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Objectives: To summarize the clinical characteristics and investigate the efficacy of ethanol embolotherapy in the treatment of chest well arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Treatment-associated complications were also explored.Materials and Methods: Between March 2017 and August 2021, 32 consecutive patients (mean age, 23.7 years; age range, 5–54 years) who underwent ethanol embolotherapy for chest well AVMs under general anesthesia were included in this study. Embolization was performed through a direct puncture, transarterial catheterization, or a combination of the 2 procedures. The mean follow-up duration after the last treatment was 18.0 months (range, 3–42 months). The degree of devascularization on follow-up (assessed using angiography or computed tomography), and the clinical signs and symptoms of AVMs were evaluated as the therapeutic outcomes. The major and minor complications associated with the procedures were recorded.Results: A total of 103 embolization procedures (mean, 3.2; range, 2–7) comprising 101 ethanol embolization and 2 coil embolizations were performed on 32 patients with chest wall AVMs. The AVM nidus was accessed through the transarterial approach alone in 4 patients, by direct puncture in 11, and a combined procedure in 17 patients. Overall, more than 80% of the procedures were performed using the combined approach. Complete AVM devascularization was achieved in 12 (37.5%) patients. Moreover, 76% to 99% AVM was achieved in 18 patients (56.3%), and 50% to 75% in 2 patients (6.3%). Bleeding, pain, heart failure, and cosmetic deformities were the indications for treatment. For 3 patients (3/32, 9.4%) who had bleeding, the treatment stopped the hemorrhage. Complete pain relief was reported in 8 patients (8/32, 25.0%), whereas complete relief from congestive heart failure post-embolization was observed in 5 of the 6 patients with congestive heart failure (5/6, 83.3%). Complete correction of cosmesis deformities after embolization was achieved in 10 patients (10/32, 31.3%). Two patients who underwent surgery to correct persistent deformity after embolization only showed insignificant improvement. In addition, 6 (18.8%) patients developed 13 complications including blister, necrosis, hemothorax, transient hemoglobinuria, and transient pulmonary artery hypertension.Conclusions: Ethanol embolotherapy is a safe and effective procedure for chest well AVMs. Surgery is required for some patients with residual cosmesis deformity.Clinical Impact Currently, there is no standard treatment for chest well AVMs due to their rarity and high heterogeneity. The present study shows that thanol embolotherapy is a safe and clinically effective treatment procedure for the chest well AVMs. Transarterial embolization in combination with direct puncture embolization can reach the AVM nidus. Ethanol embolotherapy can achieve complete obliteration of the AVM nidus in the majority of patients. Surgery may still be needed to correct cosmetic deformity after embolization. The present study provides valuable evidence to inform clinical decision-making.

FoundationDB is an open-source transactional key-value store created more than 10 years ago. It is one of the first systems to combine the flexibility and scalability of NoSQL architectures with the power of ACID transactions. FoundationDB adopts an unbundled architecture that decouples an in-memory transaction management system, a distributed storage system, and a built-in distributed configuration system. Each sub-system can be independently provisioned and configured to achieve scalability, high availability, and fault tolerance. FoundationDB includes a deterministic simulation framework, used to test every new feature under a myriad of possible faults. This rigorous testing makes FoundationDB extremely stable and allows developers to introduce and release new features in a rapid cadence. FoundationDB offers a minimal and carefully chosen feature set, which has enabled a range of disparate systems to be built as layers on top. FoundationDB is the underpinning of cloud infrastructure at Apple, Snowflake, and other companies, due to its consistency, robustness, and availability for storing user data, system metadata and configuration, and other critical information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

•Structurally tuned BODIPYs/aza-BODIPYs are photofunctional dyes.•Triplet BODIPYs/aza-BODIPYs are employed in photocatalytic field.•BODIPYs/aza-BODIPYs capture the photons for photovoltaic conversion.•BODIPYs/aza-BODIPYs are suitable for temperature controlled materials.

The collapse pressure is a key parameter when RTPs are applied in harsh deep-water environments. To investigate the collapse of RTPs, numerical simulations and hydrostatic pressure tests are conducted. For the numerical simulations, the eigenvalue analysis and Riks analysis are combined, in which the Hashin failure criterion and fracture energy stiffness degradation model are used to simulate the progressive failure of composites, and the “infinite” boundary conditions are applied to eliminate the boundary effects. As for the hydrostatic pressure tests, RTP specimens were placed in a hydrostatic chamber after filled with water. It has been observed that the cross-section of the middle part collapses when it reaches the maximum pressure. The collapse pressure obtained from the numerical simulations agrees well with that in the experiment. Meanwhile, the applicability of NASA SP-8007 formula on the collapse pressure prediction was also discussed. It has a relatively greater difference because of the ignorance of the progressive failure of composites. For the parametric study, it is found that RTPs have much higher first-ply-failure pressure when the winding angles are between 50° and 70°. Besides, the effect of debonding and initial ovality, and the contribution of the liner and coating are also discussed.

