Understanding the compatibility between spider silk and conducting materials is essential to advance the use of spider silk in electronic applications. Spider silk is tough, but becomes soft when exposed to water. Here we report a strong affinity of amine-functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes for spider silk, with coating assisted by a water and mechanical shear method. The nanotubes adhere uniformly and bond to the silk fibre surface to produce tough, custom-shaped, flexible and electrically conducting fibres after drying and contraction. The conductivity of coated silk fibres is reversibly sensitive to strain and humidity, leading to proof-of-concept sensor and actuator demonstrations.
Numeral recognition is considered an essential preliminary step for optical character recognition, document understanding, and others. Although several handwritten numeral recognition algorithms have been proposed so far, achieving adequate recognition accuracy and execution time remain challenging to date. In particular, recognition accuracy depends on the features extraction mechanism. As such, a fast and robust numeral recognition method is essential, which meets the desired accuracy by extracting the features efficiently while maintaining fast implementation time. Furthermore, to date most of the existing studies are focused on evaluating their methods based on clean environments, thus limiting understanding of their potential a
... Show MoreIn this work, a simulated study was carried out for designing a novel spiral rectangular patch of microstrip antenna that is used in ultra-wideband applications by using a high frequency structure simulator software (HFSS). A substrate with dielectric constant of 4.4 and height 2.10 mm (commercial substrate height available is about 0.8-1.575 mm) has been used for the design of the proposed antenna. The design basis for enhancing bandwidth in the frequency range 6.63 - 10.93 GHz is based on increasing the edge areas that positively affect the antenna's efficiency. This design makes the designed antenna cost less by reducing the area of the patch. It has been noticed that the bandwidth of the antenna under this study is increasing to 4.30
... Show MoreObjective: The evaluation of serum osteocalcin (OSN) for Iraqi infertile patients to see the effect of osteocalcin insufficiency, which may lead to a decreased level of testosterone production in males that may cause infertility. Methods: Forty two newly diagnosed infertile males age range (24–47) years and thirty two apparently healthy males as controls age range (25–58) years. Serum levels of testosterone (TEST), stimulating follicle hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin (PROL), osteocalcin OSN, and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were performed in both patients and controls. Estimation of serum OSN by Immulite1000 auto-analyzer, TEST, FSH, LH, PROL, and FBS by Immulite2000 auto-analyzer. Results: Infertile patients
... Show MoreFibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is a noninflammatory and nonatherosclerotic arteriopathy that is characterized by irregular cellular proliferation and deformed construction of the arterial wall that causes segmentation, constriction, or aneurysm in the intermediate-sized arteries. The incidence of FMD is 0.42–3.4%, and the unilateral occurrence is even rarer. Herein, we report a rare case of a localized extracranial carotid unilateral FMD associated with recurrent transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) treated by extracranial-intracranial bypass for indirect revascularization. The specific localization of the disease rendered our case unique.
Compassion competence is a nurse's ability to provide patient-centered care and communicate with patients in a sensitive and insightful manner. This descriptive cross-sectional survey study aimed to assess the compassion competence of a multinational group of nursing students.
A total of 1,158 undergraduate nursing students participated in this study, and stratified random sampling method was used to select participants from the 100 study level to the 400 or 500 level. Data were collected using the Compassion Competence Scale.
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