst software. Ten studies were selected in this study. Stool PCR test had 92.0 % (83.0, 96.0 %) pooled sensitivity, 96.0 % (84.0, 99.0 %) pooled specificity, 296.0 (51.6, 1,696.9) pooled DOR, 26.1 (5.3, 128.7) pooled PLR and 0.09 (0.04, 0.18) NLR in the diagnosis of H. pyloriinfection, and summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) illustrated an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.98. Subgroup meta-analysis showed rtPCR as having the highest diagnostic accuracy. Our results identify rtPCR as having the highest diagnostic accuracy for the detection of H. pyloriin stool samples, and the stool PCR test as a reliable diagnostic tool for H. pyloriinfection.

Lane keeping assistance system (LKAS) is critical components of autonomous driving technologies, and their reliable operation is crucial to ensure passenger safety and maintain traffic flow. The validation of LKAS's safety and performance requires extensive testing using diverse and representative test scenarios. However, identifying the most critical test scenarios from a large data is a significant challenge. Inspired by Scenarios Engineering, the present study introduces a novel approach that includes being the first to combine analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and hierarchical clustering (HC) to identify critical test scenarios for the comprehensive evaluation of LKAS. The proposed approach first utilizes the AHP to rank the key factors that contribute to the failure of the LKAS. Then, by taking the key factors as clustering parameters, the HC method is employed to cluster LKAS failure scenarios with similar characteristics. The experimental results suggest that our method is capable of effectively clustering 200 LKAS failure scenarios into 9 categories of critical, reasonable, and reliable LKAS test scenarios. Furthermore, these 9 categories of critical test scenarios can provide guidance for the development and testing of autonomous driving and serve as a foundation for establishing a testing and evaluation system for LKAS in China and around the world.

Ultrasonography is the most widely used technique to diagnose echinococcosis; however, challenges in using this technique and the demand on medical resources, especially in low-income or remote areas, can delay diagnosis. We aimed to develop a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model based on ultrasonography to identify echinococcosis and its types, especially alveolar echinococcosis.

Background: Alport syndrome is caused by COL4A3, COL4A4, or COL4A5 gene mutations. The present study aims to compare the clinicopathological features, gene mutations, and outcome of Chinese children with different forms of Alport syndrome. Methods: One hundred twenty-eight children from 126 families diagnosed with Alport syndrome through pathological and genetic examination between 2003 and 2021 were included in this single-center retrospective study. The laboratory and clinicopathological features of the patients with different inheritance patterns were analyzed. The patients were followed-up for disease progression and phenotype-genotype correlation. Results: Of the 126 Alport syndrome families, X-linked forms accounted for 77.0%, autosomal recessive for 11.9%, autosomal dominant for 7.1%, and digenic for 4.0%. Among the patients, 59.4% were males and 40.6% were females. Altogether, 114 different mutations were identified in 101 patients from 99 families by whole-exome sequencing, of which 68 have not been previously reported. The most prevalent type of mutation was glycine substitution, which was identified in 52.1%, 36.7%, and 60% of the patients with X-linked Alport syndrome, autosomal recessive and autosomal dominant Alport syndrome, respectively. At the end of a median follow up of 3.3 (1.8–6.3) years, Kaplan–Meier curves showed kidney survival was significantly lower in autosomal recessive compared to X-linked Alport syndrome (P= 0.004). Pediatric patients with Alport syndrome seldom presented extrarenal involvement. Conclusions: X-linked Alport syndrome is the most frequent form found in this cohort. Progression was more rapid in autosmal recessive than in X-linked Alport syndrome. Graphical abstract:

Byline: Chunhui. Ouyang, Zhenghao. Deng, Jianhua. Zhou, Chunyan. Fu, Shuang. Liu, Yongguang. Tao, Desheng. Xiao Background: We assessed the frequency of epigenetic lesions, including lymphoid-specific helicase (LSH), 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) and [...]

