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With the rapid development of wearable devices, flexible pressure sensors with high sensitivity and wide workable range are highly desired. In nature, there are many well-adapted structures developed through natural selection, which inspired us for the design of biomimetic materials or devices. Particularly, human fingertip skin, where many epidermal ridges amplify external stimulations, might be a good example to imitate for highly sensitive sensors. In this work, based on unique chemical vapor depositions (CVD)-grown 3D graphene films that mimic the morphology of fingertip skin, we fabricated flexible pressure sensing membranes, which simultaneously showed a high sensitivity of 110 (kPa)−1 for 0–0.2 kPa and wide workable pressure range (up to 75 kPa). Hierarchical structured PDMS films molded from natural leaves were used as the supporting elastic films for the graphene films, which also contribute to the superior performance of the pressure sensors. The pressure sensor showed a low detection limit (0.2 Pa), fast response (< 30 ms), and excellent stability for more than 10,000 loading/unloading cycles. Based on these features, we demonstrated its applications in detecting tiny objects, sound, and human physiological signals, showing its potential in wearable electronics for health monitoring and human/machine interfaces.

Introduction It remains unclear whether exposure to repeated positive acceleration (+Gz) can exacerbate endothelial dysfunction on the basis of hyperlipidemia. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of repeated +Gz exposure on endothelial function in high-fat-diet-induced hyperlipidemic rats. Material and methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control, repeat +Gz exposure, high-fat diet (HFD), and +Gz + HFD groups. The rats in the +Gz group were exposed to +Gz and the rats in the HFD group were fed a diet with 2% cholesterol. The rats in the +Gz + HFD group received both the +Gz exposure and HFD. Eight weeks later, the endothelium-dependent relaxation of the aorta was tested and the ultrastructure of the endothelial cells was observed using transmission electron microscopy. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression of endothelial function-associated proteins. Results Repeated +Gz exposure elevated the serum level of LDL-C in HFD rats. In the +Gz + HFD rats, the ACh-induced relaxation in the aorta rings was significantly attenuated and the endothelial cells of the aorta were dramatically damaged compared with HFD rats. Nitric oxide content and eNOS expression in the aortic tissue were markedly decreased and the oxidative stress was more serious in the +Gz + HFD rats compared with HFD rats. In addition, repeated +Gz exposure significantly increased serum ox-LDL level and LOX-1 expression in the aorta of HFD rats, thereby activating NF-κB p65 and upregulating the expression of interleukin 6, ICAM-1 and VAP-1. Conclusions Repeated +Gz exposure promotes endothelial dysfunction in HFD-induced hyperlipidemic rats.

Wearable healthcare devices with monitoring, treating and protecting applications can provide reliable and newfangled interactive service for people. Herein, a bi-functional smart face mask based on electrospun polyetherimide (PEI) electret nonwoven is developed. By virtue of the surplus charges maintained steadily in the PEI nonwoven, the smart face mask possesses bi-functions of removing the particulate matter and generating electricity. Moreover, the unique applications for dynamically monitoring the particulate matter removal ability and human's respiratory rates are demonstrated. Besides offering an unique air filter, this study will promisingly promote the progress of self-powered wearable electronics.

The increasing demand of wearable electronic devices has promoted the development of high-performance flexible strain sensors which could monitor various physiological parameters. In this work, using silk georgette, which is a commercially available gauzy and lightweight fabric composed of highly twisted yarns in both warp and weft directions as the raw material, an ultrasensitive strain sensor with a wide workable strain range is fabricated through a facile and large-scale process. The obtained strain sensors exhibit remarkable combined features of ultrahigh sensitivity in a wide sensing range (average gauge factor of 29.7 within 40% strain and of 173.0 for a strain of 60–100%), ultralow detection limit (0.01% strain), high durability and stability (10 000 stretching cycles at 100% strain), fast response (

We report a sweat analysis patch based on silk-derived carbon textile for simultaneous detection of six health-related biomarkers., Wearable sweat analysis devices for monitoring of multiple health-related biomarkers with high sensitivity are highly desired for noninvasive and real-time monitoring of human health. Here, we report a flexible sweat analysis patch based on a silk fabric–derived carbon textile for simultaneous detection of six health-related biomarkers. The intrinsically N-doped graphitic structure and the hierarchical woven, porous structure provided the carbon textile good electrical conductivity, rich active sites, and good water wettability for efficient electron transmission and abundant access to reactants, enabling it to serve as an excellent working electrode in electrochemical sensors. On the basis of the above, we fabricated a multiplex sweat analysis patch that is capable of simultaneous detection of glucose, lactate, ascorbic acid, uric acid, Na+, and K+. The integration of selective detectors with signal collection and transmission components in this device has enabled us to realize real-time analysis of sweat.

