The human cutaneous sensory organ is a highly evolved biosensor that is efficient, sensitive, selective, and adaptable. Recently, with the development of various materials and structures inspired by ...sensory organs, artificial cutaneous sensors have been widely studied. In this study, the acquisition of biophysical signals is demonstrated at one point on the body using a wearable all‐gel‐integrated multimodal sensor composed of four element sensors, inspired by the slow/rapid adapting functions of the skin sensory receptors. The gel‐type sensors ensure flexibility, compactness, portability, adherence, and integrity. The wearable all‐gel multimodal sensor is easily attached to the wrist and simultaneously gathers blood pressure (BP), electrocardiogram (ECG), electromyogram (EMG), and mechanomyogram (MMG) signals related to cardiac and muscle health. Human activity causes muscle contraction, which affects blood flow; therefore, the relationship between the muscle and heart is crucial for screening and predicting heart health. Cardiac health is monitored by obtaining the two types of phase time differences (i.e., Δtbe: BP and ECG, Δtem: ECG and MMG) generated during muscle movement. The suggested multimodal sensor has potential applicability in monitoring biophysical conditions and diagnosing cardiac‐related health problems.
The acquisition of biophysical signals is demonstrated at one point on the body using a wearable all‐gel‐integrated multimodal sensor. The wearable all‐gel multimodal sensor is easily attached to the wrist and simultaneously gathers blood pressure, electrocardiogram, electromyogram, and mechanomyogram signals related to cardiac and muscle health.
Highly efficient human skin systems transmit fast adaptive (FA) and slow adaptive (SA) pulses selectively or consolidatively to the brain for a variety of external stimuli. The integrated analysis of ...these signals determines how humans perceive external physical stimuli. Here, a self‐powered mechanoreceptor sensor based on an artificial ion‐channel system combined with a piezoelectric film is presented, which can simultaneously implement FA and SA pulses like human skin. This device detects stimuli with high sensitivity and broad frequency band without external power. For the feasibility study, various stimuli are measured or detected. Vital signs such as the heart rate and ballistocardiogram can be measured simultaneously in real time. Also, a variety of stimuli such as the mechanical stress, surface roughness, and contact by a moving object can be distinguished and detected. This opens new scientific fields to realize the somatic cutaneous sensor of the real skin. Moreover, this new sensing scheme inspired by natural sensing structures is able to mimic the five senses of living creatures.
Both the slow‐adapting and the fast‐adapting behavior in human somatosensing are mimicked. For this, an ion‐channel system is devised along with an artificial receptor fabricated from a piezoelectric film. The sensing signals are measured without any external power, because the piezoelectric film and ion‐channel system are self‐powered for sensing, resembling biological sensory systems.
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common and relapsing skin disease that is characterized by skin barrier dysfunction, inflammation, and chronic pruritus. While AD was previously thought to occur primarily ...in children, increasing evidence suggests that AD is more common in adults than previously assumed. Accumulating evidence from experimental, genetic, and clinical studies indicates that AD expression is a precondition for the later development of other atopic diseases, such as asthma, food allergies, and allergic rhinitis. Although the exact mechanisms of the disease pathogenesis remain unclear, it is evident that both cutaneous barrier dysfunction and immune dysregulation are critical etiologies of AD pathology. This review explores recent findings on AD and the possible underlying mechanisms involved in its pathogenesis, which is characterized by dysregulation of immunological and skin barrier integrity and function, supporting the idea that AD is a systemic disease. These findings provide further insights for therapeutic developments aiming to repair the skin barrier and decrease inflammation.
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have demonstrated the potential to provide paralyzed individuals with new means of communication, but an electroencephalography (EEG)-based endogenous BCI has never ...been successfully used for communication with a patient in a completely locked-in state (CLIS).
In this study, we investigated the possibility of using an EEG-based endogenous BCI paradigm for online binary communication by a patient in CLIS. A female patient in CLIS participated in this study. She had not communicated even with her family for more than one year with complete loss of motor function. Offline and online experiments were conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed BCI system. In the offline experiment, we determined the best combination of mental tasks and the optimal classification strategy leading to the best performance. In the online experiment, we investigated whether our BCI system could be potentially used for real-time communication with the patient.
An online classification accuracy of 87.5% was achieved when Riemannian geometry-based classification was applied to real-time EEG data recorded while the patient was performing one of two mental-imagery tasks for 5 s.
Our results suggest that an EEG-based endogenous BCI has the potential to be used for online communication with a patient in CLIS.
With the growing interest in human-electronics interaction, the development of ion gels that operate in response to variable human movement is widely spreading. However, conventional ion gels, based ...on hydrogel and non-hydrogel materials, have the fatal disadvantages of vulnerability to humidity and lack of transparency. Therefore, the need for an ion gel to satisfy all the requirements of elasticity, toughness, transparency, conductivity, and strong resistivity under humidity is emerging. Here, we demonstrate a polyvinylchloride (PVC)-based conductive ion gel with humidity-insensitive properties. To impart conductivity to the PVC gel, we use an ionic liquid. The prepared ion gel retains its elasticity with repeated tensile cycles of (200% strain) up to thirty times, and it exhibits ∼93% transparency and ∼40 kJ m
−3
of toughness. In addition, excellent performance of this ion gel as a strain sensor was obtained, giving a conductivity increase with the factor of 100 compared with raw PVC gel. We show its application in human motion using a glove attached to the ion gel to monitor sign language and control a mouse pointer on the screen.
