Effects of wearing a KF94 face mask on performance, perceptual parameters, and physiological responses during resistance exercise.

Purpose: Wearing face masks in indoor public places, including fitness centers, is an effective strategy for preventing the airborne transmission of viruses. Despite this, limited research has addressed the effects of wearing a mask during resistance exercise, which is primarily performed in indoor fitness centers. This study investigated the effects of wearing a KF94 face mask on exercise volume, perceptual parameters, and cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular responses during resistance exercise.

Enhanced functionalities of immune cells separated by a microfluidic lattice: assessment based on holotomography.

The isolation of white blood cells (WBCs) from whole blood constitutes a pivotal process for immunological studies, diagnosis of hematologic disorders, and the facilitation of immunotherapy. Despite the ubiquity of density gradient centrifugation in WBC isolation, its influence on WBC functionality remains inadequately understood. This research employs holotomography to explore the effects of two distinct WBC separation techniques, namely conventional centrifugation and microfluidic separation, on the functionality of the isolated cells.

High-fidelity optical diffraction tomography of live organisms using iodixanol refractive index matching.

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) enables the three-dimensional (3D) refractive index (RI) reconstruction. However, when the RI difference between a sample and a medium increases, the effects of light scattering become significant, preventing the acquisition of high-quality and accurate RI reconstructions. Herein, we present a method for high-fidelity ODT by introducing non-toxic RI matching media.

Surface Passivation of Layered MoSe via van der Waals Stacking of Amorphous Hydrocarbon.

Development of efficient surface passivation methods for semiconductor devices is crucial to counter the degradation in their electrical performance owing to scattering or trapping of carriers in the channels induced by molecular adsorption from the ambient environment. However, conventional dielectric deposition involves the formation of additional interfacial defects associated with broken covalent bonds, resulting in accidental electrostatic doping or enhanced hysteretic behavior. In this study, centimeter-scaled van der Waals passivation of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) is demonstrated by stacking hydrocarbon (HC) dielectrics onto MoSe field-effect transistors (FETs), thereby enhancing the electric performance and stability of the device, accompanied with the suppression of chemical disorder at the HC/TMDCs interface.

Effect of Cosmetics Use on the In Vitro Skin Absorption of a Biocide, 1,2-Benzisothiazolin-3-one.

1,2-Benzisothiazolin-3-one (BIT) is a commonly used organic biocide containing an isothiazolone ring. However, it may have adverse effects on human health and its risk needs to be properly evaluated. Dermal exposure is the main route of BIT exposure, and co-exposed substances may affect its absorption.

FastqCLS: a FASTQ compressor for long-read sequencing via read reordering using a novel scoring model.

Motivation: Over the past decades, vast amounts of genome sequencing data have been produced, requiring an enormous level of storage capacity. The time and resources needed to store and transfer such data cause bottlenecks in genome sequencing analysis. To resolve this issue, various compression techniques have been proposed to reduce the size of original FASTQ raw sequencing data, but these remain suboptimal.

Methanol Tolerant Pt-C Core-Shell Cathode Catalyst for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells.

Methanol crossover is one of the largest problems in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Methanol passing from the anode to the cathode through the membrane is oxidized at the cathode, degrading the DMFC performance, and the intermediates of the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) cause cathode catalyst poisoning. Therefore, it is essential to develop a cathode catalyst capable of inhibiting MOR while promoting the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which is a typical cathode reaction in DMFCs.

Nanopatterned Scaffolds for Neural Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.

Biologically inspired approaches employing nanoengineering techniques have been influential in the progress of neural tissue repair and regeneration. Neural tissues are exposed to complex nanoscale environments such as nanofibrils. In this chapter, we summarize representative nanotechniques, such as electrospinning, lithography, and 3D bioprinting, and their use in the design and fabrication of nanopatterned scaffolds for neural tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Neurogenic Differentiation of Human Dental Pulp Stem Cells on Graphene-Polycaprolactone Hybrid Nanofibers.

Stem cells derived from dental tissues-dental stem cells-are favored due to their easy acquisition. Among them, dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) extracted from the dental pulp have many advantages, such as high proliferation and a highly purified population. Although their ability for neurogenic differentiation has been highlighted and neurogenic differentiation using electrospun nanofibers (NFs) has been performed, graphene-incorporated NFs have never been applied for DPSC neurogenic differentiation.

Graphene as an Enabling Strategy for Dental Implant and Tissue Regeneration.

Graphene-based approaches have been influential in the design and manipulation of dental implants and tissue regeneration to overcome the problems associated with traditional titanium-based dental implants, such as their low biological affinity. Here, we describe the current progress of graphene-based platforms, which have contributed to major advances for improving cellular functions in and applications of dental implants. We also present opinions on the principal challenges and future prospects for new graphene-based platforms for the development of advanced graphene dental implants and tissue regeneration.