Search

Interest in overall health and well-being of students in higher education has grown. Retention and success in college has been linked to various health aspects including sleep and alcohol usage. The purpose of this study is to: 1) assess sleep health and related behaviors, 2) examine relationships between sleep health and work conditions, and 3) determine if there is a relationship between sleep health and academic performance. Because many students work in service industries due to the flexibility of these jobs, comparisons are made between students working in service industries, students working in other industries, and non-working students. The online survey data from 736 participants, representing six U.S. universities, was analyzed. Findings indicated that average grade point was associated with sleep, work hours, and household income; student employees working in the service industry had a sleep score slightly lower than students working elsewhere.

Dental caries, or tooth decay, is a widespread problem and is generally considered irreversible, yet a regeneration solution exists to cure them. In this study, a multifunctional and biocompatible dental scaffold is fabricated by a unique vapor sublimation and deposition polymerization process with the well‐accepted material Parylene, resulting in the construction of a 3D and porous polymer scaffold that accommodates living cells and a combination of growth factor molecules in a single fabrication process, which differentiates the coating formation from a conventional vapor process. Physically, a directional interior structure is constructed to guide dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) attachment and alignment. Biochemically, necessary growth factors, including Wnt‐3a and FGF‐2, are incorporated within the scaffold during fabrication to guide the cell differentiation of odontogenesis. The synergistic effects of the attachment and alignment of DPSCs, as well as the biocompatibility and odontogenic activities of the components accommodated in the scaffold, result in the upregulation of the cell differentiation into odontoblasts, as shown by the morphology of odontoblasts and the expressions of odontogenesis markers. Thus, the reported fabrication technique and its products represent an alternative approach for dentin regeneration in dental caries and tooth decay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly(para‐xylylene) (PPX) is a robust and biocompatible coating material that is widely used in various applications, including electronics, aerospace and defense materials, automotive materials, and biomaterials. In this progress report, recent developments in PPX technology ranging from the advancement of physical chemistry properties and structural properties for device integration to the transformation of 3D monolith materials of PPX with controls in outer and inner structures at the micro‐ and nanometer scales are highlighted. Based on emerging chemistry studies on [2.2]paracyclophanes, which are primarily used precursors to synthesize PPX via vapor deposition polymerization, functionalization, and the creation of a wide variety of functional PPX derivatives are demonstrated without resistance. Widely used as an interface coating material, PPX is processed to form integrated structural materials and has already been found to be useful in the market as part of electronic and medical implant products. Using a newly innovated transformation to fabricate PPX through templates (metal‐organic frameworks, liquid crystal, ice crystal), 3D monoliths, nanoscale particles, hierarchical and gradient interior structures, and dynamically transformable shapes at the nanoscale are demonstrated. A vast landscape of novel applications and device products is expected based on the already established R&D and market maturity of PPX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coloring and identification procedures for medical devices are important to reduce the risks of defective medical devices or incorrect operations and implantations. The study herein reports a novel platform of color pigment‐modified Parylene coatings to fulfill the needs of medical coatings, providing a surface modification route to alter the important property of color for an underlying material and/or device from its original color. Modification with a naphthalimide derivative is employed for the Parylene precursor. The synthesis of the final color Parylene coating is performed based on a vapor‐phase deposition polymerization process, and the coating is conformally coated on a variety of materials regardless of the shape or dimension. Furthermore, control of the color to create a series of color‐changing Parylene coatings is enabled by vapor deposition copolymerization with a second Parylene derivative source, and predictable color tuning from a primary to a secondary and/or tertiary color is achievable in the experiments and shows accordance with color theory. The reported coating platform represents a colored coating tool and is biocompatible for biotechnological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a quick measurement of the refractive index of dielectric nanofilm via a fabricated topological grating that comprises indium tin oxide (ITO) strips and nanowalls with an extremely high aspect ratio of 25. As the topological grating is capped with a dielectric nanofilm, the parabolic fields of the nanowalls destructively interfere with those of the ITO strips. This destructive interference weakens the photonic jets of the topological grating, decreasing its diffraction efficiency. The decrease in the diffraction efficiency determines the refractive index of the nanofilm without measuring its thickness in advance because the efficiency decrease is independent of the thickness. In other words, the photonic jets of the topological grating are manipulated by the refractive index of the nanofilm. The experimental results verify that refractive indices of titanium‐dioxide, silicon‐dioxide, and bovine‐serum‐albumin nanofilms with a thickness much smaller than the visible wavelengths can be measured by using the proposed topological grating. Therefore, topological gratings have great potential to develop advanced materials, fascinating devices, and innovative instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of sleep on academic performance and job performance. A total of 172 undergraduate students completed an on-line questionnaire and their [...]