Stretching-Induced 2D-to-3D Shape Transformation of an Elastic Composite for Sensitivity-Tailorable Soft Electronics.

The shapes of rubbers and elastomers are challenging to alter, and current methods relying on permanent plasticity and dynamic cross-linking strategies are usually laborious and can inevitably compromise the network elasticity. Here, we report a photoresponsive elastic composite that can be programmed into 3D shapes by first UV light irradiation and then stretching. The composite comprises ethylene propylene rubber as the elastic substrate and photoliquefiable azobenzene small molecules as the responsive filler. Upon UV light irradiation, the liquefication of the filler induces the destruction of the crystalline aggregates near the irradiated surface, and after stretching and subsequent stress release, the irradiated part bends to the irradiated side based on a gradient network orientation mechanism. The position and amplitude of bending deformation can be controlled to realize a 2D-to-3D shape transformation. We further show that the resulting 3D-shaped elastomer can integrate with silver conductive paste to develop soft conductive lines with tailorable strain-sensitive conductivities. This study may open a new door for the development of shape-tailorable elastomers and soft electronics with designable strain-sensitive conductivities.

Emissions of Formamide and Ammonia from Foam Mats: Online Measurement Based on Dopant-Assisted Photoionization TOFMS and Assessment of Their Exposure for Children.

Formamide has been classified as a Class 1B reproductive toxicant to children by the European Union (EU) Chemicals Agency. Foam mats are a potential source of formamide and ammonia. Online dopant-assisted atmospheric pressure photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DA-APPI-TOFMS) coupled with a Teflon environmental chamber was developed to assess the exposure risk of formamide and ammonia from foam mats to children. High levels of formamide (average 3363.72 mg/m3) and ammonia (average 1586.78 mg/m3) emissions were measured from 21 foam mats with three different raw material types: ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA: n = 7), polyethylene (PE: n = 7), and cross-linked polyethylene (XPE: n = 7). The 28 day emission testing for the selected PE mat showed that the emissions of formamide were 2 orders of magnitude higher than the EU emission limit of 20 µg/m3, and formamide may be a permanent indoor contaminant for foam mat products during their life cycle. The exposure assessment of children aged 0.5-6 years showed that the exposure dose was approximately hundreds of mg/kg-day, and the age group of 0.5-2 years was subject to much higher dermal exposures than others. Thus, this study provided key relevant information for further studies on assessing children's exposure to indoor air pollution from foam mats.

Sympathetic Neurostress Drives Osteoblastic Exosomal MiR-21 Transfer to Disrupt Bone Homeostasis and Promote Osteopenia.

Innervation and extracellular vesicle secretion co-exist in the local tissue microenvironment for message transfer, but whether they are interconnected to regulate organ homeostasis remains unknown. Sympatho-adrenergic activation is implicated in stress-induced depression and leads to bone loss, but the mechanisms and therapeutics are incompletely elucidated. Here, it is revealed that sympathetic neurostress through the ß1/2 -adrenergic receptor (ß1/2-AR) signaling triggers the transcription response of a microRNA, miR-21, in osteoblasts, which is transferred to osteoclast progenitors via exosomes for dictating osteoclastogenesis. After confirming that miR-21 deficiency retards the ß1/2-AR agonist isoproterenol (ISO)-induced osteopenia, it is shown that the pharmacological inhibition of exosome release by two clinically-relevant drugs, dimethyl amiloride and omeprazole, suppresses osteoblastic miR-21 transfer and ameliorates bone loss under both ISO and chronic variable stress (CVS)-induced depression conditions. A targeted delivery approach to specifically silence osteoblastic miR-21 is further applied, which is effective in rescuing the bone remodeling balance and ameliorating ISO- and CVS-induced osteopenias. These results decipher a previously unrecognized paradigm that neural cues drive exosomal microRNA communication to regulate organ homeostasis and help to establish feasible strategies to counteract bone loss under psychological stresses.

The Interaction Between Phonological and Semantic Processing in Reading Chinese Characters.

The contemporary models of visual word recognition reached a consensus on a cooperative division of labor between phonological and semantic processing. We examine how reading is influenced by the interaction of two processing in Chinese character reading since the ideographic property of the Chinese writing system is perfectly suitable to address this issue. The current study investigated whether Chinese character reading requires the interaction between orthography-to-phonology consistency and semantic processing of the whole character (imageability, Experiment 1) or the semantic radical (transparency, Experiment 2). Experiment 1 showed a significant effect of the consistency and a marginal effect of the imageability, but no interaction between the two. Experiment 2 found a significant effect of the semantic transparency and its interaction with phonological consistency, where the transparent effect was significant for inconsistent characters but not for consistent ones. The current finding provided direct evidence of the interplay between phonological and semantic processing and shed light on the language-general reading model.

Clinical observation of Kuntai Capsule on female menopause insomnia associated with anxiety and depression / 中草药

Objective: To observe the clinical curative effect of Kuntai Capsule on female menopause insomnia associated with anxiety and depression. Methods: Women patients (120 cases) with menopausal insomnia accompanied by anxiety and depression were divided into control and treatment groups, 60 cases in each group. Kuntai Capsule was given to the patients in the treatment group, while oral Estazolam Tablets were given to the patients in the control group, both groups were treated for 10 d as one course of the treatment. After two periods of the treatment, the clinical efficacy for the improvement of sleep quality, anxiety, and depression of patients in the two groups was observed. Results: Compared with the control group, there was no significant difference on the treatment of insomnia and anxiety between the treatment and control groups (P>0.05), while there was the significant difference on the improvement of sleep quality in the treatment group (P<0.05) and the improvement of depression was better than that in the control group (P<0.01). Conclusion: Kuntai Capsule has a good curative effect on the female menopause insomnia associated with anxiety and depression.