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Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) have shown great potential for generating prosthetic control signals. Translating BMIs into the clinic requires fully implantable, wireless systems; however, current solutions have high power requirements which limit their usability. Lowering this power consumption typically limits the system to a single neural modality, or signal type, and thus to a relatively small clinical market. Here, we address both of these issues by investigating the use of signal power in a single narrow frequency band as a decoding feature for extracting information from electrocorticographic (ECoG), electromyographic (EMG), and intracortical neural data. We have designed and tested the Multi-modal Implantable Neural Interface (MINI), a wireless recording system which extracts and transmits signal power in a single, configurable frequency band. In prerecorded datasets, we used the MINI to explore low frequency signal features and any resulting tradeoff between power savings and decoding performance losses. When processing intracortical data, the MINI achieved a power consumption 89.7% less than a more typical system designed to extract action potential waveforms. When processing ECoG and EMG data, the MINI achieved similar power reductions of 62.7% and 78.8%. At the same time, using the single signal feature extracted by the MINI, we were able to decode all three modalities with less than a 9% drop in accuracy relative to using high-bandwidth, modality-specific signal features. We believe this system architecture can be used to produce a viable, cost-effective, clinical BMI.

Indole is a high-toxic refractory nitrogen-containing compound that could cause serious harm to the human and ecosystem. It has been a challenge to develop economical and efficient technology for degrading indole. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) has great potential in the removal of organic pollutants utilizing microorganisms as catalysts to degrade organic matter into the nutrients. Herein, a novel anode of Fe2O3-polyaniline-dopamine hybrid composite modified carbon felt (Fe2O3-PDHC/CF) was prepared by electrochemical deposition. The degradation efficiency of indole by the MFC loading Fe2O3-PDHC/CF anode was up to 90.3 % in 120 h operation, while that of the MFC loading CF anode was only 44.0 %. The maximum power density of the MFC loading Fe2O3-PDHC/CF anode was 3184.4 mW·m-2, increasing 113 % compared to the MFC loading CF anode. The superior performances of the MFC with Fe2O3-PDHC surface-modified anode owned to the synergistic effect of high conductive Fe2O3 and admirably biocompatible polyaniline-dopamine. MFC with the Fe2O3-PDHC/CF anode could produce considerable electricity and effectively degrade indole in water, which demonstrated a practical approach for the efficient degradation of refractory organic compounds in wastewater.

AbstractBiofuel cell (BFC) that transfers chemical energy into electricity is a promising candidate as an energy‐harvesting device for implantable electronics. However, there still remain major challenges for implantable BFCs, including bulky and rigid device structure mismatching with soft tissues such as the brain, and the power output decreases due to the fouling process in a biological environment. Here, a flexible and anti‐biofouling fiber BFC working in the brain chronically is developed. The fiber BFC is based on a carbon nanotube fiber electrode to possess small size and flexibility. A hydrophilic zwitterionic anti‐biofouling polydopamine‐2‐methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine layer is designed on the surface of fiber BFC to resist the nonspecific protein adsorption in a complex biological environment. After implantation, the fiber BFC can achieve a stable device/tissue interface, along with a negligible immune response. The fiber BFC has first realized power generation in the mouse brain for over a month, exhibiting its promising prospect as an energy‐harvesting device in vivo.

A mutation in the p53 gene is believed to play an important role in the radioresistance of many cancer cell lines. We studied cytotoxic effects of high linear energy transfer (LET) carbon beams on glioma cell lines with either mutant or wild-type p53.Cell lines U-87 and U-138 expressing wild-type p53 and U-251 and U-373 expressing mutant p53 were used. These cells were irradiated with 290 MeV/u carbon beams generated by the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in the National Institute of Radiologic Science or X-rays. A standard colony-forming assay and flow cytometric detection of apoptosis were performed. Cell cycle progression and the expression of p53, p21, and bax proteins were examined.High LET carbon radiation was more cytotoxic than low LET X-ray treatment against glioma cells. The effects of the carbon beams were not dependent on the p53 gene status but were reduced by G(1) arrest, which was independent of p21 expression. The expression of bax remained unchanged in all four cell lines.These results indicate that high LET charged particle radiation can induce cell death in glioma cells more effectively than X-rays and that cell death other than p53-dependent apoptosis may participate in the cytotoxicity of heavy charged particles. Thus, it might prove to be an effective alternative radiotherapy for patients with gliomas harboring mutated p53 gene.

Indoor air pollution is mainly caused by solid fuel use for cooking in developing countries. Many previous studies focused on its health risks on the children and in specific local area. This paper investigates household energy usage and transition for cooking in rural China and the health effects on the elderly. A national large-scale dataset CHARLS (China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study) covering 450 villages and communities is employed. Logit regressions were used to quantitatively estimate the effects, after controlling for some factors such as income, demographic, and geographical variables. The results robustly show that compared to non-solid fuels, solid fuel use significantly increases the possibility of chronic lung diseases (30%), exacerbation of chronic lung diseases (95%), seizure of heart disease (1.80 times), and decreases self-evaluated health status of the elderly (1.38 times). Thus, it is urgent to improve clean energy access for cooking in rural China.

