Precision thermometry of the skin can, together with other measurements, provide clinically relevant information about cardiovascular health, cognitive state, malignancy and many other important aspects of human physiology. Here, we introduce an ultrathin, compliant skin-like sensor/actuator technology that can pliably laminate onto the epidermis to provide continuous, accurate thermal characterizations that are unavailable with other methods. Examples include non-invasive spatial mapping of skin temperature with millikelvin precision, and simultaneous quantitative assessment of tissue thermal conductivity. Such devices can also be implemented in ways that reveal the time-dynamic influence of blood flow and perfusion on these properties. Experimental and theoretical studies establish the underlying principles of operation, and define engineering guidelines for device design. Evaluation of subtle variations in skin temperature associated with mental activity, physical stimulation and vasoconstriction/dilation along with accurate determination of skin hydration through measurements of thermal conductivity represent some important operational examples.

Light‐trapping schemes implemented with ultrathin, 3 μm thick silicon solar cells offer excellent opportunities for greatly enhanced absorption and corresponding improvements in efficiency of operation. Optically optimized cells of this type yield energy conversion efficiencies that are higher by ≈190% compared to otherwise identical cells that do not exploit light‐trapping features, consistent with optical modeling results.

We showed previously that anharmonic DNA dynamical features correlate with transcriptional activity in selected viral promoters, and hypothesized that areas of DNA softness may represent loci of functional significance. The nine known promoters from human adenovirus type 5 were analyzed for inherent DNA softness using the Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois model and a statistical mechanics approach, using a transfer integral operator. We found a loosely defined pattern of softness peaks distributed both upstream and downstream of the transcriptional start sites, and that early transcriptional regions tended to be softer than late promoter regions. When reported transcription factor binding sites were superimposed on our calculated softness profiles, we observed a close correspondence in many cases, which suggests that DNA duplex breathing dynamics may play a role in protein recognition of specific nucleotide sequences and protein-DNA binding. These results suggest that genetic information is stored not only in explicit codon sequences, but also may be encoded into local dynamic and structural features, and that it may be possible to access this obscured information using DNA dynamics calculations.

Increased expression of a number of proinflammatory genes, including IL-8, is associated with inflammatory conditions such as asthma. Glucocorticoid receptor (GR)β, one of the GR isoforms, has been suggested to be upregulated in asthma associated with glucocorticoid insensitivity and to work as a dominant negative inhibitor of wild type GRα. However, recent data suggest that GRβ is not a dominant negative inhibitor of GRα in the transrepressive process and has its own functional role. We investigated the functional role of GRβ expression in the suppressive effect of glucocorticoids on tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced IL-8 release in an airway epithelial cell line. GRβ expression was induced by treatment of epithelial cells with either dexamethasone or TNF-α. GRβ was able to inhibit glucocorticoid-induced transcriptional activation mediated by binding to glucocorticoid response elements (GREs). The suppressive effect of dexamethasone on TNF-α-induced IL-8 transcription was not affected by GRβ overexpression, rather GRβ had its own weak suppressive activity on TNF-α-induced IL-8 expression. Overall histone deacetylase activity and histone acetyltransferase activity were not changed by GRβ overexpression, but TNF-α-induced histone H4 acetylation at the IL-8 promoter was decreased with GRβ overexpression. This study suggests that GRβ overexpression does not affect glucocorticoid-induced suppression of IL-8 expression in airway epithelial cells and GRβ induces its own histone deacetylase activity around IL-8 promoter site.