A silk nanofiber‐networked bio‐triboelectric generator (Silk Bio‐TEG) is developed using an eco‐friendly and sustainable silk biomaterial with strong hydrogen bonding between peptide blocks. The ...electrospun Silk Bio‐TEG shows highly durable and reliable energy harvesting performances due to its notably high surface‐to‐volume ratio, mechanically super‐strong silk fibers, and fracture tolerant behavior of nanofiber‐networks.
Dual-functioning displays, which can simultaneously transmit and receive information and energy through visible light, would enable enhanced user interfaces and device-to-device interactivity. We ...demonstrate that double heterojunctions designed into colloidal semiconductor nanorods allow both efficient photocurrent generation through a photovoltaic response and electroluminescence within a single device. These dual-functioning, all-solution-processed double-heterojunction nanorod light-responsive light-emitting diodes open feasible routes to a variety of advanced applications, from touchless interactive screens to energy harvesting and scavenging displays and massively parallel display-to-display data communication.
Here we demonstrate materials and operating conditions that allow for high-resolution printing of layers of quantum dots (QDs) with precise control over thickness and submicron lateral resolution and ...capabilities for use as active layers of QD light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The shapes and thicknesses of the QD patterns exhibit systematic dependence on the dimensions of the printing nozzle and the ink composition in ways that allow nearly arbitrary, systematic control when exploited in a fully automated printing tool. Homogeneous arrays of patterns of QDs serve as the basis for corresponding arrays of QD LEDs that exhibit excellent performance. Sequential printing of different types of QDs in a multilayer stack or in an interdigitated geometry provides strategies for continuous tuning of the effective, overall emission wavelengths of the resulting QD LEDs. This strategy is useful to efficient, additive use of QDs for wide ranging types of electronic and optoelectronic devices.
Amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin films were deposited at different temperatures, by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using 1,1,1-trimethyl-N-(trimethylsilyl)silanaminatoindium (INCA-1) as the ...indium precursor, diethlzinc (DEZ) as the zinc precursor, and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as the reactant. The ALD process of IZO deposition was carried by repeated supercycles, including one cycle of indium oxide (In2O3) and one cycle of zinc oxide (ZnO). The IZO growth rate deviates from the sum of the respective In2O3 and ZnO growth rates at ALD growth temperatures of 150, 175, and 200 °C. We propose growth temperature-dependent surface reactions during the In2O3 cycle that correspond with the growth-rate results. Thin-film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with the ALD-grown IZO thin films as the active layer. The amorphous IZO TFTs exhibited high mobility of 42.1 cm2 V–1 s–1 and good positive bias temperature stress stability. Finally, flexible IZO TFT was successfully fabricated on a polyimide substrate without performance degradation, showing the great potential of ALD-grown TFTs for flexible display applications.
Future smart mobile electronics and wearable robotics that can perform delicate activities controlled by artificial intelligence can require rapid motion actuators working at low voltages with ...acceptable safety and improved energy efficiency. Accordingly, ionic soft actuators can have great potential over other counterparts because they exhibit gentle movements at low voltages, less than 2 V. However, these actuators currently show deficient performances at sub‐1 V voltages in the high‐frequency range because of the lack of electrode materials with the vital antagonistic properties of high capacitance and good conductivity. Herein, a mutually exclusive nanohybrid electrode (pMoS2‐nSNrGO) is reported consisting of oxide‐doped p‐type molybdenum‐disulfide and sulfur‐nitrogen‐codoped n‐type reduced‐graphene‐oxide. The pMoS2‐nSNrGO electrode derives high capacitance from MoS2 and good charge transfer between the two components from p‐n nano‐junctions, resulting in excellent actuation performances (670% improvement compared with rGO electrode at 0.5 V and 1 Hz, together with fast responses up to 15 Hz). With such excellent performances, these actuators can be successfully applied to realize an artificial soft robotic finger system for delicately touching the fragile surfaces of smartphones and tablets. The mutually exclusive pMoS2‐nSNrGO electrode can open a new way to develop high‐performance soft actuators for soft robotic applications in the future.
Nanohybrids with antagonistic properties (high capacitance and good conductivity) like pMoS2‐nSNrGO are demonstrated among excellent electrode materials for ionic actuators. With a 670% bending improvement at a low voltage of 0.5 V and the ability to perform fast bending up to 15 Hz, the pMoS2‐nSNrGO‐based actuators successfully act as soft fingers to touch fragile surfaces of smartphones to switch the flashlight.
Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) enable the control and exploration of intermolecular interactions inside microscopic systems, but the potential environmental impacts of their inevitable release ...remain largely unknown. Plants exposed to ENMs display effects, such as increase in biomass and chlorophyll, distinct from those induced by exposure to their bulk counterparts, but few studies have addressed the mechanisms underlying such physiological results. The current investigation found that exposure of Arabidopsis thaliana to nano zerovalent iron (nZVI) triggered high plasma membrane H+-ATPase activity. The increase in activity caused a decrease in apoplastic pH, an increase in leaf area, and also wider stomatal aperture. Analysis of gene expression indicated that the levels of the H+-ATPase isoform responsible for stomatal opening, AHA2, were 5-fold higher in plants exposed to nZVI than in unexposed control plants. This is the first study to show that nZVI enhances stomatal opening by inducing the activation of plasma membrane H+-ATPase, leading to the possibility of increased CO2 uptake.
