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International audience; In this work, to construct a sunlight-powered energy storage system, single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)-based symmetric micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) were fabricated by a one-step, facile spraying method. The electrodes exhibited satisfactory conductivity with a sheet resistance of 275 Ω/sq. Moreover, potassium hydroxide-poly(vinyl alcohol) (KOH-PVA) and phosphoric acid-nonionic surfactant liquid crystal (PA-NI LC) gel electrolytes were prepared and applied to design all-solid-state MSC devices. Compared to the device assembled using the SWCNTs/KOH-PVA gel electrolyte, the SWCNTs/PA-NI LC electrolyte displayed larger areal capacitance with the largest recorded value of 11.0 mF·cm–2 at a current density of 0.08 mA·cm–2 at room temperature. Additionally, the effect of temperature on the MSC device performance was assessed, and the results revealed that the device based on the SWCNTs/PA-NI LC electrolyte achieved enhanced electrochemical performance at an operating temperature of 65 °C, including a large areal capacitance of 14.7 mF·cm–2 at 0.08 mA·cm–2, a better rate performance of 88% with 12.9 mF·cm–2 at 0.4 mA·cm–2, and a higher energy density of 2.04 μWh·cm–2 at a power density of 40.64 μW·cm–2. In addition, the MSC device featured high cyclic stability under bending conditions (45 or 90°) at room temperature. Furthermore, a sunlight-powered energy storage system was fabricated, combining solar cells with the as-assembled MSC devices. Three MSCs connected in series were charged by solar cells and further acted as the energy supply for a red light-emitting diode (LED), which could be continuously operated for 2 min 30 s. All of the findings herein represent a good indication of the promising practical application potential of the as-prepared MSC devices as energy storage devices at high temperatures.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterized by the gradual loss of cartilage. Sprifermin, a recombinant FGF18, is being developed as a cartilage anabolic drug. PRO-C2 is a serum marker of type II collagen formation and low levels have been shown to be prognostic of radiographic progression. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the patient groups with either high or low PRO-C2 levels responded differently to sprifermin.PRO-C2 was measured in synovial fluid (SF) (n = 59) and serum samples (n = 225) from participants of the FORWARD study, a 2-year phase IIb clinical trial testing the efficacy of intra-articular (IA) sprifermin over placebo. The difference between sprifermin and placebo in respect to in change cartilage thickness (measured by quantitative (q) MRI) was analyzed in groups with either high or low (3SF levels of PRO-C2 increased over time in response to sprifermin, but not to placebo. In the placebo arm, significantly (p = 0.005) more cartilage was lost in the low vs high PRO-C2 group over the 2-year period. The contrast between sprifermin and placebo was significant (p 0.001), ranging from 0.104 mm at week 26 to 0.229 mm at week 104 in the low PRO-C2 group. This result was not significant in the high PRO-C2 group ranging from -0.034 to 0.142.Patients with low serum PRO-C2 levels lost more cartilage thickness over time and grew more cartilage in response to sprifermin vs a placebo when compared to patients with high PRO-C2 levels.

International audience; Herein, hybrid micro-supercapacitors (MSCs), consisting of positive CoNi layer double hydroxides (LDHs) decorated on carbon nanotubes (CoNi LDHs@CNTs) and negative CNT electrodes, were assembled by facile drop-coated and electrodeposition methods. The as-fabricated MSCs were optimized in view of electrochemical performance, and the CoNi LDHs-2@CNTs//CNT MSC exhibited a favorable performance and was thus chosen to be the candidate for MSC device package. The packaged CoNi LDHs-2@CNTs//CNT MSC demonstrated a large areal capacitance of 11.0 mF·cm–2 at a current density of 0.08 mA·cm–2, a good rate performance (56% areal capacitance retained at a higher current density of 0.4 mA·cm–2), and a favorable cycling stability and reversibility (92% of the original areal capacitance was retained after 5000 cycles). Furthermore, the MSC device recorded an energy density of 1.5 μWh·cm–2 at a power density of 42.5 μW·cm–2 and was successfully applied for the storage of energy supplied by solar cells to operate a red light-emitting diode. All these findings demonstrated the promising practical energy storage application of the as-fabricated hybrid MSC devices in the construction of sunlight-powered energy storage systems.