Soft bioelectronics that could be integrated with soft and curvilinear biological tissues/organs have attracted multidisciplinary research interest from material scientists, electronic engineers, and biomedical scientists. Because of their potential human health-related applications, soft bioelectronics require stringent demands for biocompatible components. Silk, as a kind of well-known ancient natural biopolymer, shows unique combined merits such as good biocompatibility, programmable biodegradability, processability into various material formats, and large-scale sustainable production. Such unique merits have made silk popular for intensive design and study in soft bioelectronics over the past decade. Due to the development of fabrication techniques in material processing and progress in research, silk has been engineered into a variety of advanced materials including silk fibers/textiles, nanofibers, films, hydrogels, and aerogels. Natural and regenerated silk materials can also be transformed into intrinsically nitrogen-doped and electrically conductive carbon materials, due to their unique molecular structure and high nitrogen content. The rich morphologies and varied processing options for silk materials can furnish transformed carbon materials with well-designed structures and properties. The favorable and unique material merits of silk materials and silk-derived carbon materials offer potential applications in soft electronics. Based on commercial silk fibers/textiles and the availability of re-engineered silk materials with versatile technological formats, functional soft electronics have been explored with silk as flexible biosupports/biomatrixes or active components. These soft systems include bioresorbable electronics, ultraconformal bioelectronics, transient electronics, epidermal electronics, textile electronics, conformal biosensors, flexible transistors, and resistive switching memory devices. Silk-derived carbon materials with rationally designed morphologies and structures have also been developed as active components for wearable sensors, electronic skins, and flexible energy devices, which provide novel concepts and opportunities for soft electronics. In this Account, we highlight the unique hierarchical and chemical structure of natural silk fibers, the fabrication strategies for processing silk into materials with versatile morphologies and into electrically conductive carbon materials, as well as recent progress in the development of silk-based advanced materials (silk materials and silk-derived carbon materials) for soft bioelectronics. The design and functionality of soft electronics developed with commercial silk fibers/textiles, re-engineered silk materials, and silk-derived carbon materials as biosubstrate/matrix and active components is introduced in detail. We further discuss future challenges and prospects for developing silk-based soft bioelectronics for wearable healthcare systems. By leveraging the unique advantages of silk-based advanced materials, the design and construction strategy for flexible electronics, as well as the potential of flexible electronics for conformable and intimate association with human tissues/organs, silk-based soft bioelectronics should have a significant impact on diverse healthcare fields.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of mechanical ventilation combined with fiberoptic bronchoalveolar lavage in patients with severe pulmonary infection. MATERIAL AND METHODS We randomly divided 81 patients with severe pulmonary infection into a control group (n=40) and an observation group (n=41). Both groups were treated using mechanical ventilation, and observation group additionally received assistive fiberoptic bronchoalveolar lavage. RESULTS The cure rate and effectiveness rate in the observation group were higher than in the control group (P

Silkworm silk is gaining significant attention from both the textile industry and research society because of its outstanding mechanical properties and lustrous appearance. The possibility of creating tougher silks attracts particular research interest. Carbon nanotubes and graphene are widely studied for their use as reinforcement. In this work, we report mechanically enhanced silk directly collected by feeding Bombyx mori larval silkworms with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and graphene. We found that parts of the fed carbon nanomaterials were incorporated into the as-spun silk fibers, whereas the others went into the excrement of silkworms. Spectroscopy study indicated that nanocarbon additions hindered the conformation transition of silk fibroin from random coil and α-helix to β-sheet, which may contribute to increased elongation at break and toughness modules. We further investigated the pyrolysis of modified silk, and a highly developed graphitic structure with obviously enhanced electrical conductivity was obtained through the introduction of SWNTs and graphene. The successful generation of these SWNT- or graphene-embedded silks by in vivo feeding is expected to open up possibilities for the large-scale production of high-strength silk fibers.

Recent years have witnessed the explosive development of flexible strain sensors. Nanomaterials have been widely utilized to fabricate flexible strain sensors, because of their high flexibility and electrical conductivity. However, the fabrication processes for nanomaterials and the subsequent strain sensors are generally complicated and are manufactured at high cost. In this work, we developed a facile dry-Meyer-rod-coating process to fabricate sheath-core-structured single-fiber strain sensors using ultrafine graphite flakes as the sheath and silk fibers as the core by virtue of their flexibility, high production, and low cost. The fabricated strain sensor exhibits a high sensitivity with a gauge factor of 14.5 within wide workable strain range up to 15%, and outstanding stability (up to 3000 cycles). The single-fiber-based strain sensors could be attached to a human body to detect joint motions or easily integrated into the multidirectional strain sensor for monitoring multiaxial strain, showing great potential applications as wearable strain sensors.

Silk is a widely available, edible, biocompatible, and environmentally sustainable natural material. Particulate matter (PM) pollution has drawn considerable attention because it is a serious threat to public health. Herein, we report a human-friendly silk nanofiber air filter, which exhibits superior filtration efficiency for both PM2.5 and submicron particles with obviously low pressure drop and low basis weight compared to typical commercial microfiber air filters. Additionally, other functions such as antibacterial activity could be easily integrated into the silk nanofiber air filters, enabling the fabrication of multifunctional air filters. All the above characteristics, combined with the natural abundance and biocompatibility of silk, suggest a great potential for the use of silk nanofibers as air filters, especially as comfortable and personal air purifiers.

