Communication with plants to understand their growth mechanisms and interaction with the surrounding environment may improve production yield in agriculture and facilitate prevention of plant diseases and negative influence of environmental stress. Typical sensing technologies in plant biology and precision agriculture largely rely on techniques with low spatial and temporal resolutions, and fail to continuously and precisely determine localized variation in leaf physiology and microenvironments. Here, techniques to develop a multifunctional stretchable leaf-mounted sensor have been developed to offer optimized adaptability to plant growth and monitor leaf physiological and environmental conditions in continuous and highly sensitive manners. The multifunctional leaf sensor contains multiple heterogeneous sensing elements made of metal, carbon nanotube matrix, and silicon, leading to temperature, hydration, light illuminance, and strain sensing capabilities on a leaf. Evaluation under a controlled environment indicates excellent precision and accuracy of the sensor compared to conventional devices. Furthermore, indoor and outdoor experiments have demonstrated the multifunctional monitoring ability of the sensor in real situations. The multifunctional stretchable sensor holds the promise to advance monitoring techniques in plant biology and precision agriculture, resulting in improved capability to record slow and subtle physiological changes in plants and plant/environment interaction.

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Since 2008, Mainland China has undergone widespread outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). In order to determine the characteristics of epidemics and enteroviruses (EV) associated with HFMD in Tianjin, in northern China, epidemiological and virological data from routine surveillance were collected and analyzed. In Tianjin, a persistent epidemic of HFMD was demonstrated during 2008–2013, involving 102,705 mild, 179 severe, and 16 fatal cases. Overall, 8234 specimens were collected from 7829 HFMD patients for EV detection during 2008–2013. Enterovirus 71 (EV-A71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16) were the dominant serotypes during 2008–2012, and they were replaced by CV-A6 as the major causative agent in 2013. Phylogenetic analysis based on complete VP1 nucleotide sequences revealed that multiple CV-A6 lineages co-circulated in Tianjin, which grouped together with strains from China and other countries and split into two distinct clusters (clusters 1 and 2). Most Tianjin strains grouped in cluster 1 and were closely related to strains from several eastern and southern provinces of China during 2012 and 2013. Estimates from Bayesian MCMC analysis suggested that multiple lineages had been transmitted silently before the outbreaks at an estimated evolutionary rate of 4.10 × 10−3 substitutions per site per year without a specific distribution of rate variances among lineages. The sudden outbreak of CV-A6 in Tianjin during 2013 is attributed to indigenous CV-A6 lineages, which were linked to the wide spread of endemic strains around eastern and southern China.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), which is a frequently reported and concerning disease worldwide, is a severe burden on societies globally, especially in the countries of East and Southeast Asia. Coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16) is one of the most important causes of HFMD and a severe threat to human health, especially in children under 5 years of age. To investigate the epidemiological characteristics, spread dynamics, recombinant forms (RFs), and other features of CV-A16, we leveraged the continuous surveillance data of CV-A16-related HFMD cases collected over an 18-year period. With the advent of the EV-A71 vaccine since 2016, which targeted the EV-A71-related HFMD cases, EV-A71-related HFMD cases decreased dramatically, whereas the CV-A16-related HFMD cases showed an upward trend from 2017 to October 2019. The CV-A16 strains observed in this study were genetically related and widely distributed in the mainland of China. Our results show that three clusters (B1a-B1c) existed in the mainland of China, and that the cluster of B1b dominates the diffusion of CV-A16 in China. We found that eastern China played a decisive role in seeding the diffusion of CV-A16 in China, with a more complex and variant transmission trend. Although EV-A71 vaccine was launched in China in 2016, it did not affect the genetic diversity of CV-A16, and its genetic diversity did not decline, which confirmed the epidemiological surveillance trend of CV-A16. Two discontinuous clusters (2000-2013 and 2014-2018) were observed in the full-length genome and arranged along the time gradient, which revealed the reason why the relative genetic diversity of CV-A16 increased and experienced more complex fluctuation model after 2014. In addition, the switch from recombinant forms B (RF-B) and RF-C co-circulation to RF-D contributes to the prevalence of B1b cluster in China after 2008. The correlation between genotype and RFs partially explained the current prevalence of B1b. This study provides unprecedented full-length genomic sequences of CV-A16 in China, with a wider geographic distribution and a long-term time scale. The study presents valuable information about CV-A16, aimed at developing effective control strategies, as well as a call for a more robust surveillance system, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

