A multi-responsive 3D deformable soft actuator with tunable structural color enabled by a graphene/cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer composite.

Intelligent soft robots that integrate both structural color and controllable actuation ability have attracted substantial attention for constructing biomimetic systems, biomedical devices, and soft robotics. However, simultaneously endowing single-layer cholesteric liquid crystal elastomer (CLCE) soft actuators with reversible 3D deformability and vivid structural color changes is still challenging. Herein, a multi-responsive (force, heat and light) single-layer 3D deformable soft actuator with vivid structural color-changing ability is realized through the reduced graphene oxide (RGO) deposition-induced Janus structure of the CLCE using a precisely-controlled evaporation method.

A Multi-Functional Molecule for Highly Durable, Bending-Resistant, Low-Voltage Driving PSLC Films toward Smart Windows With Radiative Cooling.

Polymer-stabilized liquid crystals (PSLCs) are widely used in smart windows, light modulators, and dimmed glass. However, their low mechanical strength, unsatisfactory electro-optical properties, and poor durability limit their large-scale application. In this study, a PSLC film with outstanding performance is prepared by incorporating a multifunctional molecule into a fine-sculptured liquid crystal/polymer composite.

Effect of Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Derived miR-26b on Chondrocytes of Osteoporosis Rats.

Objective: Osteoporosis is a common bone disease. miR-26b regulates OA-induced osteogenesis and induces osteoporosis. miR-26b is elevated in bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) during bone formation; however, we haven't fully revealed whether it is directly involved in this process, which was the aim of this study.

Study on the Polymer Morphology and Electro-Optical Performance of Acrylate/Epoxy Resin-Based Polymer-Stabilized Liquid Crystals Based on Stepwise Photopolymerization.

Stepwise photopolymerization is a miraculous strategy modulating the polymer skeleton and electro-optical properties of light modulators based on liquid crystal/polymer composites. However, owing to the indistinct polymerization mechanism and curing condition discrepancy, the required polymer structures and electro-optical properties are hard to be controlled precisely. Herein, a novel polymer-stabilized liquid crystal film based on acrylate/epoxy resin is proposed, fabricated and the relationships between preparation process, polymer content, polymer morphology and electro-optical properties are studied.

Reverse-Mode Polymer-Stabilized Liquid Crystal Films with Enhanced Peel Strength and Electro-Optical Performance Based on Photoreactive Self-Assembly Alignment Layers and Patterned Polymer Walls.

Polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (PSLC) is a promising material toward the practical application of serving as energy-saving reverse-mode smart windows owing to its superior electro-optical (E-O) properties, simple and efficient processability, and compatibility to most practical circumstances. However, its feeble peel strength originated from low polymer content and poor adhesion between polymer networks and substrates inhibited its large-scale flexible film production. It is still a challenging task to derive good mechanical properties and superior E-O performance for PSLCs at the same time.

Thickness Measurements with EMAT Based on Fuzzy Logic.

Metal thickness measurements are essential in various industrial applications, yet current non-contact ultrasonic methods face limitations in range and accuracy, hindering the widespread adoption of electromagnetic ultrasonics. This study introduces a novel combined thickness measurement method employing fuzzy logic, with the aim of broadening the applicational scope of the EMAT. Leveraging minimal hardware, this method utilizes the short pulse time-of-flight (TOF) technique for initial thickness estimation, followed by secondary measurements guided by fuzzy logic principles.

Gut microbiota composition links to variation in functional domains across psychiatric disorders.

Objective: Changes in microbial composition are observed in various psychiatric disorders, but their specificity to certain symptoms or processes remains unclear. This study explores the associations between the gut microbiota composition and the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) domains of functioning, representing symptom domains, specifically focusing on stress-related and neurodevelopmental disorders in patients with and without psychiatric comorbidity.

Methods: The gut microbiota was analyzed in 369 participants, comprising 272 individuals diagnosed with a mood disorder, anxiety disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and/or substance use disorder, as well as 97 psychiatrically unaffected individuals.

Unsupervised underwater imaging based on polarization and binocular depth estimation.

Scattering caused by suspended particles in the water severely reduces the radiance of the scene. This paper proposes an unsupervised underwater restoration method based on binocular estimation and polarization. Based on the correlation between the underwater transmission process and depth, this method combines the depth information and polarization information in the scene, uses the neural network to perform global optimization and the depth information is recalculated and updated in the network during the optimization process, and reduces the error generated by using the polarization image to calculate parameters, so that detailed parts of the image are restored.

Principal and independent genomic components of brain structure and function.

The highly polygenic and pleiotropic nature of behavioural traits, psychiatric disorders and structural and functional brain phenotypes complicate mechanistic interpretation of related genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals, thereby obscuring underlying causal biological processes. We propose genomic principal and independent component analysis (PCA, ICA) to decompose a large set of univariate GWAS statistics of multimodal brain traits into more interpretable latent genomic components. Here we introduce and evaluate this novel methods various analytic parameters and reproducibility across independent samples.

Super-resolution non-line-of-sight imaging based on temporal encoding.

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging techniques have the ability to reconstruct objects beyond line-of-sight view, which would be useful in a variety of applications. In transient NLOS techniques, a fundamental problem is that the time resolution of imaging depends on the single-photon timing resolution (SPTR) of a detector. In this paper, a temporal super-resolution method named temporal encoding non-line-of-sight (TE-NLOS) is proposed.

Prognostic significance of PD-L1 expression in pancreatic cancer: evidence from an updated meta-analysis.

Recent studies revealed that programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression was associated with unfavorable prognosis in various solid tumors, but its clinical relevance for pancreatic cancer has not yet been well established. This meta-analysis summarizes the potential prognostic value of PD-L1 in pancreatic cancer. A quantitative meta-analysis was performed by a systematic search of databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane library, Scopus and Ovid for eligible studies on the prognostic significance of PD-L1 in pancreatic cancer patients.

