Technology Platform Research Articles

Development of a Fully Protective Pandemic Avian Influenza Subunit Vaccine in Insect Pupae.

In this study, we pioneered an alternative technology for manufacturing subunit influenza hemagglutinin (HA)-based vaccines. This innovative method involves harnessing the pupae of the Lepidoptera Trichoplusia ni (T. ni) as natural biofactories in combination with baculovirus vectors (using CrisBio® technology). We engineered recombinant baculoviruses encoding two versions of the HA protein (trimeric or monomeric) derived from a pandemic avian H7N1 virus A strain (A/chicken/Italy/5093/99). These were then used to infect T. ni pupae, resulting in the production of the desired recombinant antigens. The obtained HA proteins were purified using affinity chromatography, consistently yielding approximately 75 mg/L of insect extract. The vaccine antigen effectively immunized poultry, which were subsequently challenged with a virulent H7N1 avian influenza virus. Following infection, all vaccinated animals survived without displaying any clinical symptoms, while none of the mock-vaccinated control animals survived. The CrisBio®-derived antigens induced high titers of HA-specific antibodies in the vaccinated poultry, demonstrating hemagglutination inhibition activity against avian H7N1 and human H7N9 viruses. These results suggest that the CrisBio® technology platform has the potential to address major industry challenges associated with producing recombinant influenza subunit vaccines, such as enhancing production yields, scalability, and the speed of development, facilitating the global deployment of highly effective influenza vaccines.

Heralded initialization of charge state and optical-transition frequency of diamond tin-vacancy centers

Diamond tin-vacancy centers have emerged as a promising platform for quantum information science and technology. A key challenge for their use in more-complex quantum experiments and scalable applications is the ability to prepare the center in the desired charge state with the optical transition at a predefined frequency. Here we report on heralding such successful preparation using a combination of laser excitation, photon detection, and real-time logic. We first show that fluorescence photon counts collected during an optimized resonant probe pulse strongly correlate with the subsequent charge state and optical-transition frequency, enabling real-time heralding of the desired state through threshold photon counting. We then implement and apply this heralding technique to photoluminescence-excitation measurements, coherent optical driving, and an optical Ramsey experiment, finding strongly increased optical coherence with increasing threshold. Finally, we demonstrate that the prepared optical frequency follows the probe laser across the inhomogeneous linewidth, enabling tuning of the transition frequency over multiple homogeneous linewidths. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Analysis of the Advantages of Online Platforms in Rural Art Education

Currently, rural areas face a significant deficiency in art education. To address this issue, it is essential to establish an Internet-based art education service platform and leverage mobile technology to deliver high-quality content, thereby overcoming geographical, sectoral, and audience barriers. The objective is to ensure comprehensive access to art education resources. Additionally, rural art education should integrate production and education to mitigate challenges such as teacher shortages and low-quality education. This approach aims to achieve cost-effective and socially beneficial outcomes through the art education network platform, ultimately contributing to the revitalization of rural culture.

The Digital Revolution on Society through Digital Detox in the Modern Era

This study reveals on the negative impact of the digital revolution on society. This is a kind of the enablement of social isolation, addiction, and mental health issues. Technology has changed how people interact and communicate, often leading to increased social isolation and addiction to technological platforms such as social media. The study tells about the digital detox and how it tell us about a break from the screen will help people to bring balance to their digital and real-world lives. This way of soaking up real-time instead of screen time will ease anxiety, increase happiness, reduce multitasking, reduce those technology cravings, and allow you to connect more with the people in your life. This doesn't have to be a prolonged stretch or period where you quit technology entirely. But you can choose how long you feel comfortable doing a digital detox for anywhere from 24 hours to 1 week. Digital detox should not only refer to a time period during which a person refrains from using electronic devices, but also to time periods during which a person does not engage in certain types of applications, branded media, special features, interactions, and/or messages the studies is the lack of device-based measurements of smartphone use that would allow for reliable assessments of the duration of usage. Then also it is helpful to measure physiological indicators of health-related outcomes, and the study belongs to the aspect of compensatory behaviors during the digital detox intervention in this new era of technology use. While they sound like a good idea, digital detoxes are unsustainable because they cut us from the world. This can also have a negative impact on our overall mood, as well as leading to feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Proteomimetic Polymers Trigger Potent Antigen-Specific T Cell Responses to Limit Tumor Growth.