Background Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease with multiple endotypes. A hallmark of OA is loss of cartilage; however, it is evident that the rate of cartilage loss differs among patients, which may partly be attributed to differential capacity for cartilage repair. We hypothesize that a low cartilage repair endotype exists and that such endotypes are more likely to progress radiographically. The aim of this study is to examine the associations of level of cartilage formation with OA severity and radiographic OA progression. We used the blood-based marker PRO-C2, reflecting type II collagen formation, to assess levels of cartilage formation. Materials and methods The type II collagen propeptide PRO-C2 was measured in the serum/plasma of knee OA subjects from New York University (NYU, n = 106) and a subcohort of the phase III oral salmon calcitonin (sCT) trial SMC021-2301 (SMC, n = 147). Risk of radiographic medial joint space narrowing (JSN) over 24 months was compared between quartiles (very low, low, moderate, and high) of PRO-C2. Associations were adjusted for age, gender, BMI, race, baseline pain levels, and baseline joint space width. Results In both the NYU and SMC cohorts, subjects with low PRO-C2 levels had greater JSN compared with subjects with high PRO-C2. Mean difference in JSN between subjects with very low and high levels of PRO-C2 was 0.65 mm (p = 0.002), corresponding to a 3.4 (1.4–8.6)-fold higher risk of progression. There was no significant effect of sCT treatment, compared with placebo, on JSN over 2 years before stratification based on baseline PRO-C2. However, there were proportionately fewer progressors in the sCT arm of the very low/low PRO-C2 group compared with the moderate/high group (Chi squared = 6.5, p = 0.011). Conclusion Serum/plasma level of type II collagen formation, PRO-C2, may be an objective indicator of a low cartilage repair endotype, displaying radiographic progression and superior response to a proanabolic drug. Level of evidence Level III post hoc exploratory analysis of one longitudinal cohort and a sub-study from one phase III clinical trial.

The article discusses a wavelet-based approach for recognizing sugarcane stem nodes in order to improve pre-cut sugarcane planting technology, beginning with sugarcane form characteristics that permit automated sugarcane seed production. The location signal is collected by the acceleration and thin-film piezoelectric sensors and then decomposed into the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth layers using the Daubechies tight-branch wavelet. After capturing the signal, it is reconstructed and superimposed to capture the stem node region’s features using the default threshold technique. A multi-sensor fusion approach is developed based on a weighted average and a Kalman filter to confirm the experiment’s validity. The weighted average process produces an average value that is 0.3512 mm off from the experimentally observed data average. The discrepancy between the Kalman filter method’s anticipated average value and the empirically determined average error is 0.5778 mm. To facilitate the investigation, 175 sugarcane samples with intermediate length processing are used. The detecting position system is determined experimentally after extensive experimental research and diligent examination. On average, the standard deviation is 0.494 mm, while the maximum value is 9.99 mm. 99.63 percent of cane seed samples are detected, with an error rate of 0.37 percent and a response time of 0.25 seconds. The proposed technology is conceptually feasible and achievable, and it can provide a reference for the development of automated cane seed pre-cutting machinery to give its contribution to agricultural production.

The benefits of growth hormone (GH) therapy in Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) children are well established, but there is still considerable controversy regarding whether GH treatment can improve cognitive, motor, and behavioral development in PWS children. The objectives of this meta-analysis were to quantitatively evaluate the effects of GH on cognitive, motor function, and behavioral development in PWS children. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the effects of GH on cognitive, motor, and behavioral development in PWS children were identified by searching the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases. Intervention effects were represented by Hedges’g and pooled to calculate effect sizes using a random-effects model. Ten relevant studies comprising data from 302 participants were finally included. We observed no significant difference in cognitive performance between the GH treatment group and the control group (p = 0.197). GH treatment was shown to remarkably improve motor development in PWS children compared with the control treatment (p

