Electronic skin (e‐skin) technology is an exciting frontier to drive the next generation of wearable electronics owing to its high level of wearability, enabling high accuracy to harvest information ...of users and their surroundings. Recently, biomimicry of human and biological skins has become a great inspiration for realizing novel wearable electronic systems with exceptional multifunctionality as well as advanced sensory functions. This review covers and highlights bioinspired e‐skins mimicking perceptive features of human and biological skins. In particular, five main components in tactile sensation processes of human skin are individually discussed with recent advances of e‐skins that mimic the unique sensing mechanisms of human skin. In addition, diverse functionalities in user‐interactive, skin‐attachable, and ultrasensitive e‐skins are introduced with the inspiration from unique architectures and functionalities, such as visual expression of stimuli, reversible adhesion, easy deformability, and camouflage, in biological skins of natural creatures. Furthermore, emerging wearable sensor systems using bioinspired e‐skins for body motion tracking, healthcare monitoring, and prosthesis are described. Finally, several challenges that should be considered for the realization of next‐generation skin electronics are discussed with recent outcomes for addressing these challenges.
Biomimicry of human and biological skins has established a new paradigm for realizing novel wearable electronic systems with exceptional multifunctionality as well as advanced sensory functions. This comprehensive review focuses on emerging wearable sensor systems using bioinspired electronic skins mimicking unique geometries and sensory systems of the human and biological skins.
Cancer as a Metabolic Disorder Gyamfi, Jones; Kim, Jinyoung; Choi, Junjeong
International journal of molecular sciences,
01/2022, Volume:
23, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Cancer has long been considered a genetic disease characterized by a myriad of mutations that drive cancer progression. Recent accumulating evidence indicates that the dysregulated metabolism in ...cancer cells is more than a hallmark of cancer but may be the underlying cause of the tumor. Most of the well-characterized oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes function to sustain the altered metabolic state in cancer. Here, we review evidence supporting the altered metabolic state in cancer including key alterations in glucose, glutamine, and fatty acid metabolism. Unlike genetic alterations that do not occur in all cancer types, metabolic alterations are more common among cancer subtypes and across cancers. Recognizing cancer as a metabolic disorder could unravel key diagnostic and treatments markers that can impact approaches used in cancer management.
Biological tissues are multiresponsive and functional, and similar properties might be possible in synthetic systems by merging responsive polymers with hierarchical soft architectures. For example, ...mechanochromic polymers have applications in force‐responsive colorimetric sensors and soft robotics, but their integration into sensitive, multifunctional devices remains challenging. Herein, a hierarchical nanoparticle‐in‐micropore (NP‐MP) architecture in porous mechanochromic polymers, which enhances the mechanosensitivity and stretchability of mechanochromic electronic skins (e‐skins), is reported. The hierarchical NP‐MP structure results in stress‐concentration‐induced mechanochemical activation of mechanophores, significantly improving the mechanochromic sensitivity to both tensile strain and normal force (critical tensile strain: 50% and normal force: 1 N). Furthermore, the porous mechanochromic composites exhibit a reversible mechanochromism under a strain of 250%. This architecture enables a dual‐mode mechanochromic e‐skin for detecting static/dynamic forces via mechanochromism and triboelectricity. The hierarchical NP‐MP architecture provides a general platform to develop mechanochromic composites with high sensitivity and stretchability.
A hierarchical nanoparticle‐in‐micropore architecture in porous mechanochromic polymers enhances the mechanosensitivity and stretchability of mechanochromic electronic skins. In this device structure, stress‐concentration‐induced mechanochemical activation of mechanophores significantly improves the mechanochromic sensitivity for both tensile strain and normal force stimuli. This architecture also enables a dual‐mode mechanochromic electronic skin for detecting static/dynamic forces via mechanochromism and triboelectricity.
Symptom subtypes have been described in clinical and population samples of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It is unclear whether these subtypes have different cardiovascular ...consequences.
To characterize OSA symptom subtypes and assess their association with prevalent and incident cardiovascular disease in the Sleep Heart Health Study.
Data from 1,207 patients with OSA (apnea-hypopnea index ≥ 15 events/h) were used to evaluate the existence of symptom subtypes using latent class analysis. Associations between subtypes and prevalence of overall cardiovascular disease and its components (coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke) were assessed using logistic regression. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate whether subtypes were associated with incident events, including cardiovascular mortality.
Four symptom subtypes were identified (disturbed sleep 12.2%, minimally symptomatic 32.6%, excessively sleepy 16.7%, and moderately sleepy 38.5%), similar to prior studies. In adjusted models, although no significant associations with prevalent cardiovascular disease were found, the excessively sleepy subtype was associated with more than threefold increased risk of prevalent heart failure compared with each of the other subtypes. Symptom subtype was also associated with incident cardiovascular disease (
< 0.001), coronary heart disease (
= 0.015), and heart failure (
= 0.018), with the excessively sleepy again demonstrating increased risk (hazard ratios, 1.7-2.4) compared with other subtypes. When compared with individuals without OSA (apnea-hypopnea index < 5), significantly increased risk for prevalent and incident cardiovascular events was observed mostly for patients in the excessively sleepy subtype.
OSA symptom subtypes are reproducible and associated with cardiovascular risk, providing important evidence of their clinical relevance.
Online learning is an educational process which takes place over the Internet as a form of distance education. Distance education became ubiquitous as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020. ...Because of these circumstances, online teaching and learning had an indispensable role in early childhood education programs, even though debates continue on whether or not it is beneficial for young children to be exposed extensively to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This descriptive study demonstrates how a preservice teacher education course in early childhood education was redesigned to provide student teachers with opportunities to learn and teach online. It reports experiences and reflections from a practicum course offered in the Spring Semester of 2020, in the USA. It describes three phases of the online student teachers’ experiences–Preparation, Implementation, and Reflection. Tasks accomplished in each phase are reported. Online teaching experiences provided these preservice teachers with opportunities to interact with children, as well as to encourage reflection on how best to promote young children’s development and learning with online communication tools.
