Research Appraisals
Evidence-based critical appraisals of the latest medical research, systematically evaluated using Oxford CEBM methodology.
Showing 3 appraisals
Biomedical physics & engineering express
Stabilizing neuromorphic ECG processors via adaptive fractional fatigue
Spiking neural networks (SNNs) deployed on wearable devices can exhibit runaway firing when processing noisy electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, increasing switching activity and dynamic power and destabilising power regulation. To suppress redundant firing while preserving ECG classification performance, we introduce the adaptive fractional fatigue (AFF) SNN, which equips each hidden neuron with a power-law weighted memory buffer of its past membrane states, thereby forming a fractionally-inspired activity trace that drives an adaptive threshold: as the accumulated trace rises with sustained firing, the effective threshold increases and suppresses further spikes, implementing an intrinsic negative feedback loop. Ten independent seeds were evaluated with a fixed random train/test split of2969/743heartbeat windows (lengthT=180;3712balanced windows total;1856normal,1856arrhythmia) drawn from three publicly available Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Beth Israel Hospital records, with spikes per sample as the primary energy proxy and test accuracy and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve as secondary endpoints. Spikes/sample decreased from2384.990±537.719(integer-order) to891.481±227.654(AFF), a62.62%reduction (bootstrap 95% confidence interval[54.00%,69.35%]), which was statistically significant (pairedt-testp=0.000015two-sided; Wilcoxon signed-rankp=0.001953two-sided; paired effect sizedz=-2.662). Accuracy was preserved (78.923±1.725%vs79.206±1.541%; pairedt-testp=0.227761), and cross-seed spike variance decreased by a factor of5.58×. AFF suppresses noise-driven hyperactivity and stabilises event traffic, delivering a statistically significant reduction in spikes/sample without accuracy loss and improving predictability for low-power neuromorphic ECG deployment.
30 May 2026
Read appraisal →Science advances
SkinECG: An orthogonal remote powering wearable skin-like sensor
The Internet of Things (IoT) era witnessed a surge in wearable devices for the human body, each requiring a power source that supports long-term operation. However, batteries are depletable and require replacement, while the effectiveness of energy-harvesting techniques is location specific. We developed the SkinECG system, an orthogonal remote powering skin-like electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor. It is powered by body-coupled powering (BCP) using power acquired optimally via suitable energy harvesters at different locations on the human body, solving the location mismatch between the energy-harvesting source and sensor. The remote Orthogonal Energy Harvesting Network (O-EHN) effectively transfers power from multiple energy-harvesting sources without internode interference and cancellation. We demonstrated the 0.71-mm-thin, flexible SkinECG system that conforms to the human chest and detects ECG signals without any cumbersome batteries or directly connected power for long-term health monitoring.
5 May 2026
Read appraisal →Nanoscale
Bifunctional PVDF/MXene membranes with high piezoelectric sensitivity and near infrared photothermal antibacterial efficacy toward wearable human activity monitoring
In the realm of wearable health monitoring, establishing a reliable interface that ensures both high-fidelity sensing and long-term biological safety remains a critical challenge, particularly due to the risk of bacterial infection caused by sweat accumulation at the device-skin contact. Herein, we address this issue by developing a scenario-driven, bifunctional PVDF/MXene nanofibrous membrane that integrates robust piezoelectric performance with on-demand photothermal antibacterial capability. In this design, MXene nanosheets function simultaneously as nucleating agents to boost the electroactive β-phase content of PVDF from 80.3% to 93.3% and as efficient near-infrared (NIR) photothermal agents. The optimized membrane exhibits a superior piezoelectric sensitivity of 0.502 V/N, enabling the precise detection of diverse human activities ranging from subtle pulse waveforms to vigorous jumping motions, and motion-triggered Morse code communication. Crucially, addressing the hygiene concerns of reusable wearables, the membrane achieves rapid, non-contact sterilization during off-wear intervals. Under safe NIR irradiation (0.3 W cm-2), the surface temperature rises to ∼60 °C within 60 s, achieving an antibacterial efficacy of >99% against S. aureus and E. coli. Combined with excellent in vitro cytocompatibility, this work provides a "one-structure, dual-function" solution for constructing hygienic, high-performance electronic skins.
17 Apr 2026
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