Water temperature and food availability influence brown trout (Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) population dynamics in the Cardrona River: implications for flow regime management

Reduced surface discharge negatively influences freshwater fish populations. Under the current flow regime management, the lower Cardrona River has experienced annual low flow events over the summer months. This low flow period has potential impacts on the wellbeing of the brown and rainbow trout populations in the river, as out-migrating juveniles may become stranded and subsequently experience high mortality rate during summer low flow. To estimate the impact of summer low flow on juvenile trout out-migration and to investigate how food availability and water temperature drive out-migration, brown and rainbow trout were sampled at three sites in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Cardrona River, Central Otago, New Zealand in November 2016, January 2017 and April 2017; before, during and after a low flow event. The density of juvenile trout was estimated at three sampling locations along the Cardrona River via single pass electric fishing. The results suggest juvenile trout were restricted at the lower reach site due to a surface disconnection in January. Furthermore, the discrepancies between observed total biomass and biomass predicted by a temperature-based bioenergetics model based on empirical data indicate energetic constraints may drive juvenile downstream movement from the upper site to the lower reach site from January. Trout growth rates in response to water temperatures were estimated using a bioenergetics model. The model outcomes suggest the water temperature at the upper reach site was the least suitable for trout growth while the middle site was the most suitable. The water temperature at the lower site increased dramatically over the summer months during flow reduction, which rendered the site unsuitable for trout growth and indicated likely mortality. Food availability in the form of invertebrate drift and trout daily consumption were estimated and compared. The results indicate ample food supply at the middle reach site and limited food availability at the upper site relative to trout energy consumption. The lower site experienced a sharp increase in energy production in January followed by a dramatic decrease in April. This study identifies water temperature and food availability as two potential drivers that initiate trout out-migration. However, additional sampling efforts in late autumn to early winter at all sampling sites are necessary to advance the understanding of trout population dynamics in the Cardrona River. In terms of water management, this study emphasizes the importance of continuous flow to trout movement over summer. A revised management plan is needed to improve fish passage at the lower Cardrona

Enhancing Electron-Nuclear Resonances by Dynamical Control Switching

We present a general method to realize resonant coupling between spins even though their energies are of different scales. Applying the method to the electron and nuclear spin systems such as a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center with its nearby nuclei, we show that a specific dynamical switching of the electron spin Rabi frequency achieves efficient electron-nuclear coupling, providing a much stronger quantum sensing signal and dynamic nuclear polarization than previous methods. This protocol has applications in high-field nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonances as well as low-power quantum control of nuclear spins

LLM-Mini-CEX: Automatic Evaluation of Large Language Model for Diagnostic Conversation

There is an increasing interest in developing LLMs for medical diagnosis to improve diagnosis efficiency. Despite their alluring technological potential, there is no unified and comprehensive evaluation criterion, leading to the inability to evaluate the quality and potential risks of medical LLMs, further hindering the application of LLMs in medical treatment scenarios. Besides, current evaluations heavily rely on labor-intensive interactions with LLMs to obtain diagnostic dialogues and human evaluation on the quality of diagnosis dialogue. To tackle the lack of unified and comprehensive evaluation criterion, we first initially establish an evaluation criterion, termed LLM-specific Mini-CEX to assess the diagnostic capabilities of LLMs effectively, based on original Mini-CEX. To address the labor-intensive interaction problem, we develop a patient simulator to engage in automatic conversations with LLMs, and utilize ChatGPT for evaluating diagnosis dialogues automatically. Experimental results show that the LLM-specific Mini-CEX is adequate and necessary to evaluate medical diagnosis dialogue. Besides, ChatGPT can replace manual evaluation on the metrics of humanistic qualities and provides reproducible and automated comparisons between different LLMs

Face mask integrated with flexible and wearable manganite oxide respiration sensor

Face masks are key personal protective equipment for reducing exposure to viruses and other environmental hazards such as air pollution. Integrating flexible and wearable sensors into face masks can provide valuable insights into personal and public health. The advantages that a breath-monitoring face mask requires, including multi-functional sensing ability and continuous, long-term dynamic breathing process monitoring, have been underdeveloped to date. Here, we design an effective human breath monitoring face mask based on a flexible La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO)/Mica respiration sensor. The sensor’s capabilities and systematic measurements are investigated under two application scenes, namely clinical monitoring mode and daily monitoring mode, to monitor, recognise, and analyse different human breath status, i.e., cough, normal breath, and deep breath. This sensing system exhibits super-stability and multi-modal capabilities in continuous and long-time monitoring of the human breath. We determine that during monitoring human breath, thermal diffusion in LSMO is responsible for the change of resistance in flexible LSMO/Mica sensor. Both simulated and experimental results demonstrate good discernibility of the flexible LSMO/Mica sensor operating at different breath status. Our work opens a route for the design of novel flexible and wearable electronic devices