Many entity extraction techniques leverage large reference entity tables to identify entities in documents. Often, an entity is referenced in document collections differently from that in the reference entity tables. Therefore, we study the problem of determining whether or not a substring "approximately" matches with a reference entity. Similarity measures which exploit the correlation between candidate substrings and reference entities across a large number of documents are known to be more robust than traditional stand alone string-based similarity functions. However, such an approach has significant efficiency challenges. In this paper, we adopt a new architecture and propose new techniques to address these efficiency challenges. We mine document collections and expand a given reference entity table with variations of each of its entities. Thus, the problem of approximately matching an input string against reference entities reduces to that of exact match against the expanded reference table, which can be implemented efficiently. In an extensive experimental evaluation, we demonstrate the accuracy and scalability of our techniques.

Promotion is one of the key ingredients in marketing. It is often desirable to find merit in an object (e.g., product, person, organization, or service) and promote it in an appropriate community. In this paper, we propose a novel functionality, called promotion analysis through ranking, for promoting a given object by leveraging highly ranked results. Since the object may not be highly ranked in the global space, our goal is to discover promotivesubspaces in which the object becomes prominent. To achieve this goal, the notion of promotivenessis formulated. We show that this functionality is practical and useful in a wide variety of applications such as business intelligence. However, computing promotive subspaces is challenging due to the explosion of search space and high aggregation cost. For efficient computation, we propose a PromoRank framework, and develop three efficient optimization techniques, namely subspace pruning, object pruning, and promotion cube, which are seamlessly integrated into the framework. Our empirical evaluation on two real data sets confirms the effectiveness of promotion analysis, and that our proposed algorithms significantly outperform baseline solutions.

In recent years, gait detection has been widely used in medical rehabilitation, smart phone, criminal investigation, navigation and positioning and other fields. With the rapid development of micro-electro mechanical systems, inertial measurement unit (IMU) has been widely used in the field of gait recognition with many advantages, such as low cost, small size, and light weight. Therefore, this paper proposes a gait recognition algorithm based on IMU, which is named as FPRF-GR. Firstly, a fusion feature engineering operator is designed to eliminate redundant and defective features, which is mainly based on Fast Fourier Transform and principal component analysis. Then, in the design of classifier, in order to meet the requirements of gait recognition model for accuracy, generalization ability, speed, and noise resistance, this paper compares random forest (RF) and several commonly used classification algorithms, and finds that the model constructed by RF can meet the requirements. FPRF-GR builds the model based on RF, and uses the tenfold cross validation method to evaluate the model. Finally, this paper proposes an optimization scheme for the two parameters of decision tree number and sample number in RF. The results show that FPRF-GR can identify five gaits (walk, stationary, run, and up and down stairs) with the average accuracy of 98.2%.

The incidence and mortality rates of skin melanoma have been increasing annually. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) enables effective destruction of tumor cells while minimizing harm to normal cells. However, traditional photosensitizers (PSs) suffer from photobleaching, photodegradation and the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect, and it is challenging for light to reach the deep layers of the skin to maximize the efficacy of PSs. Herein, we developed dissolving microneedles (MNs) loaded with PSs of TPE-EPy@CB[7] through supramolecular assembly. The PSs effectively enhanced the type-I reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation capacity, with a concentration of 2 μM possessing nearly half of the tumor cell-killing ability under 10 min white light irradiation. The MNs were successfully pierced into the targeted site for precise drug delivery. Additionally, the conical structure of the MNs, as well as the lens-like structure after dissolution, facilitated the transmission of light in the subcutaneous tissue, achieving significant inhibition of tumor growth with a tumor suppression rate of 97.8% and no systemic toxicity or side effects in melanoma mice. The results demonstrated the potent melanoma inhibition and biosafety of this treatment approach, exhibiting a new and promising strategy to conquer malignant melanoma.

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Melanoma is resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Therefore, it is essential to develop a targeted, low-toxic, and minimally invasive treatment. Here, DTIC/ICG-Fe3O4@TpBD BSP/HA microneedles (MNs) were designed and fabricated, which can enhance targeting to melanoma and perform photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemotherapy simultaneously to synergistically exert anticancer effects. The system consisted of magnetic nanoparticles (DTIC/ICG-Fe3O4@TpBD), dissoluble matrix (Bletilla polysaccharide (BSP)/hyaluronic acid (HA)), and a polyvinyl alcohol backing layer. Due to the good magnetic responsiveness of Fe3O4@TpBD, dacarbazine (DTIC) and indocyanine green (ICG) can be better targeted to the tumor tissue and improve the therapeutic effect. BSP and HA have good biocompatibility and transdermal ability, so that the MNs can completely penetrate the tumor tissue, be dissolved by the interstitial fluid, and release DTIC and ICG. Under near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation, ICG converts light energy into thermal energy and induces ablation of B16-OVA melanoma cells. In vivo results showed that DTIC/ICG-Fe3O4@TpBD BSP/HA MNs combined with chemotherapy and PTT could effectively inhibit the growth of melanoma without tumor recurrence or significant weight loss in mice. Therefore, DTIC/ICG-Fe3O4@TpBD BSP/HA MNs are expected to provide new ideas and therapeutic approaches for the clinical treatment of melanoma.

