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Recently, the progress of electronic devices toward miniaturization has strongly promoted development of multifunctional materials possessing multiple desirable properties. In this study, we develop and fabricate 0.93Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 TiO 3 -0.07BaTiO 3 - x Er multifunctional ceramics which show simultaneously considerable electric-field-induced strain and bright green light emission properties. With the introduction of Er3+, the ceramics gradually transform from non-ergodic relaxor phase to ergodic relaxor phase which could reversibly transform to ferroelectric phase under the electric field. As a result, with improving Er3+ content, the shape of the polarization-electric field loops of the ceramics become pinched, and it is obvious that the negative strain disappears while the positive strain gradually increases and reaches a maximum value 0.46% at x = 1.2 mol%. Besides, After the ceramics are poled, the light emission peak are greatly enhanced attributed to the decreased crystal symmetry and increased domain size, and is the strongest at x = 1.2 mol%. These results indicate that 0.93Bi 0.5 Na 0.5 TiO 3 -0.07BaTiO 3 - x Er ceramics are good candidates for developing multifunctional optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FBXW2 is a poorly characterized F-box protein, as a tumor suppressor that inhibits growth and metastasis of lung cancer by promoting ubiquitylation and degradation of oncogenic proteins, including SKP2 and β-catenin. However, what the biological functions of FBXW2 in prostate cancer cells and whether FBXW2 targets other substrates to involve in progression of prostate cancer is still unclear. Here, we reported that overexpression of FBXW2 attenuated proliferation and metastasis of PCa models both in vitro and in vivo, while FBXW2 depletion exhibited the opposite effects. Intriguingly, FBXW2 was an E3 ligase for EGFR in prostate cancer. EGFR protein level and its half-life were extended by FBXW2 depletion, while EGFR protein level was decreased, and its half-life was shortened upon overexpression of FBXW2, but not its dominant-negative mutant. Importantly, FBXW2 bond to EGFR via its consensus degron motif (TSNNST), and ubiquitylated and degraded EGFR, resulting in repression of EGF function. Thus, our data uncover a novel that FBXW2 as a tumor suppressor of prostate cancer, inhibits EGFR downstream by promoting EGFR ubiquitination and degradation, resulting in repression of cell proliferation and metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effector T cells, which are abundant but are short-lived after reinfusion into the body, are generally used for T-cell therapy, and antitumor immunity is typically not maintained over the long term. Genetic modification by early differentiated T cells and reinfusion has been shown to enhance antitumor immunity in vivo. This study overexpressed the characteristic transcription factors of differentiated early T cells by transfecting effector T cells with transcription factor recombinant lentivirus (S6 group: BCL6, EOMES, FOXP1, LEF1, TCF7, KLF7; S1 group: BCL6, EOMES, FOXP1, KLF7; S3 group: BCL6, EOMES, FOXP1, LEF1) to induce a sufficient number of effector T cells to dedifferentiate and optimize the transcription factor system. The results revealed that overexpression of early characteristic transcription factors in effector T cells upregulated the expression of early T cell differentiation markers (CCR7 and CD62L), with the S1 group having the highest expression level, while the rising trend of late differentiation marker (CD45RO) expression was suppressed. Moreover, the expression of early differentiation-related genes (ACTN1, CERS6, BCL2) was significantly increased, while the expression of late differentiation-related genes (KLRG-1) and effector function-related genes (GNLY, GZMB, PRF1) was significantly decreased; this difference in expression was more significant in the S1 group than in the other two experimental groups. The antiapoptotic ability of each experimental group was significantly enhanced, while the secretion ability of TNF-α and IFN-γ was weakened, with the effector cytokine secretion ability of the S1 group being the weakest. Transcriptomic analysis showed that the gene expression profile of each experimental group was significantly different from that of the control group, with differences in the gene expression pattern and number of differentially expressed genes in the S1 group compared with the other two experimental groups. The differentially expressed gene enrichment pathways were basically related to the cell cycle, cell division, and immune function. In conclusion, overexpression of early characteristic transcription factors in effector T cells induces their dedifferentiation, and induction of dedifferentiation by the S1 group may be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, reduced graphene oxidewas functionalized with ethylenediamine(EDA) by a simple one-pot process, using a lithium ethylenediaminederivative as a nucleophilic reagent at 50 °C for 10 h. The presenceof EDA chains in graphene was identified by Fourier transform infraredspectroscopy (FTIR), electronic energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), X-rayphotoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and zeta potential. By using thesimple amidation reaction of EDA modified graphene and subsequenthost–guest interactions between β-cyclodextrins (β-CDs)and polymers carrying guest moieties, we also synthesized a new typeof graphene-based β-CD supramolecular hydrogels. The obtainedhydrogels exhibited the gel-to-sol transition by adding a competitiveguest sodium adamantine carboxylate (AdCNa) or competitive host α-CD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immobilizationof metal complexes on solid supports is an efficientapproach to remedy the drawbacks of homogeneous catalysis. In thisstudy, an in situ strategy of synthesis and immobilization of a copper(salen) complex onto graphene oxide (GO) support has been developed.To provide the salen ligands, GO was covalently modified with an aminosilane,followed by condensation with salicylaldehyde. The copper (salen)complex was subsequently synthesized and simultaneously immobilizedonto the GO surface with a designed tetrahedral chelate structure.The immobilized copper (salen) complex [Cu(salen)–f–GO] kept the two-dimensional sheetlike character of GO andwas demonstrated to be highly effective for the epoxidation of olefins.It could be readily reused for successive twelve times without discernibleactivity and selectivity deterioration, which displays potential forpractical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The expression level of hsa-miR-744-5p gradually increased upon T cell activation. • STK11 is a key target gene of miR-744-5p in the regulation of T-cell differentiation. • miR-744-5p promotes the progressive differentiation of T cells. T cells utilized in adoptive T cell immunotherapy are typically activated in vitro. Although these cells demonstrate proliferation and anti-tumor activity following activation, they often face difficulties in sustaining long-term survival post-reinfusion. This issue is attributed to the induction of T cells into a terminal differentiation state upon activation, whereas early-stage differentiated T cells exhibit enhanced proliferation potential and survival capabilities. In previous study, we delineated four T cell subsets at varying stages of differentiation: T N , T SCM , T CM , and T EM , and acquired their miRNA expression profiles via high-throughput sequencing. In the current study, we performed a differential analysis of miRNA across these subsets, identifying a distinct miRNA, hsa-miR-744-5p, characterized by progressively increasing expression levels upon T cell activation. This miRNA is not expressed in T SCM but is notably present in T EM. Target genes of miR-744-5p were predicted, followed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses, revealing that these genes predominantly associate with pathways related to the 'Wnt signaling pathway'. We established that miR-744-5p directly targets STK11, influencing its expression. Further, we investigated the implications of miR-744-5p on T cell differentiation and functionality. Overexpression of miR-744-5p in T cells resulted in heightened apoptosis, reduced proliferation, an increased proportion of late-stage differentiated T cells, and elevated secretion of the cytokine TNF-α. Moreover, post-overexpression of miR-744-5p led to a marked decline in the expression of early-stage differentiation-associated genes in T cells (CCR7 , CD62L , LEF1 , BCL2) and a significant rise in late-stage differentiation-associated genes (KLRG1 , PDCD1 , GZMB). In conclusion, our findings affirm that miR-744-5p contributes to the progressive differentiation of T cells by downregulating the STK11 gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emulsified asphalt offers energy-saving and environmental benefits, aligning with low-carbon, high-quality development requirements. However, poor adhesion hampers the development of emulsified asphalt. The hydrophilic group substituent position significantly influences the adhesive strength at the emulsified asphalt/aggregate interface. To further elucidate this mechanism, this study employs molecular dynamics (MD) simulation techniques, focusing on the positional variations of the hydrophilic group in the sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate molecule, particularly the SDBS2–1#, SDBS3–1#, and SDBS4–1# configurations. The objective is to enhance adhesion between these two materials. The simulation results were validated through macroscopic demulsification experiments, encompassing a comprehensive analysis of various parameters, including relative concentration distribution, diffusion coefficient, adhesion work, electron density difference, and electrostatic potential distribution. The result demonstrated a strong synergistic effect between the emulsifiers' molecular structure and the aggregates' chemical