Wearable personalised health monitoring requires advanced materials that combine biocompatibility, mechanical compliance, and stable signal transduction under dynamic physiological conditions. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels have emerged as a versatile materials platform due to their high-water content, tissue-like softness, and tunable chemical structure. Recent advances have enabled the transformation of PVA hydrogels into multifunctional conductive systems by incorporating nanofillers, conducting polymers, and ionic species, while maintaining structural integrity and hydration stability. This review critically examines current strategies for enhancing conductivity in PVA hydrogels, including network design, synergistic charge transport mechanisms, and scalable fabrication techniques. Their integration into wearable platforms is discussed across key applications, including strain and pressure sensing, electrophysiological monitoring (ECG, EMG, EEG), energy harvesting, and controlled drug delivery. Fundamental challenges, such as dehydration, electromechanical trade-offs, and scalability, are analysed alongside emerging solutions, including self-healing networks, antifreeze approaches, and sustainable composites. Importantly, this review highlights the need to couple materials innovation with standardised evaluation protocols and regulatory frameworks to ensure reproducibility, benchmarking, and clinical translation of PVA-based wearable bioelectronic systems.
This study examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on loss in decision-making, laziness, and privacy concerns among university students in Pakistan and China. Like other sectors, education also adopts AI technologies to address modern-day challenges. AI investment will grow to USD 253.82 million from 2021 to 2025. However, worryingly, researchers and institutions across the globe are praising the positive role of AI but ignoring its concerns. This study is based on qualitative methodology using PLS-Smart for the data analysis. Primary data was collected from 285 students from different universities in Pakistan and China. The purposive Sampling technique was used to draw the sample from the population. The data analysis findings show that AI significantly impacts the loss of human decision-making and makes humans lazy. It also impacts security and privacy. The findings show that 68.9% of laziness in humans, 68.6% in personal privacy and security issues, and 27.7% in the loss of decision-making are due to the impact of artificial intelligence in Pakistani and Chinese society. From this, it was observed that human laziness is the most affected area due to AI. However, this study argues that significant preventive measures are necessary before implementing AI technology in education. Accepting AI without addressing the major human concerns would be like summoning the devils. Concentrating on justified designing and deploying and using AI for education is recommended to address the issue.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory disorder primarily affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The pathogenesis arises from complex interactions among genetic predisposition, immune dysregulation, and gut microbiota alterations. Recent advances in molecular biology, genomics, and microbiome research have identified novel therapeutic targets, enabling the development of innovative treatment strategies. Natural products derived from plants offer bioactive compounds with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory properties, gaining attention for IBD symptom management. Conventional therapeutic management includes aminosalicylates, immunomodulators, corticosteroids, and biologics; however, 30–50
The growing demand for robust, eco-friendly multifunctional semiconductors in renewable energy applications has motivated this computational investigation. Employing the density functional theory with the modified Becke-Johnson potential, we systematically calculated the structural, optoelectronic and thermoelectric properties of halide double perovskites K₂CuXI₆ (X = Sb, Bi). The results show that K₂CuXI₆ (X = Sb, Bi) possess indirect band gaps of 0.37 eV and 0.65 eV, respectively. The conduction band minima are mainly composed of Sb-5p and Bi-6p orbitals, while the valence band maxima arise from the hybridization of I-5p and Cu-3d orbitals. This electronic configuration results in elevated dielectric constants and significant absorption of visible light. The thermoelectric analysis reveals that K₂CuXI₆ possesses electrical conductivity of (1.51, 1.95) × 1018 Ω−1 m−1 s−1, thermal conductivity (4.0, 4.39) × 1014 Wm−1 K−1 s−1, and dimensionless figure of merit of (0.76, 0.78) for X = Sb and Bi, respectively. These findings validate K2CuXI6 as a robust platform for advanced multifunctional electronic applications.
We investigate the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of HfS _2 monolayers doped with transition metals (Cr, Fe, Mn, Co) using first-principles calculations. Pure HfS _2 is non-magnetic and an indirect-bandgap semiconductor. Substitutional TM doping, especially at S-sites, induces magnetism, tunes the bandgap, and enhances the magnetic ordering temperature, making HfS _2 suitable for spintronic applications. Doping creates structural changes and introduces new electronic states, resulting in local magnetic moments for single dopants. All doped structures are confirmed to be structurally and thermally stable, as evidenced by negative formation energies and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Our calculations reveal significant dopant magnetic moments induced by doping, with values of approximately 1.07 _B , 1.92 _B , 1.76 _B , 2.88 _B , and 1.45 _B for Cr _Hf-site , Cr _S-site , Mn _S-site , Fe _S-site , and Co _S-site , respectively. Significant magnetic moments appear, especially for Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co at S-sites, and S-site doping is more stable than Hf-site doping. Band structure analysis shows a shift from semiconducting to half-metallic (Cr at Hf-site) or metallic (Cr at S-site) character. Extending our study to higher dopant concentration and varying the dopant separation distances, we considered two configurations. Both 2Cr-doped configurations are antiferromagnetic, with S-site doping showing stronger coupling. Two-dopant configurations at S-sites demonstrate Néel temperatures ( T_N^corr ) of 274 K (near S-sites) and 352 K (far S-sites), indicating possible long-range magnetic ordering above room temperature. Site-specific TM doping, particularly at S-sites, is a promising method to induce robust magnetism in HfS _2 monolayers for room-temperature spintronics.