Natural materials are often compositionally and structurally heterogeneous for realizing particular functions. Inspired by nature, researchers have designed hybrid materials that possess properties beyond each of the components. Particularly, it remains a great challenge to realize site‐specific anisotropy, which widely exists in natural materials and is responsible for unique mechanical properties as well as physiological behaviors. Herein, the spontaneous formation of aligned graphene oxide (GO) flakes in sodium alginate (SA) matrix with locally controlled orientation via a direct‐ink‐writing printing process is reported. The GO flakes are spontaneously aligned in the SA matrix by shear force when being extruded and then arranged horizontally after drying on the substrate, forming a brick‐and‐mortar structure that could anisotropically contract or expand upon activation by heat, light, or water. By designing the printing pathways directed by finite element analysis, the orientation of GO flakes in the composite is locally controlled, which could further guide the composite to transform into versatile architectures. Particularly, the transformation is reversible when water vapor is applied as one of the stimuli. As a proof of concept, complex morphing architectures are experimentally demonstrated, which are in good consistency with the simulation results., A multistimuli‐responsive composite with locally controlled texture that can be printed into programmable shape‐morphing architectures is presented. The printed structures show fast, reversible, and multistimuli‐responsive shape‐morphing toward heat, light, and water (liquid and vapor).

Controlled synthesis of highly efficient, stable, and cost-effective oxygen reaction electrocatalysts with atomically-dispersed Me-N

Silk has outstanding mechanical properties and biocompatibility. It has been used to fabricate traditional textiles for thousands of years and can be produced in large scale. Silk materials are potentially attractive in modern textile electronics. However, silk is not electrically conductive, thus limiting its applications in electronics. Moreover, regenerated silk is generally rigid and brittle, which hinder post processing. Here we report the fabrication of conductive silk wire in which carbon nanotube (CNT) yarns are wrapped with fluffy and flexible silk nanofiber films. The silk nanofiber film was prepared by electrospinning and then wrapped around a rotating CNT yarn in situ. The obtained silk-sheathed CNT (CNT@Silk) wire has an insulating sheath, which protects the body against electrical shock. In addition, the fabricated wires exhibit a high electrical conductivity (3.1 × 104 S/m), good mechanical strength (16 cN/tex), excellent flexibility, and high durability. More importantly, the wires have an...

3D graphene networks have shown extraordinary promise for high-performance electrochemical devices. Herein, the chemical vapor deposition synthesis of a highly porous 3D graphene foam (3D-GF) using naturally abundant calcined Iceland crystal as the template is reported. Intriguingly, the Iceland crystal transforms to CaO monolith with evenly distributed micro/meso/macropores through the releasing of CO2 at high temperature. Meanwhile, the hierarchical structure of the calcined template could be easily tuned under different calcination conditions. By precisely inheriting fine structure from the templates, the as-prepared 3D-GF possesses a tunable hierarchical porosity and low density. Thus, the hierarchical pores offer space for guest hybridization and provide an efficient pathway for ion/charge transport in typical energy conversion/storage systems. The 3D-GF skeleton electrode hybridized with Ni(OH)2 /Co(OH)2 through an optimal electrodeposition condition exhibits a high specific capacitance of 2922.2 F g-1 at a scan rate of 10 mV s-1 , and 2138.4 F g-1 at a discharge current density of 3.1 A g-1 . The hybrid 3D-GF symmetry supercapacitor shows a high energy density of 83.0 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 1011.3 W kg-1 and 31.4 Wh kg-1 at a high power density of 18 845.2 W kg-1 . The facile fabrication process enables the mass production of hierarchical porous 3D-GF for high-performance supercapacitors.

Patients with chronic viral hepatitis usually present metabolic abnormalities and hemodynamic changes, which are known factors associated with the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). This study aims to determine the risk factors of incident CAD in these patients.We identified 193 patients who subsequently developed CAD amongst 37,840 cases diagnosed as chronic viral hepatitis from January 2007 through December 2013.In these patients, 141 had hepatitis B virus infections and 52 had hepatitis C virus infections. There was a male preponderance (65.9%). The median age at the diagnosis of hepatitis was 51 years. In the univariate analysis, patients aged ≥ 51 years had shorter median periods from the diagnosis of hepatitis to the onset of CAD than patients aged51 years (50 versus 96 months, p0.001), and patients with hypertension had shorter median durations compared to those without hypertension (48 versus 96 months, p0.001). Statistical significance also existed between patients with different etiologies (p = 0.004). In the multivariate analysis by Cox regression, age at the diagnosis of hepatitis (p0.001; hazard ratio (HR), 1.041; 95% CI, 1.027-1.056) and hypertension (with versus without, p0.001; HR, 1.925; 95% CI, 1.419-2.611) were revealed.Age at diagnosis of hepatitis and hypertension appeared to be independent risk factors of incident CAD in these patients. This topic deserves further studies.

A three-dimensional carbon nanotube (CNT)/graphene hybrid material was synthesized by a two-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Due to the separated CVD processes for graphene and CNTs, the structures of the hybrid materials could be easily controlled. It is revealed that graphene film was tightly connected with one end of the CNT arrays, forming “jellyfish” structures. Moreover, our results indicate that the presence of graphene influenced the precipitation and growth rate of CNTs. The precipitation of CNTs was postponed due to the existence of graphene. However, the average growth rate of CNTs in the graphene region for the whole process was faster than that in the region without graphene.

