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The past several decades have witnessed great progress in high‐performance field effect transistors (FET) as one of the most important electronic components. At the same time, due to their intrinsic advantages, such as multiparameter accessibility, excellent electric signal amplification function, and ease of large‐scale manufacturing, FET as tactile sensors for flexible wearable devices, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and other fields to perceive external stimuli has also attracted great attention and become a significant field of general concern. More importantly, FET has a unique three‐terminal structure, which enables its different components to detect external mechanics through different sensing mechanisms. On one hand, it provides an important platform to shed deep insights into the underlying mechanisms of the tactile sensors. On the other hand, these properties could in turn endow excellent components for the construction of tactile matrix sensor arrays with high quality. With special emphasis on the configuration of FETs, this review classified and summarized structure‐optimized FET tactile sensors with gate, dielectric layer, semiconductor layer, and source/drain electrodes as sensing active components, respectively. The working principles and the state‐of‐the‐art protocols in terms of high‐performance tactile sensors are detail discussed and highlighted, the innovative pixel distribution and integration analysis of the transistor sensor matrix array concerning flexible electronics are also introduced. We hope that the introduction of this review can provide some inspiration for future researchers to design and fabricate high‐performance FET‐based tactile sensor chips for flexible electronics and other fields. This review focuses on FET‐based tactile pressure sensors. The working principles of this kind of tactile sensors are discussed in detail, the state‐of‐the‐art protocols for high‐performance tactile sensing are highlighted, and the major advances in large‐scale tactile sensor arrays and their applications in robotics, health care, and smart manufacturing in terms of transistor matrix are also introduced.

Recent studies have highlighted the role of the gut microbiota in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Improving gut microbiota dysbiosis can be a potential strategy for the prevention and management of T2D. Here, this work finds that the abundance of Barnesiella intestinihominis is significantly decreased in the fecal of T2D patients from 2‐independent centers. Oral treatment of live B. intestinihominis (LBI) considerably ameliorates hyperglycemia and liver metabolic disorders in HFD/STZ‐induced T2D models and db/db mice. LBI‐derived acetate has similar protective effects against T2D. Mechanistically, acetate enhances fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) through inhibition of histone deacetylase 9 (HDAC9) to increase H3K27 acetylation at the FGF21 promoter. The screening puerarin from Gegen Qinlian decoction in a gut microbiota‐dependent manner improved hyperglycemia and liver metabolic disorders by promoting the growth of B. intestinihominis. This study suggests that gut commensal B. intestinihominis and puerarin, respectively have the potential as a probiotic and prebiotic in the treatment of T2D. This study finds that the abundance of B. intestinihominis is decreased in the fecal of T2D mice and patients from 2‐independent centers. Oral administration of live B. intestinihominis attenuates hyperglycemia and liver metabolic disorders in T2D mice. B. intestinihomini‐derived acetate ameliorates T2D by increasing FGF21 through inhibition of HDAC9 to enhance H3K27 acetylation at the FGF21 promoter. Puerarin is a promising prebiotic agent for T2D treatment by promoting the growth of B. intestinihominis.

Interpretation of flexible cycling behavior has always been a tough task. It is meaningful to understand the overtaking behavior of cyclists for its threats to safety and its high frequency on shared roads. Advanced unsupervised nonparametric clustering methods are compared to distinguish the overtaking segments from the whole trajectory based on the cycling characteristics of nonmotorized two-wheelers, while the hierarchical Dirichlet process hidden Markov model (HDPHMM) outperforms the mixture model via the Dirichlet process (DP mixture model) and topic model via the hierarchical Dirichlet process (HDP topic model). HDPHMM clusters each record into different states and results in more continuous segments. Based on marked vehicle types, which state of clustering model represents the overtaking condition is deduced. The overtaking segments resulted from HDPHMM show the highest homogeneity in cycling features with actual overtaking behavior. Another practical task is to predict the overtaking trajectory and respond to overtaking behavior in advance. Comparing original trajectory and subdivided trajectory, it is found that training model with grouped data, which have homogeneous features, can improve prediction accuracy. With enough trainable samples, CNN + LSTM hybrid structure can achieve trajectory prediction with a mean absolute error of 3 cm. The segmentation produces trajectory segments with similar characteristics. The model is trained with overtaking trajectory segments. With tens of times less trainable data, the prediction on overtaking trajectory still keeps a mean absolute error of about 5 cm. Subdividing trajectory into segments with homogeneous features can improve the prediction accuracy and reduce the requirement of trainable data volume.

