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This paper provides a detailed evaluation of the photo-piezo-catalytic properties of lead-free Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Zr 0.1 (Ti 1-x Co x) 0.9 (BCZT- x Co, x = 0–0.025) ferroelectric ceramics prepared by a solid-state process. By control of the Co doping level, the band gap was reduced to 2.40 eV at the composition x = 0.02, which improved the generation of photo-generated charges and enhanced the photocatalytic activity. When a solution containing BCZT-0.02Co particles was subjected to both ultrasound and illumination, the degree of degradation of Rhodamine B reached 99% within 60 min, which was grater than when subjected to illumination or ultrasound alone. Examination of the dielectric properties, photoelectrochemical measurements and band energy structure of the materials provided new insights into the catalytic mechanism, where a strong coupling between piezoelectricity and photoexcitation was clearly observed. This work therefore highlights the attractive photo-piezo-catalytic properties of BCZT- x Co doped ceramics and is the first demonstration that Co substitution in these lead-free ferroelectric ceramics provides significant potential for photo-piezo-catalysis applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy, and its incidence has increased rapidly in recent years. The BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib is effective against BRAFV600E-positive PTC; however, acquired resistance to single agent therapy frequently leads to tumor recurrence and metastasis, underscoring the need to develop tailored treatment strategies. We previously showed that the oncogenic kinase PIM1 was associated with the malignant phenotype and prognosis of PTC. In this study, we showed that sustained expression of the PIM1 protein in PTC was affected by the BRAFV600E mutation. Based on this regulatory mechanism, we tested the synergistic effects of inhibitors of BRAF (BRAFi) and PIM1 in BRAFV600E-positive PTC cell lines and xenograft tumors. LC-MS metabolomics analyses suggested that BRAFi/PIMi therapy acted by restricting the amounts of critical amino acids and nucleotides required by cancer cells as well as modulating DNA methylation. This study elucidates the role of BRAFV600E in the regulation of PIM1 in PTC and demonstrates the synergistic effect of a novel combination, BRAFi/PIMi, for the treatment of PTC. This discovery, along with the pathways that may be involved in the powerful efficacy of BRAFi/PIMi strategy from the perspective of cell metabolism, provides insight into the molecular basis of PTC progression and offers new perspectives for BRAF-resistant PTC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fully supervised learning (FSL) and weakly supervised learning based on multiple instance learning (WSLMIL) have become two mainstream paradigms for performing computer-aided pathological diagnosis (CAPD). It is well known that the high-intensity annotation burden of FSL and the performance degradation due to poor training constraints of WSLMIL are stumbling blocks for clinical translation. Even more unfortunate is the lack of comprehensive experimental analysis to help researchers make content-specific trade-offs between FSL and WSLMIL. In this work, we systematically compare the performances of FSL and WSLMIL on lymph node metastasis in breast cancer using a publicly available dataset. By analyzing the results of 16 backbone networks in the FSL paradigm, we find that emerging networks based on transformer (PVTv2-B2) and multi-layer perceptron (CycleMLP-B3) are more advantageous for performing patch-level classification task than convolution-based structure (ResNet50); combining their output with morphological feature extraction can be better used to universally perform slide-level classification task. However, the slight improvement brought by the evolution of the backbone network may be overshadowed by the aggregation operation in 6 WSLMIL algorithms, whereas relying on the in-domain backbone network can achieve a stable and excellent prediction performance in both quantitative analysis and interpretability comparisons. All the experimental results ultimately illustrate that the combination of in-domain backbone network and emergent aggregation operation becomes an economical and efficient technical tool for CAPD, which can be regarded as a compromise between FSL and WSLMIL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Stable 2D/2D reduced graphene oxide-bismuth tungstate (rGO-BWO) compounds were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal process. The synthesized rGO-BWO compounds show high photocatalytic activity on aqueous tetracycline degradation, better than that of pure 2D BWO and rGO. rGO not only acts as the acceptor, transporter, and mediator to promote the photogenerated electrons transfer, also plays an important role in the blue shift of Fermi level, leading to the more negative conduction band potential, and benefitting the generation of O 2 −. