High Skin Research Articles

A Sri Lankan infant with immunoglobulin resistant incomplete Kawasaki disease with a vesicular psoriasiform rash, hypertension and late onset small joint arthritis: a case report

BackgroundKawasaki disease (KD) is a medium and small vessel vasculitis which usually has a good response to immunoglobulin therapy (IVIG). We present a case of incomplete KD with IVIG resistance associated with an unusual combination of vesicular guttate-psoriasiform rash, hypertension and late onset small joint arthritis.Case presentationA four-month-old male infant from Sri Lanka presented with high fever, conjunctival redness, pedal oedema and skin rash. He was found to have hypertension since admission with a high white cell count and high inflammatory markers. There was poor response to intravenous antibiotics and subsequent 2D echocardiogram revealed coronary artery aneurysms suggestive of KD. In the third week of illness he developed a vesiculo-papular rash involving face, trunk and limbs – which on biopsy revealed features of guttate psoriasis.Fever spikes continued and the coronary arteries showed progressive dilatation despite timely intravenous immunoglobulin administered on day 6 and methylprednisolone administered on day 10-13. Therapeutic response by means of reduction of fever was seen only after initiation of intravenous infliximab on day 28 of illness for which the fever responded within 24 hours. He developed a small joint arthritis of hands and feet on day 40 of illness which responded only after initiating methotrexate therapy. The hypertension persisted for 4 months after the onset of the illness before complete resolution.ConclusionThis case report depicts an unusual presentation of KD with a vesicular guttate-psoriasiform eruption, hypertension and late onset small joint arthritis. It highlights that clinicians should be aware of the fact that KD could present with such atypical manifestations and could develop unusual complications.

Infectious shock after liposuction

BackgroundLiposuction has become one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries in China. However, few studies have discussed infectious shock caused by C. perfringens as one of the causes of death after liposuction.Case presentationA 24-year-old woman was brought to the emergency department (ED) of Guangzhou Chinese Overseas Hospital for treatment. The patient had undergone liposuction in her bilateral lower limbs two days prior. At the ED, the patient was unconscious, and had bilateral equal-sized (diameter, 6 mm) round pupils, no light reflex, a blood pressure (BP) of 71/33 mmHg, a heart rate of 133 bpm, and an SpO2 of 70%. She had bilateral limb swelling, extensive ecchymoses in her lower abdomen and bilateral thighs, local crepitus, blisters, weak pulses on her femoral artery and dorsalis pedis, high skin tension, and hemoglobin of 32 g/L. The patient was diagnosed with Clostridium perfringens infection, and she underwent debridement surgery and supportive treatment. But the patient’s BP could not improve. At 8:28 pm on the day of admission, the patient was declared clinically dead after the electrocardiograph showed a horizontal line and spontaneous respiration ceased.ConclusionsFailure to meet surgical disinfection and environmental standards may be the cause of infection of C. perfringens through wounds. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the environmental disinfection of the operating room, and standardize the sterile conditions of the operation staff and patients before and during operation. Liposuction surgery necrotizing fasciitis is a rare but fatal complications, especially if diagnosis delay, therefore it is critical for early diagnosis and treatment of gas gangrene.

Experience of successful autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with an unfavorable prognosis of systemic scleroderma

One of the methods of treating severe forms of systemic scleroderma is hematopoietic stem-cell autotransplantation (auto-HSCT). The article describes two clinical cases of auto-HSCT followed by rituximab (RTM) therapy in patients with diffuse systemic scleroderma with progressive interstitial lung disease (ILD), high immunological activity, high skin score, and an unfavorable prognosis. The assessment of the course of these diseases was carried out in the course of dynamic observation of patients for 10–11 years. In all cases, auto-HSCT followed by RTM made it possible to achieve remission / low activity, as well as to stabilize the progressive of ILD.

A stable XPG protein is required for proper ribosome biogenesis: Insights on the phenotype of combinate Xeroderma Pigmentosum/Cockayne Syndrome patients.