Flexible dual‐modal sensors that can monitor two signals play important roles in biomedical applications, along with the recent progresses of epidermal or bioimplantable electronic devices with diagnostic or therapeutic functionalities. However, techniques for flexible dual‐modal sensors mainly rely on integrating multiple sensing units on a platform, thus inducing extra costs and complexities associated with the fabrication and data processing. In this paper, a flexible dual‐modal sensor is presented, which contains only one sensing unit, i.e., single‐crystalline silicon‐based diode, for the real‐time, independent, and continuous monitoring of light and temperature. Operation modes for photodetection and temperature sensing of the flexible dual‐modal sensor are switchable by controlling the biased condition. In addition, both experimental results and theoretical calculations indicate that the crosstalk between light and temperature can be conveniently decoupled by short‐circuit current and forward current of silicon‐based diodes. Finally, the flexible dual‐modal sensor is implemented as a platform to realize the continuous monitoring of photoplethysmography (PPG) and skin temperature of fingertips. These presented results offer paths to the construction of multifunctional, flexible bioelectronic devices or integrated platforms for biomedical uses. A flexible light‐temperature dual‐modal sensor is demonstrated with silicon‐based diode, of which the operation mode, i.e., photodetection and temperature sensing, can be conveniently controlled by the biased condition. Engineering demonstrations illustrate the applicability of the sensor to continuously monitor photoplethysmography and skin temperature of fingertips for biomedical applications.

The current study aims to investigate the effect of chitosan derivatives on the intestinal absorption and bioavailabilities of forsythoside A (FTA) and Chlorogenic acid (CHA), the major active components in Flos Lonicerae-Fructus Forsythiae herb couple. Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics properties of the two compounds have been characterized in vitro, in situ as well as in rats. Based on the identified biopharmaceutics characteristics of the two compounds, the effect of chitosan derivatives as an absorption enhancer on the intestinal absorption and pharmacokinetics of FTA and CHA in pure compound form as well as extract form were investigated in vitro, in situ and in vivo. Both FTA and CHA demonstrated very limited intestinal permeabilities, leading to oral bioavailabilities being only 0.50% and 0.13% in rats, respectively. Results from both in vitro, in situ as well as in vivo studies consistently indicated that Chito-oligosaccharide (COS) at dosage of 25 mg/kg could enhance intestinal permeabilities significantly as well as the in vivo bioavailabilities of both FTA and CHA than CMCs in Flos Lonicerae-Fructus Forsythiae herb couple preparations, and was safe for gastrointestine from morphological observation. Besides, treatment with Flos Lonicerae-Fructus Forsythiae herb couple preparations with COS at the dosage of 25 mg/kg prevented MDCK damage after influenza virus propagation, which was significantly better than control. The current findings not only identified the usefulness of COS for the improved delivery of Flos Lonicerae-Fructus Forsythiae preparations but also demonstrated the importance of biopharmaceutical characterization in the dosage form development of traditional Chinese medicine.

The Flos Lonicerae-Fructus Forsythiae herb couple is the basic components of Chinese herbal preparations (Shuang-Huang-Lian tablet, Yin-Qiao-Jie-Du tablet and Fufang Qin-Lan oral liquid), and its pharmacological effects were significantly higher than that in Flos Lonicerae or Fructus Forsythiae, but the reasons remained unknown. In the present study, pattern recognition analysis (hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA)) combined with UHPLC-ESI/LTQ-Orbitrap MS system were performed to study the chemical constitution difference between co-decoction and mixed decoction in the term of chemistry. Besides, the pharmacokinetics in vivo and intestinal absorption in vitro combined with pattern recognition analysis were used to reveal the discrepancy between herb couple and single herbs in the view of biology. The observation from the chemical view in vitro showed that there was significant difference in quantity between co-decoction and mixed decoction by HCA, and the exposure level of isoforsythoside and 3, 5-dicaffeoylquinic acid in co-decoction, higher than that in mixed decoction, directly resulted in the discrepancy between co-decoction and mixed decoction using both PCA and HCA. The observation from the pharmacokinetics displayed that the exposure level in vivo of neochlorogenic acid, 3, 4-dicaffeoylquinic acid, isoforsythoside and forsythoside A, higher than that in single herbs, was the main factor contributing to the difference by both PCA and HCA, interestingly consistent with the results obtained from Caco-2 cells in vitro, which indicated that it was because of intestinal absorption improvement of neochlorogenic acid, 3, 4-dicaffeoylquinic acid, isoforsythoside and forsythoside A that resulted in a better efficacy of herb couple than that of single herbs from the perspective of biology. The results above illustrated that caffeic acid derivatives in Flos Lonicerae-Fructus Forsythiae herb couple could be considered as chemical markers for quality control of its preparations.

