Real-time cardiomyocyte contraction sensing via a neo-flexible magnetic sensor.

Assessing heart disease and evaluating drug-induced cardiotoxicity require a deep understanding of the contractile properties of cardiac tissue, particularly at the level of individual cardiomyocytes. Traditional methods for measuring cardiomyocyte contractility present several challenges, including limitations in real-time detection, complex and costly sensing platforms, and biocompatibility issues. To address these challenges, we introduce an innovative magnetic sensor that utilizes a flexible coil cantilever, pioneering the application of electromagnetic induction for detecting cardiomyocyte contractility.

Durable superhydrophobic surface in wearable sensors: From nature to application.

The current generation of wearable sensors often experiences signal interference and external corrosion, leading to device degradation and failure. To address these challenges, the biomimetic superhydrophobic approach has been developed, which offers self-cleaning, low adhesion, corrosion resistance, anti-interference, and other properties. Such surfaces possess hierarchical nanostructures and low surface energy, resulting in a smaller contact area with the skin or external environment.

Stochastic process is main factor to affect plateau river fish community assembly.

Plateau river ecosystems are often highly vulnerable and responsive to environmental change. The driving mechanism of fish diversity and community assembly in plateau rivers under changing environments presents a significant complexity to the interdisciplinary study of ecology and environment. This study integrated molecular biological techniques and mathematical models to identify the mechanisms influencing spatial heterogeneity of freshwater fish diversity and driving fish community assembly in plateau rivers.

Single Channel Based Interference-Free and Self-Powered Human-Machine Interactive Interface Using Eigenfrequency-Dominant Mechanism.

The recent development of wearable devices is revolutionizing the way of human-machine interaction (HMI). Nowadays, an interactive interface that carries more embedded information is desired to fulfill the increasing demand in era of Internet of Things. However, present approach normally relies on sensor arrays for memory expansion, which inevitably brings the concern of wiring complexity, signal differentiation, power consumption, and miniaturization.

Applications of flexible electronics related to cardiocerebral vascular system.

Ensuring accessible and high-quality healthcare worldwide requires field-deployable and affordable clinical diagnostic tools with high performance. In recent years, flexible electronics with wearable and implantable capabilities have garnered significant attention from researchers, which functioned as vital clinical diagnostic-assisted tools by real-time signal transmission from interested targets in vivo. As the most crucial and complex system of human body, cardiocerebral vascular system together with heart-brain network attracts researchers inputting profuse and indefatigable efforts on proper flexible electronics design and materials selection, trying to overcome the impassable gulf between vivid organisms and rigid inorganic units.

Bifunctional Alloy/Solid-Electrolyte Interphase Layer for Enhanced Potassium Metal Batteries Via Prepassivation.

Potassium (K) metal batteries have attracted great attention owing to their low price, widespread distribution, and comparable energy density. However, the arbitrary dendrite growth and side reactions of K metal are attributed to high environmental sensitivity, which is the Achilles' heel of its commercial development. Interface engineering between the current collector and K metal can tailor the surface properties for K-ion flux accommodation, dendrite growth inhibition, parasitic reaction suppression, etc.

Preparation and Properties of Foam Concrete Incorporating Fly Ash.

Foam concrete is fire resistant and durable and has broad applicability as a building insulation material. However, cement has high energy consumption and causes pollution, necessitating an environment-friendly cementitious material to replace the cement used to prepare foam concrete. In this study, foam concrete was prepared through chemical foaming.

Breathable and Waterproof Electronic Skin with Three-Dimensional Architecture for Pressure and Strain Sensing in Nonoverlapping Mode.

Wearable sensors have recently attracted extensive interest not only in the field of healthcare monitoring but also for convenient and intelligent human-machine interactions. However, challenges such as wearable comfort, multiple applicable conditions, and differentiation of mechanical stimuli are yet to be fully addressed. Herein, we developed a breathable and waterproof electronic skin (E-skin) that can perceive pressure/strain with nonoverlapping signals.

Regulation of Droplet Rebound Behavior with Contact Time Control on a Flexible and Superhydrophobic Film.

Rapid droplet detachment from the surface in a "pancake rebound" has recently attracted abundant interest owing to the contact time control for applications in anti-icing and self-cleaning. Even though the pancake rebound on rigid substrates has been realized, the establishment of artificial structures on a flexible counterpart with droplet impact behavior studies has rarely been reported. Here, we introduced a facile approach to fabricating a flexible superhydrophobic film decorated with tunable hierarchical micro/nanostructures for water repellency.

Gradient Architecture-Enabled Capacitive Tactile Sensor with High Sensitivity and Ultrabroad Linearity Range.