The forward variable area bypass injector (FVABI) is a key component of double bypass variable cycle engine (VCE) to achieve mode transition and bypass ratio adjustment. In this paper, an experimental system for FVABI was constructed based on the analysis of relevant experimental theories, and then the experiments on FVABI were carried out for a specific working state in double bypass mode of VCE and for the comparison working states with different area ratios and different back pressure ratios. The results showed that the FVABI designed in this paper meets the requirements of VCE at this working state. The analysis of the influence of area ratio and back pressure ratio on the injection coefficient showed that the first bypass valve and back pressure were effective means to control the mass flow of FVABI.

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) have proven the potential for future power sources due to the ultrahigh theoretical specific capacity, material abundance, and eco-friendliness. However, the insulation of sulfur and the notorious shuttle effect of polysulfides impede the practical use. In this work, we introduced the hollow carbonized cotton cloth (CCC) as an interlayer by simple one-step carbonization. CCC reduces the charge transfer resistance and inhibits the shuttle effect, enabling LSBs with high rate and cycling performances in all climates. Specifically, the LSBs based on the CCC interlayer deliver rate capacities of 118, 399, and 879 mAh g–1at 2 C at −30, 0, and 50 °C, respectively. Correspondingly in the 1 C cycling tests, the initial specific capacities are 168, 490, and 885 mAh g–1; the decay rates are 0.029% (1000 cycles), 0.034% (1000 cycles), and 0.056% (800 cycles). Moreover, with a higher sulfur loading of 2.3 mg cm–2, the ambient CCC battery achieves a decay rate of only 0.03% per cycle in the 1 C test (800 cycles). Compared with commercial carbon cloth, the ultralow price, light weight, easily scalable preparation, and all-climate good performance of CCC can extremely push LSBs to practical use in the future.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based assays have been an emerging diagnostic technology for pathogen diagnosis. In this work, we developed a polydisperse droplet digital CRISPR-Cas-based assay (PddCas) for the rapid and ultrasensitive amplification-free detection of viral DNA/RNA with minimum instruments. LbaCas12a and LbuCas13a were used for the direct detection of viral DNA and RNA, respectively. The reaction mixtures were partitioned with a common vortex mixer to generate picoliter-scale polydisperse droplets in several seconds. The limit of detection (LoD) for the target DNA and RNA is approximately 100 aM and 10 aM, respectively, which is about 3 × 104–105fold more sensitive than corresponding bulk CRISPR assays. We applied the PddCas to successfully detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and human papillomavirus type 18 (HPV 18) in clinical samples. For the 23 HPV 18-suspected cervical epithelial cell samples and 32 nasopharyngeal swabs for SARS-CoV-2, 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity were demonstrated. The dual-gene virus detection with PddCas was also established and verified. Therefore, PddCas has potential for point-of-care application and is envisioned to be readily deployed for frequent testing as part of an integrated public health surveillance program.

Microbubbles have been widely used as ultrasound contrast agents in clinical diagnosis. Moreover, most current preparation methods for microbubbles are uncontrollable, and the as-obtained microbubbles are unstable in aqueous solution or under ultrasound. Here, we report a strategy to prepare superiorly stable microbubbles with three-layer structures by the ethanol–water exchange. This versatile method can also be applied to prepare different kinds of protein microbubbles with various sizes for advanced biomedical applications. To demonstrate this, the protein air microbubbles are created, which is stable in water for several days with intact structures and exhibits excellent contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging. Moreover, the protein air microbubbles can also deliver a mass of drugs while maintaining their stable structures, making them a platform for ultrasound imaging-guided drug delivery. The versatile protein air microbubbles have great potential for the design and application of theranostic platforms.

The sleep posture recognition and tracking using radar sensor is one of the most important techniques because of its advantages of stable performance, privacy protection, and so on. However, radar echo signals are highly sensitive to different humans, resulting in a week generalization ability. To solve this problem, we propose a human sleep posture recognition method based on interactive learning of ultra-long short-term information using millimeter-wave radar. The motivation of the proposed method using the interactive learning strategy lies that it is easy to obtain stable information with an ultra-long-term observation. Specifically, we first conduct short-term human state separation sequentially by body movement index estimation, big movement detection, range–Doppler map calculation, and lateral and nonlateral rough identification. This could separate the three human states of big movement, lateral posture, and other recumbency, and prepare for finer posture recognition. Second, we sort the three sleep postures of supine, side, and prone and extract personalized features with an ultra-long-term observation to enhance the robustness. Finally, combined with the extracted personalized ultra-long-term features, we achieve recognition of three sleep postures and seven sleep postural conversions (SPCs) with a short-term observation for real-time judgment. The experimental results show that the proposed method has low computational complexity and can achieve an average accuracy of 91% in three sleep postures’ recognition and 83.7% in seven SPCs’ classification.

