Data visualization plays a crucial role in illustrating results and sharing knowledge among researchers. Though many types of visualization tools are widely used, most of them require enough coding ...experience or are designed for specialized usages, or are not free. Here, we present ImageGP, a specialized visualization platform designed for biology and chemistry data illustration. ImageGP could generate generalized plots like lines, bars, scatters, boxes, sets, heatmaps, and histograms with the most common input content in a user‐friendly interface. Normally plotting using ImageGP only needs a few mouse clicks. For some plots, one only needs to just paste data and click submit to get the visualization results. Additionally, ImageGP supplies up to 26 parameters to meet customizable requirements. ImageGP also contains specialized plots like volcano plot, functional enrichment plot for most omics‐data analysis, and other four specialized functions for microbiome analysis. Since 2017, ImageGP has been running for nearly 5 years and serving 336,951 visits from all over the world. Together, ImageGP (http://www.ehbio.com/ImageGP/) is an effective and efficient tool for experimental researchers to comprehensively visualize and interpret data generated from wet‐lab and dry‐lab.
Representative visualization results of ImageGP. ImageGP supports 16 types of images (including heatmap, volcano plot, enrichment bubble plot) and four types of online analysis with up to 26 parameters for customization.
Highlights
Publication‐quality visualization results.
Easy to use and customize.
Reproducible results with scripts.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Recently, sensors that can imitate human skin have received extensive attention. Capacitive sensors have a simple structure, low loss, no temperature drift, and other excellent properties, and can be ...applied in the fields of robotics, human–machine interactions, medical care, and health monitoring. Polymer matrices are commonly employed in flexible capacitive sensors because of their high flexibility. However, their volume is almost unchanged when pressure is applied, and they are inherently viscoelastic. These shortcomings severely lead to high hysteresis and limit the improvement in sensitivity. Therefore, considerable efforts have been applied to improve the sensing performance by designing different microstructures of materials. Herein, two types of sensors based on the applied forces are discussed, including pressure sensors and strain sensors. Currently, five types of microstructures are commonly used in pressure sensors, while four are used in strain sensors. The advantages, disadvantages, and practical values of the different structures are systematically elaborated. Finally, future perspectives of microstructures for capacitive sensors are discussed, with the aim of providing a guide for designing advanced flexible and stretchable capacitive sensors via ingenious human‐made microstructures.
The advantages, disadvantages, and practical applications of several popular microstructures that are widely employed in capacitive sensors are summarized. A microstructured dielectric layer or electrode can improve sensor sensitivity, reduce hysteresis, and endow the rigid electronic device with excellent elastic stretchability, which is an essential part of next‐generation wearable devices and soft robots.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Advances in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) have fostered rapid developments in the field of microbiome research, and massive microbiome datasets are now being generated. However, the diversity of ...software tools and the complexity of analysis pipelines make it difficult to access this field. Here, we systematically summarize the advantages and limitations of microbiome methods. Then, we recommend specific pipelines for amplicon and metagenomic analyses, and describe commonly-used software and databases, to help researchers select the appropriate tools. Furthermore, we introduce statistical and visualization methods suitable for microbiome analysis, including alpha- and betadiversity, taxonomic composition, difference comparisons, correlation, networks, machine learning, evolution, source tracing, and common visualization styles to help researchers make informed choices. Finally, a stepby-step reproducible analysis guide is introduced. We hope this review will allow researchers to carry out data analysis more effectively and to quickly select the appropriate tools in order to efficiently mine the biological significance behind the data.
In the emerging Internet of Things, stretchable antennas can facilitate wireless communication between wearable and mobile electronic devices around the body. The proliferation of wireless devices ...transmitting near the human body also raises interference and safety concerns that demand stretchable materials capable of shielding electromagnetic interference (EMI). Here, an ultrastretchable conductor is fabricated by depositing a crumple‐textured coating composed of 2D Ti3C2Tx nanosheets (MXene) and single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) onto latex, which can be fashioned into high‐performance wearable antennas and EMI shields. The resulting MXene‐SWNT (S‐MXene)/latex devices are able to sustain up to an 800% areal strain and exhibit strain‐insensitive resistance profiles during a 500‐cycle fatigue test. A single layer of stretchable S‐MXene conductors demonstrate a strain‐invariant EMI shielding performance of ≈30 dB up to 800% areal strain, and the shielding performance is further improved to ≈47 and ≈52 dB by stacking 5 and 10 layers of S‐MXene conductors, respectively. Additionally, a stretchable S‐MXene dipole antenna is fabricated, which can be uniaxially stretched to 150% with unaffected reflected power <0.1%. By integrating S‐MXene EMI shields with stretchable S‐MXene antennas, a wearable wireless system is finally demonstrated that provides mechanically stable wireless transmission while attenuating EM absorption by the human body.
