Contact stiffness is an important parameter for describing the contact behavior of rough surfaces. In this study, to more accurately describe the contact stiffness between grinding surfaces of steel materials, a novel microcontact stiffness model is proposed. In this model, the novel cosine curve-shaped asperity and the conventional Gauss distribution are used to develop a simulated rough surface. Based on this simulated rough surface, the analytical expression of the microcontact stiffness model is obtained using contact mechanics theory and statistical theory. Finally, an experimental study of the contact stiffness of rough surfaces was conducted on different steel materials of various levels of roughness. The comparison results reveal that the prediction results of the present model show the same trend as that of the experimental results; the contact stiffness increases with increasing contact pressure. Under the same contact pressure, the present model is closer to the experimental results than the already existing elastic–plastic contact (CEB) and finite-element microcontact stiffness (KE) models, whose hypothesis of a single asperity is hemispherical. In addition, under the same contact pressure, the contact stiffness of the same steel material decreases with increasing roughness, whereas the contact stiffness values of different steel materials under the same roughness show only small differences. The correctness and accuracy of the present model can be demonstrated by analyzing the measured asperity geometry of steel materials and experimental results. The surfaces of machined parts are not completely smooth. The contact stiffness of rough surfaces directly affects the connection performance between mechanical parts and has an important influence on the stability and reliability of mechanical systems ,2. OwingThe contact stiffness of rough surfaces has always been an important topic in the field of tribology. Greenwood and Williamson  were theSeveral scholars have since recognized the problems of simulated rough surfaces under different machining methods. Horng  proposedThe purpose of the present study is to explore the contact characteristics for the grinding surfaces of steel materials, as well as to establish a new method for analytical calculation of contact stiffness. A novel microcontact stiffness model which is more suitable for the grinding surfaces of steel materials is established, and simulations are carried out for the contact stiffness of grinding surfaces obtained with different levels of roughness, thereby providing a contact stiffness acquisition approach. Moreover, the correctness and accuracy of the present model are verified experimentally.To make the established microcontact stiffness model more accurate, it is necessary to establish a simulated rough surface that is more consistent with physical specimen surfaces. A simulated rough surface is actually a hypothesis about the geometry of a single asperity and the height distribution of the asperities on the measured surface.As mentioned in the Introduction, there are essentially two kinds of hypotheses about the geometry of a single asperity: hemispherical and semiellipsoidal. The hemispherical hypothesis is the most widely used at present. The hemispherical geometry hypothesis is, therefore, the research focus of this study. Since the vertical section shapes along the center point of various asperity geometries are the same, it was necessary to use the vertical section for analysis and processing. The acquisition process for the radius of curvature for the hemispherical geometry is described as follows. First, the peak point of a single wave peak on a rough surface is determined. According to the peak point, the left and right adjacent points are obtained. Based on these three points, the radius of curvature for the hemispherical geometry can be determined. By marking the number of wave peaks on the rough surface, the radius of curvature for each peak point is solved individually. Then, the radii of curvature are averaged. The final average radius of curvature is used as the initial value for the calculation of the contact stiffness.To make the simulated rough surface more similar to real surfaces, the collected grinding surface topography data were analyzed and processed. It should be noted that, for the grinding surface topography, the magnification ratios between the sampling length direction and the sampling height direction are displayed differently. This display difference does not affect the analysis process. It does, however, lead to a distortion characteristic on the displayed curve-fitting results. The hemispherical fitting results show a semielliptical shape, whereas the shape of the cosine curve remains unchanged.The fitting result shows that when the hemispherical geometry is used to fit the data points of the asperity, the fitting curve can fit well around the peak point. However, a complete fit from the geometry peak point to the valley point could not be achieved. That is to say, the current fitting result of an actual asperity geometry had local characteristics that were not reflected by the overall characteristics.In this investigation, a cosine curve is used to fit the collection of points of the whole profile of a single asperity on the grinding surface. Such a fitting result is shown in The geometry of a single asperity was obtained through the above analysis, but the distribution of the asperities on the rough surface is analyzed below. As with the GW model , CEB modFrom the above analysis, the geometry of a single asperity of the simulated rough surface was determined. The geometric dimensions can be defined as: As can be seen from Equation (1), only the height and wavelength of the cosine curve are needed in this parameterization. The determination process of the two parameters proceeded as follows. The peak points and valley points of the grinding surface were marked. The average distance between adjacent peak points was obtained, and half the average value was taken as the wavelength of the cosine function. The average value of the difference in height between adjacent peaks and valleys was taken as the height of the cosine function. Thus, the geometric parameters of a single asperity were obtained.As in the CEB model and KE model, the following hypotheses were proposed for grinding surfaces: (1) the single-asperity geometry on the contact surface is a semiperiodic cosine-curve revolving body; (2) all asperities on grinding surfaces have congruent geometry, and the height distribution of the asperities obeys a Gaussian distribution; (3) the interaction between asperities can be safely ignored in the contact process; (4) the deformation of a macromatrix can be safely ignored in the contact process. In addition, the contact of two rough surfaces with respective RMS values of =σ12+σ22 .Based on the above hypotheses, the contact stiffness of a single asperity under contact load can be deduced. The mechanical microcontact stiffness model of a single asperity is shown in When the contact load is small and the asperity is in the stage of elastic deformation, the Hertz contact theory  is used.Hence, from Equation (2), the average contact pressure Ae=πrσy). That is, when According to the theory of contact mechanics , the matSubstituting Using Equations (3) and (5), the average contact pressure (It can be seen from Equation (5) that, to obtain the value of the critical interference Ap=2Combining According to the theory of contact mechanics , when thFor the critical point of fully plastic deformation, the relationship between the average pressure and the yield strength of the semiperiodic cosine-curve asperity geometry can be expressed as :(12)fmpσFrom Equation (12), The plastic contact load is equal to the product of the average pressure f(α)From the template function, the contact area of the elastic–plastic deformation stage As in the single-asperity deformation analysis, the contact analysis of the whole contact area will also be conducted in three different stages.When the dimensionless interference Specific parameters are calculated using methods from the literature .The contact stiffness in the elastic contact stage can be obtained from Equations (9) and (21) as follows:When the dimensionless interference The contact stiffness  were selected to grind the specimen surfaces. Then, grinding surfaces with different levels of roughness were obtained. For each material, each of two specimens had the same roughness. Each sample was cleaned ultrasonically and dried. Owing to space limitations, we used 304 stainless steel as an example. After the completion of specimen preparation, the next step was to obtain the relevant parameters, including material parameters , (15), and (20) show that the essence of contact stiffness is the ratio of the change in contact pressure to the change in interference. A rough surface contact stiffness test rig was built at Tsinghua University. A schematic diagram and physical drawings of the contact stiffness test rig are shown in The whole test rig was vertically structured. All of the loading test units were connected in series in the support structure. A rubber mat was used for vibration isolation at the lower end of the support structure. The unit was loaded by a hydraulic jack with a target load of 6000 N. A KAP-TC pressure sensor  was used to measure the contact load of the test surface. Three KD2306-1S eddy current displacement sensors  were installed on the upper specimens and uniformly arranged to measure the normal interference of the contact surface under contact load. The main parameters of experimental test are shown in Finally, through data acquisition, the variation curve of the contact load and the interference could be obtained. The curve describing the relationship between contact stiffness and contact load can be obtained by data processing. Each group of experiments was carried out using two specimens of the same material and the same roughness. Meanwhile, to ensure the reliability and repeatability of the data, three groups of samples were used for repeated experiments for each group of tests, and the average values were taken as the final data.It is important to note that there is a distance between the sensor position and the test point of the contact surface. Therefore, this component of the elastic deformation of the matrix was subtracted from the test data of the sensor during the calculation of the experimental results.In addition to the experimental results, the prediction results of the CEB and KE models were used for comparative analysis. The analytical expressions of the CEB  and KE  models aWithin the range of contact pressure Within the range of contact pressure 10 MPa ≤For the relationship between the contact stiffness and contact pressure under different levels of roughness of the same material, 40Cr steel is taken as an example for analysis, since other materials follow the same pattern. Compared with y Fei Du  and Huify Fei Du  for measAccording to the statistical parameters of different grinding specimens in For the relationship between the contact stiffness and contact pressure under the same roughness of different materials, This study proposed a novel micro-contact stiffness model for the grinding surfaces of steel materials based on cosine curve-shaped asperities. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) According to the measured grinding surface topography of steel materials, a novel simulated rough surface was proposed. Based on the simulated rough surface, an analytical expression of the novel microcontact stiffness model based on cosine curve-shaped asperities was obtained.(2) The contact stiffness of different steel materials and specimens under different levels of roughness was obtained by using numerical and experimental studies. The comparison results show that prediction results in the presented model have the same trend as the experimental results, the value of contact stiffness increases with the increase of contact pressure. Under the same contact pressure, the present model in this paper is closer to the experimental results than the CEB and KE models in which the hypothesis of the single asperity is hemispherical. According to the analysis of measured asperity geometry on the grinding surface and the degree of conformity with the experimental results, the correctness and accuracy of the novel micro-contact stiffness model presented in this paper can be demonstrated.(3) The presented model can describe the contact stiffness between grinding surfaces of steel materials more accurately, which provides guidance for the mechanical structure design and mechanical system stability analysis. However, further verification is needed to apply the model more widely .


