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The mTOR inhibitor everolimus has been approved as a sequential or second‐line therapy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, the development of drug resistance limits its clinical applications. This study aims to address the challenge of everolimus resistance and provide new insights into the treatment of advanced RCC. Here, the cytotoxicity of the DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) inhibitor SGI‐1027 in inducing cell vacuolation and methuosis is discovered and demonstrated for the first time. Additionally, SGI‐1027 exerts synergistic effects with everolimus, as their combination suppresses the growth, migration, and invasion of renal cancer cells. Mechanistically, apoptosis and GSDME‐dependent pyroptosis triggered by lysosomal membrane permeability (LMP) are observed. The upregulation of GSDME expression and increased lysosomal activity in renal cancer cells provide a therapeutic window for the combination of these two drugs to treat renal cancer. The combination treatment exhibits effective anti‐tumor activity and is well tolerated in a subcutaneous tumor model. Overall, this study validates and reveals the specific cytotoxicity property of SGI‐1027 and its potent synergistic effect with everolimus, offering new insights into advanced RCC therapy and everolimus‐resistance overcoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acridine frameworks stand as pivotal architectural elements in pharmaceuticals and photocatalytic applications, owing to their chemical adaptability, biological activity, and unique excited‐state dynamics. Conventional synthetic routes often entail specialized starting materials, anaerobic or moisture‐free conditions, and elaborate multi‐stage manipulations for incorporating diverse functionalities. Herein, we present a convergent approach integrating photo‐excitation of readily available ortho‐alkyl nitroarenes with copper‐promoted cascade annulation. This innovative system enables an aerobic, one‐pot reaction of o‐alkyl nitroarenes with arylboronic acids, thereby streamlining the modular construction of a wide array of acridine derivatives with various functional groups. This encompasses symmetrical, unsymmetrical and polysubstituted varieties, some of which are otherwise exceptionally difficult to synthesize. Furthermore, it significantly improves the production of structurally varied acridinium salts, featuring enhanced photophysical properties, high excited state potentials (E*red=2.08–3.15 V), and exhibiting superior performance in intricate photoredox transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acridine frameworks stand as pivotal architectural elements in pharmaceuticals and photocatalytic applications, owing to their chemical adaptability, biological activity, and unique excited‐state dynamics. Conventional synthetic routes often entail specialized starting materials, anaerobic or moisture‐free conditions, and elaborate multi‐stage manipulations for incorporating diverse functionalities. Herein, we present a convergent approach integrating photo‐excitation of readily available ortho‐alkyl nitroarenes with copper‐promoted cascade annulation. This innovative system enables an aerobic, one‐pot reaction of o‐alkyl nitroarenes with arylboronic acids, thereby streamlining the modular construction of a wide array of acridine derivatives with various functional groups. This encompasses symmetrical, unsymmetrical and polysubstituted varieties, some of which are otherwise exceptionally difficult to synthesize. Furthermore, it significantly improves the production of structurally varied acridinium salts, featuring enhanced photophysical properties, high excited state potentials (E*red=2.08–3.15 V), and exhibiting superior performance in intricate photoredox transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MXenes have shown great potential as an emerging two-dimensional (2D) material for micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) due to their high conductivity, rich surface chemistry, and high capacity. However, MXene sheets inherently tend to lay flat on the substrate during film formation to assemble into compact stacked structures, which hinders ion accessibility and prolongs ion transport paths, leading to highly dependent electrochemical properties on the thickness of the film. Here, we demonstrate a vertically aligned Ti3C2Tx MXene based micro-supercapacitor with an excellent electrochemical performance by a liquid nitrogen-assisted freeze-drying method. The vertical arrangement of the 2D MXene sheets allows for directional ion transport, enabling the vertical-MXene based MSCs to exhibit thickness-independent electrochemical properties even in thick films. In addition, the MSCs displayed a high areal capacitance of 87 mF cm−2 at 10 mV s−1 along with an excellent stability of ∼87.4% after 10 000 charge–discharge cycles. Furthermore, the vertical-MXene approach proposed here is scalable and can be extended to other systems involving directional transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate the impact of low-frequency noise from the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) current sensor and ambient stray magnetic fields on weak current detection accuracy, we propose a high-resolution modulation-demodulation test method. This method modulates and demodulates the measurement signal, shifting low-frequency noise to the high-frequency band for effective filtering, thereby isolating the target signal from the noise. In this study, we developed a Simulink model for the TMR current sensor modulation-demodulation test method. Practical time-domain and frequency-domain tests of the developed high-resolution modulation-demodulation method revealed that the TMR current sensor exhibits a nonlinearity as low as 0.045%, an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 77 dB, and a heightened resolution of 100 nA. The findings indicate that this modulation-demodulation test method effectively reduces the impact of low-frequency noise on TMR current sensors and can be extended to other types of resistive devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, asymmetric photochemical synthesis has garnered significant attention for its sustainability and unique ability to generate enantio‐enriched