Only a small proportion of patients with triple-negative breast cancer benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) targeting PD-1/PD-L1 signaling in combination with chemotherapy. Here, we discovered that therapeutic response to ICI plus paclitaxel was associated with subcellular redistribution of PD-L1. In our immunotherapy cohort of ICI in combination with nab-paclitaxel, tumor samples from responders showed significant distribution of PD-L1 at mitochondria, while non-responders showed increased accumulation of PD-L1 on tumor cell membrane instead of mitochondria. Our results also revealed that the distribution pattern of PD-L1 was regulated by an ATAD3A-PINK1 axis. Mechanistically, PINK1 recruited PD-L1 to mitochondria for degradation via a mitophagy pathway. Importantly, paclitaxel increased ATAD3A expression to disrupt proteostasis of PD-L1 by restraining PINK1-dependent mitophagy. Clinically, patients with tumors exhibiting high expression of ATAD3A detected before the treatment with ICI in combination with paclitaxel had markedly shorter progression-free survival compared with those with ATAD3A-low tumors. Preclinical results further demonstrated that targeting ATAD3A reset a favorable antitumor immune microenvironment and increased the efficacy of combination therapy of ICI plus paclitaxel. In summary, our results indicate that ATAD3A serves not only as a resistant factor for the combination therapy of ICI plus paclitaxel through preventing PD-L1 mitochondrial distribution, but also as a promising target for increasing the therapeutic responses to chemoimmunotherapy.

Wound management is a serious concern worldwide, inflicting a huge social and economic burden on patients and healthcare systems, and research into efficient wound-management measures is crucial. Although advances have been made in traditional wound dressings for wound management to date, the complicated environment near the wound leads to inadequate drug absorption for achieving the intended therapeutic impact. Microneedles, a novel transdermal drug delivery method, can improve wound-healing efficacy by breaking down the barriers at the wound site and enhancing drug delivery efficiency. In recent years, there have been many advanced types of research on the application of microneedles to wound management to address the difficulties encountered in the wound-healing process. This article summarizes and analyzes these research efforts, classifying them according to their distinct efficacy, and addresses them in five areas: hemostasis, antibacterial effects, proliferation, anti-scar, and wound monitoring. The article concludes with a review of the current state and limitations of microneedle patches and an outlook on the future direction of microneedles in wound management as a way to inspire more efficient and smarter wound-management strategies.

Near infrared-II (NIR-II) dyes have unique advantages in biomedical applications owing to the powerful ability in penetrating biological tissues. Herein, NIR-II aza-BODIPY dye, QLD-BDP, was developed with julolidine at 1,7-sites and p-dimethylaminophenyl group at 3,5-sites. According to X-ray analysis, QLD-BDPexhibits significant distortion, and this molecule appears a bowl shaped structure. The photothermal conversion efficiency of the self-assembled QLD-BDPnanoparticles (QLD-BDP-NPs) can reach 50.5%, with maximum emission at 998 nm by the aggregate. QLD-BDP-NPs can cause the complete destruction of 4T1 multicellular spheroids (MCSs), indicating a photothermal therapy (PTT) effect.

Spin-orbit, charge-transfer intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC) can directly overcome the disadvantages of the traditional heavy-atom effect and improve the generation efficiency of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Since orthogonal molecular orbitals of donor-acceptor (D-A) pairs favor the SOCT-ISC transition, herein aza-borondipyrromethenes (aza-BODIPYs) with 1,7-di-anthracyl groups (An-azaBDP) was successfully prepared, owing to steric hindrance to produce a big dihedral angle between the two molecular orbital (MO) planes. Moreover, according to density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), the energy difference between the S1-T1orbitals of An-azaBDP is small and more inclined towards ISC. An-azaBDP can effectively generate singlet oxygen under light irradiation. An-azaBDP with light irradiation can induce apoptosis in SW620 cells, and can serve as a potential candidate for the treatment of cancer cells and tumors.

To alleviate the dilemma of drug administration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients, it is of great significance to develop a new drug delivery system. In this study, a subcutaneously implanted microneedle (MN) device with a swellable gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) needle body and a dissolvable polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) backing layer was designed. The backing layer quickly dissolved once the MN was introduced into the subcutaneous, and the hydrogel needles were implanted in the subcutaneous to enable prolonged drug release. Compared with oral administration, the MN system offers the benefits of a high administration rate, a fast onset of effect, and a longer duration of action. By detecting the concentration of acetylcholine (ACH) and Aβ 1–42, it was found that MN administration exhibited a stronger therapeutic effect. The biological safety of the MN system was also assessed, and no obvious signs of hemolysis, cytotoxicity, and inflammatory reaction were observed. Together, these findings suggested that the MN system is a convenient, efficient, and safe method of delivering donepezil hydrochloride (DPH) and may provide AD patients with a novel medicine administration option.