The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of pH value on the in vitro digestibility of malic acid-treated corn starch in relation to its structural properties. Varying pH values (1.5–8.5) of 2 M malic acid solution were combined with corn starch in a forced-air oven at 130 °C for 12 h. Using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), carbonyl groups were detected in malic acid-treated corn starch, indicating cross-linking through esterification. As the pH value of malic acid-treated corn starch decreased from 8.5 to 1.5, the resistant starch content increased from 18.2 to 74.8%. This was the result of an increased degree of substitution and was maintained after gelatinization. The granular structure of malic acid-treated corn starches was not destroyed, and the starches maintained birefringence. This malic acid-treated corn starch could be utilized in heat processed foods such as bread and cookies as well as in products with reduced calories. Consumer’s changing dietary preferences are increasing demand for low-calorie but high-satiety foods ,2. StarcMulti-functional carboxylic acids including malic, tartaric, citric, and glutaric acid are generally employed for hydrogel synthesis and rheological characterization. Resistant starch content can be increased in corn starch through the application of citric acid and heat, resulting in esterification of hydroxyl groups in the starch molecule . Unlike Corn  starch is a kind of cereal starches with distinctly low ash and protein contents. Its carbohydrate content is of high purity making it useful in several fields of industries. Corn starch is cheaper than other sources of starch; although, in its native form corn starch has limited industrial use due to its poor physical and mechanical properties including cohesive texture, heat, shear sensitivity, lack of clarity, and retrogradation or precipitation upon storage. Native corn starch is chemically and physically modified for general use . Corn stThe granularity of the malic acid-treated corn starches, arranged according to their pH value, are shown in 2–H2). Thus, the shape and structure of starch granules did not change in response to heat or malic acid.Increased temperature did not affect the shape or size of the native corn granules. Starch granules treated with 2.0 M malic acid were not destroyed . Corn stThe degree of malic acid substitution (DS) of malic acid-treated corn starch is shown in Malic acid has two carboxyl groups which are able to form two ester bonds. The DS may be affected by the number of carboxyl groups belonging to an organic acid; however, steric hindrance can interrupt ester bond formation. Substitutions and bridge reactions occur more frequently in amorphous areas of starch molecules . This su−1 represent the presence of hydroxyl groups (-OH), and the peak at 2,930 cm−1 represent C-H bond stretching [−1 may be caused by the stretching vibration of C-O bond [−1 is a carbonyl group (C=O) [−1, especially high carbonyl peak intensity at pH 1.5 (p < 0.05). The RS content was: 87.9% for pH 1.5 MT, 51.9% for pH 2.5 MT, and 46.4%, for pH 5.5 MT. Thus, the condition of high pH caused hydrolysis of the bridge bonds in malic acid-treated corn starches [Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was used to evaluate the structural characteristics of the functional groups in the starches. Peaks in the range of 3,000–3,500 cmretching . Peaks iC-O bond . The peaup (C=O) ,23 and tt pH 1.5 . None ofstarches .The X-ray diffraction patterns of malic acid-treated corn starches are shown in Content analysis of starches and their digestive characteristics  are shown in The more starch forming bridge bonds, the harder it became for α-amylase to infiltrate through porous starch, which led to greater resistance to digestion . The malp < 0.05). The RS of the control sample (pH 1.5) decreased from 25.7% to 21.9% when cooked. Lower pH values for malic acid-treated samples corresponded to higher percentages of RS and increased heat stability.When starch is heated during cooking, which is common, RS can decrease due to destruction of ester bonds. Normal corn starch (~25% amylose) was obtained from Samyang Genex . DL-malic acid was purchased from Sigma . The enzymes used in the starch digestion were porcine pancreatin  and amyloglucosidase , where USP and AGU stand for United States Pharmacopia and amyloglucosidase activity, respectively. All chemicals and reagents used were of analytical grade.The acidities of malic acids (2.0 M) with the various pH values  were adjusted using 10 M sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Malic acid with pH 1.5 was made without addition of NaOH. Corn starch (20 g) and acid malic solution of corrected pH (20 mL) were combined to form a solution and mixed in stainless-steel container for 16 h at room temperature. The bowls were placed in an air drying oven at 40 °C for 24 h to a uniform moisture concentration (~10%). The dried mixture was ground and either placed in an air drying oven at 130 °C or left at room temperature, for 12 h. Next, the mixture was thoroughly washed with distilled water to remove unreacted malic acid and 95% ethanol. The malic acid-treated corn starch was then dried in an air drying oven at 40 °C before being ground. A control sample of starch was prepared following the same procedure, but not heated.Malic acid-treated corn starches were observed with a light microscope  with and without polarizing plate. Glycerol was used to disperse all samples on a glass slide and to reduce air bubbles.−1 in transmission mode at a resolution of 4 cm−1. Samples were diluted with KBr  before acquisition.To investigate FT-IR spectra of starches, FT-IR  was used. Spectra were measured ranging from 4,000 to 600 cmNaOH is the normality of NaOH, VNaOH is the volume of NaOH, NHCl is the normality of HCl used to back titrate, and VHCl is the volume of HCl used for back titration.Degree of substitution was measured to investigate the average number of malic acid substituted hydroxyl groups per anhydroglucose unit of starch. The value was measured following the method of Miladinov with slight modifications . Malic ag, for 10 min at 4 °C, to obtain a cloudy supernatant. The supernatant (20 mL) was mixed with 0.4 mL of amyloglucosidase and 3.6 mL of distilled water. A 0.75 mL measurement of sodium acetate buffer  and a glass bead were added to a 2 mL microtube with a 30 mg starch sample, and either cooked for 10 min or not cooked. After cooling the microtube to 37 °C, 0.75 mL of the enzyme solution was added and incubated in a shaking incubator (240 rpm). The microtubes were taken out after 20 and 240 min, boiled for 10 min in a heating block to stop the reaction, and cooled to room temperature. The microtubes were centrifuged at 5000× g, for 10 min at 4 °C. The amount of glucose in the supernatant was used to measure by the GOD-POD kit . The amount of glucose after 20 min of enzyme reaction at 37 °C indicated RDS, and that obtained after incubation for 20-240 min was SDS. The RS was the starch not hydrolyzed after 240 min incubation.Starch digestibility was analyzed using the Englyst’s method  with sliX-ray diffraction patterns of starches were investigated using an X-ray diffractometer  which was operated at 40 kV and 40 mA producing CuKα radiation of 1.54 Å wavelength, and scanned through the 2θ range of 3−30° with step time of 0.5 sec.Experiments were carried out in triplicate, and the mean values and standard deviations were presented. Analysis of variance was performed, and Duncan’s multiple range test was used for assessment of significant differences. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows 18.0 software .To compare the in vitro digestibility, physicochemical, and structural characteristics of malic acid-treated corn starch samples, pH was varied from 1.5–8.5 before samples were heated to 130 °C for 12 h. The RS content of the malic acid-treated samples increased as the pH value decreased. The DS values and the FT-IR spectra revealed ester bond formation between the malic acid and starch. By lowering pH value, in addition to heating, RS content continued to increase even after gelatinization, for the malic acid treated samples. In conclusion, high RS content is possible, with low pH (1.5) malic acid treatment. These conditions lead to the desired level of substitution. The increased RS content may have resulted from cross-linking. After malic acid and heat treatments, the internal structure of the corn starch became heat-stable. These results suggest that pH affects esterification of malic acid impacting in vitro digestibility, physicochemical, and structural characteristics of corn starch. The malic acid-treated corn starch had high RS content and heat stability, and is therefore suitable for heat-treated food, such as bread or cookie, in addition to low-calorie foods. This heat stable RS formation technology could be applied in daily lives of people while motivating further research.


