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Debilitating hearing loss (HL) affects ~6% of the human population. Only 20% of the people in need of a hearing assistive device will eventually seek and acquire one. The number of people that are satisfied with their Hearing Aids (HAids) and continue using them in the long term is even lower. Understanding the personal, behavioral, environmental, or other factors that correlate with the optimal HAid fitting and with users' experience of HAids is a significant step in improving patient satisfaction and quality of life, while reducing societal and financial burden. In SMART BEAR we are addressing this need by making use of the capacity of modern HAids to provide dynamic logging of their operation and by combining this information with a big amount of information about the medical, environmental, and social context of each HAid user. We are studying hearing rehabilitation through a 12-month continuous monitoring of HL patients, collecting data, such as participants' demographics, audiometric and medical data, their cognitive and mental status, their habits, and preferences, through a set of medical devices and wearables, as well as through face-to-face and remote clinical assessments and fitting/fine-tuning sessions. Descriptive, AI-based analysis and assessment of the relationships between heterogeneous data and HL-related parameters will help clinical researchers to better understand the overall health profiles of HL patients, and to identify patterns or relations that may be proven essential for future clinical trials. In addition, the future state and behavioral (e.g., HAids Satisfiability and HAids usage) of the patients will be predicted with time-dependent machine learning models to assist the clinical researchers to decide on the nature of the interventions. Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques will be leveraged to better understand the factors that play a significant role in the success of a hearing rehabilitation program, constructing patient profiles. This paper is a conceptual one aiming to describe the upcoming data collection process and proposed framework for providing a comprehensive profile for patients with HL in the context of EU-funded SMART BEAR project. Such patient profiles can be invaluable in HL treatment as they can help to identify the characteristics making patients more prone to drop out and stop using their HAids, using their HAids sufficiently long during the day, and being more satisfied by their HAids experience. They can also help decrease the number of needed remote sessions with their Audiologist for counseling, and/or HAids fine tuning, or the number of manual changes of HAids program (as indication of poor sound quality and bad adaptation of HAids configuration to patients' real needs and daily challenges), leading to reduced healthcare cost.

Uveal melanoma is the most common intraocular malignant tumor in adults. For patients presenting with cataracts and glaucoma, it is recommended to assess whether an intraocular lesion is present as the primary cause. The present study describes the case of a 52-year-old man with primary intraocular malignant melanoma. The patient experienced painless vision loss in the right eye for 1 year, with recent onset of eye swelling and pain in the week prior to seeking medical attention. A slit-lamp examination revealed a shallow anterior chamber in the right eye, a visibly opaque lens and a faint reflection of the tumor surface in the vitreous humor. In addition, the intraocular pressure of this eye was >60 mmHg. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a large tumor behind the lens measuring 16x18x14 mm. Pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. No BRCA-associated protein-1 somatic mutation was detected, whereas germline mutations of MutL protein homolog 1, RAD54 like, and SWI/SNF related, matrix associated, actin dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily a, member 4 were identified. Extensive systemic examination excluded the possibility that the tumors originated from another part of the body. The present case report highlights the crucial role of slit-lamp examination in the detection of ocular tumors. It is advocated that for patients presenting with cataracts, attention should be paid to the possibility of intraocular tumors. Meticulous slit-lamp microscopy may reveal a reflection of the surface of a malignant melanoma, preventing misdiagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights Nonflammable gel polymer electrolyte (SGPE) is developed by in situ polymerizing trifluoroethyl methacrylate (TFMA) monomers with flame-retardant triethyl phosphate (TEP) solvents and LiTFSI–LiDFOB dual lithium salts. Molecular polarity interaction between TEP and PTFMA mitigates interfacial reactions and changes the solvation of Li+. SGPE forms stable inorganic-rich solid electrolyte interface/cathode electrolyte interface layer, exhibiting well compatibility with Li anode and LiCoO2-type high-voltage cathode.