molecules through distinct reaction pathways. Photochemical asymmetric three‐component reactions have demonstrated significant potential for the rapid construction of chiral compounds with molecular diversity and complexity. However, noteworthy challenges persist, including the participation of high‐energy intermediates such as radical species, difficulties in precise control of stereoselectivity, and the presence of competing background and side reactions. Recent breakthroughs have led to the development of sophisticated strategies in this field. This review explores the intricate mechanisms, synthetic applications, and limitations of these methods. We anticipate that it will contribute towards advancing asymmetric catalysis, photochemical synthesis, and green chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between recurrence-free survival (RFS) and perirenal fat thickness (PFT) in a cohort of Chinese population with unilateral nephrolithiasis. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 81 patients with unilateral nephrolithiasis in our center from January 2019 to June 2019. PFT measured on computed tomography (CT) scans was evaluated. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to assess significant differences in RSF between high-PFT and low-PFT groups within sexes. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate the potential risk factors for renal stone recurrence. High PFT was significantly associated with high BMI and hyperlipidemia (p =.003 and.047, respectively). The PFT of stone-bearing kidney was significantly greater than PFT of non-stone-bearing kidney (0.77 ± 0.60 cm vs. 0.67 ± 0.58 cm, p =.002). During the follow-up periods (median 31 months), 21 (25.9%) patients experienced ipsilateral renal stone recurrence. In addition, Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that patients with low PFT had a significant better RFS than those with high PFT (p =.012). In the univariable Cox analyses, male sex and high PFT were significantly associated with a poor RFS (p =.042 and.018, respectively). Moreover, both male sex and high PFT retained significance in the multivariable analyses (p =.045 and.020, respectively). Our findings suggested that PFT is a noninvasive and feasible parameter, which may help in the risk stratification of renal stone recurrence in the follow-up periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has attracted attention for flexible electronics in the past decade. MXene is gradually applied in TENGs for performance enhancement, but the surface triboelectrification mechanism still needs to be further investigated experimentally. Herein, an experimental approach of regulating MXene fluorine groups by alkalization as a contrast to validate the mechanism is proposed. The MXene film and alkalized MXene film are studied to exploit the surface state. Compared with alkalized MXene‐based TENGs, MXene‐based TENG obtains enhancement in open‐circuit voltage, short‐circuit current, and output power by 4.1 times, 4.6 times, and even 136.6 times, respectively. The excellent performance enables flexible sensing and energy harvesting. Notably, this work reveals MXene surface triboelectrification mechanism and might motivate a new approach for TENG performance enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Textile pattern design is a time‐consuming and tedious work. Mihui, our ongoing developing system, employs deep‐learning techniques to automatically generate huge volumes of patterns with the help of human guidance. However, trained as a black box, Mihui cannot provide customized service for each individual designer who shows unique aesthetics preferences. In this article, we introduce the recommendation module of Mihui. The module forwards all generated pattern images to a deep encoding network, where images are mapped into 128‐dimension vectors. For each user of Mihui, we create a profile by his/her purchased or downloaded history. A novel encoder network is proposed to learn a personal taste vector for each user, based on which, we recommend new patterns to him/her. Our records in Mihui show that the recommendation module effectively improve users' experience on Mihui. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cystinuria and xanthinuria are both rare genetic diseases involving urinary calculi. However, cases combining these two disorders have not yet been reported. Case Presentation: In this study, we report a case of cystinuria with xanthine stones and hyperuricemia. The 23-year-old male patient was diagnosed with kidney and ureteral stones, solitary functioning kidney and hyperuricemia after admission to the hospital. The stones were removed by surgery and found to be composed of xanthine. Conclusion: Genetic testing by next-generation sequencing technology showed that the patient carried the homozygous nonsense mutation c.1113 C> A (p.Tyr371*) in the SLC3A1 gene, which was judged to be a functionally pathogenic variant. Sanger sequencing revealed that the patient's parents carried this heterozygous mutation, which is a pathogenic variant that can cause cystinuria. The 24-h urine metabolism analysis showed that the cystine content was 644 mg (<320 mg/24 h), indicating that the patient had cystinuria, consistent with the genetic test results. This case shows that cystinuria and xanthine stones can occur simultaneously, and provides evidence of a possible connection between the two conditions. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate the potential value of genetic testing using next-generation sequencing to effectively assist in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of patients with urinary calculi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structured piezoresistive membranes are compelling building blocks for wearable bioelectronics. However, the poor structural compressibility of conventional microstructures leads to rapid saturation of detection range and low sensitivity of piezoresistive devices, limiting their commercial applications. Herein, a bioinspired MXene‐based piezoresistive device is reported, which can effectively boost the sensitivity while broadening the response range by architecting intermittent villus‐like microstructures. Benefitting from the two‐stage amplification effect of this intermittent architecture, the developed MXene‐based piezoresistive bioelectronics exhibit a high sensitivity of 461 kPa−1 and a broad pressure detection range of up to 311 kPa, which are about 20 and 5 times higher than that of the homogeneous microstructures, respectively. Cooperating with the deep‐learning algorithm, the designed bioelectronics can effectively capture complex human movements and precisely identify human motion with a high recognition accuracy of 99%. Evidently, this intermittent architecture of biomimetic strategy may pave a promising avenue to overcome the limitation of rapid saturation and low sensitivity in piezoresistive bioelectronics, and provide a general way to promote its large‐scale applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time and accurate detection of ships plays a vital role in ensuring navigation safety and ship supervision. Aiming at the problems of large parameters, large computation quantity, poor real-time performance, and high requirements for memory and computing power of the current ship detection model, this paper proposes a ship target detection algorithm MC-YOLOv5s based on YOLOv5s. First, the MobileNetV3-Small lightweight network is used to replace the original feature extraction backbone network of YOLOv5s to improve the detection speed of the algorithm. And then, a more efficient CNeB is designed based on the ConvNeXt-Block module of the ConvNeXt network to replace the original feature fusion module of YOLOv5s, which improves the spatial interaction ability of feature information and further reduces the complexity of the model. The experimental results obtained from the training and verification of the MC-YOLOv5s algorithm show that, compared with the original YOLOv5s algorithm, MC-YOLOv5s reduces the number of parameters by 6.98 MB and increases the mAP by about 3.4%. Even compared with other lightweight detection models, the improved model proposed in this paper still has better detection performance. The MC-YOLOv5s has been verified in the ship visual inspection and has great application potential. The code and models are publicly available at https://github.com/sakura994479727/datas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to synthesize evidence on risk factors associated with newborn 31-day unplanned hospital readmissions (UHRs). A systematic review was conducted searching CINAHL, EMBASE (Ovid), and MEDLINE from January 1st 2000 to 30th June 2021. Studies examining unplanned readmissions of newborns within 31 days of discharge following the initial hospitalization at the time of their birth were included. Characteristics of the included studies examined variables and statistically significant risk factors were extracted from the inclusion studies. Extracted risk factors could not be pooled statistically due to the heterogeneity of the included studies. Data were synthesized using content analysis and presented in narrative and tabular form. Twenty-eight studies met the eligibility criteria, and 17 significant risk factors were extracted from the included studies. The most frequently cited risk factors associated with newborn readmissions were gestational age, postnatal length of stay, neonatal comorbidity, and feeding methods. The most frequently cited maternal-related risk factors which contributed to newborn readmissions were parity, race/ethnicity, and complications in pregnancy and/or perinatal period. Conclusion: This systematic review identified a complex and diverse range of risk factors associated with 31-day UHR in newborn. Six of the 17 extracted risk factors were consistently cited by studies. Four factors were maternal (primiparous, mother being Asian, vaginal delivery, maternal complications), and two factors were neonatal (male infant and neonatal comorbidities). Implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for inpatient care and individualized hospital-to-home transition plans, including transition checklists and discharge readiness assessments, are recommended to reduce newborn UHRs. What is Known: • Attempts have been made to identify risk factors associated with newborn UHRs; however, the results are inconsistent. What is New: • Six consistently cited risk factors related to newborn 31-day UHRs. Four maternal factors (primiparous, mother being Asian, vaginal delivery, maternal complications) and 2 neonatal factors (male infant and neonatal comorbidities). • The importance of discharge readiness assessment, including newborn clinical fitness for discharge and parental readiness for discharge. Future research is warranted to establish standardised maternal and newborn-related variables which healthcare providers can utilize to identify newborns at greater risk of UHRs and enable comparison of research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and preparation of hydrophobic, wear-resistant, and thermally conductive multifunctional composites is an important direction of scientific research and application. In this study, A-CF/EP/FEP composites were prepared by incorporating APDMS-modified carbon felt (A-CF) into an epoxy resin (EP) and fluorinated ethylene propylene resin (FEP) mixed resin. The low surface energy of FEP, good adhesion of EP, and the supporting of carbon felt framework endow the A-CF/EP/FEP composites with hydrophobicity, wear resistance, and thermal conductivity at the same time. Firstly, the water contact angle (WCA) of A-CF/EP/FEP composites with 20 wt% FEP reaches 109.9 ± 2.6°, and the WCAs of all composites with different FEP contents (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt%) is greater than 90°, indicating the composites have a hydrophobic surface. Secondly, the A-CF/EP/FEP composites have high wear resistance and maintain long-term hydrophobicity after tribological tests, because the residual debris and nanoparticles generated by external loading adhere to the friction interface, regenerating the microstructure of the hydrophobic surface. Finally, the A-CF/EP/FEP composites have high thermal conductivity up to 0.38 W/(m·K), which is 1.81 and 2.0 times that of pure EP and EP/FEP composites, respectively. This is because a relatively complete heat conduction network is formed after the addition of A-CF to the composites. The synergy among epoxy resin, FEP, and the A-CF filler plays a particularly important role in constructing hydrophobic surfaces and improving wear resistance and