Adolescent perspectives of bedtime social media use: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis.

Adolescence is often characterised by changes in sleep patterns, with reports that the average adolescent does not get the recommended sleep time. Recent qualitative research has identified the use of electronics at bedtime and engagement with social media platforms as barriers to gaining sufficient time and quality of sleep during adolescence. A systematic review and thematic synthesis was undertaken following the three-step thematic synthesis framework. Four databases were searched, and full texts were screened based on pre-existing inclusion/exclusion criteria. Fourteen studies were included, encompassing 967 participants. Three analytical themes were developed: 1) social motivations; 2) habitual smartphone use and 3) recognition of a problem. Findings confirmed how bedtime social media use requires a new framework for recognising the importance of peer relations, where increased frequency and immediacy of communication lays the foundation for social accountability to meet communicative norms and fear of missing out. In the review, adolescents commonly express a lack of control in relation to their social media use which triggered discussion of the habitual aspects of bedtime social media use. The importance of intervention strategies which recognise the wider peer-to-peer social implications of bedtime social media use is discussed with some practical insights offered.

Ultrafast photochemistry produces superbright short-wave infrared dots for low-dose in vivo imaging.

Optical probes operating in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1,000-1,700 nm), where tissues are highly transparent, have expanded the applicability of fluorescence in the biomedical field. NIR-II fluorescence enables deep-tissue imaging with micrometric resolution in animal models, but is limited by the low brightness of NIR-II probes, which prevents imaging at low excitation intensities and fluorophore concentrations. Here, we present a new generation of probes (Ag2S superdots) derived from chemically synthesized Ag2S dots, on which a protective shell is grown by femtosecond laser irradiation. This shell reduces the structural defects, causing an 80-fold enhancement of the quantum yield. PEGylated Ag2S superdots enable deep-tissue in vivo imaging at low excitation intensities (<10 mW cm-2) and doses (<0.5 mg kg-1), emerging as unrivaled contrast agents for NIR-II preclinical bioimaging. These results establish an approach for developing superbright NIR-II contrast agents based on the synergy between chemical synthesis and ultrafast laser processing.

Rapid Laser Manufacturing of Microfluidic Devices from Glass Substrates.

Conventional manufacturing of microfluidic devices from glass substrates is a complex, multi-step process that involves different fabrication techniques and tools. Hence, it is time-consuming and expensive, in particular for the prototyping of microfluidic devices in low quantities. This article describes a laser-based process that enables the rapid manufacturing of enclosed micro-structures by laser micromachining and microwelding of two 1.1-mm-thick borosilicate glass plates. The fabrication process was carried out only with a picosecond laser (Trumpf TruMicro 5×50) that was used for: (a) the generation of microfluidic patterns on glass, (b) the drilling of inlet/outlet ports into the material, and (c) the bonding of two glass plates together in order to enclose the laser-generated microstructures. Using this manufacturing approach, a fully-functional microfluidic device can be fabricated in less than two hours. Initial fluid flow experiments proved that the laser-generated microstructures are completely sealed; thus, they show a potential use in many industrial and scientific areas. This includes geological and petroleum engineering research, where such microfluidic devices can be used to investigate single-phase and multi-phase flow of various fluids (such as brine, oil, and CO2) in porous media.

Slanted channel microfluidic chip for 3D fluorescence imaging of cells in flow.

Three-dimensional cellular imaging techniques have become indispensable tools in biological research and medical diagnostics. Conventional 3D imaging approaches employ focal stack collection to image different planes of the cell. In this work, we present the design and fabrication of a slanted channel microfluidic chip for 3D fluorescence imaging of cells in flow. The approach employs slanted microfluidic channels fabricated in glass using ultrafast laser inscription. The slanted nature of the microfluidic channels ensures that samples come into and go out of focus, as they pass through the microscope imaging field of view. This novel approach enables the collection of focal stacks in a straight-forward and automated manner, even with off-the-shelf microscopes that are not equipped with any motorized translation/rotation sample stages. The presented approach not only simplifies conventional focal stack collection, but also enhances the capabilities of a regular widefield fluorescence microscope to match the features of a sophisticated confocal microscope. We demonstrate the retrieval of sectioned slices of microspheres and cells, with the use of computational algorithms to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the collected raw images. The retrieved sectioned images have been used to visualize fluorescent microspheres and bovine sperm cell nucleus in 3D while using a regular widefield fluorescence microscope. We have been able to achieve sectioning of approximately 200 slices per cell, which corresponds to a spatial translation of ∼ 15 nm per slice along the optical axis of the microscope.

Determining the 3D orientation of optically trapped upconverting nanorods by in situ single-particle polarized spectroscopy.

An approach to unequivocally determine the three-dimensional orientation of optically manipulated NaYF4:Er(3+),Yb(3+) upconverting nanorods (UCNRs) is demonstrated. Long-term immobilization of individual UCNRs inside single and multiple resonant optical traps allow for stable single UCNR spectroscopy studies. Based on the strong polarization dependent upconverted luminescence of UCNRs it is possible to unequivocally determine, in real time, their three-dimensional orientation when optically trapped. In single-beam traps, polarized single particle spectroscopy has concluded that UCNRs orientate parallel to the propagation axis of the trapping beam. On the other hand, when multiple-beam optical tweezers are used, single particle polarization spectroscopy demonstrated how full spatial control over UCNR orientation can be achieved by changing the trap-to-trap distance as well as the relative orientation between optical traps. All these results show the possibility of real time three-dimensional manipulation and tracking of anisotropic nanoparticles with wide potential application in modern nanobiophotonics.