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The stability of drug-loaded nanoparticles in vivo is related to the success of the drug delivery, which is investigated as a deficiency due to the limitation of traditional experimental methods. In this study, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), a simulation method suitable for soft matter and fluids, was used to study the stability of amphiphilic nanoparticles in the blood microenvironment. By comparing the morphology alteration of nanoparticles with various molecular topologies in the shear fluid field, we have found that branch degree and geometric symmetry would be the key factors in maintaining the nanoparticle’s stability. This research could provide more theoretical guidance for drug delivery system design.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that seriously affects the life quality of patients. Topical administration of glucocorticoids is considered to be the most effective anti-inflammatory treatment. However, due to the barrier function of skin, only less than 20% of topical drug molecules could diffuse into the skin. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop an effective strategy to improve AD therapy. In this study, we reported a two-electrode microneedle patch (t-EMNP) composed of a polylactic acid–platinum (PLA-Pt) MN array and polylactic acid–platinum–polypyrrole (PLA-Pt-PPy) MN array for improving the transdermal drug delivery efficacy. The drug loading capability of MNs could be altered by employing different polymerization times and drug concentrations. The drug release rate of MNs could be changed by applying different voltages. We further developed a controlled transdermal drug delivery system (c-TDDS) based on this two-electrode microneedle patch (t-EMNP), exhibiting the remarkable performance of the electricity-triggered drug release profile. The drugs could be released with electrical stimulation, while there was almost no drug release without electrical stimulation. For AD treatment in vivo, this MN patch with electricity-triggered drug release performance could effectively deliver more drugs into the skin compared with other controls such as dexamethasone cream, which efficiently alleviate AD. In sum, this work not only developed a smart patch for improving AD treatment but also provided a promising approach of transdermal drug delivery on demand.

With the growing technological innovations in medical treatments, cell-based therapies hold great potential as efficient tools against various previously incurable diseases by restoring or altering the function of certain sets of cells. Along this line, an essential factor to determine the success of cell therapy is the choice of cell delivery strategy. In recent years, a novel trend is blooming in the application of microneedle systems, which are based on the miniaturization of multiple needles within a patch to the micrometer dimensions, aimed at the delivery of therapeutic cells to the target site with high efficiency and in a minimally invasive manner. This review aims to demonstrate the advantages of exploiting microneedle-based technology as a new tool for cell therapy. The advancements of microneedle-based strategies for cell delivery are summarized in terms of two categories: cell-free and cell-loaded microneedle systems. The majority of research on microneedle-based cell therapy has shown promising results for tissue regeneration, cancer immunotherapy, skin immune monitoring and targeted cell delivery. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives toward the development and application of microneedles for cell therapy are also discussed.

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Purpose: Energy harvesting has been extensively developed to scavenge energy from mechanical oscillations. Many investigations focus on the resonant issues which can activate large-amplitude responses in the region of the fundamental frequency. Hence, there are many ultra-low slowly changing excitation sources in the actual environment. To adapt to the slowly changing vibrational excitations, in this paper, we explore a novel bursting oscillations to collect energy induced by the low-frequency excitations. Methods: The slowly changing ambience excitation is proposed by a cosinoidal voltage source, and the nonlinear restoring force is realized using a nonlinear capacitor. A novel harvester of electromechanical device is developed, the electromechanical coupling equations are presented, and the bursting response is observed via numerical integration. Results: The superiority of the presented bursting energy harvester is contrasted with the resonance and nonresonance frequencies. Based on the method of fast–slow dynamical analysis method, the dynamical mechanism of bursting oscillations is revealed via the transformed phase diagram. Furthermore, the effects of system parameters on the bursting motion are discussed.

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalysts are widely used in petrochemical industries, playing a crucial role in desulfurization process to get high-quality oil. The generation of Al-based spent HDS catalyst is estimated to be 1.2×105tons per year around the world. The spent HDS catalysts have been regarded as an important secondary resource due to their abundant output, considerable metal value, and regeneration potential; however, if improperly handled, it would severely pollute the environment due to high content of heavy metals. Thus, the recovery of valuable metals from spent HDS catalysts is of great importance from both resource utilization and environmental protection points of view. In this work, recent advances in the spent HDS catalyst treatment technologies have been reviewed, focusing on the recovery of valuable transition metals and environmental impacts. Finally, typical commercial processes have been discussed, providing in-depth information for peer researchers to facilitate their future research work in designing more effective and environmentally friendly recycling processes.

The drug diffusion issue in microneedles is the focus of its medical application. It will not only affect the distribution of drugs in the needle body but will also have an impact on the drug release performance of the microneedle. The utilization of cross-linked polymer materials to obtain the drug diffusion control has been experimentally verified as a feasible method. However, the mechanism research on the molecular level is still incomplete. In this study, the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation has been applied to study the effect of the cross-linking reaction on drug diffusion in hyaluronic acid microneedles. We have discovered that when the cross-linking degree reaches 90%, the diffusion coefficient of the drug is 6.45 times lower than that of the uncross-linked system. The main reason for the decline in drug diffusion ability is that the cross-linking reaction varies the conformation of the polymer. The amplification in the cross-linking degree makes the polymer coils more compact and approach each other, finally forming a continuously distributed cross-linked network, which reduces its degradation rate in the body. Simultaneously, these cross-linked networks can also hinder the interaction of soluble drugs with water, thereby preventing the premature release of drugs. The simulation results are consistent with the data collected in the previous microneedle experiment. This work will be an extension of DPD simulation in the application of biological materials.

