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- ArticleScheinberg M, Nihalani S, Mehta L, Shah A.Cureus. 2024 Feb;16(2):e53454.Orthopedic casting has seen a remarkable evolution from ancient practices to cutting-edge innovations. Beginning with ancient Egyptian methods employing bark, linen, and bandages, casting techniques have progressed through historical milestones, including the adoption of plaster of Paris in the 19th century and the introduction of synthetic materials like fiberglass and thermoplastics in the 20th century. Historical progressions transitioned from primitive materials to more sophisticated techniques, such as resin-soaked bandages and starch-based casts. While thermoplastics showcased benefits like adjustability and comfort, widespread adoption faced hurdles due to cost and water resistance limitations. The emergence of 3D printing introduced patient-specific casts with improved ventilation but faced challenges in accessibility, cost, and immediate immobilization. FlexiOH presents as a groundbreaking foam cast by Orthoheal, offering customizable fit, lightweight design, improved ventilation, and moisture resistance. Its potential to reduce ER visits, enhance patient comfort, and streamline application procedures positions it as a promising technology for the future. This paper discusses each casting generation's advantages and drawbacks, highlighting the potential of innovative technologies like FlexiOH to revolutionize orthopedic casting practices, promising improved outcomes, reduced costs, and enhanced efficiency.
- ArticleXuan W, Vatansever F, Huang L, Wu Q, Xuan Y, Dai T, Ando T, Xu T, Huang YY, Hamblin MR.PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53454.Low-level laser (light) therapy (LLLT) has been clinically applied around the world for a spectrum of disorders requiring healing, regeneration and prevention of tissue death. One area that is attracting growing interest in this scope is the use of transcranial LLLT to treat stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). We developed a mouse model of severe TBI induced by controlled cortical impact and explored the effect of different treatment schedules. Adult male BALB/c mice were divided into 3 broad groups (a) sham-TBI sham-treatment, (b) real-TBI sham-treatment, and (c) real-TBI active-treatment. Mice received active-treatment (transcranial LLLT by continuous wave 810 nm laser, 25 mW/cm(2), 18 J/cm(2), spot diameter 1 cm) while sham-treatment was immobilization only, delivered either as a single treatment at 4 hours post TBI, as 3 daily treatments commencing at 4 hours post TBI or as 14 daily treatments. Mice were sacrificed at 0, 4, 7, 14 and 28 days post-TBI for histology or histomorphometry, and injected with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) at days 21-27 to allow identification of proliferating cells. Mice with severe TBI treated with 1-laser Tx (and to a greater extent 3-laser Tx) had significant improvements in neurological severity score (NSS), and wire-grip and motion test (WGMT). However 14-laser Tx provided no benefit over TBI-sham control. Mice receiving 1- and 3-laser Tx had smaller lesion size at 28-days (although the size increased over 4 weeks in all TBI-groups) and less Fluoro-Jade staining for degenerating neurons (at 14 days) than in TBI control and 14-laser Tx groups. There were more BrdU-positive cells in the lesion in 1- and 3-laser groups suggesting LLLT may increase neurogenesis. Transcranial NIR laser may provide benefit in cases of acute TBI provided the optimum treatment regimen is employed.
- ArticlePike CE, Dohnt HC, Tully PJ, Bartik W, Welton-Mitchell C, Murray CV, Rice K, Cosh SM, Lykins AD.JMIR Res Protoc. 2024 Jun 04;13:e53454.BACKGROUND: Natural hazards are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change. Many of these natural disasters cannot be prevented; what may be reduced is the extent of the risk and negative impact on people and property. Research indicates that the 2019-2020 bushfires in Australia (also known as the "Black Summer Bushfires") resulted in significant psychological distress among Australians both directly and indirectly exposed to the fires. Previous intervention research suggests that communities impacted by natural hazards (eg, earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods) can benefit from interventions that integrate mental health and social support components within disaster preparedness frameworks. Research suggests that disaster-affected communities often prefer the support of community leaders, local services, and preexisting relationships over external supports, highlighting that community-based interventions, where knowledge stays within the local community, are highly beneficial. The Community-Based Disaster Mental Health Intervention (CBDMHI) is an evidence-based approach that aims to increase disaster preparedness, resilience, social cohesion, and social support (disaster-related help-seeking), and decrease mental health symptoms, such as depression and anxiety.
OBJECTIVE: This research aims to gain insight into rural Australian's recovery needs post natural hazards, and to enhance community resilience in advance of future fires. Specifically, this research aims to adapt the CBDMHI for the rural Australian context and for bushfires and second, to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the adapted CBDMHI in a rural Australian community.
METHODS: Phase 1 consists of qualitative interviews (individual or dyads) with members of the target bushfire-affected rural community. Analysis of these data will include identifying themes related to disaster preparedness, social cohesion, and mental health, which will inform the adaptation. An initial consultation phase is a key component of the adaptation process and, therefore, phase 2 will involve additional discussion with key stakeholders and members of the community to further guide adaptation of the CBDMHI to specific community needs, building on phase 1 inputs. Phase 3 includes identifying and training local community leaders in the adapted intervention. Following this, leaders will co-deliver the intervention. The acceptability and feasibility of the adapted CBDMHI within the community will be evaluated by questionnaires and semistructured interviews. Effectiveness will be evaluated by quantifying psychological distress, resilience, community cohesion, psychological preparedness, and help-seeking intentions.
RESULTS: This study has received institutional review board approval and commenced phase 1 recruitment in October 2022.