The prosperous development of stretchable electronics poses a great demand on stretchable conductive materials that could maintain their electrical conductivity under tensile strain. Previously reported strategies to obtain stretchable conductors usually involve complex structure-fabricating processes or utilization of high-cost nanomaterials. It remains a great challenge to produce stretchable and conductive materials via a scalable and cost-effective process. Herein, a large-scalable pyrolysis strategy is developed for the fabrication of intrinsically stretchable and conductive textile in utilizing low-cost and mass-produced weft-knitted textiles as raw materials. Due to the intrinsic stretchability of the weft-knitted structure and the excellent mechanical and electrical properties of the as-obtained carbonized fibers, the obtained flexible and durable textile could sustain tensile strains up to 125% while keeping a stable electrical conductivity (as shown by a Modal-based textile), thus ensuring its applications in elastic electronics. For demonstration purposes, stretchable supercapacitors and wearable thermal-therapy devices that showed stable performance with the loading of tensile strains have been fabricated. Considering the simplicity and large scalability of the process, the low-cost and mass production of the raw materials, and the superior performances of the as-obtained elastic and conductive textile, this strategy would contribute to the development and industrial production of wearable electronics.

Background The disease progression of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) varies significantly, and the prognostic markers that identify those patients who will develop liver failure have been scarcely studied from a Chinese cohort. Aims We aimed to determine the predictive factors of liver failure in patients with PBC. Methods Patients who were first diagnosed as PBC with hepatic compensation between January 2007 and December 2009 were enrolled in this cohort study. Results Altogether 398 patients were finally included. Of these patients, 80% were women, 98% had positive antimitochondrial antibodies, and 45% had positive antinuclear antibodies (ANA). To December 2012, a total of 38 patients developed liver failure. According to the outcome, patients who developed liver failure had had higher serum concentration of baseline total bilirubin (TBil) (p = 0.013) and total bile acid (TBA) (p < 0.001), and lower concentrations of baseline total cholesterol (Tch) (p = 0.008), than patients who did not develop liver failure. Additionally, the proportion of ANA positivity was statistically different between the two groups (p = 0.009). In the established model for predicting liver failure in PBC, three variables were finally selected out, including Tch (odds ratio (OR) 0.552, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.394–0.774, p < 0.001), TBA (OR 1.006, 95% CI 1.002–1.010, p = 0.002), and ANA (+ versus –, OR 5.518, 95% CI 1.155–26.376, p = 0.032). Conclusions ANA, Tch, and TBA are predictors of liver failure in PBC.

Fluidized bed filtration is a promising technique to remove particles from gas stream. In this work, a fluidized bed filter with agglomerated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as bed materials is employed to filtrate aerosol particles and its filtration performance is investigated. The aerosol filtration efficiency of fluidized bed filters is found to highly depend on the fluidization state of the filter media. Agglomerate particulate fluidization brings much higher efficiency than agglomerate bubbling fluidization (ABF). Due to the effect of bubbles and the abrasion of fluidizing media in ABF, there are a growing number of nanoparticles releasing from the bed with the increase of gas velocity. The filtration performance of fluidized bed filters with agglomerated CNTs as the media is compared with that of packed bed filters with the same media. It is found that the former provides much lower resistance and obvious higher quality factor than the latter. The filtration efficiency of fluidized bed filter increases with the increase of the static bed height. Our results show that agglomerated CNTs could be employed as media of the fluidized bed which can be used as the high efficiency particulate air filter.

Objective To justify the clinical use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the treatment of influenza. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National KnowledgeInfrastructure Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database, Wanfang Database and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched from thedate of inception until January 1, 2013, for the literature on treatment of influenza with TCM. Results A total of 7 randomized controlled trials were identified and reviewed. Of these trials, 2 compared a (modified) prescription of TCM with oseltamivir and 5 compared a patent traditional Chinese drug with oseltamivir. Based on the Meta-analysis, compared to oseltamivir, the (modified) prescription had similar effect in defervescence [WMD= 5.66, 95% CI (− 32.02, 43.35), P=0.77] and viral shedding [WMD= − 6.21, 95% CI (− 84.19, 71.76), P= 0.88], and the patent traditional Chinese drug also had similar effect in viral shedding [WMD= − 0.24, 95% CI (− 4.79, 4.31), P=0.92] but more effective in defervescence [WMD= − 4.65, 95%CI (− 8.91, − 0.38), P=0.03]. Conclusion TCM has potential positive effects in the treatment of influenza.