Byline: Bin. Xie, Zhenghao. Deng, Yu. Pan, Chunyan. Fu, Songqing. Fan, Yongguang. Tao, Jianhua. Zhou, Desheng. Xiao Objective: The objective of this study is to elucidate the regulation of the [...]

Conventional epidermal bioelectronics usually do not conform well with natural skin surfaces and are susceptible to motion artifact interference, due to incompatible dimensions, insufficient adhesion, imperfect compliance, and usually require complex manufacturing and high costs. We propose in situforming hydrogel electrodes or electronics (ISF-HEs) that can establish highly conformal interfaces on curved biological surfaces without auxiliary adhesions. The ISF-HEs also have favorable flexibility and soft compliance comparable to human skin (≈0.02 kPa–1), which can stably maintain synchronous movements with deformed skins. Thus, the as-prepared ISF-HEs can accurately monitor large and tiny human motions with short response time (≈180 ms), good biocompatibility, and excellent performance. The as-obtained nongapped hydrogel electrode-skin interfaces achieve ultralow interfacial impedance (≈50 KΩ), nearly an order of magnitude lower than commercial Ag|AgCl electrodes as well as other reported dry and wet electrodes, regardless of the intrinsic micro-obstacles (wrinkles, hair) and skin deformation interference. Therefore, the ISF-HEs can collect high-quality electrocardiography and surface electromyography (sEMG) signals, with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR ≈ 32.04 dB), reduced signal crosstalk, and minimized motion artifact interference. Simultaneously monitoring human motions and sEMG signals have also been implemented for the general exercise status assessment, such as the shooting competition in the Olympics. The as-prepared ISF-HEs can be considered as supplements/substitutes of conventional electrodes in percutaneously noninvasive monitoring of multifunctional physiological signals for health and exercise status.

A Vesical Imaging Reporting and Data System developed based on features on contrast-enhanced US images acquired via transabdominal and intracavity approaches showed good performance and interreader agreement for the assessment of muscle invasion in patients with bladder cancer.

The past few decades have witnessed the rapid advancement and broad applications of flexible bioelectronics, in wearable and implantable electronics, brain–computer interfaces, neural science and technology, clinical diagnosis, treatment, etc. It is noteworthy that soft and elastic conductive hydrogels, owing to their multiple similarities with biological tissues in terms of mechanics, electronics, water‐rich, and biological functions, have successfully bridged the gap between rigid electronics and soft biology. Multifunctional hydrogel bioelectronics, emerging as a new generation of promising material candidates, have authentically established highly compatible and reliable, high‐quality bioelectronic interfaces, particularly in bioelectronic recording and stimulation. This review summarizes the material basis and design principles involved in constructing hydrogel bioelectronic interfaces, and systematically discusses the fundamental mechanism and unique advantages in bioelectrical interfacing with the biological surface. Furthermore, an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art manufacturing strategies for hydrogel bioelectronic interfaces with enhanced biocompatibility and integration with the biological system is presented. This review finally exemplifies the unprecedented advancement and impetus toward bioelectronic recording and stimulation, especially in implantable and integrated hydrogel bioelectronic systems, and concludes with a perspective expectation for hydrogel bioelectronics in clinical and biomedical applications. Soft and elastic conductive hydrogels, owing to their multiple similarities with biological tissues in terms of mechanics, electronics, water‐rich, and biological functions, have successfully bridged the gap between rigid electronics and soft biology. Multifunctional hydrogel bioelectronics, emerging as a new generation of promising material candidates, have authentically established highly compatible and reliable, high‐quality bioelectronic interfaces, particularly in bioelectronic recording and stimulation.

