Powerment

Our research investigates the impact of auxiliary structures on ion transport in electrochemical systems such as batteries and microscale desalination units, whose importance for sustainable development has increased dramatically in recent decades. The electrochemical systems typically feature ion-selective surfaces, such as electrodes and ion exchange membranes, where ion depletion can cause performance issues including metal dendrite formation and flow instability. Recent research has shown that auxiliary structures in these electrochemical systems can enhance ion transfer near ion-selective surfaces, thereby resolving the instability problem and improving the energy conversion efficiency of the system...

We aimed to study whether separating the vaginal and abdominal surgical fields during total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) is associated with surgical site infection rates. This was a retrospective cohort study of all patients who underwent TLH and any concomitant procedures with two minimally invasive gynecologic surgery subspecialists between January 2016 and May 2023. Among 680 included patients, the rate of infection was 0.8% with surgical field separation and 1.3% without (3/377 vs 4/303; odds ratio 0...

MOTIVATION: Peptides are promising agents for the treatment of a variety of diseases due to their specificity and efficacy. However, the development of peptide-based drugs is often hindered by the potential toxicity of peptides, which poses a significant barrier to their clinical application. Traditional experimental methods for evaluating peptide toxicity are time-consuming and costly, making the development process inefficient. Therefore, there is an urgent need for computational tools specifically designed to predict peptide toxicity accurately and rapidly, facilitating the identification of safe peptide candidates for drug development...

Optogenetics is a powerful tool for spatiotemporal control of gene expression. Several light-inducible gene regulators have been developed to function in bacteria, and these regulatory circuits have been ported to new host strains. Here, we developed and adapted a red-light-inducible transcription factor for Shewanella oneidensis . This regulatory circuit is based on the iLight optogenetic system, which controls gene expression using red light. A thermodynamic model and promoter engineering were used to adapt this system to achieve differential gene expression in light and dark conditions within a S...

The processing of visual information occurs mainly in the retina, and the retinal preprocessing function greatly improves the transmission quality and efficiency of visual information. The artificial retina system provides a promising path to efficient image processing. Here, we propose graphene/InSe/h-BN heterogeneous structure, which exhibits negative and positive photoconductance effects by altering the strength of a single wavelength laser. Moreover, we present a modified theoretical model based on the power-dependent photoconductivity effect of laser: <mml:math xmlns:mml="https://www...

Bone development, growth, and repair are complex processes involving various cell types and interactions, with central roles played by skeletal stem and progenitor cells. Recent research brought new insights into the skeletal precursor populations that mediate intramembranous and endochondral bone development. Later in life, many of the cellular and molecular mechanisms determining development are reactivated upon fracture, with powerful trauma-induced signaling cues triggering a variety of postnatal skeletal stem/progenitor cells (SSPCs) residing near the bone defect...

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising optoelectronic materials for solution-processed thin film optoelectronic devices. However, the large surface area with abundant surface defects of CQDs and trap-assisted non-radiative recombination losses at the interface between CQDs and charge-transport layer limit their optoelectronic performance. To address this issue, an interface heterojunction strategy is proposed to protect the CQDs interface by incorporating a thin layer of polyethyleneimine (PEIE) to suppress trap-assisted non-radiative recombination losses...

Hydrogels are an attractive category of biointerfacing materials with adjustable mechanical properties, diverse biochemical functions, and good ionic conductivity. Despite these advantages, their application in electronics has been restricted because of their lack of semiconducting properties, and they have traditionally only served as insulators or conductors. We developed single- and multiple-network hydrogels based on a water-soluble n-type semiconducting polymer, endowing conventional hydrogels with semiconducting capabilities...

Large ensembles of laser-cooled atoms interacting through infinite-range photon-mediated interactions are powerful platforms for quantum simulation and sensing. Here we realize momentum-exchange interactions in which pairs of atoms exchange their momentum states by collective emission and absorption of photons from a common cavity mode, a process equivalent to a spin-exchange or XX collective Heisenberg interaction. The momentum-exchange interaction leads to an observed all-to-all Ising-like interaction in a matter-wave interferometer...

Recent work finds that nonviolent resistance by ethnic minorities is perceived as more violent and requiring more policing than identical resistance by ethnic majorities, reducing its impact and effectiveness. We ask whether allies-advantaged group participants in disadvantaged group movements-can mitigate these barriers. On the one hand, allies can counter negative stereotypes and defuse threat perceptions among advantaged group members, while raising expectations of success and lowering expected risks among disadvantaged group members...