Nucleotide Excision Repair is one of the five DNA repair systems. More than 30 proteins are involved in this process, including the seven XP proteins. When mutated, the genes coding for these proteins are provoking the rare disease Xeroderma Pigmentosum, which causes cutaneous defects and a high prevalence of skin cancers in patients. The CSA and CSB proteins are also involved in Nucleotide Excision Repair, and their mutation leads to Cockayne Syndrome, another rare disease, causing dwarfism, neurodegeneration, and ultimately early death, but without high skin cancer incidence. Some mutations of ERCC5, the gene coding for XPG, may give rise to a combined Xeroderma Pigmentosum and Cockayne Syndrome. A defect in Nucleotide Excision Repair alone cannot explain all these phenotypes. XPG has been located in the nucleolus, where ribosome biogenesis happens. This energy-consuming process starts with the transcription of the ribosomal DNA in a long ribosomal RNA, the pre-rRNA 47S, by RNA Polymerase 1. 47S pre-rRNA undergoes several cleavages and modifications to form three mature products: the ribosomal RNAs 18S, 5.8S and 28S. In the cytoplasm, these three products will enter the ribosomes’ composition, the producers of protein in our cells. Our work aimed to observe ribosome biogenesis in presence of an unstable XPG protein. By working on Xeroderma Pigmentosum/Cockayne Syndrome cell lines, meaning in the absence of XPG, we uncovered that the binding of UBF, as well as the number of unresolved R-loops, is increased along the ribosomal DNA gene body and flanking regions. Furthermore, ribosomal RNA maturation is impaired, with increased use of alternative pathways of maturation as well as an increase of immature precursors. These defective processes may explain the neurodegeneration observed when the XPG protein is heavily truncated, as ribosomal homeostasis and R-loops resolution are critical for proper neuronal development.

Older Patients and Patients with Severe Arteriosclerosis Are Less Likely to Develop Keloids and Hypertrophic Scars after Thoracic Midline Incision: A Survey-Based Analysis of 328 Cases.

Surgery is a well-known trigger of keloid and hypertrophic scarring. Sternotomy scars are subject to high skin tension, which is known to promote pathologic scarring. This suggests that sternotomies in adults are associated with high pathologic scarring rates, which aligns with the authors' anecdotal experience. However, this notion has never been examined formally. Therefore, the authors conducted a survey-based cohort study of patients who had undergone a sternotomy. All consecutive Japanese adults (18 years of age or older) who underwent cardiovascular surgery with sternotomy in 2014 to 2017 were identified in 2019 by chart review and sent a questionnaire. Respondents formed the study cohort. The questionnaire presented randomly ordered photographs of representative mature, keloid, and hypertrophic scars and asked the patients to choose the image that best resembled their midline scar when it was particularly noticeable. The incidence of self-reported pathologic scarring (keloids and hypertrophic scars were grouped together) and the patient demographic (age and sex) and clinical characteristics (intima-media thickness of the left and right common and internal carotid arteries) that were associated with pathologic scarring were determined. Of the 548 patients who underwent sternotomy, 328 responded for a 60 percent response rate. The mean patient age was 67 years, and 68.0 percent were male. Of these patients, 195 (59.5 percent) reported they had a pathologic scar. Compared with patients who had a mature scar, patients who had a pathologic scar had younger mean age (65 versus 69 years; p = 0.0002) and lower intima-media thickness (0.92 versus 1.05 mm; p = 0.028). Sternotomy was associated with a high rate of pathologic scarring. Older age and arteriosclerosis were associated with less pathologic scarring. Risk, III.

Allergy from perspective of environmental pollution effects: from an aspect of atopic dermatitis, immune system, and atmospheric hazards-a narrative review of current evidences.

Environmental pollution has become more diversified in recent years as technologies for urbanization is increasingly more advanced. Several environmental factors such as air and water pollutants have been linked to allergic symptoms. For instance, because of industrialization for city development in many countries, polluted soil or tiny particles in the air could result in an even more hazardous environment for people to reside. Aside from the aspects of environmental issues, other newly emerging factors such as the electromagnetic field (EMF) also require further investigation. Here, in this narrative review, we focused on allergens from atmospheric and water pollution, hygiene improvement, changes in food trend, and residential environmental pollution. Current evidences regarding the association between various pollutants and the potential clinical diseases could be induced. For people with high skin exposure to air pollutants such as PM 2.5, PM 10, or sulfur dioxide, potential onset of dermatological allergic events should be alerted. The mechanisms involved in allergic diseases are being discussed and summarized. Interactions between immunological mechanisms and clinical implications could potentially provide clearer view to the association between allergic status and pollutants. Moreover, understanding the mechanistic role of allergens can raise awareness to global environment and public health.