The storage of facial images in medical records poses privacy risks due to the sensitive nature of the personal biometric information that can be extracted from such images. To minimize these risks, we developed a new technology, called the digital mask (DM), which is based on three-dimensional reconstruction and deep-learning algorithms to irreversibly erase identifiable features, while retaining disease-relevant features needed for diagnosis. In a prospective clinical study to evaluate the technology for diagnosis of ocular conditions, we found very high diagnostic consistency between the use of original and reconstructed facial videos (κ≥ 0.845 for strabismus, ptosis and nystagmus, and κ= 0.801 for thyroid-associated orbitopathy) and comparable diagnostic accuracy (P≥ 0.131 for all ocular conditions tested) was observed. Identity removal validation using multiple-choice questions showed that compared to image cropping, the DM could much more effectively remove identity attributes from facial images. We further confirmed the ability of the DM to evade recognition systems using artificial intelligence-powered re-identification algorithms. Moreover, use of the DM increased the willingness of patients with ocular conditions to provide their facial images as health information during medical treatment. These results indicate the potential of the DM algorithm to protect the privacy of patients’ facial images in an era of rapid adoption of digital health technologies.

Dynamic observation of the behaviors of nanomaterials in the cellular environment is of great significance in mechanistic investigations on nanomaterial-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Realizing label-free observations with nanometer resolution is necessary but still has major challenges. Herein, we propose a NanoSuit-assisted liquid-cell scanning electron microscopy (NanoSuit-LCSEM) method that enables imaging of the behaviors of nanoparticles in living cells. Taking A549 cells and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as a cell–nanoparticle interaction model, the NanoSuit-LCSEM method showed a significantly improved resolution to 10 nm, which is high enough to distinguish single and two adjacent 30 nm AuNPs in cells. The continuous observation time for living cells is extended to 30 min, and the trajectories and velocities for the transmembrane movement of AuNP aggregates are obtained. This study provides a new approach for dynamic observation of nanomaterials in intact living cells and will greatly benefit the interdisciplinary research of nanomaterials, nanomedicine, and nanotechnology.

Molecular electrophotocatalysis has emerged as a powerful strategy for the development of sustainable synthetic protocols. With the proof-of-concept, we exploited a versatile electrophotocatalytic deaminative alkylation approach. Mechanistic investigation indicated that in situ recycling of the alkyl radicals was the key point. Notably, ligand modification and late-stage functionalization of pharmaceuticals were also established, highlighting its feasibility in practical utilization.

In various ferroelectric-based photovoltaic materials after low-band-gap engineering, the process by which high-field polarization induces the depolarizing electric field (Edp) to accelerate the electron–hole pair separation in the visible light photocatalytic process is still a great challenge. Herein, a series of semiconducting KN-based ferroelectric catalytic materials with narrow multi-band gaps and high-field polarization capabilities are obtained through the Ba, Ni, and Bi co-doping strategy. Stable Edpcaused by high-field poling enhanced the visible photocatalytic hydrogen evolution in a 0.99KN–0.01BNB sample with a narrow band gap and optimal ferroelectricity, which can be 5.4 times higher than that of the unpoled sample. The enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate can be attributed to the synergistic effect of the significant reduction of the band gap and the high-field-polarization-induced Edp. The change in the band position in the poled sample further reveals that high-field poling may accelerate the migration of carriers through band bending. Insights into the mechanism by which catalytic activity is enhanced through high-field-polarization-induced Edpmay pave the way for further development of ferroelectric-based catalytic materials in the photocatalytic field.

