Search

Thermoelectric (TE) power generation is expected to be one of the most effective solutions to convert industrial exhaust heat to electricity for conserving fossil energy and reducing carbon emissions. However, its real application is obstructed decisively by the weakness of the service stability of state‐of‐the‐art TE materials at high temperatures in air. Refractory iron silicide (β‐FeSi2) used to be widely investigated as TE materials, but the low zT has restricted its practical application and even made it almost vanish from TE research in recent years. Here, guided by theoretical calculation, ultrahigh solubility of Ir on the Fe sites of β‐FeSi2 is successfully realized. Doping 16% Ir elicits multi‐valley electrical conduction and phonon‐electron scattering, doubling the previous zT record of β‐FeSi2 to ≈0.6 at 1000 K. The TE properties of the obtained β‐FeSi2 are practically unchanged after thermal aging in air at 1173 K. The new conceptual electrode‐less β‐FeSi2‐based refractory module demonstrates considerable power density and stable power generation when it is burned by a gas flame in air. These results mark a step toward developing practical TE power generation technology for the recovery of industrial waste heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible thermoelectrics, including flexible thermoelectric materials and devices, can directly convert the heat from human body into useful electricity, providing a promising solution for uninterrupted power to wearables. In the past decade, flexible thermoelectrics has achieved notable progress. Various kinds of flexible thermoelectric materials have been developed and some of them have been fabricated into flexible thermoelectric devices, showing the ability to generate nW‐level or even μW‐level electricity. Herein, the basic design principles and typical configurations of flexible thermoelectric devices, as well as the requirements on thermoelectric materials to achieve high performance flexible thermoelectric devices, are first introduced. Then, the recent progress achieved in flexible thermoelectric devices based on organics materials, traditional inorganic materials, other organic/inorganic composites/hybrids, and plastic deformable inorganic semiconductors, respectively, are summarized. Finally, an outlook on the future development of flexible thermoelectrics is briefly given. This study sheds light on the further development of flexible thermoelectrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper (Cu)‐based thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted great attention from both scientific and industrial societies, but for a long time, their real applications are greatly limited by the lack of high‐performance n‐type Cu‐based TE materials. Most recently, the novel n‐type Cu‐based TE material, CuIn5Se8, has been discovered to show a record‐high TE figure‐of‐merit (zT) to match the state‐of‐the‐art p‐type Cu‐based TE materials. However, the physical origin of such high zT is still unclear due to its complex phase compositions and crystal structures. In this work, it is revealed that the excellent TE performance is mainly contributed by the intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity originating from the unique all‐scale hierarchical architecture. It covers the ranges from atomic‐scale cation disorder in the tetragonal CuIn5Se8 phase and nanoscale diversified stacking units and stacking sequences in the hexagonal CuIn5Se8 phase, to mesoscale grain boundaries between the tetragonal phase and hexagonal phase. Doping Br at the Se‐sites can largely tune the electrical transports of CuIn5Se8 while maintaining the ultralow lattice thermal conductivity, leading to high zT reaching the optimal value predicted by the single parabolic model. This work will guide the investigation of n‐type Cu‐based TE materials in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic barrier layer is a key component in thermoelectric (TE) devices, but it is rarely investigated for the recently discovered inorganic ductile TE materials. In this work, we demonstrate that tungsten (W) is the excellent metallic barrier layer for Ag2S1−xSex ductile thermoelectric materials. The phase composition, microstructure, adhesive strength, and interfacial contact resistivity (ρC) of the W/Ag2S1−xSex joint have been systematically investigated. The sputtered W film has high adhesive strength and little interdiffusion/reaction with Ag2S1−xSex. The ρC decreases with increasing the Se content, which can be understood by the Thermionic-field Emission model. This work would guide the development of high-performance flexible TE devices based on ductile TE materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mode converters play a key role in the mode division multiplexing, which is an emerging technology to enlarge the information transmission capacity. The footprint and the performance of the mode converters are essential for the compact and energy-efficient integrated photonics. We numerically and experimentally demonstrate an on-chip multimode-interferometer-based mode converter, between the one-order mode and the fundamental mode, using metamaterial structures for phase shift and crosstalk suppression, and significantly reduce the footprint. The fabricated device has a high conversion efficiency of 79% and a broad 3 dB bandwidth of >50 nm, with an ultra-small footprint of only 2.4 × 8.9 μ m 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently discovered ductile/plastic inorganic semiconductors pave a new avenue toward flexible thermoelectrics. However, the power factors of current ductile/plastic inorganic semiconductors are usually low (below 5 µW cm−1 K−2) as compared with classic brittle inorganic thermoelectric materials, which greatly limit the electrical output power for flexible thermoelectrics. Here, large plasticity and high