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System evaluations were performed and human subject evaluations were performed that measured the mechanical performance and show the mean percent errors below 9% in isotonic and 2% in isokinetic conditions. Copyright (c) 2020 by ASME.OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of heroin addiction, which is an important social and health problem, on right cardiac function. METHODS A total of 85 individuals were included in the study. The study group comprised 45 patients smoking heroin and the control group was 40 healthy individuals with no drug addiction. Patients injecting heroin were excluded. Echocardiographic evaluation of patients using heroin was performed and compared with those in the control group. RESULTS The right ventricle and pulmonary artery diameters in the heroin group were found to be higher compared to the control group. The myocardial performance index (MPI) was higher and more abnormal in the heroin group (0.48 ± 0.22 vs 0.39 ± 0.11, p less then 0.05) whereas isovolumic acceleration (IVA) of the right ventricle was significantly lower in the heroin group (2.92 ± 0.69 vs 3.4 ± 0.68 m/s2, p less then 0.01). No significant difference was observed between the groups with regard to the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) (59.6 ± 2.5 vs 60.6 ± 2.3%, p = 0.08), tricuspid annular plain systolic excursion (TAPSE) (24.1 ± 4.2 vs 24.5 ± 2.4 mm, p = 0.7), tissue Doppler imaging S wave (TDI-S) (13.7 ± 2.1 vs 13.8 ± 2.1 cm/s, p = 0.86) and right ventricular fractional area change (RVFAC) (42.7 ± 8.3 vs 43.9 ± 3.5%, p = 0.4). Multivariate and univariate regression analyses revealed independent correlation between the pulmonary artery diameter and RVIVA, and heroin addiction. CONCLUSIONS Heroin addiction negatively affected right ventricular function and more attention should be paid to the cardiac function of these patients.Surface modification of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has significant and complicated effects on their interactions with cell membranes. In this study, we used a lipid/polyacetylene (PDA) vesicle sensor as the lipid membrane model to evaluate AuNP-lipid membrane interactions. Based on the colorimetric response (CR) of PDA vesicles before and after incubation with AuNPs, it was found that the interaction was highly dependent on the surface charge of AuNPs. As compared to the positively charged NPs, neutral and zwitterionic NPs adsorbed much less on the lipid membrane. Dorsomorphin inhibitor Negatively charged NPs did not induce any noticeable color changes even at high concentrations. A class of cationic AuNPs with different degrees of surface hydrophobicity was further selected to investigate the role of hydrophobicity in interacting with lipid/PDA vesicles, and log(EC50) was employed as the evaluation index. According to the log(EC50)-NP concentration curve, the hydrophobicity of NPs enhanced the lipid membrane affinity, but electrostatic interactions weakened this effect. Finally, different concentrations of bovine serum albumin (BSA) were used to study the effect of the protein corona on NP-lipid membrane interactions. The formation of a NP-protein corona was found to mask the electrostatic interactions, leading to the decrease of the CR values of cationic NPs, and highly hydrophobic NPs were less affected by a low concentration of BSA due to the strong hydrophobic interactions. Although the effect of NP surface properties on their interactions with cells is far more complicated, our study provides a rapid and effective method for the evaluation of the interactions between surface modified AuNPs and lipid membranes.Controlling the surface area, pore size and pore volume of microcapsules is crucial for modulating their activity in applications including catalytic reactions, delivery strategies or even cell culture assays, yet remains challenging to achieve using conventional bulk techniques. Here we describe a microfluidics-based approach for the formation of monodisperse silica-coated micron-scale porous capsules of controllable sizes. Our method involves the generation of gas-in water-in oil emulsions, and the subsequent rapid precipitation of silica which forms around the encapsulated gas bubbles resulting in hollow silica capsules with tunable pore sizes. We demonstrate that by varying the gas phase pressure, we can control both the diameter of the bubbles formed and the number of internal bubbles enclosed within the silica microcapsule. Moreover, we further demonstrate, using optical and electron microscopy, that these silica capsules remain stable under particle drying. Such a systematic manner of producing silica-coated microbubbles and porous microparticles thus represents an attractive class of biocompatible material for biomedical and pharmaceutical related applications.The arrangement of plasmonic nanoparticles in a non-symmetrical environment can feature far-field and/or near-field interactions depending on the distance between the objects. In this work, we study the hybridization of three intrinsic plasmonic modes (dipolar, quadrupolar and hexapolar modes) sustained by one elliptical aluminium nanocylinder, as well as behavior of the hybridized modes when the nanoparticles are organized in arrays or when the refractive index of the surrounding medium is changed. The position and the intensity of these hybridized modes were shown to be affected by the near-field and far-field interactions between the nanoparticles. In this work, two hybridized modes were tuned in the UV spectral range to spectrally coincide with the intrinsic interband excitation and emission bands of ZnO nanocrystals. The refractive index of the ZnO nanocrystal layer influences the positions of the plasmonic modes and increases the role of the superstrate medium, which in turn results in the appearance of two separate modes in the small spectral region. Hence, the enhancement of ZnO nanocrystal photoluminescence benefits from the simultaneous excitation and emission enhancements.Exploration of the relationships and mechanisms underlying the charge/discharge behaviors of intercalation cathode materials for lithium batteries is mandatory to develop more efficient energy storage devices. Thus, herein, by combining theoretical concepts and experimental evidence, we establish/reestablish a relation/model to justify the charge-discharge behavior of many electrode materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries under a wide range of conditions. Our approach resembles a phase-field model and is correlated with the existence of diffusion regions inside the electrode particles. Regarding the determination of the relation between applied current rate and average obtained capacity (C[combining macron]), we propose that 1/C[combining macron] changes linearly versus the square root of the corresponding rate. This relation was established by previously proposed theoretical models and confirmed herein using experimental data from the literature. Accordingly, we propose an intercalation mechanism based on multi-particle (many-particle) systems, which corroborates previous experimental observations and the validity of the model.