Elicitation of effective antitumor immunity following cancer vaccination requires the selective activation of distinct effector cell populations and pathways. Here we report a therapeutic approach for generating potent T cell responses using a modular vaccination platform technology capable of inducing directed immune activation, termed the Protein-like Polymer (PLP). PLPs demonstrate increased proteolytic resistance, high uptake by antigen-presenting cells (APCs), and enhanced payload-specific T cell responses. Key design parameters, namely payload linkage chemistry, degree of polymerization, and side chain composition, were varied to optimize vaccine formulations. Linking antigens to the polymer backbone using an intracellularly cleaved disulfide bond copolymerized with a diluent amount of oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) resulted in the highest payload-specific potentiation of antigen immunogenicity, enhancing dendritic cell (DC) activation and antigen-specific T cell responses. Vaccination with PLPs carrying either gp100, E7, or adpgk peptides significantly increased the survival of mice inoculated with B16F10, TC-1, or MC38 tumors, respectively, without the need for adjuvants. B16F10-bearing mice immunized with gp100-carrying PLPs showed increased antitumor CD8+ T cell immunity, suppressed tumor growth, and treatment synergy when paired with two distinct stimulator of interferon gene (STING) agonists. In a human papillomavirus-associated TC-1 model, combination therapy with PLP and 2'3'-cGAMP resulted in 40% of mice completely eliminating implanted tumors while also displaying curative protection from rechallenge, consistent with conferment of lasting immunological memory. Finally, PLPs can be stored long-term in a lyophilized state and are highly tunable, underscoring the unique properties of the platform for use as generalizable cancer vaccines.

Prospects and Challenges in Developing mRNA Vaccines for Infectious Diseases and Oncogenic Viruses.

mRNA vaccines have emerged as an optimistic technological platform for vaccine innovation in this new scientific era. mRNA vaccines have dramatically altered the domain of vaccinology by offering a versatile and rapid approach to combating infectious diseases and virus-induced cancers. Clinical trials have demonstrated efficacy rates of 94-95% in preventing COVID-19, and mRNA vaccines have been increasingly recognized as a powerful vaccine platform. Although mRNA vaccines have played an essential role in the COVID-19 pandemic, they still have several limitations; their instability and degradation affect their storage, delivery, and over-all efficiency. mRNA is typically enclosed in a transport mechanism to facilitate its entry into the target cell because it is an unstable and negatively charged molecule. For instance, mRNA that is given using lipid-nanoparticle-based vaccine delivery systems (LNPs) solely enters cells through endocytosis, establishing an endosome without damaging the cell membrane. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of mRNA vaccine platforms used to treat and prevent several infectious diseases. This technology has the potential to change the future course of the disease by providing a safe and effective way to combat infectious diseases and cancer. A single-stranded genetic sequence found in mRNA vaccines instructs host cells to produce proteins inside ribosomes to elicit immunological responses and prepare the immune system to fight infections or cancer cells. The potential applications of mRNA vaccine technology are vast and can lead to the development of a preferred vaccine pattern. As a result, a new generation of vaccinations has gradually gained popularity and access to the general population. To adapt the design of an antigen, and even combine sequences from different variations in response to new changes in the viral genome, mRNA vaccines may be used. Current mRNA vaccines provide adequate safety and protection, but the duration of that protection can only be determined if further clinical research is conducted.

Managing Online Teaching Activities at Vocational Education Institutions: From a Theoretical Perspective

The purpose of this study is to clarify theoretical issues about managing online teaching activities at vocational education institutions. These focus on clarifying the content of online teaching management, including planning online teaching activities; managing the program, content, methods, and forms of organizing online teaching; organizing and coordinating activities of forces in online teaching; directing the construction, exploitation, and use of technology platforms and conditions to ensure online teaching activities at vocational education institutions; organizing inspection and evaluation of the quality and results of online teaching activities at vocational education institutions. To achieve this goal, this study uses qualitative methods, analyzes legal documents on online teaching, and is based on the methodological basis of dialectical materialism, considering the research problem objectively, comprehensively, historically, and developmentally. The research results have clarified and systematized the theoretical framework for managing online teaching activities at vocational education institutions, serving as a basis for practical management activities of vocational education institutions in improving the quality of online teaching.

Operando Battery Monitoring: Lab‐on‐Fiber Electrochemical Sensing Technologies

AbstractSuccess in the development of next‐generation rechargeable batteries is attained by achieving low cost, high energy density, and long cycling life. Battery optimization is challenging due to the complicated processes involving material selection and optimal utilization of cell components. Battery performance and status during the charging/discharging cycle depend on the complicated interdependence of battery design and operational parameters. Monitoring techniques must be able to detangle the hidden high‐value information, including states of charge, health estimations, and operational guidance, as well as provide non‐electrochemical early failure indicators. Fiber–optic battery monitoring methods, which are advantageous because of their low cost, compactness, remote sensing capabilities, and simple integration without interfering with internal chemistry, are recently reported. The convergence of fiber optic technology and smart battery platforms promises to revolutionize the industry. The introduction of electrochemical lab‐on‐fiber sensing technology to continuously operando monitor the performance, health, and safety status of batteries will promote more reliable energy storage systems. This review highlights recent advancements in, and associated benefits of, electrochemical fiber grating battery sensing. This powerful sensing technology's potential to make possible the next generation of sustainable energy storage, and discuss future directions for improving battery sustainability is showcased.