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Stable 2D/2D nano-structured rGO-BWO compounds were successfully synthesized. • rGO act as the acceptor, transporter, and mediator to promote the carriers transfer. • O 2 – and holes play the main roles in the photocatalytic degradation over rGO-BWO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously reported that regenerating islet-derived protein 3 alpha (REG3A) exacerbates pancreatic malignancies. The mechanism of this effect has not been clearly elucidated. Here we first identified key differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and signal pathways in the pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990, compared to two control cell lines, by microarray analysis. We then identified key genes and pathways regulated by REG3A or the cytokine IL6 in SW1990 cells. Afterwards, these DEGs induced by REG3A or IL6 were subjected to KEGG pathway enrichment analysis and GO function analysis by the DAVID online tool. Ultimately, we constructed protein–protein interaction networks among the DEGs by Cytoscape. Among the three pancreatic cell lines, SW1990 exhibited highly deterioration with the activation of genes and pathways related to proliferation, survival, angiogenesis, and invasion. As a result, 50 DEGs enriched in 11 pathways were identified in REG3A-treated SW1990 cells, and 28 DEGs enriched in 9 pathways were detected in IL6-treated cells. Overall, results of microarray analysis followed by qRT-PCR and Western blotting suggest that REG3A regulates pancreatic cell growth by increasing the expression of at least 8 genes: JAK1 , STAT3 , IL10 , FOXM1 , KRAS , MYC , CyclinD1 , and c-fos ; and activation of at least 4 signal pathways: TGFβ, PDGF, angiogenesis and RAS. Similar results were obtained with IL6 treatment. Regulation network analysis confirmed the cell growth related DEGs, and further uncovered three transcription factor families with immune functions regulated by REG3A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was aimed to evaluate the morphology and immune function development of the jejunum and ileum in squab pigeons (Columba livia), by determining the villus ultrastructure, secretory IgA, and cytokines. Eight squabs were randomly selected and sampled on the day of hatch (DOH), d 7 (D 7), 14 (D 14), and 21 (D 21) post-hatch, respectively. The results showed that under transmission electron microscope, the enterocyte circumference in jejunum and ileum decreased with age. The tight junction involved in enterocyte circumference of jejunal villi plateaued from D 7, whereas that of ileal villi changed irregularly. The microvilli of jejunal and ileal villi was maximum at D 14. Under scanning electron microscope, the villus morphology of jejunum and ileum appeared finger-shaped at DOH. After D 7, the jejunal villi were still finger-shaped whereas the ileal villi were leaflike. The secretory IgA in jejunum was significantly increased at D 21. The TGF-β decreased linearly in jejunum and ileum. The anti-inflammatory cytokines increased linearly and proinflammatory cytokines decreased linearly in jejunum and ileum with age. In conclusion, the morphological changes of jejunal epithelium were concentrated at DOH–D 7 and ileal epithelium at DOH–D 14 mainly. The changes in mucus layer and immune-related factors of jejunum and ileum persisted for almost the entire period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, low Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 (Ni: 2 wt%, 4 wt%, 6 wt% and 8 wt%) porous nanoplates are synthesized by hydrothermal method and annealing treatment. For the low Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 , X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman data show that the Ni ions are successfully incorporated into the Co 3 O 4 lattices. Electrochemical measurements indicate that Co 3 O 4 with low amount of Ni doping possesses remarkably enhanced activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media. And especially, 4 wt% Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 possesses the most efficient activity with an overpotential of 240 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 for OER and 120 mV for HER in 1 M KOH than the pure Co 3 O 4 and other Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 samples. Our study suggests that the low doping would have a great potential in rational design of spinel oxides toward highly efficient electrocatalysis. • The Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 porous nanoplates are successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method and annealing treatment. • This is the first report of low-doped Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 porous nanoplates for both OER and HER in alkaline media. • The 4 wt % Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 possesses the most efficient activity than the pure Co 3 O 4 and other Ni-doped Co 3 O 4 samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microcystinase (MlrA) catalyzes the first and most important biodegradation step of hepatotoxic microcystin-LR (MC-LR) produced and released from cyanobacterial cells, and the underlying catalytic mechanism is not completely understood yet. MlrA was postulated previously to be a metalloprotease with an active site of H260AIH263NE265, a