ObjectiveGut microbiota dysbiosis is closely linked to the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We aimed to identify potential probiotic gut microbes that can ameliorate the development of RA.DesignMicrobiota profiling in patients with RA and healthy individuals was investigated via 16S rDNA bacterial gene sequencing and shotgun metagenomics. Collagen-induced arthritic mice and TNF-α transgenic mice were used to evaluate the roles of the gut commensal Parabacteroides distasonis in RA. The effects of P. distasonis-derived microbial metabolites on the differentiation of CD4+ T cells and macrophage polarisation were also investigated.ResultsThe relative abundance of P. distasonis in new-onset patients with RA and patients with RA with history of the disease was downregulated and this decrease was negatively correlated with Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS28). Oral treatment of arthritic mice with live P. distasonis (LPD) considerably ameliorated RA pathogenesis. LPD-derived lithocholic acid (LCA), deoxycholic acid (DCA), isolithocholic acid (isoLCA) and 3-oxolithocholic acid (3-oxoLCA) had similar and synergistic effects on the treatment of RA. In addition to directly inhibiting the differentiation of Th17 cells, 3-oxoLCA and isoLCA were identified as TGR5 agonists that promoted the M2 polarisation of macrophages. A specific synthetic inhibitor of bile salt hydrolase attenuated the antiarthritic effects of LPD by reducing the production of these four bile acids. The natural product ginsenoside Rg2 exhibited its anti-RA effects by promoting the growth of P. distasonis.Conclusions P. distasonis and ginsenoside Rg2 might represent probiotic and prebiotic agents in the treatment of RA.

In the present study, the rationality for the antiviral effect (H1N1 virus) of Flos Lonicerae Japonicae (FLJ, named JinYinHua)-Fructus forsythiae (FF, named LianQiao) herb couple preparations improved by chito-oligosaccharide (COS) was investigated. We found that the improvement of antiviral activity for four preparations attributed to the enhancement of bioavailability for the FLJ-FF herb couple in vivo, and that caffeic acid derivatives are the most important type of components for antiviral activity. The anti-Influenza virus activity-half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50), not area under concentration (AUC) was considered as the weighting factor for integrating the pharmacokinetics of caffeic acid derivatives. It was found that the integral absorption, both in vitro and in vivo, especially that in Shuang-Huang-Lian, can be improved significantly by COS, an absorption enhancer based on tight junction. The results indicated that the antiviral activity in four preparations improved by COS was mainly attributed to the integral absorption enhancement of caffeic acid derivatives.

Compatibility remains among the crucial and significant characteristics of traditional Chinese medicines. The Gardeniae Fructus (FG)-Forsythiae Fructus (FF) herb pair, an epitome of formulations for heat-clearing and detoxification, is extensively used to treat bacterial pneumonia in clinical settings. However, there are few reports on their synergistic effects. This study thus investigated their compatibility by GC-MS based metabolomics using a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) mouse model. Differential metabolites were identified by both variable importance in the projection (VIP) > 1 in orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) mode and P<0.05. Results of biochemistry and histopathology indicated that FG-FF herb pair exerted more promising lung protective effect than its individual decoction against the LPS-induced ALI model. From the metabolomics study, 32 differential metabolites in vehicle vs. model groups, 21 differential metabolites in FF vs. model groups, 21 differential metabolites in FG vs. model groups, and 20 differential metabolites in FG-FF herb pair vs. model groups were found. Among them, the levels of 3-hydroxybutyric acid, alanine, isophthalic acid, and terephthalic acid were restored significantly in the FF group, while silanol and cholesterol were restored significantly in the FG group. For FG-FF treatment, the amount of behenic acid, a metabolite with anti-inflammatory properties, was increased, while palmitic acid, a proinflammatory metabolite, was decreased. Meanwhile, the two biomarkers were restored more significantly than that by FG or FF treatment, which indicated that the synergistic effects by FF coupled with FG might be attributed to restoring fatty acids metabolic pathway.

Neurodegenerative illnesses are among the most difficult conditions to treat in humans. As mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are easily acquired for autologous stem cell transplantation, MSC treatment is regarded as one of the most promising therapeutic options. However, typical growth factor-inducing differentiation techniques make the neural differentiation of MSCs problematic. The conventional electrical stimulation route can induce neural differentiation of MSCs, but external wires and complex devices present great obstacles to clinical treatment. In this study, based on the magnetoelectronic effect, wireless electrical signals generated on the reduced graphene oxide membrane (rGO-M) driven by a rotating magnetic field (RMF) were found to induce neural differentiation of MSCs without the aid of any biological or chemical factor. In vitro experimental results showed that MSCs on rGO-M stimulated by an RMF at a speed of 400 r min −1 for 15 min every day could express neuron-specific genes and proteins, which was significantly boosted after continuous treatment for 15 d. In vivo experiments in rats confirmed that exogenous MSCs on rGO-M could differentiate into neural cells driven by RMF. The rGO-M-mediated wireless electrical stimulation method provides a practical route for stem cell therapy of neurodegenerative diseases because of the low cost of rGO-M and autologous stem cell sources.