Total body skin exams: the role of gynecology and dermatology-a cross-sectional study.

The literature demonstrates practice gaps in performance of the genital skin examination. To further elucidate and understand these practice gaps, we surveyed dermatologist and obstetrician-gynecologist (OB/GYN) attending and resident physicians. Analysis of 73 dermatology survey responses revealed a lack of satisfaction with training received in examination of the female genitalia. Moreover, examination of 69 OB/GYN survey responses showed a lack of satisfaction with residency training received to identify high risk skin lesions. Interestingly, only 52.2% of OB/GYN respondents inspect perianal skin during pelvic region examinations. Our results highlight the need to improve residency training through standardization of breast/genitalia skin examinations during both dermatology and OB/GYN residency and for increased collaboration between specialties.

Effects of hot and humid environments on thermoregulation and aerobic endurance capacity of Laser sailors

Background/ObjectivesThe purpose was to investigate the effects of hot and humid environments on thermoregulation and aerobic endurance capacity and whether high skin temperature serves as a more important thermoregulatory factor affecting aerobic exercise capacity. MethodsA randomized cross-over design was applied to this study, in which nine Laser sailors performed the 6 km rowing test (6 km test) in both a warm (ambient temperature: 23 ± 1.4 °C; relative humidity: 60.5 ± 0.7%; wind speed: 0 km/h; WARM) and hot environment (ambient temperature: 31.8 ± 1.1 °C; relative humidity: 63.5 ± 4.9%; wind speed: 3.5 ± 0.7 km/h; HOT). ResultsThe time for completing 6 km test of HOT group was significantly longer than that of WARM group (P = 0.0014). Mean power of 3–4 km, 4–5 km and 5–6 km were significant lower in HOT group (P = 0.014, P = 0.02, P = 0.003). Gastrointestinal temperature and skin temperature were significantly higher in HOT group during the 6 km test (P = 0.016, P = 0.04). Heat storage at 5 min and 15 min of HOT group were significantly higher than that of WARM group (P = 0.0036; P = 0.0018). Heart rate and physiological strain index of HOT group were significantly higher than that of WARM group during the 6 km test (P = 0.01, P < 0.01). ConclusionWhen skin temperature and core temperature both increased, high skin temperature may be the more important thermoregulatory factor that affected the aerobic endurance performance in hot and humid environments. The high skin temperature narrowed the core to skin temperature gradient and skin to ambient temperature gradient, which may result in greater accumulation of heat storage. The greater heat storage led to the lower muscle power output, which contributed to the reduction of the heat production.

Implementation of hybrid Ag nanorods embedded RGO-PDMS conductive material for flexible and dry electrocardiography sensor

An efficient dry electrode is required to effectively record the biopotential signals. This study proposes a dry electrode for ECG monitoring based on highly flexible, conductive, and antibacterial silver nanorods (AgNRs) grown via a novel glancing angle deposition and RGO-PDMS composite matrix. The fabricated electrode possesses good electrical conductivity and skin contact impedance between 70.1 ± 0.7 kΩ to 5.6 ± 1.7 kΩ for frequencies ranging from 40 Hz to 1 kHz, comparable to conventional Ag/AgCl wet electrodes. These electrodes give excellent quality ECG signals and do not cause skin irritation even after several hours of usage. They offer high skin compatibility and good signal quality, which are prominent features for cardiorespiratory monitoring.