This study aimed to describe the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the Korean government's response to the pandemic on tobacco consumption and national smoking cessation services among ...the Korean population. We obtained tobacco sale data from the Ministry of Finance and analysed the data on smokers' visits to national smoking cessation clinics during the pandemic from a member of the National Assembly. We also conducted an online search to understand smokers' thoughts about their tobacco use during the pandemic. We found that after the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020, the sale of conventional cigarettes increased from 3063.70 to 3209.70 million packs (4.77%). The number of smokers who visited clinics sharply decreased in the first half of 2020. The six-month quit rate decreased from 38.5% in 2017 to 22.3% in early 2020. We also found that smokers increased their consumption and began to switch from conventional cigarettes to heated tobacco products. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened tobacco control policies and programs in Korea in the last two years; however, based on our experience during this period and considering the WHO recommendation, we should sustain and reinforce tobacco control policies and national smoking cessation services today and in the future.
Regulating the morphology of lithium plating is the key to extending the cycle life of lithium metal batteries. Fatal dendritic growth is closely related to out-of-plane nucleation on the lithium ...metal surface. Herein, we report a nearly perfect lattice match between the lithium metal foil and lithium deposits by removing the native oxide layer using simple bromine-based acid-base chemistry. The naked lithium surface induces homo-epitaxial lithium plating with columnar morphologies and lower overpotentials. Using the naked lithium foil, the lithium-lithium symmetric cell maintains stable cycling at 10 mA cm
for more than 10,000 cycles, and the full-cell paired with LiFePO
with high areal capacity of 3.3 mAh cm
and practical N/P ratio of 2.5 exhibits 86% capacity retention after 300 cycles. This study elucidates the usefulness of controlling the initial surface state to facilitate homo-epitaxial lithium plating for sustainable cycling of lithium metal batteries.
Abstract
Extremely fast charging (i.e. 80% of storage capacity within 15 min) is a pressing requirement for current lithium-ion battery technology and also affects the planning of charging ...infrastructure. Accelerating lithium ion transport through the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) is a major obstacle in boosting charging rate; in turn, limited kinetics at the SEI layer negatively affect the cycle life and battery safety as a result of lithium metal plating on the electrode surface. Here, we report a γ-ray-driven SEI layer that allows a battery cell to be charged to 80% capacity in 10.8 min as determined for a graphite full-cell with a capacity of 2.6 mAh cm
−2
. This exceptional charging performance is attributed to the lithium fluoride-rich SEI induced by salt-dominant decomposition via γ-ray irradiation. This study highlights the potential of non-electrochemical approaches to adjust the SEI composition toward fast charging and long-term stability, two parameters that are difficult to improve simultaneously in typical electrochemical processes owing to the trade-off relation.
Philip Morris International introduced 'IQOS' to the Korean market in June 2017. To monitor the use of IQOS among young Korean adults, we identified their awareness, experience and current use of ...IQOS.
Three months after the introduction of IQOS in Korea, we conducted an online survey with 228 general young adults, aged 19-24 years.
87 participants (38.1%) were aware of IQOS, 13 (5.7%) were IQOS ever users and 8 (3.5%) were current IQOS users. All the current IQOS users were triple users of conventional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). There were no IQOS-only users and one IQOS ever user was a non-cigarette smoker. Among the eight current IQOS users who smoked 9.1 conventional cigarettes a day on average, four smoked 10-20 HEETS sticks a day. The current IQOS users decided to use IQOS because they believed it was less harmful or to stop smoking. The current conventional cigarette smokers were much more likely to be aware of IQOS (OR 4.496; 95% CI 2.185 to 9.250) and to be IQOS ever users (OR 11.649; 95% CI 1.024 to 132.564).
Awareness, experience and use of IQOS among young Korean adults were relatively higher than among their Japanese counterparts. Current IQOS users were more likely to smoke conventional cigarettes and/or e-cigarettes, which contradicts the tobacco industry's claims that conventional cigarette smokers will switch to heated tobacco products. Until obtaining robust evidence concerning heated tobacco products, the government should regulate the tobacco industry's marketing tactics and health claims.
The objective was to examine the nuclear maturation of oocytes, embryonic development after parthenogenetic activation (PA) and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and gene expression in SCNT ...embryos in pigs (
Sus scrofa) when anthocyanin was added to oocytes during maturation and
in vitro culture (IVC) of embryos. Immature oocytes were untreated or treated with 0.1 μg/mL anthocyanin during
in vitro maturation (IVM). Next, PA and SCNT embryos were produced from oocytes and cultured in medium supplemented with or without 0.1 μg/mL anthocyanin for 7 d. Anthocyanin treatment during IVM did not improve the nuclear maturation of oocytes, but significantly increased intracellular glutathione (GSH) levels and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS). Oocytes treated with anthocyanin during IVM had higher (
P < 0.05) rates of blastocyst formation after PA (55.7 vs. 44.9 %) and SCNT (32.2 vs. 16.1%) compared to untreated oocytes. In PA and SCNT embryos, anthocyanin treatment during IVM or IVC significantly increased the intracellular GSH level, which led to the reduced ROS level. Somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos derived from anthocyanin-treated oocytes had increased (
P < 0.05) expression of DNMT1, PCNA, FGFR2, and POU5F1 mRNA compared to control embryos. In conclusion, anthocyanin treatment during IVM improved developmental competence of SCNT embryos, most likely by increasing intracellular GSH synthesis, reducing ROS level, and stimulating nuclear reprogramming via increased transcription factor expression.
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