Novel hydrogel shows highly elastic, conductive, tough, transparent, humidity-resistive property which is useful for the wearable strain-sensing device.
Biological ion channels have led to much inspiration because of their unique and exquisite operational functions in living cells. Specifically, their extreme and dynamic sensing abilities can be ...realized by the combination of receptors and nanopores coupled together to construct an ion channel system. In the current study, we demonstrated that artificial ion channel pressure sensors inspired by nature for detecting pressure are highly sensitive and patchable. Our ion channel pressure sensors basically consisted of receptors and nanopore membranes, enabling dynamic current responses to external forces for multiple applications. The ion channel pressure sensors had a sensitivity of ∼5.6 kPa–1 and a response time of ∼12 ms at a frequency of 1 Hz. The power consumption was recorded as less than a few μW. Moreover, a reliability test showed stability over 10 000 loading–unloading cycles. Additionally, linear regression was performed in terms of temperature, which showed no significant variations, and there were no significant current variations with humidity. The patchable ion channel pressure sensors were then used to detect blood pressure/pulse in humans, and different signals were clearly observed for each person. Additionally, modified ion channel pressure sensors detected complex motions including pressing and folding in a high-pressure range (10–20 kPa).
Practical guidance is needed regarding the vaccination of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) convalescent individuals in resource-limited countries. It includes the number of vaccine doses that ...should be given to unvaccinated patients who experienced COVID-19 early in the pandemic.
We recruited COVID-19 convalescent individuals who received one or two doses of an mRNA vaccine within 6 or around 18 months after a diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Their samples were assessed for IgG-binding or neutralizing activity and cell-mediated immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 wild-type and variants of concern.
A total of 43 COVID-19 convalescent individuals were analyzed in the present study. The results showed that humoral and cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 wild-type and variants of concern, including the Omicron variant, were comparable among patients vaccinated within 6 versus around 18 months. A second dose of vaccine did not significantly increase immune responses.
One dose of mRNA vaccine should be considered sufficient to elicit a broad immune response even around 18 months after a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Although the economic value of wheat flour is determined by the complement of gluten proteins, these proteins have been challenging to study because of the complexity of the major protein groups and ...the tremendous sequence diversity among wheat cultivars. The completion of a high-quality wheat genome sequence from the reference wheat Chinese Spring recently facilitated the assembly and annotation of a complete set of gluten protein genes from a single cultivar, making it possible to link individual proteins in the flour to specific gene sequences. In a proteomic analysis of total wheat flour protein from Chinese Spring using quantitative two-dimensional gel electrophoresis combined with tandem mass spectrometry, gliadins or low-molecular-weight glutenin subunits were identified as the predominant proteins in 72 protein spots. Individual spots were associated with 40 of 56 Chinese Spring gene sequences, including 16 of 26 alpha gliadins, 10 of 11 gamma gliadins, six of seven omega gliadins, one of two delta gliadins, and nine of ten LMW-GS. Most genes that were not associated with protein spots were either expressed at low levels in endosperm or encoded proteins with high similarity to other proteins. A wide range of protein accumulation levels were observed and discrepancies between transcript levels and protein levels were noted. This work together with similar studies using other commercial cultivars should provide new insight into the molecular basis of wheat flour quality and allergenic potential.
The kinetic‐energy‐releases (KER) distribution function of the fragment is an important observable in the molecular dynamics. In theory, there are several different methods to calculate the KER ...distribution function or spectrum, which could be generally divided into two classes: One is based on the analysis of the asymptotic wavepacket (“projection method”) and the other is on the analysis of the associated flux (“flux method”). By taking the above‐threshold dissociation of the HeH+ (v = 8) molecule as an example, we compared these two classes of methods. Based on evenly separated Fourier grid representation, the KER distribution calculated via the projection method FProj(Ek) is the same as the one calculated via the flux method FFlux(Ek). The relationship between FProj(Ek) and the distribution of the projection of the asymptotic wavepacket onto the energy eigenstates of the quasicontinuum, PProj(Ek), and the relationship between FFlux(Ek) and the distribution of the dissociation probability PFlux(Ek) from the cumulation of the associated flux, are determined.
The kinetic‐energy‐releases (KER) distribution of the fragments is one of the most important.
observables in experiment for us to understand the relevant molecular dynamics, such as the photodissociation, photoionization, or chemical reaction collision. By taking the above‐threshold dissociation of HeH+ (v = 8) as model, the projection method and the flux method for the calculation of KER distribution function F (E
k) have been compared.
Abstract
Tumor acidosis, a common phenomenon in solid cancers such as breast cancer, is caused by the abnormal metabolism of cancer cells. The low pH affects cells surrounding the cancer, and tumor ...acidosis has been shown to inhibit the activity of immune cells. Despite many previous studies, the immune surveillance mechanisms are not fully understood. We found that the expression of PD-L1 was significantly increased under conditions of extracellular acidosis in MDA-MB-231 cells. We also confirmed that the increased expression of PD-L1 mediated by extracellular acidosis was decreased when the pH was raised to the normal range. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of public breast cancer patient databases showed that PD-L1 expression was also highly correlated with IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling. Surprisingly, the expression of both phospho-tyrosine STAT3 and PD-L1 was significantly increased under conditions of extracellular acidosis, and inhibition of STAT3 did not increase the expression of PD-L1 even under acidic conditions in MDA-MB-231 cells. Based on these results, we suggest that the expression of PD-L1 is increased by tumor acidosis via activation of STAT3 in MDA-MB-231 cells.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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