Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electroactive Polymers Obtained by Conventional and Non-Conventional Technologies

Electroactive polymers (EAPs), materials that present size/shape alteration in response to an electrical stimulus, are currently being explored regarding advanced smart devices, namely robotics, valves, soft actuators, artificial muscles, and electromechanical sensors. They are generally prepared through conventional techniques (e.g., solvent casting and free-radical polymerization). However, non-conventional processes such as those included in additive manufacturing (AM) are emerging as a novel approach to tune and enhance the electromechanical properties of EAPs to expand the scope of areas for this class of electro-responsive material. This review aims to summarize the published work (from the last five years) in developing EAPs either by conventional or non-conventional polymer processing approaches. The technology behind each processing technique is discussed as well as the main mechanism behind the electromechanical response. The most common polymer-based materials used in the design of current EAPs are reviewed. Therefore, the main conclusions and future trends regarding EAPs obtained by conventional and non-conventional technologies are also given.
A Dictionary Optimization Method for Reconstruction of ECG Signals after Compressed Sensing

This paper presents a new approach for the optimization of a dictionary used in ECG signal compression and reconstruction systems, based on Compressed Sensing (CS). Alternatively to fully data driven methods, which learn the dictionary from the training data, the proposed approach uses an over complete wavelet dictionary, which is then reduced by means of a training phase. Moreover, the alignment of the frames according to the position of the R-peak is proposed, such that the dictionary optimization can exploit the different scaling features of the ECG waves. Therefore, at first, a training phase is performed in order to optimize the overcomplete dictionary matrix by reducing its number of columns. Then, the optimized matrix is used in combination with a dynamic sensing matrix to compress and reconstruct the ECG waveform. In this paper, the mathematical formulation of the patient-specific optimization is presented and three optimization algorithms have been evaluated. For each of them, an experimental tuning of the convergence parameter is carried out, in order to ensure that the algorithm can work in its most suitable conditions. The performance of each considered algorithm is evaluated by assessing the Percentage of Root-mean-squared Difference (PRD) and compared with the state of the art techniques. The obtained experimental results demonstrate that: (i) the utilization of an optimized dictionary matrix allows a better performance to be reached in the reconstruction quality of the ECG signals when compared with other methods, (ii) the regularization parameters of the optimization algorithms should be properly tuned to achieve the best reconstruction results, and (iii) the Multiple Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (M-OMP) algorithm is the better suited algorithm among those examined.
In Vitro Culture of Rosmarinus officinalis L. in a Temporary Immersion System: Influence of Two Phytohormones on Plant Growth and Carnosol Production

Emerging infectious diseases have become a major global problem with public health and economic consequences. It is an urgent need to develop new anti-infective therapies. The natural diterpene carnosol exhibit a wide variety of interesting antibacterial and antiviral properties, and it is considered a theoretical inhibitor of COVID-19 Mpro. However, this compound is present in the family Lamiaceae in low quantities. To obtain carnosol in concentrations high enough to develop pharmacological studies, we evaluated the efficiency of a micropropagation protocol of Rosmarinus officinalis using a solid medium and a temporary immersion system (TIS), as well as the effect of 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP) and α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) on the growth of shoots. Moreover, we developed and validated an analytical method to quantify carnosol using the H-point standard additions method in the high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). After 30 days of culture, TIS produced the maximum number of shoots per explant (24.33 ± 1.15) on a liquid medium supplemented with 6-BAP at 5.0 mg L−1. Next, we also evaluated the effect of immersion time and frequency for TIS. After 72 days of culture, the best results were obtained with an immersion cycle of 1 min every 12 h, yielding 170.33 ± 29.40 shoots. The quantification of carnosol on the samples was performed at a flow rate of 1.2 mL min−1 using binary isocratic mobile phase system 60:40 (v/v) 10 mM formic acid (pH 3.0) (A) and acetonitrile (B) on a reverse-phase column. The content of carnosol in the in vitro cultures was around 8-fold higher than in the wild plant. The present study represents an efficient alternative method to obtain carnosol for its pre-clinical and clinical development.
Virus Infection Variability by Single-Cell Profiling