CONCLUSIONS: The study will identify if the adapted CBDMHI is viable and acceptable within a village in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. These findings will inform future scale-up in the broader rural Australian context. If this intervention is well received, the CBDMHI may be valuable for future disaster recovery and preparedness efforts in rural Australia. These findings may inform future scale-up in the broader rural Australian context.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/53454. - ArticleDursap T, Fadel M, Regreny P, Tapia Garcia C, Chevalier C, Nguyen HS, Drouard E, Brottet S, Gendry M, Danescu A, Koepf M, Artero V, Bugnet M, Penuelas J.ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Nov 22;15(46):53446-53454.Photoelectrochemical cells (PEC) are appealing devices for the production of renewable energy carriers. In this context, III-V semiconductors such as GaAs are very promising materials due to their tunable band gaps, which can be appropriately adjusted for sunlight harvesting. Because of the high cost of these semiconductors, the nanostructuring of the photoactive layer can help to improve the device efficiency as well as drastically reduce the amount of material needed. III-V nanowire-based photoelectrodes benefit from the intrinsically high aspect ratio of nanowires, their enhanced ability to trap light, and their improved charge separation and collection abilities and thus are particularly attractive for PECs. However, III-V semiconductors often suffer from corrosion in aqueous electrolytes, preventing their utilization over long periods under relevant working conditions. Here, photocathodes of GaAs nanowires protected with thin TiO2 shells were prepared and studied under simulated sunlight irradiation to assess their photoelectrochemical performances in correlation with their structural degradation, highlighting the advantageous nanowire geometry compared to its thin-film counterpart. Morphological and electronic parameters, such as the aspect ratio of the nanowires and their doping pattern, were found to strongly influence the photocatalytic performances of the system. This work highlights the advantageous combination of nanowires featuring a buried radial p-n junction with Co nanoparticles used as a hydrogen evolution catalyst. The nanostructured photocathodes exhibit significant photocatalytic activities comparable with previous noble-metal-based systems. This study demonstrates the potential of a GaAs nanostructured semiconductor and its reliable use for photodriven hydrogen production.
- ArticleTang H, Xu Q, Wang M, Jiang J.ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Nov 17;13(45):53454-53467.At present, 100 000+ metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been synthesized, and it is challenging to identity the best candidate for a specific application. In this study, MOFs are rapidly screened via a hierarchical approach for propane/propylene (C3H8/C3H6) separation. First, the adsorption capacity and selectivity of C3H8/C3H6 mixture in "Computation-Ready, Experimental" (CoRE) MOFs are predicted via a molecular simulation (MS) method. The relationships between separation metrics and structural factors are established, and top-performing CoRE MOFs are identified. Then, machine learning (ML) models are trained and developed upon the CoRE MOFs using pore size, pore geometry, and framework chemistry as feature descriptors. By introducing binned pore size distributions and geometric descriptors, the accuracy of ML models is substantially improved. The feature importance of the descriptors is physically interpreted by the Gini impurities and Shapley Additive Explanations. Subsequently, the ML models are used to rapidly screen experimental "Cambridge Structural Database" (CSD) MOFs and hypothetical MOFs for C3H8/C3H6 separation. In the CSD MOFs, the out-of-sample predictions are found to agree well with simulation results, demonstrating the excellent transferability of the ML models from the CoRE to CSD MOFs. Moreover, nine CSD MOFs are identified to possess separation performance superior to top-performing CoRE MOFs. Finally, the similarity and diversity among experimental and hypothetical MOFs are visualized and compared by the t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) feature projections. Remarkably, the CoRE and CSD MOFs are revealed to share a close similarity in both chemical and geometric feature spaces. By synergizing MS and ML, the hierarchical approach developed in this study would advance the rapid screening of MOFs across different databases toward industrially important separation processes.
- ArticleTejo F, Toneto D, Oyarzún S, Hermosilla J, Danna CS, Palma JL, da Silva RB, Dorneles LS, Denardin JC.ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Nov 25;12(47):53454-53461.Magnetic skyrmions are nontrivial spin textures that resist external perturbations, being promising candidates for the next-generation recording devices. Nevertheless, a major challenge in realizing skyrmion-based devices is the stabilization of ordered arrays of these spin textures under ambient conditions and zero applied field. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the formation and stabilization of magnetic skyrmions on the arrays of self-assembled hexagonal nanodomes taking advantage of the intrinsic properties of its curved geometry. Magnetic force microscopy images from the arrays of 100 nm nanodomes showed stable skyrmions at the zero field that are arranged following the topography of the nanostructure. Micromagnetic simulations are compared to the experiments to determine the correlation of the domain textures with the topography of the samples. We propose a simple method to nucleate and annihilate skyrmions, opening the possibility for an ultradense data storage based on the high stability and low energy consumption of the skyrmionic textures.
- Booksenior editor, Scott R. Steele ; section editors, Justin A. Maykel, Amy L. Lightner, Joshua I.S. Bleier.Summary: "Offering comprehensive coverage of all diseases and conditions affecting the colon, rectum, and anus, Steele's Colon and Rectal Surgery provides authoritative guidance on the full range of today's operative procedures. Edited by Dr. Scott R. Steele, Chairman of the Department of Colorectal Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, and section editors Drs. Justin A. Maykel, Amy L. Lightner, and Joshua I.S. Bleier, this new reference contains 81 concise, tightly focused chapters that take you step by step through each procedure, guided by the knowledge and expertise of key leaders in the field from across the world. Includes comprehensive coverage of the latest laparoscopic, robotic, and open diagnostic and surgical management techniques in all areas of colon and rectal surgery. Each chapter includes insightful section editor commentary throughout and concludes with a senior editor commentary written by Dr. Steele. Features a full-color design with hundreds of unique, detailed illustrations and photographs depicting the steps in today's operative procedures"-- Provided by publisher.Digital Access LWW Health Library [2023]