A Novel Ultrafine Needle (UN) for Innocuous and Efficient Subcutaneous Insulin Delivery

Subcutaneous (SC) insulin injection has been demonstrated to be the most effective method for treatment of diabetes mellitus but is conventionally performed by hypodermic needles, leading to poor management of diabetes because of the pain, needle phobia, and tissue trauma. Identification of a viable, safe, and pain‐free alternative method has been a longstanding challenge in modern health care. Here, the thermoplastic droplet stretching technique is developed to create an ultrahigh‐aspect‐ratio needle mold with simple microstructure control. The optimized ultrafine needle (UN) with 4 mm length, minimized 120 µm outer diameter, and 15° sharp bevel angle is formed via electroplating of a metallic layer on the surface of a needle mold with forcing sharp tip. This novel UN enables minimally invasive 4 mm skin insertion to deliver insulin in the targeted SC layer. The similar relative areas under the curves of insulin concentration within UN and 31G needle in vivo insulin administration indicate that UN can ensure stable insulin absorption for secure blood glucose management. Additionally, the proposed fabrication method may facilitate industrialization and commercialization of the UN, holding great promise for replacement of hypodermic needles and for improvement of quality of life among patients with diabetes.     

Aromatic nitration under neutral conditions using N-bromosuccinimide/silver(I) nitrate

The use of N-bromosuccinimide and silver nitrate as a convenient reagent system for the nitration of aromatic compounds under neutral and environmentally safer reaction conditions is described.     

Effect of disorder on slow light velocity in optical slow-wave structures

Slow-wave optical structures such as coupled photonic crystal cavities, coupled microresonators, and similar coupled-resonator optical waveguides are being proposed for slowing light because of the nature of their dispersion relationship. Since the group velocity becomes small, slow light and enhanced light-matter interaction may be observed at the edges of the waveguiding band. We derive a model of the effects of disorder on slow light in such structures, obtaining a relationship between the root-mean-square variation in the coupling coefficients and how slow the light is at the band edge.     

Personalized PageRank Clustering: A graph clustering algorithm based on random walks

Graph clustering has been an essential part in many methods and thus its accuracy has a significant effect on many applications. In addition, exponential growth of real-world graphs such as social networks, biological networks and electrical circuits demands clustering algorithms with nearly-linear time and space complexity. In this paper we propose Personalized PageRank Clustering (PPC) that employs the inherent cluster exploratory property of random walks to reveal the clusters of a given graph. We combine random walks and modularity to precisely and efficiently reveal the clusters of a graph. PPC is a top-down algorithm so it can reveal inherent clusters of a graph more accurately than other nearly-linear approaches that are mainly bottom-up. It also gives a hierarchy of clusters that is useful in many applications. PPC has a linear time and space complexity and has been superior to most of the available clustering algorithms on many datasets. Furthermore, its top-down approach makes it a flexible solution for clustering problems with different requirements.     

Transverse Bragg resonance laser amplifier

We propose and analyze a new type of optical amplifier that is formed by addition of gain in the periodic cladding of a transverse Bragg resonance waveguide [Opt. Lett. 27, 936 (2002)]. Using the coupled-wave formalism, we calculate the mode profiles, the exponential gain constant, and, for comparison, the gain enhancement compared with those of conventional semiconductor optical amplifiers. In contrast with coupled-mode theory, in one-dimensional structures (e.g., the distributed-feedback laser) the exponential gain constant in the longitudinal direction is involved in both longitudinal and transverse confinement, and its solution has to be achieved self-consistently, together with the quantized guiding channel width.     

Photocrosslinked Bioreducible Polymeric Nanoparticles for Enhanced Systemic siRNA Delivery as Cancer Therapy

Clinical translation of polymer-based nanocarriers for systemic delivery of RNA has been limited due to poor colloidal stability in the blood stream and intracellular delivery of the RNA to the cytosol. To address these limitations, this study reports a new strategy incorporating photocrosslinking of bioreducible nanoparticles for improved stability extracellularly and rapid release of RNA intracellularly. In this design, the polymeric nanocarriers contain ester bonds for hydrolytic degradation and disulfide bonds for environmentally triggered small interfering RNA (siRNA) release in the cytosol. These photocrosslinked bioreducible nanoparticles (XbNPs) have a shielded surface charge, reduced adsorption of serum proteins, and enable superior siRNA-mediated knockdown in both glioma and melanoma cells in high-serum conditions compared to non-crosslinked formulations. Mechanistically, XbNPs promote cellular uptake and the presence of secondary and tertiary amines enables efficient endosomal escape. Following systemic administration, XbNPs facilitate targeting of cancer cells and tissue-mediated siRNA delivery beyond the liver, unlike conventional nanoparticle-based delivery. These attributes of XbNPs facilitate robust siRNA-mediated knockdown in vivo in melanoma tumors colonized in the lungs following systemic administration. Thus, biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles, via photocrosslinking, demonstrate extended colloidal stability and efficient delivery of RNA therapeutics under physiological conditions, and thereby potentially advance systemic delivery technologies for nucleic acid-based therapeutics.     

Knittable and Washable Multifunctional MXene‐Coated Cellulose Yarns

Textile‐based electronics enable the next generation of wearable devices, which have the potential to transform the architecture of consumer electronics. Highly conductive yarns that can be manufactured using industrial‐scale processing and be washed like everyday yarns are needed to fulfill the promise and rapid growth of the smart textile industry. By coating cellulose yarns with Ti₃C₂T_x MXene, highly conductive and electroactive yarns are produced, which can be knitted into textiles using an industrial knitting machine. It is shown that yarns with MXene loading of ≈77 wt% (≈2.2 mg cm^?1) have conductivity of up to 440 S cm^?1. After washing for 45 cycles at temperatures ranging from 30 to 80 °C, MXene‐coated cotton yarns exhibit a minimal increase in resistance while maintaining constant MXene loading. The MXene‐coated cotton yarn electrode offers a specific capacitance of 759.5 mF cm^?1 at 2 mV s^?1. A fully knitted textile‐based capacitive pressure sensor is also prepared, which offers high sensitivity (gauge factor of ≈6.02), wide sensing range of up to ≈20% compression, and excellent cycling stability (2000 cycles at ≈14% compression strain). This work provides new and practical insights toward the development of platform technology that can integrate MXene in cellulose‐based yarns for textile‐based devices.