Cell-to-cell variability of infection has long been known, yet it has remained one of the least understood phenomena in infection research. It impacts on disease onset and development, yet only recently underlying mechanisms have been studied in clonal cell cultures by single-virion immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. In this review, we showcase how single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), single-molecule RNA-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (click) with alkynyl-tagged viral genomes dissect infection variability in human and mouse cells. We show how the combined use of scRNA-FISH and click-chemistry reveals highly variable onsets of adenoviral gene expression, and how single live cell plaques reveal lytic and nonlytic adenovirus transmissions. The review highlights how scRNA-seq profiling and scRNA-FISH of coxsackie, influenza, dengue, zika, and herpes simplex virus infections uncover transcriptional variability, and how the host interferon response tunes influenza and sendai virus infections. We introduce the concept of “cell state” in infection variability, and conclude with advances by single-cell simultaneous measurements of chromatin accessibility and mRNA counts at high-throughput. Such technology will further dissect the sequence of events in virus infection and pathology, and better characterize the genetic and genomic stability of viruses, cell autonomous innate immune responses, and mechanisms of tissue injury.
Enzyme-Linked Phage Receptor Binding Protein Assays (ELPRA) Enable Identification of Bacillus anthracis Colonies

Bacteriophage receptor binding proteins (RBPs) are employed by viruses to recognize specific surface structures on bacterial host cells. Recombinant RBPs have been utilized for detection of several pathogens, typically as fusions with reporter enzymes or fluorescent proteins. Identification of Bacillus anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax, can be difficult because of the bacterium’s close relationship with other species of the Bacillus cereus sensu lato group. Here, we facilitated the identification of B. anthracis using two implementations of enzyme-linked phage receptor binding protein assays (ELPRA). We developed a single-tube centrifugation assay simplifying the rapid analysis of suspect colonies. A second assay enables identification of suspect colonies from mixed overgrown solid (agar) media derived from the complex matrix soil. Thus, these tests identified vegetative cells of B. anthracis with little processing time and may support or confirm pathogen detection by molecular methods such as polymerase chain reaction.
Foveated Photon Mapping

irtual reality (VR) applications require high-performance rendering algorithms to efficiently render 3D scenes on the VR head-mounted display, to provide users with an immersive and interactive virtual environment. Foveated rendering provides a solution to improve the performance of rendering algorithms by allocating computing resources to different regions based on the human visual acuity, and renders images of different qualities in different regions. Rasterization-based methods and ray tracing methods can be directly applied to foveated rendering, but rasterization-based methods are difficult to estimate global illumination (GI), and ray tracing methods are inefficient for rendering scenes that contain paths with low probability. Photon mapping is an efficient GI rendering method for scenes with different materials. However, since photon mapping cannot dynamically adjust the rendering quality of GI according to the human acuity, it cannot be directly applied to foveated rendering. In this paper, we propose a foveated photon mapping method to render realistic GI effects in the foveal region. We use the foveated photon tracing method to generate photons with high density in the foveal region, and these photons are used to render high-quality images in the foveal region. We further propose a temporal photon management to select and update the valid foveated photons of the previous frame for improving our method's performance. Our method can render diffuse, specular, glossy and transparent materials to achieve effects specifically related to GI, such as color bleeding, specular reflection, glossy reflection and caustics. Our method supports dynamic scenes and renders high-quality GI in the foveal region at interactive rates.
Combining electrospinning with hot drawing process to fabricate high performance poly (L-lactic acid) nanofiber yarns for advanced nanostructured bio-textiles