The scaffold microstructure is important for bone tissue engineering. Failure to synergistically imitate the hierarchical microstructure of the components of bone, such as an osteon with concentric multilayers assembled by nanofibers, hinders the performance for guiding bone regeneration. Here, a 2D bilayer nanofibrous membrane (BLM) containing poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)/polycaprolactone (PCL) composite membranes in similar compositions (PCL15 and PCL20), but possessing different degrees of shrinkage, was fabricated viasequential electrospinning. Upon incubation in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (37 °C), the 2D BLM spontaneously deformed into a 3D shape induced by PCL crystallization within the PLGA matrix, and the PCL15 and PCL20 layer formed a concave and convex surface, respectively. The 3D structure contained curved multilayers with an average diameter of 776 ± 169 μm, and on the concave and convex surface the nanofiber diameters were 792 ± 225 and 881 ± 259 nm, respectively. The initial 2D structure facilitated the even distribution of seeded cells. Adipose-derived stem cells from rats (rADSCs) proliferated faster on a concave surface than on a convex surface. For the 3D BLM, the osteogenic differentiation of rADSCs was significantly higher than that on 2D surfaces, even without osteogenic supplements, which resulted from the stretched cell morphology on the curved sublayer leading to increased expression of lamin-A. After being implanted into cranial defects in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats, 3D BLM significantly accelerated bone formation. In summary, 3D BLM with an osteon-like structure provides a potential strategy to repair bone defects.

The aim of this study was to discuss the diagnostic value of high-resolution ultrasound and virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) for distinguishing metastatic and benign central lymph nodes (CLNs) in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. This retrospective study involved 86 pathologically proven benign lymph nodes (LNs) and 118 metastatic LNs in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. We analyzed the sonographic features of CLNs (size, shape, distribution, hilum, echogenicity, cystic change, calcification, vascularity, shear-wave velocity [SWV]). The prevalence of sonographic features and the SWV was compared between metastatic and benign CLNs. The size, shape, margin, distribution, presence of hilum, echogenicity, calcification, and vascularity were significantly different between benign and metastatic CLNs (P< 0.05 for all). The mean maximum SWV for malignant CLNs was 3.139 ± 0.408 m/s, whereas that of benign CLNs was 2.418 ± 0.369 m/s (P< 0.05). The cutoff point of the SWV for differentiating benign and malignant LNs was 2.675 m/s. Logistic regression analysis showed that round or irregular shape, aggregation or fusion, calcification, and VTIQ value greater than 2.675 m/s of CLNs were independent risk factors for malignancy, with an odds ratio of 5.77, 3.05, 3.23, and 62.85, respectively. High-resolution ultrasound and VTIQ can provide valuable information for distinguishing metastatic from benign CLNs.

Without the use of catalysts and oxidants, a facile and sustainable electrochemical bromination protocol was developed. By introducing the directing groups, the regioselectivity of pyridine derivatives could be controlled at the meta-position utilizing the inexpensive and safe bromine salts at room temperature. A variety of brominated pyridine derivatives were obtained in 28–95% yields, and the reaction could be readily performed at a gram scale. By combining the installation and removing the directing group, the concept of meta-bromination of pyridines could be verified.

The emergent solar-driven water evaporation technology provides a reassuring scheme for red mud (RM) utilization in environment and materials science. With fewer restrictions on raw materials, wide availability of sheer quantity, and high complexity in chemical composition, the RM may be a promising candidate for solar absorbers. Here, we developed a novel solar absorber with reduced RM. It features favorable light absorption and photothermal conversion ability using biomass pyrolysis. When added to the polyvinyl alcohol and chitosan gel substrate, the light absorptance can reach 94.65%, while the corresponding evaporation rate is as high as 2.185 kg m–2h–1under an illumination density of 1 kW m–2. We further demonstrated its potential as an efficient solar absorber in the solar-driven water evaporation and the thermoelectric device to realize the stable and efficient coproduction of vapor and electricity.

Ultrasensitive detection of nucleic acids is of great significance for precision medicine. Digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) is the most sensitive method but requires sophisticated and expensive instruments and a long reaction time. Digital PCR-free technologies, which mean the digital assay not relying on thermal cycling to amplify the signal for quantitative detection of nucleic acids at the single-molecule level, include the digital isothermal amplification techniques (dIATs) and the digital clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) technologies. They combine the advantages of dPCR and IATs, which could be fast and simple, enabling absolute quantification of nucleic acids at a single-molecule level with minimum instrument, representing the next-generation molecular diagnostic technology. Herein, we systematically summarized the strategies and applications of various dIATs, including the digital loop-mediated isothermal amplification (dLAMP), the digital recombinase polymerase amplification (dRPA), the digital rolling circle amplification (dRCA), the digital nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (dNASBA) and the digital multiple displacement amplification (dMDA), and evaluated the pros and cons of each method. The emerging digital CRISPR technologies, including the detection mechanism of CRISPR and the various strategies for signal amplification, are also introduced comprehensively in this review. The current challenges as well as the future perspectives of the digital PCR-free technology were discussed.

