Search

PurposeThis study utilized Minorities’ Diminished Return theory and aimed to learn if minority children gain less protective effect from higher family income compared to White children for dental caries and multiple oral health problems.MethodsThis study was designed cross-sectionally from 21,599 subject-responses to the 2017 National Survey of Children’s Health. Specific outcomes included parental-reported dental caries and multiple oral health problems (e.g., toothaches, bleeding gums, and/or caries) compared across Hispanic and non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, and Multi-race children. Logistic regression models estimated the effects of race/ethnicity on each outcome, with adjustments for child sex, parental education, child age, and income-to-needs ratio.ResultsThe findings showed when all racial/ethnic groups increased family income and socioeconomic status, there were no statistically significant differences between all racial/ethnic groups for the parental-reported dental caries and multiple oral health problems.ConclusionsThis study’s findings show either 1) Minorities’ Diminished Return theory, which postulates that structural racism negatively impacts health gains from higher socioeconomic status for minority children, does not apply to children’s dental caries and multiple oral health problems or 2) the biologic load of the caries disease process supersedes the protective health gain effects from increased family income, expected by Minorities’ Diminished Return theory. Regardless, dentists and policymakers must support best practices and policies which benefit entire populations of children, through widespread disease prevention techniques, access-to-care, and utilization-of-care programs to decrease levels of childhood caries and other oral health problems.

PurposeThrough the use Minorities’ Diminished Return theory, this study aimed to assess the concepts of the theory for access to and utilization of dental care of minority children, compared to White children, when all race/ethnicity groups achieve higher socioeconomic status.MethodsThis study was designed cross-sectionally from 21,599 subjects responding to the 2017 National Survey of Children’s Health. The outcome variables of access to and utilization of dental care were compared across Hispanic and non-Hispanic White, Black, Asian, and Multi-race children. Logistic regression models estimated the effects of race/ethnicity on each outcome, with adjustments for child sex, parental education, child age, and income-to-needs ratio.ResultsThe findings showed that compared to White children, when all racial/ethnic groups increased family income and socioeconomic status, Black and Multi-race children received less health gains in the outcomes of access to and utilization of dental care; and Hispanic children experienced less access to dental care.ConclusionsMinorities’ Diminished Return theory provides evidence of structural barriers which negatively impact the health gains from higher socioeconomic status for access to and utilization of dental care for Black, Hispanic, and Multi-race children. Dentists and policymakers must address systemic racism and structural barriers for oral health equity among all children.

Azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus makes a major challenge to the chemotherapy for invasive aspergillosis, whereas cyp51A gene mutation is the most dominant mechanism for azole resistance. Moreover, biofilm contributes to drug resistance for A. fumigatus, and extracellular matrix (ECM) is essential to protect live cells from antifungal drugs. Therefore, we performed a comparative proteomic study on the biofilm ECM of both the wild-type and azole-resistant strains of A. fumigatus under azole pressure. In total, 2377 proteins were identified, of which 480 and 604 proteins with differential expression were obtained from the wild-type and azole-resistant A. fumigatus in exposure to itraconazole respectively (fold change 2 or 0.5, P-value 0.05). We found that a high proportion of regulated proteins were located in cytoplasm, nucleus, and mitochondria. Meanwhile, GO and KEGG analyses revealed that metabolic process and ribosome pathway were significantly enriched. Particularly, differentially expressed proteins in response to azole pressure of both the wild-type and resistant strains were further analyzed. Our results indicated that these changes in biofilm ECM proteins were related to ergosterol synthesis, oxidative stress, efflux pumps, DNA repair, DNA replication, and transcription.A comparative proteomic study on the biofilm between wild-type and azole-resistant strains of A. fumigatus under drug pressure found that changes in biofilm ECM proteins were related to ergosterol synthesis, oxidative stress, efflux pumps, DNA repair, DNA replication, and transcription.

