Spongy Ag Foam for Soft and Stretchable Strain Gauges.

Strain gauges, particularly for wearable sensing applications, require a high degree of stretchability, softness, sensitivity, selectivity, and linearity. They must also steer clear of challenges such as mechanical and electrical hysteresis, overshoot behavior, and slow response/recovery times. However, current strain gauges face challenges in satisfying all of these requirements at once due to the inevitable trade-offs between these properties.

Hidden cues for approach and avoidance motivation: implicit cognitive associations among patients with Nonadherence to HIV treatment.

Although patient motivation related to HIV treatment is widely acknowledged as a key factor related to consistent adherence and engagement with medical care research has predominantly focused on explicit rather than implicit cognitive processes that underlie motivation. This study identified and examined implicit cognitive processes that influence approach and avoidance treatment motivation in a sample of 30 HIV patients with suboptimal adherence and poor engagement with medical care. Study participants were predominantly African American (87%) and gay/bisexual (63%).

Using Waterless Alcohol-based Antiseptic for Skin Preparation and Active Thermal Support in Laboratory Rats.

Rodents are frequently used for models that require surgical procedures. At our institution, laboratory rats are increasingly preferred for investigations of neurologic disorders, cardiovascular interventions, and assessment and treatment of addictive and depressive behaviors. For these types of studies, surgical preparations of the head and neck areas are necessary for catheterization and instrumentation.

Antimicrobial Peptide Induced-Stress Renders Susceptible to Toxic Nucleoside Analogs.

Cationic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are active immune effectors of multicellular organisms and are also considered as new antimicrobial drug candidates. One of the problems encountered when developing AMPs as drugs is the difficulty of reaching sufficient killing concentrations under physiological conditions. Here, using pexiganan, a cationic peptide derived from a host defense peptide of the African clawed frog and the first AMP developed into an antibacterial drug, we studied whether sub-lethal effects of AMPs can be harnessed to devise treatment combinations.

Non-lethal exposure to H2O2 boosts bacterial survival and evolvability against oxidative stress.

Unicellular organisms have the prevalent challenge to survive under oxidative stress of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). ROS are present as by-products of photosynthesis and aerobic respiration. These reactive species are even employed by multicellular organisms as potent weapons against microbes.

DJ-1 protects the heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury by regulating mitochondrial fission.

Recent data indicates that DJ-1 plays a role in the cellular response to stress. Here, we aimed to examine the underlying molecular mechanisms mediating the actions of DJ-1 in the heart following myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. In response to I/R injury, DJ-1 KO mice displayed increased areas of infarction and worsened left ventricular function when compared to WT mice, confirming a protective role for DJ-1 in the heart.