Investigating the Influence of Empowerment on Patients’ Satisfaction: How to Empower Patients in Online Health Consultation Platform

Online health consultation platform becomes a significant channel for health consumers to seek online support and health consultation. As the health consultation moves from offline to online, it significantly changes the communication circumstance between patients and physicians. It is crucial to understand the empowerment process embedded in online physician-patient interaction, in turn to improve patients’ satisfaction on line health services. This study examined how social-structural empowerment and psychological empowerment affect patients’ satisfaction, as an empowerment outcome, in the online health consultation platform using text mining techniques and econometric analysis. Our results indicate that informational and emotional support can extrinsically empower patients and thereby increase their satisfaction. Psychological empowerment is also found that has two roles in the empowerment process, a partial mediating effect and a moderating effect on the relationship between social-structural empowerment and patients’ satisfaction. This study enriches the empowerment theory from a text mining perspective and extends the empowerment theory in the organizational context to the context of digital health

3D binder-free MoSe2 nanosheets/carbon cloth electrodes for efficient and stable hydrogen evolution prepared by simple electrophoresis deposition strategy

We successfully developed a simple electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method to decorate the MoSe2 nanosheets on the carbon fiber surface of carbon cloth (MoSe2/CC). With this process, MoSe2 nanosheets can be uniformly and tightly deposited on this flexible conductor to form a 3D binder-free electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The film thickness can also be controlled by the EPD time. Directly used as binder-free electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction, the as-prepared 3D MoSe2/CC samples exhibit excellent catalytic activity in an acidic electrolyte (21 mA/cm2 at an over-potential of 250 mV). Variation of MoSe2 nanosheets film thickness in the electrodes could affect the catalytic activity, and it was found that the MoSe2/CC sample prepared with 60 min EPD time shows the highest HER activity amongst these different thickness samples. Moreover, stability tests though long-term potential cycles (no degradation after 1000 continuous potential cycles) and extended electrolysis confirm the exceptional durability of the catalyst. This development offers us an attractive and active 3D electrode for electrochemical water splitting

Mito-TEMPO Alleviates Renal Fibrosis by Reducing Inflammation, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress

Background. Renal fibrosis is a common pathological symptom of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Many studies support that mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress are implicated in the pathogenesis of CKD. In our study, we investigated the benefits and underlying mechanisms of Mito-TEMPO on renal fibrosis in 5/6 nephrectomy mice. Methods. Mice were randomly divided into five groups as follows: control group, CKD group, CKD + Mito-TEMPO (1 mg·kg−1·day−1) group, CKD + Mito-TEMPO (3 mg·kg−1·day−1) group, and Mito-TEMPO group (3 mg·kg−1·day−1). Renal fibrosis was evaluated by PAS, Masson staining, immunohistochemistry, and real-time PCR. Oxidative stress markers such as SOD2 activity and MDA level in serum and isolated mitochondria from renal tissue were measured by assay kits. Mitochondrial superoxide production was evaluated by MitoSOX staining and Western blot. Mitochondrial dysfunction was assessed by electron microscopy and real-time PCR. ER stress-associated protein was measured by Western blot. Results. Impaired renal function and renal fibrosis were significantly improved by Mito-TEMPO treatment. Furthermore, inflammation cytokines, profibrotic factors, oxidative stress markers, mitochondrial dysfunction, and ER stress were all increased in the CKD group. However, these effects were significantly ameliorated in the Mito-TEMPO treatment group. Conclusions. Mito-TEMPO ameliorates renal fibrosis by alleviating mitochondrial dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum stress possibly through the Sirt3-SOD2 pathway, which sheds new light on prevention of renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease

Nanodroplets for stretchable superconducting circuits

The prospective utilization of nanoscale superconductors as micro/nanocoils or circuits with superior current density and no electrical resistance loss in next-generation electronics or electromagnetic equipment represents a fascinating opportunity for new microsystem technologies. Here, a family of superconducting liquid metals (Ga-In-Sn alloys) and their nanodroplets toward printable and stretchable superconducting micro/nanoelectronics is developed. By tuning the composition of liquid metals the highest superconducting critical temperature (Tc) in this family can be modulated and achieved as high as 6.6 K. The liquid metal nanodroplets retain their bulk superconducting properties and can be easily dispersed in different solvents as inks. The printable and stretchable superconducting micro/nano coils, circuits and electrodes have been fabricated by inkjet printer or laser etching by using superconducting nanodroplets inks. This novel superconducting system greatly promotes the commercial utilization of superconductors into advanced flexible micro/nanoelectronic devices and offers a new platform for developing more application with superconductors

Towards Layer-Selective Quantum Spin Hall Channels in Weak Topological Insulator Bi4Br2I2