thermal conductivity. The EP enhances adhesion, the FEP supplies low surface energy, and the A-CF framework improves the wear resistance of A-CF/EP/FEP composites. This work provides ideas for the design and preparation of multifunctional composites and will underlie the application of high-performance epoxy resin and its composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual retrieval has been a significant technology in the computer vision task. Visual feature descriptors are the key to the visual retrieval. The famous local feature descriptor is called the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), which can keep invariant mapping for the scale, rotate and simulate images. To utilize effectively the SIFT feature descriptor for visual matching on different hardware platforms, this paper proposes an accelerated SIFT algorithm based on the SIFT feature computing principle of the general multi-core platform. First, our multi-core task allocation method introduces the WFM theory into task assignment for each core to improve the core computing resource utilization for high-efficient parallel computing. Then, to improve the efficiency of picture matching, we introduce global geometric constraints condition to optimal picture matching for the multi-core parallelization approach. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can save on average 87.31% on the Intel X86 platform, compared to the single-core time. Also, our approach can save on average 33.79% on the Raspberry Pi platform, compared to the single-core time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide usage of 3D mesh models greatly increases the importance of an effective matching algorithm for them. In this paper, we propose a novel 3D model matching algorithm. Firstly, vertices on the input 3D mesh models are mapped to 1D space by employing Isomap. A pose-invariant feature set is then constructed from the vertices in 1D space. Finally, the similarity between any two 3D models can be computed by comparing their feature sets. Experimental results show that the algorithm is not only invariant to translation, rotation, scaling, but also invariant to different poses of 3D models. Additionally, the algorithm is robust to noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In the present study, the influences of different origins and harvest periods on the characterisation, structure and antioxidant activity of Porphyra haitanensis polysaccharides (PHPs) were investigated. PHPR03 obtained from the third harvest period (late December) in Raoping possessed the highest content of sulphate group (14.70%), the lowest viscosity (434.34 mL·g−1) and exhibited better antioxidant activity. FTIR spectrum confirmed that PHPs obtained in different origins and harvest periods had similar functional groups (O—H, C—H and C—O group). Thermal gravimetric analysis suggested that PHPR03 has good thermal stability until 182 °C. PHPR03 microstructure was detected using scanning electron microscopy, and it was mainly irregular flocs. Atomic force microscope data showed that its diameter and height ranged from 1.32 to 1.99 μm and 14.16 to 34.92 nm, respectively. X‐ray diffraction and Congo red experiments indicated that PHPR03 belongs to amorphous material with weak rigidity and exists in the form of random coils in an aqueous solution. PHPR03 resulted in a decrease of thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances value of ground pork. This study provides the theoretical basis for rational utilisation and further applications in the food industry of PHPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the heat dissipation efficiency of electronic products is the key to the design of many modern electronic and mechanical systems. Herein, we combined the 3D network fabricating with the way of micron-nano reinforcement to prepare high thermal conductivity and excellent thermal stability composites. Epoxy resin was used as the matrix, while the silicon carbide foam (f-SiC) as skeleton and the BN/nano-SiC as thermally conductive fillers. The thermal conductivity of the EP/f-SiC/BN/nano-SiC composite reaches 3.5 W·m− 1·K− 1, which is about 16.6 times higher than that of pure epoxy resin. The characterization results of TC and infrared thermography images indicate that the EP/f-SiC/BN/nano-SiC composite possess superior heat transport performance. Meantime, the EP/f-SiC/BN/nano-SiC composite have excellent thermal stability, the THRI of EP/f-SiC/BN/nano-SiC reaches 195.8℃, which is 21.3℃ higher than that of pure EP. This work would provide a new strategy for improving the TC of polymers by using other 3D skeletons and micron-nano fillers, and is conducive to the development of high thermal conductivity and excellent thermal stability materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suppressing the naturally ultrafast nucleation and growth rates of perovskite nanocrystals is a big challenge to develop high‐performance deeply blue perovskite light‐emitting diodes. Here, a cryogenic temperature thermodynamically suppressed synthetic strategy using liquid nitrogen is designed to obtain ultrasmall CsPbBr3 quantum dots (QDs; ≈3 nm). Due to its strong confinement effect, the as‐obtained CsPbBr3 QDs present strong deeply blue emission (≈460 nm) with a high quantum yield value of up to 98%, a large exciton binding energy of 301.6 meV, and excellent spectra stability for 60 d under atmosphere environment. This unprecedented regime indicates that cryogenic temperature can eliminate pre‐existing trap states and suppress the nonradiative process. Besides, the resultant perovskite light‐emitting diodes based on ultrasmall CsPbBr3 QDs show deeply blue emission (≈ 460 nm) with a Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) color coordinate of (0.145, 0.054), better than the blue National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard. Evidently, this cryogenic temperature synthetic strategy will pave the way for the large‐scale synthesis of the strongly confined ultrasmall quantum dots systems and open the door for the development of next generation solid‐state lighting and displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although introducing liquid crystal phase into epoxy resin for liquid crystal epoxy fabrication is one of the most conventional methods for improving the