The frontal eye field (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) are major and well-studied components of the oculomotor system. The FEF sends strong projections to the SC directly, and neurons in these brain regions transmit a variety of signals related to saccadic eye movements. Electrical microstimulation and pharmacological manipulation targeting the FEF or SC affect saccadic eye movements. These data suggest the causal contribution of each region to saccade generation. To understand how the brain generates behavior, however, it is critical not only to identify the structures and functions of individual regions, but also to elucidate how they interact with each other. In this review article, we first survey previous works that aimed at investigating whether and how the FEF and SC interact to regulate saccadic eye movements using electrophysiological and pharmacological techniques. These works have reported what signals FEF neurons transmit to the SC and what roles such signals play in regulating oculomotor behavior. We then highlight a recent attempt of our own that has applied an optogenetic approach to stimulate the neural pathway from the FEF to the SC in nonhuman primates. This study has shown that optogenetic stimulation of the FEF-SC pathway is sufficiently effective not only to modulate SC neuron activity, but also to evoke saccadic eye movements. Although the oculomotor system is a complex neural network composed of numbers of cortical and subcortical regions, the optogenetic approach will provide a powerful strategy for elucidating the role of each neural pathway constituting this network. The oculomotor system is composed of numbers of cortical and subcortical regions that form a complex neural network. The frontal eye field (FEF) and the superior colliculus (SC) are major components of this system. The roles of the FEF and SC in regulating oculomotor behavior have long been investigated in macaque monkeys in which the oculomotor system is substantially developed. Electrophysiological recording studies have reported that neurons in both the FEF and the SC transmit a variety of signals related to saccadic eye movements, ranging from visual responses evoked by saccadic targets to burst firing before and after the execution of the eye movements Bizzi, . ElectriUnderstanding how the brain generates behavior, however, requires more than just analyzing the roles of individual regions. It is critical to determine how particular regions interact with each other and how their interaction contributes to behavior. Since the FEF and SC are mutually connected in a manner that the former projects directly to the latter Fries, , while tThe optogenetic methodology that has been used to stimulate signal transmission connecting two given brain regions  corresponding to the stimulation sites in the SC (for a representative stimulation site, see Figure Here, we have introduced the previous studies reporting what signals FEF neurons transmit to the SC and the causal contribution of these signals to saccade generation. However, it is not yet completely clear how the FEF and SC interact to generate saccadic eye movements. For instance, although FEF neurons seem to transmit visual-, memory- and motor-related signals to the SC, it remains to be determined which of these signals are involved in saccade generation. A recent study applied an optogenetic approach to the FEF in macaque monkeys and suppressed the activity of FEF neurons at any given timing in a memory-guided saccade task (Acker et al., The FEF is known to transmit signals related not only to simple saccade generation, but also to several executive functions, such as visual attention (Kodaka et al., Neurons in the FEF exert their effects on the SC not only through the direct projection to the SC, especially to its deeper layers, but also by way of the basal ganglia. The caudate nucleus and the rostral part of the putamen, input stations of the basal ganglia, receive projections from the FEF (Stanton et al., There are other brain structures than the basal ganglia that connect the FEF and SC. Among them, the cerebellum has attracted attention for its crucial roles in voluntary eye movements (Robinson and Fuchs, We have so far introduced prior attempts that investigated the role of signals transmitted from the FEF to the SC. On the other hand, the SC sends back signals to the FEF via the MD (Sommer and Wurtz, MM conceived of the review topic and all authors wrote the review article.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


We conducted a survey to explore whether residents in four programmes in the Middle East  are aware of and consider major family practice journals while preparing for their journal club presentations.All family medicine residents who present in the journal club in these programmes were asked to complete a LimeSurvey (an online survey tool). Journals included those that specialise in family practice, publish original research in English, and had an impact factor of ≥1.5 in 2014. Three reminders were sent by e-mail to improve response rate.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (JABFM), the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP), Annals of Family Medicine (Ann Fam Med), Family Practice (Fam Pract), and BMC Family Practice (BMC Fam Pract). The Scandinavian Journal of Primary Care satisfied the inclusion criteria, but it was dropped from the list as only one resident was aware of it.The journals that satisfied the inclusion criteria were the Sixty-one of 147 residents completed the survey (response rate of 42%). Most of the participating residents (92%) were aged 25–30 years. Eighty-two per cent of the residents were female and 62% had free online access in their training institution or hospital.Eighty per cent of the participating residents stated that they select articles pertaining to subjects of interest and 69% choose articles that have a bearing on the management of patients seen earlier. Only a small minority of the residents (7%) reported to present articles suggested by drug representatives.JABFM (89%), the BJGP (53%), and Fam Pract (41%) and 46–82% of residents who were aware of the leading family practice journals would consider presenting an article from one of these journals in their journal club. With the exception of the JABFM, the residents seldom (every 3–6 months) read the included journals.The top three journals the residents were aware of included JABFM was reported to be the most interesting journal (95%) followed by BJGP (89%). Eighty-three per cent of residents who were aware of the Ann Fam Med and Fam Pract found these journals interesting.The Ann Fam Med and the BJGP respectively. Both journals have the highest impact factors in family medicine, and the BJGP has been in circulation for more than six decades. Programme directors and family medicine faculties in the surveyed departments need to make an effort to improve the noted deficiency; 41% of the residents indicated that suggestions by faculty members have a bearing on the journals they select for presentation at their journal club. The respective Editorial Boards need to promote their journals; one possible way is to disseminate what they publish directly by email to residents as 39% reported that they use articles received electronically in their journal club. There is also a need to understand better why residents in the four family medicine programmes have relatively low interest in selecting articles from journals highly pertinent to their discipline.Awareness of family practice journals that publish original research and have an impact factor ≥1.5 was low among the residents. Only 34% and 53% were aware of JABFM was the most read journal; 89% of the responders reported to know the journal and 82% would consider it for their journal club activity presentations. One possible explanation for this popularity is that three of the involved programmes  currently assess their residents using the in-training exam that is prepared by the American Board of Family Medicine or have used this previously for assessment.The


The causal roles of the frontal eye fields (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) in spatial selective attention have not been directly compared. Reversible inactivation is an established method for testing causality but comparing results between FEF and SC is complicated by differences in size and morphology of the two brain regions. Here we exploited the fact that inactivation of FEF and SC also changes the metrics of saccadic eye movements, providing an independent benchmark for the strength of the causal manipulation. Using monkeys trained to covertly perform a visual motion-change detection task, we found that inactivation of either FEF or SC could cause deficits in attention task performance. However, SC-induced attention deficits were found with saccade changes half the size needed to get FEF-induced attention deficits. Thus, performance in visual attention tasks is vulnerable to loss of signals from either structure, but suppression of SC activity has a more devastating effect. Superior colliculus (SC) and frontal eye fields (FEF) contain visuo-motor maps but their contributions to selective attention are not fully understood. Here, the authors perform reversible inactivations of the SC or FEF and report that loss of SC activity has a more devastating effect on attention. In the cerebral cortex, the frontal eye fields (FEF) have a central role. The FEF was first identified as the primary cortical area involved in the control of saccadic eye movements, based on the ability to evoke saccades with low electrical currents3, and subsequent studies described how neuronal activity in the FEF was related to the selection of the saccade target as well as the decision to initiate the saccade itself4. A direct link to selective attention was established by studies showing that electrical stimulation of the FEF with currents below the threshold needed to evoke saccades could nonetheless exert effects similar to spatial attention cues, improving visual detection performance in the presence of distractors5, and that similar FEF stimulation could influence the activity of visual neurons in extrastriate cortex6. These and other findings provided experimental support for the idea that the FEF provides attention-related feedback signals that regulate the quality of sensory processing in the visual cortex8.The control of spatial selective attention involves a network of cortical and subcortical brain regions9 also appear to be involved in target selection and the control of spatial selective attention10. Indeed, the first demonstration of neuronal correlates of visual attention were obtained in the SC, in a classic study showing that the visual-evoked activity of SC neurons was larger for stimuli that were subsequently used as the target for a saccade, drawing on the inference that visual attention must shift to the target before the saccade happens11. As with the FEF, subthreshold electrical stimulation of the SC changes performance during visual tasks in ways that mimic the allocation of spatial attention, improving the animal’s ability to detect or discriminate visual stimuli presented at retinotopic locations that match site of stimulation in the SC13. These results support the view of the SC as a priority map important for the control of attention as well as saccades14, similar to the role proposed for saccade- and attention-related areas in the parietal lobe15.In a similar way, spatial signals in the midbrain superior colliculus (SC) related to saccade preparation17. Muscimol inactivation of the FEF also impairs performance accuracy during a covert visual search task that uses valid and invalid spatial cues18, although for technical reasons this was done in only one animal. In the SC, reversible inactivation causes large and spatially specific deficits in the ability to discriminate or detect visual stimuli during covert spatial attention tasks20. Inactivation of the SC also eliminates the improvements in perceptual sensitivity normally made possible by spatial cues during attention tasks21. Although these results suggest that both FEF and SC play a causal role in selective attention, the results are not comparable because they used different task designs and visual stimuli as well as different volumes and methods for muscimol injection.Despite these many studies, the causal contributions of the FEF and SC to selective attention have never been directly compared. In the FEF, reversible inactivation by local microinjection of the chemical agent muscimol, a GABA agonist, increases the reaction time to find targets in the contralateral visual field during a covert visual search task18, we adopted the strategy of using the changes in saccade metrics caused by inactivation as a basis for comparing the contribution of each region to selective attention. Our results demonstrate that suppression of activity in either the FEF or SC can cause significant changes in the performance of covert selective attention tasks. However, observing a deficit in the attention task during FEF inactivation required a saccade deficit nearly twice as large as that required during SC inactivation. Thus, assuming that the size of the saccade deficit provides a common benchmark for functional suppression in the two regions, these results indicate that the SC has a larger relative impact on covert spatial attention in our task than the FEF.Here, we tested the effects of muscimol inactivation of both the FEF and the SC and took specific steps to provide a fair and direct comparison of their causal contributions. First, we measured the performance of the same monkeys performing the same covert spatial attention task during both sets of reversible inactivations. Second, building on the observation that the effects of inactivation on saccades and visual search co-varyTwo male macaque monkeys were trained on two tasks: a visually guided delayed saccade task and a covert attention task involving visual change detection. For the saccade task, monkeys made a saccade to a peripheral visual target after the central fixation stimulus was turned off, about 1–2 s after the initial appearance of the peripheral target Fig. . Across Performance on the two tasks