composition. The emulsifier SDBS4–1# with para-substitution enhances adhesion at the interface between the emulsified asphalt and alkaline aggregate (CaCO₃) by 50.4 %. The emulsifier SDBS2–1# with ortho-substitution enhances adhesion at the interface between the emulsified asphalt and acidic aggregate (SiO₂) by 33.3 %. Furthermore， the emulsifiers SDBS4–1# and SDBS2–1# promote the accumulation of electrons in asphalt molecules on CaCO₃ and SiO₂ surfaces, respectively. This increase in electron accumulation enhances the adhesion performance between emulsified asphalt and aggregate at their interface. Therefore, optimizing the structure of emulsifier molecules significantly increases the bonding strength between emulsified asphalt and aggregate surfaces. [Display omitted] • Increasing the spacing of substituents on the phenyl functional group enhances the adsorption capacity of emulsified asphalt. • The emulsifier （SDBS2–1#） with ortho substitution reduces the diffusion of asphalt molecules on SiO 2 surfaces and promotes a stable adsorption layer. • The emulsifier (SDBS4–1#) with para-substituted molecules significantly increases the adhesive strength and electron accumulation of asphalt on the CaCO₃ surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • We study binary collisions of uniform-sized water nanodroplets. • The effects of four key factors are examined. • Impact velocity has a great influence on the binary collisions outcomes. • The stretch separation is suppressed with the increase of impact parameter. • Larger nanodroplet diameter enhances the mass transfer of head-on binary collisions. Binary collision dynamics of equal-sized water nanodroplets are investigated numerically by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with a focus on the shape evolution and collision result of two colliding nanodroplets. The complete behavior of binary collisions is dynamically simulated using velocity-Verlet integrator in LAMMPS platform. Effects of several parameters such as impact velocity, dimensionless impact parameter (defined as the ratio of the off-center distance between the nanodroplets to the average diameter of two nanodroplets), liquid temperature and droplet size on binary collision outcomes are quantitatively studied. The simulations show that with the increasing of impact velocity, the outcome upon head-on binary collisions changes from coalescence to the fragmentation of the rim, and to disintegrates into many smaller nanodroplets. For impact parameter, the stretching separation is suppressed with the decrease of impact parameter. The controlling mechanism of stretching separation is basically related to the end-pinching mechanism dominated by high-inertia. For the higher liquid temperature, the liquid lamella caused by binary collisions leads to some tinier satellite nanodroplets because of the variations in thermophysical properties of fluid. The effect of larger nanodroplet diameter is found to enhance the deformation degree of head-on binary collisions. In addition, a We - B map map is established to qualitatively identify different regimes of binary collision. The present study provides some insight into the binary collision dynamics under micro-nano dimension for spraying engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ligilactobacillus murinus , a member of the Ligilactobacillus genus, holds significant potential as a probiotic. While research on Ligilactobacillus murinus has been relatively limited compared to well-studied probiotic lactic acid bacteria such as Limosilactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus gasseri , a mounting body of evidence highlights its extensive involvement in host intestinal metabolism and immune activities. Moreover, its abundance exhibits a close correlation with intestinal health. Notably, beyond the intestinal context, Ligilactobacillus murinus is gaining recognition for its contributions to metabolism and regulation in the oral cavity, lungs, and vagina. As such, Ligilactobacillus murinus emerges as a potential probiotic candidate with a pivotal role in supporting host well-being. This review delves into studies elucidating the multifaceted roles of Ligilactobacillus murinus. It also examines its medicinal potential and associated challenges, underscoring the imperative to delve deeper into unraveling the mechanisms of its actions and exploring its health applications. • Ligilactobacillus murinus is a potential probiotic distributed in the intestines, oral cavity, lungs and vagina. • Ligilactobacillus murinus in the intestine can indicate the degree of health status of the host. • Single Ligilactobacillus murinus is distinguished from Ligilactobacillus murinus in microbial communities. • Ligilactobacillus murinus , emerging as a potential probiotic, is critical for safety assessment and clinical studies when used as probiotic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the explosive increase of remote sensing data, how to search for remote sensing data quickly and accurately in a vast dataset is an incredibly critical matter for research subjects. The deep hashing method has become the dominant method for remote sensing image retrieval because of its low-cost storage and high-speed retrieval. However, for the reason of the limitation of fixed convolutional kernels, deep hashing frameworks based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) fail to obtain the global semantic information well, which leads to the generation of suboptimal solutions. Furthermore, existing hashing methods commonly employ the random sampling strategy or hardest sample mining to build training batches, resulting in bad local minima. To remedy these problems, a novel Deep Global Semantic Structure-preserving Hashing framework via corrective triplet loss (DGSSH) is proposed for remote sensing image retrieval to learn a discriminative and stable embedding space, achieving intra-class confusion and inter-class diversity. Specifically speaking, the feature extraction module based on Swim Transformer architecture is developed to capture global semantic information and multiscale features from remote sensing images. Based on a distribution matching constraint, the corrective triplet loss for deep hashing schemes is designed to reduce the distribution shift caused by the random selection or hardest sample mining. Meanwhile, to reduce the time overhead of the model, the asymmetric learning strategy is employed to perform effective compact representation learning. Numerous experiments have been carried out on three publicly available benchmarks, which indicates that the proposed DGSSH framework could achieve optimal performance for remote sensing image retrieval applications. The source code of our DGSSH framework is hosted at https://github.com/QinLab-WFU/DGSSH.git. • The Swim Transformer architecture is developed to capture global semantic features. • The corrective triplet loss is proposed to reduce the distribution shift. • An asymmetric learning strategy is employed to improve training efficiency. • The state-of-the-art results are reported on three benchmark datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a facile pyrolysis process is utilized to convert a mantis shrimp shell into a 3D bicontinuous porous, highly wrinkled, nitrogen-doped, graphene-like ultrathin carbon sheet (3D BWGC). The 3D BWGC achieves a high surface area of 2300 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of up to 1.63 cm3 g−1. The specific capacitance of the 3D BWGC in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte is 370.9 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 and an operating voltage window of 1.1 V. By introducing Fe2+, the operating voltage window of 3D BWGC symmetric supercapacitors can reach 1.8 V in a neutral electrolyte, and a specific capacitance of 317.2 F g−1 can be obtained at a current density of 0.5 A g−1. Remarkably, the fabricated symmetric supercapacitors using 2 M MgSO4 + 0.05 M FeSO4 electrolyte demonstrated an energy density as high as 17.7 W h kg−1 at a power density of 180 W kg−1. The assembled supercapacitors exhibit good cycling performance, maintaining an initial capacitance of 87.2% over 30 000 cycles. These excellent performances indicate the promising prospects of 3D BWGC in high-performance electrochemical energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formed bionic "Fe/Mo bimetallene" can effectively promote the separation and transfer of photo-generated carriers by multi-electron redox reactions. [Display omitted] The "FeMo cofactors" in biological nitrogenase play a decisive role in nitrogen reduction. Herein, a novel bionic Fe/Mo bimetallene was applied in photocatalytic nitrogen reduction. The surface coating Fe/Mo bimetallene of Bi 2 Mo 0.3 W 0.7 O 6 (BMWO) nanocrystals could effectively promote the separation and transportation of photogenerated carriers by multi–electron redox reactions and deliver 2.8 times longer photo–carrier lifetime. Consequently, the nitrogen fixation activity of Fe/Mo bimetallene–coated BMWO nanocrystal photocatalyst was obviously enhanced (218.93 μmol g–1h−1), which was about 4.8 times that of unmodified BMWO nanocrystals. This work provides a novel approach to design bionic Fe/Mo bimetallene–modified inorganic semiconductor photocatalysts for nitrogen reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of semiconductivity and tunable ferromagnetism is pivotal for electrical control of ferromagnetism and next‐generation low‐power spintronic devices. However, Curie temperatures (TC) for most traditional intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductors (≤200 K) and recently discovered two‐dimensional (2D) ones (<70 K) are far below room temperature. 