Empirical Study on The Relationship Between Digitization and Industrial Innovation--Taking Wuhan New Display Industry as An Example

This study explores the empirical relationship between virtual agglomeration and industrial innovation in the context of digitalization, taking Wuhan's new display industry as an example. Firstly, the key concepts of digital industrialization, industrial digitization and enterprise technology innovation are clearly defined, and the research framework is constructed on this basis. The rationality and reliability of the model are verified by constructing a VAR model and adopting methods such as unit root test and Granger causality test. The empirical results show that digital industrialization is self-promoting, industrial digitization is independent and subject to external influences, and enterprise technological innovation has complex dynamic responses. Based on the empirical results, it is proposed that the government should strongly support the application of digital technology in traditional industries, promote the internal digitization of industries, and actively promote the construction of technological innovation platforms. The research in this paper helps to deeply understand the regularity of industrial development in the context of digitization, and provides an important reference for the transformation and upgrading of new display industry in Wuhan.

Track and Field Teaching Based on Computer Network Resources

Track and field teaching has always been an important part in school physical education (PE). With the deepening of curriculum reform and the continuous growth of IT, universities have gradually broken the old instructional mode, and have set up online teaching platforms and developed new instructional modes. How to integrate modern teaching and learning theory into the new teaching technology platform is the requirement of the times and the inevitable theme of the current PE reform. In this article, the track and field instructional resources under the platform of instructional resources management are studied, and the classification mining algorithm is used to mine and analyze the students’ interest data, so as to find out the rules and patterns of users’ access to instructional resources, thus further optimizing the allocation of users’ access to instructional resources, improving the efficiency of users’ access to instructional resources and the utilization rate of instructional resources. Experiments show that the improved collaborative filtering (CF) algorithm based on deep learning is superior to the other two algorithms in recommendation error, and the error is reduced by 10.69% compared with the traditional CF algorithm.

Perspective on new implementations of atomtronic circuits

In this article, we provide perspectives for atomtronics circuits on quantum technology platforms beyond simple bosonic or fermionic cold atom matter-wave currents. Specifically, we consider (i) matter-wave schemes with multi-component quantum fluids; (ii) networks of Rydberg atoms that provide a radically new concept of atomtronics circuits in which the flow, rather than in terms of matter, occurs through excitations; (iii) hybrid matterwave circuits—a combination of ultracold atomtronic circuits with other quantum platforms that can lead to circuits beyond the standard solutions and provide new schemes for integrated matter-wave networks. We also sketch how driving these systems can open new pathways for atomtronics.

Oral submucosal fibrosis induced by active components in areca nut: a network pharmacology-based analysis and validation of the mechanism

To explore the pharmacologically active components in areca nut that induce oral submucosal fibrosis (OSF) and the possible mechanism. The chemical components in areca nut were analyzed using Thermo QE plus liquid chromatography tandem high-resolution mass spectrometer and Compound discover 3.2 data processing software. The chemical activity of the top 20 compounds was analyzed based on Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2015), PubChem, Chemical book, and SciFinder databases. The potential active components, core targets, biological functions and signaling pathways affecting OSF were analyzed by network pharmacology. The targets of OSF were obtained by integrating Genecards and KEGG databases. The compounds acting on the targets were selected from the Systematic Pharmacology Technology Platform of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCMSP), and the target-compound, compound-TCM, target-compound-TCM network was constructed. Molecular docking was used to analyze the component-target binding. Immunohistochemistry was used to examine the expressions of key proteins in the PI3K-Akt and MAPK pathways in clinical samples of OSF. The core intersection target genes between the top 10 active ingredients in areca nut extract and OSF involved mainly the PI3K-Akt and MAPK pathways. In the clinical samples, the expressions of PI3K protein decreased and the expressions p-PI3K, AKT1 and PAkt all increased significantly in OSF tissue, where increased JNK protein expression and enhanced activity of c-Jun and c-Fos transcriptional factors were also detected. The OSF patients had significantly elevated plasma levels of IL-6 and IL-8 compared with healthy individuals. The main active ingredients including arecoline, arecaine, and guvacine are capable of activating the PI3K-Akt and MAPK pathways to promote the expressions of inflammatory mediators IL-6 and IL-8 and induce collagen hyperplasia, thus leading to the occurrence of oral submucosal fibrosis.