Dementia is a significant public health problem in the 21st century. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an essential factor in dementia. Currently, the drugs used for the treatment of AD are mainly acetylcholine inhibitors (AChEIs). As an AChEI, donepezil (DP) can improve patients’ cognitive ability with low side effects and has been accepted by most patients and doctors. For AD patients, the dosage regimen is also crucial due to aging and diseases. Although there are DP oral tablets on the market, there are still many problems to be solved. At present, more and more research is conducted to optimize the route of administration of DP to improve the self-administration of patients. The research fields of DP administration include oral administration, injection administration, intranasal administration, and transdermal administration. This Review is to present the development of different DP administrations and evaluates the advantages and limitations of those works, hoping to optimize the DP dosage regimen for AD patients.

Integrating ring-fused modification with π-conjugated extension is an effective approach for designing, synthesizing, and application for novel borondipyrromethene (BODIPY) structures. In this work, based on phenyl[b]-fused BODIPY, we made reasonable modification of the methyl group at 1-site to generate dye NBDP. NBDPpossessed near-infrared region (NIR) absorption and emission properties, and the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) resulted in low fluorescence. Whereas, heat energy is evidently released in the presence of light, which can be exploited for intracellular photothermal therapy viathe cell apoptosis process, reducing the inflammatory side-effects induced by necrosis. This research provides a crucial foundation for the novel molecule viaBODIPY multi-directional alteration and its potential application in anti-tumor phototherapy.

In view of the problem that the short-term traffic flow prediction under the condition of unsteady traffic flow, such as low precision and over-reliance on large sample historical data, proposing a novel short-term traffic-flow prediction method based on deep learning support vector regression (DL-SVR). A framework of the DL-SVR is built with a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) visible inputting layer, which is connected with several intermediate operating networks, and a radial SVR output layer. In addition, a T mutation particle swarm optimisation algorithm is proposed to select the important parameter in DL-SVR. Experimental results show that the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the proposed short-term traffic-flow prediction method are better than other classic algorithms, and the real time also can meet the needs of practical use.

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Severe COVID-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 is frequently accompanied by dysfunction of the lungs and extrapulmonary organs. However, the organotropism of SARS-CoV-2 and the port of virus entry for systemic dissemination remain largely unknown. We profiled 26 COVID-19 autopsy cases from four cohorts in Wuhan, China, and determined the systemic distribution of SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the lungs and multiple extrapulmonary organs of critically ill COVID-19 patients up to 67 days after symptom onset. Based on organotropism and pathological features of the patients, COVID-19 was divided into viral intrapulmonary and systemic subtypes. In patients with systemic viral distribution, SARS-CoV-2 was detected in monocytes, macrophages, and vascular endothelia at blood–air barrier, blood–testis barrier, and filtration barrier. Critically ill patients with long disease duration showed decreased pulmonary cell proliferation, reduced viral RNA, and marked fibrosis in the lungs. Permanent SARS-CoV-2 presence and tissue injuries in the lungs and extrapulmonary organs suggest direct viral invasion as a mechanism of pathogenicity in critically ill patients. SARS-CoV-2 may hijack monocytes, macrophages, and vascular endothelia at physiological barriers as the ports of entry for systemic dissemination. Our study thus delineates systemic pathological features of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which sheds light on the development of novel COVID-19 treatment.

A nanocarrier drug delivery system, effectively assisting to improve the solubility, bioavailability, and targeting of drugs in the human body, is a crucial means for treating cancer and other diseases. However, drug carriers usually possess multiple components and complex microstructures, and studies on the formation mechanism and internal structural details of nanocarriers are still incomplete by experimental methods. In order to overcome this adversity, the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation has been widely used owing to its unique simulation time-space scale and satisfying computing efficiency. In the past decades, more and more kinds of complex nanocarriers with various structures have been successfully characterized, and influencing factors in mounting numbers have also been parametrized. Not only emphasizing on the self-assembly structure of nanocarriers, but the application area of DPD simulation has also become a complete system covering from the synthesis and preparation to interaction with the biomembrane. This article reviews the application of DPD simulations in drug delivery systems. We have established the connection between existing studies and proposed some outlooks for the further combination between DPD simulation and the design of a drug delivery system.