Exposure to radiation has been associated with increased risk of delivering small-for-gestational-age (SGA) newborns. There are no tools to predict SGA newborns in pregnant women exposed to radiation before pregnancy. Here, we aimed to develop an array of machine learning (ML) models to predict SGA newborns in women exposed to radiation before pregnancy. Patients’ data was obtained from the National Free Preconception Health Examination Project from 2010 to 2012. The data were randomly divided into a training dataset (n = 364) and a testing dataset (n = 91). Eight various ML models were compared for solving the binary classification of SGA prediction, followed by a post hoc explainability based on the SHAP model to identify and interpret the most important features that contribute to the prediction outcome. A total of 455 newborns were included, with the occurrence of 60 SGA births (13.2%). Overall, the model obtained by extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) achieved the highest area under the receiver-operating-characteristic curve (AUC) in the testing set (0.844, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.713–0.974). All models showed satisfied AUCs, except for the logistic regression model (AUC: 0.561, 95% CI: 0.355–0.768). After feature selection by recursive feature elimination (RFE), 15 features were included in the final prediction model using the XGBoost algorithm, with an AUC of 0.821 (95% CI: 0.650–0.993). ML algorithms can generate robust models to predict SGA newborns in pregnant women exposed to radiation before pregnancy, which may thus be used as a prediction tool for SGA newborns in high-risk pregnant women.

BACKGROUND The brain structure and function of adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD) have not been fully investigated so far. No previous studies have evaluated alterations in brain white matter degree and integrity in AGHD. PURPOSE To evaluate alterations in brain white matter degree and integrity in AGHD compared to age and gender-matched healthy controls and further explore the correlation between endocrine hormone and brain white matter. METHODS 17 young AGHD patients and 17 healthy controls were assessed by 3D volumetric T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Whole brain and white matter volume were compared between two groups. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of brain white matter were calculated for group comparison based on DTI. Effect of disease status and hormone levels on FA and MD of brain white matter were evaluated. RESULTS AGHD had significantly lower serum insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)，free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels compared with control (p

Background Peucedanum praeruptorum Dunn (PPD) is a Chinese herbal medicine with medicinal value. Clinical studies have shown that PPD has protective effects against wind-heat, cough, asthma, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Therefore, cultivation of PPD is becoming more common. However, it has been difficult to determine the optimal harvest period for botanical Chinese medicines such as PPD. Objectives Odor characteristics are directly related to the chemical components contained in traditional Chinese medicines. In particular, for traditional Chinese medicines such as PPD that are rich in volatile components, higher quality usually means more beneficial volatile components. The purpose of this study was to analyze changes in PPD volatile components across different harvest periods, and provide the basis for the identification of the ideal harvest period to ensure PPD quality. Methods We measured the volatile components of PPD at different harvest periods using HS-GC–IMS to characterize its volatile component fingerprint at different harvest periods. Results We identified 80 volatile components in PPD across five harvest periods, and combined complex heatmap and PCA methods distinguish the characteristics of the different harvest periods, and used ion mobility spectrometry to determine the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which mainly included compounds such as olefins, esters, alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones, and determined that the abundance of volatile components reached a peak in December. Conclusions The fingerprint determination of characteristic volatile components based on HS-GC-IMS can distinguish PPD in different harvest periods. Highlights We used HS-GC–IMS to determine the characteristic fingerprint of volatile components from PPD across different harvest periods. This approach differs from past studies, which have determined the optimal harvest time of medicinal materials based on only the content of a single active ingredient.

Tactile sensors have been widely used in the areas of health monitoring and intelligent human-machine interface. Flexible tactile sensors based on nanofiber mats made by electrospinning can meet the requirements of comfortability and breathability for wearing the body very well. Here, we developed a flexible and self-powered tactile sensor that was sandwich assembled by electrospun organic electrodes and a piezoelectric layer. The metal-free organic electrodes of thermal plastic polyurethane (PU) nanofibers decorated with multi-walled carbon nanotubes were fabricated by electrospinning followed by ultrasonication treatment. The electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) mat was utilized as the piezoelectric layer, and it was found that the piezoelectric performance of PVDF-TrFE nanofiber mat added with barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles was enhanced about 187% than that of the pure PVDF-TrFE nanofiber mat. For practical application, the as-prepared piezoelectric tactile sensor exhibited an approximative linear relationship between the external force and the electrical output. Then the array of fabricated sensors was attached to the fingertips of a glove to grab a cup of water for tactile sensing, and the mass of water can be directly estimated according to the outputs of the sensor array. Attributed to the integrated merits of good flexibility, enhanced piezoelectric performance, light weight, and efficient gas permeability, the developed tactile sensor could be widely used as wearable devices for robot execution end or prosthesis for tactile feedback.