Weak topological insulators, constructed by stacking quantum spin Hall insulators with weak interlayer coupling, offer promising quantum electronic applications through topologically nontrivial edge channels. However, the currently available weak topological insulators are stacks of the same quantum spin Hall layer with translational symmetry in the out-of-plane direction, leading to the absence of the channel degree of freedom for edge states. Here, we study a candidate weak topological insulator, Bi4Br2I2, which is alternately stacked by three different quantum spin Hall insulators, each with tunable topologically non-trivial edge states. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations show that an energy gap opens at the crossing points of different Dirac cones correlated with different layers due to the interlayer interaction. This is essential to achieve the tunability of topological edge states as controlled by varying the chemical potential. Our work offers a perspective for the construction of tunable quantized conductance devices for future spintronic applications

A de novo Genome of a Chinese Radish Cultivar

AbstractHere, we report a high-quality draft genome of a Chinese radish (Raphanus sativus) cultivar. This draft contains 387.73Mb of assembled scaffolds, 83.93% of the scaffolds were anchored onto nine pseudochromosomes and 95.09% of 43 240 protein-coding genes were functionally annotated. 184.75Mb (47.65%) of repeat sequences was identified in the assembled genome. By comparative analyses of the radish genome against 10 other plant genomes, 2 275 genes in 780 gene families were found unique to R. sativus. This genome is a good reference for genomic study and of great value for genetic improvement of radish

Characterization and genome analysis of Vibrio phage vB_VhaP_PG11, representing a new viral genus

Vibrio is a kind of common gram-negative bacteria, which is widely distributed in marine and estuarine environments. In the study, a novel marine phage vB_VhaP_PG11, infecting Vibrio hangzhouensis, was isolated from the offshore waters of Qingdao, China. vB_VhaP_PG11 is a double-stranded DNA phage. The whole genome proteomic tree shows that vB_VhaP_PG11 phage is related to two Vibrio phages, Vibrio phage 1.238.A._10N.261.52.F10 and Vibrio phage 1.245.O._10N.261.54.C7, but with low homology. Their amino acids identity with vB_VhaP_PG11 is 42.77 and 41.49% respectively. The prediction results of genome-blast distance phylogeny (GBDP) and the analysis gene-sharing network indicate that vB_VhaP_PG11 belongs to a new genus in Schitoviridae, named Qingschitovirus. The study of Vibrio phage vB_VhaP_PG11 provides basic information contributing to a better understanding of interactions between Vibrio phages and their hosts and helps analyze unknown viral sequences in the metagenomic database

Abundance and ecological footprint of Pseudoalteromonas phage vB_PhoS_XC in the Ulva prolifera green tide

Pseudoalteromonas is a ubiquitous and abundant genus of marine bacteria commonly associated with algae. In this study, a novel siphoviral-morphological bacteriophage, vB_PhoS_XC, was isolated from the coastal seawaters of Qingdao (China) during a bloom of the Ulva prolifera (U. prolifera) green tide. The morphology of this phage (icosahedron head 51 ± 1 nm in diameter; a tail length of 86 ± 1 nm) was characterized through transmission electron microscope. The biological properties of this virus showed a short latent period (45 minutes), a large burst size (241 virions per cell) and a relatively wide range of temperatures/pH level tolerance (-20°C to 45°C and pH 4 to pH 10, respectively). The vB_PhoS_XC has a 46,490-bp double-stranded DNA genome with a G+C content of 40.0%, and encodes 72 open reading frames (ORFs). Thirty-five of these ORFs were assigned into known functions based on BLAST-based algorithm against NR database of GenBank. In addition, eco-genomic analysis provides the evidence of vB_PhoS_XC accompanied by bloom of U. prolifera, and confirmed the high expression of two phosphatase-metabolism-related auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). This study provides new insights into the functional and ecological roles of the Pseudoalteromonas phage vB_PhoS_XC, shedding light on the virological study approach combined with traditional isolation and meta-omics data

Detecting Blurred Boundary Advertisement in Social Media Marketing Platform

Consumers seek organic reviews of products and services (organic eWOM) to verify whether they made the right choice (Erkan and Evans, 2016). However, the authenticity of brand promotion (e.g., blurred boundary advertisement) hinders consumers’ decision making. Consumers are calling for transparency of information between social platforms and users. This study is to develop efficient models to distinguish blurred boundary advertisements from organic eWOM. Drawing upon dual-process theory, we developed logistic models which can distinguish blurred boundary advertisements from organic eWOM in social media marketing platforms with decent explanations. Blurred boundary advertisement can be detected by features about posts, comments, bloggers and followers. Moreover, number of followers, number of posts and number of comments showed U- shape relationships with detecting blurred boundary advertisement. With more accurate statistical and machine learning-based models, this study helps consumers and platforms solve possible fairness issues in digital marketing