Promising strategies to prevent food allergy in children with atopic dermatitis include early skincare with emollients and treatment with topical steroid, and early introduction of highly allergenic foods. SUMMARY Further studies are required to identify risk factors for atopic dermatitis to help prevent the development of food allergy in this high-risk population.PURPOSE OF REVIEW The discovery of podosomes in endothelial cells during the process of angiogenesis in vivo opens a new era in vascular biology. Podosomes are actin-based microdomains located at the plasma membrane that have been extensively described but in vitro and in other cells. This review focuses on podosomes in endothelial cells and aims to rise hypotheses about when and how these structures mediate cell–microenvironment interactions. RECENT FINDINGS A wealth of new information regarding podosome organization and functioning has been collected in simple 2D models. Characterization of their modular architecture has unravelled their mechanics. However, context matters and podosome characteristics and functioning are shaped by the microenvironment. Although matrix degradation was seen as the typical function of podosomes, mechanosensing now appears equally prominent and involved in setting of the proteolytic machinery. Endothelial podosomes breach the basement membrane, and are thus, involved in vascular remodelling. SUMMARY In endothelial cells, podosomes are involved in breaking up the basement membrane, giving the cells the opportunity to invade adjacent tissues and to engage in new cell–cell interactions. Such functions are particularly relevant to vascular biology and the exploration of podosomes in in vivo settings should bring clues to many unanswered questions.Novel iterative image reconstruction methods can help reduce the required radiation dose in x-ray diagnostics such as computed tomography (CT), while maintaining a sufficient image quality. Since some of the established image quality measures are not appropriate for reliably judging the quality of images derived by iterative methods, alternative approaches such as task-specific quality assessment would be highly desirable for acceptance or constancy testing. Task-based image quality methods are also closer to tasks performed by the radiologists, such as lesion detection. However, this approach is usually hampered by a huge workload, since usually hundreds of images are required for its application. It is demonstrated that the proposed approach works reliably on the basis of significantly fewer images, and that it correlates well with results obtained from human observers. Creative Commons Attribution license.Myocontrol, that is, control of a prosthesis via muscle signals, is still a surprisingly hard problem. Recent research indicates that surface electromyography (sEMG), the traditional technique used to detect a subject’s intent, could proficiently be replaced, or conjoined with, other techniques (multi-modal myocontrol), with the aim to improve both on dexterity and reliability. In this paper we present an online assessment of multi-modal sEMG and force myography (FMG) targeted at hand and wrist myocontrol. Twenty sEMG and FMG sensors in total were used to enforce simultaneous and proportional control of hand opening/closing, wrist pronation/supination and wrist flexion/extension of 12 intact subjects. We found that FMG yields in general a better performance than sEMG, and that the main drawback of the sEMG array we used is not the inability to perform a desired action, but rather action interference, that is, the undesired concurrent activation of another action. FMG, on the other hand, causes less interference. Pifithrin-μ inhibitor © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.We report a method for the efficient anchoring of cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanoparticles on the surface of different types of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (purified, N-doped, O-doped and exfoliated). Characterization using different types of electron microscopies (SEM, STEM, and TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction showed well anchored CdSe nanoparticles (NP) on the nanotube surfaces, NP shapes and sizes varied with temperature and other synthesis conditions, and formed with good yields. The method here reported does not require previous activation of the carbon nanotube surface by chemical functionalization, nor the use of organic solvents, and the reaction proceeded in aqueous solutions, making this process simpler and more environmentally friendly than others. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.A model to describe the behavior of the probe of an atomic force microscope (AFM) operated in the frequency-modulation (FM) dynamic mode with constant excitation (CE) is developed, with the aim to describe recent experiments after the introduction of a non-contact piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) method based on such operation mode, named CE-FM-PFM [1]. The model provides insight for improving the accuracy of converse piezoelectric coefficient (d33) measurements on the local scale by this PFM mode. Its rather general applicability helps to quantify the residual electrostatic contribution on local piezoresponse measurements by AFM, that is anticipated as strongly mitigated in CE-FM-PFM compared to the more standard contact-mode PFM. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.Objective The commonly used noninvasive techniques for blood pressure measurement, auscultatory Korotkoff-based sphygmomanometry and oscillometry, both have limitations in their clinical use. The former is relatively accurate but is limited to use in a physician’s office because its automatic variant is subject to noise artifacts. Automatic oscillometers can be used at home, but their accuracy is low. In the current study, we present two electronic techniques for systolic blood pressure (SBP) measurement that are more accurate than the available techniques, and can be automated. Approach The cuff-based electronic techniques for SBP measurement used in this study utilize a finger photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal or electronically recorded Korotkoff sounds, and detection of the first appearance of PPG or Korotkoff-based pulses during cuff deflation. Most noise artefacts were eliminated by means of a time-reference signal – a PPG signal measured in the free hand. Main Results. The two electronic techniques showed good agreement.