Objectives This study aimed to compare the efficacy, safety and metabolic effects of once-weekly pegylated human growth hormone (PEG-rhGH) with daily rhGH in patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). Design 48 patients enrolled in this 12-month single-center, open-label, prospective, randomized controlled trial is allocated to PEG-rhGH 0.12 mg/kg/w and 0.20 mg/kg/w treatment. Besides, the control group allocated 23 patients treated with daily rhGH 0.28 mg/kg/w matched with sex, age, and baseline IGF-1 levels. The primary endpoint included height velocity (HV) and IGF-1 increase at the end of treatment. Other parameters associated with growth, metabolism and safety were also monitored. Results In terms of HV increase, the efficacy of PEG-rhGH dosed at 0.12 mg/kg/w and 0.20 mg/kg/w was comparable to that of daily rhGH dosed at 0.28 mg/kg/w after 3, 6 and 12 treatment (p>0.05). IGF-1 concentration and IGF-1 SDS were both elevated significantly at 3, 6 and 12 months (p=0.000) into normal range following PEG-rhGH treatment. BMI SDS elevated after PEG-rhGH treatment for 3, 6 and 12 months (p=0.000). HbA1c elevated after 3 and 12 months (p=0.009) and METS-IR elevated after 6 months (p=0.019) compared with baseline. The differences of other metabolic indexes (such as blood glucose, blood lipid, etc.) have no statistical significance (p>0.05). No severe adverse event was observed among the three groups. Conclusions The efficacy and safety were promising and comparable between once-weekly PEG-rhGH and daily rhGH injection within 12 months. The negative influence on glucose homeostasis needed attention and monitoring.

Background: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is one of the most common outdoor air pollutants, and secondhand smoking (SHS) is an important source of inhalable indoor air pollution. Previous studies were controversial and inconsistent about PM2.5 and SHS air pollutants on neonatal birth weight outcomes, and no studies assessed the potential interactive effects between PM2.5 and SHS on birth weight outcomes.Purpose: To investigate the interaction between gestational PM2.5 and SHS air pollution exposure on the risk of macrosomia among pregnant women and examine the modifying effect of SHS exposure on the association of PM2.5 air pollution and birth weight outcomes during pregnancy.Methods: Research data were derived from the National Free Preconception Health Examination Project (NFPHEP), which lasted 3 years from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2012. At least 240,000 Chinese women from 220 counties were enrolled in this project. PM2.5 exposure concentration was obtained using a hindcast model specific for historical PM2.5 estimation from satellite-retrieved aerosol optic depth. Different interaction models about air pollution exposure on birth weight outcomes were established, according to the adjustment of different confounding factors and different pregnancy stages. The establishment of interaction models was based on multivariable logistic regression, and the main confounding factors were maternal age at delivery and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) of participants. SHS subgroups analysis was conducted to further confirm the results of interaction models.Results: In total, 197,877 participants were included in our study. In the full-adjusted interaction model, maternal exposure to PM2.5 was associated with an increased risk of macrosomia in whole, the first-, second-, and third trimesters of pregnancy (p < 0.001). The interactive effect was statistically significant between maternal exposure to PM2.5 and SHS on the risk of macrosomia in the whole (interaction p < 0.050) and the first-trimester pregnancy (interaction p < 0.050), not in the second (interaction p > 0.050) or third trimester (interaction p > 0.050) of pregnancy. The higher frequency of SHS exposure prompted the stronger interaction between the two air pollutants in the whole pregnancy and the first-trimester pregnancy.Conclusions: In the whole and first-trimester pregnancy, maternal exposure to SHS during pregnancy enhanced the risk of macrosomia among pregnant women exposed to PM2.5 air pollutants, and the interaction became stronger with the higher frequency of SHS exposure.

