Sensitivity and pressure range are two significant parameters of pressure sensors. Existing pressure sensors have difficulty achieving both high sensitivity and a wide pressure range. Therefore, we ...propose a new pressure sensor with a ternary nanocomposite Fe
O
/C@SnO
. The sea urchin-like Fe
O
structure promotes signal transduction and protects Fe
O
needles from mechanical breaking, while the acetylene carbon black improves the conductivity of Fe
O
. Moreover, one part of the SnO
nanoparticles adheres to the surfaces of Fe
O
needles and forms Fe
O
/SnO
heterostructures, while its other part disperses into the carbon layer to form SnO
@C structure. Collectively, the synergistic effects of the three structures (Fe
O
/C, Fe
O
/SnO
and SnO
@C) improves on the limited pressure response range of a single structure. The experimental results demonstrate that the Fe
O
/C@SnO
pressure sensor exhibits high sensitivity (680 kPa
), fast response (10 ms), broad range (up to 150 kPa), and good reproducibility (over 3500 cycles under a pressure of 110 kPa), implying that the new pressure sensor has wide application prospects especially in wearable electronic devices and health monitoring.
Diseases such as cardiovascular problems and sleep apnea cause mass deaths annually due to a lack of timely and portable monitoring and alarm measures. Various wearable devices for health monitoring ...have been intensely researched to reduce mortality. However, these devices themselves can only detect physiological signals; they cannot sound an alarm. Therefore, they must rely on mobile phones or other peripheral devices such as speakers or vibration motors to sound an alarm, which may result in a patient missing the optimal treatment. It is valuable to develop a self‐alarm health monitoring device with the dual functions of physiological signal detection and sound alarm simultaneously. A one‐step laser‐induced graphene (LIG)‐based electronic skin (E‐skin) is fabricated to perform health monitoring and alarm at the same time, which benefit from its both excellent mechanical and acoustical performance. These customized shutter‐patterned E‐skins have an ultrahigh sensitivity of 316.3 and can detect various biosignals such as wrist pulse, respiratory, etc. They also have a self‐alarm function and can sound an alarm when detecting abnormal situations. This study addresses the multifunctional integration required for multisensors, which will open further applications in wearable sensors and health‐care devices.
The development of E‐skin with dual functionality, integrating strain detection and alarm into a single device, is crucial for health monitoring. A one‐step laser‐induced graphene (LIG)‐based E‐skin that can detect faint biosignals (respiration, pulse, etc.) and issue thermoacoustic sound to warn when detecting some abnormal conditions (sleep apnea, sudden cardiac arrest).
Abstract
Background
Growing evidence has shown that alterations in the gut microbiota composition were associated with a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions. However, whether such associations ...reflect causality remains unknown. We aimed to reveal the causal relationships among gut microbiota, metabolites, and neuropsychiatric disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia (SCZ).
Methods
A two-sample bi-directional Mendelian randomization analysis was performed by using genetic variants from genome-wide association studies as instrumental variables for gut microbiota, metabolites, AD, MDD, and SCZ, respectively.
Results
We found suggestive associations of host-genetic-driven increase in
Blautia
(OR, 0.88; 95%CI, 0.79–0.99;
P
= 0.028) and elevated γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) (0.96; 0.92–1.00;
P
= 0.034), a downstream product of
Blautia
-dependent arginine metabolism, with a lower risk of AD. Genetically increased
Enterobacteriaceae family
and
Enterobacteriales order
were potentially associated with a higher risk of SCZ (1.09; 1.00–1.18;
P
= 0.048), while
Gammaproteobacteria class
(0.90; 0.83–0.98;
P
= 0.011) was related to a lower risk for SCZ. Gut production of serotonin was potentially associated with an increased risk of SCZ (1.07; 1.00–1.15;
P
= 0.047). Furthermore, genetically increased
Bacilli class
was related to a higher risk of MDD (1.07; 1.02–1.12;
P
= 0.010). In the other direction, neuropsychiatric disorders altered gut microbiota composition.