variant of the common metal-binding motif of HEXXH. Through comparison with representative modes in HEXXH-containing metalloproteases, molecular dynamics simulation, homology modeling, and docking, the active sites of MlrA involved in the MC-LR biodegradation by Sphingomonas sp. USTB-05 were predicted. Site-directed mutants of MlrA were constructed for verification then. The results show that MlrA is likely not a metalloprotease, but a glutamate protease belonging to type II CAAX prenyl endopeptidases. Combined with the biodegradation of MC-LR by MlrA and its mutants, a complete enzymatic mechanism for MC-LR biodegradation by MlrA is proposed: Glu172 and His205 activate a water molecule facilitating a nucleophilic attack on the Adda-Arg peptide bond of MC-LR; Trp176 and Trp201 contact the carboxylate side chain of Glu172and, by raising its p K a potentially, accelerate the reaction rates; His260 and Asn264 (located in the previous postulated active center of H260AIH263NE265) function as an oxyanion hole to stabilize the transition states. This study reveals the enzymatic mechanism of MlrA for catalyzing MC-LR in both the representative modes and the experiments of site-directed mutagenesis. Image 1 • Microcystinase (MlrA) was predicted belonging to type II CAAX prenyl endopeptidases. • E172, H205, H260, and N264 are critical residues responsible for MlrA activity. • Homology modeling of MlrA was verified positively by site-directed mutagenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Interlayer expanded Ni/Fe(SDS)-LDH was prepared by Ni/Fe-LDH intercalated with sodium dodecyl sulfate. • Interlayer spacing of NiFe(SDS)-LDH was effectively enlarged to 2.36 nm in contrast to 0.77 nm of NiFe-LDH. • NiFe(SDS)-LDH showed a highly enhanced OER performance with a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at overpotential of 115 mV. • NiFe(SDS)-LDH exposed more active sites for electrocatalysis and more accessible surface for ion transfer in the interlayer. [Display omitted] Layered double hydroxides (LDH), a typical two-dimensional nanomaterial, has received vigorous attention in water splitting for its typically weak van der Waals interactions that can tunable for its interlayer spacing. Opening LDH with expanded interlayer is highly desirable to expose more active sites for electrocatalysis and more accessible surface for ion transfer in the interlayer, which can greatly boost the performance of LDH. Herein, interlayer expanded nickel-iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) was fabricated by the intercalation with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) using a one-pot hydrothermal route. For compassion, the NiFe-LDH without SDS were also prepared as hierarchical hollow spheres (NiFe-LDH HSs), while hollow spheres were transformed into hierarchical nanosheets (NiFe(SDS)-LDH NSs) with the addition of SDS. Moreover, the interlayer spacing of NiFe(SDS)-LDH NSs was effectively enlarged to 2.36 nm contrast to 0.77 nm of NiFe-LDH HSs. As expected, a highly enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance was obtained on NiFe(SDS)-LDH NSs with a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at overpotential of 115 mV, while 225 mV for NiFe-LDH HSs. The intercalation of SDS in NiFe-LDH plays an indispensable role in boosting OER. It indicates the importance of enlarging the interlayer space of LDH for high-performance OER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposed a novel strategy to fabricate highly permeable and robust supported membranes for membrane distillation, via a nonsolvent thermally induced phase separation method. Different from traditional supported membranes cast on non-woven fabrics, a well-integrated fabric-embedded PVDF (FE-PVDF) membrane was successfully obtained using polyamide 66 gauze supports. The optimal FE-PVDF membrane PA-120 exhibited an interesting structure with pseudo Janus function, which entailed hydrophobic bulk membrane property but a pseudo hydrophilic bottom surface due to the presence of water-filled "50 μm grade" pores. The PA-120 exhibited a DCMD flux of 68.5 kg.m−2.h−1 at 70 °C with synthetic saline solution and exceptional tensile strength of 21 MPa (lateral)/21 MPa (longitudinal), which was 1.4-fold and 23-fold higher than that of the unsupported benchmark, respectively. The concentration of 10 wt% monosodium glutamate solution with PA-120 was demonstrated at 70 °C up to 55 wt% when crystallization was observed, The flux showed a minor decrease by 16.3% until 40 wt% and a subsequent decline towards 55 wt%. Repeated concentration cycles were conducted with intermediate membrane rinsing by fresh feed, demonstrating highly recoverable performance. This preliminary study brings new perspectives towards pushing the limits of current lab-made MD membranes. [Display omitted] • Ultra-robust fabric-embedded PVDF membranes were obtained by a facile NTIPS method. • FE-PVDF membrane offered tensile strength 21 MPa and DCMD flux 68.5 kg.m−2.h−1 (70 °C). • Membrane structure with a pseudo Janus function led to greatly enhanced mass transfer. • Successful concentration of MSG solution was conducted towards crystallization. • Reversible MD