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Many DDB1-CUL4 associated factors (DCAFs) have been identified and serve as substrate receptors. Although the oncogenic role of CUL4A has been well established, specific DCAFs involved in cancer development remain largely unknown. Here we infer the potential impact of 19 well-defined DCAFs in human lung adenocarcinomas (LuADCs) using integrative omics analyses, and discover that mRNA levels of DTL, DCAF4, 12 and 13 are consistently elevated whereas VBRBP is reduced in LuADCs compared to normal lung tissues. The transcriptional levels of DCAFs are significantly correlated with their gene copy number variations. SKIP2, DTL, DCAF6, 7, 8, 13 and 17 are frequently gained whereas VPRBP, PHIP, DCAF10, 12 and 15 are frequently lost. We find that only transcriptional level of DTL is robustly, significantly and negatively correlated with overall survival across independent datasets. Moreover, DTL-correlated genes are enriched in cell cycle and DNA repair pathways. We also identified that the levels of 25 proteins were significantly associated with DTL overexpression in LuADCs, which include significant decreases in protein level of the tumor supressor genes such as PDCD4, NKX2-1 and PRKAA1. Our results suggest that different CUL4-DCAF axis plays the distinct roles in LuADC development with possible relevance for therapeutic target development.

As a benchmark triple‐conducting cathode, BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zr0.1Y0.1O3−δ (BCFZY) has been widely investigated for protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFC) in recent years. However, the reported electrochemical performance of BCFZY cathode differs, which is determined in this work to originate from the thermal expansion mismatch between BCFZY and electrolyte. Accordingly, two strategies for enhanced thermo‐mechanical compatibility are examined: impregnation and thermal expansion offset. In contrast to the impregnation of BCFZY nanoparticles on electrolyte backbones that only helps improve electrochemical performance, negative thermal expansion oxide Sm0.85Cu0.15MnO3−δ (SCM)‐offset BCFZY exhibits superior durability and activity simultaneously. Specifically, the polarization resistance decay rate of the SCM‐offset BCFZY is only ~0.2%/100 h, compared with ~18.75%/100 h for "impregnated BCFZY." Moreover, pure SCM generates moderate cathodic performance (area‐specific resistance = 0.11 Ω cm2, 700 °C), X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy reveal an in‐situ formed intergranular Ba2Cu3SmO7−δ phase at the boundaries of BCFZY and SCM. Thus, SCM can serve as a "three‐effect" additive, i) offset thermo‐expansion, ii) strengthen electrode structure and adhesion, and iii) provide acceptable oxygen‐reduction‐reaction activity, being favorable for superior performance. A PCFC using a SCM‐offset BCFZY cathode achieves the highest power density (1455 mW cm−2) yet recorded for PCFCs with BCFZY‐based cathodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarization imaging enables the capture of material properties and surface characteristics of objects, finding applications in remote sensing and defense. However, most existing polarization imaging systems rely on polarization filtering elements, resulting in energy loss exceeding 50% and compromising intensity imaging performance. Conventionally, a rotary device equipped with different polarizers and a blank area is used to acquire both polarization and intensity images, which is cumbersome for integration and miniaturization purposes. In this study, a miniaturized and easily integrated active metasurface based on VO2 grating structure for switchable detection of intensity and polarization in the far‐infrared band (8–14 µm) is proposed. With VO2 in the dielectric state, the device exhibits high transmittance for both TE‐ and TM‐polarized light (Experimental transmittance of up to 65%). Upon phase transition to the metallic state, the device demonstrates low transmittance for TE‐polarized light while maintaining high transmittance for TM‐polarized light (linear polarization extinction ratio up to 10 dB). Finally, the tunable thermal intensity and polarization imaging capabilities of the custom‐made setup are characterized. The metasurface showcases comparable performance to standard commercial polarizers in terms of polarization imaging. The developed tunable far‐infrared polarization imaging system holds promise for next‐generation multidimensional information perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active metasurfaces, in which the optical property of a metasurface device can be controlled by external stimuli, have attracted great research interest recently. For optical switching and modulation applications, high-performance active metasurfaces need to show high transparency, high power efficiency, as well as ultrafast switching and large-scale fabrication capability. This paper reports Au/VO2-based active metasurfaces meeting the requirements above. Centimeter-scale Au/VO2 metasurfaces are fabricated by polystyrene sphere colloidal crystal self-assembly. The devices show optical modulation on-off ratio up to 12.7 dB and insertion loss down to 3.3 dB at 2200 nm wavelength in the static heating experiment, and ΔT/T of 10% in ultrafast pump-probe experiments. In particular, by judiciously aligning the surface plasmon resonance wavelength to the pump wavelength of the femtosecond laser, the enhanced electric field at 800 nm is capable to switch off the extraordinary optical transmission effect at 2200 nm in 100 fs time scale. Compared to VO2 thin-film samples, the devices also show 50% power reduction for all-optical modulation. Our work provides a practical way to fabricate large-scale and power-efficient active metasurfaces for ultrafast optical modulation.

Background: Posterior capsular opacification (PCO) is a common complication following cataract surgery that leads to visual disturbances and decreased quality of vision. The aim of our study was to employ a machine‐learning methodology to characterize and validate enhancements applied to the grey‐level co‐occurrence matrix (GLCM) while assessing its validity in comparison to clinical evaluations for evaluating PCO. Methods: One hundred patients diagnosed with age‐related cataracts who were scheduled for phacoemulsification surgery were included in the study. Following mydriasis, anterior segment photographs were captured using a high‐resolution photographic system. The GLCM was utilized as the feature extractor, and a supported vector machine as the regressor. Three variations, namely, GLCM, GLCM+C (+axial information), and GLCM+V (+regional voting), were analyzed. The reference value for regression was determined by averaging clinical scores obtained through subjective analysis. The relationships between the predicted PCO outcome scores and the ground truth were assessed using Pearson correlation analysis and a Bland–Altman plot, while agreement between them was assessed through the Bland–Altman plot. Results: Relative to the ground truth, the GLCM, GLCM+C, and GLCM+V methods exhibited correlation coefficients of 0.706, 0.768, and 0.829, respectively. The relationship between the PCO score predicted by the GLCM+V method and the ground truth was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the GLCM+V method demonstrated competitive performance comparable to that of two experienced clinicians (r = 0.825, 0.843) and superior to that of two junior clinicians (r = 0.786, 0.756). Notably, a high level of agreement was observed between predictions and the ground truth, without significant evidence of proportional bias (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Overall, our findings suggest that a machine‐learning approach incorporating the GLCM, specifically the GLCM+V method, holds promise as an objective and reliable tool for assessing PCO progression. Further studies in larger patient cohorts are warranted to validate these findings and explore their potential clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an essential analytical method in every sector of science and technology. Because of its unique ability to provide direct molecular structure information on analytes, an extra method is rarely required. This review describes fabrication of a variable-pressure hollow cathode discharge (HCD) ion source for MS in detection, quantification and investigation of gas-phase ion molecule reactions of explosives and related compounds using air as a carrier gas. The HCD ion source has been designed in such a way that by altering the ion source pressures, the system can generate both HCD and conventional GD. This design enables for the selective detection and quantification of explosives at trace to ultra-trace levels. The pressure-dependent HCD ion source has also been used to investigate ion-molecule reactions in the gas phase of explosives and related compounds. The mechanism of ion formation in explosive reactions is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]