Concurrent 10. Presentation for: Collaborating to bring new technology on developments

Presented on Wednesday 18 May: Session 10 Project delivery certainty is a key a success factor for positive business outcomes. Taking on world first applications across multiple delivery streams comes with risk that requires significant risk reduction to meeting business requirements. The Julimar Development completed this successfully across both drilling and completions, and subsea. Reliable multizone completions with robust sand control have traditionally been a challenge in high-rate gas wells. Cased hole stacked gravel packs can leave high mechanical skin, require multiple trips and are complex operations. While Open Hole Gravel Packs (OHGPs) have provided reliable sand control in such wells, multizone applications have been limited due to the tradeoff between effective gravel placement and zonal isolation. Recent developments in technology have enabled reliable gravel placement and complete zonal isolation. The collaboration between Woodside and Subsea 7 has delivered an ‘industry first’ on the Julimar Project, with the completion of an 18″ Corrosion-Resistant Alloy (CRA) gas transmission flowline installed via reel-lay – the largest diameter insulated CRA pipeline ever reeled. For background, most projects have traditionally used the ‘S-Lay’ method for installing pipe in Australia – the reel-lay method is less common. A key benefit of the reel-lay method is it removes thousands of welds from the offshore installation vessel critical path, transferring them onshore into a safer, quality-controlled environment earlier in the schedule. Pipe joints are welded into ‘stalks’ which are then spooled onto purpose-built reel-lay vessels. Woodside and Subsea 7 were able to jointly demonstrate the safety, quality, technical and cost advantages of this innovative but field-proven reeled pipe-lay technology. The 18″ CRA flowline is a tangible example of the performance that can be delivered through early collaborative engagement and strategic investment in technology and is a step change in Australia and the industry. This joint presentation discusses contracting, design, execution and evaluation of technologies on the Julimar Development. It includes the method followed for reel-lay technology selection, engineering development, post project evaluation and the health and safety benefits. The presentation provides both the Operator and Contractor perspectives on the challenges of implementing new technology in developments in Australia. To access the presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here and also here.

Relationships Between Arterial Pressure-Volume Index and Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers in Patients With Hypertension.

BackgroundThe arterial pressure-volume index (API), which is obtained by conventional blood pressure measurement, is a new marker for arterial stiffness. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationships between the API and various clinical parameters, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) biomarkers, in patients with hypertension for the prevention of CVD.MethodsThis cross-sectional study enrolled 288 patients with hypertension receiving pharmacological treatment, without a history of CVD (males/females: 115/173; age: 63 ± 11 years (mean ± standard deviation)). The API was automatically calculated using a commercial device.ResultsThe API was significantly correlated with important CVD biomarkers, such as the concentration of urinary albumin (r = 0.42, P < 0.001), high-sensitivity troponin T (r = 0.39, P < 0.001), and skin autofluorescence (marker of advanced glycation end products in tissues) (r = 0.41, P < 0.001). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that when the API was used as a subordinate factor, these biomarkers were independent variables. According to the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, an API of > 26 is the optimal cut-off point for determining albuminuria as ≥ 30 mg/g Cr, high high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T concentration as ≥ 0.014 ng/mL, or high skin autofluorescence as ≥ 3.0 arbitrary unit (area under the curve = 0.703, 0.702, and 0.704; and P < 0.001, respectively).ConclusionThis investigation demonstrates that API had an independent relationship with relevant CVD biomarkers, such as urinary albumin, high-sensitivity troponin T, and skin autofluorescence. Additionally, the outcomes of receiver operating characteristic curve analysis are presented as values that an API > 26 defines for these biomarkers linked with the formation of CVD.

A Practical Guide for Assessment of Skin Burden in Patients With Psoriatic Arthritis.

Rheumatologists play a pivotal role in the management of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). Due to time constraints during clinic visits, the skin may not receive the attention needed for optimal patient outcome. Therefore, the aim of this study was to select a set of core questions that can help rheumatologists in daily rheumatology clinical practice to identify patients with PsA with a high skin burden. Baseline data from patients included in the Dutch South West Psoriatic Arthritis (DEPAR) cohort were used. Questions were derived from the Skindex-17 and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) questionnaires. Underlying clusters of questions were identified with an exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation, after which a 2-parameter logistic model was fitted per cluster. Questions were selected based on their discrimination and difficulty. Subsequently, 2 flowcharts were made with categories of skin burden severity. Clinical considerations were specified per category. In total, 413 patients were included. The PCA showed 2 underlying clusters: a psychosocial domain and a domain assessing physical symptoms. We selected these 2 domains. The psychosocial domain contains 3 questions and specifies 4 categories of skin burden severity. The physical symptoms domain contains 2 questions and categorizes patients in 1 out of 3 categories. We have selected a set with a maximum of 5 questions that rheumatologists can easily implement in their consultation to assess skin burden in patients with PsA. This practical guide makes the assessment of skin burden more accessible to rheumatologists and can aid in clinical decision making.

