Wearables as medical technologies are becoming an integral part of personal analytics, measuring physical status, recording physiological parameters, or informing schedule for medication. These continuously evolving technology platforms do not only promise to help people pursue a healthier life style, but also provide continuous medical data for actively tracking metabolic status, diagnosis, and treatment. Advances in the miniaturization of flexible electronics, electrochemical biosensors, microfluidics, and artificial intelligence algorithms have led to wearable devices that can generate real-time medical data within the Internet of things. These flexible devices can be configured to make conformal contact with epidermal, ocular, intracochlear, and dental interfaces to collect biochemical or electrophysiological signals. This article discusses consumer trends in wearable electronics, commercial and emerging devices, and fabrication methods. It also reviews real-time monitoring of vital signs using biosensors, stimuli-responsive materials for drug delivery, and closed-loop theranostic systems. It covers future challenges in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality, communication modes, energy management, displays, conformity, and data safety. The development of patient-oriented wearable technologies and their incorporation in randomized clinical trials will facilitate the design of safe and effective approaches.

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) have been the pillar of rapid point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostics due to their simplicity, rapid process, and low cost. Recent advances in sensitivity, selectivity, and chemical stability enhancement have ensured the foothold of LFAs in commercial POC diagnostics. This paper reviews recent developments in labeling strategies and detection methods of LFAs. Moreover, vertical flow assays (VFAs) have emerged as an alternate paper‐based assay due to faster detection time and unique multiplexing capabilities. Smartphones as LFA readers have been transformed into a universal integrated platform for imaging, data processing, and storage, providing quantitative results in low‐resource settings. Commercial LFAs and VFAs products are evaluated with regards to their performance, market trends, and regulatory issues. The future outlook of the flow‐based assays for POC diagnostics is also discussed.

No abstract

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of the deposition of Ag on bcc NiAl(110) in the temperature range from 200 to 300 K reveal an initial bilayer growth mode. In this regime, which encompasses at least the first two levels of bilayer islands, the film appears to have an fcc Ag(110)-like structure. Selection of this structure reflects an almost perfect lateral match between the Ag(110) and NiAl(110) lattice constants. Density functional theory (DFT) analysis of supported Ag films with an ideal fcc(110) structure on NiAl(110) indicates that the bilayer growth mode is promoted by a quantum size effect. However, the system does not exhibit perfect Ag(110) film growth. STM analysis reveals that the tops of Ag islands are decorated by a ripple structure even in the initial levels of growth and also shows a deviation from Ag(110)-like bilayer growth to Ag(111)-like monolayer growth for thick films. DFT analysis is also applied to provide some insight into the observed deviations from perfect Ag(110) film structure.