Debilitating hearing loss (HL) affects ~6% of the human population. Only 20% of the people in need of a hearing assistive device will eventually seek and acquire one. The number of people that are satisfied with their Hearing Aids (HAids) and continue using themin the long termis even lower. Understanding the personal, behavioral, environmental, or other factors that correlate with the optimal HAid fitting and with users' experience of HAids is a significant step in improving patient satisfaction and quality of life, while reducing societal and financial burden. In SMART BEAR we are addressing this need by making use of the capacity of modern HAids to provide dynamic logging of their operation and by combining this information with a big amount of information about themedical, environmental, and social context of each HAid user. We are studying hearing rehabilitation through a 12-month continuous monitoring of HL patients, collecting data, such as participants' demographics, audiometric and medical data, their cognitive and mental status, their habits, and preferences, through a set of medical devices and wearables, as well as through face-to-face and remote clinical assessments and fitting/fine-tuning sessions. Descriptive, AI-based analysis and assessment of the relationships between heterogeneous data and HL-related parameters will help clinical researchers to better understand the overall health profiles of HL patients, and to identify patterns or relations that may be proven essential for future clinical trials. In addition, the future state and behavioral (e.g., HAids Satisfiability and HAids usage) of the patients will be predicted with time-dependent machine learning models to assist the clinical researchers to decide on the nature of the interventions. Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) techniques will be leveraged to better understand the factors that play a significant role in the success of a hearing rehabilitation program, constructing patient profiles. This paper is a conceptual one aiming to describe the upcoming data collection process and proposed framework for providing a comprehensive profile for patients with HL in the context of EU-funded SMART BEAR project. Such patient profiles can be invaluable in HL treatment as they can help to identify the characteristics making patients more prone to drop out and stop using their HAids, using their HAids suffciently long during the day, and being more satisfied by their HAids experience. They can also help decrease the number of needed remote sessions with their Audiologist for counseling, and/or HAids fine tuning, or the number of manual changes of HAids program (as indication of poor sound quality and bad adaptation of HAids configuration to patients' real needs and daily challenges), leading to reduced healthcare cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The Chronic Pain Coping Inventory-42(CPCI-42) is mainly used for chronic pain management project, its original version is written in English and has been widely used in western countries. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to apply the CPCI-42 to Chinese patients and evaluate its responsiveness, reliability, and validity for Chinese patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH). Methods Translation and adaptation were carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Outcome Committee. A total of 133 patients who were diagnosed with LDH were included in this study. Psychometric evaluations were then performed and included score distribution, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness. Results CPCI-42 is well adapted to the assessment of the cognitive and behavioral strategies of patients with LDH, and the scores of score distribution, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, construct validity, and responsiveness are excellent. Forward and reverse translation of the CPCI-42 to English from Chinese worked smoothly. Conclusion It is applicable to the assessment of quality of life of the cognitive and behavioral strategies of patients with LDH, and the scores of all indicators are excellent.

Abstract Developing ionogel electrolytes based on ionic liquid instead of volatile liquid in gel polymer electrolytes is regarded to be effective to diminish safety concerns in terms of overheating and fire. Herein, a zwitterion‐based copolymer matrix based on the copolymerization of trimethylolpropane ethoxylate triacrylate (ETPTA) and 2‐methacryloyloxyethylphosphorylcholine (MPC, one typical zwitterion) is developed. It is shown that introducing zwitterions into ionogel electrolytes can effectively optimize local lithium‐ion (Li+) coordination environment to improve Li+ transport kinetics. The interactions between Li+ and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (TFSI−)/MPC lead to the formation of Li+ coordination shell jointly occupied by MPC and TFSI−. Benefiting from the competitive Li+ attraction of TFSI− and MPC, the energy barrier of Li+ desolvation is sharply decreased and thus the room‐temperature ionic conductivity can reach a value of 4.4 × 10−4 S cm−1. Besides, the coulombic interaction between TFSI− and MPC can greatly decrease the reduction stability of TFSI−, boosting in situ derivation of LiF‐enriched solid electrolyte interface layer on lithium metal surface. As expected, the assembled Li||LiFePO4 cells deliver a high reversible discharge capacity of 139 mAh g−1 at 0.5 C and good cycling stability. Besides, the pouch cells exhibit a steady open‐circuit voltage and can operate normally under abuse testing (fold, cut), showing its outstanding safety performance.

