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Rubber-like intrinsically stretchable conductors that can maintain their electrical conductance during large mechanical deformation are essential to realize soft wearable optoelectronics, where large mechanical stretchability or deformation is involved. However, the scalable manufacturing of such rubbery conductors, particularly in a simple, reproducible manner, has been generally challenging and the related development is still at a premature stage. Here, we report the scalable manufacturing of high-performance stretchable conductors and their application in wearable optoelectronics. The rubbery conductors can be fabricated by an efficient, environmentally friendly and low-cost 3D printing direct writing transfer method. The printed conductor pattern can be controlled by adjusting the printing parameters easily. Based on the fabricated stretchable electrodes, wearable photodetectors and transistors are constructed and can function well under mechanical deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textile‐based generators that can convert low‐grade energy from the human body or environment into sustainable electricity have generated immense scientific interest in self‐powered wearable applications. However, their low power density and environmental suitability have extremely restricted their portable applications in complex and mutable environments. Herein, an asymmetric sandwich structure between molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)‐carbonized silks (MCs) and MoS2/MXene–Cottons (MMCs) to construct efficient thermo–hydroelectric generators (THEGs) that synergistically harvest heat‐moisture energy to generate considerable electricity is rationally designed. Notably, the large surface area of MoS2/MXene van der Waals heterojunctions (vdWhs) enables efficient charge collection, and the vertical MoS2 nanosheet arrays supply abundant nanochannels for a highly efficient hydration effect, generating an output power density of 32.26 µW cm−2 after wetting with deionized water. Combined with the sensitive temperature recognition ability with a Seebeck coefficient of 23.5 µV K−1, the application possibilities of these prepared THEGs in the mutual conversion of fingertip temperature/language, and the monitoring of the human physiological state is foresee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tremendous personal and economic burden worldwide caused by low back pain (LBP) has been surging in recent years. While intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is the leading cause of LBP and vast efforts have been made to develop effective therapies, this problem is far from being resolved, as most treatments, such as painkillers and surgeries, mainly focus on relieving the symptoms rather than reversing the cause of IVDD. However, as stem/progenitor cells possess the potential to regenerate IVD, a deeper understanding of the early development and role of these cells could help to improve the effectiveness of stem/progenitor cell therapy in treating LBP. Single-cell RNA sequencing results provide fresh insights into the heterogeneity and development patterns of IVD progenitors; additionally, we compare mesenchymal stromal cells and IVD progenitors to provide a clearer view of the optimal cell source proposed for IVD regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic textiles present an enticing prospect for personal health assessment and physical monitoring, owing to their strong stretchability, high flexibility, mechanical robustness and high capacity in sensing small deformations in human motions. Herein, a multifunctional robust flexible knitting-shaped strain sensor based on the functional heterostructure composed of the conductive MXene (Ti3C2Tx) nanosheet and the antimicrobial Cu2O nanoparticles is prepared via a solution-processable dip-dry coating approach. The textile-based strain sensor exhibits a highly stable and immediate response over a wide range, which shows great advantages in detecting and monitoring human activities, such as smiling, swallowing, and wrist/finger/joint bending. Significantly, these prepared strain sensors present a promising application in smart wear, which was typically employed as the smart sensing gloves in barrier-free communication for hearing-impaired people. Interestingly, the different resistance evolutions of the knitted sensor under both low and high strain were carried out to study the sensing mechanism for the first time. Notably, the strain sensor displays a reliable antibacterial efficiency of ∼99.1% for Escherichia coli and outstanding breathability as high as 190 mm/s. This developed MXene/Cu2O hybrid materials supplies a new insight for the rational design and synthesis of multifunctional nanomaterials, as well as the achievement of the flexible wearable sensor with high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

aimed to analyze the placental transcriptional data and clinical information of PE patients available in the published database and predict the target genes for prevention of PE. Methods: The clinical information and corresponding RNA data of PE patients were downloaded from the GEO database. Cluster analysis was performed to examine the correlation between different genotyping genes and clinical manifestations. Then, bioinformatic approaches including GO, KEGG, WGCNA, and GSEA were employed to functionally characterize candidate target genes involved in pathogenesis of PE. Results: Two PE datasets GSE60438 and GSE75010 were obtained and combined, thereby providing the data of 205 samples in total (100 non-PE and 105 PE samples). After eliminating the batch effect, we grouped and analyzed the integrated data, and further performed GSEA analysis. It was found that the genes in group 1 and group 2 were different from those in normal samples. Moreover, WGCNA analysis revealed that genes in group 1 were up-regulated in turquoise