The evaluation of blood compatibility of biomaterials is crucial for ensuring the clinical safety of implantable medical devices. To address the limitations of traditional testing methods in real-time monitoring and electrical property analysis, this study developed a portable electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system. The system uses a 16-electrode design, operates within a frequency range of 1 to 500 kHz, achieves a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 69.54 dB at 50 kHz, and has a data collection speed of 20 frames per second. Experimental results show that the EIT system developed in this study is highly consistent with a microplate reader ( R ²=0.97) in detecting the hemolytic behavior of industrial-grade titanium (TA3) and titanium alloy-titanium 6 aluminum 4 vanadium (TC4) in anticoagulated bovine blood. Additionally, with the support of a multimodal image fusion Gauss-Newton one-step iterative algorithm, the system can accurately locate and monitor in real-time the dynamic changes in blood permeation and coagulation caused by TC4 in vivo. In conclusion, the EIT system developed in this study provides a new and effective method for evaluating the blood compatibility of biomaterials.
Electric Impedance ; Animals ; Tomography/instrumentation* ; Biocompatible Materials ; Materials Testing/instrumentation* ; Cattle ; Titanium ; Alloys ; Prostheses and Implants

Objective:To explore the application effect of a student-faculty collaborative dynamic question bank based on outcome based education (OBE) in the teaching of maternal and infant nursing.Methods:A total of 204 junior nursing undergraduates (Grade 2021 and Grade 2022) enrolled at Shantou University Medical College between September 2023 and January 2025 were selected by convenience sampling. Ninety-two students from Grade 2021 were assigned to the control group, and 112 students from Grade 2022 were assigned to the intervention group. The control group received the traditional teaching syllabus before the course, used the People's Medical Publishing House question bank for self-testing, and the original static self-constructed exam question bank in the Kaoyi system for assessment. The intervention group practiced and was assessed using a student-faculty collaborative dynamic question bank based on OBE. The intervention lasted for one semester. Course performance and satisfaction were compared between the two groups.Results:The number of questions in the bank increased from 347 to 2 058. After course completion, the intervention group had higher stage test scores, final exam scores, and overall course scores than the control group ( P<0.05). The intervention group also reported higher levels of overall course satisfaction, perceived personal ability improvement, and satisfaction with course content and instructors than the control group ( P<0.05) . Conclusions:The student-faculty collaborative dynamic question bank based on OBE can effectively improve students' academic performance and satisfaction, and is worthy of wider application.

Objective:To explore the application effect of a student-faculty collaborative dynamic question bank based on outcome based education (OBE) in the teaching of maternal and infant nursing.Methods:A total of 204 junior nursing undergraduates (Grade 2021 and Grade 2022) enrolled at Shantou University Medical College between September 2023 and January 2025 were selected by convenience sampling. Ninety-two students from Grade 2021 were assigned to the control group, and 112 students from Grade 2022 were assigned to the intervention group. The control group received the traditional teaching syllabus before the course, used the People's Medical Publishing House question bank for self-testing, and the original static self-constructed exam question bank in the Kaoyi system for assessment. The intervention group practiced and was assessed using a student-faculty collaborative dynamic question bank based on OBE. The intervention lasted for one semester. Course performance and satisfaction were compared between the two groups.Results:The number of questions in the bank increased from 347 to 2 058. After course completion, the intervention group had higher stage test scores, final exam scores, and overall course scores than the control group ( P<0.05). The intervention group also reported higher levels of overall course satisfaction, perceived personal ability improvement, and satisfaction with course content and instructors than the control group ( P<0.05) . Conclusions:The student-faculty collaborative dynamic question bank based on OBE can effectively improve students' academic performance and satisfaction, and is worthy of wider application.

Mechanical ventilation(MV)provides life support for critically ill respiratory patients,but in the meantime can cause fatal ventilator-induced lung injury(VILI),and the latter remains a major challenge in respiratory and critical care medicine,because the pathological mechanism has not been fully elucidated.Recent studies show that on the one hand,in the lung with VILI,there exists airway collapse at multi-sites of an individual airway,which can not be explained by traditional airway collapse models.But on the other hand,under MV conditions,airway smooth muscle cells(ASMC)exhibit abnormal mechanical behaviors,accompanied by regulation of Piezo1 expression and endoplasmic reticulum stress.These phenomenons indicate that the MV-induced abnormal mechanical behavior of ASMC is closely related to multiple airway collapse and VILI.Therefore,by studying the MV-induced changes of ASMC mechanical behaviors and their relationship with airway collapse in lung injury,as well as the related mechanochemical signal coupling process,it is expected to reveal a novel mechanism of MV-associated airway collapse and lung injury from the perspective of cell mechanics.In this review,the recent research progress of airway collapse during MV,the regulation of ASMC mechanical behavior by MV-related high stretch,especially the related mechanochemical signal coupling mechanism is summarized.These advances may provide a novel insight for exploring the roles of ASMC abnormal mechanical behavior in the pathological mechanism of VILI,alternative targets of drug intervention for prevention and treatment of VILI,as well as for optimizing the ventilation mode in clinical practice.