We analyze the epidemiological characteristics of varicella and breakthrough cases in Qing Yang City, Gansu Province, and provide a basis for the formulation of varicella prevention and control policies. Varicella and breakthrough cases, public health emergency events in Qing Yang City during 2014–2022 were obtained from the China Disease Prevention and Control information System, and the immunization history of the cases were collected from the Gansu Provincial Immunization Planning Information System, descriptive epidemiological analysis of the obtained information was then performed. A total of 6961 cases of varicella were reported in Qing Yang City from 2014 to 2022, yielding an annual incidence of 36.99 cases per 100 000 population. The incidence increased from 19.74/100,000 in 2014 to 35.97/100,000 in 2022; the incidence peaks were observed from May to July and from November to January of the next year. The reported incidence is higher in males (37.70/100,000) than in females (31.54/100,000), and the main age groups were 4 ~ 6 years old (241.98/100,000), 7 ~ 9 years old (142.39/100,000), 10 ~ 14 years old (101.99/100,000). There were 1975 breakthrough cases, accounting for 28.4% of the total reported cases; the majority of patients were students, children in nursery care and scattered children; a total of 10 outbreaks of varicella were reported in primary schools (40.0%), secondary schools (30.0%), kindergartens (20.0%) and high schools (10.0%). The incidence of varicella showed an increasing trend, children and students are high-risk population. It is suggested that varicella vaccine should be included into the immunization program, and the vaccination rate of two-dose of varicella vaccine should be increased for age-eligible children, and varicella surveillance should be strengthened.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was a global endemic that continues to cause a large number of severe illnesses and fatalities. There is increasing evidence that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are crucial regulators of viral infection and antiviral immune response and the role of non-coding RNAs in SARS-CoV-2 infection has now become the focus of scholarly inquiry. After SARS-CoV-2 infection, some ncRNAs’ expression levels are regulated to indirectly control the expression of antiviral genes and viral gene replication. However, some other ncRNAs are hijacked by SARS-CoV-2 in order to help the virus evade the immune system by suppressing the expression of type I interferon (IFN-1) and controlling cytokine levels. In this review, we summarize the recent findings of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) among non-coding RNAs in SARS-CoV-2 infection and antiviral response, discuss the potential mechanisms of actions, and prospects for the detection, treatment, prevention and future directions of SARS-CoV-2 infection research.

In this research, oat resistant starch (ORS) was prepared by autoclaving-retrogradation cycle (ORS-A), enzymatic hydrolysis (ORS-B), and ultrasound combined enzymatic hydrolysis (ORS-C). Differences in their structural features, physicochemical properties and digestive properties were studied. Results of particle size distribution, XRD, DSC, FTIR, SEM and in vitro digestion showed that ORS-C was a B + C-crystal, and ORS-C had a larger particle size, the smallest span value, the highest relative crystallinity, the most ordered and stable double helix structure, the roughest surface shape and strongest digestion resistance compared to ORS-A and ORS-B. Correlation analysis revealed that the digestion resistance of ORS-C was strongly positively correlated with RS content, amylose content, relative crystallinity and absorption peak intensity ratio of 1047/1022 cm−1 (R1047/1022), and weakly positively correlated with average particle size. These results provided theoretical support for the application of ORS-C with strong digestion resistance prepared by ultrasound combined enzymatic hydrolysis in the low GI food application.