was assessed before and during reversible inactivation of the SC or FEF by microinjection of muscimol. During the visually guided saccade task, there were localized increases in latency for saccades directed toward the part of the visual field affected by muscimol injection into the SC Fig. . These cp < 0.001) or the FEF (p < 0.001), compared to before inactivation. In contrast, when the motion-direction change occurred outside the part of the visual field affected by the muscimol inactivation .During the covert attention task, in these two example experiments we systematically varied the amplitude of the motion-direction change so that we could construct full psychometric curves and measure detection thresholds. When the motion-direction change occurred in the part of the visual field affected by the muscimol inactivation, the psychometric curves shifted to the right during inactivation of either the SC Fig.  or the Fion Fig. , performn = 3) or FEF (n = 5), and confirmed the same overall pattern—worse detection performance for changes inside the affected region of the visual field, and better performance for changes outside. For motion-direction changes inside the affected region  in 3/3 experiments inactivating the SC, and 4/5 experiments inactivating the FEF (p < 0.001). For motion-direction changes outside the affected region , and 4/5 FEF experiments (p < 0.001). The complementary effects inside versus outside the portion of the visual field affected by muscimol inactivation is consistent with previous reports that inactivation can bias the competition between stimuli that contribute to the perceptual choice, e.g., ref.19. Our results demonstrate that reversible inactivation of either the SC or the FEF can cause similar lateralized changes in detection performance, using the same task in the same monkeys.We repeated this experiment several times, obtaining psychometric data before and during inactivation of the SC  and FEF .These values were positive when the latencies of saccades directed into the affected region of the visual field were longer than those directed outside. We also made similar saccade asymmetry measurements based on saccade peak velocity. The range of the saccade latency asymmetry values (black lines) found during SC inactivation Fig.  was simiR2 = 0.83) and the FEF (R2 = 0.70). However, the slope of this relationship was significantly  steeper for the SC  than the FEF . Direct comparison of the changes in detection rates within 30-ms saccade latency bins showed significantly larger detection impairments during SC than FEF inactivation, for experiments falling within the mid-range of saccade impairments  and the FEF (R2 = 0.68). Again, the slope of this relationship was significantly (p < 0.001) steeper for the SC  than the FEF , and the detection impairments were larger during SC than FEF inactivation , and placed along the abscissa at a position defined by either the saccade latency asymmetry  for both the SC and FEF. For the linear regression with saccade latency and peak velocity, we confirmed that the slope for the SC data was almost always significantly greater than that for the FEF data . Similarly, for the probit analysis we confirmed that the midpoint of the function  for the SC data was almost always earlier than that for the FEF data .In a set of control analyses, we confirmed that these effects were not simply due to the difference between the number of experiments done in the SC and FEF , the percentages of the visual motion stimulus that overlapped with the scotomas (p = 0.46), or the overall areas of the scotomas caused by inactivation (p = 0.08).Finally, the difference in the effects of SC and FEF inactivation on performance in the attention task cannot be attributed to differences in the scotomas caused by inactivation of the two regions. Comparison of the individual experimental values listed in Tables 15, are also implicated in the control of visual spatial attention. Despite the fact that the two structures have very different lineages—the FEF is part of prefrontal cortex, whereas the SC is an evolutionarily ancient midbrain structure—both have been shown to contain oculocentric priority maps with activity that contributes to the orienting of attention as well as to movements of the eyes22. Why are there both cortical and subcortical priority maps? There is currently no clear answer to this question, although the SC is generally considered to lie closer to the motor system and the FEF closer to voluntary control mechanisms23. Our study addresses this gap by providing the first data for directly comparing their functional roles. We tested the performance of the same monkeys on the same tasks during muscimol inactivation of the FEF or SC and used the effects of inactivation on saccade metrics as a positive control and independent benchmark for comparing results across the two regions.The FEF and SC are the major saccade-related regions of the primate brain that, along with the parietal cortex18. The extent of the impairment does not depend on whether the search task is easy or hard16, and FEF inactivation does not seem to eliminate the differences in performance caused by presenting subjects with valid versus invalid spatial cues18. On the other hand, previous studies of the primate SC have used cued discrimination or detection tasks, and found that focal SC inactivation impairs the ability to judge visual motion stimuli placed in the affected part of the visual field20; SC inactivation also eliminates the perceptual benefits provided by spatial cues21. However, the differences between the task designs and the visual stimuli used in these previous studies of the FEF and SC make it problematic to draw direct comparisons. In contrast, because we studied the two areas using the same tasks, in the same monkeys, our results demonstrate for the first time that inactivation of either the FEF or SC can cause lateralized impairments in the detection of visual motion changes, as evidenced not only by changes in detection rates, but also by similar shifts in psychometric performance curves.Our results demonstrate that both the FEF and SC play causal roles in the control of covert spatial attention. Previous studies of the FEF have used covert visual search tasks and found that reversible inactivation of the FEF impairs the ability to detect the presence of a shape-defined target in the part of the visual field affected by the inactivation25. Would we have gotten a different answer if we had used memory-guided saccades? We think the answer is no, for several reasons. First, our use of visually guided saccades did not limit our ability to document saccade deficits during FEF inactivation—they were reproducible, significant, and covered a range comparable to those observed during SC inactivation. The difference we report was not in the extent of the saccade deficits caused by SC and FEF inactivation, but in how these saccade deficits predicted impairments in the attention task. Second, if we had used memory-guided saccades, this would have increased the size of the FEF-induced saccade deficits relative to the SC-induced saccade deficits, while leaving the changes in attention task performance unchanged. As a result, when matched for changes in memory-guided saccades, we would have found an even more extreme version of the same pattern we found with visually guided saccades. Because visually guided saccades depend strongly on activity in both the FEF and SC, they provide a fairer benchmark and positive control. In fact, many would consider the SC to be more important for visually guided saccades because the SC lies closer to the saccade motor output based on its connectivity26, the latencies of evoked saccades28, and the presence of saccade-related activity for all saccades29, unlike the FEF;30 moreover, inactivation of the SC eliminates the saccades evoked by FEF microstimulation31. Thus, our use of visually guided saccades may have tilted the comparison in favor of finding a larger relative attention effect for the FEF, making our findings even more surprising.The most surprising aspect of our results is that, when matched for changes in saccades, inactivation of the SC produced much larger changes in attention task performance than inactivation of the FEF. Why were the SC-induced effects on attention larger? One important factor to consider is our decision to use visually guided saccades to document the effects of inactivation on saccades, especially since the FEF seem to be especially important for the control of memory-guided saccades33. Consequently, although we cannot rule out this alternative interpretation, the existing experimental evidence suggests it is much less likely.On a related point, one could invert the logic of our approach, and treat performance in the attention task as the common benchmark. Applying this alternative framework, we might then conclude that inactivation of the FEF has larger effects on visually guided saccades than does inactivation of the SC, when results are matched for changes in the attention task. This alternative conclusion would be surprising as well because, as mentioned above, previous evidence indicates that the SC lies closer to the saccade motor output. Moreover, this alternative conclusion would also contradict direct evidence showing that FEF lesions produce only temporary deficits in saccades, whereas SC lesions cause permanent impairments34, whereas the FEF is larger (many millimeters across) and contains a less regular map35. To compensate for these differences, we injected substantially more muscimol in the FEF (3 μl) than in the SC (0.5 μl), so that the retinotopic extent of the deficits would be comparable. Indeed, our two sets of inactivations produced saccade deficits with the same retinotopic size and the same amount of retinotopic overlap with the visual stimulus used in the attention task  and comprises a well-organized retinotopic mapk Tables  and 2. T37. In contrast, in the FEF, the neurons contributing to attention and saccades are not necessarily the same38 or even in the same cortical layers—saccade-related neurons are located in the infragranular layers, whereas neurons implicated in visual attention seem to be located in the supragranular layers and are less selective for saccades40. However, our conclusions do not rely on the assumption that saccades and attention are accomplished by the same neurons, but only that inactivation would be expected to suppress both functions in the same part of the FEF map. Previous studies using similar or smaller injections of muscimol or GABA have reported suppressed activity across a roughly spherical or ellipsoidal volume  with a radius of ~2 mm or more45, indicating that our injections would be expected to affect the entire thickness of the FEF. Given that GABAA receptors are located in all layers of cortex48, if we inhibited saccade-related neurons at a site in the FEF, as documented by changes in saccade metrics, then we almost certainly also inhibited the nearby attention-related neurons. We therefore conclude that the changes in saccade metrics for a particular visual location provide a reasonable positive control for the effectiveness of muscimol-induced suppression of attention-related activity at that same location.A related concern is that our muscimol injections might have affected the saccade-related and attention-related activity in the FEF in a systematically different way from our muscimol injections in the SC. In the SC, neurons located in the intermediate layers with visual and saccade-related activity are the same neurons that are most strongly modulated during selective attention tasks52 and the SC55, so the particular visual stimulus in our experiments does not favor one area over the other. The use of change detection for the attention task also has precedents in studies of both the FEF56 and the SC37. Indeed, an important rationale for using a change detection task, rather than a discrimination task, is that this design allowed subjects to report their yes/no choice by holding or releasing a joystick, so that the motor control of the response did not have a spatial component and could therefore be dissociated from the spatial allocation of visual attention. Because the joystick responses for visual changes in the unaffected parts of the visual field showed no deficits, we can rule out a motor explanation for the changes in task performance caused by muscimol inactivation, including the differences between inactivation of the FEF and SC.Another important factor is whether our choice of visual stimulus or attention task might have favored one region over the other. The visual stimulus we used—random-dot motion—has been used extensively in studies of both the FEF8, whereas the SC also exerts a retinotopically selective effect on perceptual choices, but acts downstream from visual cortical areas like MT or MST20. The FEF lies in a part of the granular prefrontal cortex that is an evolutionary specialization of primates58, whereas the SC is present in the brains of all vertebrates, even those without a neocortex59. Thus, one possibility is that the FEF is especially important for managing aspects of visual processing related to foveal vision in primates. The selection of visual stimuli from parafoveal or peripheral locations and bringing them to the center of the visual field with saccadic eye movements poses special problems61, but may also introduce new possibilities for using gaze direction as a part of social communication in primates62. In contrast, the SC may contribute to selective attention through mechanisms that predate the evolution of foveal vision, and perhaps lie closer to stages also involved with action selection63. If so, then our use of a covert attention task during maintained fixation may not have fully showcased the functional role of the FEF, and other types of attention tasks that require selective shifts of visual processing to the fovea using eye movements rather than hand movements might be expected to produce larger effects.Instead, we think the difference between the effects of inactivation in the FEF and SC are due to fundamental differences in the functions of these two brain regions, and that our results illustrate the contrasting susceptibilities of the attention