MEMS ultrasonic transducers for safe, low-power and portable eye-blinking monitoring.

Eye blinking is closely related to human physiology and psychology. It is an effective method of communication among people and can be used in human-machine interactions. Existing blink monitoring methods include video-oculography, electro-oculograms and infrared oculography. However, these methods suffer from uncomfortable use, safety risks, limited reliability in strong light or dark environments, and infringed informational security. In this paper, we propose an ultrasound-based portable approach for eye-blinking activity monitoring. Low-power pulse-echo ultrasound featuring biosafety is transmitted and received by microelectromechanical system (MEMS) ultrasonic transducers seamlessly integrated on glasses. The size, weight and power consumption of the transducers are 2.5 mm by 2.5 mm, 23.3 mg and 71 μW, respectively, which provides better portability than conventional methods using wearable devices. Eye-blinking activities were characterized by open and closed eye states and validated by experiments on different volunteers. Finally, real-time eye-blinking monitoring was successfully demonstrated with a response time less than 1 ms. The proposed solution paves the way for ultrasound-based wearable eye-blinking monitoring and offers miniaturization, light weight, low power consumption, high informational security and biosafety

Data_Sheet_1_Effects of a natural nutritional supplement on immune cell infiltration and immune gene expression in exercise-induced injury.docx

Inflammatory immune response plays a key role in exercise-induced injury and healing; however, the relevant regulatory mechanisms of immune infiltration in exercise-induced injuries remain less studied. In the present study, a highly efficient system for screening immunity-related biomarkers and immunomodulatory ability of natural nutritional supplements was developed by integrating intelligent data acquisition, data mining, network pharmacology, and computer-assisted target fishing. The findings demonstrated that resting natural killer cells showed a higher rate of infiltration after exercise, whereas naive B cells and activated dendritic cells showed higher rate of infiltration before exercise. Four key genes, namely PRF1, GZMB, CCL4, and FASLG, were associated with exercise-induced injuries and inflammatory immune response. In total, 26 natural compounds including echinacoside, eugenol, tocopherol, and casuariin were predicted by using the HERB databases. Molecular docking analysis showed that GZMB, FASLG, and CCL4 bound to echinacoside. In vivo experiments in mice showed that after 30 min swimming, natural killer (NK) cells showed high infiltration rates, and the key genes (GZMB, PRF1, FASLG, and CCL4) were highly expressed; however, echinocandin significantly reduced the level of NK cells and decreased the expression of the four key genes post exercise. This natural nutritional supplement may act to protect against inflammatory injury after exercise by suppressing specific immune infiltration.</p

The pineapple genome and the evolution of CAM photosynthesis

International audiencePineapple (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.) is the most economically valuable crop possessing crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), a photosynthetic carbon assimilation pathway with high water-use efficiency, and the second most important tropical fruit. We sequenced the genomes of pineapple varieties F153 and MD2 and a wild pineapple relative, Ananas bracteatus accession CB5. The pineapple genome has one fewer ancient whole-genome duplication event than sequenced grass genomes and a conserved karyotype with seven chromosomes from before the duplication event. The pineapple lineage has transitioned from C3 photosynthesis to CAM, with CAM-related genes exhibiting a diel expression pattern in photosynthetic tissues. CAM pathway genes were enriched with cis-regulatory elements associated with the regulation of circadian clock genes, providing the first cis-regulatory link between CAM and circadian clock regulation. Pineapple CAM photosynthesis evolved by the reconfiguration of pathways in C3 plants, through the regulatory neofunctionalization of preexisting genes and not through the acquisition of neofunctionalized genes via whole-genome or tandem gene duplicatio