• Current alloys as efficient catalysts can be efficiently applied for dye wastewater treatment. • The Cu 47.5 Zr 46 Al 6.5 alloy can completely degrade AO Ⅱ azo dye within 30 min. • The Cu 47.5 Zr 46 Al 6.5 alloy shows excellent degradation behaviors and cyclic stability. • The inherent mechanism of catalytic performance and cycle stability can be explained in detail. Metallic glasses with the unique disordered atomic structure and metastable nature have been recently applied to degrade the azo dyes and other organic pollutants based on their superior catalytic performance. In this work, the functional properties of six CuZr-based metallic glassy ribbons with the different nominal components in degrading Acid Orange Ⅱ (AO Ⅱ) azo dyes were investigated. The Cu 47.5 Zr 46 Al 6.5 metallic glassy ribbons could exhibit the more advanced catalytic performance for degradation process, which could completely degrade azo dye aqueous solution within 30 min. Additionally, the Cu 47.5 Zr 46 Al 6.5 metallic glassy ribbons also showed the excellent cyclic stability along with approximately 97.68 % degradation efficiency after 10 cycles. These excellent catalytic performance and stability are closely related to the synergistic effect of exposed copper nanoparticles and produced copper oxides in the reaction, which contributes to accelerate the generation of more hydroxyl radicals (·OH) to react with dye molecules. Our findings can be able to develop a novel potential metallic glassy material for the functional application of wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extremity intraosseous arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are rare high flow vascular lesions for which the treatment remains challenging. The aim of the study wasto assess treatment methods, interim results, and complications of coils and absolute ethanol in managing extremity intraosseous AVMs via direct puncture approach.

Novel aryl-containing dipyrrolyldiketone difluoroboron complexes (BONEPYs) were prepared and could recognize the fluoride anion by tuning the hydrogen bond oCH···F.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) constitute a large population of glioblastoma and facilitate tumor growth and invasion of tumor cells, but the underlying mechanism remains undefined. In this study, we demonstrate that chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 8 (CCL8) is highly expressed by TAMs and contributes to pseudopodia formation by GBM cells. The presence of CCL8 in the glioma microenvironment promotes progression of tumor cells. Moreover, CCL8 induces invasion and stem-like traits of GBM cells, and CCR1 and CCR5 are the main receptors that mediate CCL8-induced biological behavior. Finally, CCL8 dramatically activates ERK1/2 phosphorylation in GBM cells, and blocking TAM-secreted CCL8 by neutralized antibody significantly decreases invasion of glioma cells. Taken together, our data reveal that CCL8 is a TAM-associated factor to mediate invasion and stemness of GBM, and targeting CCL8 may provide an insight strategy for GBM treatment.

Considering the staggering global prevalence of local pain affecting hundreds of million individuals, it is of great significance to develop advanced dosage forms or delivery systems for analgesic therapy to fulfill clinical applicability. In this study, a hydrogel microneedles (MNs) system made out of gelatin-methacryloyl (GelMA) was designed to deliver lidocaine hydrochloride (LiH) in a sustained manner, and the drug loading capacity of the GelMA MNs was increased considerably by using the backing layer reservoir. The in vitroand in vivotests showed that the fabricated GelMA MNs are strong enough for reliable skin application, and achieve high drug delivery efficiency as compared with the commercial lidocaine patches. The Spared-nerve injury (SNI) model of rats was also prepared to test behavioral pain sensitivity in response to mechanical stimuli, which proved that the LiH/GelMA MNs can enhance and prolong the anesthetic effect of LiH. In addition, with biosafety evaluation in rats, the MNs treated site restored to normal appearance within several hours of application and no dermatosis-related side effects or behavior disorders were observed during the experiment. Together these results indicated that the use of GelMA MNs for transdermal delivery of LiH is an effective, safe and simple treatment method to provide a better choice for local long-lasting analgesia.

D-D’-A type aza-borondipyrromethenes (aza-BODIPYs) were prepared by Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. Photothermal conversion efficiency of self-assemble aza-BODIPY-based nanoparticles (DA-azaBDP-NPs) with NIR-II emission (λem = 1065 nm) was 37.2% under near infrared (NIR) irradiation, and the outstanding cytotoxicity was triggered by coexistence of DA-azaBDP-NPs and the NIR irradiation, with the decrease of glioblastoma migration and the inhibition of glioblastoma proliferation. DA-azaBDP-NPs could promote glioblastoma autophagy and accelerate the process of cell death. The photothermal therapy (PTT) of DA-azaBDP-NPs can effectively induce glioblastoma death by apoptosis under the NIR irradiation, which is highly promising to be applied in vivoexperiments of brain.

There is an increasing concern on the drug loading capacity of microneedles (MNs) to meet higher drug dosage requirement. The present study describes the fabrication of modified rapidly separating polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based MNs (RS-P-MNs) with high drug loading using a mechanical agitation process. The drugs encapsulated within the PVA polymer gel by mechanical agitation served as an encapsulating agent for drugs that provide a high drug loading capacity and also release of drugs in a controlled manner. The various parameters such as microscopic analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM), drug loading, drug delivery efficiency, mechanical test, skin penetration ability, and in vitro and in vivo analyses indicate the great potential of the RS-P-MNs. The maximum drug loading capacity of RS-P-MNs was measured to be approximately 900 ng per microneedle, which was almost a hundred times than the traditional drug encapsulating mode. The in vitro and in vivo results suggested that the controlled release of drugs is due to the encapsulating mode (mechanical agitation) of drugs. The prepared RS-P-MNs with high drug loading in this study provided a gentle and controlled release of drugs instead of the robust release of drugs from traditional MNs.