and saccade systems to the temporary loss of signals from the SC and FEF. The FEF provides feedback projections to visual cortical areas, especially area V4, that influence visual processing in a retinotopically selective mannerNonetheless, in our covert attention task, change detection performance was much more sensitive to disruption of SC activity than FEF activity. Our results therefore provide an informative new constraint on models of covert attention and illustrate the importance of identifying the attention-related circuits and functions linked to the SC and determining how they interact with evolutionarily newer neocortical components.Macaca mulatta) weighing 9–11 kg. All procedures and animal care were approved by the National Eye Institute Animal Care and Use Committee and complied with the Public Health Service Policy on the humane care and use of laboratory animals. Under isoflurane and aseptic conditions, we surgically implanted plastic head-posts and electrophysiology chambers to access the FEF and SC. The FEF chamber was angled 30° lateral of vertical and aimed at a point 18 mm lateral from the midline, 25 mm anterior to the interaural line. The SC chamber was angled 38° to the posterior of vertical and directed at the midline, 15 mm above and 1 mm posterior to the interaural line. Both monkeys were trained on a saccade task and an attention task.Data were collected from two adult monkeys (2) placed at the center of the visual display. After 500 ms of fixation, a second target  was presented at some other location in the visual display. Monkeys were required to maintain fixation until the central fixation stimulus was turned off, 1–2 s after the onset of the peripheral target. At that point, the monkeys should make a saccade to the second, peripheral target and fixate it for at least 500 ms in order to receive a reward. The location of the second target was systematically varied in order to quantify the metrics of saccades to targets across the visual field, as part of the method for documenting the effects of muscimol inactivation on the motor control of saccades.The saccade task was a delayed visually guided saccade task. Each trial started with the monkeys fixating a small square stimulus  and peripheral attention (PA). The effect of muscimol inactivation on PA trial performance is the focus of the behavioral results reported here; FA trial performance was used as a control to assess attention-related modulation of neuronal activity. In both tasks, monkeys initiated the trial by holding down the joystick and fixating the central fixation spot (0.25°) for the entirety of the trial. During initial fixation, the central spot was surrounded by a color cue (0.35°) that indicated whether the current trial was a PA (red) or an FA (black) trial.In FA trials, after 500 ms of fixation, two random dot motion stimuli were presented on either side of fixation at 8–10° eccentricity at mirror symmetric locations in the left and right visual hemifield. After a variable delay of 1–3 s, the luminance of the fixation spot decreased on 66% of the trials. Independent of the fixation luminance change, one of the peripheral motion stimulus changed direction after a variable delay of 1–3 s on 66% of the trials. Monkeys should ignore the motion-direction change and instead report the luminance change by releasing the joystick within 300–800 ms to get a fluid reward. If the monkeys released the joystick for a motion-direction change, the trial was aborted. On trials with no luminance change, the monkey was rewarded at the end of the trial for holding the joystick down until the fixation stimulus was turned off. The magnitude of the luminance change was set to be near-threshold level (~75% correct).In PA trials, after 500 ms of fixation, two random dot motion stimuli were presented at the same stimulus locations as in FA trials. One of the peripheral motion stimuli changed direction after a variable delay of 1–3 s on 66% of the trials; the change could happen in either hemifield with equal probability. Monkeys should report the motion-direction change by releasing the joystick within 300–800 ms to get a fluid reward. Thus, even though the task was structured as a yes/no detection task, the perceptual choice was based on discriminating whether or not the direction of the motion signal changed. On trials with no motion-direction change, the monkey was rewarded at the end of the trial for holding the joystick down until the fixation stimulus was turned off; in these cases, the monkey needed to release and then hold down the joystick again to start the next trial (to prevent a strategy of continuously holding down the joystick). There was no change in luminance of the fixation stimulus in PA trials.FA and PA trials were run in blocks of 64 trials, interleaved; in each experimental session, we obtained 8–10 blocks of each, half of which were collected before musimol infusion.2/s), and speed of the dots (15°/s) were held constant. The radius of the aperture was set to 3°. Luminance of the fixation dot and of each moving dot in the motion patches was 50 cd/m2. The background luminance of the monitor was 10 cd/m2.The visual motion stimuli were circular patches of moving dots, with the direction of motion of each dot drawn from a normal distribution with a mean value (defined as the patch motion direction) and a 16° standard deviation. The lifetime , density . Electrode position was controlled with a Narishige microdrive. The electrical signal was amplified and recorded online using the OmniPlex system . Response fields and saccade-related movement fields were mapped by having the monkey perform the visually guided saccade task; we confirmed saccade-related activity consistent with the known activity patterns in the FEF or SC. Electrical microstimulation was also applied  to evoke saccades with currents  confirming that we were in the FEF or intermediate layers in SCn = 46; monkey #1: 18, monkey #2: 28) and FEF  were done by injecting muscimol (5 mg/ml). The amount of muscimol injected ranged from 0.3 to 0.5 μl in SC and 1.5 to 3.0 μl in FEF. Infusion was done using a custom-made apparatus modified from ref. 64, with an injection pump at a rate of 0.5 μl in 10 min.Reversible inactivations of the intermediate layers of the SC , defined as the difference between the average latency (peak velocity) of saccades made into the visual field region subtended by the motion patch in the affected visual field, and those made into the corresponding region in the unaffected visual field, from the data collected after the end of muscimol infusion.In separate behavioral sessions prior to muscimol inactivation, psychometric thresholds (75% hit rate) were estimated for each monkey based on performance in the PA motion-direction change detection task using a range of motion-direction changes. The threshold value was then used during the “before” and “during” blocks of task performance during the muscimol inactivation experiments.psignifit toolbox, and included four parameters: mean and standard deviation of the cumulative Gaussian, plus response bias (lower asymptote) and lapse rate (upper asymptote). Threshold was defined as the magnitude of stimulus change corresponding to 75% of the signal-driven range in performance—i.e., 75% of the cumulative Gaussian with the response bias (lower asymptote) and lapse rate (upper asymptote) omitted—so that changes in sensory thresholds during inactivation , the change in hit-rate asymmetry was computed by taking the difference between the asymmetry on the day of inactivation and the day before inactivation, from data also collected inside the scanner.We summarized the performance during the attention task by computing the asymmetry in hit rate, defined as the hit rate for motion-direction changes in the patch placed in the visual field contralateral to the muscimol injection, minus the hit rate for motion-direction changes in the ipsilateral patch. This hit-rate asymmetry was computed separately for data collected before and during muscimol inactivation for each experimental session, and the change in hit-rate asymmetry was computed by taking the difference in asymmetry before and during inactivation. For monkey #2, a subset of the sessions for the attention task only were performed inside a fMRI scanner while functional imaging data were being collected. For these experimental sessions (SC n = 30), which included saline injection sessions (n = 8) and no-injection sessions that were matched in experimental timeline to the muscimol injection sessions. Performance during four of the saline “sham controls” were collected inside the scanner.In addition, we collected performance on “sham controls”  for slope were computed using Jacknife method. The significance of differences in slopes between SC and FEF were computed by bootstrap resampling. All computations were implemented in Matlab (Mathworks).p < 0.05).We directly compared the changes in hit-rate asymmetry caused by SC and FEF inactivation for experiments with similar saccade deficits. We subdivided the data into equally spaced bins based on the size of the changes in saccade asymmetry  and determined whether the changes in hit-rate asymmetry were significantly different between the SC and FEF data points falling within each bin . We then used the change in saccade latency or peak velocity as the predictive variable(x) in logistic regression- p = sigm(WT *X). Where “y” is the categorical variable denoting whether there will be a significant change in hit-rate asymmetry. Laplace approximation was used to estimate the posterior distribution of “W”. Monte Carlo sampling was used to approximate the posterior predictive distribution of “p(y)”65.Logistic regression was used to estimate the probability of observing a significant change in hit-rate asymmetry during the attention task, as a function of the saccade asymmetry caused by inactivation. To test for significance of the change in hit-rate asymmetry for a given session, we bootstrap resampled (100 samples) all four hit rates  to generate a distribution of change in hit-rate asymmetry statistic. Sign test was then used to check for significance  and 100 Hz frame-rate on a VIEWPixx display , controlled by a mid-2010 Mac Pro  running MATLAB  with the Psychophysics Toolbox extensions69. Eye position was recorded using an EyeLink 1000 infrared eye-tracking system ; this system provided the eye position data used to detect saccades and quantify saccade metrics offline using methods described previously70. Joystick releases were detected by the onset of the step change in voltage from a Hall effect joystick .Monkeys viewed the visual stimuli while seated and head fixed in a primate chair  inside a darkened booth. Experiments were controlled using a modified version of PLDAPS69. The timing of the stimuli and events was controlled by a QNX system running QPCS (Courtesy David Sheinberg). Monkey viewed the screen through a mirror placed in front at a 45° angle. The total viewing distance of the screen was 53 cm. Eye movements were acquired and monitored in the scanner to verify that animals maintained fixation using an iView X system ; the eye signal was calibrated at the beginning of each session. Joystick holds and releases were detected by disruption of an optic fiber transmission using a custom-built device.For the subset of attention task sessions that were performed in the scanner, stimuli were back projected onto a screen placed inside the bore of the vertical magnet using an Epson projector controlled by a Windows 2007 machine running MATLAB R2012b (The Mathworks) with the Psychophysics Toolbox extensionsCustom code written in MATLAB for running the experiments and analyzing the data is available upon request from the authors.Supplementary Information


Acinetobacter species are important in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which threatens human and animal health worldwide. Here, we present the draft genome sequences of three Acinetobacter species strains  isolated from pig feces and the floor of a pig hospital pen in Ireland. Acinetobacter species are important in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which threatens human and animal health worldwide. Here, we present the draft genome sequences of three Acinetobacter species strains  isolated from pig feces and the floor of a pig hospital pen in Ireland. Acinetobacter species, including Acinetobacter baumannii, are multidrug-resistant bacteria responsible for infections in hospital settings. Intensive animal production sites are similar to hospitals in many respects, and the role of Acinetobacter in the microbiota of intensively farmed pigs needs to be investigated with care to evaluate their potential to spread antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes (Some R) genes . In thisRF14B was isolated from pig feces, and strains RF15A and RF15B were isolated from the floor of a hospital pen. Environmental swabs were obtained as described by Mannion et al. . After ide novo assembled with SPAdes v3.10.0  CTX-M-144 was detected in RF15B with partial coverage of 53.39%. Additionally, adeI, adeJ, and adeK (adeABC pumps), associated with carbapenem resistance when overexpressed, were identified in all three isolates.The two hospital pen isolates had >99.9% average nucleotide identity (ANI) to each other and 98% identity to the fecal isolate. The closest Acinetobacter species will provide insights into the sequence novelty of these strains and their true phylogenetic status.Further comparative genomic analyses with closely related SMTB00000000, VLSQ00000000, and VLSR00000000. The versions described here are the first versions. The BioProject number is PRJNA427141, and the BioSample numbers are SAMN08224478, SAMN08224479, and SAMN08224480. The raw sequencing data are available in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under the accession numbers SRR6409923, SRR6409922, and SRR6409912.The draft genome assemblies of the three isolates have been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession numbers


The following scientists assisted the journal by reviewing manuscripts during the period November 1, 2018 to October 31, 2019.We gratefully acknowledge their critical evaluation and assistance in selecting articles for publication.


