Publications by authors named "S-M Shen"

Stroke is an often underrecognized albeit significant complication in patients with brain cancer, arising from the intricate interplay between cancer biology and cerebrovascular health. This review delves into the multifactorial pathophysiological framework linking brain cancer to elevated stroke risk, with particular emphasis on the crucial role of the neurotoxic microenvironment (NTME). The NTME, characterized by oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, creates a milieu that promotes and sustains vascular and neuronal injury.

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Developmental toxicity (DevTox) tests evaluate the adverse effects of chemical exposures on an organism's development. Although current testing primarily relies on large mammalian models, the emergence of new approach methodologies (NAMs) is encouraging industries and regulatory agencies to evaluate novel assays. C.

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Conductive hydrogels have great potential for applications in flexible wearable sensors due to the combination of biocompatibility, mechanical flexibility and electrical conductivity. However, constructing conductive hydrogels with high toughness, low hysteresis and skin-like modulus simultaneously remains challenging. In the present study, we prepared a tough and conductive polyacrylamide/pullulan/ammonium sulfate hydrogel with a semi-interpenetrating network.

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Achieving high shielding effectiveness in electromagnetic shielding materials relies heavily on high conductivity, yet simultaneously enhancing the absorption loss remains a persistent challenge. Consequently, the study successfully creates efficient electromagnetic shielding composite films with a unique grape-like bunch structure of hollow nanosilver (HCAF) through layer-by-layer assembly. The utilization of poly(dopamine) (PDA) to anchor nanosilver granules (AgNPs) onto cellulose nanofibers (CNF) results in the formation of CNF@PDA@AgNPs.

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Carbon black from methane pyrolysis for hydrogen is an alternative resource and can be improved for conductive material supplication. Our current work uses an ultrafast Joule heating technique to modify the methane-pyrolyzed carbon black and prepare nanoparticles of electrode material for supercapacitor application, coupled with density functional theory, structural, and electrochemical analyses. Evolution rules of the carbon and pore structures of the modified sample with an increase in temperature reveal good structure improvements.

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Polymerizable deep eutectic solvents (PDESs) have emerged as promising building blocks for next-generation eutectic gels, offering new opportunities for the development of advanced electronic devices. Traditional PDES fabrication typically involves heating and extended processing time. In this study, a facile method where a solid-solid mixture of lithium bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide (LiTFSI) and acrylamide (AAm) rapidly forms a PDES at room temperature, significantly simplifying the ionogel preparation is presented.

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Developmental toxicity (DevTox) tests evaluate the adverse effects of chemical exposures on an organism's development. While large animal tests are currently heavily relied on, the development of new approach methodologies (NAMs) is encouraging industries and regulatory agencies to evaluate these novel assays. Several practical advantages have made useful model for rapid toxicity testing and studying developmental biology.

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Conductive hydrogels have been widely used in wearable electronics due to their flexible, conductive and adjustable properties. With ever-growing demand for sustainable and biocompatible sensing materials, biopolymer-based hydrogels have drawn significant attention. Among them, starch-based hydrogels have a great potential for wearable electronics.

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Article Synopsis
  • Drug-eluting stents using substances like rapamycin and paclitaxel can effectively reduce smooth muscle cell growth and in-stent restenosis, but they also harm endothelial cells and increase the risk of stent thrombosis and sudden cardiac death.
  • Researchers identified the endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR) as a key target for protecting endothelial cells from drug-induced injury and enhancing their recovery after stent placement.
  • Activation of EPCR using specific compounds not only aids in the reendothelialization of stents but also significantly reduces the risk of thrombosis, outperforming traditional rapamycin-only coatings in both metal and biodegradable stents.
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Bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) is a durable, flexible, and dynamic biomaterial capable of serving a wide variety of fields, sectors, and applications within biotechnology, healthcare, electronics, agriculture, fashion, and others. BNC is produced spontaneously in carbohydrate-rich bacterial culture media, forming a cellulosic pellicle via a nanonetwork of fibrils extruded from certain genera. Herein, we demonstrate engineering BNC-based scaffolds with tunable physical and mechanical properties through postprocessing.

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  • Coordination of cellular metabolism is crucial for effective CD8 T cell responses during infections, highlighting the role of cytosolic acetyl-CoA production.
  • The enzyme ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) is responsible for generating acetyl-CoA from citrate, and its absence leads T cells to rely on an alternative pathway involving acyl-CoA synthetase short-chain family member 2 (ACSS2) which uses acetate.
  • Both ACLY and ACSS2 are important for managing acetyl-CoA levels, impacting T cell function through modifications like histone acetylation and chromatin accessibility at key effector gene sites.
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Objectives: Unexplained chronic cough (UCC) is common and has significant impacts on quality of life. Ongoing cough can sensitize the larynx, increasing the urge to cough and perpetuating the cycle of chronic cough. Vibrotactile stimulation (VTS) of the larynx is a noninvasive stimulation technique that can modulate laryngeal somatosensory and motor activity.