Fiber constructed yarns are the elementary building blocks for the generation of implantable biotextiles, and there are always needs for designing and developing new types of yarns to improve the properties of biotextile implants. In the present study, we aim to develop novel nanofiber yarns (NYs) by combining nanostructure that more closely mimic the extracellular matrix fibrils of native tissues with biodegradability, strong mechanical properties and great textile processibility. A novel electrospinning system which integrates yarn formation with hot drawing process was developed to fabricate poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) NYs. Compared to the PLLA NYs without hot drawing, the thermally drawn PLLA NYs presented superbly-orientated fibrous structure and notably enhanced crystallinity. Importantly, they possessed admirable mechanical performances, which matched and even exceeded the commercial PLLA microfiber yarns (MYs). The thermally drawn PLLA NYs were also demonstrated to notably promote the adhesion, alignment, proliferation, and tenogenic differentiation of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (hADMSCs) compared to the PLLA NYs without hot drawing. The thermally drawn PLLA NYs were further processed into various nanofibrous tissue scaffolds with defined structures and adjustable mechanical and biological properties using textile braiding and weaving technologies, demonstrating the feasibility and versatility of thermally drawn PLLA NYs for textile-forming utilization. The hADMSCs cultured on PLLA NY-based textiles presented enhanced attachment and proliferation capacities than those cultured on PLLA MY-based textiles. This work presents a facile technique to manufacture high performance PLLA NYs, which opens up opportunities to generate advanced nanostructured biotextiles for surgical implant applications.
A Comprehensive Review of Microneedles: Types, Materials, Processes, Characterizations and Applications

Drug delivery through the skin offers many advantages such as avoidance of hepatic first-pass metabolism, maintenance of steady plasma concentration, safety, and compliance over oral or parenteral pathways. However, the biggest challenge for transdermal delivery is that only a limited number of potent drugs with ideal physicochemical properties can passively diffuse and intercellularly permeate through skin barriers and achieve therapeutic concentration by this route. Significant efforts have been made toward the development of approaches to enhance transdermal permeation of the drugs. Among them, microneedles represent one of the microscale physical enhancement methods that greatly expand the spectrum of drugs for transdermal and intradermal delivery. Microneedles typically measure 0.1–1 mm in length. In this review, microneedle materials, fabrication routes, characterization techniques, and applications for transdermal delivery are discussed. A variety of materials such as silicon, stainless steel, and polymers have been used to fabricate solid, coated, hollow, or dissolvable microneedles. Their implications for transdermal drug delivery have been discussed extensively. However, there remain challenges with sustained delivery, efficacy, cost-effective fabrication, and large-scale manufacturing. This review discusses different modes of characterization and the gaps in manufacturing technologies associated with microneedles. This review also discusses their potential impact on drug delivery, vaccine delivery, disease diagnostic, and cosmetics applications.
Polymeric Lipid Hybrid Nanoparticles (PLNs) as Emerging Drug Delivery Platform—A Comprehensive Review of Their Properties, Preparation Methods, and Therapeutic Applications

Polymeric lipid hybrid nanoparticles (PLNs) are core–shell nanoparticles made up of a polymeric kernel and lipid/lipid–PEG shells that have the physical stability and biocompatibility of both polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes. PLNs have emerged as a highly potent and promising nanocarrier for a variety of biomedical uses, including drug delivery and biomedical imaging, owing to recent developments in nanomedicine. In contrast with other forms of drug delivery systems, PLNs have been regarded as seamless and stable because they are simple to prepare and exhibit excellent stability. Natural, semi-synthetic, and synthetic polymers have been used to make these nanocarriers. Due to their small scale, PLNs can be used in a number of applications, including anticancer therapy, gene delivery, vaccine delivery, and bioimaging. These nanoparticles are also self-assembled in a reproducible and predictable manner using a single or two-step nanoprecipitation process, making them significantly scalable. All of these positive attributes therefore make PLNs an attractive nanocarrier to study. This review delves into the fundamentals and applications of PLNs as well as their formulation parameters, several drug delivery strategies, and recent advancements in clinical trials, giving a comprehensive insight into the pharmacokinetic and biopharmaceutical aspects of these hybrid nanoparticles.
In Vivo Calcium Imaging Visualizes Incision-Induced Primary Afferent Sensitization and Its Amelioration by Capsaicin Pretreatment