Research on the Messenger UAV Mission Planning Based on Sampling Transformation Algorithm

In recent years, there has been a significant development in unmanned platform technologies, specifically unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). As a result, their application scenarios have expanded considerably. Unmanned platforms are considered integral components of the Internet of Things system. However, certain challenges arise when dealing with specialized tasks, such as navigating complex urban low-altitude terrain with multiple obstacles and limited communication capabilities. These challenges can greatly impact the efficiency of the system due to information isolation. To address this issue, a messenger drone mechanism is introduced in this paper, which utilizes air superiority to facilitate indirect communication between unmanned platforms. Additionally, a task sequence planning algorithm based on sampling transformation is designed. This algorithm efficiently assigns the drone to mobile UGVs by discretely sampling their paths and considering the UAV-UGV motion relationship. By transforming the problem into an asymmetric traveler problem, it allows for a fast solution. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified through comparative analysis in different scenarios.

Fintech platforms and information service quality from the perspective of investor cognition

Fintech platforms serve the financial information market as a new player in corporate finance along with traditional analysts, and individual investors' preferences for these two service providers will affect market efficiency. This paper focuses on the financial information service industry in the context of the COVID-19, and discusses the information service quality of financial information service providers (fintech platforms vs. analysts) from the perspective of individual investors' cognition. Based on the theory of organizational information processing, through survey method, it has been found that investors believe that the information service quality of fintech platforms is higher than that of analysts, and is mediated by information planning comprehensiveness. It was also found that economic environment uncertainty moderates the mediating information service providers and information service quality through information planning comprehensiveness. Specifically, in a low economic environment uncertainty (Non-Lockdown Policy), investors believe that financial technology platforms have higher information planning comprehensiveness and higher quality of information services compared to analyst; In a high economic environment uncertainty (Lockdown Policy), the aforementioned impact is weakened. Robustness results indicate that the above main effects remain when considering the sub-sample and investors' Internet search behaviour. In addition, the heterogeneity results indicate that the more economically developed the region, the higher the investors' evaluation of the quality of financial information services. This study promotes the understanding of fintech substitution effect from the perspective of investor perception and reveals the psychological mechanism of individual investors, which provides micro ideas for the governance of fintech platforms for new participants in startups' financing and regional fintech development.

Advancements on IoT and AI applied to Pneumology

The objective of this work is the design of a technological platform for remote monitoring of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The concept of the framework is a breakthrough in the state of medical, scientific and technological art, aimed at engaging patients in the treatment plan and supporting interaction with healthcare professionals. The proposed platform is able to support a new paradigm for the management of patients with COPD, by integrating clinical data and parameters monitored in daily life using Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Therefore, the doctor is provided with a dynamic picture of the disease and its impact on lifestyle and vice versa, and can thus plan more personalized diagnostics, therapeutics, and social interventions. This strategy allows for a more effective organization of access to outpatient care and therefore a reduction of emergencies and hospitalizations because exacerbations of the disease can be better prevented and monitored. Hence, it can result in improvements in patients’ quality of life and lower costs for the healthcare system.

Hydrophilic biomaterials: From crosslinked and self-assembled hydrogels to polymer-drug conjugates and drug-free macromolecular therapeutics

This “Magnum Opus” accentuates my lifelong belief that the future of science is in the interdisciplinary approach to hypotheses formulation and problem solving. Inspired by the invention of hydrogels and soft contact lenses by my mentors, my six decades of research have continuously proceeded from the synthesis of biocompatible hydrogels to the development of polymer-drug conjugates, then generation of drug-free macromolecular therapeutics (DFMT) and finally to multi-antigen T cell hybridizers (MATCH). This interdisciplinary journey was inspiring; the lifetime feeling that one is a beginner in some aspects of the research is a driving force that keeps the enthusiasm high. Also, I wanted to illustrate that systematic research in one wide area can be a life-time effort without the need to jump to areas that are temporarily en-vogue. In addition to generating general scientific knowledge, hydrogels from my laboratory have been transferred to the clinic, polymer-drug conjugates to clinical trials, and drug-free macromolecular systems have an excellent potential for personalizing patient therapies. There is a limit to life but no limit to imagination. I anticipate that systematic basic research will contribute to the expansion of our knowledge and create a foundation for the design of new paradigms based on the comprehension of mechanisms of physiological processes. The emerging novel platform technologies in biomaterial-based devices and implants as well as in personalized nanomedicines will ultimately impact clinical practice.