2D van der Waals (vdW) semiconductors with intrinsic room‐temperature ferromagnetism remain elusive considering the unfavored 2D long‐range ferromagnetic order indicated by Mermin–Wagner theorem. Here, vdW semiconductor CrxGa1−xTe crystals exhibiting highly tunable above‐room‐temperature ferromagnetism with bandgap 1.62–1.66 eV are reported. The saturation magnetic moment (Msat) of CrxGa1−xTe crystals can be effectively regulated up to ≈5.4 times by tuning Cr content and ≈75.9 times by changing the thickness. vdW CrxGa1−xTe ultrathin semiconductor crystals show robust room‐temperature ferromagnetism with the 2D quantum confinement effect, enabling TC 314.9–329 K for nanosheets, record‐high for intrinsic vdW 2D ferromagnetic semiconductors. This work opens an avenue to room‐temperature 2D vdW ferromagnetic semiconductor for 2D electronic and spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: One of the major impediments in tissue-engi-neered oral mucosa (TEOM) is the lack of rete ridge (RR) structures that can weaken the connection between the epi-dermis and dermis. This study aimed to investigate the na-tive morphology of RRs as well as the expression of extracel-lular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), Ki67, and kera-tin-19, which are related to cell mechanotransduction, proliferation, and sternness in the oral epidermis, respectively. Methods: RR characteristics, including type, density, length, and width, were analyzed in the masticatory mucosa (Mm) and lining mucosa (Lm) sites of 52 specimens. The ex-pression of ERK1/2, Ki67, and keratin-19 was assessed by im-munohistochemistry. ERK1/2 activation by masticatory stim-uli was confirmed in vitro by loading pressure onto cultured keratinocytes isolated from the specimens. Results: Three types of RR were found. The RRs in the Mm and Lm differed. The length and percentage of ERK1/2-positive (%ERK1/2+) basal layer cells had a negative correlation (p = 0.004), where-as the length and %Ki67+ basal layer cells had a positive cor-relation (p = 0.013). The %ERK1/2+ basal layer cells and %ker-atin-19+ basal layer cells had a negative relationship (p =0.011). ERK1/2 activation in the oral epithelium was induced by pressure and propagated in cultured keratinocytes. Conclusion: RRs are longer in the Mm, which may result from the topical basal cell proliferation and migration induced by masticatory pressure via ERK1/2 activation. Our findings pre-liminarily interpret RR histomorphology as influenced by oral masticatory pressure. Results may benefit future studies on RR development and reconstruction in TEOM models to enhance the epidermis-dermis connection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper introduces a silicon three-dimensional (3D) micro supercapacitor, featured by using self-supporting nano porous composite materials and interdigital electrodes with high-aspect-ratio. A way to prepare self-supporting materials has been developed, and composites that contain an activated carbon as the active component have been studied and designed to meet the requirements for adequate specific capacitance, good conductivity and strong structure. By combining the designed composite with microfabrication techniques, a micro supercapacitor with high-aspect-ratio interdigital electrodes has been achieved. Electrochemical characterization results of the prototype with NaNO3 electrolyte demonstrate that the 3D supercapacitor exhibits an outstanding overall performance. A large capacitance of 90.7mFcm−2 and a fast power of 51.5mWcm−2 are calculated. Robust stability and high charge/discharge efficiency are also observed. Moreover, this study provides a scalable device built by compatible fabrication method, which is applicable to the integration of high-performance supercapacitors on chip. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It is very crucial to understand the rheological behavior of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) on the molecular level, which is very important for their processing and application. Thus, in this work the reverse nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulation is employed to explore the rheological property of PNCs by tuning the volume fraction of nanoparticle (NP), the polymer-NP interaction and the NP size. The shear viscosity (η~ γ ˙ -m) exhibits a power law with the shear rate where m varies from 0.42 to 0.53 at the high shear rates. By adopting the Carreau-Yasuda model, the calculated zero-shear viscosity gradually rises with increasing the volume fraction of NP, the polymer-NP interaction or reducing the NP size. This is attributed to the strong adsorption of chains by NPs and the formed network, which leads to the retarded dynamics. In addition, both the first and second normal stress differences also show the power laws on the shear rate. The chains are gradually extended as the increase of the shear rate, which is characterized by the mean-square end-to-end distance and the mean square radius of gyration. Especially, the evolution process of the NP network and the polymer-NP network is analyzed to deeply understand the shear thinning behavior. The number of the direct contact structure of NPs increases while the number of the polymer-NP bridged structure is reduced. This is further proved by the increase of the formation probability of the NP network and the decrease of the polymer-NP interaction energy. Finally, the chain dynamics is found to be enhanced due to the shear flow. In summary, this work provides a further understanding on the mechanism of the shear thinning of PNCs on the molecular level. [Display omitted] • Effect of volume fraction and size of NP, and interfacial interaction on rheological property is explored by RNEMD method. • The increase of the shear viscosity is attributed to the strong adsorption of chains by NPs and the formed network. • The evolution process of the NP network and the polymer-NP network is analyzed to understand the shear thinning behavior. • The chain dynamics is enhanced under the shear field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A number of studies have indicated that Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T (UBE2T), as an oncogene, promotes progression and metastasis of lung cancer, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), but it is completely unknown whether and how UBE2T is ubiquitylated and degraded, and by which E3 ligase. NEDD4L plays a critical role in the regulation of cellular processes of various cancers, most of which is attributed to its E3 ubiquitin ligase function. However, the relationship between NEDD4L and UBE2T in LUAD has not been elucidated. Methods: The relationship between NEDD4L and UBE2T in LUAD tissues and cells was found by bioinformatic analyses and immunoblotting. Cell counting kit-8, colony formation assay, half-life analysis and the in vivo ubiquitylation assay, generation of xenograft model were performed to determine how NEDD4L regulates UBE2T and its downstream signaling pathway in vitro and in vivo. Results: Bioinformatic analyses found that NEDD4L, as a potential correlation E3 ligase of UBE2T, was negatively correlated with UBE2T in LUAD. Consistently, UBE2T protein half-life was shortened or extended by NEDD4L overexpression or depletion, respectively. NEDD4L inhibited LUAD cell progression in vitro and in vivo via inducing the ubiquitination-mediated UBE2T degradation, which repressed PI3K-AKT signaling. Similarly, NEDD4L predicted a better patient survival, whereas UBE2T predicted a worse survival. Conclusions: Collectively, our results reveal that NEDD4L is a novel E3 ligase of UBE2T, which can inhibit PI3K-AKT signaling by targeting for UBE2T ubiquitination and degradation, resulting in repression of LUAD cell progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the fabrication of high performance MoTe2/Si heterojunction photodiodes by direct growth of MoTe2 patterns on a commercial Si substrate by a feasible chemical vapor deposition method. The devices exhibit an ultrafast response speed with a rise/fall time of 5/8 μs, a broadband (400–1550 nm) photoresponse, a high on/off ratio of ∼104, and self-powered photo-detection with a zero bias responsivity of 0.26 A W−1 and a detectivity of 2 × 1013 Jones at 700 nm wavelength. The devices further show high stability in air for one month. This investigation offers the feasibility to fabricate high performance MoTe2/Si photodiodes for future vital optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are differences in survival between high-and low-grade Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma (UTUC). Our study aimed to develop a nomogram to predict overall survival (OS) of patients with high- and low-grade UTUC after tumor resection, and to explore the difference between high- and low-grade patients.Methods: Patients confirmed to have UTUC between 2004 and 2015 were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The UTUCs were identified and classified as high- and low-grade, and 1-, 3- and 5-year nomograms were established. The nomogram was then validated using the Chinese multicenter dataset (patients diagnosed in Shandong, China between January 2010 and October 2020).Results: In the high-grade UTUC patients, nine important factors related to survival after tumor resection were identified to construct nomogram. The C index of training dataset was 0.740 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.727-0.754), showing good calibration. The C index of internal validation dataset was 0.729(95% CI:0.707-0.750). On the other hand, Two independent predictors were identified to construct nomogram of low-grade UTUC. The C index was 0.714 (95% CI: 0.671-0.758) for the training set,0.731(95% CI:0.670-0.791) for the internal validation dataset. Encouragingly, the nomogram was clinically useful and had a good discriminative ability to identify patients at high risk.Conclusion: We constructed a nomogram and a corresponding risk classification system predicting the OS of patients with an initial diagnosis of high-and low-grade UTUC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weather recognition is a significant technique for many potential computer vision applications in our daily lives. Generally, most existing works treat weather recognition as a single-label classification task, which cannot describe the weather conditions comprehensively due to the complex co-occurrence dependencies between different weather conditions. In this