intrinsic thermal conductivity of epoxy resin, the complex molecular structure design and sophisticated synthesis process seriously limit its rapid expansion and further industrial application. Herein, the rigid groups of 4'4‐dihydroxybiphenyl were introduced into the main chain of epoxy resin by ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) to change the molecular structure of epoxy resin. The introduction of biphenyl groups enhances the "orderliness" of molecular structure and forms hydrogen bonds between molecules, which facilitates the transmission of phonons within the molecule. The intrinsic thermal conductivity of modified epoxy resin (MEP) reaches 0.29 W m−1 K−1. After adding the expanded graphite (EG) into the MEP matrix, the thermal conductivity of MEP/EG reaches 2.59 W m−1 K−1, which is 1133 % higher than that of EP. In addition, the MEP also has certain advantages in harsh environment, the |Z|0.01 Hz of MEP coating is higher than 1.4 times the value of EP coating after immersing in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for ten days, which identified the excellent anticorrosion of MEP. The MEP prepared by this method can find great applications as heat conduction materials in harsh environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal conductivity of polymers gains much attention in many fields, and the formation of a heat conduction network is very important for polymer coatings. Carbon nanofiller is one type of excellent candidate fillers for improving thermal conductivity, but the poor incorporation between the filler and the polymer restricts coating performances. In this study, the heat transfer oil (HTO) was used as a medium to communicate the carbon nanofiller with the polymer (poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP)) and to improve the thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance of PVDF composite coatings. The micronanostructure of superhydrophobic PVDF/FEP/SiO2 (modified PVDF or m-PVDF) composite coatings was used as a storage space for the HTO, so that various carbon nanofiller including carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, carbon black, and carbon nanofibers can take effect in improving thermal conductivity. Among the m-PVDF/carbon nanofiller composite coatings, the HTO/m-PVDF/CNTs coating gained the highest thermal conductivity of 0.53 W·m−1·K−1 after HTO modification, which was 3.3 times that of the m-PVDF/CNTs coating and was attributed to the connectivity of HTO. The anticorrosion of HTO/m-PVDF/CNTs was increased by 3 orders of magnitude than that of m-PVDF/CNTs owing to the synergistic effect between the HTO and CNTs in blocking the invasion of corrosive species. This research provides a unique way to design and fabricate high-thermal-conductivity composite coatings with high anticorrosion by the synergism between carbon nanofiller and HTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MapReduce has been widely recognized as an efficient tool for large-scale data analysis. It achieves high performance by exploiting parallelism among processing nodes while providing a simple interface for upper-layer applications. However, there are many existing applications maintaining their data in a distributed database. It is costly to export those data into the storage system of MapReduce (normally a distributed file system). Moreover, compared to MapReduce, database is equipped with many state-of-the-art techniques, such as index and optimizer. Therefore, a hybrid Database-MapReduce system inheriting the advantages of both systems is preferred. In this paper, we propose AQUA+, a query optimizer tailored for the hybrid system. AQUA+ is an extension work of our previous system AQUA. It generates a plan that adaptively assigns the operators to the database engine and MapReduce engine to optimize the performance. The intuition is to exploit the index, co-partition and other features provided by the database as much as possible and reduce the data volume processed by the MapReduce. Due to the complexity of query optimization, in AQUA+, we introduce a novel tuning technique, learning to optimize. In particular, two neural networks are trained to predict cost and refine query plan, respectively. We train them based on our log of real query processing. Experiments carried out on our in-house cluster confirm the effectiveness of our query optimizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable and environmentally friendly biomass‐based carbon electrode materials naturally possess fast ion transport, high adsorption, and excellent chemical stability for high‐performance energy‐storage devices. However, intelligently building the effectively biomass‐transferred carbon materials for the requirement of high energy density is still a big challenge to date. Here, a hierarchically divacancy defect building platform is reported for effectively biomass‐transferred and highly interconnected 3D dual‐activated porous carbon fibers (DACFs) based on the internal−external dual‐activation function of the pre‐embedded KOH and CO2 molecular. This uniquely interconnected frameworks not only fully provide the abundant active sites for ion interaction, but also efficiently guarantee the substantial accommodation for ion storage. Based on this, the as‐prepared DACFs‐based supercapacitors deliver a high energy density of 61.3 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 875 W kg−1 in the EMIMBF4 ionic liquid. This work not only provides a simple and efficient technique to enhance the energy density of carbon materials, but also probably promotes its additional application in environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional micro‐force sensing in one device is an urgent need for the higher integration of the smaller flexible electronic device toward wearable health‐monitoring equipment, intelligent robotics, and efficient human–machine interface. Herein, a novel microchannel‐confined MXene‐based flexible piezoresistive sensor is demonstrated to simultaneously achieve multi‐types micro‐force sensing of pressure, sound, and acceleration. Benefiting from the synergistically confined effect of the fingerprint‐microstructured channel and the accordion‐microstructured MXene materials, the as‐designed sensor remarkably endows a low detection limit of 9 Pa, a high sensitivity of 