Water management is critical to optimize the operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. At present, numerical models are employed to guide water management in such fuel cells. Accurate measurements of water content variation in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are required to validate these models and to optimize fuel cell behavior. We report a direct water content measurement across the Nafion membrane in an operational polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, employing double half k-space spin echo single point imaging techniques. The MRI measurements with T2 mapping were undertaken with a parallel plate resonator to avoid the effects of RF screening. The parallel plate resonator employs the electrodes inherent to the fuel cell to create a resonant circuit at RF frequencies for MR excitation and detection, while still operating as a conventional fuel cell at DC. Three stages of fuel cell operation were investigated: activation, operation and dehydration. Each profile was acquired in 6 min, with 6 microm nominal resolution and a SNR of better than 15.

To investigate and compare the cell cycle progression in relation to cell death in the human glioma cell lines, M059J and M059K, after exposure to DNA double-strand break-inducing agents.The M059J and M059K cells, deficient and proficient in the catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase, respectively, were exposed to 1 and 4 Gy of photons or accelerated nitrogen ions. In addition, M059J and M059K cells were treated with 10 and 40 mug/mL of bleomycin for 30 min, respectively. Cell cycle progression, monitored by DNA flow cytometry, was measured up to 72 h after treatment.M059J, but not M059K, cells displayed G(2)/M accumulation after low linear energy transfer irradiation. High linear energy transfer radiation exposure however, resulted in a substantial increase of M059K cells in the G(2)/M phase detected at 48 h. At 72 h, the number of cells in the G(2)/M phase was equivalent to its control. M059J cells accumulated mainly in S phase after high linear energy transfer irradiation. In contrast to M059K, M059J cells were still blocked at 72 h. Bleomycin induced G(2)/M accumulation for both M059J and M059K cells detected 24 h after treatment. At 48 h, the percentage of bleomycin-treated M059J cells in G(2)/M phase remained high, and the number of M059K cells had decreased to control levels. Neither cell line showed cell cycle arrest (< or =10 h) after exposure to these agents.Distinct cell cycle block and release is dependent on the complexity of the induced DNA damage and the presence of the DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit.

The Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) is currently used to assess Parkinson's disease, and is a key method for determining the progression of disease based on the gross findings of patients. However, this method cannot quantify the extent of disease of patients, which means the administration of drugs cannot be determined on a real-time basis. Thalamotomy also causes discomfort and pain to the patients, and adversely affects treatment as it is performed following the onset of symptoms. Accordingly, the dopamine concentration, which is one of the key factors in determining this disease, needs to be detected quantitatively at ordinary times. Hence, the development of a bio-kit or a bio-sensor is essential for effectively prescribing the correct dopamine concentration in a customizable manner. In this study, the effect of dopamine level on this phenomenon was observed using the Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) phenomenon generated between a donor and acceptor. By confirming the photoluminescence (PL) and lifetime data, it was demonstrated that the degree of energy transfer increased with increasing dopamine concentration. To apply this phenomenon to an optical sensor, a glass surface was modified with a quantum dot (QD)-encapsulated dendrimer, and analyzed using the contact angle and ATR-FTIR. The topology of surface was determined by an atomic force microscope (AFM).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of UVR at birth and its relationship to lifespan and determine whether there are significant differential effects on sex and race. We test if variation in UVR, as determined by solar cycles (long-term variation), is related to survival as measured by age at death.The data used 78 million death records from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) from 1979 to 2013 with accidents, suicides, and war casualties deleted resulted in ~63 million records. Records of persons ≤ 47 years old were also scrubbed because we could not show an effect on lifespan based upon the intensity of solar energy as reflected by sunspot number (SSN). This we hypothesize is due to the protective effect of the hormones associated with growth and reproduction. Also selected were persons afflicted with multiple sclerosis (MS).Males of all races born with a UVR intensity as estimated by sunspot number (SSN) ≤ 90 had an average lifespan of 74.4 years, for females of all races, 78.1 years; males born with >90 had an average lifespan of 66.3 years, for females of all races, 70.2 years, resulting in a lifespan decrease of 8.1 years for males and 8.5 years for females. For African-American males born ≤ 90 SSN, 70.8 years and for >90 SSN, 62.5 years, an 8.3-year decrease; similarly, for African-American females ≤ 90 SSN, 75.0, for >90 SSN, 65.4 years, a 9.6-year decrease. Higher solar energy at birth had an adverse effect on human lifespan. We also found that there were twice as many persons with MS born in >80-90 SSN as in the general population.There is a statistically significant inverse relationship between exposure to solar energy at birth and average human lifespan. Solar energy by some mechanism alters the epigenome at birth, but the effect of higher solar energy becomes apparent after the age of natural selection.