module, including SASH1, PIK3CB and FLT-1, while genes in group 2 were up-regulated in the blue and brown modules. We further conducted GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses and found that the differential genes in turquoise module were mainly involved in biological processes such as small molecular catabolic process, while being highly enriched in pathways, including MAPK signaling pathway and Rap1 signaling pathway. Conclusion: FLT-1 was conventionally used to predict PE risk, and sFLT-1 could also be used as an indicator to evaluate PE treatment effect. As a candidate biomarker for predicting PE, SASH1 may participate in proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial mesenchymal transformation of human trophoblast cells by regulating MAPK pathway and Rap1 signaling pathway, thus affecting the progression of PE. The mechanism allowing PIK3CB to regulate PE development was not clear, while the gene could be another candidate biomarker for PE risk prediction. This is an exploratory study and our findings were still required verification in further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 4D printing has gained increasing attention in the tissue engineering field since this advanced manufacturing platform can create stimulus-responsive structures, which can change their shapes, functions, and/or properties when appropriate external stimulus/stimuli is/are applied. A number of hydrogels with swellable/shrinkable abilities have been explored for 4D printing to fabricate different shape-morphing structures for tissue engineering. Among them, gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) has been 4D printed, which can self-fold into microtubular structures. Currently, the self-folding ability of 4D printed GelMA hydrogels is mainly based on the different cross-linking degrees (which control and govern the swelling degrees) across the thickness of hydrogels. However, this strategy alone can only form self-folding GelMA tubes with diameters at the micrometer level and cannot create self-folding GelMA tubes with diameters at the millimeter level, which is mainly due to the insufficient internal force generated in 4D printed GelMA hydrogels when they are exposed to water. To overcome this limitation, this study has investigated a new strategy to fabricate self-folding GelMA tubes with large diameters at the millimeter level for tissue engineering applications. The new strategy introduced a cross-linking degree gradient across the GelMA plane in addition to its thickness by printing a second layer of strips on the first 4D printed GelMA film. In the aqueous environment, under the current fabrication condition, such bilayer GelMA hydrogels could self-fold into tubes of larger diameters up to 6 mm. The in vitro release behavior of heparin incorporated into the 4D printed GelMA was also studied. It was shown that heparin release could be controlled by the GelMA concentration and heparin content in 4D printed GelMA. The 4D printed GelMA hydrogels with the improved self-folding ability and controlled release of a drug are promising for targeted tissue engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MPKs) play essential roles in guard cell signaling, but whether MPK cascades participate in guard cell ethylene signaling and interact with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitric oxide (NO), and ethylene‐signaling components remain unclear. Here, we report that ethylene activated MPK3 and MPK6 in the leaves of wild‐type Arabidopsis thaliana as well as ethylene insensitive2 (ein2), ein3, nitrate reductase1 (nia1), and nia2 mutants, but this effect was impaired in ethylene response1 (etr1), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase AtrbohF, mpk kinase1 (mkk1), and mkk3 mutants. By contrast, the constitutive triple response1 (ctr1) mutant had constitutively active MPK3 and MPK6. Yeast two‐hybrid, bimolecular fluorescence complementation, and pull‐down assays indicated that MPK3 and MPK6 physically interacted with MKK1, MKK3, and the C‐terminal region of EIN2 (EIN2 CEND). mkk1, mkk3, mpk3, and mpk6 mutants had typical levels of ethylene‐induced H2O2 generation but impaired ethylene‐induced EIN2 CEND cleavage and nuclear translocation, EIN3 protein accumulation, NO production in guard cells, and stomatal closure. These results show that the MKK1/3–MPK3/6 cascade mediates ethylene‐induced stomatal closure by functioning downstream of ETR1, CTR1, and H2O2 to interact with EIN2, thereby promoting EIN3 accumulation and EIN3‐dependent NO production in guard cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The charge‐transfer (CT) complexes with significant electron delocalization demonstrate abundant appealing physicochemical features and unique orbital hybridization, creating great promise as artificial light‐harvesting antennas for advanced optoelectronics, such as high‐performance organic room‐temperature phosphorescence (RTP). Herein, originally, a localized CT complex is proposed in organic microcrystals for exceptional orange‐emissive RTP with photoluminescence peaks at 575 and 625 nm based on the light‐harvesting antennas of CT states in organic microcrystals with donor doping. The localized CT state antennas can capture more singlet excitons, and transition them into triplet excitons, efficiently promoting intersystem crossing (ISC). Owing to the dense packing structure and strong CT interaction, the generation and stabilization of triplet excitons under ambient conditions are facilitated, imparting effective RTP with a lasting afterglow of up to 3 s. The controlled intensity ratio of fluorescence and phosphorescence is successfully achieved via finely adjusting the donor doping ratio, presenting a tunable CIE evolution from (0.42, 0.30) to (0.25, 0.12). The potential applications of these light‐harvesting microcrystals in information encryption and flexographic printing are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]