99.5 kPa−1, and a fast response time of 4 ms, as well as non‐attenuating durability over 10 000 cycles. Moreover, the fabricated sensor is multifunctionally capable of sensing sounds, micromotion, and acceleration in one device. Evidently, such a multifunctional sensing characteristic can highlight the bright prospect of the microchannel‐confined MXene‐based micro‐force sensor for the higher integration of flexible electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To ascertain whether en bloc resection could reduce the risk of seeding cancer cells into the circulation during the resection of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Methods: Patients with primary NMIBC were enrolled in this prospective study from October 2017 to May 2018. Patients were allocated to receive conventional transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) or retrograde en bloc resection technique of the bladder tumor (RERBT). Blood samples (1 ml) for circulating tumor cell (CTC) enumeration were drawn from the peripheral vein prior to resection (PV1), immediately after resection of the tumor base (PV2), and at 12 h after resection (PV3). Intra-group comparisons of the changes in the number of CTCs identified among the PV1, PV2, and PV3 blood samples were performed in each group. Results: A total of 21 patients (12 in the RERBT group and 9 in the TURB group) were recruited. For patients receiving TURB, the level of CTCs identified in PV3 was significantly higher than that in PV1 (p = 0.047). However, there was no significant difference in CTC counts before and after resection in the RERBT group. Conclusion: RERBT did not increase the number of tumor cells in the bloodstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from low energy density, the rapid self-discharge phenomenon also severely limits the application of supercapacitors in periodic energy storage and power supply. Herein, we proposed a novel ‘playing mud pies’ strategy to prepare the high-performance bentonite clay@ionic liquid based solid-state electrolyte (BISE), which can efficiently solve the self-discharge issue of supercapacitors. The BISE-based supercapacitors display an extremely low self-discharge behavior with an open circuit potential drop of only 28.9% within 60 h, much better than that of conventional supercapacitors (40.1%@12 h). More importantly, even at a high temperature of 75 °C, the supercapacitors can still present a low voltage decline of 40% within 12 h and can stably deliver a high voltage of ＞1.5 V, which guarantees high-temperature energy conversion and storage application. We further proved that the low self-discharge mechanism originates from the confinement effect of silicon–oxygen bonds of the clay, which suppress the shuttle effect of Fe ions and promote selective penetration of electrolyte anions. Consequently, the remarkable decrease of both the ohmic leakage and diffusion-controlled faradaic process could sharply weaken the self-discharge behavior. Based on the BISE, we also developed soft-packaged supercapacitors with a low self-discharge value of 23.6%@20 h. Evidently, our ‘playing mud pies’ method can open a route to exploit extremely low self-discharge supercapacitors at widely ranging temperatures for deep insight into the self-discharge mechanism and further for efficient energy storage of supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: A combined use of solid plasticizer [poly(ethylene glycol), PEG] with a nominal Mw of 2000 g/mol and liquid plasticizer (epoxidized soybean oil, ESO) for plasticizing poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is proposed in this study. This plasticization method brought an obvious improvement in the melting flowability of the modified PLA, which has been verified by a lower balance torque during blending and a four times increase in the melt flow index compared to neat PLA. Meanwhile, the brittleness of this glassy polymer was also improved significantly; all composites with different contents of combined plasticizers displayed an obvious yield stage and toughness fracture surfaces. The mechanisms of the plasticizing effects were investigated by polarizing optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The PLA/ESO/PEG blends formed a complex reinforcement structure. ESO existed as tiny droplets and uniformly dispersed in the PLA spherulites, and strip‐shaped PEG accumulated along the boundaries of interspherulites. The combined use of these two plasticizers, a liquid one and a solid one, had an excellent effect on plasticizing PLA, not only on melt flowability but also on mechanical properties. Thus, the application areas for PLA could be further expanded, such as melt blowing and melt extrusion. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46669. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Approaching state‐of‐the‐art areal and volumetric capacitances while maintaining high‐power characteristic is a big challenge that promotes practical application of flexible solid‐state micro‐supercapacitors (MSCs), which have recently attracted great attention with the rapid development of flexible microelectronics. Herein, it is reported that freestanding extrahigh conductive Ti3C2Tx (MXene) films with excellent flexibility and effectively controlled thickness ranging from 1–21 µm performed as excellently scalable and flexible solid‐state MSCs owing to their ultrahigh underlying electrical conductivity (up to 1.25 × 105 S m−1) and self‐functionalized surfaces (O, OH, and F terminations). Amazingly, freestanding conductive Ti3C2Tx based flexible solid‐state MSCs with interdigital electrodes and polyvinyl alcohol/sulfuric acid (PVA/H2SO4) gel electrolyte display outstanding areal capacitances of 340 mF cm−2 at 0.25 mA cm−2 based on the two working electrodes. Moreover, the maximum corresponding volumetric capacitance and energy density of flexible solid‐state MSCs reach up to 183 F cm−3 and 12.4 mWh cm−3, which is on the topmost level among all the unconventional supercapacitors to date. Compared with materials currently used in MSCs, this freestanding conductive Ti3C2Tx shows potential and scalability in increasing overall micro‐supercapacitor performance, which evidently sheds light on promising application of freestanding conductive MXenes for next‐generation flexible, portable, and integrated MSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Albumin-globulin ratio (AGR) has been reported as an independent risk factor for survival outcomes of a variety of malignancies. We aimed to further examine the prognostic value of AGR for urothelial carcinoma of bladder (UCB) using a propensity score-matched (PSM) analysis.Materials and Methods: The medical data of 189 high-grade UCB patients undergoing radical cystectomy were retrospectively reviewed. AGR was defined as the ratio of serum albumin to nonalbumins (serum total protein-albumin). The association of preoperative AGR with clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis were assessed. Multivariate analyses using Cox regression models were applied to evaluate the independent prognostic factors.Results: The receiver operating curve analysis indicated 1.55 as the optimal cutoff value to define low or high AGR. In prematched cohorts, Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that AGR lower than 1.55 was associated with poorer overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and tumor-specific survival (TSS) (P < 0.001 for all). Multivariable cox analyses also showed that AGR lower than 1.55 were an independent risk factor for survival outcomes, including OS, PFS, and TSS (P < 0.01 for all). In particular, AGR lower than 1.55 remained its prognostic value after PSM analysis.Conclusion: Low AGR was a significant unfavorable factor for UCB patients treated with radical cystectomy. This viable parameter should be enrolled in the pretreatment risk stratification for UCB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the clinical features of renal tuberculosis and identify the age- and genderrelated differences. Methods: A total of 419 patients at the Peking University First Hospital from January 2000 to July 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Data on demographic characteristics, clinical presentation, complications, laboratory results, radiologic imaging, surgical procedures, and pathology features were collected and compared between genders and 3 different age groups (under 40 years, 41-60, years and over 60 years). Results: The most common local presentations were lower urinary tract symptoms (65.2%), flank pain (37.9%), and gross hematuria (26.3%). Constitutional symptoms were also observed in 38.9% of the patients. Gross hematuria was more common in male patients (32.2%) and older patients (45.5%). Flank pain was more common in female patients (43.6%). Patients younger than 40 years of age had lower frequencies of calcification of the urinary tract (22.2%) and kidney atrophy (4.2%) in CT. In the postoperative pathological reports, atrophy (35.9%) and fibrosis (38.5%) were found to be significantly more common in older patients. Conclusions: While gross hematuria is more prevalent in older patients and male patients, flank pain is more common in female patients. Radiological and pathological features including calcification of the urinary tract, fibrosis, and kidney atrophy are more common in older patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioinspired MXene-Based Piezoresistive Sensor with Two-stage Enhancement for Motion Capture (Adv. Funct. Keywords: bioinspired microstructures; intermittent architectures; motion captures; MXene nanosheets; piezoresistive sensors; pressure ranges EN bioinspired microstructures intermittent architectures motion captures MXene nanosheets piezoresistive sensors pressure ranges 1 1 1 05/04/23 20230502 NES 230502 B Bioinspired Intermittent Designs b In article number 2214503, Weiqing Yang, Weili Deng, and co-workers present a strategically designed villus-inspired intermittent architecture that can enhance the piezoresistive performance through a laser-induced manufacturing process. Bioinspired microstructures, intermittent architectures, motion captures, MXene nanosheets, piezoresistive sensors, pressure ranges. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation of ABO blood types and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with ureteral transitional cell carcinoma.Materials and Methods: In our study, an entire cohort of 239 patients who were pathological diagnosed as ureteral transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) between February 2002 and March 2010 were reviewed retrospectively. Variables including demographic features, tumor grades, tumor stages, type of surgery and number of tumors as well as ABO blood types status were evaluated. The relationship between the ABO blood group and clinicopathological variables was assessed by Chi-squared analysis.Results: The ratio of male to female was 1: 1.12. The median age at diagnosis was 68.5 years. A total of 111 neoplasms located in the right ureter. A total of 218 patients had radical nephroureterectomy (RNU). Multifocality was observed in 32 patients. The pathology was as follow: Grade 1 (seven cases), Grade 2 (110 cases) and Grade 3 (122 cases); Ta and T1 (83 cases), T2-T4 (156 cases). The distribution of ABO blood types was A, B, O and AB in 70 (29.3%), 76 (31.8%), 66 (27.6%) and 27 (11.3%), respectively. There were no significant differences in the clinicopathological variables among individuals with different ABO blood types. In a subgroup analysis, B and O group showed a worse tumor stage compared with A and AB groups (P = 0.01).Conclusion: B and O blood types are at higher risk of muscle invasive ureteral TCC as compared with A and AB blood types. We suggest ABO blood types to be taken into consideration when urologists select therapeutic schemes for individuals with ureteral TCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the clinicopathological features, prognostic outcomes and fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) protein expression status of a large series ( n = 45) of urothelial carcinoma of bladder patients aged 30 or younger, retrospectively. We identified an age gradient (an age of 25, 26 and 27 years), classified patients as ≤25 or >25, ≤26 or >26, ≤27 or >27 years, respectively, and compared variables including recurrence events and FGFR3 expression patterns between different groups. Patients aged 25 years or younger were less likely to experience tumor recurrence ( p = 0.046), were more likely to develop smaller size tumors ( p = 0.040) and expressed more proportion of negative pattern of FGFR3 protein ( p = 0.036). Patients aged 25 years or younger were less likely to develop tumor recurrence and revealed more proportion of negative pattern of FGFR3 expression than those aged 26-30 years did. We identified patients aged 25 years or younger as the true 'young' urothelial carcinoma patients, carrying distinct clinical outcomes and molecular tumorigenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