paper, we propose a novel Graph Convolution Networks with Attention (GCN-A) model for multi-label weather recognition. To our best knowledge, this is the first attempt to introduce GCN into weather recognition. Specifically, we employ GCN to capture weather co-occurrence dependencies via a directed graph. The graph is built over weather labels, where each node (weather label) is represented by word embeddings of a weather label. Furthermore, we design a re-weighted mechanism to build weather correlation matrix for information propagation among different nodes in GCN. In addition, we develop a channel-wise attention module to extract informative semantic features of weather for effective model training. Compared with the state-of-the-art methods, experiment results on two widely used benchmark datasets demonstrate that our proposed GCN-A model achieves promising performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advance of Convolutional Neural Network, deep hashing methods have shown the great promising performance in large-scale image retrieval. Without depending on extensive human-annotated data, unsupervised hashing is more applicable to image retrieval tasks compared to supervised methods. However, due to the lack of fine-grained supervised signals and multi-similarity constraints, most state-of-the-art unsupervised deep hashing algorithms cannot ensure the correct fine-grained similarity ranking for image pairs. In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised deep multi-similarity hashing framework to learn compact binary codes by jointly exploiting global-aware and spatial-aware representations, called Unsupervised Deep Multi-Similarity Hashing with Semantic Structure (UDMSH). Specifically, to obtain distinguishing characteristics, we develop a sub-network by jointly learning global semantic structures from Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and inherent spatial structures from Fully Convolutional Network (FCN). By computing the cosine distance for deep features from image pairs, we construct a similarity matrix with semantic structure, then utilize this matrix to guide hash code learning process. Based on it, we carefully design a multi-level pairwise loss to preserve the correct fine-grained similarity ranking. Furthermore, we introduce Hamming-isometric mapping into unsupervised hashing framework to decrease the quantization errors. Extensive experiments on three widely used benchmarks prove that our proposed UDMSH outperforms several state-of-the-art unsupervised hashing with respect to different evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 continuously threated public health heavily. Present study aimed to investigate the lymphocyte subset alterations with disease severity, imaging manifestation, and delayed hospitalization in COVID-19 patients.Methods: Lymphocyte subsets was classified using flow cytometry with peripheral blood collected from 106 patients.Results: Multivariate logistic regression showed that chest tightness, lymphocyte count, and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase were the independent predictors for severe COVID-19. The T cell, CD4+ T cell and B cell counts in severe patients were significantly lower than that in mild patients (p = 0.004, 0.003 and 0.046, respectively). Only the T cell count was gradually decreased with the increase of infiltrated quadrants of lesions in computed tomography (CT) (p = 0.043). The T cell, CD4+ T cell, and CD8+ T cell counts were gradually decreased with the increase of infiltrated area of the maximum lesion in CT (p = 0.002, 0.003, 0.028; respectively). For severe patients, the counts of T cell, CD4+ T cell, CD8+ T cell gradually decreased with the increased delayed hospitalization (p = 0.001, 0.03, and <  0.001, respectively). The proportions of T cell, CD8+ T cell gradually decreased with the increased delayed hospitalization (both p <  0.001), but the proportions of NK cell, B cell gradually increased with the increased delayed hospitalization (p = 0.007, and 0.002, respectively). For mild patients, only the NK cell count was gradually decreased with the increased delayed hospitalization (p = 0.012).Conclusion: T lymphocyte and its subset negatively correlated with disease severity, CT manifestation and delayed hospitalization. The counts of lymphocyte subset were changed more profound than their proportions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atom‐thick 2D metal telluride atomic crystals (2D MTACs) display many fascinating physical properties for potential applications in multiple fields. In this review, recent advances in the preparation, physical properties and applications of 2D MTACs are presented. First, three kinds of the most available preparation methods for 2D single crystal MTACs have been summarized, including single crystal‐based mechanical exfoliation, molecular beam epitaxy, and chemical vapor deposition. Second, the recent progress on abundant physical properties of 2D MTACs is briefly introduced, including surface electronic properties, optoelectronic properties, electronic transport, and thermoelectric properties, ferroelectric properties, superconducting properties, and ferromagnetic properties. Third, the potential electronics, spintronics, optoelectronics and energy applications of 2D MTACs are presented. Finally, some significant challenges and opportunities in 2D MTACs are briefly addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenges of learning to hash in large-scale image retrieval is the projective transformation from raw image to binary space with preserving semantic similarity. Recently, several deep hashing methods show many excellent properties compared with traditional hashing based on hand-designed representation. However, most of the existing hashing models only pay attention to the semantic similarity between image pairs, ignoring the ranking information of retrieval results, which limits its performance. In this paper, a novel deep hashing framework, named Deep Top Similarity Hashing with Class-wise loss (DTSH-CW), is proposed to preserve semantic similarity between top images of ranking list and query images. In this proposed framework, CNNs architecture with batch normalization module is adopted to extract deep semantic characteristics. With integrating the position information of images, a top similarity loss is carefully designed to ensure the similarities between top images of ranking list and query images. Unlike pair-wise or triplet-wise loss, by directly leveraging the class labels, a cubic constraint based on Gaussian distribution is introduced to optimize objective function so as to maintain semantic variations of different classes. Furthermore, in order to solve discrete optimization problem, Two-Stage strategy is developed to provide efficient model training. Quantities of comparison experiments on three multi-label benchmark datasets show that our proposed DTSH-CW achieves promising performance compared to several state-of-the-art hashing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waterless live transportation is an effective strategy to realize a larger volume of live fish, and it is pollution-free by contrast with traditional live transport with water. Based on previous study results, this paper aims to propose the knowledge-based HACCP quality control plan to realize real-time feedback and adjustment for fish waterless live transportation. Meantime, the improved traceability system was established to realize the CCPs determination and non-destructive dynamic monitoring of fish stress level in waterless live transportation. Furthermore, to verify the accuracy and applicability of the established traceability system, the relevant manager, workers, and experts are invited to participate in the efficiency and performance analysis. The final results show that the accuracy of the forecasting model is 96.7%, and all the regression coefficients are close to 1.00. Besides, the improved traceability system would offer a better solution of effective quality control for the fish waterless live transportation, and help to improve the transport management efficiency. • The optimized quality control plan provide effective measures to realize point-to-point determination of CCPs, as well as to improve the waterless live transport management. • The established improved traceability system provides non-destructive and high-accuracy forecasting for fish stress level. • The established traceability system gives the dynamic feedbacks of adjustments of CCPs to improve the transport management efficiency. • The improved traceability system gives the dynamic feedbacks for CCPs adjustments to improve the transport management efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of type‐II Weyl semimetal states in layered transition metal dichalcogenides Td‐WTe2 indicates great potential for novel electronic, spintronic, and quantum devices. Theoretically, the interaction between the topological states and the magnetic ordered states of Td‐WTe2 enables the modulation of Weyl semimetal states by an external magnetic field. However, currently, ferromagnetism in layered Td‐WTe2 is still elusive and rarely observed. In this research, ferromagnetic order into WTe2 using magnetic chromium (Cr) doping with a two‐step Te flux strategy is introduced. The Curie temperature (Tc) and the ferromagnetic moment are well tuned with a Cr doping concentration. The Tc of the Cr‐doped layered Td‐WTe2 could be regulated from 182 to 283 K, which is close to room temperature. The saturation magnetic moment could be changed from 2.26 to 4.20 emu g–1, which is stronger than most values reported for these materials. Most intriguingly, the Cr‐doped layered Td‐WTe2 single crystals still exhibit semimetallic behavior and they possess very large magnetoresistance with obvious Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) quantum oscillations and an anomalous Hall effect. The findings offer feasible ways to induce and tune ferromagnetic orders in layered Td‐WTe2 and thus to control its topological phase with external magnetic fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Accumulating studies have demonstrated that autophagy plays an important role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to construct a prognostic model based on autophagy-related genes (ARGs) to predict the survival of HCC patients. Methods. Differentially expressed ARGs were identified based on the expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and ARGs of the Human Autophagy Database. Univariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify the prognosis-related ARGs. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to construct the prognostic model. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC), Kaplan-Meier curve, and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to test the prognostic value of the model. The prognostic value of the model was further confirmed by an independent data cohort obtained from the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. Results. A total of 34 prognosis-related ARGs were selected from 62 differentially expressed ARGs identified in HCC compared with noncancer tissues. After analysis, a novel prognostic model based on ARGs (PRKCD, BIRC5, and ATIC) was constructed. The risk score divided patients into high- or low-risk groups, which had significantly different survival rates. Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that the risk score was an independent risk factor for survival of HCC after adjusting for other conventional clinical parameters. ROC analysis showed that the predictive value of this model was better than that of other conventional clinical parameters. Moreover, the prognostic value of the model was further confirmed in an independent cohort from ICGC patients. Conclusion. The prognosis-related ARGs could provide new perspectives on HCC, and the model should be helpful for predicting the prognosis of HCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the coupling algorithm of smoothed particle hydrodynamics and finite element method, numerical simulation of high-velocity water jet impacting heterogeneous concrete containing aggregates according to the real concrete CT slices was conducted to study the damage evolutions and fracture characteristics of concrete with real structure. The damage evolution and fragmentation process of heterogeneous concrete were obtained, and the fracture characteristic was compared with homogeneous concrete. The internal energy change laws and the damage and stress evolutions in homogeneous and heterogeneous concretes at different time were investigated. And the failure mechanisms of water jet crushing heterogeneous concrete were revealed. The results show that the concrete elements mainly suffer multi-stage plastic damage accumulation failure induced by water jet impact due to stress wave effect, pressured water wedge effect, water flow scouring effect, squeezing effect of aggregate, and stress concentrations. The failures of upper and deep concrete elements are mainly caused by compressive shear stress, which is combined with tensile stress. In homogeneous concrete, the bowl-shaped broken pit with smooth sidewall and the symmetrically distributed cracks are formed. In heterogeneous concrete, the aggregate will prolong the damage accumulation process and lead to the formation of the abnormal broken pit with irregular and rough contour. Cracks prefer to propagate at interface between aggregate and mortar, and concrete elements at interfaces will suffer the sudden brittle failure caused by stress concentration when the damage accumulates to a certain extent. Overall, the internal energy in concrete first rapidly and then slowly increases, and there is a poorer absorption efficiency of jet kinetic energy for heterogeneous concrete, in which the internal energy of aggregates and mortar is closely related to the specific impact object of water jet. The research results would lay the theoretical foundation for water jet efficiently crushing concrete. [Display omitted] • Water jet impacting concrete with actual aggregates was simulated and verified. • Damage evolution and fragmentation process were investigated. • Energy changes and damage-stress evolutions were compared. • Failure mechanisms of heterogeneous concrete were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical simulations were conducted based on SPH-FEM coupling method to investigate the damage evolutions and failure mechanism of rock impacted by a high-velocity water jet under different stress loading conditions. The influences of stress loading magnitudes and stress differences on the rock fracture characteristics, including parameters of broken pit morphology and crack propagation, were obtained. The development of damage and crack inner rock will be inhibited due to stress loadings. The rock failure mechanism in different breakage zones were revealed by exploring the damage and stress evolutions inner rock. The results show that the rock surface elements near jet impact center suffers from the instantaneous brittle failure, which is scarcely affected by stress loadings. The elements inner rock below jet impact and sidewall elements surrounding broken pit are destroyed due to the cumulative plastic damage, and the stress loadings delay the initial damage time and prolong the cumulative damage time. [Display omitted] • Breakage response of rock impacted by water jet under stress loading was studied. • Effects of stress magnitudes and stress differences on macro fracture characteristics were obtained. • Damage and stress evolution laws of rock elements were analyzed. • Failure mechanisms of rock elements in different breakage zones were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hardened steel parts extensively utilized in manufacturing fields, including automobiles and molds, are difficult to cut and process. Cryogenic cooling is an effective method for reducing tool wear and improving surface quality. However, knowledge about the microstructure and mechanical properties of the hardened steel cutting under a cryogenic cooling condition is severely limited. Herein, low-speed and high-speed cutting experiments with different wear tools were designed to investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of the microstructure, residual stress distribution, and hardness distribution of the superficial surface layer (SSL, including the white and transition layers) and subsurface layer (SL) of hardened steel cutting via cryogenic cooling. Results showed that microstructure changes caused by plastic deformation occurred in both the white and transition layers, whereas no changes occurred in the area below the transition layer. No phase transformation and recrystallization occurred in the white layer, the transition layer, and the area below the transition layer. The intense dislocation slip and strong plastic deformation are the keys to the formation of the white and transition layers. The hardness distribution curve included the surface hardening peak, SL softening valley, and SL hardening peak. The combined effect of fine grain strengthening and dislocation strengthening is the primary mechanism for forming the surface hardening peak. The peak residual tensile stress induces a SL softening valley in the hardness curve, whereas the peak residual compressive stress induces a SL hardening peak in the hardness curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good understanding of the power system resilience is necessary for optimizing the investment strategies and supporting the emergency rescue, but the existing quantitative estimation results based on real outage events are still lacked due to the data limitations. Therefore, this study first establishes a unified framework to measure the power system resilience under different natural disasters, by integrating the electricity performance curve with the dynamic inoperability input-output model. Then, a database of 285 Chinese historical big power outage events caused by natural disasters is established, and the city-level power system resilience values are estimated. Finally, a benefit analysis is conducted for improving the power system resilience. Our major findings are that: (1) Electricity system recoveries quickest from hail (23.05 h), while restores slowest from snowstorm (117.31 h). (2) China's city electricity system is the most resilient to the thunderstorm, while is the least resilient to the earthquake. (3) Enhancing the power system resilience will significantly reduce the requirements for rescue resources, and the saved emergency rescue cost ranges from 0.57 million yuan to 12.08 million yuan with 1% reduction of initial inoperability. • Power system resilience under natural disasters is estimated • A database of disaster induced power outages is established • The sectoral interdependency is considered in the resilience estimation • The cost-benefit analysis is conducted for the resilience enhancement • Statistical analysis of the historical outage events is conducted [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is essential for the pathogenesis of liver injury and liver fibrosis. We previously revealed that miR-146b promotes hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation and proliferation. Nevertheless, the potential mechanisms are still unknown. Herein, HMGB1 increased HSCs proliferation and COL1A1 and α-SMA protein levels. However, the knockdown of miR-146b inhibited HSCs proliferation and COL1A1 and α-SMA protein levels induced via HMGB1 treatment. miR-146b was upregulated by HMGB1 and miR-146b targeted hepatocyte nuclear factor 1A (HNF1A) 3′-untranslated region (3′UTR) to modulate its expression negatively. Further, we confirmed that HMGB1 might elicit miR-146b expression via p65 within HSCs. Knockdown or block of HMGB1 relieved the CCl4-induced liver fibrosis. In fibrotic liver tissues, miR-146b expression was positively correlated with p65 mRNA, but HNF1A mRNA was inversely correlated with p65, and miR-146b expression. In summary, our findings suggest that HMGB1/p65/miR-146b/HNF1A signaling exerts a crucial effect on liver fibrogenesis via