ObjectiveAsthma often coexists with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The effect of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) treatment on asthma concomitant with GERD was inconsistent. This study aimed to assess whether PPIs treatment improved morning peak expiratory flow (mPEF) in asthma patients with GERD.Data sourcesPubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrials.gov; hand searching for reference lists; contacted with authors if necessary.Study selectionAll eligible trials were randomised clinical trials comparing PPIs with placebo in asthma patients accompanying with GERD.ResultsFourteen randomised clinical trials (2182 participants) were included. Overall, PPIs versus placebo did not affect mPEF in patients with asthma having GERD (weighted mean difference 8.68 L/min, 95% CI −2.02 to 19.37, p=0.11). Trial sequential analysis (TSA) further confirmed this finding (TSA adjusted 95% CI −1.03 to 22.25). Subgroups analyses based on the percentage of patients with symptomatic GERD≥95%, treatment duration >12 weeks also found no statistically significant benefit on mPEF. Similarly, analyses of secondary outcomes (evening PEF, forced expiratory volume in 1 s, asthma symptoms score, asthma quality of life score and episodes of asthma exacerbation) did not show significant difference between PPIs and placebo.ConclusionIn this meta-analysis, PPIs therapy did not show a statistically significant improvement on mPEF in asthma patients having GERD, neither in subgroup with symptomatic GERD nor in subgroup with treatment duration >12 weeks. This analysis does not support a recommendation for PPIs therapy as empirical treatment in asthma patients with GERD.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020177330.

Smart gloves have played an increasingly important role in health monitoring, human-computer interaction and other fields. In order to make smart glove comfortable to wear, a flexible smart glove was fabricated in this paper. This kind of glove can obtain the magnitude and distribution of the pressure of palm and the bending degree of five fingers by using the corresponding signal acquisition system. According to the results displayed by the system, the pressure of various parts of the palm and the gestures can be judged. These conclusions can provide references for subsequent analysis.

Unlike previous work generally adopting high temperature annealing (≥500 °C) to suppress defects in hydrothermal grown ZnO, this work suppressed ZnO defects by optimizing overall process parameters of low temperature electrospinning-hydrothermal hybrid process (≤300 °C) with Taguchi method and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Sum ratio of defect peaks to eigen peaks (SRDE) in room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum was proposed to evaluate defect conditions in 27 experiments (L27 (38)). With the optimal process, good crystal quality (SRDE = 0.31) was achieved at low temperature (200 °C), of which the SRDE decreased by 68.04% compared with the initial counterpart. Then confirmation experiment was conducted to validate the selected levels, and results of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) showed good agreement with the predicted ones. Besides, the response time and recovery time of the ZnO photodetectors with optimal process were decreased by 72.5% and 79.3%, respectively, compared with the initial ones. This method can also be used to fabricate ZnO materials with other wanted defect features.

C-telopeptide of type II collagen (CTX-II) has been shown to be a highly relevant biomarker of cartilage degradation in human rheumatic diseases, if measured in synovial fluid or urine. However, serum or plasma CTX-II have not been demonstrated to have any clinical utility to date. Here, we describe the GPDPLQ1237 ELISA which targets the EKGPDPLQ↓ neo-epitope, an elongated version of the CTX-II neo-epitope (EKGPDP↓), speculated to be a blood-precursor of CTX-II generated by the cysteine protease cathepsin K. Human osteoclast cartilage resorption cultures as well as oncostatin M and tumour necrosis factor α-stimulated bovine cartilage explant cultures were used to validate GPDPLQ1237 biologically by treating the cultures with the cysteine protease inhibitor E-64 and/or the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor GM6001 to assess the potential contributions of these two protease classes to GPDPLQ1237 release. Cartilage resorption-derived GPDPLQ1237 release was inhibited by E-64 (72.1% inhibition), GM6001 (75.5%), and E-64/GM6001 (91.5%), whereas CTX-II release was inhibited by GM6001 (87.0%) but not by E-64 (5.5%). Cartilage explant GPDPLQ1237 and CTX-II release were both fully inhibited by GM6001 but were not inhibited by E-64. No clinically relevant GPDPLQ1237 reactivity was identified in human serum, plasma, or urine from healthy donors or arthritis patients. In conclusion, the GPDPLQ1237 biomarker is released during osteoclast-derived cysteine protease- and MMP-mediated cartilage degradation in vitro, whereas CTX-II release is mediated by MMPs and not by cysteine proteases, as well as from MMP-mediated cartilage degradation under a pro-inflammatory stimulus. These findings suggest that GPDPLQ1237 may be relevant in diseases with pathological osteoclast activity and cartilage degradation. Further studies are required to validate the neo-epitope in human samples.