Up to now, limited cases with acute liver failure caused by traditional Chinese medicine have been reported, and thus this topic has been scarcely discussed. This study aims to report such cases from China.A retrospective study.Clinical investigation among seven tertiary hospitals in different areas of China.From January 2007 to December 2012, patients with acute liver failure induced by traditional Chinese medicinal herbs were included.None.A total of 30 patients were finally identified, including six men and 24 women. The average age was 39.7 years. The median period from initial symptoms to the development of hepatic encephalopathy was 13 days. Nine patients (30%) had accepted herbal therapies due to their skin disorders before the onset of acute liver failure. Eighteen patients (60%) eventually died, 10 of whom died of heavy bleeding. No patients received liver transplantation.The model of safety monitoring for traditional Chinese materia medica should be established. For those critically ill patients with herb-induced acute liver failure, coagulopathy is a vital problem in critical care. Additionally, the rate of liver transplantation for acute liver failure in China needs to be improved.

Hierarchical and gradient nanostructures are important to exploit the full potential of nanofibers in filtration applications. The introduction of a gradient into carbon nanotube (CNT)/fiber hierarchical structures could result in a change of the particle capturing properties. Here, we show the fabrication of hierarchical carbon nanotube (CNT)/quartz-fiber (QF) filters with gradient nanostructures where the content of CNTs decreases exponentially along the thickness direction of the filters. The loading of catalysts for the growth of CNTs in the QF filter has been achieved using an aerosol technique, which can be carried out on a large-scale. With only 1.17 wt% CNT, the penetration of the CNT/QF filter at the most penetrating particle size (MPPS) has been reduced by one order of magnitude, while the pressure drop only increases about 6% with respect to that of the pristine QF filter, leading to an obvious higher quality factor (Qf) for the CNT/QF filter. More importantly, the service life of the CNT/QF filter with the CNT-rich side downstream has increased by 64% when compared with the pristine QF filter. In contrast, when the CNT-rich side is placed upstream, the service life of CNT/QF filter is only 41.7% of that observed when placing the CNT-rich side downstream. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that the gradient nanostructure of the CNT/QF filter, together with the CNT/QF hierarchical structure play very important roles in the simultaneous enhancement of the filtration efficiency and the service life of the air filters.

We report a facile graphene/graphite sheet assisted CVD process for the synthesis of high-areal-density HACNT arrays. Besides, some metal nanoparticles could eat the graphene/graphite sheets, forming serpentine holes on the sheets in the early stage, and finally leading to the precipitation of CNTs without an additional carbon source.

Controlled synthesis of highly efficient, stable, and cost-effective oxygen reaction electrocatalysts with atomically-dispersed Me-Nx -C active sites through an effective strategy is highly desired for high-performance energy devices. Herein, based on regenerated silk fibroin dissolved in ferric chloride and zinc chloride aqueous solution, 2D porous carbon nanosheets with atomically-dispersed Fe-Nx -C active sites and very large specific surface area (≈2105 m2 g-1 ) are prepared through a simple thermal treatment process. Owing to the 2D porous structure with large surface area and atomic dispersion of Fe-Nx -C active sites, the as-prepared silk-derived carbon nanosheets show superior electrochemical activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction with a half-wave potential (E1/2 ) of 0.853 V, remarkable stability with only 11 mV loss in E1/2 after 30 000 cycles, as well as good catalytic activity toward the oxygen evolution reaction. This work provides a practical and effective approach for the synthesis of high-performance oxygen reaction catalysts towards advanced energy materials.

A reduced graphene oxide (RGO)–magnetic oxide iron (Fe 3 O 4 ) hybrid is prepared by homogenous coprecipitation and subsequent annealing. Characterization shows that Fe 3 O 4 particles are nanoporous structures that anchor uniformly on the surface of RGO platelets. As an anode material for a Li ion battery, it has specific capacities for the first discharge and charge of 1528 and 1027 mAh g −1 respectively, which is more than the theoretical specific capacity of Fe 3 O 4 . It shows good capacity retention of 818 mAh g −1 after the 50th discharge. The total specific capacity of RGO–Fe 3 O 4 is higher than the sum of those of pure RGO and Fe 3 O 4 in the hybrid, indicating a synergistic effect of RGO and Fe 3 O 4 for improving electrochemical performance. The RGO–Fe 3 O 4 can be used as a high-performance anode material for Li-ion batteries.

A novel carbonized plain-weave silk-fabric-based wearable strain sensor is proposed by Y. Y. Zhang and co-workers on page 6640. The sensor can be stretched up to 500% with high sensitivity in a wide strain range and can be assembled into wearable devices for the detection of both large and subtle human activities, showing great potential in human-motion detection and robotics.

A carbonized plain-weave silk fabric is fabricated into wearable and robust strain sensors, which can be stretched up to 500% and show high sensitivity in a wide strain range. This sensor can be assembled into wearable devices for detection of both large and subtle human activities, showing great potential for monitoring human motions and personal health.