performance demonstrated in repeated cycles with no additional cleaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacillus velezensis FZB42 (previously classified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42) has been confirmed to successfully colonize plant roots and enhance defense response against pathogen infection. This study indicated that FZB42 inoculation enhanced Arabidopsis defense response against Pseudomonas syringae DC3000 through inducing the expression of PR1 , PDF1.2 and stomata closure. To further clarify the induced defense response at miRNA level, sRNA libraries from Arabidopsis roots inoculated with FZB42 and control were constructed and sequenced. The reads of 21 nt and 24 nt in length were the most abundant groups in FZB42-treated library and control library, respectively. 234 known miRNAs and 16 novel miRNAs were identified. Among them, 11 known miRNAs and 4 novel miRNAs were differentially expressed after FZB42 inoculation. Moreover cis -elements (TC-rich repeats, TCA-element and CGTCA-motif) associated with plant defense were also found in the promoters of these miRNAs. Additionally, 141 mRNAs were predicted as potential targets of these differentially expressed miRNAs. GO annotations of the target genes indicated their potential roles in polyamine biosynthetic process and intracellular protein transport biological process, which may contribute to increased defense response. Our findings indicated that Bacillus velezensis FZB42 inoculation altered the expression of Arabidopsis miRNAs and their target genes, which were associated with defense response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The optimum fiber size of the PWF reinforced shotcrete is obtained. • The advantages of PWF compared with PPF in shotcrete performance are determined. • Four types of fiber fractures in shotcrete are proposed. • The relationship between the mechanical properties of FRS and the fracture morphology of fiber is revealed. As the primary material for roadway support in underground engineering, shotcrete is of great significance to the underground construction industry. Shotcrete alone is brittle and its internal structure is prone to damage. Thus, reinforcing materials are often added to reduce the brittleness of shotcrete. Most of the studies focused on adding fiber materials to concrete the structural fractures in shotcrete. However, shotcrete internal structure fractures still happen in extreme environments. Therefore, the relationship between the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced shotcrete (FRS) and fiber fracture morphology is studied in this paper. Firstly, two types of fibers are selected, i.e., polypropylene fiber (PPF) and plastic waste fiber (PWF). Then, the mechanical properties of the FRS are tested, and the optimal fiber size of PWF reinforced shotcrete is obtained. Through optimization analysis, the mechanical property superiority of PWF reinforced shotcrete with the optimal fiber size is determined. Next, the fiber fracture in shotcrete is observed by visual and microscopic inspection, and four types of fiber fractures in shotcrete are proposed. Finally, the fiber fracture in various types of shotcrete is statistically analyzed. After correlation equation fitting, it is found that the straight-line, polynomial and exponential fitting results of mechanical properties and fiber fracture number of FRS are the most ideal. The relationship between the mechanical properties of FRS and the fiber fracture morphology is revealed. This study provides a theoretical basis for reducing the fractures of FRS structures in complex construction environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Intermetallic Pd-Sn catalysts with designed composition are successfully synthesized. • A composition-performance relationship was established to demonstrate acetylene conversion, ethylene selectivity and stability. • |Eads(C2H2)-Eads(C2H4)| was used as a unified descriptor for the intrinsic catalytic properties of Pd-Sn catalysts. • This research provides an insight into the design principle of hydrogenation catalysts with desirable activity and selectivity. In Pd catalyzed acetylene semi-hydrogenation, high selectivity always comes at the expense of activity while improving both selectivity and activity is challenging. In this work, the performance of Pd alloy catalysts was enhanced by inserting Sn phase to modify both surface Pd ensembles and electronic structures. Compared with Pd/C, the optimal Pd 2 Sn/C catalyst exhibits higher selectivity at the same acetylene conversion level, with its selectivity increased from 10 % to nearly 95 % at ca 100 % acetylene conversion. Both experimental and DFT calculation results reveal that the specific performance is attributed to the redispersion of surface Pd ensembles by Sn insertion and down-shift of d-band center of catalysts, thus changing the adsorption behavior of the reaction gases. This design principle provides an efficient method for tailoring and optimizing durable Pd-based catalysts with desirable reactivity and ethylene selectivity for selective hydrogenation of acetylene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]