Cellular Core/Sheath Filaments with Thermoresponsive Vacuum Cavities for Prolonged Passive Temperature-Adaptive Thermoregulation.

Acting as the interface between the human body and its environment, clothing is indispensable in human thermoregulation and even survival under extreme environmental conditions. Development of clothing textiles with prolonged passive temperature-adaptive thermoregulation without external energy consumption is much needed for protection from thermal stress and energy saving, but very challenging. Here, a temperature-adaptive thermoregulation filament (TATF) consisting of thermoresponsive vacuum cavities formed by the temperature-responsive volume change of the material confined in the cellular cores of the filament is proposed.

Shape Memory Polyurethane Foams With Tunable Mechanical Properties and Radiation Tolerance for Breast Repair and Reconstruction.

This study developed a shape memory polyurethane foam (SM-PUF) with tunable mechanical properties and exceptional radiation tolerance for potentially implanting tissue defects after mastectomy. The PUFs were synthesized via an in situ foaming strategy using water as a foaming agent, incorporating 4,4'-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) as the rigid segment and both polyoxytetramethylene glycol and polycaprolactone as the soft segment. The resultant PUFs possess an open-cell structure with a pore size of 30 ~ 800 μm, which achieves a compressive stress of 0.

Bioinspired Multilayered Knitted Fabric with Directional Water Transport and Collection for Personal Sweat Management.

Effective sweat management fabric for sportswear facilitates sweat removal from the skin and elevates the comfort for human. However, when the body is in a strong hot and humid environment or after strenuous exercise, the sweat management fabric will be totally wetted and saturated quickly. As a result, excess sweat cannot be absorbed effectively by the garment, which creates obvious stickiness and heaviness.

Cohort profile: migraine exposures and cardiovascular health in Hong Kong Chinese women (MECH-HK).

Purpose: Evidence about the associations of migraine features with cardiovascular risk profiles in Chinese population is lacking. The Migraine Exposures and Cardiovascular Health in Hong Kong Chinese Women (MECH-HK) cohort was constructed to investigate longitudinal migraine features and their cardiovascular implications in Hong Kong Chinese women.

Participants: We enrolled 4221 Hong Kong Chinese women aged 30 years or above from October 2019 to December 2020.

Hand Hygiene Education Components Among First-Year Nursing Students: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Few studies have directly and objectively measured the individual and combined effects of multifaceted hand hygiene education programs.

Objective: To evaluate the individual and combined immediate effects of an instructional video and hand scan images on handwashing quality, decontamination, and knowledge improvement.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cluster randomized clinical trial was conducted in June to July 2023 among first-year nursing students at a university in Hong Kong.

Effect of the Photoreduction Process on the Self-Cleaning and Antibacterial Activity of Au-Doped TiO Colloids on Cotton Fabric.

This study aims at understanding the effect of the photoreduction process during the synthesis of gold (Au)-doped TiO colloids on the conferred functionalities on cotton fabrics. TiO/Au and TiO/Au/SiO colloids were synthesized through the sol-gel method with and without undergoing the photoreduction step based on different molar ratios of Au:Ti (0.001 and 0.

Soft Robotic Textiles for Adaptive Personal Thermal Management.

Thermal protective textiles are crucial for safeguarding individuals, particularly firefighters and steelworkers, against extreme heat, and for preventing burn injuries. However, traditional firefighting gear suffers from statically fixed thermal insulation properties, potentially resulting in overheating and discomfort in moderate conditions, and insufficient protection in extreme fire events. Herein, an innovative soft robotic textile is developed for dynamically adaptive thermal management, providing superior personal protection and thermal comfort across a spectrum of environmental temperatures.

Personal Thermal Management by Radiative Cooling and Heating.

Maintaining thermal comfort within the human body is crucial for optimal health and overall well-being. By merely broadening the set-point of indoor temperatures, we could significantly slash energy usage in building heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. In recent years, there has been a surge in advancements in personal thermal management (PTM), aiming to regulate heat and moisture transfer within our immediate surroundings, clothing, and skin.

An AI-empowered indoor digital contact tracing system for COVID-19 outbreaks in residential care homes.

An AI-empowered indoor digital contact-tracing system was developed using a centralized architecture and advanced low-energy Bluetooth technologies for indoor positioning, with careful preservation of privacy and data security. We analyzed the contact pattern data from two RCHs and investigated a COVID-19 outbreak in one study site. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system in containing outbreaks with minimal contacts under quarantine, a simulation study was conducted to compare the impact of different quarantine strategies on outbreak containment within RCHs.

Thermoresponsive Skin-like Fabric for Personal Comfort and Protection.

Acting as a "second skin", clothing plays an indispensable role in providing comfort and protection in the wide range of environments in which we live. However, comfort and protection are often competing requirements and are difficult to improve simultaneously. By mimicking the exceptional thermoresponsive one-way liquid transport property of human skin, here we developed a scalable and ecofriendly skin-like fabric that has a tunable directional water transport rate while having excellent water repellency.

Replicating shear-mediated self-assembly of spider silk through microfluidics.

The development of artificial spider silk with properties similar to native silk has been a challenging task in materials science. In this study, we use a microfluidic device to create continuous fibers based on recombinant MaSp2 spidroin. The strategy incorporates ion-induced liquid-liquid phase separation, pH-driven fibrillation, and shear-dependent induction of β-sheet formation.

3D Cellular Solar Crystallizer for Stable and Ultra-Efficient High-Salinity Wastewater Treatment.

Recent developed interfacial solar brine crystallizers, which employ solar-driven water evaporation for salts crystallization from the near-saturation brine to achieve zero liquid discharge (ZLD) brine treatment, are promising due to their excellent energy efficiency and sustainability. However, most existing interfacial solar crystallizers are only tested using NaCl solution and failed to maintain high evaporation capability when treating real seawater due to the scaling problem caused by the crystallization of high-valent cations. Herein, an artificial tree solar crystallizer (ATSC) with a multi-branched and interconnected open-cell cellular structure that significantly increased evaporation surface is rationally designed, achieving an ultra-high evaporation rate (2.