Background A mouse model of metastasis of human gastric cancer is one of the most important tools for studying the biological mechanisms underlying human gastric cancer metastasis. In this paper, we established a mouse model of metastatic human gastric cancer in nude mice that has a higher rate of tumor formation and metastasis than existing models. Methods To generate the mouse model of metastatic human gastric cancer, fresh tumor tissues from patients that have undergone surgery for gastric cancer were subcutaneously implanted in the right and left groins of nude mice. When the implanted tissue grew to 1 cubic centimeter, the mice were killed, and the tumor tissues were examined and resected. The tumor tissues were implanted into nude mice and subjected to pathological examination, immunohistochemical staining, and real-time PCR for cytokeratin 8/18 (CK8/18), E-cadherin, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). The mice were also analyzed for metastasis in their peritoneum, abdominal cavity, and internal organs by histopathological examination. Tissues collected from these organs were examined for pathology. Results After ten generations of implantation, all mice developed tumor growth at the implanted position, 94 % of the mice developed metastasis to the retroperitoneum and viscera. The implanted and metastatic tumor maintained the same histological features across all generations, and metastasis was observed in the esophagus, stomach, spleen, liver, kidney, adrenal, intestine, and pancreas. These metastatic tumors revealed no detectable expression of CK8/18, E-cadherin, VCAM-1, and ICAM-1. Conclusions This model will serve as valuable tool for understanding the metastatic process of human gastric cancer.

Flexible and wearable electronics are attracting wide attention due to their potential applications in wearable human health monitoring and care systems. Carbon materials have combined superiorities such as good electrical conductivity, intrinsic and structural flexibility, light weight, high chemical and thermal stability, ease of chemical functionalization, as well as potential mass production, enabling them to be promising candidate materials for flexible and wearable electronics. Consequently, great efforts are devoted to the controlled fabrication of carbon materials with rationally designed structures for applications in next-generation electronics. Herein, the latest advances in the rational design and controlled fabrication of carbon materials toward applications in flexible and wearable electronics are reviewed. Various carbon materials (carbon nanotubes, graphene, natural-biomaterial-derived carbon, etc.) with controlled micro/nanostructures and designed macroscopic morphologies for high-performance flexible electronics are introduced. The fabrication strategies, working mechanism, performance, and applications of carbon-based flexible devices are reviewed and discussed, including strain/pressure sensors, temperature/humidity sensors, electrochemical sensors, flexible conductive electrodes/wires, and flexible power devices. Furthermore, the integration of multiple devices toward multifunctional wearable systems is briefly reviewed. Finally, the existing challenges and future opportunities in this field are summarized.

The development of flexible electronics and equipment attracts significant interests in recent years. It is of great importance to develop flexible and wearable energy storage devices for wearable and portable devices. Carbon nanomaterials have large surface area, good conductivity and excellent mechanical and chemical stability, enabling their applications in high performance energy conversion and energy storage devices. In this talk, I will present fiber-shaped ultra-stretchable and flexible supercapacitor made of carbon nanotube fibers, film-shaped stretchable supercapacitors and flexible Zn-air batteries using stretchable graphitized natural fabrics as electrodes. The ultra-stretchable wire-shaped supercapacitor was made by winding two carbon nanotube@graphene@MnO2 fibers around a superelastic core fiber. The supercapacitor can sustain tensile strain up to 850%, which is hitherto the highest value, while keeping stable electrochemical performance. We further demonstrated that there devices can be assembled with carbon-based flexible sensors into wearable smart systems. These strategy paves new ways for the fabrication of high performance wearable energy storage devices and flexible electronics. References: Huimin Wang, Chunya Wang, Muqiang Jian, Qi Wang, Kailun Xia, Zhe Yin, Mingchao Zhang, Xiaoping Liang, Yingying Zhang*. Superelastic Wire-shaped Supercapacitor Sustaining 850% Tensile Strain Based on Carbon Nanotube@Graphene Fiber. Nano Research 2017 1007/s12274-017-1782-1 Chunya Wang, Mingchao Zhang, Kailun Xia, Xueqin Gong, Huimin Wang, Zhe Yin, Baolu Guan, and Yingying Zhang*. Intrinsically Stretchable and Conductive Textile by a Scalable Process for Elastic Wearable Electronics. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2017, 9 (15), 13331–13338. Mingchao Zhang, Chunya Wang; Xiaoping Liang, Zhe Yin, Kailun Xia, Huimin Wang, Muqiang Jian, Yingying Zhang. Weft-knitted fabric for highly-stretchable and low-voltage wearable heater. Advanced Electronic Materials DOI 10.1002/aelm.201700193 Chunya Wang, Xiao Li, Enlai Gao, Muqiang Jian, Kailun Xia, Qi Wang, Zhiping Xu, Tianling Ren, Yingying Zhang*. Carbonized Silk Fabric for Ultra-stretchable, Highly Sensitive and Wearable Strain Sensors. Advanced Materials 2016, 28, 6640.

Till date, comparison of clinical characteristics in acute liver failure (ALF) between adults and children has not been performed. In this study, authors retrospectively collected data on adult acute liver failure (AALF) and pediatric acute liver failure (PALF) in seven hospitals in different areas of China from January 2007 through December 2012. A total of 177 AALF cases and 32 PALF cases were eventually included. Several vital clinical variables were significantly different between AALF and PALF, including serum alkaline phosphatase, serum creatinine, serum urea nitrogen, serum lactate dehydrogenase, platelet count, prothrombin activity, international normalized ratio and blood ammonia. It is concluded that experience from AALF could not be proper for PALF.