the regulation of HSC function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aspect ratio of nanorods (NR) is polydisperse in the real application which is often omitted in the electrical conductivity. In this work, by adopting a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation, the effect of the polydispersity index (PDI) of NRs on the conductive probability of polymer nanocomposites has been investigated in details under the quiescent state and under the shear field which aims to uncover their relationship. By analyzing the conductive network, it is found that the percolation threshold is inversely proportion to the PDI under the quiescent state. On one hand, one long NR can connect more other NRs than one short NR. In addition, more long NRs participate in building the conductive network with the PDI than short NRs, which thus enhances the conductive probability. Compared with in the quiescent state, the percolation threshold is enhanced under the shear field. By characterizing the orientation degree and the connection mode of both long NRs and short NRs, the shear field significantly changes the original conductive network which rationalizes the conductive probability. Interestingly the percolation threshold first increases and then decreases with the shear rate which reaches the maximum value at the intermediate shear rate. At the low shear rate, the initial orientation of NRs induces the breakage of the conductive network perpendicular to the shear direction which improves the percolation threshold. In addition, more short NRs participate in building the conductive network than long NRs with the further increase of the shear rate. Meanwhile more direct contact aggregation structure of NRs appears which induces the recovery of the conductive network. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overcoming the self-corrosion and surface passivation of aluminum anode, and the slow kinetics of cathodic electrochemical reactions are of great significance for the practical application of aluminum–air battery. In this study, we replaced the traditional aqueous electrolyte with AlCl 3 -urea ionic liquid electrolyte, and prepared Co–MnO 2 /C catalysts as cathode catalyst. Structures and electrocatalytic activity of the x % Co–MnO 2 /C (x is the mole percent of Co to Mn, x = 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50) catalysts have been investigated systematically. After Co ions intercalation, the specific surface area of the catalyst increased and average pore diameter decreased. The unique interaction between Co ions and MnO 2 led to an increase in the catalytic activity of the catalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) compared with MnO 2 /C. In particular, 40% Co–MnO 2 /C showed the largest specific surface area (154.25 m2 g−1) and the smallest average pore diameter (6.47 nm). It showed the most positive half-wave potential (0.727 V vs. RHE) and the biggest limiting current density (4.744 mA cm−2) in ORR process, and also exhibited the lowest onset potential (1.593 V) and the biggest limit current density (15.177 mA cm−2) in OER process. Furthermore, aluminum–air battery assembled with 40% Co–MnO 2 /C demonstrated excellent reversible charge and discharge performance, which had an average discharge voltage of 1.5 V and an average charge voltage of 2 V during 30 cycles at a limited battery capacity of 375 mAh g−1. Our results reveal the possibility of designing a rechargeable aluminum-air battery working at ambient conditions based on the Co–MnO 2 /C air cathode catalyst for the first time. Our work opens up a new way to achieve the rechargeability of aluminum-air batteries, and our highly active electrocatalytic materials can be used in a wider range of electrochemical energy applications. Co–MnO 2 /C catalysts were prepared by intercalating Co ions between MnO 2 layers, the unique interaction between Co ions and MnO 2 led to an increase in the catalytic activity of the catalysts in ORR/OER process compared with MnO 2 /C, and the aluminum–air battery assembled with 40% Co–MnO 2 /C catalyst and AlCl 3 -urea ionic liquid electrolyte demonstrated excellent reversible charge and discharge performance. Image 1 • A novel Co–MnO 2 /C catalyst was successfully prepared by intercalating Co ions between MnO 2 layers. • The unique interaction between Co ions and MnO 2 led to an increase in the catalytic activity of the catalyst. • 40% Co–MnO 2 /C as air cathode catalyst exhibited the best ORR/OER catalytic activity. • A button-type rechargeable aluminum-air battery working at ambient conditions was designed for the first time. • As-prepared aluminum-air battery demonstrated excellent reversible charge and discharge performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic power‐conversion systems can harvest energy from sunlight almost perpetually whenever sunrays are accessible. Meanwhile, as indispensable energy storage units used in advanced technologies such as portable electronics, electric vehicles, and renewable/smart grids, batteries are energy‐limited closed systems and require constant recharging. Fusing these two essential technologies into a single device would create a sustainable power source. Here, it is demonstrated that such an integrated device can be realized by fusing a rear‐illuminated single‐junction perovskite solar cell with Li4Ti5O12‐LiCoO2 Li‐ion batteries, whose photocharging is enabled by an electronic converter via voltage matching. This design facilitates a straightforward monolithic stacking of the battery on the solar cell using a common metal substrate, which provides a robust mechanical isolation between the two systems while simultaneously providing an efficient electrical interconnection. This system delivers a high overall photoelectric conversion‐storage efficiency of 7.3%, outperforming previous efforts on stackable integrated architectures with organic–inorganic photovoltaics. Furthermore, converter electronics facilitates system control with battery management and maximum power point tracking, which are inevitable for efficient, safe, and reliable operation of practical loads. This work presents a significant advancement toward integrated photorechargeable energy storage systems as next‐generation power sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral squamous cell carcinoma, one of the most prevalent cancer types in the world, has been confirmed under the influence of a key circadian gene, PER2, whose role has been identified in the development of some other types of cancers. However, the mechanism through which PER2 regulates the progress of OSCC remains largely unknown. In this study, we showed that besides the abnormal expression and subcellular localization of PER2 observed in OSCC tissues and cells as expected, these anomalous changes also existed in the adjacent noncancerous tissues, which was a novel finding in our research. The phase of PER2 rhythmic expression pattern in OSCC cells was later than that in oral keratinocytes in the protein level. In addition, we demonstrated that PER2 played as a resistant factor in the development of OSCC by upregulating TP53 and inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, our results identified that the development of OSCC is closely associated with PER2, the aberrant expression and subcellular localization of which facilitates the malignant progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-performance perovskite solar cell processed in ambient air is a big challenge due to the sensitivity of perovskite films to air. Many defects are generated easily at grain boundaries and in the perovskite films by conventional molecular/ion precursor solution mixing methods (i.e., solution mixing-based method), which restrict its stability in air and photovoltaic performance with most power conversion efficiency less than 15%. In this work, we develop a facile method for air-processed, highly crystalline, quasi-3D perovskite film with large grain size (over 6.6 times bigger than that from control conventional method) and improved ambient air stability by phenylethylammonium (PEA)-doped MA1−xPEAxPbI3 perovskite crystal engineering. Furthermore, benefiting from PEA+ doping and crystal engineering, the trap density decreases 50% compared with control. Consequently, with the optimal concentration of PEA doping, the power conversion efficiency increases from 15.6% for conventional solution mixing-based perovskite solar cells to 17.6% for crystal engineering-based ones with significantly improved moisture stability. The perovskite crystal engineering-based solar cells without any encapsulation retain 75% of the initial performance after 30-day storage in ambient air under a relative humidity of 50 ± 10%, and two times faster degradation rate is observed for control, conventional solution mixing-based perovskite solar cells when compared with crystal engineering-based ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tumor microenvironment (TME), the "soil" on which tumor cells grow, has an important role in regulating the proliferation and metastasis of tumor cells as well as their response to treatment. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), as the most abundant stromal cells of the TME, can not only directly alter the immunosuppressive effect of the TME through their own metabolism, but also influence the aggregation and function of immune cells by secreting a large number of cytokines and chemokines, reducing the body's immune surveillance of tumor cells and making them more prone to immune escape. Our study provides a comprehensive review of fibroblast chemotaxis, malignant transformation, metabolic characteristics, and interactions with immune cells. In addition, the current small molecule drugs targeting CAFs have been summarized, including both natural small molecules and targeted drugs for current clinical therapeutic applications. A complete review of the role of fibroblasts in TME from an immune perspective is presented, which has important implications in improving the efficiency of immunotherapy by targeting fibroblasts. [Display omitted] • Complex regulatory relationships between fibroblasts and immune cells during metabolism, chemotaxis, and malignant transformation. • Fibroblasts regulate immune cell activity in an environmentally dependent manner. • Natural small molecules targeting CAFs and targeted drugs for current clinical therapeutic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas-quenching fabrication of perovskite films demonstrates promising compatibility for commercialization of perovskite photovoltaics. Seeking suitable ligand for the perovskite precursor inks to improve the crystalline quality of gas-quenched methylammonium free perovskite films is critical for realizing up-scalable fabrication of stable perovskite solar cells. In this work, a series of pyrrolidone-based ligands are employed in gas-quenching fabrication of FA 0.9 Cs 0.1 PbI 3 perovskite films. Optical and morphological characterizations indicate 2-pyrrolidone is the most preferred ligand to deliver a neat buried-interface as well as a light-trapping surface at the rear of the device, which maximized the light-harvesting and the photocurrent of the device. The corresponding device achieved a power conversion efficiency of 21.6% without any interfacial passivation, as well as reduced defect density from their electrical characteristics. Moreover, a more stable performance of the device is obtained with 2-pyrrolidone compared to other pyrrolidone-based ligands, demonstrating 2-pyrrolidone as a promising ligand in designing the perovskite inks for methylammonium-free perovskite solar cells. • Various pyrrolidone-based ligands are studied in gas-quenching of FA 0.9 Cs 0.1 PbI 3 films. • Bifacial optical properties of perovskite films are optimized with NP ligand. • smoother buried interface and a rougher surface contribute to enhanced light harvesting. • NP device achieved 21.6% efficiency without any interfacial passivation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are the most critical effector cells of innate immunity and the most abundant tumor-infiltrating immune cells. They play a key role in the clearance of apoptotic bodies, regulation of inflammation, and tissue repair to maintain homeostasis in vivo. With the progression of triple-negative breast cancer（TNBC）, TAMs are "subverted" from tumor-promoting immune cells to tumor-promoting immune suppressor cells, which play a significant role in tumor development and are considered potential targets for cancer therapy. Here, we explored how macrophages, as the most important part of the TNBC ecosystem, are "subverted" to drive cancer evolution and the uniqueness of TAMs in TNBC progression and metastasis. Similarly, we discuss the rationale and available evidence for TAMs as potential targets for TNBC therapy. [Display omitted] • An exploration of how macrophages are gradually being "subverted" to drive cancer evolution. • The uniqueness of TAMs in TNBC progression and metastasis was elucidated. • The rationale and available evidence for TAMs as potential targets for TNBC treatment are detailed. • The co-dependence of TAMs on tumor evolution was explored from the perspective of co-evolution of TAMs and TNBC ecosystem. • It is helpful to optimize the current treatment plan of TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The non‐canonical inflammasome pathway was described which engages caspase‐11 to mediate pyroptosis and the subsequent release of IL‐1α, IL‐1β and IL‐18 in TLR4‐independent way. Cathepsin B is capable of activating caspase‐11 under cell‐free conditions which may regulate non‐canonical NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. In this study, we aimed to further investigate cathepsin B as potential activators of proinflammatory caspases which may be released upon proinflammatory stimuli and regulate non‐canonical NLRP3 inflammasome pathway by modulating the activity of caspase‐11. Methods: Pharmacological and gene‐silencing approaches were used to evaluate the impact of cathepsin B on regulating non‐canonical NLRP3 inflammasome pathway in wild‐type and TLR4–/– Kupffer cells. A sepsis model was also created to investigate the effect of cathepsin B on survival. Meanwhile, cathepsin B activity and the expression level of caspase‐4 were detected in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) which were separated from patients suffered from SIRS or sepsis and healthy volunteers. Results: LPS stimulation caused cathepsin B activity and caspase‐11 expression increase in TLR4–/– mice. Cathepsin B activity inhibition reduced the activation of caspase‐11 and inflammasome and benefited survival in TLR4–/– mice. Upregulation of cathepsin B activity and caspase‐4 activation was found in PBMC of patients with SIRS or sepsis. Conclusion: Our results suggest a critical role for cathepsin B as activators of proinflammatory caspases‐11 and the regulatory effect in LPS‐induced caspases‐11‐dependent necrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most abundant mRNA modification in mammals, is involved in various biological processes. KIAA1429 is an important methyltransferase participating in m6A modification. However, the role of KIAA1429 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still not well understood. Here, we aimed to investigate the function of KIAA1429 and its corresponding regulation mechanisms in HCC. Patients and methods: HCC-related genes were analyzed by clinical and expression data of HCC patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Expression of KIAA1429 was verified by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, and interference efficiency was obtained using small interfering RNA (siRNA). Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were assessed by cell counting kit-8 and transwell assays, and the m6A modification was detected by methylated RNA immunoprecipitation-PCR (MeRIP-PCR). Results: We found a difference in the expression of KIAA1429 between HCC and normal hepatic tissues by analyzing data from the TCGA database. Comparing HCC cell lines (HepG2, Huh-7, HepG2.2.15) with normal hepatic cells (HL-7702), we observed an identically significant difference in KIAA1429 expression. KIAA1429 significantly enhanced proliferation, migration, and invasion of HepG2 cells. Moreover, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional enrichment analysis and correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between KIAA1429 and ID2. In the subsequent MeRIP-PCR assay, downregulation of KIAA1429 inhibited m6A modification of ID2 mRNA. Conclusion: KIAA1429 facilitated migration and invasion of HCC by inhibiting ID2 via upregulating m6A modification of ID2 mRNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Ethnopharmacology relevance Danggui Buxue Tang has been used in China to treat clinical anemia for more than 800 years. However, there is no scientific report on its effect on bone marrow stromal cells. Aim of the study Here, we aimed to explore the effect of Danggui Buxue Tang on bone marrow stromal cell adhesion and migration. Materials and methods Bone marrow stromal cells were used as a model to evaluate the effect of Danggui Buxue Tang on the adhesion and migration of bone marrow stromal cells. RNA-sequencing, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and western blotting were used to detect and confirm the expression of genes related to the focal adhesion pathway before and after drug delivery. Results Danggui Buxue Tang significantly increased the number of bone marrow stromal cells. After 12 days of 16 mg/mL Danggui Buxue Tang treatment, bone marrow stromal cells were significantly increased (by 0.527 ± 0.008 fold; p < 0.001) as compared to the control group (0.180 ± 0.019). The effect was not due to enhanced cell proliferation, as there was no difference in the cell cycle (p > 0.05). The adhesion area of a single cell was doubled by Danggui Buxue Tang treatment (p < 0.001), and the time required for cell adhesion to a Petri dish was shortened. Thus, Danggui Buxue Tang increases the number of bone marrow stromal cells by promoting adhesion. Danggui Buxue Tang also significantly promoted bone marrow stromal cell migration (p < 0.001). Transcript analysis revealed that the focal adhesion and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways were activated. Expression analysis confirmed that the gene and protein expression of focal adhesion-related factors were upregulated. Conclusion Danggui Buxue Tangaffects bone marrow stromal cell adhesion and migration by enhancing the focal adhesion pathway in vitro, and bone marrow stromal cells are a target of DBT-regulated hematopoiesis, and the active ingredients of DBT involved in the effects require further investigation. Graphical abstract DBT can induce gene expression of Intergrin-α. The Intergrin-α can result in the phosphorylation of FAK, and sequential of PAXILLIN. PAXILLIN regulates the activity of VINCULIN. VINCULIN regulates focal adhesions assembly. The assembly of focal adhesions can cause the recruitment of F-ACTIN and direct the cytoskeletal organization. The cytoskeletal eventually lead to BMSCs adhesion and migration. fx1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • USP25 has physical interactions with TRAF3. • USP25 prevents ubiquitination and degradation of TRAF3 in Kuppfer cells. • Stable expression of TRAF3 blunts inflammatory response. • The USP25-TRAF3 pathway is critical for endotoxin tolerance. Abstract The inhibition of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 3 (TRAF3) degradation induces endotoxin tolerance (ET) in macrophages. However, the mechanisms leading to TRAF3 inhibition by ET are largely unknown. Here, we found that ubiquitin-specific peptidase 25 (USP25), a deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB), interacted with TRAF3 and stabilized ET in Kupffer cells (KCs). Lentiviral knockdown of USP25 activated K48-linked ubiquitination of TRAF3 and the cytoplasmic translocation of the Myd88-associated multiprotein complex in tolerized KCs. This outcome led to a subsequent activation of Myd88-dependent c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38-mediated