To evaluate the surgical technique using autologous retinal graft (ARG) and autologous blood clot (ABC) for the management of refractory macular holes (MHs).This study was a retrospective, consecutive, interventional case series. Six eyes of 6 patients who underwent vitrectomy combined with ARG and ABC for the treatment of refractory MH were reviewed. Visual and anatomic outcomes were evaluated.The mean age was 59.0 ± 9.9 years. All cases had multiple vitreoretinal procedures including vitrectomy and gas fluid exchange before patient presentation. The average numbers of vitrectomies were 2.3 ± 0.5, and those of gas fluid exchange were 3 ± 1.7. Closure of the macular hole was achieved in four (66.7%) cases at last follow-up. The mean follow-up time was 25.2 ± 15.6 months. The averaged BCVA before and after 12 months of the surgery improved from 20/591 to 20/244.This surgical technique using ARG and ABC provide an option for the treatment of refractory MHs.The online version of this article (10.1186/s12886-018-0898-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Pars plana vitrectomy combined with internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling and gas tamponade is considered a standard approach for treating macular holes (MHs) . The invVarious surgical strategies have been introduced as adjunctive procedures to attempt closure of the refractory MH; these include enlargement of the previous ILM peel , use of Autologous neurosensory retinal free flap transplantation was first proposed by Grewal et al. , is a suThis study was a retrospective, consecutive, interventional case series. This ARG and ABC technique was conducted in six patients with refractory MH by 23-gauge vitrectomy. All surgeries were performed by one of the authors (C.-C.L.) at the Department of Ophthalmology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. This study adhered to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Chung-Gang Memorial Hospital, Taiwan.The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) clinical presentation of an unclosed MH after previously receiving vitrectomy and ILM removal; (2) no remaining ILM within the vascular arcade in the posterior pole and treatment via combined pars plana vitrectomy with ARG and ABC; and (3) a follow-up period of more than 1 year after the vitrectomy with ARG and ABC. Patient records were reviewed, and the following data were collected: age, gender, past ocular history, preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and preoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT). Postoperative assessments were planned at 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after surgery; then, patients were followed up every 6 months. Extra visits may occur when there is a clinical need. BCVA and OCT were evaluated at each follow-up visit, except on the first postoperative day in which the fundus was prohibited from being viewed clearly. BCVA using a Snellen chart was converted to the logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) for analysis purposes.Diagrammatic representation of surgical procedure is outlined in Fig. Additional file 1:Video that illustrates key steps of autologous retinal graft and blood clot technique for the management of refractory macular holes. (MP4 17160 kb)A total of six cases  with refractory MH underwent surgery using the “ARG and ABC” technique. Characteristics of the patients and surgical results are summarized in Tables Intraoperatively, all eyes had successful transposition of the ARG and no intraoperative complications related to this technique were noted. The mean follow-up time was 25.2 ± 15.6 months. The averaged BCVA in logMAR before and after 12 months of the surgery were 20/591 (1.47 ± 0.31 logMAR) and 20/244 (1.09 ± 0.52 logMAR), respectively. Overall, 4/6 eyes with a closed hole after ARG gained visual acuity improvement, 2/6 eyes without a closed hole remained stable, and no eyes experienced a deterioration of the best corrected visual acuity after ARG surgery. The blood clot could be observed approximately one week after surgery. No postoperative complications developed during the follow up period. In the follow-up OCT, the graft appeared dislodged after the operation and no graft tissue was visible in the two eyes without closed holes. A reduced ellipsoid zone (EZ) line gap with partial restoration of the external limiting membrane and EZ was noted in one eye at last follow up regarding the recovery of the fovea microstructure post operatively 51 months later   assisted neurosensory retinal free flap transposition technique in their case . The tamIn this series, the aspiration of fluid was slowly performed via fluid-air exchange, and we did not perform further fluid aspiration after a 5 to 10-min wait after the initial fluid-air exchange to maximize vitreous cavity dehydration , 17. FurGraft dislocation was detected by OCT one month postoperatively in our two failure cases. The patients declined to receive any further treatment, however, the visual acuity revealed no deterioration after the surgery. We noted that these two cases were idiopathic MHs and the hole size was larger than the other four cases preoperatively. Given that hole and graft size cannot be accurately measured intraoperatively, the graft prepared may not have been large enough to fill the whole MH. Additionally, a shrinkage of the graft tissue may happen when cutting a graft, or contracture may occur during the healing process. In this situation, it was difficult to secure the graft tissue under the hole margin, causing graft dislodgement during the postoperative period. Regarding the toxicity issues due to blood products and fibrin degradation products used in this technique , althougManagement of refractory MH presents a surgical challenge. ARG and ABC technique may be used in cases of refractory MH who have undergone multiple surgeries, and where no remnant ILM is present within the arcade vessels. Also, this surgical technique had a positive effect on visual function in all of the closure cases. Further study in a larger population that directly compares this technique with other techniques is warranted.