Helicobacter pylori infection increases the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Possible relationship from an updated meta-analysis.

Background: The relationship between Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has long been debated. Although it has been investigated in many observational studies, the results remain controversial. Therefore, we performed an updated meta-analysis to assess the association between H pylori infection and risk of NAFLD by collecting relevant articles.

Multi-polygenic scores in psychiatry: From disorder specific to transdiagnostic perspectives.

The dense co-occurrence of psychiatric disorders questions the categorical classification tradition and motivates efforts to establish dimensional constructs with neurobiological foundations that transcend diagnostic boundaries. In this study, we examined the genetic liability for eight major psychiatric disorder phenotypes under both a disorder-specific and a transdiagnostic framework. The study sample (n = 513) was deeply phenotyped, consisting of 452 patients from tertiary care with mood disorders, anxiety disorders (ANX), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders, and/or substance use disorders (SUD) and 61 unaffected comparison individuals.

Underwater 3D reconstruction using a photometric stereo with illuminance estimation.

Underwater image sensing is directly affected by the change in illuminance towards a camera caused by the refraction of light in different media. In this study, the convergence of a near-field point light source in water is analyzed using a light propagation model. The photometric stereo (PS) formula is determined based on an accurate estimation of the illuminance entering the camera.

Genetic liability to major psychiatric disorders contributes to multi-faceted quality of life outcomes in children and adults.

Importance: Psychiatric disorders can have an immense impact on socioeconomic, physical, and social-psychological facets of life. Psychiatric disorders are also highly heritable. Under a liability threshold model, an important question arises as to what extent genetic liability for psychiatric disorders relates to, and possibly impacts on, different aspects of quality of life in the general population.

Prior-free imaging unknown target through unknown scattering medium.

Imaging through scattering medium based on deep learning has been extensively studied. However, existing methods mainly utilize paired data-prior and lack physical-process fusion, and it is difficult to reconstruct hidden targets without the trained networks. This paper proposes an unsupervised neural network that integrates the universal physical process.

A novel method for the direct detection of light stabilizer Tinuvin 622 in polymer additives by gel permeation chromatography combined with multi-angle laser light scattering.

Tinuvin 622, an oligomeric light stabilizer, is widely used in plastics to reduce light and heat induced degradation and extend their service life, therefore its detection is of great importance for quality control of plastic products. However, the classical analytical methods of Tinuvin 622, such as chromatography and mass spectrometry, are difficult to achieve direct qualitative and quantitative analysis, and simultaneously to obtain the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution information. Herein, we propose for the first time the combination of gel permeation chromatography with multi-angle laser light scattering as a simple and direct method to detect Tinuvin 622 in polymers and simultaneously to obtain its molecular weight distribution information.

Non-invasive imaging through scattering medium and around corners beyond 3D memory effect.

The three-dimensional (3D) memory effect (ME) has been shown to exist in a variety of scattering scenes. Limited by the scope of ME, speckle correlation technology only can be applied in a small imaging field of view (FOV) with a small depth of field (DOF). In this Letter, an untrained neural network is constructed and used as an optimization tool to restore the targets beyond the 3D ME range.

Analysis of Hepatic Lipid Metabolism and Immune Function During the Development of Collagen-Induced Arthritis.

The liver is essential for metabolic and immune functions and has been linked to systemic inflammatory diseases. However, the role of the liver is still elusive during the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), although there have been indeed some reports. We used label-free quantitative proteomics and experimental verification in this study to reveal the hepatic lipid metabolism and immune function during collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) development.

Longitudinal association of maternal dietary patterns with antenatal depression: Evidence from the Chinese Pregnant Women Cohort Study.

Background: Limited evidence to show the longitudinal associations between maternal dietary patterns and antenatal depression (AD) from cohort studies across the entire gestation period.

Methods: Data came from the Chinese Pregnant Women Cohort Study. The qualitative food frequency questionnaire (Q-FFQ) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) were used to collect diet and depression data.

Dissecting the Molecular Mechanism of Wang-Bi Capsule in the Treatment of Experimental Rheumatoid Arthritis Based on Synovial Tissue Proteomic Analysis.

Wang-Bi capsule (WB) is a traditional Chinese medicine formula and has been applied for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment for many years. However, its underlying molecular mechanisms still remain unclear. In this study, collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats were used to observe the therapeutic effect of WB used at different time points, and the proteomic analysis of synovial tissue was applied to reveal its basic molecular mechanisms.

Association of gestational anemia with pregnancy conditions and outcomes: A nested case-control study.

Background: Gestational anemia is a serious public health problem that affects pregnant women worldwide. Pregnancy conditions and outcomes might be associated with the presence of gestational anemia. This study investigated the association of pregnancy characteristics with anemia, exploring the potential etiology of the disease.

Investigation of optimal gestational weight gain based on the occurrence of adverse pregnancy outcomes for Chinese women: a prospective cohort study.

Objective: To investigate recommendations for appropriate gestational weight gain (GWG) of Chinese females.

Methods: In total of 3,172 eligible women in the first trimester were recruited into the Chinese Pregnant Women Cohort Study (CPWCS) project. Pregnancy complications and outcomes were collated using the hospital medical records system.

Hippocampal-Medial Prefrontal Event Segmentation and Integration Contribute to Episodic Memory Formation.

How do we encode our continuous life experiences for later retrieval? Theories of event segmentation and integration suggest that the hippocampus binds separately represented events into an ordered narrative. Using a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) movie watching-recall dataset, we quantified two types of neural similarities (i.e.