Development of Flexible Biceps Tremors Sensing Chip of PVDF Fibers with Nano-Silver Particles by Near-Field Electrospinning

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and AgNO₃/PVDF composite piezoelectric fibers were prepared using near-field electrospinning technology. The prepared fibers are attached to the electrode sheet and encapsulated with polydimethylsiloxane to create an energy acquisition device and further fabricated into a dynamic sensing element. The addition of AgNO₃ significantly increased the conductivity of the solution from 40.33 μS/cm to 883.59 μS/cm, which in turn made the fiber drawing condition smoother with the increase of high voltage electric field and reduced the fiber wire diameter size from 0.37 μm to 0.23 μm. The tapping test shows that the voltage signal can reach ~0.9 V at a frequency of 7 Hz, and the energy conversion efficiency is twice that of the PVDF output voltage. The addition of AgNO₃ effectively enhances the molecular bonding ability, which effectively increases the piezoelectric constants of PVDF piezoelectric fibers. When the human body is exercised for a long period of time and the body is overloaded, the biceps muscle is found to produce 8 to 16 tremors/second through five arm flexion movements. The voltage output of the flexible dynamic soft sensor is between 0.7–0.9 V and shows an orderly alternating current waveform of voltage signals. The sensor can be used to detect muscle tremors after high-intensity training and to obtain advance information about changes in the symptoms of fasciculation, allowing for more accurate diagnosis and treatment.

[The network investigation on knowledge, attitude and practice about Novel coronavirus pneumonia of the residents in Anhui Province]

Objective: To analyze the current situation of the knowledge, attitudes and practice about Novelcoronavirus pneumonia (NCP) of the residents in Anhui Province. Methods: Anonymous network sampling survey was carried out with an electronic questionnaire that designed by the questionnaire star, and a total of 4016 subjects from Anhui province were investigated. The content of the survey includes that the basic information of subjects,the residents' knowledge, attitudes and practice about NCP, as well as their satisfaction with the prevention and control measures adopted by the government and health authorities and the suggestions on future prevention. The questionnaire doesn't involve any privacy information, and all questions were mandatory to ensure the response rate. Results: The M (P(25), P(75)) age the 4016 subjects was 21 (19, 24), and the ranging from 7 to 80 years old. The number of males was1431(35.6%). Social networking tools such as WeChat and QQ were the main sources of epidemic information for residents (97.8%, 3 929 respondents). Residents have a high awareness rate of the main symptoms, transmission routes, using of masks, hand washing and treatment information of NCP, while a low awareness rate of the atypical symptoms. 92.6% of the subjects (n=3 720) think that the outbreak was scary. In terms of psychological behavior scores, the results showed that female (9.38±4.81), the urban (9.37±5.02) and the medical workers (10.79±5.19) had a poorer mental health than the male (8.45±5.00) , the rural (8.71±4.75) and the non-medical workers (the students: 8.85±4.83; public institude workers: 9.02±5.08; others: 8.97±5.39) (P < 0.05). 71.9% of the residents (n=2 887)were satisfied with the local epidemic control measures. The residents took various of the measures to prevent and control the epidemic. The ratio of residents that could achieve "no gathering and less going out" , "wear masks when going out" and "do not go to crowded and closed places" was up to 97.4% (n=3 913), 93.6% (n=3758) and 91.5% (n=3 673) respectively. Conclusion: The residents in Anhui province have a good KAP about NCP, yet it is necessary to strengthen the community publicity, the mental health maintenance of residents and students' health education.

Decreased serum levels of T-cell immunoglobulin mucin-1 and T-cell immunoglobulin mucin-3 in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

This study aims to investigate the serum T-cell immunoglobulin mucin (TIM)-1 and TIM-3 levels in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients and analyze their correlations with clinical features. Sixtyone SLE patients and 69 healthy controls were enrolled, serum TIM-1 and TIM-3 levels were detected by ELISA. Results demonstrated that both serum TIM-1 and TIM-3 levels were significantly decreased in SLE patients compared with controls (both P less than 0.05). Lower serum TIM-3 levels in SLE patients with nephritis were observed when compared to those without nephritis, with a marginal statistical significance (P=0.059). However, both serum TIM-1 and TIM-3 levels had no significant correlation with SLE disease activity (both >0.05). In summary, decreased serum TIM-1 and TIM-3 levels and association of TIM-3 with nephritis suggest their possible role in the development and pathogenesis of SLE. However, further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results.

Tracking a dynamic set of feature points

We address the problems of tracking a set of feature points over a long sequence of monocular images as well as how to include and track new feature points detected in successive frames. Due to the 3-D movement of the camera, different parts of the images exhibit different image motion. Tracking discrete features can therefore be decomposed into several independent and local problems. Accordingly, we propose a localized feature tracking algorithm. The trajectory of each feature point is described by a 2-D kinematic model. Then to track a feature point, an interframe motion estimation scheme is designed to obtain the estimates of interframe motion parameters. Subsequently, using the estimates of motion parameters, corresponding points are identified to subpixel accuracy. Afterwards, the temporal information is processed to facilitate the tracking scheme. Since different feature points are tracked independently, the algorithm is able to handle the image motion arising from general 3-D camera movements. On the other hand, in addition to tracking feature points detected at the beginning, an efficient way to dynamically include new points extracted in subsequent frames is devised so that the information in a sequence is preserved. Experimental results for several image sequences are also reported.