Topological domains in ferroelectrics have received much attention recently owing to their novel functionalities and potential applications in electronic devices. So far, however, such topological polar structures have been observed only in superlattices grown on oxide substrates, which limits their applications in silicon-based electronics. Here we report the realization of room-temperature skyrmion-like polar nanodomains in lead titanate/strontium titanate bilayers transferred onto silicon. Moreover, an external electric field can reversibly switch these nanodomains into the other type of polar texture, which substantially modifies their resistive behaviours. The polar-configuration-modulated resistance is ascribed to the distinct band bending and charge carrier distribution in the core of the two types of polar texture. The integration of high-density (more than 200 gigabits per square inch) switchable skyrmion-like polar nanodomains on silicon may enable non-volatile memory applications using topological polar structures in oxides.

In the project of false news detection, model which can judge whether the news is fake was built. By using this model, the information safety degree of the society will be strongly improved. To start with the work, a model was created by using the Tensorflow. Then the loss function and optimizer were used to train the model. Finally, a plot of accuracy and loss time was created in order to evaluate the model effectively. After these steps down, a model which can test whether a piece of news is fake will be created. From the process of exploring machine learning, the ability of using Excel to evaluate data was improved, and the developing intelligent recognition with python was achieved.

Background: After stroke, the peripheral nerves of the hemiplegic upper extremity (HUE) could exist impairments which seriously delay the function recovery of the HUE. However, the impacts of shoulder subluxation (SS) on the HUE electromyography characteristics in post-stroke are rarely reported. Therefore, this study was to investigate the impact of SS on peripheral nerve conduction and function of the HUE in post-stroke patients.Methods: A retrospective, matched-pair study was conducted. 30 post-stroke in-patients (15 patients for each group) were selected and their peripheral nerves of bilateral upper limbs were used to be underdone by the electroneurographic examination. The characteristics of patients, such as age and type of stroke, were recorded and paired. The electroneurographic parameters of upper limb motor/sensory nerves contained: the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) amplitude and latency of suprascapular, axillary, musculocutaneous, radial, median and ulnar nerves; the motor conduction velocity/ the sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) amplitude and latency of median, ulnar and radial nerves. The Brunnstrom stage scale was used to evaluate the motor function of the HUE.Results: The CMAP amplitude of each nerve in the HUE of both groups was lower than that in the healthy side (P < 0.05). CMAP amplitude of peripheral nerves (except ulnar) in the HUE of SS group was decreased (P < 0.05). The CMAP latency of the suprascapular, axillary and musculocutaneous nerves was longer than that of the healthy side in the SS group (P < 0.05). The axillary nerve CMAP latency in the SS group was prolonged more (P < 0.05). The motor conduction velocity of the median nerve on the HUE in the SS group was lower than that of the HUE in the N-SS group (P < 0.05). The SNAP amplitudes of the nerves in the HUE in both groups were lower than those in the healthy side (P < 0.05). The Brunnstrom stage of HUE in the SS group was lower (P < 0.05).Conclusions: Stroke may lead to extensive damage of the HUE nerves, and SS may aggravate the damage of these nerves, delaying the recovery of upper limb function.

Northern blot analysis detects RNA molecules immobilized on nylon membranes through hybridization with radioactive 32P-labeled DNA or RNA oligonucleotide probes. Alternatively, nonradioactive northern blot relies on chemiluminescent reactions triggered by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated probes. The use of regulated radioactive material and the complexity of chemiluminescent reactions and detection have hampered the adoption of northern blot techniques by the wider biomedical research community. Here, we describe a sensitive and straightforward nonradioactive northern blot method, which utilizes near-infrared (IR) fluorescent dye-labeled probes (irNorthern). We found that irNorthern has a detection limit of ∼0.05 femtomoles (fmol), which is slightly less sensitive than 32P-Northern. However, we found that the IR dye-labeled probe maintains the sensitivity after multiple usages as well as long-term storage. We also present alternative irNorthern methods using a biotinylated DNA probe, a DNA probe labeled by terminal transferase, or an RNA probe labeled during in vitro transcription. Furthermore, utilization of different IR dyes allows multiplex detection of different RNA species. Therefore, irNorthern represents a more convenient and versatile tool for RNA detection compared to traditional northern blot analysis.