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a powerful evolutionary force that considerably shapes the structure of prokaryotic genomes and is associated with genomic islands (GIs). A GI is a DNA segment composed of transferred genes that can be found within a prokaryotic genome, obtained through HGT. Much research has focused on detecting GIs in genomes, but here we pursue a new course, which is identifying possible preferred locations of GIs in the prokaryotic genome. Here, we identify the locations of the GIs within prokaryotic genomes to examine patterns in those locations...

Ensuring access to essential medicines remains a formidable challenge in Nepal. The specific reasons for the shortage of essential medicines within Nepal have not been extensively investigated. This study addresses challenges associated with access to essential medicines, procurement process difficulties, and functionality of inventory management systems at different levels of public health facilities. Fifty-nine semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with health managers and service providers at provincial and local levels in six randomly selected districts of Bagmati province, Nepal...

Osmotic energy from proton gradients in industrial acidic wastewater can be harvested and converted to electricity through membranes, making it a renewable and sustainable power source. However, the currently designed membranes for harvesting proton gradient energy in acidic wastewater cannot simultaneously achieve excellent chemical/mechanical stability and high power density under a large-scale area and require high cost and complex operations. Here, we demonstrate that commercial Nafion membranes with high chemical/mechanical stability and proton transport selectivity can generate a power density of 5...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) tend to accumulate in cold regions by cold condensation and global distillation . Soil organic matter is the main storage compartment for POPs in terrestrial ecosystems due to deposition and repeated air-surface exchange processes. Here, physicochemical properties and environmental factors were investigated for their role in influencing POPs accumulation in soils of the Tibetan Plateau and Antarctic and Arctic regions. The results showed that the soil burden of most POPs was closely coupled to stable mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC)...

Electrolyzed-reduced water has powerful antioxidant properties with constituents that scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are known to be produced by several intrinsic and extrinsic processes. When there is an imbalance between ROS production and antioxidant defenses, oxidative stress occurs. Persistent oxidative stress leads to cellular senescence, an important hallmark of aging, and is involved in several age-related conditions and illnesses. This study aims to investigate whether Weo electrolyzed water (WEW) could modulate the phenotype of senescent cells...

Tensor networks developed in the context of condensed matter physics try to approximate order-N tensors with a reduced number of degrees of freedom that is only polynomial in N and arranged as a network of partially contracted smaller tensors. As we have recently demonstrated in the context of quantum many-body physics, computation costs can be further substantially reduced by imposing constraints on the canonical polyadic (CP) rank of the tensors in such networks. Here, we demonstrate how tree tensor networks (TTN) with CP rank constraints and tensor dropout can be used in machine learning...

The advent of metal-based drugs and metal nanoparticles as therapeutic agents in anti-tumor treatment has motivated the advancement of X-ray fluorescence computed tomography (XFCT) techniques. An XFCT imaging modality can detect, quantify, and image the biodistribution of metal elements using the X-ray fluorescence signal emitted upon X-ray irradiation. However, the majority of XFCT imaging systems and instrumentation developed so far rely on a single or a small number of detectors. This work introduces the first full-ring benchtop X-ray fluorescence emission tomography (XFET) system equipped with 24 solid-state detectors arranged in a hexagonal geometry and a 96-pinhole compound-eye collimator...

In this paper, we investigate how the dielectric constant, ϵ, of an electrolyte solvent influences the current rectification characteristics of bipolar nanopores. It is well recognized that bipolar nanopores with two oppositely charged regions rectify current when exposed to an alternating electric potential difference. Here, we consider dilute electrolytes with NaCl only and with a mixture of NaCl and charged nanoparticles. These systems are studied using two levels of description, all-atom explicit water molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and coarse-grained implicit solvent MD simulations...

Energy storage devices play a crucial role in various applications, such as powering electronics, power backup for homes and businesses, and support for the integration of renewable energy sources into electrical grid applications. Electrode materials for energy storage devices are preferred to have a flexible nature, conductive, better capacity, and low-toxicity. Currently, using Gallium based liquid metal alloys, such as Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn), Eutectic Gallium-Tin (EGaSn), and Eutectic Gallium-Indium-Tin (EGaInSn), as electrode materials play very important role in energy storage devices...

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