(Invited) Advanced Compute Scaling: A New Era of Exciting, Sustainability-Aware Innovations with Nanosheet-Based Devices, Increased Interdisciplinary Synergies, and (R)Evolution Towards Higher Versatility

We report on several key elements for enabling advanced compute scaling. At transistor level, as we are entering the nanosheet (NS) era, the focus lies on single-level NSFETs consisting of several vertically stacked NS per device, which can evolve into 3D stacked configurations like the so-called complementary FET (CFET) with potentially different materials/crystal orientations for the stacked channels. New device connectivity schemes are also becoming possible thanks to the trend towards using both wafer sides, started with the move of on-chip power distribution to the wafer’s backside. As devices are becoming sandwiched and accessed from levels above and below them, that also allows interesting new opportunities for transistor engineering, some examples of which will be discussed here. In parallel, from a system level’s perspective, a (r)evolution towards smart disintegration, enabling higher flexibility and hybridized technology platforms, is expected to further allow new scaling paths, also as it can help ease the introduction of new materials and device architectures.

Discovery platforms for RNA therapeutics.

RNA therapeutics are emerging as a unique opportunity to drug currently "undruggable" molecules and diseases. While their advantages over conventional, small molecule drugs, their therapeutic implications and the tools for their effective in vivo delivery have been extensively reviewed, little attention has been so far paid to the technological platforms exploited for the discovery of RNA therapeutics. Here, we provide an overview of the existing platforms and ex vivo assays for RNA discovery, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as their main fields of application, with specific focus on RNA therapies that have reached either phase 3 or market approval.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem patterns and its determinants and outputs: a necessary condition analysis to the Brazilian entrepreneurial cities

Purpose This study aims to identify necessary conditions for innovative entrepreneurship in cities and determine similarities in entrepreneurial configurations among them. Design/methodology/approach The authors assessed the necessary conditions for various levels of entrepreneurial output and categorized cities based on similar patterns by applying necessary condition analysis (NCA) and cluster analysis in a sample comprised of 101 cities from the entrepreneurial cities index, representing a diverse range of urban environments in Brazil. A comprehensive data set, including both traditional indicators from official Bureau of statistics and nontraditional indicators from new platforms of science, technology and innovation intelligence, was compiled for analysis. Findings Bureaucratic complexity, urban conditions, transport infrastructure, economic development, access to financial capital, secondary education, entrepreneurial intention, support organizations and innovation inputs were identified as necessary for innovative entrepreneurship. Varying levels of these conditions were found to be required for different entrepreneurial outputs. Research limitations/implications The static nature of the data limits understanding of dynamic interactions among dimensions and their impact on entrepreneurial city performance. Practical implications Policymakers can use the findings to craft tailored support policies, leveraging the relationship between city-level taxonomy and direct outputs of innovative entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs). Social implications The taxonomy and nontraditional indicators sheds light on the broader societal benefits of vibrant EEs, emphasizing their role in driving socioeconomic development. Originality/value The cluster analysis combined with NCA’s bottleneck analysis is an original endeavor which made it possible to identify performance benchmarks for Brazilian cities, according to common characteristics, as well as the required levels of each condition by each city group to achieve innovative entrepreneurial outputs.

Protein-nanoparticle co-assembly supraparticles for drug delivery: Ultrahigh drug loading and colloidal stability, and instant and complete lysosomal drug release

Two frequent problems hindering clinical translation of nanomedicine are low drug loading and low colloidal stability. Previous efforts to achieve ultrahigh drug loading (>30 %) introduce new hurdles, including lower colloidal stability and others, for clinical translation. Herein, we report a new class of drug nano-carriers based on our recent finding in protein-nanoparticle co-assembly supraparticle (PNCAS), with both ultrahigh drug loading (58 % for doxorubicin, i.e., DOX) and ultrahigh colloidal stability (no significant change in hydrodynamic size after one year). We further show that our PNCAS-based drug nano-carrier possesses a built-in environment-responsive drug release feature: once in lysosomes, the loaded drug molecules are released instantly (<1 min) and completely (∼100 %). Our PNCAS-based drug delivery system is spontaneously formed by simple mixing of hydrophobic nanoparticles, albumin and drugs. Several issues related to industrial production are studied. The ultrahigh drug loading and stability of DOX-loaded PNCAS enabled the delivery of an exceptionally high dose of DOX into a mouse model of breast cancer, yielding high efficacy and no observed toxicity. With further developments, our PNCAS-based delivery systems could serve as a platform technology to meet the multiple requirements of clinical translation of nanomedicines.