Molecular dynamics simulation was used to investigate two models of aqueous solution ofcalcium carbonate system between 283K and 373K. The diffusion coefficients of water moleculesdemonstrated that both the electropositive surface (110) on Model-I and neutral surface (104) onModel-II showed interaction with the water molecules, and the surface (110) exhibited strongerelectrostatic interaction with water molecules than the latter, besides obvious anomaly appeared near343K on Model-I. On the other hand, surface (110) exhibited anomalous influences on Ca2+ andCO32- ions near 313K and 343K on Model-I, and only a broad anomaly on CO32- ions near 343K onModel-II. The binding energies between surface (110) / (104) and Ca2+ /CO32- ions demonstrated thatthe surface (104)were more favorable for the growth of the new crystal but weak for the diffusion.

The liver is the most common site of metastatic disease1. Although this metastatic tropism may reflect the mechanical trapping of circulating tumour cells, liver metastasis is also dependent, at least in part, on the formation of a ‘pro-metastatic’ niche that supports the spread of tumour cells to the liver2,3. The mechanisms that direct the formation of this niche are poorly understood. Here we show that hepatocytes coordinate myeloid cell accumulation and fibrosis within the liver and, in doing so, increase the susceptibility of the liver to metastatic seeding and outgrowth. During early pancreatic tumorigenesis in mice, hepatocytes show activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signalling and increased production of serum amyloid A1 and A2 (referred to collectively as SAA). Overexpression of SAA by hepatocytes also occurs in patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancers that have metastasized to the liver, and many patients with locally advanced and metastatic disease show increases in circulating SAA. Activation of STAT3 in hepatocytes and the subsequent production of SAA depend on the release of interleukin 6 (IL-6) into the circulation by non-malignant cells. Genetic ablation or blockade of components of IL-6–STAT3–SAA signalling prevents the establishment of a pro-metastatic niche and inhibits liver metastasis. Our data identify an intercellular network underpinned by hepatocytes that forms the basis of a pro-metastatic niche in the liver, and identify new therapeutic targets.

C20H20NO7Cd, triclinic, P1‾$P‾{1}$(no. 2), a= 9.9506(8) Å, b= 10.1867(11) Å, c= 11.2774(11) Å, α= 110.528(9)°, β= 93.830(7)°, γ= 107.307(8)°, V= 1003.18(17) Å3, Z= 2, Rgt(F) = 0.0775, wRref(F2) = 0.2051, T = 293(2) K.

Cassava is a crucial crop that makes a significant contribution to ensuring human food security. However, high-quality telomere-to-telomere cassava genomes have not been available up to now, which has restricted the progress of haploid molecular breeding for cassava. In this study, we constructed two nearly complete haploid resolved genomes and an integrated, telomere-to-telomere gap-free reference genome of an excellent cassava variety, ‘Xinxuan 048’, thereby providing a new high-quality genomic resource. Furthermore, the evolutionary history of several species within the Euphorbiaceae family was revealed. Through comparative analysis of haploid genomes, it was found that two haploid genomes had extensive differences in linear structure, transcriptome features, and epigenetic characteristics. Genes located within the highly divergent regions and differentially expressed alleles are enriched in the functions of auxin response and the starch synthesis pathway. The high heterozygosity of cassava ‘Xinxuan 048’ leads to rapid trait segregation in the first selfed generation. This study provides a theoretical basis and genomic resource for molecular breeding of cassava haploids.

Forming J-aggregates by organic monomer is a fascinating strategy to urge spectroscopic redshift with respect to that of the monomer. Herein, we designed 1,7-diphenyl-substituted meso‑CF3-BDPmonomer confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The low-barrier rotation of the –CF3group in meso‑CF3-BDP 1significantly enhances the non-radiative efficiency, and the photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) of the self-assembled nanoparticles (1-NPs: λabs = 746 nm) by J-aggregates was 82%. 1-NPscould effectively block cell cycle progression, inhibit cancer cell proliferation and trigger cell apoptosis under low power laser irradiation (0.2 W/cm2). This study proposes an alternate molecular design platform by J-aggregates to promote PCE through the insertion of rotating segment and trigger the cancer cells apoptosis in photothermal therapy at low power laser density.

Inverted organic light-emitting diode (OLED) has attracted extensive attention due to the demand in active-matrix OLED display panels as its geometry enables the direct connection with n-channel transistor backplane on the substrate. One key challenge of high-performance inverted OLED is an efficient electron-injection layer with superior electrical and optical properties to match the indium tin oxide cathode on substrate. We here propose a synergistic electron-injection architecture using surface modification of ZnO layer to simultaneously promote electron injection into organic emitter and enhance out-coupling of waveguided light. An efficient inverted white OLED is realized by introducing the nanoimprinted aperiodic nanostructure of ZnO for broadband and angle-independent light out-coupling and inserting an n-type doped interlayer for energy level tuning and injection barrier lowering. As a result, the optimized inverted white OLEDs have an external quantum efficiency of 42.4% and a power efficiency of 85.4 lm W1–, which are accompanied by the superiority of angular color stability over the visible wavelength range. Our results may inspire a promising approach to fabricate high-efficiency inverted OLEDs for large-scale display panels.