Abstract
To determine the effect of customized vestibular exercise (VE) and optokinetic stimulation (OS) using a virtual reality system in patients with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness ...(PPPD). Patients diagnosed with PPPD were randomly assigned to the VE group or VE with OS group. All participants received VE for 20 min using a virtual reality system with a head mount display once a week for 4 weeks. The patients in the VE with OS group additionally received OS for 9 min. We analysed the questionnaires, timed up-to-go (TUG) test, and posturography scores at baseline and after 4 weeks. A total of 28 patients (median age = 74.5, IQR 66–78, men = 12) completed the intervention. From baseline to 4 weeks, the dizziness handicap inventory, activities of daily living (ADL), visual vertigo analogue scale, and TUG improved in the VE group, but only ADL and TUG improved in the VE with OS group. Patients with severe visual vertigo improved more on their symptoms than patients with lesser visual vertigo (Pearson’s p = 0.716,
p
< 0.001). Our VE program can improve dizziness, quality of life, and gait function in PPPD; however, additional optokinetic stimuli should be applied for individuals with visual vertigo symptoms.
We present a centrifugal microfluidic device which enables multiplex foodborne pathogen identification by loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and colorimetric detection using Eriochrome ...Black T (EBT). Five identical structures were designed in the centrifugal microfluidic system to perform the genetic analysis of 25 pathogen samples in a high-throughput manner. The sequential loading and aliquoting of the LAMP cocktail, the primer mixtures, and the DNA sample solutions were accomplished by the optimized zigzag-shaped microchannels and RPM control. We targeted three kinds of pathogenic bacteria (Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and detected the amplicons of the LAMP reaction by the EBT-mediated colorimetric method. For the limit-of-detection (LOD) test, we carried out the LAMP reaction on a chip with serially diluted DNA templates of E. coli O157:H7, and could observe the color change with 380 copies. The used primer sets in the LAMP reaction were specific only to the genomic DNA of E. coli O157:H7, enabling the on-chip selective, sensitive, and high-throughput pathogen identification with the naked eyes. The entire process was completed in 60min. Since the proposed microsystem does not require any bulky and expensive instrumentation for end-point detection, our microdevice would be adequate for point-of-care (POC) testing with high simplicity and high speed, providing an advanced genetic analysis microsystem for foodborne pathogen detection.
•A centrifugal LAMP microdevice for pathogen detection was developed.•Zigzag-shaped microchannels provide sequential aliquoting of the LAMP components.•Simple and user-friendly EBT-mediated colorimetric detection method was devised.•The proposed system does not require any bulky or expensive instrument for detection.•This microdevice would be adequate for point-of-care pathogen detection.
Here, we report multilayer stacking of films of quantum dots (QDs) for the purpose of tailoring the energy band alignment between charge transport layers and light emitting layers of different color ...in quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QD LED) for maximum efficiency in full color operation. The performance of QD LEDs formed by transfer printing compares favorably to that of conventional devices fabricated by spin-casting. Results indicate that zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) can serve effectively as electron transport layers (ETLs) for red and green/blue QD LEDs, respectively. Optimized selections for each QD layer can be assembled at high yields by transfer printing with sacrificial fluoropolymer thin films to provide low energy surfaces for release, thereby allowing shared common layers for hole injection (HIL) and hole transport (HTL), along with customized ETLs. This strategy allows cointegration of devices with heterogeneous energy band diagrams, in a parallelized scheme that offers potential for high throughput and practical use.
•Parkinson’s disease (PD) produce dopaminergic neuronal loss and neuroinflammation.•Acupuncture (Acu) has a neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effect in PD mice.•Acu restores gut microbial ...dysbiosis induced by PD.•Antiparkinsonian effect of Acu may be involved with regulation of gut microbiota.
Growing evidences show that gut microbiota is associated with the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the gut-brain axis can be promising target for the development of the therapeutic strategies for PD. Acupuncture has been used to improve brain functions and inflammation in neurological disorders such as PD, and to recover the gastrointestinal dysfunctions in various gastrointestinal disorders. Thus, we investigated whether acupuncture could improve Parkinsonism and gut microbial dysbiosis induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. First, we observed that acupuncture treatment at acupoints GB34 and ST36 could improve motor functions and comorbid anxiety in PD mice. Next, we found that acupuncture increased the levels of dopaminergic fibers and neurons in the striatum and the substantia nigra, respectively. Acupuncture also restored the overexpression of microglia and astrocyte as well as conversion of Bax and Bcl-2 expression in both the striatum and the substantia nigra, indicating that inflammatory responses and apoptosis were blocked by acupuncture. Additionally, via 16S rRNA sequence analysis, we observed that the relative abundance of 18 genera were changed in acupuncture-treated mice compared to the PD mice. Of them, Butyricimonas, Holdemania, Frisingicoccus, Gracilibacter, Phocea, and Aestuariispira showed significant correlations with anxiety as well as motor functions. Furthermore, the predicted functional analyses showed that acupuncture restored the physiology functions such as glutathione metabolism, methane metabolism, and PD pathway. In conclusion, we suggest that the effects of acupuncture on the enhanced motor function and the protection of the dopaminergic neurons may be associated with the regulation of the gut microbial dysbiosis and thus the inhibition of the neuroinflammation in the PD mice.
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