Water temperature and food availability influence brown trout (Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) population dynamics in the Cardrona River: implications for flow regime management

Reduced surface discharge negatively influences freshwater fish populations. Under the current flow regime management, the lower Cardrona River has experienced annual low flow events over the summer months. This low flow period has potential impacts on the wellbeing of the brown and rainbow trout populations in the river, as out-migrating juveniles may become stranded and subsequently experience high mortality rate during summer low flow. To estimate the impact of summer low flow on juvenile trout out-migration and to investigate how food availability and water temperature drive out-migration, brown and rainbow trout were sampled at three sites in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Cardrona River, Central Otago, New Zealand in November 2016, January 2017 and April 2017; before, during and after a low flow event. The density of juvenile trout was estimated at three sampling locations along the Cardrona River via single pass electric fishing. The results suggest juvenile trout were restricted at the lower reach site due to a surface disconnection in January. Furthermore, the discrepancies between observed total biomass and biomass predicted by a temperature-based bioenergetics model based on empirical data indicate energetic constraints may drive juvenile downstream movement from the upper site to the lower reach site from January. Trout growth rates in response to water temperatures were estimated using a bioenergetics model. The model outcomes suggest the water temperature at the upper reach site was the least suitable for trout growth while the middle site was the most suitable. The water temperature at the lower site increased dramatically over the summer months during flow reduction, which rendered the site unsuitable for trout growth and indicated likely mortality. Food availability in the form of invertebrate drift and trout daily consumption were estimated and compared. The results indicate ample food supply at the middle reach site and limited food availability at the upper site relative to trout energy consumption. The lower site experienced a sharp increase in energy production in January followed by a dramatic decrease in April. This study identifies water temperature and food availability as two potential drivers that initiate trout out-migration. However, additional sampling efforts in late autumn to early winter at all sampling sites are necessary to advance the understanding of trout population dynamics in the Cardrona River. In terms of water management, this study emphasizes the importance of continuous flow to trout movement over summer. A revised management plan is needed to improve fish passage at the lower Cardrona

Recent Process in Microrobots: From Propulsion to Swarming for Biomedical Applications

Recently, robots have assisted and contributed to the biomedical field. Scaling down the size of robots to micro/nanoscale can increase the accuracy of targeted medications and decrease the danger of invasive operations in human surgery. Inspired by the motion pattern and collective behaviors of the tiny biological motors in nature, various kinds of sophisticated and programmable microrobots are fabricated with the ability for cargo delivery, bio-imaging, precise operation, etc. In this review, four types of propulsion—magnetically, acoustically, chemically/optically and hybrid driven—and their corresponding features have been outlined and categorized. In particular, the locomotion of these micro/nanorobots, as well as the requirement of biocompatibility, transportation efficiency, and controllable motion for applications in the complex human body environment should be considered. We discuss applications of different propulsion mechanisms in the biomedical field, list their individual benefits, and suggest their potential growth paths

Gut microecological regulation on bronchiolitis and asthma in children: A review

Abstract Introduction Asthma and bronchiolitis in children are considered common clinical problems associated with gut microbiota. However, the exact relationship between gut microbiota and the above‐mentioned diseases remains unclear. Here, we discussed recent advances in understanding the potential mechanism underlying immune regulation of gut microbiota on asthma and bronchiolitis in children as well as the role of the gut–lung axis. Methods We retrieved and assessed all relevant original articles related to gut microbiota, airway inflammation‐induced wheezing in children, and gut–lung axis studies from databases that have been published so far, including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Google Scholar, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Wanfang Database. Results The infant period is critical for the development of gut microbiota, which can be influenced by gestational age, delivery mode, antibiotic exposure and feeding mode. The gut microbiota in children with asthma and bronchiolitis is significantly distinct from those in healthy subjects. Gut microbiota dysbiosis is implicated in asthma and bronchiolitis in children. The presence of intestinal disturbances in lung diseases highlights the importance of the gut–lung axis. Conclusion Gut microbiota dysbiosis potentially increases the risk of asthma and bronchiolitis in children. Moreover, a deeper understanding of the gut–lung axis with regard to the gut microbiota of children with respiratory diseases could contribute to clinical practice for pulmonary diseases

