Publications by authors named "CK Hu"

Background: Americans experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to traumatic injuries and morbidity. Despite a high and increasing number of persons experiencing homelessness (PEH), American researchers have not comprehensively described the impact of this social problem on trauma patients in recent years.

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study using the American College of Surgeons TQIP 2021-2022 data.

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  • Quantum state tomography (QST) via local measurements is efficient but struggles with larger systems, prompting the development of a new method called parallel quantum state tomography (PQST).
  • PQST minimizes the number of measurements needed and is more resilient to noise compared to traditional methods, demonstrating its practicality through experiments on superconducting qubit chips.
  • The technique yielded high fidelity results, reconstructing complex states like six-qubit and nine-qubit W states efficiently, showcasing its potential for future applications in state reconstruction and characterization.
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  • Industrial processes produce large amounts of oily saline wastewater, which can be a source of osmotic energy instead of just being discarded.
  • A novel membrane, called HKUST-1@PTFE, combines copper hydroxide nanowires and polystyrenesulfonate sodium to create a hybrid material with efficient cation transport and exceptional oil-repellent properties.
  • This membrane can generate an impressive output power density of 6.21 W/m² using a 50-fold salt gradient, making it a potential solution for long-lasting energy harvesting from oily wastewater while preventing fouling.
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Suspended animation states allow organisms to survive extreme environments. The African turquoise killifish has evolved diapause as a form of suspended development to survive a complete drought. However, the mechanisms underlying the evolution of extreme survival states are unknown.

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Age-related vision loss caused by retinal neurodegenerative pathologies is becoming more prevalent in our ageing society. To understand the physiological and molecular impact of ageing on retinal homeostasis, we used the short-lived African turquoise killifish, a model known to naturally develop central nervous system (CNS) ageing hallmarks and vision loss. Bulk and single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNAseq) of three age groups (6-, 12-, and 18-week-old) identified transcriptional ageing fingerprints in the killifish retina, unveiling pathways also identified in the aged brain, including oxidative stress, gliosis, and inflammageing.

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Extracting osmotic energy from waste organic solutions via reverse electrodialysis represents a promising approach to reuse such industrial wastes and helps to mitigate the ever-growing energy needs. Herein, a molecularly thin membrane of covalent organic frameworks is engineered via interfacial polymerization to investigate its ion transport behavior in organic solutions. Interestingly, a significant deviation from linearity between ion conductance and reciprocal viscosity is observed, attributed to the nanoscale confinement effect on intermolecular interactions.

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Age-related vision loss caused by retinal neurodegenerative pathologies is becoming more prevalent in our ageing society. To understand the physiological and molecular impact of ageing on retinal homeostasis, we used the short-lived African turquoise killifish, a model known to naturally develop central nervous system (CNS) ageing hallmarks and vision loss. Bulk and single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) of three age groups (6-, 12-, and 18-week-old) identified transcriptional ageing fingerprints in the killifish retina, unveiling pathways also identified in the aged brain, including oxidative stress, gliosis, and inflammageing.

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Photoreceptor cells of vertebrates feature ultrastructural membranes interspersed with abundant photosensitive ion pumps to boost signal generation and realize high gain in dim light. In light of this, superstructured optoionic heterojunctions (SSOHs) with cation-selective nanochannels are developed for manipulating photo-driven ion pumping. A template-directed bottom-up strategy is adopted to sequentially assemble graphene oxide (GO) and PEDOT:PSS into heterogeneous membranes with sculptured superstructures, which feature programmable variation in membrane topography and contain a donor-acceptor interface capable of maintaining electron-hole separation upon photoillumination.

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Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) have emerged as an attractive category of materials for their water processability and some similarities to natural biopolymers. Herein, we employ the intrinsic hydroplasticity of PEC materials to enable the generation of porous structures with the aid of gas foaming. Such foamable materials are fabricated by simply mixing polycation, polyanion, and a UV-initiated chemical foaming agent in an aqueous solution, followed by molding into thin films.

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The question of how evolution builds complex behaviors has long fascinated biologists. To address this question from a genetic perspective, we capitalize on variation in innate burrowing behavior between two sister species of mice: that construct short, simple burrows and that uniquely construct long, elaborate burrows. We identify three regions of the genome associated with differences in burrow length and then narrow in on one large-effect 12-Mb locus on chromosome 4.