With the development of human society and economy, the problem of energy shortage has become increasingly prominent. Because traditional fossil energy reserves are limited, non-renewable and cause environmental pollution in the process of utilization, the use of clean energy is considered to be the only way for human development. As a clean and sustainable energy source, solar energy has always been valued. The traditional bulk heating, due to the lower conversion efficiency (30%–50%) caused by optical and thermal loss, limits the further development and promotion of the technology. In recent years, the concept of interface solar vapor conversion has been proposed. The interface solar vapor conversion which means that with the micro-nanostructure design and effective optical and thermal control, sunlight is fully absorbed and its energy is transmitted to the water molecules only at the interface between water and air, so that the liquid is continuously converted into vapor and the heat loss of high-temperature absorbers to large bodies of water and radiation loss to the air are reduced. Therefore, to achieve effective solar-vapor conversion, there are many requirements for the absorber: (1) the absorber materials need to be kept on the surface of the water; (2) the absorber needs to have sufficient solar absorption rate; (3) the absorbed energy needs to be effectively heated the water layer in contact with the absorber, thereby achieve the water to vapor conversion process quickly and efficiently. With the advancement of research, a series of new materials and new structures have been proposed, which effectively solve the problem of optical absorption loss and thermal loss of absorbers to insure the adequate water supply, resulting in a significant increase in conversion efficiency (>90%). In this review, we describe the mechanisms of interface solar vapor conversion, including light absorption, thermal management, and water supply, and demonstrate recent advances in energy conversion efficiency through a series of micro- and nano-structured material designs. Then we introduced some of the major applications currently based on interface solar vapor conversion, including seawater desalination, sewage treatment, etc. We demonstrate some typical research with excellent salt rejection for these applications. Finally, we look forward to the future development of the interface solar vapor conversion. We pointed out several problems that need to be solved to further improve the energy conversion efficiency. With the resolution of these problems, the photo-thermal conversion efficiency is expected to reach 100%, and the cost can be further reduced which indicates a huge application market and research prospects in this field.

Bi2O2Se, as a novel two-dimensional (2D) material, is attracting much attention owing to unique electrical and optoelectrical properties. Particularly, 2D Bi2O2 Se with high mobility and a suitable bandgap has been predicted to be a promising thermoelectric material. Here, we performed systematic investigation of thermoelectric properties of 2D Bi 2O2Se through both experimental measurements and theoretical calculations. It is found that the post-growth 2D Bi2O2 Se nanoplates exhibit semi-metallic behavior because of existence of oxygen vacancies . Furthermore, vacancy engineering through annealing, which effectively tunes the concentration of oxygen vacancies, can significantly enhance the Seebeck coefficient of 2D Bi 2O2Se (30–90 μV/K) and the power factor (1–2.7 μW/cm/K2 ), competitive as an air-stable oxide thermoelectric material . Our results not only demonstrate the promising power factor of 2D Bi 2O2Se, but also provide a general and alternative strategy of vacancy engineering for tuning the thermoelectric properties of low-dimensional materials.

Northern blot is a molecular biology technique that can detect, quantify, and determine the molecular weight of RNA. Recently, we published a protocol utilizing near-infrared (IR) fluorescent probes in Northern blot (irNorthern). Our method is as sensitive as other non-radioactive methods but is more straightforward and versatile. Additionally, we found that IR-labeled probes can be used to multiplex or detect different species of RNA at the same time. Here we describe three methods for generating an IR-labeled probe as well as how to perform irNorthern blot. In conclusion, our irNorthern protocol offers a convenient method for RNA detection.