Wearable heaters have attracted broad attention due to their applications in personal heating systems and healthcare management, such as heat preservation in textile/clothing and thermotherapy. Protecting heating performance against deterioration under large deformation is is important for the application of wearable heaters. Here, a highly stretchable electrically driven heater based on electrically conductive weft-knitted fabrics is reported, which can be transformed from traditional fabrics through a facile heat treatment process. As an example, a heater made from Modal shows a heating temperature higher than 100 °C at a driving voltage as low as 3 V. The Joule heating performance of the heater does not deteriorate even under a large strain of 70%. Furthermore, according to theoretical analysis and experimental results, the output power and saturated temperature of the heater under a certain voltage can be easily tuned by tailoring the shape and size of the fabric to meet customized demands. The superior performance of the heater originates from the weft-knitted structural configuration. Finally, the application of the ultrastretchable heater in wearable thermal therapy devices is demonstrated, showing its great potential in wearable electronics.

The rational design of high-performance flexible pressure sensors attracts attention because of the potential applications in wearable electronics and human–machine interfacing. For practical applications, pressure sensors with high sensitivity and low detection limit are desired. Here, ta simple process to fabricate high-performance pressure sensors based on biomimetic hierarchical structures and highly conductive active membranes is presented. Aligned carbon nanotubes/graphene (ACNT/G) is used as the active material and microstructured polydimethylsiloxane (m-PDMS) molded from natural leaves is used as the flexible matrix. The highly conductive ACNT/G films with unique coalescent structures, which are directly grown using chemical vapor deposition, can be conformably coated on the m-PDMS films with hierarchical protuberances. Flexible ACNT/G pressure sensors are then constructed by putting two ACNT/G/PDMS films face to face with the orientation of the ACNTs in the two films perpendicular to each other. Due to the unique hierarchical structures of both the ACNT/G and m-PDMS films, the obtained pressure sensors demonstrate high sensitivity (19.8 kPa−1

Background Βeta-2-microglobulin (β2-M) has been demonstrated as a growth factor and signaling molecule in breast cancer and leukemia. The purpose of the study is to characterize β2-M expression in molecular subtypes of breast cancer, thereby investigating the mechanism of β2-M action in breast cancer. Methods β2-M and B-Cell Lymphoma/Leukemia 2 (Bcl-2) transcript expression levels in breast cancer tissue and the corresponding normal tissue were quantified using real-time PCR. The protein expression levels of β2-M, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), tumor protein 53 (p53) and Ki67 were determined by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Following silencing of the β2-M by siRNA, the levels of Bcl-2, ER, PR and HER-2 transcripts and the protein expression levels in human breast cancer cells were measured by real-time PCR and western blotting, respectively. Results The expression of β2-M transcripts demonstrated no significant differences between the four breast cancer molecular subtypes and no significant correlations with age, clinical stage or lymph node metastasis. β2-M transcript expression demonstrated a positive correlation when compared to Bcl-2 transcript expression (P

Background: Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) often present hyperlipidemia, which is a risk factor of incident coronary artery disease (CAD). However, few studies have examined CAD in PBC. Methods: We identified 41 patients who developed CAD amongst 2,675 PBC cases across seven years and selected the PBC patients without CAD as controls according to sex and age. Results: Females dominated in these patients with CAD. The median time from the diagnosis of PBC to the onset of CAD was 44 months. The patient group with CAD had higher median levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (4.68 mmol/L versus 3.52 mmol/L, P=0.036) and higher proportion of cases with hypertension (63.4% versus 19.5%, P

Currently, no documentation is available regarding Chinese children with acute liver failure (ALF). This study was undertaken to investigate etiologies and outcomes of Chinese children with ALF.We retrospectively enrolled 32 pediatric patients with ALF admitted in five hospitals in different areas of China from January 2007 to December 2012. The coagulation indices, serum creatinine, serum lactate dehydrogenase, blood ammonia and prothrombin activity were analyzed; the relationship between these indices and mortality was evaluated by multivariate analysis.The most common causes of Chinese children with ALF were indeterminate etiology (15/32), drug toxicity (8/32), and acute cytomegalovirus hepatitis (6/32). Only 1 patient (3.13%) received liver transplantation and the spontaneous mortality of Chinese children with ALF was 58.06% (18/31). Patients who eventually died had higher baseline levels of international normalized ratio (P=0.01), serum creatinine (P=0.04), serum lactate dehydrogenase (P=0.01), blood ammonia (P0.01) and lower prothrombin activity (P=0.01) than those who survived. Multivariate analysis showed that the entry blood ammonia was the only independent factor significantly associated with mortality (odds ratio=1.069, 95% confidence interval 1.023-1.117, P0.01) and it had a sensitivity of 94.74%, a specificity of 84.62% and an accuracy of 90.63% for predicting the death. Based on the established model, with an increase of blood ammonia level, the risk of mortality would increase by 6.9%.The indeterminate causes predominated in the etiologies of ALF in Chinese children. The spontaneous mortality of pediatric patients with ALF was high, whereas the proportion of patients undergoing liver transplantation was significantly low. Entry blood ammonia was a reliable predictor for the death of pediatric patients with ALF.