This work demonstrates a novel three-dimensional (3D) spiral fiber electrode, fabricated by electrochemically reducing of graphene oxide (GO) on Au wire followed with electrodeposition of CoNi layered double hydroxides (LDHs). The advanced electrode possesses combined features of micro size, good flexibility, high specific capacitance, excellent rate capability, and long cycling life, making it promises great potential as effective energy sources to integrate with other devices for wearable electronics.

The objective of the study is to determine the risks and benefits of treating idiopathic short stature (ISS) with aromatase inhibitors (AIs). We comprehensively searched PubMed, Embase, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure between establishment year and January 31, 2020. Mean difference (MD)/Standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of individual studies were pooled using fixed or random effects models. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were also performed. Publication bias was estimated using funnel plots and Egger tests. Fourteen studies including 388 participants were included. The meta-analysis results showed that AIs significantly increased final height (MD=2.46, 95% CI: 0.8–4.12) and predicted adult height (MD=0.34, 95% CI: 0.11–0.57). Changes in bone age (MD=–0.1, 95% CI: –0.86–0.66) and bone mineral density (MD=–0.05, 95% CI: –0.19–0.1) were not different between intervention and control group. AI significantly increased testosterone level (SMD=2.01, 95% CI: 0.8–3.23) and reduced estradiol level (SMD=–1.13, 95% CI: –1.87 to –0.40); The intervention and control group had no significant differences in the levels of high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (SMD=–0.31, 95%CI: –0.68–0.06) and IGF-1 (SMD=0.7, 95% CI: –0.66–2.06) levels. Adverse events were more frequent in the intervention group than in the control group (odds ratio=3.12, 95% CI: 1.44–6.73). In conclusion, both AI monotherapy and AI combination therapy can increase predicted adult height and testosterone levels.

A flexible tactile sensor was proposed to measure the three-dimensional forces. The sensor consisted of a bump structure, top and bottom electrodes, a piezoelectric sensitive layer and a substrate layer. The top and the bottom electrodes were prepared by lift-off process. When a three-dimensional force was applied, the bottom four electrodes under the bump structure would collect different charge signals, which can be detected by the different electric current variations. In the experiments, when the forces range from 0 to 10N with different angles were applied to the bump structure, the sensor can measure forces with a best non-linearity of 1.89%. This proposed tactile sensor could be used in the intelligent robotics to measure multi-dimensional force.

As the critical branch of wearable sensors, strain sensors with lightweight and high stretchability have been widely demanded in human gesture recognition and robotics engineering. However, most strain sensors cannot simultaneously satisfy the requirements of high sensitivity and a broad detection range, attributed to the poor stretchability and fixed connection of commonly used sensing elements. Here, a single-fiber structure composed of polyurethane (PU) as the stretchable core and MXenes/Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the conductive shell was fabricated by wet spinning followed with repeated dip-coating. The obtained highly stretchable fiber exhibited superior strain sensing performance, including ultra-high sensitivity (gauge factor up to 2504.1), a large detection range (up to 250%), and good stability (over 1000 cycles). Furthermore, the PU/MXene/CNT single-fiber strain sensor (SFSS) can be utilized to detect human motion signals, such as folding of finger, bending of wrist, arm and knee. Benefiting from the integrated features of high sensitivity and stretchability, this SFSS promises a great application potential in the field of human gesture recognition and smart robotics.