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  • - The study introduces a new large-animal model using pigs for spinal cord compression injuries (SCI), aimed at improving understanding and treatment of SCI in humans.
  • - Researchers applied controlled pressure to the spinal cord and used various techniques, including neurophysiological recordings and MRI, to assess the injury's impact and recovery potential.
  • - Results showed a strong correlation between the pressure level and functional outcomes, indicating that the integrated methods could provide real-time monitoring and improve early detection of SCI-related problems.
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Superselective adrenal arterial embolization (SAAE) appears to be beneficial in primary aldosteronism (PA) patients with lateralized aldosterone secretion (unilateral PA). As confirmed by adrenal vein sampling (AVS), nearly 40% of PA patients would be PA without lateralized aldosterone secretion (bilateral PA). We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of SAAE on bilateral PA.

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Introduction: The growing popularity of virtual reality devices and increasingly widespread distribution of VR products into the home exposes users to risk of bodily harm. Safety features are integrated into the devices themselves, but the burden of cautious use rests upon the end user. The purpose of this study is to quantify and describe the array of injuries and demographics effected by the burgeoning VR industry to inform and encourage mitigation strategies.

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Critical physical systems with large numbers of molecules can show universal and scaling behaviors. It is of interest to know whether human societies with large numbers of people can show the same behaviors. Here, we use network theory to analyze Chinese history in periods 209 BCE-23 CE and 515-618 CE) related to the Western Han-Xin Dynasty and the late Northern Wei-Sui Dynasty, respectively.

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Background: Every year, esophageal cancer is responsible for 509000 deaths and around 572000 new cases worldwide. Although esophageal cancer treatment options have advanced, patients still have a dismal 5-year survival rate.

Aim: To investigate the relationship between genes associated to platelets and the prognosis of esophageal cancer.

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The African turquoise killifish is an exciting new vertebrate model for aging studies. A significant challenge for any model organism is the control over its diet in space and time. To address this challenge, we created an automated and networked fish feeding system.

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The African turquoise killifish is an emerging research organism known for its short life span and long-term diapause. Diapause is a unique dormant state that suspends embryonic development without tradeoffs in the adulthood life span. Recently, diapause has been gaining increasing interest from the research community.

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The coexistence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiovascular disease is common and causes poor prognoses. Hyperlipidemia is the most common risk factor for cardiovascular disease, but the association between hyperlipidemia and COPD remains ambiguous. This study aimed to investigate the risk of COPD development in patients with hyperlipidemia.

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Background: Currently, there are many therapeutic methods for lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), but the 5-year survival rate is still only 15% at later stages. Epithelial- mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been shown to be closely associated with local dissemination and subsequent metastasis of solid tumors. However, the role of EMT in the occurrence and development of LUAD remains unclear.

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Background: Studies have shown that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is considered as the essential therapeutic strategy for the patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However; no-reflow could still occur in a few patients after PCI. Studies have reported that biomarkers related to no-reflow pathogenetic components could play a prognostic role in the prediction phenomenon.

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Broadband modulation of magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) using a relatively low magnetic field or by producing a field-free magnetoplasmonic effect in the remnant magnetic state was achieved by the integration of the noble metals (NMs) Au and Ag and the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Co with ZnO nanowires (NWs) used as the template. The samples containing NMs revealed MCD sign reversals and enhancements when compared with the original Co/ZnO NWs. The magnetoplasmonic effect of Au close to the visible light spectrum could induce the CD change in the visible region.

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How evolution modifies complex, innate behaviors is largely unknown. Divergence in many morphological traits, and some behaviors, is linked to cis-regulatory changes in gene expression. Given this, we compare brain gene expression of two interfertile sister species of Peromyscus mice that show large and heritable differences in burrowing behavior.

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Most long-term care facilities can offer residents' with sufficiently material and physical care, but psychological support may not be always provided due to the tight financial budget or labor resources. Residents' isolation and loneliness then become a big issue, especially for the residents. Social network systems (SNS) have been proved to be a more effective information transmission channel for thoughts, perspectives, and information sharing than traditional channels such as microblogging, e-mails, or telephones.

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The limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) are a collection of genetic diseases united in their phenotypical expression of pelvic and shoulder area weakness and wasting. More than 30 subtypes have been identified, five dominant and 26 recessive. The increase in the characterization of new genotypes in the family of LGMDs further adds to the heterogeneity of the disease.

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