The sensitivity and linearity are critical parameters that can preserve the high pressure-resolution across a wide range and simplify the signal processing process of flexible tactile sensors. Although extensive micro-structured dielectrics have been explored to improve the sensitivity of capacitive sensors, the attenuation of sensitivity with increasing pressure is yet to be fully resolved. Herein, a novel dielectric layer based on the gradient micro-dome architecture (GDA) is presented to simultaneously realize the high sensitivity and ultrabroad linearity range of capacitive sensors.

A review on aquatic ecosystem mesocosms.

Aquatic ecosystem mesocosm refers to an artificially constructed near-natural simulation facility in aquatic ecosystem. With aquatic ecosystem mesocosms, experiments on the responses of biological communities can be conducted by controlling physical, chemical and other habitat conditions. Mesocosm experiments can bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and field experiments.

River algal blooms are well predicted by antecedent environmental conditions.

River algal blooms have become a challenging environmental problem worldwide due to strong interference of human activities and megaprojects (e.g., big dams and large-scale water transfer projects).

Decadal patterns of anthropogenic salinisation in typical mountain streams in northeastern China: Increased rates and sources.

Salt pollution and anthropogenic-accelerated weathering is globally shifting the ionic composition and increasing salinisation of fresh water. We analyzed a 40-year data set (1970s-2010s) to characterize the drastic change of dissolved ionic composition, conductivity and pH levels. We also identified causative factors in these highly polluted mountain streams in northeastern China.

Establishment of immunoassay for detecting HPV16 E6 and E7 RNA.

Cervical carcinoma is the most prevalent malignancy second only to breast cancer among women worldwide. Since more than 99% of cervical cancers are caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), measurement of HPV (HPV test) was commonly used in screening risk and/or early stage of cervical cancer as well as assessing the efficacies of the treatments that can decrease the incidence of cervical cancer. Many approaches that diagnose HPV infections have been developed, while most of them have distinct shortcomings.

Ecological status classification of the Taizi River Basin, China: a comparison of integrated risk assessment approaches.

Integrated risk assessment approaches allow to achieve a sound evaluation of ecological status of river basins and to gain knowledge about the likely causes of impairment, useful for informing and supporting the decision-making process. In this paper, the integrated risk assessment (IRA) methodology developed in the EU MODELKEY project (and implemented in the MODELKEY Decision Support System) is applied to the Taizi River (China), in order to assess its Ecological and Chemical Status according to EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requirements. The available dataset is derived by an extensive survey carried out in 2009 and 2010 across the Taizi River catchment, including the monitoring of physico-chemical (i.

Diaporine, a novel endophyte-derived regulator of macrophage differentiation.

Diaporine (1), an unprecedented symmetric polyketide, was characterized from the endophytic fungus. The structure was determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses. Diaporine can inhibit significantly the differentiation of macrophages and has potential to induce conversion from the M2 to the M1 phenotype, in addition to regulation of the TLR4-MAPK signal pathway and PPARγ activity.

Chrysin attenuates inflammation by regulating M1/M2 status via activating PPARγ.

Chrysin (5,7-di-OH-flavone), a widely distributed natural flavonoid, has been well documented for involving in various biological activities, especially in regulation of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) activity as a modest modulator. However, the exact molecular mechanism is still unrevealed. In the current study, for the first time, we discovered that, chrysin not only significantly attenuated inflammation in high-fat feeding mice, but also alleviated high fat diet-induced hepatic, muscular steatosis in obese mice without altering the body weight.

TAB1: a target of triptolide in macrophages.

Triptolide (TP) is a biologically active diterpene triepoxide from the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook f. Here, we identify and explore TAB1 as the binding target of TP in macrophages by using a comprehensive approach combining pull-down assays, in vitro assessments, and pharmaceutical and biological evaluation. We discover that TP inhibits TAK1 kinase activity by interfering with the formation of the TAK1-TAB1 complex, and the binding affinity of TP to TAB1 correlates highly with the inhibitory activity of TP against MAPK pathway activation in macrophages.

S-nitrosylation of ERK inhibits ERK phosphorylation and induces apoptosis.

Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) belongs to the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) superfamily. Aberrant upregulation and activation of ERK cascades may often lead to tumor cell development. However, how ERK is involved in tumor progression is yet to be defined.

[Influence on the spatial distribution of fish in Taizi River basin by environmental factors at multiple scales].

The deterioration of fish is influenced by various types of environmental factors. To develop protection plans that are more suitable, non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMS) was used to investigate the influence of environmental factors at multiple scales on the spatial distribution of fish. The results of cluster analysis showed that there were three types of spatial distribution of fish, i.