The ability of electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers to produce piezoelectricity has been demonstrated for a while. Widespread applications of electrospun PVDF as an energy conversion material, however, have not materialized due to the random arrangement of fibers fabricated by traditional electrospinning. In this work, a developed 3D electrospinning technique is utilized to fabricate a PVDF micro wall made up of densely stacked fibers in a fiber-by-fiber manner. Results from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) demonstrate that the crystalline structure of this PVDF wall is predominant in the &beta, phase, revealing the advanced integration capability of structural fabrication and piezoelectric poling with this 3D electrospinning. The piezoelectric response along the radial direction of these PVDF fibers is measured while the toppled micro wall, comprised of 60 fibers, is sandwich assembled with a pair of top/bottom electrodes. The measured electrical output is ca. 0.48 V and 2.7 nA. Moreover, after constant mechanical compression happening over 10,000 times, no obvious reduction in the piezoelectric response has been observed. The combined merits of high-precision 3D fabrication, in situ piezoelectric poling, and high mechanical robust make this novel structure an attractive candidate for applications in piezoelectric energy harvesting and sensing.

International audience; Herein, bimetal nickel-cobalt phosphate (NiCoP) nanostructures coated on nickel foam (NF) were synthesized for hybrid supercapacitors by a facile one-step potentiostatic electrodeposition method. The optimization of the capacitive performance for supercapacitors was achieved by varying the deposition time from 5 to 20 min. When the electrodeposition time was 15 min, an optimal performance with the NiCoP/NF-2 was achieved. A specific capacity of 883 C·g−1 was recorded at a current density of 1 A·g−1, a best rate performance of 87% along with a highest coulombic efficiency of 100%, revealing good capacitive performance and excellent reversibility. Furthermore, NiCoP/NF-2 was assessed as a positive electrode in a hybrid supercapacitor. Using activated carbon (AC) as a negative electrode, the assembled device exhibited an energy density of 54 Wh·kg−1 at a power density of 2.7 kW·kg−1 with a large working potential window of 0–1.8 V. After charging to 3.6 V for 19 s, two hybrid supercapacitor devices connected in series could light up a red LED for 191 s, which indicates that the proposed electrodeposition synthesis process and the prepared NiCoP composites hold high potential for applications in the field of energy storage technology.

NiFe layered double hydroxides (LDHs), a class of ionic layered compounds with high electrochemical activity, possess great potential in the field of pseudocapacitive energy storage. However, the practical applications of NiFe LDHs in supercapacitors are largely hindered by their inherently poor cycling life and low electrical conductivity. In this work, NiFe LDHs electrodeposited on mesoporous and conductive NiCo2O4 nanowire arrays that are grown on flexible carbon cloth, are investigated as active materials for pseudocapacitive application. This rational core/shell electrode design promises high specific surface area, shorten electron and ion transport distance for the enhancement of electrochemical kinetics. As such, a high specific capacitance (1.9 F cm−2 at 1 A cm−2, and 1160 F g−1 at 1 A g−1), excellent rate capability (83% retention as the current density was increased from 1 A cm−2 to 20 A cm−2), decent cycling stability (79% retention after 1000 charging/discharging cycles), and good flexibility have been obtained, implying their potential application as energy storage devices for flexible electronics.

Herein, a novel conductive poly(N-phenylglycine) (PNPG) polymer was successfully prepared, by in situ electrochemical polymerization method (+0.75 V versus Ag/AgCl) for 10 min, on flexible stainless-steel plate coated with a thin Au film (Au/SS) to serve as a binder-free pseudocapacitive PNPG/Au/SS electrode for energy storage devices. Compared to the electrode without Au coating, PNPG/Au/SS electrode exhibited better electrochemical performance with larger specific capacitance (495 F g−1 at a current density of 2 A g−1), higher rate performance and lower resistance, which are good indications to act as a positive electrode for asymmetric supercapacitor devices. Combined with activated carbon as a negative electrode, an asymmetric supercapacitor device was constructed. It displayed a specific capacitance of 38 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 and an energy density of 5.3 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 250 W kg−1. Experimentally, two asymmetric supercapacitor devices were connected in series to power a home-made windmill continuously for 8 s, revealing the high potential of this novel conductive polymer material for energy storage application.