Air filtration in the free molecular flow (FMF) regime is important and challenging because a higher filtration efficiency and lower pressure drop are obtained when the fiber diameter is smaller than the gas mean free path in the FMF regime. In previous studies, FMF conditions have been obtained by increasing the gas mean free path through reducing the pressure and increasing the temperature. In the case of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with nanoscale diameters, it is possible to filtrate in the FMF regime under normal conditions. This paper reviews recent progress in theoretical and experimental studies of air filtration in the FMF regime. Typical structure models of high-efficiency particulate (HEPA) air filters based on CNTs are introduced. The pressure drop in air filters operated in the FMF regime is less than that predicted by the conventional air filtration theory. The thinnest HEPA filters fabricated from single-walled CNT films have an extremely low pressure drop. CNT air filters with a gradient nanostructure are shown to give a much better filtration performance in dynamic filtration. CNT air filters with a hierarchical structure and an agglomerated CNT fluidized bed air filter are also introduced. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for the application of CNTs in air filtration are discussed.

This thesis, through a questionnaire research methods, explored repair effects of corporate social responsibility activities after the brand scandal, such as improving product quality, philanthropy and donation money or equipments to students in remote regions and environmental protection in order to repair brand trust and consumption intention. Authors found that CSR activities had positive integrated effects on renewal brand trust and consumption intention.

ObjectivesNo extensive investigation has been performed and thus no representative data are available regarding acute liver failure (ALF) in China. This study aims to investigate the causes and outcomes of ALF in China and establish a prognostic model.MethodsPatients diagnosed as ALF in seven hospitals in different areas of China from January 2007 to December 2012 were retrospectively selected.ResultsOf the 177 patients included in this study, 112 (63.28%) eventually died. The common causes of ALF were drug toxicity (43.50%), indeterminate etiology (29.38%) and acute viral hepatitis (11.30%). Additionally, traditional Chinese herbs predominated in the causes of drug-induced ALF (30/77). No patients in this study received liver transplantation. In the established model for predicting death in ALF, four variables were finally selected out, including age (P=0.01), the entry hepatic encephalopathy grade (P=0.04), international normalized ratio (PConclusionsTraditional Chinese medicine was a major cause of ALF in China. The spontaneous mortality of ALF was high, whereas the rate of liver transplantation was significantly low. The established prognostic model of ALF had superior sensitivity and specificity.

Recent years have witnessed the booming development of flexible strain sensors. To date, it is still a great challenge to fabricate strain sensors with both large workable strain range and high sensitivity. Cotton is an abundant supplied natural material composed of cellulose fibers and has been widely used for textiles and clothing. In this work, the fabrication of highly sensitive wearable strain sensors based on commercial plain weave cotton fabric, which is the most popular fabric for clothes, is demonstrated through a low-cost and scalable process. The strain sensors based on carbonized cotton fabric exhibit fascinating performance, including large workable strain range (>140%), superior sensitivity (gauge factor of 25 in strain of 0%–80% and that of 64 in strain of 80%–140%), inconspicuous drift, and long-term stability, simultaneously offering advantages of low cost and simplicity in device fabrication and versatility in applications. Notably, the strain sensor can detect a subtle strain of as low as 0.02%. Based on its superior performance, its applications in monitoring both vigorous and subtle human motions are demonstrated, showing its tremendous potential for applications in wearable electronics and intelligent robots.

Lamivudine (LAM) resistance now poses a major problem in the management of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We retrospectively collected clinical data on chronic HBV-infected patients who had developed LAM resistance under de novo LAM monotherapy and subsequently took nucleos(t)ide analogs as rescue strategy in our hospital. From initiation of rescue therapies to January 2012, incidence of antiviral drug resistance was 23.67%, 18%, 6.94% and 0% (P = 0.007) in the group of switching to adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) monotherapy, switching to entecavir (ETV) monotherapy, adding on ADV and switching to combination of ADV and ETV. At month 12, the median levels of serum HBV DNA were respectively 9300 IU/mL, 4648 IU/mL, 2054 IU/mL and 100 IU/mL (P < 0.001), and the cumula- tive rates of serum ALT normalization were respectively 75%, 84%, 93% and 100% (P = 0.003). Additionally, the strategy of switching to ADV monotherapy induced more single rtA181T mutations. In conclusion, switching to ADV monotherapy has been widely used in real-world clinical practice in China, however, due to the high incidence of drug resistance, switching to neither ADV nor ETV monotherapy is optimal when LAM resistance occurs; combination of ADV and ETV is most effective, whereas the strategy of add- ing on ADV is rational for most of LAM-resistant Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B.

this paper obtains from discussion about the vertical integrated agricultural product marketing channel pattern to point out that sharing channel information essentiality and the corresponding technical support. The selective analysis the insufficiency of vertical integrated marketing channel for agricultural product in our present country and theory countermeasure as follows: firstly the series construction aspects must set up unified awareness of cooperation, sharing the channel information, next enlarged the information sharing foundation and the technical support, finally established essential the mechanism on sharing information . The article writing goal is to help enhance our country agricultural product's distribution efficiency, competitively, to advance agriculture industrial production and increases the farmers' income stably though building essential information system of vertical integrated marketing channel for agricultural products.