IntroductionCrops influence both soil microbial communities and soil organic carbon (SOC) cycling through rhizosphere processes, yet their responses to nitrogen (N) fertilization have not been well investigated under continuous monoculture.MethodsIn this study, rhizosphere soil microbial communities from a 5-year continuous mono-cropped peanut land were examined using Illumina HighSeq sequencing, with an N fertilization gradient that included 0 (N0), 60 (N60), 120 (N120) and 180 (N180) kg hm−2. Soil respiration rate (Rs) and its temperature sensitivity (Q10) were determined, with soil carbon-acquiring enzyme activities assayed.Results and discussionThe obtained results showed that with N fertilization, soil mineral N (Nmin) was highly increased and the soil C/N ratio was decreased; yields were unchanged, but root biomass was stimulated only at N120. The activities of β-1,4-glucosidase and polyphenol oxidase were reduced across application rates, but that of β-1,4-cellobiohydrolase was increased only at N120. Bacterial alpha diversity was unchanged, but fungal richness and diversity were increased at N60 and N120. For bacterial groups, the relative abundance of Acidobacteria was reduced, while those of Alphaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria were increased at N60 and N120. For fungal members, the pathogenic Sordariomycetes was inhibited, but the saprotrophic Agaricomycetes was promoted, regardless of N fertilization rates. RDA identified different factors driving the variations in bacterial (root biomass) and fungal (Nmin) community composition. N fertilization increased Rs slightly at N60 and significantly at N120, mainly through the promotion of cellulose-related microbes, and decreased Rs slightly at N180, likely due to carbon limitation. N fertilization reduced microbial biomass carbon (MBC) at N60, N120 and N180, decreased SOC at N120 and N180, and suppressed dissolved organic carbon (DOC) at N180. In addition, the unchanged Q10 may be a joint result of several mechanisms that counteracted each other. These results are of critical importance for assessing the sustainability of continuously monocultured ecosystems, especially when confronting global climate change.

Biochar has been widely reported to improve soil conditions and affect plant growth. However, its effectiveness is limited by soil type and production technology. Considering the application effect of biochar in saline alkali soil, there is currently a lack of in-depth mechanism explanations in the research. Therefore, we designed an experiment to explore the effect of biochar on plant growth in saline alkali soil and conducted soil column experiments in a greenhouse environment using composite inorganic fertilizer (NPK). The results showed that biochar significantly affected the distribution of soil nutrient content at different depths, with a significant increase in fertility levels in the surface and middle layers and a decrease in fertility levels in deep soils. Compared to using fertilizers alone, the combined use of biochar and fertilizers further expands the enrichment effect and significantly reduces the leaching of fertilizers into deeper layers. At the same time, the application of biochar also improved soil properties, including an increase in electrical conductivity and organic matter content, as well as an increase in soil enzyme activity. On the other hand, the application of biochar also increases the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the content of osmoregulation substances in plants, reducing the environmental stress that plants are subjected to. Therefore, our results indicate that biochar can reduce the leaching of fertilizers into deep soil layers, improve soil properties, and promotes the growth of Miscanthus in saline alkali soils.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed and leguminous crop. The effect of various forms of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on peanut N acquisition needs to be evaluated by clarifying the N sources from root system absorption and from root nodule fixation. In this study, four kinds of N fertilizers (CONH2–N, NH4+-N, NO3−-N, NH4++NO3−-N, labeled by 15N isotope) were used to quantify N absorption and N fixation of peanut, as well as, their relationships with peanut root morphological characteristics and root nodule properties. Results demonstrated that peanut of CONH2–N treatment held the highest N absorption and N fixation amounts, followed by NH4+-N, NH4++NO3−-N and NO3−-N treatments. Detailly, CONH2–N treatment significantly increased total root length/surface area (especially for fine root of 0–1.0 mm) and N absorption/fixation amounts, suggested that significant correlations were exist between root length/surface area and N absorption, as well as, between root nodule number/weight and N fixation. In addition, with the increase of total root length of 100 cm/plant and root surface area of 10 cm2/plant, N absorption amount of peanut was separately increased by 10.0 and 8.1 mg/plant. With the root nodule number and weight increased by 1.0 unit/plant and 10 mg/plant, N fixation amount of peanut was increased by 13.0 and 17.2 mg/plant during root nodule development. In general, CONH2–N is the optimal N fertilizer for peanut growth and development with the highest root N absorption and root nodule N fixation, and was suitable for the rational N management of peanut planting.