Near infrared light (NIR) fluorescence imaging with indocyanine green (ICG) has been used in various aspects of surgery, such as in the assessment of vascular anastomosis, tissue perfusion, and the identification of lymph nodes. In this study we evaluated the utility of NIR/ICG fluorescence imaging in kidney transplantation. NIR/ICG imaging was used to assess allograft perfusion in n=1 living donor (LDRT) and n=2 deceased donor (DDRT) renal transplantations, performed in February 2017. The allograft arterial and venous anastomoses were done end-to-side to the corresponding recipient external iliacs, and ureteroneocystostomies were performed for urinary reconstructions. After completion of vascular anastomosis, ICG was given as intravenous bolus at 0.3mg/kg, followed by visual assessment of tissue perfusion and vascular anastomoses at 1-minute interval using fluorescence imaging (KARL STORZ NIR/ICG System). Homogenous global fluorescence of the allograft and vascular anastomosis was observed in all 3 cases. Immediate postoperative perfusion studies showed patent inflow and outflow vessels and well perfused transplanted kidneys. Immediate graft function was observed in 2 recipients (1 LDRT and 1 DDRT). One session of haemodialysis was performed in 1 DDRT recipient, for high serum potassium in the immediate postoperative setting, who otherwise had good urine output and serially declining serum creatinine. NIR/ICG fluorescence imaging can be useful in renal transplantation for the intraoperative assessment of allograft perfusion, especially in complex cases with multiple renal arteries and vascular reconstructions. Advances in near infrared (NIR) imaging technology have expanded the use of fluorescence imaging in live surgery, with indocyanine green (ICG) being the most widely used fluorophore. NIR/ICG imaging has been used in various aspects of oncological and reconstructive operations, including identification of tumours for resections, assessment of vascular anastomosis and tissue perfusion, and lymph node dissections –5. More This pilot study is institutional review board approved (CIRB 2017/3027), prospectively recruiting 3 patients undergoing living donor  or deceased donor  kidney transplantations in February 2017. Intraoperative ICG/NIR imaging was used for the assessment of graft perfusion.All donor kidneys were preserved in histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) solution and kept in static cold storage, prior to transplantation. The allograft venous and arterial anastomoses were performed, end-to-side to the corresponding recipient external iliac vein and artery. Urinary reconstruction was performed using the extra-vesical Lich-Gregoir ureteroneocystostomy technique over a ureteral stent, which was removed 2 weeks later, and an indwelling bladder catheter was routinely kept for 5 days after surgery. Routine immediate postoperative assessment of kidney allograft perfusion was performed using either a nuclear perfusion or a Doppler ultrasound scan.Following clamp release after completion of vascular anastomoses, a routine assessment of allograft perfusion was done, which included thorough visual inspection of the kidney and vessels, as well as palpation of the kidney turgidity and arterial pulsations. Indocyanine green was given as an intravenous (IV) bolus at a dose of 0.3mg/kg, and a visual assessment of allograft perfusion using fluorescence imaging was performed after a 1-minute interval. Fluorescence imaging was obtained using the xenon-light based KARL STORZ NIR/ICG System, with VITOM® ICG for high definition recording of the images.Kidney transplantations were performed successfully in all 3 cases. The addition of fluorescence imaging did not significantly extend the operative times, nor alter the routine surgical procedures. All cases were single renal artery and single renal vein anastomoses. The LDRT recipient had a preemptive kidney transplant. Both DDRT organs were recovered from the same standard criteria (SCD) deceased donor, who died from a traumatic subdural haemorrhage. The recipient and donor organ characteristics are shown in Homogenous global fluorescence was observed real-time in each graft kidney, and also in the arterial and venous anastomoses, at 1-minute interval following IV ICG administration see . The fluImmediate graft function was observed in 2 cases (1 LDRT and 1 DDRT recipient). One session of haemodialysis was performed for high serum potassium on the first postoperative day of transplant in 1 DDRT recipient, who subsequently had good urine output and serially declining serum creatinine. There were no perioperative or early postoperative surgical complications. In particular, there were no adverse reactions to IV administration of ICG.The principle of NIR fluorescence imaging revolves around 3 key components, namely, a fluorophore, a light source, and a detector. A fluorophore absorbs energy from the light source and emits fluorescence, which is then picked up by the detector. ICG is cleared by the liver through excretion in bile with a half-life of 3-5 minutes, and the incidence of adverse reactions has been reported at 0.04% . This raSekijima et al. used ICG fluorescence imaging angiography  to assess the integrity of vascular anastomoses in kidney and liver transplantations . The autIn this feasibility study, the KARL STORZ NIR/ICG System used a xenon-light based light source, which did not require the use of laser protective eyewear during surgery. Global fluorescence of the graft kidneys could act as a surrogate for the status of organ perfusion and vascular patency. This was reflected in the postoperative renal perfusion scan and renal function. Nevertheless, these were uncomplicated cases with expected good outcome. The KARL STORZ system provides a qualitative imaging, and quantitative measurement of fluorescence is currently not possible on this platform.Intraoperative fluorescence imaging may be more useful in complex situations, such as multiple renal arteries, or in cases requiring vascular reconstruction, where identifying perfusion defects or non-fluorescent vessels in real-time may allow timely corrective actions before irreversible damage can occur. The current practice in our institution of performing formal perfusion scan postoperatively may result in a delay in identifying such perfusion defects which are not easily perceptible to the naked eye intraoperatively. Finally, assessing the graft ureteral perfusion may reduce stricture rates of the ureterovesical anastomosis by identifying poorly perfused segment of ureter to be trimmed off.In conclusion, NIR/ICG fluorescence imaging is a viable adjunct in renal transplantation for the intraoperative assessment of allograft perfusion and may be useful in complex situations with multiple renal arteries and vascular reconstructions, or when simple visual assessment is deemed inadequate to assess allograft perfusion. Further studies should evaluate its utility in marginal kidneys, and future developments may allow quantitative measurements of fluorescence as a surrogate for Doppler perfusion indices.


International Journal of Hematologic Oncology, it is with great excitement that I introduce the first issue of Volume 8. The year 2019 has lots of interesting things to be excited about; new projects, new ideas and, of course, more excellent content from all of our authors. The return of our Journal Watch series will help to broaden the range of topics we are able to publish, increasing our coverage of the latest information in the field.As the new Editor for the However, before we start this new period I would like to look back over the past year and our highlights from 2018.International Journal of Hematologic Oncology with new faces starting and the journal gaining recognition. Our presence on PubMed Central has been a huge help in widening our audience and increasing the reach of the articles we publish.The year 2018 was a year of change for the editorial team at The standard of content that we publish has remained high. This is due to both our authors and our reviewers who utilize our peer review and revisions policy to ensure all work is at its best. We have received a variety of article types from an international range of authors, each piece providing novel, interesting and exciting developments in the field of hematologic oncology management.The most-read article of 2018 also happens to be our most-read article ever published. Yazeed Sawalha and Anjali Advani from the Taussig Cancer Institute  reviewed the management of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in older generations, discussing the current approaches and the challenges faced by those in this field [Another 2018 article that has hit our most-read list is an editorial from Pratap Neelakantan and Adam Mead, both of the University of Oxford (UK), who described the history of chronic myeloid leukemia and how treatments have developed through the last 5000 years [et al. could help in providing reference material when determining the course of treatment.We have also published several original research articles; one of our highlights is from the Harbin Institute of Hematology & Oncology (China), which provides an observational study of Chinese adults with relapsed/refractory Philadelphia-negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia . This foTo our Editorial Board, we thank you for your continued input, be it in an ambassadorial, advisory or authorship role. Led by our Senior Editor Michele Baccarani , our international board provides valuable assistance and advice that facilitate the publication process; we look forward to working together in the coming year.On this note, if you are interested in joining our advisory board or wish to provide feedback or suggestions for the journal, please do not hesitate to get in touch; we value any and all input that can contribute to the growth and development of the journal.To help further spread the work we publish, we continue to utilize the power of social media and share new work through platforms such as Twitter to ensure articles can be shared with the largest possible audience; if you don't already, we welcome you to follow us on Twitter (@fsgijh). In using social media it is our aim to reach all relevant stakeholders in the field of hematologic oncology – including researchers, clinicians, charities, patients, academics/educators and patient advocates, just to mention a few.Our partnership with the site Oncology Central  continueOur readers remain central to the success of our journal and we welcome any feedback. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any suggestions for what you would like to see featured or any article proposals of your own. We welcome a wide range of unsolicited article proposals so please do get in touch for more information.I would like to finish by once again thanking all of the authors and reviewers who helped to make Volume 7 possible; we hope to continue to build on this success and look forward to another great year.


Superior capsule reconstruction addresses massive rotator cuff tears using allografts and aims to restore the natural superior constraint of the shoulder and therefore shoulder biomechanics and function. There is no evidence relating to the histological incorporation of these grafts.27 superior capsule reconstructions were performed between June 2016 and November 2017. Follow-up was with clinical assessment and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, to identify graft failure. Reverse total shoulder replacement was offered for ruptured grafts and the graft was sent for histological analysis along with the footprint of graft attachment where possible.Five patients (18.5%) had evidence of graft failure, three of whom (11.1%) underwent revision procedures. Of the five ruptures, four failed at the glenoid insertion, and one was an intra-substance tear. Histological analysis showed extensive fibroblastic infiltration. The intra-substance tear showed some vascularity at the medial and lateral ends, and one of the glenoid pull-outs demonstrated micro-calcification and osteoid formation. There was no evidence of in-growth into the bone.An inflammatory response to the grafts was seen, with neo-vascularisation, and micro-calcification observed. These findings are from ruptured grafts, so may not represent the characteristics of those which have not ruptured. Further evidence from explanted intact grafts could be gained to improve our understanding of its incorporation.Level IV evidence Superior capsule reconstruction (SCR) is a novel technique described to address irreparable supra-spinatus or infra-spinatus tears , a fascia lata autograft, or autologous hamstrings grafts, attaching to the superior glenoid and greater tuberosity, secured with bone anchors  scan. The large irreparable tears were those found to measure 30–50 mm in size on MRI scans. Oxford Shoulder Scores were performed pre-operatively. The procedures were all carried out under general anaesthesia with a regional block, in the beach-chair position. The superior glenoid was prepared with a radio-frequency wand and PowerPick drill , and the medial footprint was created to bleeding subchondral bone. The humeral head was debrided in a similar fashion to create the lateral footprint. Two 3 mm SutureTak  anchors were used medially on the glenoid surface, and two SwiveLock 4.75 mm anchors  were used laterally on the humeral head footprint. The area was then measured with calibrated arthroscopic probes to give the graft size. The standard 3.5 mm thick Arthroflex acellular dermal matrix was cut to the required size, leaving at least a 5 mm border around the anchors to reduce sutures cutting through, and at least 10 mm on the tuberosity side to cover