Effect of streak employing control of oblique-breakdown in a supersonic boundary layer with weak wall heating/cooling

High skin friction and thermal loads are inevitable consequences of turbulent flows in supersonic flights. Here, the use of boundary-layer streaks is studied by direct numerical simulations in order to prevent/delay turbulence from occuring at M_\ensuremath{\infty}=2.0. The stabilizing/destabilizing effects (y/\ensuremath{\delta}_in=0.517 in the image) of the streaks under the influence of various thermal boundary conditions are examined and the effective amplitude range in delaying transition is revealed.

Multiple world first technology applications on Julimar Development Phase 2 – multizone openhole gravel packing with enhanced shunted screens and zonal isolation in high rate gas wells and 18″ reel lay for corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) flowlines

Project delivery certainty is a key success factor for positive business outcomes. Taking on world first applications across multiple delivery streams comes with risk that requires significant risk reduction to meet business requirements. The Julimar Development completed this successfully across both drilling and completions, and subsea. Reliable multizone completions with robust sand control have traditionally been a challenge in high-rate gas wells. Cased hole stacked gravel packs can leave high mechanical skin, require multiple trips and are complex operations. While OpenHole Gravel Packs (OHGPs) have provided reliable sand control in such wells, multizone applications have been limited due to the trade-off between effective gravel placement and zonal isolation. Recent developments in technology have enabled reliable gravel placement and complete zonal isolation. The largest flow line installation by reel lay for corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) flowlines was previously 16″. Increasing this size to 18″ required an in-depth understanding of key risks for the contractor to deliver on the size increase, and for Operator to engineer in risk mitigation. Key areas to understand included vessel capability, new build spool base, engineering methods to support delivery and the Operators role in change management when additional risks are identified, or issues occur. This paper discusses contracting, design, execution and evaluation of technologies on the Julimar Development. It includes methodology followed for both technology selections, engineering development, qualification tests, post project evaluation, lessons learned along with health and safety benefits.

Collaborating to bring new technology on developments

Project delivery certainty is a key a success factor for positive business outcomes. Taking on world first applications across multiple delivery streams comes with risk that requires significant risk reduction to meeting business requirements. The Julimar Development completed this successfully across both drilling and completions, and subsea. Reliable multizone completions with robust sand control have traditionally been a challenge in high-rate gas wells. Cased hole stacked gravel packs can leave high mechanical skin, require multiple trips and are complex operations. While Open Hole Gravel Packs (OHGPs) have provided reliable sand control in such wells, multizone applications have been limited due to the tradeoff between effective gravel placement and zonal isolation. Recent developments in technology have enabled reliable gravel placement and complete zonal isolation. The collaboration between Woodside and Subsea 7 has delivered an ‘industry first’ on the Julimar Project, with the completion of an 18″ Corrosion-Resistant Alloy (CRA) gas transmission flowline installed via reel-lay – the largest diameter insulated CRA pipeline ever reeled. For background, most projects have traditionally used the ‘S-Lay’ method for installing pipe in Australia – the reel-lay method is less common. A key benefit of the reel-lay method is it removes thousands of welds from the offshore installation vessel critical path, transferring them onshore into a safer, quality-controlled environment earlier in the schedule. Pipe joints are welded into ‘stalks’ which are then spooled onto purpose-built reel-lay vessels. Woodside and Subsea 7 were able to jointly demonstrate the safety, quality, technical and cost advantages of this innovative but field-proven reeled pipe-lay technology. The 18″ CRA flowline is a tangible example of the performance that can be delivered through early collaborative engagement and strategic investment in technology and is a step change in Australia and the industry. This joint presentation discusses contracting, design, execution and evaluation of technologies on the Julimar Development. It includes the method followed for reel-lay technology selection, engineering development, post project evaluation and the health and safety benefits. The presentation provides both the Operator and Contractor perspectives on the challenges of implementing new technology in developments in Australia.