Previous studies have shown that infiltration of capsaicin into the surgical site can prevent incision-induced spontaneous pain like behaviors and heat hyperalgesia. In the present study, we aimed to monitor primary sensory neuron Ca2+ activity in the intact dorsal root ganglia (DRG) using Pirt-GCaMP3 male and female mice pretreated with capsaicin or vehicle before the plantar incision. Intraplantar injection of capsaicin (0.05%) significantly attenuated spontaneous pain, mechanical, and heat hypersensitivity after plantar incision. The Ca2+ response in in vivo DRG and in in situ spinal cord was significantly enhanced in the ipsilateral side compared with contralateral side or naive control. Primary sensory nerve fiber length was significantly decreased in the incision skin area in capsaicin-pretreated animals detected by immunohistochemistry and placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP) staining. Thus, capsaicin pretreatment attenuates incisional pain by suppressing Ca2+ response because of degeneration of primary sensory nerve fibers in the skin. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Postoperative surgery pain is a major health and economic problem worldwide with ∼235 million major surgical procedures annually. Approximately 50% of these patients report uncontrolled or poorly controlled postoperative pain. However, mechanistic studies of postoperative surgery pain in primary sensory neurons have been limited to in vitro models or small numbers of neurons. Using an innovative, distinctive, and interdisciplinary in vivo populational dorsal root ganglia (DRG) imaging (>1800 neurons/DRG) approach, we revealed increased DRG neuronal Ca2+ activity from postoperative pain mouse model. This indicates widespread DRG primary sensory neuron plasticity. Increased neuronal Ca2+ activity occurs among various sizes of neurons but mostly in small-diameter and medium-diameter nociceptors. Capsaicin pretreatment as a therapeutic option significantly attenuates Ca2+ activity and postoperative pain.
Enhanced Bioavailability of AC1497, a Novel Anticancer Drug Candidate, via a Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery System

AC1497 is an effective dual inhibitor of malate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 targeting cancer metabolism. However, its poor aqueous solubility results in low bioavailability, limiting its clinical development. This study was conducted to develop an effective self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) of AC1497 to improve its oral absorption. Based on the solubility of AC1497 in various oils, surfactants, and cosurfactants, Capryol 90, Kolliphor RH40, and Transcutol HP were selected as the components of SNEDDS. After testing various weight ratios of Capryol 90 (20–30%), Kolliphor RH40 (35–70%), and Transcutol HP (10–35%), SNEDDS-F4 containing 20% Capryol 90, 45% Kolliphor RH40, and 35% Transcutol HP was identified as an optimal SNEDDS with a narrow size distribution (17.8 ± 0.36 nm) and high encapsulation efficiency (93.6 ± 2.28%). Drug release from SNEDDS-F4 was rapid, with approximately 80% of AC1497 release in 10 min while the dissolution of the drug powder was minimal (<2%). Furthermore, SNEDDS-F4 significantly improved the oral absorption of AC1497 in rats. The maximum plasma concentration and area under the plasma concentration–time curve of AC1497 were, respectively 6.82- and 3.14-fold higher for SNEDDS-F4 than for the drug powder. In conclusion, SNEDDS-F4 with Capryol 90, Kolliphor RH40, and Transcutol HP (20:45:35, w/w) effectively improves the solubility and oral absorption of AC1497.
Zebrafish Model in Ophthalmology to Study Disease Mechanism and Drug Discovery

Visual impairment and blindness are common and seriously affect people’s work and quality of life in the world. Therefore, the effective therapies for eye diseases are of high priority. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an alternative vertebrate model as a useful tool for the mechanism elucidation and drug discovery of various eye disorders, such as cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, photoreceptor degeneration, etc. The genetic and embryonic accessibility of zebrafish in combination with a behavioral assessment of visual function has made it a very popular model in ophthalmology. Zebrafish has also been widely used in ocular drug discovery, such as the screening of new anti-angiogenic compounds or neuroprotective drugs, and the oculotoxicity test. In this review, we summarized the applications of zebrafish as the models of eye disorders to study disease mechanism and investigate novel drug treatments.
Periorbital Nociception in a Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Mouse Model Is Dependent on TRPA1 Channel Activation

