Abstract:Harvesting solar energy as heat has many applications, such as power generation, residential water heating, desalination, distillation and wastewater treatment. However, the solar flux is diffuse, and often requires optical concentration, a costly component, to generate high temperatures needed for some of these applications. Here we demonstrate a floating solar receiver capable of generating 100°C steam under ambient air conditions without optical concentration. The high temperatures are achieved by using thermal concentration and heat localization, which reduce the convective, conductive, and radiative heat losses. This demonstration of a low-cost and scalable solar vapor generator holds the promise of significantly expanding the application domain and reducing the cost of solar thermal systems. Keywords: solar thermal, steam generation, thermal concentration, water treatmentThe sun is a promising and abundant source of renewable energy that can potentially solve many of society's challenges. Solar thermal technologies, i.e., the conversion of the sunlight to thermal energy, are being developed for many applications such as power generation, domestic water heating, desalination, and other industrial processes. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Steam and vapor generation is often desired in these applications, but the dilute solar flux (1000 W/m 2 ) does not provide enough power per unit area of the absorber to reach the required high temperatures and to compensate for the large latent heat of water vaporization. Optical

Previously we showed that the protein unfoldase ClpX could facilitate translocation of individual proteins through the α-hemolysin nanopore. This results in ionic current fluctuations that correlate with unfolding and passage of intact protein strands through the pore lumen. It is plausible that this technology could be used to identify protein domains and structural modifications at the single-molecule level that arise from subtle changes in primary amino acid sequence (e.g., point mutations). As a test, we engineered proteins bearing well-characterized domains connected in series along an ∼700 amino acid strand. Point mutations in a titin immunoglobulin domain (titin I27) and point mutations, proteolytic cleavage, and rearrangement of beta-strands in green fluorescent protein (GFP), caused ionic current pattern changes for single strands predicted by bulk phase and force spectroscopy experiments. Among these variants, individual proteins could be classified at 86-99% accuracy using standard machine learning tools. We conclude that a ClpXP-nanopore device can discriminate among distinct protein domains, and that sequence-dependent variations within those domains are detectable.

In the response to the coronavirus pandemic, much attention has been invested in promoting COVID-19 vaccination. However, the impact of seasonal influenza should not be neglected, particularly during the winter influenza surge. Currently, most influenza vaccination campaigns target at healthcare workers or high-risk population groups, while COVID-19 vaccination programmes are targeting the whole population as a single homogeneous group. There is limited research on the promotion of influenza vaccination for university students who study, live, and socialise in close contact with a large variety of people on campus, resulting in a low vaccination rate among this underserved group. Thus, a vaccination programme tailored for university students should be developed to increase protection against influenza-like illnesses and complications, and to help achieve herd immunity across populations who spread viruses. WHO has advocated the potential value of social marketing in vaccination campaigns and highlighted the need for audience segmentation as a major prerequisite component of intervention design. This study aims to identify distinct and homogeneous groups of university students based on sociodemographic, psychographic, and behavioural attributes to inform interventions. Two-step cluster analysis was applied in a sample size of 530 university students and revealed four segments that demonstrate statistically significant differences in their attitudes, behaviours, intentions, and responses to promotion messages about seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccination. The findings provide a detailed understanding of segment characteristics among university students that can be applied to develop an effective social marketing campaign that can motivate influenza vaccination and cross-promote uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The health and economic consequences of seasonal influenza present great costs to communities. Promoting voluntary uptake of the seasonal influenza vaccine among university students, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, can deliver protective effects for both individuals and the wider community. Vaccine uptake will be greatest when more of the social marketing benchmarks are applied. This systematic review summarizes evidence from programs aiming to increase seasonal influenza vaccination among university students. Six major electronic databases for health promotion studies (PubMed, EBSCO, ProQuest, Ovid, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect) were searched in November 2021 to capture peer-reviewed studies reporting field trials that have sought to increase seasonal influenza vaccination in university student populations, without any restrictions regarding the publication period. Following PRISMA guidelines, this paper identified 12 peer-reviewed studies that were conducted in the field in the United States, Australia, and Spain. Three studies were targeted at healthcare students and the rest focused on wider university student populations. Studies were narratively summarized, evidence of social marketing principles were identified, and quantitative outcomes were meta-analyzed. The findings indicate that none of the field studies, even a self-classified social marketing study, had adopted all eight of the social marketing benchmarks in program design and implementation. The two studies that only used promotion, but not other marketing-mix and social marketing principles, reported increases in students’ intention to be vaccinated but not actual behavior. Given that change is more likely when more social benchmarks are applied, this paper identifies activities that can be included in flu vaccine programs to improve flu vaccine uptake rates. The analysis highlights a lack of field studies focusing on increasing rates of vaccination behavior as research outcomes in countries beyond the United States.

Seasonal flu vaccination rates among university students are exceedingly low and research focused on voluntarily influencing vaccination uptake is limited. This study outlines the development, implementation, and evaluation of a theory-driven social marketing vaccination intervention following the co-create-build-engage (CBE) framework. This study drew upon a pre-intervention segmentation study and co-created interventions targeted at receptive segments. The intervention delivered a significant 343% increase in vaccination rates using a difference-in-difference analysis. Online communication channels effectively engaged students to register for and receive their flu vaccine Almost 90% of students who received vaccinations signed up in the first two weeks of the intervention program indicating that those who can be motivated will act early in the flu season. Financial incentives, as found in previous studies, were confirmed as highly effective in increasing awareness and influencing vaccination uptake behaviours. Friend referral incentives were also found to be influential in motivating vaccination uptake. Suggestions are provided for future research and practical implementation of interventions on university campuses to motivate flu vaccination and other health behaviours.

Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is a macular disease characterized by serous retinal detachment commonly involving the macular region. CSCR has a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. Although a significant proportion of CSCR cases are self-limiting, patients can suffer from persistent or recurrent disease, sometimes complicated with choroidal neovascularization, resulting in permanent visual loss. Multimodal imaging, including fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, fundus autofluorescence, and optical coherence tomography, has advanced the diagnosis and classification of CSCR cases. Evolution of new imaging techniques including optical coherence tomography angiography, wide-field imaging, and en face reconstruction imaging has also contributed to better understandings of the pathophysiology of CSCR. This review article summarizes the features of multimodal imaging for CSCR and discusses the application of such features in evaluating the disease.

No abstract

No abstract