Lornoxicam-Loaded Chitosan-Decorated Nanoemulsion: Preparation and In Vitro Evaluation for Enhanced Transdermal Delivery.

Nanoemulsions are promising drug delivery systems for the administration of poorly soluble drugs like lornoxicam (LRX) by oral or parenteral routes. Such formulations work perfectly for transdermal delivery of lornoxicam-type drugs. It has also been established that formulating such a delivery system is highly dependent on the presence, type, and concentration of excipients taking part in the formulation. The inherent characteristics of nanoemulsion (NE), i.e., smaller globule size and excipient nature, facilitate the drug’s passage through skin. The current study was aimed at the development of an NE-based formulation of LRX to improve the drug solubility in vitro as well as to enhance drug skin permeation to promote therapeutic outcome in appropriate time. Spontaneous self-emulsification technique was utilized to develop optimized LRX-encapsulated NE-based formulations. ATR-FTIR spectra of the pure drug and various formulations did not show any interaction between the drug and various formulation excipients showing compatibility. Globule size for stable formulations ranged between 63–168 nm. These formulations were characterized for viscosity, surface tension, pH, drug encapsulation efficiency, in vitro drug release, and drug skin permeation studies. Chitosan-decorated optimized NE formulation of LRX showed about 58.82% cumulative drug release, showing an anomalous non-Fickian diffusion mechanism of drug release. Drug encapsulation efficiency, in vitro drug release, and skin permeation studies exhibited promising results. An appreciable drug entrapment efficiency was exhibited by optimized NE formulations LRX-6, 71.91 ± 3.17% and C-LRX, 65.25 ± 4.89%. Permeability parameters like enhancement ratio (Er), permeability constant (Kp), and steady state flux (Jss) showed higher values and exhibited good results based on formulation type. The selected promising formulation type “LRX-6” showed significantly different results as compared to other formulations (LRX-4, 5, and 7). The skin permeation property of the LRX-6 formulation was compared to similar chitosan-based formulations and was found to have better skin permeation results than chitosan-based formulations. This study clearly exhibited that an LRX-containing NE-based formulation can be formulated to form a stable drug delivery system. Such formulations are promising in terms of physicochemical characteristics, improved solubility, and high skin permeation potential.

Effects of Transparency on Perceived Humanness: Implications for Rendering Skin Tones Using Optical See-Through Displays.

Current optical see-through displays in the field of augmented reality are limited in their ability to display colors with low lightness in the hue, saturation, lightness (HSL) color space, causing such colors to appear transparent. This hardware limitation may add unintended bias into scenarios with virtual humans. Humans have varying skin tones including HSL colors with low lightness. When virtual humans are displayed with optical see-through devices, people with low lightness skin tones may be displayed semi-transparently while those with high lightness skin tones will be displayed more opaquely. For example, a Black avatar may appear semi-transparent in the same scene as a White avatar who will appear more opaque. We present an exploratory user study ( N=160) investigating whether differing opacity levels result in dehumanizing avatar and human faces. Results support that dehumanization occurs as opacity decreases. This suggests that in similar lighting, low lightness skin tones (e.g., Black faces) will be viewed as less human than high lightness skin tones (e.g., White faces). Additionally, the perceived emotionality of virtual human faces also predicts perceived humanness. Angry faces were seen overall as less human, and at lower opacity levels happy faces were seen as more human. Our results suggest that additional research is needed to understand the effects and interactions of emotionality and opacity on dehumanization. Further, we provide evidence that unintentional racial bias may be added when developing for optical see-through devices using virtual humans. We highlight the potential bias and discuss implications and directions for future research.