To clarify the clinical efficacy of needle-embedding therapy for stable angina pectoris.

Given the harmful effect of pesticide residues, it is essential to develop portable and accurate biosensors for the analysis of pesticides in agricultural products. In this paper, we demonstrated a dual-mode fluorescent/intelligent (DM-f/DM-i) lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) for chloroacetamide herbicides, which utilized horseradish peroxidase-IgG conjugated time-resolved fluorescent nanoparticle probes as both a signal label and amplification tool. With the newly developed LFIA in the DM-f mode, the limits of detection (LODs) were 0.08 ng/mL of acetochlor, 0.29 ng/mL of metolachlor, 0.51 ng/mL of Propisochlor, and 0.13 ng/mL of their mixture. In the DM-i mode, machine learning (ML) algorithms were used for image segmentation, feature extraction, and correlation analysis to obtain multivariate fitted equations, which had high reliability in the regression model with R2of 0.95 in the range of 2 × 102–2 × 105pg/mL. Importantly, the practical applicability was successfully validated by determining chloroacetamide herbicides in the corn sample with good recovery rates (85.4 to 109.3%) that correlate well with the regression model. The newly developed dual-mode LFIA with reduced detection time (12 min) holds great potential for pesticide monitoring in equipment-limited environments using a portable test strip reader and laboratory conditions using ML algorithms.

Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) problems are encountered in many applications, of which bi-objective problems are frequently met. Despite the computational efforts, the quality of the Pareto front is also a considerable issue. An evenly distributed Pareto front is desirable in certain cases when a continuous representation of the Pareto front is needed. In this paper, a new approach called Circle Intersection (CI) is proposed. Firstly, the anchor points are computed. Then in the normalized objective space, a circle with a proper radius of r centering at one of the anchor points or the latest obtained Pareto point is drawn. Interestingly, the intersection of the circle and the feasible boundary can be determined whether it is a Pareto point or not. For a convex or concave feasible boundary, the intersection is exactly the Pareto point, while for other cases the intersection can provide useful information for searching the true Pareto point even if it is not a Pareto point. A novel MOO formulation is proposed for CI correspondingly. Sixteen examples are used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method and results are compared to those of NNC, MOGOA, and NSGA-II. Computational results show that the proposed CI method is able to obtain a well-distributed Pareto front with a better quality or with less computational cost.

Electronic materials and devices that can mimic biological systems featured with elasticity, toughness, self-healing, degradability, and environmental friendliness drive the technological developments in fields spanning from bioelectronics, biomedical diagnosis and therapy, electronic skin, and soft robotics to Internet-of-Things with “green” electronics. Among them, ionic devices based on gel electrolytes have emerged as attractive candidates for biomimetic systems. Herein, we presented a straightforward approach to demonstrate soft ionic microdevices based on a versatile organohydrogel platform acting as both a free-standing, stretchable, adhesive, healable, and entirely degradable support and a highly conductive, dehydration- and freezing-tolerant electrolyte. This is achieved by forming a gelatin/ferric-ion-cross-linked polyacrylic acid (GEL/PAA) dual dynamic supramolecular network followed by soaking into a NaCl glycerol/water solution to further toughen the gelatin network via solvent displacement, thus obtaining a high toughness of 1.34 MJ·cm–3and a high ionic conductivity (>7 mS·cm–1). Highly stretchable and multifunctional ionic microdevices are then fabricated based on the organohydrogel electrolytes by simple transfer printing of carbon-based microelectrodes onto the prestretched gel surface. Proof-of-concept microdevices including resistive strain sensors and microsupercapacitors are demonstrated, which displayed outstanding stretchability to 300% strain, resistance to dehydration for >6 months, autonomous self-healing, and rapid room-temperature degradation within hours. The present material design and fabrication approach for the organohydrogel-based ionic microdevices will provide promising scope for life-like and sustainable electronic systems.