Probiotics have garnered significant attention in recent years due to their potential advantages in diverse biomedical applications, such as acting as antimicrobial agents, aiding in tissue repair, and treating diseases. These live bacteria must exist in appropriate quantities and precise locations to exert beneficial effects. However, their viability and activity can be significantly impacted by the surrounding tissue, posing a challenge to maintain their stability in the target location for an extended duration. To counter this, researchers have formulated various strategies that enhance the activity and stability of probiotics by encapsulating them within biomaterials. This approach enables site-specific release, overcoming technical impediments encountered during the processing and application of probiotics. A range of materials can be utilized for encapsulating probiotics, and several methods can be employed for this encapsulation process. This article reviews the recent advancements in probiotics encapsulated within biomaterials, examining the materials, methods, and effects of encapsulation. It also provides an overview of the hurdles faced by currently available biomaterial-based probiotic capsules and suggests potential future research directions in this field. Despite the progress achieved to date, numerous challenges persist, such as the necessity for developing efficient, reproducible encapsulation methods that maintain the viability and activity of probiotics. Furthermore, there is a need to design more robust and targeted delivery vehicles.

He–Xe, with a 40 g/mol molar mass, is considered one of the most promising working media in a space-confined Brayton cycle. The thermodynamic performance of He–Xe in different configuration channels is investigated in this paper to provide a basis for the optimal design of printed circuit board plate heat exchanger (PCHE). In this paper, the factors affecting the temperature distribution of the He–Xe flow field are analyzed based on the flow heat transfer mechanism. It is found that the flow patterns in the logarithmic and outer zones determine the temperature distribution pattern of the flow field. A series of numerical simulations verify the above conclusions, and it is found that reasonable channel structure and operating conditions can significantly improve the thermodynamic performance of the He–Xe flow. Based on the above findings, the Zig channel is optimized, obtaining Sine and Serpentine channels with different structural characteristics. Comprehensive thermodynamic comparisons of the helium–xenon flow domains inside channels are performed, and the Serpentine channel with a shape factor of tan 52.5° is found with the best performance. This work aims to improve the understanding of the thermodynamic performance of He–Xe in microchannels and provide theoretical support for further optimization of PCHE employing He–Xe.

Due to the frequent oil/organic solvent leakage, efficient oil/water separation has attracted extensive concern. However, conventional porous materials possess nonpolar building units, which reveal relatively weak affinity for polar organic molecules. Here, two different polarities of superhydrophobic porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) were synthesized with respective orthoposition and paraposition C=O groups in the PAF linkers. The conjugated structure formed by a large number of alkynyl and benzene ring structures enabled porous and superhydrophobic quality of PAFs. After the successful preparation of the PAF solids, PAF powders were coated on polyester fabrics by a simple dip-coating method, which endowed the resulting polyester fabrics with superhydrophobicity, porosity, and excellent stability. Based on the unique structure, the oil/water separation efficiency of two superhydrophobic flexible fabrics was more than 90% for various organic solvents. Polar LNU-26 PAF showed better separation performance for the polar oils. This work takes the lead in adopting the polar groups as building units for the preparation of porous networks, which has great guiding significance for the construction of advanced oil/water separation materials.

The output voltage of a dual LCL inductive power transfer (IPT) system varies with the load and mutual inductance, which can affect the system performance, e.g., the charging speed of electrical equipment. This paper proposes a robust controller to maintain constant output voltage against the load and mutual inductance variations. A μ-synthesis method is proposed based on structured singular value to design the dual LCL IPT closed-loop system. The frequency-domain nominal model of the system is established by using the generalized state-space averaging (GSSA) method. A standard M-Δ configuration is generalized through separating the nominal and uncertain block by upper linear fractional transformation (LFT). The μ-controller is finally obtained by D-K iteration. The robust performance analysis and time-domain performance analysis are also carried out. The simulation and experimental results verified the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and controller design, and demonstrated the robust stability and robust performance of the dual LCL IPT system.