Bioactive Compounds and Quality Attributes of Fresh Seedless Barberry (&lt;em&gt;Berberis vulgaris&lt;/em&gt; L.) at Cold Storage as Influenced by Multiple Spraying of Calcium Nitrate and Potassium Nitrate

Purpose: Seedless barberry is one of the most important small fruits, which is cultivated in dry areas of east of Iran. However, due to high water content (~80%) and thin skin it is susceptible to postharvest decay, and thus it has a short postharvest life. Research Method: This study was carried out to investigate the impact of pre-harvest application of calcium nitrate 0.5% and potassium nitrate 0.5%, and cold storage on biochemical and postharvest quality attributes of fresh seedless barberry fruits in the 2017 and 2018 growing seasons. Findings: The results showed that both chemicals applied resulted in better appearance and firmness in both years. In addition, control fruit were redder in the 2017 season. Fruit at harvest had the highest content of vitamin C (21.11 mg.100g-1) in 2017 and total phenolic content (7.36 mg.100g-1) in 2018 compared to stored fruit. Interestingly, the highest total anthocyanin was obtained after 30 days of cold storage, 1146.13 and 3071.32 mg.L-1, respectively, in both growing seasons. The appearance and firmness of seedless barberry decreased with an increment of the storage period in both seasons, and the best taste was assessed at harvest time. Moreover, the fruit brightness in 2017 and ‘b*’ and hue color parameters in 2018 decreased as storage time progressed. The highest weight loss percentage in stored fruit was obtained in harvested fruit in both seasons. Research Limitation: The high sensitivity of barberry fruit due to high water content and its thin skin. Originality/ Value: Both chemicals preserved some of the quality properties of barberry fruit during cold storage.

A Bioinspired Sweat‐Drainable Janus Electrophysiological Electrode for Scientific Sports Training

AbstractRecent technological innovations in wearable electronics offer possibilities to perform real‐time monitoring of electrophysiological parameters, such as ECG, EMG, and EEG. To achieve accurate and long‐term electrophysiological measurement, great signs of progress have been made in the skin–electrode interfacial problems; nevertheless, the challenges related to sweat have not been fully resolved. Excessive sweat between human skin and the electrode usually fails to achieve a conformal and intact contact, and the nonconductive barriers will lead to a high skin–electrode impedance. Inspired by the structure of liquid directional movement in nature, a Janus gold nanowires/nitrocellulose (AuNWs/NC) electrophysiological electrode with conical micropores is developed to solve interfacial problems caused by sweat. The Janus AuNWs/NC electrodes spontaneously wick sweat from the AuNW side to the NC side, thus keeping intimate skin–electrode contact and low interfacial impedance to ensure a high‐fidelity signal during the long‐term monitoring. By integrating Janus AuNWs/NC electrode with circuit modules and advanced algorithms, a real‐time visualization system is developed for muscle activity intensity. This system is applied to precisely evaluate the muscle controllability and assess the muscle balance ability, which presents great potentials for health monitoring, sports training, and the areas of human–computer interaction.

Augmented local skin accumulation efficiency of sertaconazole nitrate via glycerosomal hydrogel: Formulation, statistical optimization, ex vivo performance and in vivo penetration

This study aimed at formulating Sertaconazole nitrate (SZ), in a suitable glycerosomes based topical formulation that offers deep skin penetration and high local skin accumulation efficiency. SZ Glycerosomes were prepared using thin-film hydration technique according to a 24 full factorial design. Studied factors were Phosphatidylcholine (PhC) amount, Brij® L4: PhC ratio, glycerol concentration, and method of further treatment either sonication or freezing and thawing. The power of the design for each response was calculated before design implementation. Suitable models were elucidated for studied responses and their validity was checked. An optimized formula (O-GL) was numerically optimized using Design expert software®. The O-GL had suitable characterization with entrapment efficiency of 80.6 ± 2.9%, particle size of 418 ± 11 nm, polydispersity index of 0.452 ± 0.27, and zeta potential of −52.6 ± 0.6 mV. This O-GL was incorporated in a hydrogel (O-GL hydrogel). This O-GL hydrogel showed superior ex-vivo deposition in rat skin (Local accumulation efficiency: 55.1 ± 7.9) compared to O-GL (14.9 ± 1.1) and Dermofix® cream (marketed product) (13.1 ± 0.8). It also showed deep in-vivo penetration that reached deep dermal skin layers. Thus, the proposed formula (O-GL hydrogel) is promising for SZ topical delivery. It achieved deep skin penetration and high local skin accumulation efficiency for the effective treatment of fungal infections.