Water scarcity is one of the greatest challenges facing human society. Because of the abundant amount of water present in the atmosphere, there are significant efforts to harvest water from air. Particularly, solar-driven atmospheric water generators based on sequential adsorption-desorption processes are attracting much attention. However, incomplete daytime desorption is the limiting factor for final water production, as the rate of water desorption typically decreases very quickly with decreased water content in the sorbents. Hereby combining tailored interfacial solar absorbers with an ionic-liquid-based sorbent, an atmospheric water generator with a simultaneous adsorption-desorption process is generated. With enhanced desorption capability and stabilized water content in the sorbent, this interfacial solar-driven atmospheric water generator enables a high rate of water production (≈0.5 L m-2 h-1 ) and 2.8 L m-2 d-1 for the outdoor environment. It is expected that this interfacial solar-driven atmospheric water generator, based on the liquid sorbent with a simultaneous adsorption-desorption process opens up a promising pathway to effectively harvest water from air.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are approximately 22 nucleotide (nt) long and play important roles in post-transcriptional regulation in both plants and animals. In animals, precursor (pre-) miRNAs are ∼70 nt hairpins produced by Drosha cleavage of long primary (pri-) miRNAs in the nucleus. Exportin-5 (XPO5) transports pre-miRNAs into the cytoplasm for Dicer processing. Alternatively, pre-miRNAs containing a 5′ 7-methylguanine (m7G-) cap can be generated independently of Drosha and XPO5. Here we identify a class of m7G-capped pre-miRNAs with 5′ extensions up to 39 nt long. The 5′-extended pre-miRNAs are transported by Exportin-1 (XPO1). Unexpectedly, a long 5′ extension does not block Dicer processing. Rather, Dicer directly cleaves 5′-extended pre-miRNAs by recognizing its 3′ end to produce mature 3p miRNA and extended 5p miRNA both in vivo and in vitro. The recognition of 5′-extended pre-miRNAs by the Dicer Platform-PAZ-Connector (PPC) domain can be traced back to ancestral animal Dicers, suggesting that this previously unrecognized Dicer reaction mode is evolutionarily conserved. Our work reveals additional genetic sources for small regulatory RNAs and substantiates Dicer's essential role in RNAi-based gene regulation.

SUMMARYA centipede-like robot, which has high degrees of freedom (DOFs) and similar body segments, requires new real-time control to achieve diverse gaits. Therefore, we have studied the movement characteristics of multi-legged creatures and determined the features for a gait periodic relay. An instruction-relay control scheme, the three-bus control system and the required software were then designed. In our experiments with the designed control system, different gaits for the robot could be achieved, and the phase difference between body segments could be changed by altering the delay time. As a whole, this control system could accomplish the required control task and reasonably simplify the gait control algorithms and procedures.

We are part of a growing community of researchers who are developing a new class of soft machines. By using mechanically soft materials (MPa Modulus) we can design systems which overcome the bulk-mechanical mismatches between soft biological systems and hard engineered components. To develop fully integrated soft machines—which include power, communications, and control sub-systems—the research community requires methods for interconnecting between soft and hard electronics.Sensors based upon eutectic gallium alloys in microfluidic channels can be used to measure normal and strain forces, but integrating these sensors into systems of heterogeneous Young’s Modulus is difficult due the complexity of finding a material which is electrically conductive, mechanically flexible, and stable over prolonged periods of time. Many existing gallium-based liquid alloy sensors are not mechanically or electrically robust, and have poor stability over time. We present the design and fabrication of a high-resolution pressure-sensor soft system that can transduce normal force into a digital output. In this soft system, which is built on a monolithic silicone substrate, a galinstan-based microfluidic pressure sensor is integrated with a flexible printed circuit board. We used conductive thread asinterconnect and found that this method alleviates problems arising due to the mechanical mismatch between conventional metal wires and soft or liquid materials.Conductive thread is low-cost, it is readily wetted by the liquid metal, it produces little bending moment into the microfluidic channel, and it can be connected directly onto the copper bond-pads of the flexible printed circuit board. We built a bridge-system to provide stable readings from the galinstan pressure sensor. This system gives linear measurement results between 500Pa-3500Pa of applied pressure.We anticipate that integrated systems of this type will find utility in soft-robotic systems as used for wearable technologies like virtual reality, or in soft-medical devices such as exoskeletal rehabilitation robots.