Heterogeneity broadly exists in various cell types both during development and at homeostasis. Investigating heterogeneity is crucial for comprehensively understanding the complexity of ontogeny, dynamics, and function of specific cell types. Traditional bulk-labeling techniques are incompetent to dissect heterogeneity within cell population, while the new single-cell lineage tracing methodologies invented in the last decade can hardly achieve high-fidelity single-cell labeling and long-term in-vivo observation simultaneously. In this work, we developed a high-precision infrared laser-evoked gene operator heat-shock system, which uses laser-induced CreERT2 combined with loxP-DsRedx-loxP-GFP reporter to achieve precise single-cell labeling and tracing. In vivo study indicated that this system can precisely label single cell in brain, muscle and hematopoietic system in zebrafish embryo. Using this system, we traced the hematopoietic potential of hemogenic endothelium (HE) in the posterior blood island (PBI) of zebrafish embryo and found that HEs in the PBI are heterogeneous, which contains at least myeloid unipotent and myeloid-lymphoid bipotent subtypes.

The spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity pose a great challenge to accurately estimate the carbon flux in global carbon cycling, which has primarily been researched in flatlands versus hillslope ecosystems. On an eroded slope (35°) of the semiarid Loess Plateau, soil respiration, soil moisture and soil temperature were measured in situ at upper and lower slope positions in triplicate from 2014 until 2016, and the soil biochemical and microbial properties were determined. The results showed that soil respiration was significantly greater (by 44.2%) at the lower slope position (2.6 μmol m-2 s-1) than at the upper slope position, as were soil moisture, carbon, nitrogen fractions and root biomass. However, the temperature sensitivity was 13.2% greater at the upper slope position than at the lower slope position (P < 0.05). The soil fungal community changed from being Basidiomycota-dominant at the upper slope position to being Zygomycota-dominant at the lower slope position, corresponding with increased β-D-glucosidase activity at the upper slope position than at the lower slope position. We concluded that soil respiration was enhanced by the greater soil moisture, root biomass, carbon and nitrogen contents at the lower slope position than at the upper slope position. Moreover, the increased soil respiration and decreased temperature sensitivity at the lower slope position were partially due to copiotrophs replacing oligotrophs. Such spatial variations along slopes must be properly accounted for when estimating the carbon budget and feedback of future climate change on hillslope ecosystems.

Immunoassays have been widely used in scientific research and clinical diagnosis due to their versatile detection capability and high specificity. Immunoagglutination assays are kinds of immunoassay, which can simply and rapidly measure the concentration of analytes. In this work, we developed a low-cost micro-volume nephelometric system for quantitative immunoagglutination assays. We used off-the-shelf components to build the system, and the total cost of key components is only about 20 US dollars. The total detection volume in our system was as low as 3 µL, which could significantly reduce the reagent cost and required sample volume. We further evaluated the system performance via the immunoagglutination assay to measure the concentration of C-reactive protein, a plasma protein with levels rising in response to inflammation. The results demonstrated that our system could measure the concentration of analytes with relatively high sensitivity and precision within four minutes, and has high potential to be applied for clinical diagnostic tests.

Application of phosphorus (P) fertilizers to P-deficient soils can also result in P accumulation. In this study, soil P status and P uptake by apple trees were investigated in 5-, 10-, and 15-year-old orchards in the semi-arid Loess Plateau, China, and subset soils with different soil P statuses (14-90 Olsen-P mg kg(-1)) were selected to evaluate the characteristic P adsorption. Due to the low P-use efficiency (4-6%), total soil P increased from 540 mg kg(-1) to 904 mg kg(-1), Olsen-P ranged from 3.4 mg kg(-1) to 30.7 mg kg(-1), and CaCl2-P increased from less than 0.1 mg kg(-1) to 0.66 mg kg(-1) under continuous P fertilization. The P sorption isotherms for each apple orchard were found to fit the Langmuir isotherm model (R2 = 0.91-0.98). K (binding energy) and Qm (P sorption maximum) decreased, whereas DPS (degree of phosphorus sorption) increased with increasing P concentration. CaCl2-P increased significantly with the increase of Olsen-P, especially above the change point of 46.1 mg kg(-1). Application of surplus P could result in P enrichment in P-deficient soil which has high P fixation capacity, thus posing a significant environmental risk.