Conclusions
These data for the first time provide evidence of potential causal links between gut microbiome and AD, MDD, and SCZ. GABA and serotonin may play an important role in gut microbiota-host crosstalk in AD and SCZ, respectively. Further investigations in understanding the underlying mechanisms of associations between gut microbiota and AD, MDD, and SCZ are required.
Visual optical information encryption–decryption and anti‐counterfeiting (IEDAC) technology play a vital role in the field of information security. Recent luminescent information encryption ...technologies face the disadvantages of depending on external large‐scale stimulus decryption equipment, inability to read out repeatedly, and information leakage, impeding the practical applications of luminescence encryption. Here, an integrated luminescent IEDAC chip is proposed, which provides a convenient approach to store and decipher pre‐patterned luminescence information based on laser engraved template and film heater. The luminescent encryption chip contains a double‐layer structure made up of long persistent phosphors based on SrCaGa4O8 host and a laser induced graphene heater, which makes it possible to decrypt information on a single chip. This design enables dual‐mode (photoluminescence/long persistent luminescence), dual‐color (blue/yellow‐green), and multi‐level IEDAC function, providing a novel insight and integrated strategy for implementing advanced IEDAC technologies.
An integrated luminescent information encryption–decryption and anti‐counterfeiting chip made up of long persistent phosphors and a laser induced graphene heater is proposed, which provides a convenient approach to store and decipher pre‐patterned luminescence information on a single chip. This portable chip achieves dual‐mode/dual‐color luminescence and multi‐level encryption, and anti‐counterfeiting function.
Air pollution has been related to incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We assessed the joint association of various air pollutants with the risk of T2D and examined potential modification by obesity ...status and genetic susceptibility on the relationship.
A total of 449,006 participants from UK Biobank free of T2D at baseline were included. Of all the study population, 90.9% were white and 45.7% were male. The participants had a mean age of 56.6 (SD 8.1) years old and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 27.4 (SD 4.8) kg/m2. Ambient air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) with diameters ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), between 2.5 μm and 10 μm (PM2.5-10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and nitric oxide (NO) were measured. An air pollution score was created to assess the joint exposure to the 4 air pollutants. During a median of 11 years follow-up, we documented 18,239 incident T2D cases. The air pollution score was significantly associated with a higher risk of T2D. Compared to the lowest quintile of air pollution score, the hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval CI) for T2D was 1.05 (0.99 to 1.10, p = 0.11), 1.06 (1.00 to 1.11, p = 0.051), 1.09 (1.03 to 1.15, p = 0.002), and 1.12 (1.06 to 1.19, p < 0.001) for the second to fifth quintile, respectively, after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, genetic factors, and other covariates. In addition, we found a significant interaction between the air pollution score and obesity status on the risk of T2D (p-interaction < 0.001). The observed association was more pronounced among overweight and obese participants than in the normal-weight people. Genetic risk score (GRS) for T2D or obesity did not modify the relationship between air pollution and risk of T2D. Key study limitations include unavailable data on other potential T2D-related air pollutants and single-time measurement on air pollutants.
We found that various air pollutants PM2.5, PM2.5-10, NO2, and NO, individually or jointly, were associated with an increased risk of T2D in the population. The stratified analyses indicate that such associations were more strongly associated with T2D risk among those with higher adiposity.
Previous studies have related vitamin D supplementation to a lower risk of acute respiratory tract infection. Emerging evidence suggests that vitamin D insufficiency is related to a higher risk of ...coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) infection.
We aimed to investigate the prospective association between habitual use of vitamin D supplements and risk of COVID-19 infection, and assess whether such an association differed according to the different levels of circulating and genetically predicted vitamin D.
This study included 8297 adults who have records of COVID-19 test results from UK Biobank (from 16 March 2020 to 29 June 2020). The use of vitamin D supplements, circulating vitamin D levels, and main covariates were measured at baseline (2006–2010). Genetically predicted vitamin D levels were evaluated by genetic risk score.
After adjustment for covariates, the habitual use of vitamin D supplements was significantly associated with a 34% lower risk of COVID-19 infection (OR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.45–0.97; P = 0.034). Circulating vitamin D levels at baseline or genetically predicted vitamin D levels were not associated with the risk of COVID-19 infection. The association between the use of vitamin D supplements and the risk of COVID-19 infection did not vary according to the different levels of circulating or genetically predicted vitamin D (P-interactions = 0.75 and 0.74, respectively).
