The proposed millimeter-scale soft continuum robot presents remarkable advances in large-range and high-precise actuation, which provides a new method for miniature continuum robot design and finds broad applications in biomedical engineering.Biosensing is a rising analytical field for detection of biological indicators using transducing systems. Smart materials can response to external stimuli, and translate the stimuli from biological domains into signals that are readable and quantifiable. Smart materials, such as nanomaterials, photonic crystals and hydrogels have been widely used for biosensing purpose. PCO371 In this review, we illustrate the incorporation of smart materials in biosensing systems, including the design of responsive materials, their responsive mechanism of biosensing, and their applications in detection of four types of common biomolecules (including glucose, nucleic acids, proteins, and enzymes). In the end, we also illustrate the current challenges and prospective of using smart materials in biosensing research fields.The outbreak of a novel highly infectious virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has aroused people's concern about public health. The lack of ready-to-use vaccines and therapeutics makes the fight with these pathogens extremely difficult. To this point, rationally designed virus entry inhibitors that block the viral interaction with its receptor can be novel strategies to prevent virus infection. For ideal inhibition of the virus, the virus-inhibitor interaction has to outperform the virus-host interaction. In our view, the morphology of the inhibitor should be carefully designed to benefit virus-inhibitor binding, especially that the surfaces of viruses are mostly rough due to the existence of surface proteins for receptor-binding. In this perspective article, we would like to discuss the recent progress of designing inhibitors with spiky topography to maximize the interactions between viruses and inhibitors. We also would like to share our idea for the future study of inhibitors to prevent virus infection.Pandemic virus infections pose a major public health threat globally. Much efforts have been devoted to suppress the virus, including vaccine prevention, autoimmunity enhancement, and anti-virus drugs treatment. Among these strategies, development of novel and improved vaccine technologies attracts broad attention as they can nip the virus outbreak in the bud and avoid the appearance of public health emergency. However, current influenza vaccines only provide protection against homologous viruses. Therefore, chemical technologies are being employed for the development of new and improved vaccine, such as chitosan, plant polysaccharides and virus-like particles. In addition, recently, Wang et al. offered a promising means to develop universal viral vaccine through biomimetic nanoparticles and heterosubtypic protection could be achieved. These strategies with multidisciplinary collaboration are promising to make conceptual and technological advances of modern vaccinology to address pandemic virus infections.
There is conflicting evidence regarding the impact of season on the assisted reproductive technology outcome.

To retrospectively compare three year outcome of women undergoing their first intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle, across seasons.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 3,670 women who underwent their first intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycle in Mehr Medical Institute, Rasht, Iran between April 2010 and May 2014 were studied. Women were divided into four groups according to the day of oocyte retrival as spring (n = 808), summer (n = 994), autumn (n = 1066), and winter (n = 802). Basal and stimulation charecteristics were compared among groups.

While sperm concentration and motility were significantly lower during summer, the total number of retrieved and metaphase II oocytes were significantly higher (p = 0.0001, p = 0.0001, p = 0.004, p = 0.02, respectively). Fertilization rate were significantly higher during autumn (p = 0.0001). Also, the number of high- quality transferred embryos were significantly higher during summer and winter (p = 0.03). A similar pattern was observed in implantation rate and pregnancy over the four seasons.

Despite the fact that intracytoplasmic sperm injection minimize the seasonal effect on pregnancy outcome, changes in pregnancy rate still occur among different seasons without particular pattern. It seems that performing assisted reproductive technology procedures in a particular season should be considered as an effective factor.
Despite the fact that intracytoplasmic sperm injection minimize the seasonal effect on pregnancy outcome, changes in pregnancy rate still occur among different seasons without particular pattern. It seems that performing assisted reproductive technology procedures in a particular season should be considered as an effective factor.
3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay which evaluates cellular mitochondrial activity is widely used for the assessment of cell proliferation and viability.

This study was performed to assess human sperm viability using MTT assay.

In this laboratory study, human-ejaculated semen samples (n = 56 from different donors) were used. The sperm viability was determined using quantitative MTT assay and the sperm motility was assessed according to World Health Organization guidelines. Sperm viability and the correlation between sperm viability and motility were analyzed.

Data revealed a marked positive correlation between MTT reduction rate and the percentage of viable spermatozoa. The Pearson's correlation coefficients also showed a significant correlation between sperm viability and motility.

MTT assay which is based on mitochondrial functionality is a reliable method for evaluating human sperm viability and could be used as a diagnostic test for predicting sperm fertilization ability in clinical settings.
MTT assay which is based on mitochondrial functionality is a reliable method for evaluating human sperm viability and could be used as a diagnostic test for predicting sperm fertilization ability in clinical settings.PCO371