2D titanium carbide–based ultrastretchable conductors are fabricated by harnessing the surface instability of pre‐stretched latex, showing strain‐invariant performance in stretchable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shields and wearable wireless communicators, respectively. Finally, a wearable antenna with on‐site EM protection for the human body is demonstrated, which exhibits mechanically stable and efficient wireless communication and shielding performance.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Additional resonances are often introduced in an inverted-F antenna (IFA) by modifying the "F" structure, which typically makes the antenna both complex and bulky. To mitigate this problem, novel ...dual-/tri-band conformal capsule antennas with simple configuration are proposed in this paper by modifying the ground of the IFA and shifting the feed point. With these modifications, the IFA is miniaturized, and yet it is able to simultaneously cover the MedRadio band (401-406 MHz) and ISM bands (902-928 MHz and/or 2.4-2.5 GHz). The resulting configurations remain simple and compact despite the modifications, which is very desirable for conformal capsule type of applications. Furthermore, the impedance matching characteristics of the proposed IFAs remain stable even when a battery is added inside the capsule and the size or the position of the battery is modified. Moreover, the impedance matching of the antenna continues to remain stable even as its surrounding environment is changed. The operating principle of the proposed dual-/tri-band IFAs is discussed in detail and parametric study is carried out to investigate the characteristics of the proposed antennas. The results of this paper are expected to be helpful for designing multiband antennas in the future.
A Ka -band wideband dual-polarized magnetoelectric (ME) dipole antenna with the feeding structure consisting of two orthogonal L-shaped probes with different heights is presented based on the ...low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology. A simulated overlapped impedance bandwidth of 42.5% is achieved together with an isolation of higher than 24 dB between the two input ports and stable radiation characteristics over the operating band. By combining the radiating elements with a single-layered feed network composed of microstrip lines, a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">4\times 4 </tex-math></inline-formula> dual-polarized ME dipole antenna array is designed, fabricated, and measured. An overlapped impedance bandwidth of 45% that can cover the entire Ka -band, a gain up to 16.1 dBi, and stable symmetrical radiation patterns in the two orthogonal planes with cross polarization of less than −15 dB are experimentally confirmed. With advantages of the compact geometry, wide operating band, and promising radiation performance, the proposed antenna array with dual polarization would be attractive for millimeter-wave wireless applications in Ka -band.
This article presents a multibeam dual circularly polarized (CP) Luneburg lens (LL) antenna based on quasi-icosahedron (QICO) models. The lens is sliced into multiple shells and each shell comprises ...of several triangular unit cells, and then the permittivity variation is achieved by manipulating the wall thickness of each triangular unit cells after the QICO discretization. Such a QICO model is firstly proposed to be used in LL design, which not only makes the lens mechanically robust and manufacturing-friendly (no support is needed in the processing) but also enables the antenna to be polarization insensitive and thus can sustain CP beams very well. A wideband ridged waveguide feed is selected to initiate left-handed CP (LHCP) and right-handed CP (RHCP) beams simultaneously. To prove the concept, a prototype was fabricated using 3-D-printing (3DP) technologies. The measurement results reveal an overlapped bandwidth of 33.1% (26.5-37 GHz) in terms of reflection coefficients lower than −10 dB and axial ratios smaller than 3 dB. Five LHCP and five RHCP beams with gains of 19-21.2 dBic and couplings lower than −20 dB are also demonstrated.
Synthetic community (SynCom) approaches can provide functional and mechanistic insights into how plants regulate their microbiomes, and how the microbiome in turn influences plant growth and health. ...Microbial cultivation and reconstruction play pivotal roles in this process, which enables researchers to reproducibly investigate the interactions between plants and a major proportion of plant-associated microbes in controlled laboratory conditions. Here, we summarize the emergence, current achievements, and future opportunities for using SynCom experiments in plant microbiome research, with a focus on plant root-associated bacteria.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This communication presents a 3-D-printed wideband parallel-plate circularly polarized Luneburg lens (LL) antenna. The proposed structure of dielectric posts truncated by two metallic parallel plates ...serves not only as a LL, but also as a wideband linear-to-circular polarizer. The permittivity variation of the LL is realized by positioning dielectric posts with various radius (r) based on the optics theory and the effective medium theory (EMT). On the other hand, the desired circular polarization is realized by exciting two orthogonal propagating modes with different phase constants thanks to the integrated parallel plates. To verify our concept, a prototype was fabricated using 3-D-printing technology. Based on the measurement results, the proposed antenna achieves an overlapped bandwidth of 43% (21-32.5 GHz) in terms of the reflection coefficients lower than −10 dB and the axial ratios smaller than 3 dB. Good agreement between simulation and measurement is obtained.
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