Influence of the conductivity of the magnetoelectric composites electrode under resonance frequency and its validation by laser vibrometer system

Magnetic sensor based on functional dielectric with high-efficiency energy property is projected to stimulate technological advancement in the fields of energy internet, power engineering materials, energy harvesting and storage, touchless human–machine interface, and magnetoreception for artificial intelligence (AI). At present, the research and development of hypersensitive magnetic sensors remain extraordinarily challenging. The effects of magnetoelectric (ME) composite electrodes with different conductivities and their electromechanical resonance frequency of Metal/PZT/Metal laminates were investigated in this paper. The results of calculations and experiments showed that the magnetoelectric coupling in the magnetoelectric composite (Metal/PZT/Metal) was mostly caused by the piezoelectricity effect in the radial direction and Ampere force under DC bias magnetic fields. According to the radial strain measurement, it can be further indicated that the capping layer with high conductivity produced a larger magnetoelectric voltage at the range of resonance frequency. Therefore, the ME voltage coefficient of the silver electrodes was higher than that of the gold electrodes, and they were 77.8 mV/(cm Oe) and 58.3 mV/(cm Oe) at a DC magnetic field of 3000 Oe, respectively. The ME coupling in the ME composite was mostly connected to the piezoelectricity effect and Ampere force, as well as the conductivity of the electrode layer of the ME composite. The optimization of the electrode structures of magnetoelectric composites provides a vital reference for the development of energy storage, information storage and sensing technology in new power systems

PES-g-BST/PEEK composites modified by surface grafting with high dielectric tunability

From Elsevier via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2023-11-21, epub 2023-12-02, issued 2023-12-31Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: National Natural Science Foundation of China; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001809; Grant(s): 51961135301Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001809; Grant(s): 52272123, 52072301Funder: National Science CentreFunder: International Cooperation Foundation of Shaanxi ProvinceCeramic/polymer composites have been widely utilized due to their outstanding dielectric and mechanical properties. The interfacial bonding between ceramic and organic phases has a significant effect on the properties of composites. Therefore, enhancing the interfacial bond strength has become a hot issue. In this work, a chemically modified PES-g-BST/PEEK composite was prepared via cold-pressing sintering. The chemical bond was constructed to connect one end of PES (polyether sulfone) with BST (barium strontium titanate) and the other end with PEEK (polyether ether ketone) by using 4,4′-Diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS), which enhanced the interface combination between ceramic fillers and organic phase. The influence of the surface grafting method and the amount of DDS on the microstructure and dielectric characteristics of the PES-g-BST/PEEK composite was investigated, and the amount of DDS was optimized. The permittivity, dielectric tunable efficiency, and dielectric tunability of the composites were improved. A chemically modified PES-g-BST/PEEK composite with improved dielectric properties and high dielectric tunability was obtained. The dielectric tunability amounts to 38.16% under a 7 kV/mm bias, accompanied by a low dielectric constant of 14.5 and a dielectric loss of 0.076 (1 kHz). This work provides a way of enhancing the interface bonding of ceramic/polymer composites to improve dielectric tunability

Thermosensitive Poly(DHSe/PEG/PPG Urethane)-Based Hydrogel Extended Remdesivir Application in Ophthalmic Medication

The spread of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak beginning in March 2020. Currently, there is a lack of suitable dose formulations that interrupt novel coronavirus transmission via corneal and conjunctival routes. In the present study, we developed and evaluated a thermosensitive gelling system based on a selenium-containing polymer for topical ocular continuous drug release. In detail, di-(1-hydroxylundecyl) selenide (DHSe), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and poly(propylene glycol) (PPG) were polymerized to form poly(DHSe/PEG/PPG urethane). The polymer was used to carry poorly water-soluble remdesivir (RDV) at room temperature to form the final thermosensitive in situ gel, which exhibited a typical sol-gel transition at 35 °C. The formed polymer was further characterized by rheology, thermology, and scanning electron microscopy. In vitro release studies and in vivo retention and penetration tests indicated that the thermogel provided the prolonged release of RDV. The RDV-loaded in situ gel was proven to be non-biotoxic against human corneal epithelial cells, with good ocular tolerance and biocompatibility in rabbit eyes