Our findings suggest that habitual use of vitamin D supplements is related to a lower risk of COVID-19 infection, although we cannot rule out the possibility that the inverse association is due to residual confounding or selection bias. Further clinical trials are needed to verify these results.
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•The Rh-doping behavior on BN monolayer has a good doping effect.•Rh-BN monolayer exhibits ideal adsorption and sensing properties, selectivity for SF6 decomposed gases.•The ...electronic behavior and sensitivity analysis help to understand mechanism and reflect the excellent applicability.
The SF6 decomposed gases sensor is crucial for detecting insulation condition of electrical equipment. To study applicability of metal-doped two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials for gas sensors, density functional theory (DFT) calculations based on first-principle theory were used for investigating adsorption properties, sensitivity and electronic behavior. In this study, Rh-doped h-BN (Rh-BN) monolayer was first proposed to analyze adsorption of typical SF6 decomposed gases, including H2S, SO2, SOF2, SO2F2. The stable structure of Rh-BN monolayer was studied by four possible sites. The binding energy (Eb) of stable structure is −1.204 eV. Meanwhile, the adsorption energy (Ead) and sensitivity of SF6 decomposed gases show that Rh-BN monolayer has ideal adsorption and sensing properties than other materials. Moreover, the analysis of density of state (DOS) and band structure illustrate the sensing mechanism and further prove the applicability of Rh-BN monolayer for SF6 decomposed gases. The above calculations and analysis would be significant to explore Rh-BN monolayer as a novel SF6 decomposed gases sensor for electrical equipment insulation.
Traditional sound sources and sound detectors are usually independent and discrete in the human hearing range. To minimize the device size and integrate it with wearable electronics, there is an ...urgent requirement of realizing the functional integration of generating and detecting sound in a single device. Here we show an intelligent laser-induced graphene artificial throat, which can not only generate sound but also detect sound in a single device. More importantly, the intelligent artificial throat will significantly assist for the disabled, because the simple throat vibrations such as hum, cough and scream with different intensity or frequency from a mute person can be detected and converted into controllable sounds. Furthermore, the laser-induced graphene artificial throat has the advantage of one-step fabrication, high efficiency, excellent flexibility and low cost, and it will open practical applications in voice control, wearable electronics and many other areas.
Grain size is an important component trait of grain yield, which is frequently threatened by abiotic stress. However, little is known about how grain yield and abiotic stress tolerance are regulated. ...Here, we characterize GSA1, a quantitative trait locus (QTL) regulating grain size and abiotic stress tolerance associated with metabolic flux redirection. GSA1 encodes a UDP-glucosyltransferase, which exhibits glucosyltransferase activity toward flavonoids and monolignols. GSA1 regulates grain size by modulating cell proliferation and expansion, which are regulated by flavonoid-mediated auxin levels and related gene expression. GSA1 is required for the redirection of metabolic flux from lignin biosynthesis to flavonoid biosynthesis under abiotic stress and the accumulation of flavonoid glycosides, which protect rice against abiotic stress. GSA1 overexpression results in larger grains and enhanced abiotic stress tolerance. Our findings provide insights into the regulation of grain size and abiotic stress tolerance associated with metabolic flux redirection and a potential means to improve crops.
Pressure sensors should have an excellent sensitivity in the range of 0–20 kPa when applied in wearable applications. Traditional pressure sensors cannot achieve both a high sensitivity and a large ...working range simultaneously, which results in their limited applications in wearable fields. There is an urgent need to develop a pressure sensor to make a breakthrough in both sensitivity and working range. In this paper, a graphene-paper pressure sensor that shows excellent performance in the range of 0–20 kPa is proposed. Compared to most reported graphene pressure sensors, this work realizes the optimization of sensitivity and working range, which is especially suitable for wearable applications. We also demonstrate that the pressure sensor can be applied in pulse detection, respiratory detection, voice recognition, as well as various intense motion detections. This graphene-paper pressure sensor will have great potentials for smart wearable devices to achieve health monitoring and motion detection.
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