•142 sequence types (STs) were identified among 400 Escherichia colifaecal isolates.•Rate of potential pathogenic isolates was 12.5% from healthy animal samples and 17.5% from diarrhoeic samples.•All polymyxin B-resistant E. coliisolates harboured the mcr-1gene.•62 ESBL-producing isolates were identified, with TEM being the predominant ESBL type (82.3%).

Natural products are becoming increasingly popular in a variety of traditional, complementary, and alternative systems due to their potency and slight side effects. Natural compounds have been shown to be effective against many human diseases, especially cancers. Sulforaphane (SFE) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have been conducted to evaluate the antitumor effect of SFE. The roles of SFE in cancers are mainly through the regulation of potential biomarkers to activate or inhibit related signaling pathways. SFE has exhibited promising inhibitory effects on breast cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, and other malignant tumors. In this review, we summarized the reports on the activity and functional mechanisms of SFE in cancer treatment and explored the efficacy and toxicity of SFE.

Three cases of the application of focused cardiac ultrasound in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 are presented.

Materials research usually relies on lengthy and largely trial-and-error methods, high-throughput technology has thereby emerged as an alternative method which is proven to be a simple, rapid, accurate and sensitive technique. Here, we presented a microfluidic platform with a set of 6 × 6 microarray chips for high-throughput synthesis and rapid screening the reaction conditions of biomedical materials. The core design of this platform is to generate concentration gradient inside microarray chips. Considering that calcium phosphates (CaP) are the most important inorganic constituents of biological hard tissues, different phases of calcium phosphates particles were synthesized with various morphogenesis when the reaction conditions such as Ca/P concentration ratio, NaOH concentration were screened using our platform. And this platform is universal and expected to apply to other systems for high-throughput screening and synthesis.

A novel O-carboxymethyl chitosan Schiff base (OCMCS-SB) was synthesized by condensation of O-carboxymethyl chitosan and o-vanillin and evaluated as an adsorbent for Cd(II). The structure of the chitosan Schiff base was characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermo- gravimetric analysis/differential thermal gravity, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The effect of adsorbent dose, pH, concentration, the contact time was evaluated in tshe adsorption experiments of Cd(II). The optimum adsorption pH value was found at 5.5. The adsorption isothermal data fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm equation, the kinetics of adsorption was best described by a pseudo-second-order model. The maximum adsorption is gained at 480 min as 46.72 mg/g and after that the adsorption attained equilibrium. This OCMCS-SB results to be an excellent adsorbent with good selectivity for Cd(II) from a multi-ionic system, was successfully recycled for several runs without significant loss in its adsorption activity.

This study was aimed to assess whether ultrasonic spectrum analysis of radiofrequency (RF) time series using a clinical ultrasound system allows for early differentiating between the chemotherapy responders and nonresponders in human breast cancer xenografts that imitate clinical responding and nonresponding tumors. Clinically responding (n= 20; MCF-7) and nonresponding (n= 20; MBA-MD-231) breast cancer xenografts were established in 40 nude mice. Ten mice from each group received either chemotherapy (adriamycin, 4 mg/kg) or saline as controls. Each tumor was imaged longitudinally with a clinical ultrasound scanner at baseline (day 0) and subsequently on days 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 following treatment, and the corresponding RF time-series data were collected. Changes in six RF time-series parameters (slope, intercept, S1, S2, S3and S4) were compared with the measurement of the tumor cell density, and their differential performances of the treatment response were analyzed. Adriamycin significantly inhibited tumor growth and decreased the cancer cell density in responders (P< 0.001) but not in nonresponders (P> 0.05). Fold changes of slopewere significantly increased in responders two days after adriamycin treatment (P= 0.002), but not in nonresponders (P> 0.05). Early changes in slopeon day 2 could differentiate the treatment response in 100% of both responders (95% CI, 62.9–100.0%) and nonresponders (95% CI, 88.4–100%). Ultrasonic RF time series allowed for the monitoring of the tumor response to chemotherapy and could further serve as biomarkers for early differentiating between the treatment responders and nonresponders.