Bioresorbable electronic devices are promising replacements for conventional build‐to‐last electronics in implantable biomedical systems and consumer electronics. However, bioresorbable devices are typically achieved by complex complementary metal oxide semiconductor fabrication processes that minimize exposure to humidity. Emerging printable techniques for bioresorbable electronics demand further improvement in electrical conductivity and mechanical robustness. This paper presents a room‐temperature spontaneous sintering method of bioresorbable inks that contain zinc nanoparticles and anhydride. The entire process can be conducted in atmosphere environment under 90% humidity within 300 min. It has minimum requirement for external heating and special ambient conditions, allowing humidity to trigger the surface chemistry of zinc nanoparticles and spontaneous welding between neighboring nanoparticles. The resulting bioresorbable patterns are highly conductive (σ = 72 400 S m−1) and mechanically robust (>1500 bending cycles) to enable practical applications. A radio circuit achieved through the above method can operate stably over 14 days in air and disappear in water for less than 30 min. The spontaneous room‐temperature sintering represents a rapid and energy‐efficient approach to achieve high‐performance bioresorbable electronics with improved mechanical robustness and electrical performance, leading to broader impacts in the areas of healthcare, information security, and consumer electronics.

This study used National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys data from 1999 to 2006 to investigate the association between dietary inflammatory potential, represented by dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores, and the risk of sarcopenia in U.S. adults. A total of 25,781 participants were included in the study. The DII scores were calculated based on dietary information collected from 24-hour recalls. Men and women were classified as sarcopenic if appendicular lean mass (ALM) adjusted for BMI (ALM BMI ) was <0.789 or <0.512, respectively. The covariates included comorbidities, dietary data, demographic data, and physical examination data. In a full-adjusted model, each unit of increase in DII score was associated with a 12% increase in risk of sarcopenia. When categorizing sarcopenia into tertiles, the adjusted effect size (relative to Tertile1) was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.07, 1.47) for Tertile 2 and 1.55 (95% CI, 1.31, 1.83) for Tertile 3. The trend test showed that the risk of sarcopenia increased with increasing DII tertiles, (P <0.0001). These findings demonstrate that dietary inflammatory potential correlates positively with the risk of sarcopenia and suggest that making ones diet inflammatory may reduce the incidence of sarcopenia and its associated negative health outcomes.

Background/Aims: Blood pressure variability (BPV) is a novel cardiovascular risk factor for the population undergoing hemodialysis (HD). Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 526 HD patients. Four short-term peridialysis BPV metrics were analyzed: systolic blood pressure (SBP) change, SBP coefficient of variation (CV), SBP intradialytic average real variability (ARV), and absolute SBP residual. Multi variate analysis with Cox regression models were used to account for the potential confounders. Results: Short-term BPV is found to be affected by age, pre-dialysis SBP, antihypertensive drugs, dialysis time, and vascular access. Calcium-channel blockers (CCBs) were found to be associated with lower BPV than those on non-CCB therapy or no antihypertensive drugs. Patients dialyzed in the morning had a greater absolute SBP change than those dialyzed in the afternoon or evening. Patients using fistulas had a lower BPV than catheters. Higher BPV metrics including SBP CV (unadjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.37, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-1.66, p=0.001), SBP intradialytic ARV (unadjusted HR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.20-1.77, p< 0.001), and SBP residual (unadjusted HR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.21-1.79, p< 0.001) were associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular events. After complete multivariate adjustment for other potential confounders, the HR remained statistically significant for SBP intradialytic ARV (HR 1.31, 95% CI: 1.04-1.66, p=0.024). Conclusion: Peridialytic BPV may be a potential target for improved blood pressure (BP) management in HD patients. Each short-term BPV metric has different advantages and disadvantages and should be applied according to the clinical context and purpose.

Kidney failure is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Hemodialysis, the most prevalent modality of renal replacement therapy, uses the principle of semipermeable membranes to remove solutes and water in the plasma of patients with kidney failure. With the evolution of hemodialysis technology over the last half century, the clearance of small water-soluble molecules in such patients is adequate. However, middle molecules uremic toxins are still retained in the plasma and cause cardiovascular events, anemia, and malnutrition, which significantly contribute to poor quality of life and high mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients. A new class of membrane, defined as a medium cut-off (MCO) membrane, has emerged in recent years. Expanded hemodialysis with MCO membranes is now recognized as the artificial kidney model closest to natural kidney physiology. This review summarizes the unique morphological characteristics and internal filtration–backfiltration mechanism of MCO membranes, and describes their effects on removing uremic toxins, alleviating inflammation and cardiovascular risk, and improving quality of life in maintenance hemodialysis patients.