Objective:To assess the effectiveness of a 6-month Ba Duan Jin exercise program in improving the balance of community-dwelling older adults.Methods:A two arms, parallel-group, cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in 1 028 community residents aged 60-80 years in 40 communities in 5 provinces of China. Participants in the intervention group (20 communities, 523 people) received Ba Duan Jin exercise 5 days/week, 1 hour/day for 6 months, and three times of falls prevention health education, and the control group (20 communities, 505 people) received falls prevention health education same as the intervention group. The Berg balance scale (BBS) score was the leading outcome indicator, and the secondary outcome indicators included the length of time of standing on one foot (with eyes open and closed), standing in a tandem stance (with eyes open and closed), the closed circle test, and the timed up to test.Results:A total of 1 028 participants were included in the final analysis, including 731 women (71.11%) and 297 men (28.89%), and the age was (69.87±5.67) years. After the 3-month intervention, compared with the baseline data, the BBS score of the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group by 3.05 (95% CI: 2.23-3.88) points ( P<0.001). After the 6-month intervention, compared with the baseline data, the BBS score of the intervention group was significantly higher than the control group by 4.70 (95% CI: 4.03-5.37) points ( P<0.001). Ba Duan Jin showed significant improvement ( P<0.05) in all secondary outcomes after 6 months of exercise in the intervention group compared with the control group. Conclusions:This study showed that Ba Duan Jin exercise can improve balance in community-dwelling older adults aged 60-80. The longer the exercise time, the better the improvement.

The critically ill coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients usually present acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), or even acute respiratory failure, and require mechanical ventilation (MV) to provide support for breathing. However, clinical studies have found an extraordinarily high mortality rate (>50%) for those Covid-19 patients who underwent MV. Considering the mechanical nature of MV, the high mortality rate is highly possible to be associated with mechanical stretch-induced lung injury during MV. Thus, it is imperative to understand the MV-induced pathological alterations in the respiratory system and corresponding mitigation measures in order to improve the therapy of critically ill Covid-19 patients. Ventilator-induced lung injury in therapy of critically ill Covid-19 patients involves several biomechanical factors and mechanisms, including changes in respiratory parameters, inflammatory cytokines storm, ciliary-mucus system, airway smooth muscle cells, lung fibrosis, and stretch-activated cell signaling. It is hoped that these biomechanical issues can be diligently investigated, so as to provide insights for optimizing the therapy for Covid-19 as well as other respiratory diseases.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of sanguinarine on biomechanical properties of rat airway smooth muscle cells (rASMCs) including stiffness, traction force and cytoskeletal stress fiber organization. To do so, rASMCs cultured were treated with sanguinarine solution at different concentrations (0.005~5 μmol/L) for 12 h, 24 h, 36 h, and 48 h, respectively. Subsequently, the cells were tested for their viability, stiffness, traction force, migration and microfilament distribution by using methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide assay, optical magnetic twisting cytometry, Fourier transform traction microscopy, scratch wound healing method, and immunofluorescence microscopy, respectively. The results showed that at concentration below 0.5 μmol/L sanguinarine had no effect on cell viability, but caused dose and time dependent effect on cell biomechanics. Specifically, rASMCs treated with sanguinarine at 0.05 μmol/L and 0.5 μmol/L for 12 and 24 h exhibited significant reduction in stiffness, traction force and migration speed, together with disorganization of the cytoskeletal stress fibers. Considering the essential role of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) biomechanics in the airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) of asthma, these findings suggest that sanguinarine may ameliorate AHR via alteration of ASMCs biomechanical properties, thus providing a novel approach for asthma drug development.

Objective To obtain the pneumococcal autolysin(LytA)and choline binding protein A(CbpA)by prokaryotic expression system and investigate their diagnosis for infection caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae.Methods The specific primers were designed according to lytA and cbpA of Streptococcus pneumoniae gene sequence.lytA and cbpA were amplified by PCR form the pneumococcus genome.After IPTG inducing,the recombinant proteins were purified by electroeluting of bag filter,detected by SDS-PAGE and Western blot.Serum lgG and IgM antibodies accordingly of BALB/c mice infected with Streptococcus pneurnoniae were detected by ELISA.Results The recombinant plasmid pET-32a(+)/lytA and pET-32a (+)/cbpA were constructed successfully.Fusion proteins LytA and CbpA were expressed and displayed expected antigenicity.IgM and IgG antibodies level anti LytA were significantly higher than the control group (infections with B Streptococcus group and healthy mice),(P<0.05),but antibodies level anti CbpA did not increase as compared with group infected with B Streptococcus(P>0.05).Diagnostic sensitivity of CbpA was 83.3%(IgG)and 75.0%(IgM).Diagnostic specificity of LytA was 100%(IgG and IgM).Conclusion The synergistic use of specificity of LytA and sensitivity of CbpA may be worthy of serological diagnosis for Streptococcus pneumoniae infection,and may be used for further clinical test.