Search

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a rapidly developing therapeutic modality for the safe and effective treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, clinical rTMS driving systems and head coils are large, heavy, and expensive, so miniaturized, affordable rTMS devices may facilitate treatment access for patients at home, in underserved areas, in field and mobile hospitals, on ships and submarines, and in space. The central component of a portable rTMS system is a miniaturized, lightweight coil. Such a coil, when mated to lightweight driving circuits, must be able to induce B and E fields of sufficient intensity for medical use. This paper newly identifies and validates salient theoretical considerations specific to the dimensional scaling and miniaturization of coil geometries, particularly figure-8 coils, and delineates novel, key design criteria. In this context, the essential requirement of matching coil inductance with the characteristic resistance of the driver switches is highlighted. Computer simulations predicted E- and B-fields which were validated via benchtop experiments. Using a miniaturized coil with dimensions of 76 mm × 38 mm and weighing only 12.6 g, the peak E-field was 87 V/m at a distance of 1.5 cm. Practical considerations limited the maximum voltage and current to 350 V and 3.1 kA, respectively; nonetheless, this peak E-field value was well within the intensity range, 60-120 V/m, generally held to be therapeutically relevant. The presented parameters and results delineate coil and circuit guidelines for a future miniaturized, power-scalable rTMS system able to generate pulsed E-fields of sufficient amplitude for potential clinical use.

Acoustofluidics has promised to enable lab-on-a-chip and point-of-care devices in ways difficult to achieve using other methods. Piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers-as small as the chips they actuate-provide rapid fluid and suspended object transport. Acoustofluidic lab-on-chip devices offer a vast range of benefits in early disease identification and noninvasive drug delivery. However, their potential has long been undermined by the need for benchtop or rack-mount electronics. The piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers within require these equipment and thus acoustofluidic device implementation in a bedside setting has been limited. Here we detail a general process to enable the reader to produce battery or mains-powered microcircuits ideal for driving 1-300 MHz acoustic devices. We include the general design strategy for the circuit, the blocks that collectively define it, and suitable, specific choices for components to produce these blocks. We furthermore illustrate how to incorporate automated resonance finding and tracking, sensing and feedback, and built-in adjustability to accommodate devices' vastly different operating frequencies and powers in a single driver, including examples of fluid and particle manipulation typical of the needs in our discipline. With this in hand, the many groups active in lab-on-a-chip acoustofluidics can now finally deliver on the promise of handheld, point-of-care technologies.

Supercapacitors offer superior cycle life and high power densities, but as energy storage devices, they are limited by self-discharge processes manifested as large potential decay and leakage current, resulting in loss of stored energy and low charging efficiency. To minimize Faradaic side reactions, this Letter has incorporated a sulfonate ion-exchange resin in separators to trap impurities and thereby suppress self-discharge in supercapacitors with PEDOT as redox electrodes. The versatile separator design is generally applicable to organic and aqueous electrolytes and compatible with a pH range of 0-14, while maintaining the device capacitance and rate performance. Temperature-dependent characteristics were analyzed to identify that the reduction of impurity concentration and diffusion was key to improve potential retention. Compared to devices using commercially available separators, the device here exhibited a lower leakage current and better charging efficiency. It was demonstrated to work with radio frequency energy-harvesting circuits and showed the potential to serve as an energy reservoir for wireless electronic applications.

Business schools strive to improve students' analytical skills by incorporating advanced business application software courses into their curricula. This study examined how business school students perceived the ease of using the software and the usefulness of using the software in learning. The study also explored whether and how students' perceived ease of use and usefulness of the software affected their attitude towards the use of business software and their intention to use the software. Data were collected from 159 Chinese business school students in a higher education institution in Macao. Results showed students generally agreed the software was easy to learn and use, and they agreed the software was useful. The results of structural equation modeling showed that perceived ease of use was directly and indirectly related to attitude towards the use of business software through its effect on perceived usefulness, whereas attitude towards the use of business software strongly affected the intention to use the software.

Student-generated materials offer high engagement, connectedness, and satisfaction in learning. In this project, the students merged the concepts and cases learned in class with the experiences of business professionals to create scenarios that can convey the concepts of Business Ethics (BE) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to secondary school students. Because these abstract concepts are difficult to teach effectively, the torch of learning is passed via the student-designed content, which is coupled with augmented reality and mobile technology. With this approach, undergraduate students will gain more ownership in the learning process and the secondary school students will acquire BE and CSR concepts interactively. As a result, learning efficacy is enhanced by the active engagement of students outside the classroom, as validated by the triangulation of qualitative feedback, quantitative analysis, and clickstream data.

We have developed a catalytic protocol for Diels‐Alder reaction using trialkylphosphonium oxoborates as oxyanion hole catalysts. The reaction can be operated under ambient conditions. Dienes could easily polymerize under acidic condition. Nonetheless, these acid‐sensitive substrates are compatible with the catalytic protocol and the reaction scope covers a wide range of substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Head and neck cancer is the seventh-most prevalent cancer worldwide. Despite advances in treatment, many patients suffer from chemoradiation-induced oral mucositis and dysphagia, affecting both treatment outcome and quality of life. Accurate prediction of the severity of toxicities is important for optimizing management and improving patient outcomes. The aim of this scoping review was to provide recommendations for the improvement in predictive models for oral mucositis and dysphagia. This was achieved by comprehensively mapping the landscape of reported predictors and critically evaluating the performance, methodology, and reporting of predictive models for these conditions. Implementation of these improvements is desirable to enable the early detection of patients at high risk of severe toxicity, thereby offering opportunities for preemptive care, intensified support, and, ultimately, improved patient outcomes. Despite advances in head and neck cancer treatment, virtually all patients experience chemoradiation-induced toxicities. Oral mucositis (OM) and dysphagia are among the most prevalent and have a systemic impact on patients, hampering treatment outcome and harming quality of life. Accurate prediction of severe cases is crucial for improving management strategies and, ultimately, patient outcomes. This scoping review comprehensively maps the reported predictors and critically evaluates the performance, methodology, and reporting of predictive models for these conditions. A total of 174 studies were identified from database searches, with 73 reporting OM predictors, 97 reporting dysphagia predictors, and 4 reporting both OM and dysphagia predictors. These predictors included patient demographics, tumor classification, chemoradiotherapy regimen, radiation dose to organs-at-risk, genetic factors, and results of clinical laboratory tests. Notably, many studies only conducted univariate analysis or focused exclusively on certain predictor types. Among the included studies, numerous predictive models were reported: eight for acute OM, five for acute dysphagia, and nine for late dysphagia. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) ranged between 0.65 and 0.81, 0.60 and 0.82, and 0.70 and 0.85 for acute oral mucositis, acute dysphagia, and late dysphagia predictive models, respectively. Several areas for improvement were identified, including the need for external validation with sufficiently large sample sizes, further standardization of predictor and outcome definitions, and more comprehensive reporting to facilitate reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]