Brief Insight-enhancement Intervention among Patients with Alcohol Dependence

Patients' insight has a critical role in the recovery from problematic behavior. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a brief intervention to promote insight among alcohol-dependent patients. A total of 41 alcohol-dependent patients (30 males, 11 females) in an insight-deficient state who had been admitted to a community-based alcohol treatment center, were randomized into two groups based on their admission order: an intervention group (IG) (n = 20) and a control group (CG) (n = 21). Patients in both the IG and CG participated in an identical treatment program with one exception: patients in the IG were required to undergo five sessions of brief individual intervention focusing on insight enhancement. Changes in insight state were assessed after the intervention. The IG exhibited significant (P < 0.05) changes in the distribution of insight level, while the CG did not exhibit any significant changes in the distribution of insight level. The insight score after intervention was significantly (P < 0.05) greater for the IG than the CG with adjustment for the baseline characteristics. The results suggest that a brief individual intervention focused on insight enhancement may be an effective tool to improve insight among alcohol-dependent patients

Electrothermal soft manipulator enabling safe transport and handling of thin cell/tissue sheets and bioelectronic devices

“Living” cell sheets or bioelectronic chips have great potentials to improve the quality of diagnostics and therapies. However, handling these thin and delicate materials remains a grand challenge because the external force applied for gripping and releasing can easily deform or damage the materials. This study presents a soft manipulator that can manipulate and transport cell/tissue sheets and ultrathin wearable biosensing devices seamlessly by recapitulating how a cephalopod’s suction cup works. The soft manipulator consists of an ultrafast thermo-responsive, microchanneled hydrogel layer with tissue-like softness and an electric heater layer. The electric current to the manipulator drives microchannels of the gel to shrink/expand and results in a pressure change through the microchannels. The manipulator can lift/detach an object within 10 s and can be used repeatedly over 50 times. This soft manipulator would be highly useful for safe and reliable assembly and implantation of therapeutic cell/tissue sheets and biosensing devices

Oxidative and initiated CVD for application to organic electronics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2009.Includes bibliographical references.Since the first discovery of polymeric conductors in 1977, the research area of "organic electronics" has grown dramatically. However, methods for forming thin films comprised solely of conductive polymers are limited by the rigid nature of the conjugated backbone. Neither spin casting from solution nor melt processing can be used. To answer to this challenge, a solvent-free method of oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) to synthesize conductive poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) films was demonstrated. The substrate temperature systemically controls the conjugation length, resulting in films with conductivity of 9.1 x 10-4 to 348 S/cm. The highest conductivity was about 1000 S/cm. The doping level could also be tuned with substrate temperature. Consequently, the work function was varied from 5.1 to 5.4 eV. The polymerization rate could be modulated with various oxidants, which significantly affects the surface morphology of PEDOT film. With milder oxidant, the surface morphology was highly nano-porous. Conformal coverage of PEDOT was also observed on trench structures and paper mats. Furthermore, with this one-step method, PEDOT film could be grafted on various kinds of organic substrates. Huge increase in adhesion strength was consistently observed. With this grafting technique, nanometer-scale PEDOT pattern was firstly obtained on flexible substrates down to 60 nm.(cont.) A click chemistry functionalizable poly (propargyl methacrylate) (PPMA) films also were prepared via initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD). PPMA itself exhibits e-beam sensitivity and hence can be directly patterned via electron beam (e-beam) lithography without requiring a conventional resist layer. With this PPMA layer, a nanopatterned multi-functional surface was also fabricated and we demonstrated the covalent functionalization of two independent components in a one-pot, self-sorted area-selective process, performed in an aqueous solution at room temperature, having conditions which are bioompatible. Finally, we report a novel nano-adhesive layer deposited by the iCVD process. An epoxy-containing polymer, poly (glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) was used as a nano-adhesive layer. No leakage was observed up to the test pressure of 50 psia from the resulting microfluidic devices.by Sung Gap Im.Ph.D

N-Cadherin adhesive ligation regulates mechanosensitive neural stem cell lineage commitment in 3D matrices

During differentiation, neural stem cells (NSCs) encounter diverse cues from their niche, including not only biophysical cues from the extracellular matrix (ECM) but also cell-cell communication. However, it is still poorly understood how these cues cumulatively regulate mechanosensitive NSC fate commitment, especially in 3D matrices that better mimic in vivo systems. Here, we develop a click chemistry-based 3D hydrogel material system to fully decouple cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions by functionalizing small peptides: the HAVDI motif from N-cadherin and RGD motif from fibronectin. The hydrogel is engineered to range in stiffness from 75 Pa to 600 Pa. Interestingly, HAVDI-mediated interaction shows increased neurogenesis, except for the softest gel (75 Pa). Moreover, the HAVDI ligation attenuates the mechanosensing state of NSCs, exhibiting restricted cytoskeletal formation and RhoA signaling. Given that mechanosensitive neurogenesis has been reported to be regulated by cytoskeletal formation, our finding suggests that the enhanced neurogenesis in the HAVDI-modified gel may be highly associated with the HAVDI interaction-mediated attenuation of mechanosensing. Furthermore, NSCs in the HAVDI gel shows higher β-catenin activity, which has been known to promote neurogenesis. Our findings provide critical insights into how mechanosensitive NSC fate commitment is regulated as a consequence of diverse interactions in 3D microenvironments

Resveratrol Attenuates the Mitochondrial RNA-Mediated Cellular Response to Immunogenic Stress