P-type copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and n-type hexadecafluorophthalocyanina-tocopper (F16CuPc) polycrystalline films were investigated by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). Topographic and corresponding surface potential images are obtained simultaneously. Surface potential images are related with the local work function of crystalline facets and potential barriers at the grain boundaries (GBs) in organic semiconductors. Based on the spatial distribution of surface potential at GBs, donor- and acceptor-like trapping states in the grain boundaries (GBs) of p-CuPc and n-F16CuPc films are confirmed respectively. In view of spatial energy spectrum in micro-scale provided by KPFM, it is going to be a powerful tool to characterize the local electronic properties of organic semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low‐cost processing and uniquely structured design of conducting polymer hydrogels (CPHs), with the advantages of both conducting polymers and 3D frameworks, are the keys to their wide commercial application in next‐generation flexible solid supercapacitors. Herein, an all‐sprayable hierarchically nanostructured polyaniline–phytic acid conducting polymer hydrogel (pp‐CPHs) for upgradable art patterns and massively manufactured supercapacitor electrodes is presented. Ascribing to fully anticipating the efficient electrode–electrolyte interface of 3D porous nanostructures constructed by interconnected nanorods, the pp‐CPH‐based flexible all‐solid‐state supercapacitors exhibit an excellent areal capacitance of 91 mF cm−2 at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 and a drastically improved cycling stability with 93.5% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles at 5 mA cm−2. In addition, the electrochemical performance of this device can be constantly maintained under various mechanical loadings such as bending and twisting. Also, this device shows a remarkable integration ability from its universal tandem and parallel connections. Unambiguously, these aforementioned merits of pp‐CPH‐based flexible all‐solid‐state supercapacitors make it an ideal maneuver for the massive fabrication of flexible power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible photodetectors (PDs) are attracting more attention due to their promising applications in wearable optoelectronic devices, bendable imaging sensors, and implantable optoelectronics. For the easy‐processable technology of massively fabricating PDs, instead of the expensive and complex high‐vacuum technique, the well‐matched work function of their active materials is essential. Herein, all‐sprayed‐processable and large‐area PDs are demonstrated on common paper based on two‐dimensional (2D) CsPbBr3 nanosheets and conductive Ti3C2Tx (MXene). Ascribed to the superior conductivity of MXene, high crystallinity of 2D CsPbBr3, and their well‐matched work function, the as‐prepared PDs exhibit an outstanding on/off current ratio up to 2.3 × 103 and a remarkable photoresponse as fast as 18 ms. Specifically, the detectivity (D*) of 6.4 × 108 Jones and responsivity (R) of 44.9 mA W−1 under a bias of 10 V are achieved. Besides, after bending 1500 cycles, the as‐prepared PDs can still maintain the excellent flexibility and stability. Based on this, a superior‐quality and large‐area 1665 pixel sensor in 72 cm2 (≈24 units cm−2) is developed, and it can clearly transmit the image of "0" to realize the photocommunication function. This work provides a low‐cost method of massively producing the flexible large‐area PDs for wearable optoelectronic devices and expanded photocommunication. The on‐paper flexible photodetectors based on 2D perovskite nanosheets and Ti3C2Tx (MXene) as the active materials and electrode materials by all‐spraying method are demonstrated. The low‐cost photodetectors have high stability, flexibility, photoelectric performance, and can effectively realize the optical communication function of image sensing by large‐area arrays. This technique can be potentially expanded to other optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric power consumption short-term forecasting for individual households is an important and challenging topic in the fields of AI-enhanced energy saving, smart grid planning, sustainable energy usage and electricity market bidding system design. Due to the variability of each household's personalized activity, difficulties exist for traditional methods, such as auto-regressive moving average models, machine learning methods and non-deep neural networks, to provide accurate prediction for single household electric power consumption. Recent works show that the long short term memory (LSTM) neural network outperforms most of those traditional methods for power consumption forecasting problems. Nevertheless, two research gaps remain as unsolved problems in the literature. First, the prediction accuracy is still not reaching the practical level for real-world industrial applications. Second, most existing works only work on the one-step forecasting problem; the forecasting time is too short for practical usage. In this study, a hybrid deep learning neural network framework that combines convolutional neural network (CNN) with LSTM is proposed to further improve the prediction accuracy. The original short-term forecasting strategy is extended to a multi-step forecasting strategy to introduce more response time for electricity market bidding. Five real-world household power consumption datasets are studied, the proposed hybrid deep learning neural network outperforms most of the existing approaches, including auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, persistent model, support vector regression (SVR) and LSTM alone. In addition, we show a k-step power consumption forecasting strategy to promote the proposed framework for real-world application usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]