Clinical Application of Intelligent Pain Management Program in Patients With Postherpetic Neuralgia Patients.

Background: Effective pain management is crucial for treating and caring for individuals with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). A systematic pain management program for this condition has not been established.

Purpose: To assess the clinical effectiveness of an intelligent pain management (IPM) program for patients with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).

Nomogram for Predicting Overall Survival in Acral Lentiginous Melanoma: A Population-based Study.

Background: The objective of this study was to establish a nomogram for predicting the overall survival (OS) of patients with acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM).

Materials And Methods: The study sample was selected from 1785 patients diagnosed with ALM from 2004 to 2015 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, and R software was used to divide patients into the training cohort and validation cohort at a ratio of 7: 3. Stepwise selection method in the Cox regression model was used in the training cohort to select predictive variables to construct the nomogram, and model validation parameters were used in the validation cohort to evaluate the performance of the nomogram.

A nonswellable gradient hydrogel with tunable mechanical properties.

Susceptibility of traditional hydrogels to water leads to the deterioration of their mechanical properties and dimensional instability. Inspired by bone tissues, here, we report a nonswellable gradient hydrogel with adjustable mechanical properties via a simple acid-heat treatment of polyamide-based hydrogels. Both the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity and crosslinking degree of the gel can be simultaneously regulated by taking advantage of the conversion of amide groups to imide groups in the hydrogel.

Fast microwave-assisted hydrolysis of unsaturated polyester resin into column packing for rapid purifying of dye wastewater.

Microwave-assisted selective degradation successfully converts thermosetting unsaturated polyester resins into a low-swelling (below 10 g g) gel material (GM) with a high yield (58-65%) in water at 100°C for only 1 h. The obtained GM possesses rough and porous structure while the content of carboxylate group obtained by cleavage of partial ester groups is more than 10%, varying with the concentration of the catalyst. It is suitable for use as packing of adsorption column to rapidly purify sewage.

Autofluorescence of hydrogels without a fluorophore.

Fluorescent hydrogels have recently attracted great attention for medical diagnostics, bioimaging and environmental monitoring. However, additional phosphors or fluorophores are always required to label the hydrogels, and they suffer from marker bleaching, signal drifts, or information misrepresentation. Here we report autofluorescence that universally exists in carbonyl-containing hydrogels without any traditional fluorophore.

Ultra-strong mechanical property and force-driven malleability of water-poor hydrogels.

Hydrogels are known as soft and wet materials. Development of metal-like hydrogels with super strong and malleable properties is highly desirable as it allows for broader application and reprocessability. Here we report a dual nanocomposite hydrogel with peculiar mechanical properties in water-poor region.

Rapid Recovery Hydrogel Actuators in Air with Bionic Large-Ranged Gradient Structure.

Fast recovery in a nonaqueous environment is a big challenge for hydrogel actuators. In this work, a temperature-responsive hydrogel actuator with outstandingly rapid recovery in air was reported. The hydrogel with bionic large-ranged gradient structure was fabricated by copolymerization of hydrophilic monomer hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and N-isopropylacrylamide in the dispersion of Laponite utilizing a facile electrophoretic method.

A Fast, Reversible, and Robust Gradient Nanocomposite Hydrogel Actuator with Water-Promoted Thermal Response.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/Laponite (PNIPAM/Laponite) gradient nanocomposite hydrogel actuators are developed as temperature-controlled actuators with excellent performance using a facile electrophoresis method. The actuators exhibit a rapid (20 s response time) and reversible response, as well as large deformation (bending angle of 231°), which is due to the graded forces generated by the thermo-induced anisotropic shrinkage and extension of the gradient hydrogels. A good linear relationship is observed between the maximum bending angles and the corresponding temperatures for the actuators with fixed sizes.