Human mitochondria contain a circular genome that encodes 13 subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation system. In addition to their role as powerhouses of the cells, mitochondria are also involved in innate immunity as the mitochondrial genome generates long double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that can activate the dsRNA-sensing pattern recognition receptors. Recent evidence shows that these mitochondrial dsRNAs (mt-dsRNAs) are closely associated with the pathogenesis of human diseases that accompany inflammation and aberrant immune activation, such as Huntington’s disease, osteoarthritis, and autoimmune Sjögren’s syndrome. Yet, small chemicals that can protect cells from a mt-dsRNA-mediated immune response remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the potential of resveratrol (RES), a plant-derived polyphenol with antioxidant properties, on suppressing mt-dsRNA-mediated immune activation. We show that RES can revert the downstream response to immunogenic stressors that elevate mitochondrial RNA expressions, such as stimulation by exogenous dsRNAs or inhibition of ATP synthase. Through high-throughput sequencing, we find that RES can regulate mt-dsRNA expression, interferon response, and other cellular responses induced by these stressors. Notably, RES treatment fails to counter the effect of an endoplasmic reticulum stressor that does not affect the expression of mitochondrial RNAs. Overall, our study demonstrates the potential usage of RES to alleviate the mt-dsRNA-mediated immunogenic stress response

A reconfigurable binary/ternary logic conversion-in-memory based on drain-aligned floating-gate heterojunction transistors

Abstract A new type of heterojunction non-volatile memory transistor (H-MTR) has been developed, in which the negative transconductance (NTC) characteristics can be controlled systematically by a drain-aligned floating gate. In the H-MTR, a reliable transition between N-shaped transfer curves with distinct NTC and monolithically current-increasing transfer curves without apparent NTC can be accomplished through programming operation. Based on the H-MTR, a binary/ternary reconfigurable logic inverter (R-inverter) has been successfully implemented, which showed an unprecedentedly high static noise margin of 85% for binary logic operation and 59% for ternary logic operation, as well as long-term stability and outstanding cycle endurance. Furthermore, a ternary/binary dynamic logic conversion-in-memory has been demonstrated using a serially-connected R-inverter chain. The ternary/binary dynamic logic conversion-in-memory could generate three different output logic sequences for the same input signal in three logic levels, which is a new logic computing method that has never been presented before

Transparent, Ultrahigh-Refractive Index Polymer Film (n ∼1.97) with Minimal Birefringence (Δ n &lt;0.0010)

High refractive index (RI) thin films are of critical importance for advanced optical devices, and the high refractive index polymers (HRIPs) constitute an interesting class of materials for high RI thin films due to low cost, good processability, light weight, and high flexibility. However, HRIPs have yet to realize their full potential in high RI thin film applications due to their relatively low RI, strong absorption in the blue light region, and limited film formation methods such as rapid vitrification. Herein, we report a development of a new HRIP thin film generated through a one-step vapor-phase process, termed sulfur chemical vapor deposition (sCVD), using elemental sulfur and divinyl benzene. The developed poly(sulfur-co-divinyl benzene) (pSDVBs-CVD) film exhibited RI (measured at 632.8 nm) exceeding 1.97, one of the highest RIs among polymers without metallic elements reported to date. Because the sCVD utilized vaporized sulfur with a unique sulfur-cracking step, formation of long polysulfide chains was suppressed efficiently, while high sulfur content as high as 85 wt % could be achieved with no apparent phase separation. Unlike most of inorganic high RI materials, pSDVB-sCVD was highly transparent in the entire visible range and showed extremely low birefringence of 10 x 10(-4). The HRIP thin film with unprecedentedly high RI, together with outstanding transparency and low birefringence, will serve as a key component in a wide range of high-end optical device applications.N

Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (iCVD) of Highly Cross-Linked Polymer Films for Advanced Lithium-Ion Battery Separators

We report an initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) process to coat polyethylene (PE) separators in Li-ion batteries with a highly cross-linked, mechanically strong polymer, namely, polyhexavinyldisiloxane (pHVDS). The highly cross-linked but ultrathin pHVDS films can only be obtained by a vapor-phase process, because the pHVDS is insoluble in most solvents and thus infeasible with conventional solution-based methods. Moreover, even after the pHVDS coating, the initial porous structure of the separator is well preserved owing to the conformal vapor-phase deposition. The coating thickness is delicately controlled by deposition time to the level that the pore size decreases to below 7% compared to the original dimension. The pHVDS-coated PE shows substantially improved thermal stability and electrolyte wettability. After incubation at 140 degrees C for 30 min, the pHVDS-coated PE causes only a 12% areal shrinkage (versus 90% of the pristine separator). The superior wettability results in increased electrolyte uptake and ionic conductivity, leading to significantly improved rate performance. The current approach is applicable to a wide range of porous polymeric separators that suffer from thermal shrinkage and poor electrolyte wetting.

One-step vapor-phase synthesis of transparent high refractive index sulfur-containing polymers

High refractive index polymers (HRIPs) have recently emerged as an important class of materials for use in a variety of optoelectronic devices including image sensors, lithography, and light-emitting diodes. However, achieving polymers having refractive index exceeding 1.8 while maintaining full transparency in the visible range still remains formidably challenging. Here, we present a unique one-step vapor-phase process, termed sulfur chemical vapor deposition, to generate highly stable, ultrahigh refractive index (n > 1.9) polymers directly from elemental sulfur. The deposition process involved vapor-phase radical polymerization between elemental sulfur and vinyl monomers to provide polymer films with controlled thickness and sulfur content, along with the refractive index as high as 1.91. Notably, the HRIP thin film showed unprecedented optical transparency throughout the visible range, attributed to the absence of long polysulfide segments within the polymer, which will serve as a key component in a wide range of optical devices.Ministry of Science, ICT and Future PlanningOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]