Articles you may be interested inLarge-diameter roll mold fabrication method using a small-diameter quartz roll mold and UV nanoimprint lithography J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 29, 06FC08 (2011); 10.1116/1.3657524Fabrication of three dimensional structures for an UV curable nanoimprint lithography mold using variable dose control with critical-energy electron beam exposure Extreme ultraviolet lithography based nanofabrication using a bilevel photoresistThe resolution, dimension stability, and reproducibility of the Soft UV-Nanoimprint is investigated. The potential for imprinting nanostructures with flexible molds in UV-curable resists in the 100 nm regime are explored and the limitations analyzed. The dimensional stability of imprinted patterns is determined by the deformation of the mold that in term depends on the geometry of the structures and the imprint pressure applied.

Renal fibrosis is considered as the pathway of almost all kinds of chronic kidney diseases (CKD) to the end stage of renal diseases (ESRD). Ganoderic acid (GA) is a group of lanostane triterpenes isolated from Ganoderma lucidum , which has shown a variety of pharmacological activities. In this study we investigated whether GA exerted antirenal fibrosis effect in a unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) mouse model. After UUO surgery, the mice were treated with GA (3.125, 12.5, and 50 mg· kg −1 ·d − 1 , ip) for 7 or 14 days. Then the mice were sacrificed for collecting blood and kidneys. We showed that GA treatment dose-dependently attenuated UUO-induced tubular injury and renal fibrosis; GA (50 mg· kg −1 ·d − 1 ) significantly ameliorated renal disfunction during fibrosis progression. We further revealed that GA treatment inhibited the extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition in the kidney by suppressing the expression of fibronectin, mainly through hindering the over activation of TGF-β/Smad signaling. On the other hand, GA treatment significantly decreased the expression of mesenchymal cell markers alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and vimentin, and upregulated E-cadherin expression in the kidney, suggesting the suppression of tubular epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) partially via inhibiting both TGF-β/Smad and MAPK (ERK, JNK, p38) signaling pathways. The inhibitory effects of GA on TGF-β/Smad and MAPK signaling pathways were confirmed in TGF-β1-stimulated HK-2 cell model. GA-A, a GA monomer, was identified as a potent inhibitor on renal fibrosis in vitro. These data demonstrate that GA or GA-A might be developed as a potential therapeutic agent in the treatment of renal fibrosis.

The aim of this study was to provide information about the morphology and topography of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN), its external features and branches, as well as its relationship to the inferior thyroid artery, the inferior horn of the thyroid cartilage and the thyroid gland. The RLNs in 50 adult cadavers (100 sides) were dissected and analyzed. A communicating loop connecting one branch of the RLN to another or a twig originating from the cervical sympathetic trunk was present in 13 of 100 sides. A double left RLN appeared in 2 sides; a right non-recurrent inferior laryngeal nerve appeared in one side. All of the RLNs, including looped ones, bifurcated into laryngeal branches and extralaryngeal branches, with most of the former further dividing into the anterior and posterior branches entering the larynx. The relations of the RLN to the inferior thyroid artery, the inferior horn of the thyroid cartilage and the thyroid gland were inconstant. The information gained from this study will be of value in thyroid surgery.

Durable abrasion resistance is the critical capability for the functional textile via coating treatment routes. Here, an abrasion resistant fabric-based Joule heater with sandwich structure was fabricated via spraying in sequence of water-soluble polyurethane (WPU), then composite ink of graphene, WPU and tourmaline, and at last WPU. The composite fabrics with the incorporation of tourmaline exhibited favorable electrothermal performance, which could achieve a steady-state temperature of 75.4 °C in 30 s under 10 V voltage, and possessed a high power density (2 × 10 3 W/m 2 ). The flexible heater exhibited remarkable abrasion shielding performance, only resulting in 21.1% electrical conductivity reduction after a 2500-cycles abrasion test, far less than the 87.0% of fabrics without a sandwich structure. The application on thermal therapy of the hand exhibited 1.8 °C rise of blood vessel around the heater under 8 V voltage. Therefore, the asobtained Joule heater can be widely applied in functional protective garments and medical electroheating wearable devices.

Flexible electronic devices with strain sensing and energy storage functions integrated simultaneously are urgently desirable to detect human motions for potential wearable applications. This paper reports the fabrication of a cotton/carbon nanotube sheath–core yarn deposited with polypyrrole (PPy) for highly multifunctional stretchable wearable electronics. The microscopic structure and morphology of the prepared sheath–core yarn were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. A mechanical experiment demonstrated its excellent stretchable capacity because of its unique spring-like structure. We demonstrate that the sheath–core yarn can be used as wearable strain sensors, exhibiting an ultrahigh strain sensing range (0–350%) and excellent stability. The sheath–core yarn can be used in highly sensitive real time monitoring toward both subtle and large human motions under different conditions. Furthermore, the electrochemical performance of the sheath–core yarn was characterized by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The measured areal capacitance was 761.2 mF/cm2 at the scanning rate of 1 mV/s. The method of spinning technology may lead to new exploitation of CNTs and PPy in future wearable electronic device applications.