downregulation of inflammatory cytokines. The overexpression of TRAF3 attenuated the proinflammatory effects of USP25 knockdown in tolerized KCs. Thus, our findings reveal a novel mechanism of endotoxin-mediated TRAF3 degradation in KCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract To address climate change effectively, it is essential to quantify CO 2 emissions and the driving factors in high-energy-consuming countries. China is the top CO 2 -emitting country; moreover, there is a lack of comprehensive analytical studies on quantifying the contributions of key drivers to high-energy-consuming countries' CO 2 emissions. Therefore, based on data of China's energy consumption from 2005 to 2016, this paper combines the extended Kaya identity with the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition method to construct an optimized carbon emission decomposition model. Carbon emission and carbon emission intensity are measured and decomposed. Then, the results of the decomposition are discussed, and the effects of various drivers on carbon emissions from energy consumption in China are analysed. Furthermore, we demonstrate real applications of decomposition analysis in policy-making using examples from China and present some ideas to reduce CO 2. The results show that from 2005 to 2016, China's total carbon emissions accounted for nearly one-third of the world's total carbon emissions, and the intensity of carbon emissions in China was generally higher than that of worldwide. The rapid development of economy and acceleration of urbanization are not conducive to reduction of carbon emissions. Reducing the intensity of energy consumption, adjusting the internal structure of the industry and perfecting the economic policy system should be important means used to promote the development of China's low-carbon economy in the future. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Economic output increase is the largest driving factor promoting the CO 2 emissions of China. • In China, CO 2 missions from energy consumption in industrial sector accounted for the greatest proportion. • Phasing out excess capacity in China reduced emissions in the industry sector. • Energy intensity reduction is a key for high-energy-consuming countries to reduce CO 2 emissions. • Promoting the transformation of the industrial structure is an efficient way to reduce CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We present a layered-carbon/PbSO 4 composite additive for the negative active material (NAM) of lead-acid batteries to improve their high rate charge/discharge performance. The layered-carbon/PbSO 4 composite, consisting of graphene-like two-dimensional carbon decorated with fine PbSO 4 particles, is prepared by a simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and a subsequent ion exchange process. In the synthesis process, potassium carbonate functions as template to promote the generation of layered carbon sheets in CVD process and as template in ion exchange process to in situ produce PbSO 4 nanoparticles. The composite can effectively enhance the electronic conductivity and the ionic conductivity of NAM, and resist the tendency to sulfation during high-rate partial-state-of-charge (HRPSoC) operation. Moreover, the PbSO 4 deposits on the layered-carbon can not only make the carbonaceous additive be uniformly mixed with the NAM, but also inhibit the hydrogen evolution of the layered-carbon. As a result, the specific capacity, rate performance, and HRPSoC cycling performance of the NAM are significantly enhanced. The NAM with 2 wt% composite additive (the content of layered-carbon in NAM is 0.1 wt%) delivers a high initial specific discharge capacity of 160 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C rate, and 61 mAh g−1 at a high rate of 10 C rate, which is 30% higher than that of the Ref one. The cell with composite additives has achieved a HRPSoC cycle life of 160,000 cycles, which is 3 times longer than the Ref cell. Graphical abstract Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ni-rich layered oxide, one of the most promising cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with high energy density, is suffering from the intrinsic hypersensitivity to moisture and acid gas (CO 2 , SO 2 , etc.) in the environment, leading to the generation and growth of residual lithium compounds (e.g. Li 2 CO 3), accompanied by surficial phase transition, high alkalinity and electrochemical deterioration. Eliminating these negative effects would require considerable energy and manpower, which hinders the promotion of Ni-rich cathode materials. Herein, we introduced crosslinked poly-methylhydrosiloxane (PMHS) and hydroxy‑terminated poly-dimethylsiloxane (denoted as PDMS-OH) hydrophobic film to in situ coat single-crystal LiNi 0.8 Co 0.1 Mn 0.1 O 2 (NCM811), isolating its Ni-rich electrode surface from moisture and acid gas to prevent side reactions. Specifically, the desired crosslinking layer, which is optimized by increasing the relative content of PMHS and decreasing the absolute content of PDMS-OH, endows the coated NCM811 with an appreciable improvement in hydrophobicity and storage performances and effectively suppresses the formation and growth of residual lithium compounds on the surface of NCM811 particles in a simulated damp-heat storage environment. Simultaneously, the crosslinked coating diminished the extraction of Li and Ni during exposure and maintained the high electrochemical performance of NCM811. This proposed strategy to crosslink polysiloxane film on the surface of Ni-rich cathode materials greatly alleviates the problem of storage failure, which will promote the practical popularization of Ni-rich cathode materials in LIBs. In situ crosslinked polysiloxanes coating layer endows surface of Ni-rich oxide cathode material with appreciable and durable hydrophobicity, successfully improving the ability of Ni-rich oxide cathode to resist severe environments and preventing electrochemical deterioration from side reactions induced by H 2 O or other acid gasses. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effects of immiscible elements in Fe-P based amorphous alloys are investigated. • Fine and uniform α-Fe grains are obtained in immiscible elements alloyed ribbons. • The ribbons show wide annealing temperature to yield low h c even at T x1 +20 K. • A three-stage-growth mechanism of α-Fe grains is proposed. Microalloying is an efficient strategy to promote nano-crystallization of Fe-based amorphous alloys to improve soft magnetic properties. Here, the Fe-P-C-B amorphous alloy is selected as a typical system to investigate the effect of microalloying of immiscible elements (In and Sn) and miscible elements (Al, Ga and Ge) in Fe on crystallization behavior and soft magnetic properties of Fe-based amorphous alloys. Microalloying of immiscible elements leads to slightly increased energy barrier for α-Fe nuclei growth as evaluated by Kissinger equation, yielding fine and uniform α-Fe nanograins and low coercivity after annealing. In contrast, miscible elements cause high growth energy barrier, resulting in few huge α-Fe grains and large coercivity. This work suggests a strategy of obtaining amorphous-nanocrystalline alloys with good magnetic properties by microalloying of immiscible elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of next-generation sequencing technology, several studies have shown that ncRNAs can act as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) and are involved in various biological processes, such as proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, and migration of breast cancer (BC) cells, and plays an important role in BC progression as a molecular target for its diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and differentiation of subtypes and age groups of BC patients. Based on the description of ceRNA-related biological functions, this study screened and sorted the sequencing analysis and experimental verification conclusions of BC-related ceRNAs and found that the ncRNAs mediated ceRNA networks can promote the development of BC by promoting the expression of genes related to BC proliferation, drug resistance, and apoptosis, inducing the production of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to promote metastasis and activating cancer-related signaling pathways. [Display omitted] • ncRNA-mediated ceRNA networks is involved in various biological processes of breast cancer. • ncRNA-mediated ceRNA networks play a crucial role in diagnosis of breast cancer. • ncRNA-mediated ceRNA networks may facilitate the development of new anti-tumor drugs and clinical interventions of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li 5 La 3 Nb 2 O 12 (LLNO) is a typical garnet-like solid electrolyte with solitary cubic structure. However, its ionic conductivity is relatively low due to the low relative density when prepared by cold isostatic pressing method, which usually involves high-pressure machines, poor productivity, tedious pressing operations, and low density. In this paper, self-consolidation method is developed to sinter dense LLNO electrolyte. Although not any pressing operations are employed in the entire process, the relative density of LLNO is promoted up to 95%, which is much higher than the reported values of 45–80%. SEM images reveal that the sample is built by huge particles in size of 80 μm indicating that there are few boundaries in the sample. Moreover, a rich content of Li-Al-O compounds is detected out in the boundary areas, which may act as sintering aids for the sample to consolidate automatically. According to the highest density, the bulk ionic conductivity of LLNO sample reaches up to 1.61 × 10 −4  S cm −1 at 30 °C, which is in the same order of magnitude as the value of cubic Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 electrolyte. This work verifies the self-consolidation mechanism for the sintering of ceramic electrolytes and could significantly facilitate the development of LLNO membrane technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]