Bananas (Musaspp.) are one of the world’s most important fruit crops and play a vital role in food security for many developing countries. Most banana cultivars are triploids derived from inter- and intraspecific hybridizations between the wild diploid ancestor species Musa acuminate(AA) and M. balbisiana(BB). We report two haplotype-resolved genome assemblies of the representative AAB-cultivated types, Plantain and Silk, and precisely characterize ancestral contributions by examining ancestry mosaics across the genome. Widespread asymmetric evolution is observed in their subgenomes, which can be linked to frequent homologous exchange events. We reveal the genetic makeup of triploid banana cultivars and verify that subgenome B is a rich source of disease resistance genes. Only 58.5% and 59.4% of Plantain and Silk genes, respectively, are present in all three haplotypes, with >50% of genes being differentially expressed alleles in different subgenomes. We observed that the number of upregulated genes in Plantain is significantly higher than that in Silk at one-week post-inoculation with Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (FocTR4), which confirms that Plantain can initiate defense responses faster than Silk. Additionally, we compared genomic and transcriptomic differences among the genes related to carotenoid synthesis and starch metabolism between Plantain and Silk. Our study provides resources for better understanding the genomic architecture of cultivated bananas and has important implications for Musagenetics and breeding.

Charge transport at organic/inorganic hybrid contacts significantly affects the performance of organic optoelectronic devices because the unfavorable energy level offsets at these interfaces can hinder charge injection or extraction due to large barrier heights. Herein, we report a technologically relevant method to functionalize a traditional hole-transport layer of solution-processed nickel oxide (NiOx) with various interlayers. The photoemission spectroscopy measurements reveal the continuous tuning of the NiOxsubstrate work function ranging from 2.5 to 6.6 eV, enabling the alignment transition of energy levels between the Schottky–Mott limit and Fermi level pinning at the organic/composite NiOxinterface. As a result, switching hole and electron transport for the active organic material on the composite NiOxlayer is achieved due to the controlled carrier injection/extraction barriers. The experimental findings indicate that tuning the work function of metal oxides with optimum energy level offsets can facilitate the charge transport at organic/electrode contacts.

To date, since the single review about aza-BODIPYs was not recorded, this critical review focuses on the near-infrared aza-BODIPY dyes. It covers the advances using aza-BODIPY as a fluorophore in the design, synthesis and functionalizations of fluorescent chemosensors for pH, metal ions, anions, biomolecules and so forth since 2002.

A new method was developed for the determination of eight earthy-musty compounds in drinking water by gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) combined with dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME). In this work, the type and volume of extraction solvent and dispersion agent, and the amount of NaCl were optimized; the linearity, detection limit, recovery and precision of method were investigated. The results indicated that the target analytes were in the range of 0.2–100 μg/L with correlation coefficient (r) ranging from 0.9991 to 0.9999, the limit of detection (LOD, S/N= 3) of the analytes ranged from 0.2 to 1.0 ng/L with the enrichment factor of 320. The mean recoveries for drinking water at three spiked concentrations levels of 0.6–32 ng/L were in the range of 91.3 to 103%, the precision ranged from 3.1 to 7.5% (n= 6), and the inter-day precision was from 6.1 to 11.1% (n= 5). Only one of 15 selected real samples tested positive for GSM, and the concentration was 3 ng/L. This method was confirmed to be simple, fast, efficient, and accurate for the determination of earthy-musty compounds in aqueous samples.

BOPHY as a photosensitizer was able to high-efficiently generate the singlet oxygen which can rapidly accomplish theoxidation of 80% DPBF atthe first 6min.

Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) hold great promise for future bendable display and curved lighting applications. One key challenge of high-performance flexible OLEDs is to develop new flexible transparent conductive electrodes with superior mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. Herein, an effective nanostructured metal/dielectric composite electrode on a plastic substrate is reported by combining a quasi-random outcoupling structure for broadband and angle-independent light outcoupling of white emission with an ultrathin metal alloy film for optimum optical transparency, electrical conduction, and mechanical flexibility. The microcavity effect and surface plasmonic loss can be remarkably reduced in white flexible OLEDs, resulting in a substantial increase in the external quantum efficiency and power efficiency to 47.2% and 112.4 lm W–1.

The microstructures of doxorubicin-loaded micelles prepared from block polymers HisxLys10(x= 0, 5, 10) conjugated with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are investigated under different pH conditions, using dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. The conformation of micelles and the DOX distributions in micelles were obviously influenced by pH values and the length of the histidine segment. At pH >6.0, the micelles self-assembled from the polymers were dense and compact. The drugs were entrapped well within the micellar core. The particle size increases as the histidine length increases. With the decrease of pH value to be lower than 6.0, there was no distinct difference for the micelles self-assembled from the polymer without histidine residues. However, the micelles prepared from the polymers with histidine residues shows a structural transformation from dense to swollen conformation, leading to an increased particle size from 10.3 to 14.5 DPD units for DHD-His10Lys10micelles. This structural transformation of micelles can accelerate the DOX release from micelles under lower pH conditions. The in vitrodrug release from micelles is accelerated by the decrease of pH value from 7.4 (physiological environment) to 5.0 (lysosomal environment). The integration of simulation and experiments might be a valuable method for the optimization and design of biomaterials for drug delivery with desired properties.