High-Performance, Wearable Thermoelectric Generator Based on a Highly Aligned Carbon Nanotube Sheet

A high-performance, wearable thermoelectric generator (TEG) was fabricated with a highly aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) sheet. The aligned CNT sheet exhibits extraordinary electrical conductivity compared to disordered CNT sheets and also can be directly fabricated as a continuous TEG without metal electrode interconnects. This provides a significant reduction in contact resistance between TE legs and electrodes compared to traditional TEGs, resulting in higher power output. In addition, the continuity of the module without any disconnected parts provides high degrees of mechanical stability and durability. This robust and scalable approach to flexible TEG fabrication paves the way for CNT applications in lightweight, flexible, and wearable electronics

An Efficient ISAR Imaging Method for Multiple Targets

This paper proposes an efficient method to obtain TSAR images of multiple targets flying in formation. The proposed method improves the coarse alignment and segmentation of the existing method. The improved coarse alignment method models the flight trajectory using a combination of a polynomial and Gaussian basis functions, and the optimum parameter of the trajectory is found using particle swarm optimization. In the improved segmentation, the binary image of the bulk TSAR image that contains all targets is constructed using a two-dimensional constant false alarm detector, then the image closing method is applied to the binary image. Finally, the connected set of binary pixels is used to segment each target from the bulk image. Simulations using three targets composed of point scattering centers and the measured data of the Boeing747 aircraft prove the effectiveness of the proposed method to segment three targets flying in formation.X113Ysciescopu

Halide Perovskite Heteroepitaxy: Bond Formation and Carrier Confinement at the PbS-CsPbBr3 Interface

Control of the stability, transport, and confinement of charge carriers (electrons and holes) at interfaces is a key requirement to realize robust halide perovskite devices. The PbS–CsPbBr3 interface is atomically matched with low lattice strain, opening the potential for epitaxial growth. We assess the atomic nature of the interface using first-principles density functional theory calculations to identify (1) the thermodynamically stable (100) surface termination of the halide perovskite; (2) the most favorable (100)|(100) contact geometry; (3) the strong interfacial chemical bonding between PbS and CsPbBr3; (4) the type I (straddling) band alignment that enables electron and hole confinement in the lead sulfide layer. The combination of metal halide perovskites and IV–VI semiconductors represents an important platform for probing interfacial chemical processes and realizing new functionality

Vaccinia-related kinase 1 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma by controlling the levels of cell cycle regulators associated with G1/S transition

We identified the specific role of vaccinia-related kinase 1 (VRK1) in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and evaluated its therapeutic and prognostic potential. VRK1 levels were significantly higher in HCC cell lines than a normal hepatic cell line, and were higher in HCC than non-tumor tissue. VRK1 knockdown inhibited the proliferation of SK-Hep1, SH-J1 and Hep3B cells; moreover, depletion of VRK1 suppressed HCC tumor growth in vivo. We also showed that VRK1 knockdown increased the number of G1 arrested cells by decreasing cyclin D1 and p-Rb while upregulating p21 and p27, and that VRK1 depletion downregulated phosphorylation of CREB, a transcription factor regulating CCND1. Additionally, we found that luteolin, a VRK1 inhibitor, suppressed HCC growth in vitro and in vivo, and that the aberrant VRK1 expression correlated with poor prognostic features of HCC. High levels of VRK1 were associated with shorter overall and disease-free survival and higher recurrence rates. Taken together, our findings suggest VRK1 may act as a tumor promoter by controlling the level of cell cycle regulators associated with G1/S transition and could potentially serve as a therapeutic target and/or prognostic biomarker for HCC.1110Ysciescopu

Abdominal functional electrical stimulation to improve respiratory function after spinal cord injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: Abdominal functional electrical stimulation (abdominal FES) is the application of a train of electrical pulses to the abdominal muscles, causing them to contract. Abdominal FES has been used as a neuroprosthesis to acutely augment respiratory function and as a rehabilitation tool to achieve a chronic increase in respiratory function after abdominal FES training, primarily focusing on patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). This study aimed to review the evidence surrounding the use of abdominal FES to improve respiratory function in both an acute and chronic manner after SCI. Settings: A systematic search was performed on PubMed, with studies included if they applied abdominal FES to improve respiratory function in patients with SCI. Methods: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria (10 acute and 4 chronic). Low participant numbers and heterogeneity across studies reduced the power of the meta-analysis. Despite this, abdominal FES was found to cause a significant acute improvement in cough peak flow, whereas forced exhaled volume in 1 s approached significance. A significant chronic increase in unassisted vital capacity, forced vital capacity and peak expiratory flow was found after abdominal FES training compared with baseline. Conclusions: This systematic review suggests that abdominal FES is an effective technique for improving respiratory function in both an acute and chronic manner after SCI. However, further randomised controlled trials, with larger participant numbers and standardised protocols, are needed to fully establish the clinical efficacy of this technique

Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses of the Cell Death Process in Candida albicans Treated by Antifungal Agents

The death process of Candida albicans was investigated after treatment with the antifungal agents flucytosine and amphotericin B by assessing morphological and biophysical properties associated with cell death. C. albicans was treated varying time periods (from 6 to 48 hours) and examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). SEM and AFM images clearly showed changes in morphology and biophysical properties. After drug treatment, the membrane of C. albicans was perforated, deformed, and shrunken. Compared to the control, C. albicans treated with flucytosine was softer and initially showed a greater adhesive force. Conversely, C. albicans treated with amphotericin B was harder and had a lower adhesive force. In both cases, the surface roughness increased as the treatment time increased. The relationships between morphological changes and the drugs were observed by AFM clearly; the surface of C. albicans treated with flucytosine underwent membrane collapse, expansion of holes, and shrinkage, while the membranes of cells treated with amphotericin B peeled off. According to these observations, the death process of C. albicans was divided into 4 phases, CDP0, CDP1, CDP2, and CDP4, which were determined based on morphological changes. Our results could be employed to further investigate the antifungal activity of compounds derived from natural sources

Doppler findings in a rare Coronary Artery Fistula

One of the primary forms of congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries is coronary artery fistula (CAF). It is defined as a direct communication between the coronary artery and any surrounding cardiac chamber or vascular structure, which bypasses the myocardial capillary bed. We present a newborn baby with a large coronary artery fistula connecting the left anterior descending (LAD) artery to the left ventricular (LV) apex. Associated cardiac abnormalities were found: a ventricular septal defect (diameter 4 mm), a patent foramen ovale as well as trivial tricuspid and mitral regurgitation. Here we demonstrate the echocardiograms of an extremely rare form of CAF diagnosed within the first days of postnatal life

Infant Cognitive Scores Prediction With Multi-stream Attention-based Temporal Path Signature Features

There is stunning rapid development of human brains in the first year of life. Some studies have revealed the tight connection between cognition skills and cortical morphology in this period. Nonetheless, it is still a great challenge to predict cognitive scores using brain morphological features, given issues like small sample size and missing data in longitudinal studies. In this work, for the first time, we introduce the path signature method to explore hidden analytical and geometric properties of longitudinal cortical morphology features. A novel BrainPSNet is proposed with a differentiable temporal path signature layer to produce informative representations of different time points and various temporal granules. Further, a two-stream neural network is included to combine groups of raw features and path signature features for predicting the cognitive score. More importantly, considering different influences of each brain region on the cognitive function, we design a learning-based attention mask generator to automatically weight regions correspondingly. Experiments are conducted on an in-house longitudinal dataset. By comparing with several recent algorithms, the proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art performance. The relationship between morphological features and cognitive abilities is also analyzed

The Expression and Localization of N-Myc Downstream-Regulated Gene 1 in Human Trophoblasts

The protein N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) is implicated in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, and cellular stress response. NDRG1 is expressed in primary human trophoblasts, where it promotes cell viability and resistance to hypoxic injury. The mechanism of action of NDRG1 remains unknown. To gain further insight into the intracellular action of NDRG1, we analyzed the expression pattern and cellular localization of endogenous NDRG1 and transfected Myc-tagged NDRG1 in human trophoblasts exposed to diverse injuries. In standard conditions, NDRG1 was diffusely expressed in the cytoplasm at a low level. Hypoxia or the hypoxia mimetic cobalt chloride, but not serum deprivation, ultraviolet (UV) light, or ionizing radiation, induced the expression of NDRG1 in human trophoblasts and the redistribution of NDRG1 into the nucleus and cytoplasmic membranes associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and microtubules. Mutation of the phosphopantetheine attachment site (PPAS) within NDRG1 abrogated this pattern of redistribution. Our results shed new light on the impact of cell injury on NDRG1 expression patterns, and suggest that the PPAS domain plays a key role in NDRG1's subcellular distribution. © 2013 Shi et al