the footprint. This was then rail-roaded along the medial sutures and tied in place, with a SpeedBridge (Arthrex Naples Fl.) created laterally and completed with a further two SwiveLock 4.75 mm anchors. The infra-spinatous was sutured to the posterior edge of the graft. In addition to this, a sub-acromial bursectomy was performed, and sub-scapularis was debrided. A long head of biceps tenotomy was not routinely performed.Post-operatively, the patients were given a shoulder immobilising sling for six weeks, and were seen at ten days by an Extended Scope Physiotherapist to commence range of motion exercises. They underwent a standardised physiotherapy rehabilitation programme, with an emphasis on limiting external rotation for two months. They were seen by the Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon at three months post operatively for clinical assessment, and for MRI scanning. They were reviewed again at six months and one year, to review their clinical function, MRI, and patient related outcome scores using the Oxford shoulder score.Patients were assessed for clinical and radiological signs of graft failure, and when evident, were offered revision surgery, to a reverse total shoulder replacement. Graft failure was confirmed in all with MRI scans, showing either loss of continuity in the substance of the graft, or anchor pullout from the footprint. Those electing to undergo revision had their grafts removed, and sent off for histological analysis. If there was any evidence of failure from the three-month appointment onwards, they were offered revision surgery.During the revision procedure, the grafts were removed with the anchors and footprint of bone intact where possible, in order to assess graft incorporation at the footprint area. It was not possible to remove the grafts with a cuff of infra-spinatus left attached, so we were not able to assess integration at this aspect of the graft.A Consultant histopathologist performed histological examination with sections taken along the long axis of the graft in the medial to lateral plane, in order to identify histological changes seen at the medial footprint, mid-substance and lateral footprint. They were prepared with haematoxylin and eosin staining and viewed under low and high power microscopes to assess their macroscopic and microscopic appearance. The aim was to identify any evidence of graft integration, for example, with micro-calcification of the graft, or neo-vascularisation.Between June 2016 and November 2017, three surgeons in our centre had performed 27 superior capsule reconstructions, with a median patient age of 60 years, with more procedures being performed in females (63%). There were no significant differences between the patients with intact grafts and those with ruptures with respect to age, gender and cuff tear size. All patients underwent pre-operative MRI scanning, showing large rotator cuff tears (30–50 mm) without significant signs of osteoarthritis of the gleno-humeral joint. One procedure was performed to address a massive rotator cuff tear in the presence of an existing anatomical total shoulder replacement.p = 0.5).The mean Oxford shoulder score pre-operatively was 18.8, and at an average of six months post-operatively, it was 30.1, an improvement of 11.3. Five patients (18.5%) had radiological evidence of graft failure on MRI scans, all within six months from the procedure. Three patients (11.1%) decided to undergo revision procedures. The remaining two did not want a revision as they felt that functionally they did not require further intervention. The mean Oxford Shoulder Scores for the five patients with graft failure was 19.6 pre-operatively, and 29.3 post-operatively, an improvement of 9.7. This difference was not statistically significant to those with intact grafts  had failed at the glenoid insertion, and one (20%) was an intra-substance tear. Of the three patients that underwent revision and graft analysis, one was the mid-substance tear, and the remaining two were glenoid side failure. When these two were removed, intra-operatively it was found that it was due to medial anchor pull out.Histological assessment of the graft showing mid-substance failure showed that macroscopically, there were no significant differences between the two sides. Microscopic assessment of the graft showed collagenous tissue with partial coverage by macrophages.The areas immediately adjacent to the area of graft failure  showed acanthotic fragments of mainly non-viable tissue, with occasional fibroblastic activity. There was no significant evidence of inflammation or viable blood vessel formation.The opposite ends of the grafts, around the footprints, showed chronic inflammatory cell infiltrates with giant cells and prominent vascularity. There was no evidence of bony in-growth or on-growth at either the humeral or glenoid aspect.The first graft assessed was sent with samples of bone from the footprint area. This showed that there was scarring of the periosteum from the overlying graft, with fibro-fatty infiltrates. At the interface of the graft and bone there was evidence of fibroblasts and aggregates of multi-nucleate giant cells, but no suggestion of incorporation into the bone itself, or in-growth into the graft.The second graft underwent analysis of the medial, middle and lateral sections. The microscopic appearance of the lateral aspect of the graft Fig. . showed None of the three grafts demonstrated any evidence of infection or malignancy.The graft rupture rate seen was 18.5%, which is very similar to that demonstrated in the literature, with a revision rate of 11.1%, although more recent evidence indicates a failure rate as low as 4% (Mihata et al., The histological samples showed that the acellular dermal matrix caused a significant inflammatory response, demonstrated by the presence of fibroblasts. At the footprints of one of the grafts the graft, there was evidence of bony integration, in-growth, which is highlighted by osteoclastic activity, microcalcification, and the evidence of bony spicules. One of the graft samples even showed prominent vascularity, indicating good integration of the acellular dermal matrix (Aurora et al., There was evidence that the graft stimulated an inflammatory response to the bone at glenoid the footprint, with giant cell and fibroblast proliferation (Bertasi et al., Clinically, the improvement in Oxford Shoulder Scores performed pre-operatively and at six months post-operatively was not statistically significant for the group with intact grafts compared to those with a ruptured graft. This yet again appears to conflict with the current literature, as Denard et al. showed a 55% reduction in patient satisfaction when the graft had not completely healed (Denard et al., Previous evidence from Zerr et al. implicated abrasion on the graft as a possible reason for failure, and advocated acromioplasty to reduce this (Zerr et al., The evidence from rabbits shows that the complete grafts had similar findings, with fibroblast, chronic inflammatory cell and eosinophilic infiltration. They did not find any evidence of neovascularisation, and hypothesised that the graft acts as a scaffold (Kim et al., These results are from ruptured grafts, so it is important to take into account the fact that they may not be representative of the findings in successful grafts. The fact that there are three samples with multiple sections from each does give a good indication of the cellular interaction on and around the graft. It could be argued that the fact that they ruptured could mean they have a different histological fate compared to those grafts that do not, but the fact that sections from different parts of several grafts show good bony integration and capillary infiltration hopefully makes these comparable to those grafts, which did not rupture.In order to improve the evidence base, histological samples from non-ruptured grafts would be needed, to assess their fate once implanted. The limitation of this, would be the removal of the graft in an otherwise well functioning reconstruction. This is a relatively new procedure, and as these patients progress, they may develop some degenerative joint disease, requiring reverse arthroplasty. It is at this point that the intact grafts could be removed, and histological assessment performed to address this issue.The histological evidence from three revised superior capsule reconstructions indicates that the acellular dermal matrix samples studied produced a local inflammatory response when implanted into the shoulder. There was extensive inflammatory cellular infiltration seen, and even evidence of bony and vascular infiltration into the graft at the peripheries, which indicates that the graft is a good biological scaffold. None of the grafts showed evidence of on-growth onto the bone at the graft footprint.Evidence from 27 superior capsule reconstructions performed by three surgeons over a year and a half show promising results. There was a mean improvement in Oxford shoulder score of 11.3 comparing pre-operative scores with scores at an average of six months post-operative. There was a graft rupture rate of 18.5% and a revision rate of 11.1%, which is in line with the existing data.


A disposable and ecofriendly starch paper was used to fabricate a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for the sensing of human perspiration. Using cost-effective and commercially accessible materials, the starch paper-based TENG (S-TENG) can be achieved through a rapid and simple fabrication method. The output performance varies with the absorbed water content, which can be utilized for human perspiration sensing. The starch structure can be broken down in water within 4 min. The proposed S-TENGs have a considerable potential in the field of green wearable electronics. The attractive attributes of flexible electronics, for example, their stretchable/bendable mechanical flexibility, small volume, and biodegradability, are expected to play a key role in disposable usage associated with electronic safety, bio-sensors, smart packing, and business cards –3. In faThe triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been extensively investigated in the field of energy harvesting –12. A TEStarch is a promising feedstock for developing decomposable substrates, as it is less expensive than the other alternatives, found in abundance, and renewable. Here, we have illustrated disposable TENG devices based on ecofriendly biodegradable starch papers. The materials employed are all cost-effective and commercially available. The starch paper-based TENG (S-TENG) can be constructed through a simple process where the starch paper is assembled with a metal wire. The constructed TENG can be employed as a self-powered human perspiration sensor. Furthermore, the proposed TENG holds potential for application in the area of wearable electronics.The starch paper (thickness: ~ 1 mm) was obtained from GILRO Corp. (Israel). One side of the paper is connected to a metallic wire and then sprayed with water vapors, resulting in the S-TENG. The fabrication mechanism, which is schematically demonstrated in Fig. 2) was connected to a human elbow . In addition, the output signal of the S-TENG was measured for various durations of human biomechanical movement.The electronic performance was measured with a digital oscilloscope . The fabricated S-TENG (4.4 × 4.4 cmThe working mechanism of the S-TENG is schematically shown in Fig. The results indicate that the working state of the S-TENG can be separated into two working patterns, based on the quantity of water vapor absorbed by the starch paper. The concept of charge transfer is illustrated, using the state shown in Fig. A photograph of the fabricated S-TENG is shown in Fig. The starch paper exhibited sheet resistances of 19 MΩ, 6.1 MΩ, 1.5 MΩ, 140 KΩ, and 130 KΩ prior to water spraying and subsequent to the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th spraying, respectively. The corresponding electronic activities of the S-TENG are compared, as shown in Fig. The proposed S-TENG has been used for the sensing of human perspiration. As shown in Fig. The disposability attributes of the starch paper were determined by evaluating the dissolution activity, as shown in Fig. In this work, a new and simple methodology for fabricating disposable TENG devices employing ecofriendly biodegradable starch papers is introduced. The rapid and simple process for constructing the S-TENG utilizes cost-effective and commercially accessible materials. The starch structure can be broken down into powder in water within 4 min. The proposed TENG has considerable potential in the field of wearable electronics.


Starting a new journal is always challenging as new IT systems are put in place. Thank you to all our readers, our reviewers, those who submitted manuscripts and those whose manuscripts were published, for their patience and generosity in thought.pneumonia is.In the first six months of the journal’s existence, we published three quality papers. Over this time, the journal has been visited from every continent and 21 countries, with nearly 70% of these being from new visitors. The average visit duration is a little over 4 minutes. These are very exciting statistics for a journal in its infancy as In Volume 1, papers were published from Malawi, examining oxygen supply and demand in a large teaching hospital setting; Australia concluding that qPCR analysis of sera has potential to aid the aetiological diagnosis of pneumonia; and France which concluded that viral co-infection was observed mainly in patients with severe pneumonia and that RT-PCR substantially improved pathogen detection.pneumonia is the only journal that is exclusively focused on pneumonia. Welcome to Volume 2.