Headaches are frequently described in progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) patients, but their mechanism remains unknown. Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) was involved in neuropathic nociception in a model of PMS induced by experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (PMS-EAE), and TRPA1 activation causes periorbital and facial nociception. Thus, our purpose was to observe the development of periorbital mechanical allodynia (PMA) in a PMS-EAE model and evaluate the role of TRPA1 in periorbital nociception. Female PMS-EAE mice elicited PMA from day 7 to 14 days after induction. The antimigraine agents olcegepant and sumatriptan were able to reduce PMA. The PMA was diminished by the TRPA1 antagonists HC-030031, A-967079, metamizole and propyphenazone and was absent in TRPA1-deficient mice. Enhanced levels of TRPA1 endogenous agonists and NADPH oxidase activity were detected in the trigeminal ganglion of PMS-EAE mice. The administration of the anti-oxidants apocynin (an NADPH oxidase inhibitor) or alpha-lipoic acid (a sequestrant of reactive oxygen species), resulted in PMA reduction. These results suggest that generation of TRPA1 endogenous agonists in the PMS-EAE mouse model may sensitise TRPA1 in trigeminal nociceptors to elicit PMA. Thus, this ion channel could be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of headache in PMS patients.
Thermal Image Restoration Based on LWIR Sensor Statistics

An imaging system has natural statistics that reflect its intrinsic characteristics. For example, the gradient histogram of a visible light image generally obeys a heavy-tailed distribution, and its restoration considers natural statistics. Thermal imaging cameras detect infrared radiation, and their signal processors are specialized according to the optical and sensor systems. Thermal images, also known as long wavelength infrared (LWIR) images, suffer from distinct degradations of LWIR sensors and residual nonuniformity (RNU). However, despite the existence of various studies on the statistics of thermal images, thermal image processing has seldom attempted to incorporate natural statistics. In this study, natural statistics of thermal imaging sensors are derived, and an optimization method for restoring thermal images is proposed. To verify our hypothesis about the thermal images, high-frequency components of thermal images from various datasets are analyzed with various measures (correlation coefficient, histogram intersection, chi-squared test, Bhattacharyya distance, and Kullback–Leibler divergence), and generalized properties are derived. Furthermore, cost functions accommodating the validated natural statistics are designed and minimized by a pixel-wise optimization method. The proposed algorithm has a specialized structure for thermal images and outperforms the conventional methods. Several image quality assessments are employed for quantitatively demonstrating the performance of the proposed method. Experiments with synthesized images and real-world images are conducted, and the results are quantified by reference image assessments (peak signal-to-noise ratio and structural similarity index measure) and no-reference image assessments (Roughness (Ro) and Effective Roughness (ERo) indices).
Enhancing Peptide Biomaterials for Biofabrication

Biofabrication using well-matched cell/materials systems provides unprecedented opportunities for dealing with human health issues where disease or injury overtake the body’s native regenerative abilities. Such opportunities can be enhanced through the development of biomaterials with cues that appropriately influence embedded cells into forming functional tissues and organs. In this context, biomaterials’ reliance on rigid biofabrication techniques needs to support the incorporation of a hierarchical mimicry of local and bulk biological cues that mimic the key functional components of native extracellular matrix. Advances in synthetic self-assembling peptide biomaterials promise to produce reproducible mimics of tissue-specific structures and may go some way in overcoming batch inconsistency issues of naturally sourced materials. Recent work in this area has demonstrated biofabrication with self-assembling peptide biomaterials with unique biofabrication technologies to support structural fidelity upon 3D patterning. The use of synthetic self-assembling peptide biomaterials is a growing field that has demonstrated applicability in dermal, intestinal, muscle, cancer and stem cell tissue engineering.