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The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) with increased transmissibility and partial resistance to neutralization by antibodies has been observed globally. There is an urgent need for an effective vaccine to combat these variants. Our study demonstrated that the B.

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  • Implantable neural devices that record neuron activity offer insights into brain functioning but face challenges during vigorous activities due to brain deformation.* -
  • Effective neural devices need a combination of low modulus, low interfacial impedance, and high electrical conductivity, which currently contradict each other in existing materials.* -
  • A new soft fiber neural device, designed like an axon, successfully tracks individual neurons in active animals by using a conductive gel fiber, achieving optimal properties for stable performance in challenging conditions.*
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Flexible wearable sensors that combine excellent flexibility, high elasticity, sensing capabilities, and outstanding biocompatibility are gaining increasing attention. In this study, we successfully develop a robust and elastic hydrogel-based flexible wearable sensor by modulating molecular structures combined with metal ion coordination. We leverage three -acryloyl amino acid monomers, including -acryloyl glycine (AG), -acryloyl alanine (AA), and -acryloyl valine (AV) with different hydrophobic groups adjacent to the carboxyl group, to copolymerize with acrylamide (AM) in the presence of Zr for hydrogel preparation in one step (P(AM-AG/AA/AV)-Zr hydrogels).

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Objective: To evaluate combinations of candidate biomarkers to develop a multiplexed prediction model for identifying the viability and location of an early pregnancy. In this study, we assessed 24 biomarkers with multiple machine learning-based methodologies to assess if multiplexed biomarkers may improve the diagnosis of normal and abnormal early pregnancies.

Design: A nested case-control design evaluated the predictive ability and discrimination of biomarkers in patients at risk of early pregnancy failure in the first trimester to classify viability and location.

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Traditional metal materials used in electronic devices are often problematic due to issues like bending resistance, oxidation leading to failure, and environmental pollution. To address these challenges, microwave electronic devices are constantly casting around for metal substitute materials with additional characteristics such as flexibility, anticorrosive, and eco-friendly. However, finding suitable materials that are accessible for radiofrequency (RF) applications is a difficult yet promising task.

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Background: Digital health technologies show promise for improving the measurement of Parkinson's disease in clinical research and trials. However, it is not clear whether digital measures demonstrate enhanced sensitivity to disease progression compared to traditional measurement approaches.

Methods: To this end, we develop a wearable sensor-based digital algorithm for deriving features of upper and lower-body bradykinesia and evaluate the sensitivity of digital measures to 1-year longitudinal progression using data from the WATCH-PD study, a multicenter, observational digital assessment study in participants with early, untreated Parkinson's disease.

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Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of irreversible vision loss in working-age populations. Fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO) is an N-methyladenosine (mA) demethylase that demethylates RNAs involved in energy homeostasis, though its influence on DR is not well studied. Herein, we detected elevated FTO expression in vitreous fibrovascular membranes of patients with proliferative DR.

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As a substitute for conventional polymers for the preparation of biodegradable microcellular polymeric foams, polybutylene succinate (PBS) presents one of the most promising alternatives. However, the low melt strength of PBS makes it difficult to produce high-performance microcellular foams. This study aimed to improve the melt strength of PBS and explore the mechanical, thermal, crystalline, rheological, and supercritical CO foaming properties of PBS nanocomposites by using carbon nanofibers (CNFs).

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  • The study evaluates the BNT162b2 vaccine's effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 infection and severe illness in children and adolescents, focusing on the Delta and Omicron variants.
  • It involved analyzing data from over 77,000 adolescents during the Delta phase and 167,000 children and adolescents during the Omicron phase, comparing vaccinated individuals to those unvaccinated.
  • Results showed the vaccine was extremely effective (98.4%) during the Delta period, while the effectiveness during the Omicron period dropped to around 74.3%, with no significant impact on cardiac complications among vaccinated individuals.
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Over the past century, extensive research has been carried out on various types of microwave absorption (MA) materials, primarily emphasizing mechanism, performance, and even toward smart device. However, the deactivation, a crucial concern for practical applications, has long been long-neglected. In this work, an in-depth exploration of the deactivation mechanism reveals a significant competition between metal and oxygen, leading to the replacement of the S-M (M = Ni and Co) bond by a new S─O bond on the surface of absorber.

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Lassa virus (LASV) infection is expanding outside its traditionally endemic areas in West Africa, posing a pandemic biothreat. LASV-neutralizing antibodies, moreover, have proven difficult to elicit. To gain insight into LASV neutralization, here we develop a prefusion-stabilized LASV glycoprotein trimer (GPC), pan it against phage libraries comprising single-domain antibodies (nanobodies) from shark and camel, and identify one, D5, which neutralizes LASV.

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Due to the intrinsic contradiction of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient in thermoelectric materials, the enhancement for the power factor (PF) is limited. Since the PF decides the output power, strategies to the enhancement of PF are of paramount importance. In this work, Bi Te /Sb and Bi Te /W multilayer films are proposed to enhance the thermoelectric properties.

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