power factor in bulk two‐dimensional van der Waals (2D vdW) single‐crystalline SnSe2 are reported. SnSe2 crystals exhibit large plastic strains at room temperature and they can be morphed into various shapes without cracking, which is well captured by the inherent large deformability factor. As a semiconductor, the electrical transport properties of SnSe2 can be readily tuned in a wide range by doping a tiny amount of halogen elements. A high power factor of 10.8 µW cm−1 K−2 at 375 K along the in‐plane direction is achieved in plastic single‐crystalline Br‐doped SnSe2, which is the highest value among the reported flexible inorganic and organic thermoelectric materials. Combining the good plasticity, excellent power factors, as well as low‐cost and nontoxic elements, bulk 2D vdW single‐crystalline SnSe2 shows great promise to achieve high power density for flexible thermoelectrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temperature‐dependent photoluminescence (PL) properties of high quality cubic phase α‐CsPbI3 nanocrystals are investigated, and thermal transfer from free excitons to trapped excitons is observed. Free exciton recombination is the main origin of the high PL quantum yield (97%) at room temperature. Little change of PL peak energy is observed with decreasing temperature from 280 to 200 K, and it shifts from 1.84 to 1.81 eV in the region of 200 and 80 K. The PL peak intensity decreases with decreasing temperature first and then increases, and the minimum value is observed at 180 K. Two PL bands are obtained by Gaussian fittings in the PL spectra detected at different temperatures, and the high energy band is attributed to the emission of free excitons, while that for the low energy band is related to the transition of trapped excitons. The PL integrated intensity ratio of trapped exciton and free exciton transition increases from 0.18 to 2.10 with decreasing the temperature, which suggests that thermal transfer from free exciton to trapped exciton states leads to the dominant optical emission of trapped exciton recombination in the low temperature region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of ductile Ag2(S, Se, Te) materials opens a new avenue toward high‐performance flexible/hetero‐shaped thermoelectrics. Specifically, the cubic‐structured materials are quite attractive by combining remarkable plasticity, decent thermoelectric figure of merit (zT), and no phase transition above room temperature. However, such materials are quite few and the understanding is inadequate on their mechanical and thermoelectric properties. Enlightened by the high‐entropy principles, a series of pseudo‐ternary Ag2S‐Ag2Se‐Ag2Te alloys is designed and comprehensive diagrams of composition‐structure‐plasticity‐zT are compiled. Subsequently, the compositional region for the cubic phase is outlined. As a high‐entropy example featuring with anion‐site alloying and disordered Ag ions, Ag2‐xS1/3Se1/3Te1/3 materials exhibit impressively large elongations of 60–97%, ultralow lattice thermal conductivities of ≈0.2 W m−1 K−1, and decent zT values of 0.45 at 300 K, 0.8 at 460 K. The materials can be readily rolled into thin foils, showing excellent flexibility. Finally, a six‐leg in‐plane device is fabricated, achieving an output voltage of 13.6 mV, a maximal power of 12.8 µW, and a power density of 14.3 W m−2 under the temperature difference of 30 K, much higher than the organic counterparts. This study largely enriches the members of cubic ductile inorganic materials for the applications in flexible and hetero‐shaped energy and electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we report the ternary Cu-based chalcogenide, Cu2TiTe3, as a promising thermoelectric material in middle-temperature range. The bonding interaction between Te p and Ti d states is observed in the Ti–Te octahedron, which drives the side bands up converging with Γ band, yielding a high valence band degeneracy of 5. A high electronic quality factor of 2.2 μW cm−1 K−2 and a decent power factor of 7.5 μW cm−1 K−2 at 300 K are achieved for Cu2TiTe3. Likewise, Cu2TiTe3 demonstrates low lattice thermal conductivity throughout the measured temperature range, which is attributed to the low frequency vibration related to the global motion of Ti–Te–Cu clusters. Finally, a maximum figure-of-merit of 0.38 was obtained for Cu2TiTe3 at 600 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyes are environmentally detrimental and prevalent pollutants in water. It is crucial to develop materials for water treatment with both adsorption/photocatalytic and antibacterial activity. In this work, bitter gourd-like Ag-loaded aramid nanofibers (ANFs@Ag) aerogel fibers were successfully prepared by a novel wet spinning process, in which the coupling of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) cluster on the fiber surface could be enhanced by using ANFs as a support carrier. The as-prepared ANFs@Ag aerogel fibers exhibit uniform porous structure with the specific surface area and pore volume being 235–298 m2 g−1 and 0.54–0.63 m3 g−1, respectively, and the photocatalytic activity of ANFs@Ag aerogel fibers could be achieved owing to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect and interband electronic transition of the bitter gourd-like AgNPs layer. The ANFs@Ag aerogel fibers showed high removal efficiency of crystalline violet with up to 98.66% under xenon lamp irradiation due to the synergetic effect of adsorption and photocatalysis. Moreover, bacterial disk diffusion experiments revealed that the ANFs@Ag aerogel fibers have significant antibacterial performance against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, the ANFs@Ag aerogel fibers exhibit superior thermal stability due to the loading of AgNPs. This work provides a new strategy for developing highly efficient porous ANFs–aerogel-based fiber composites, and the obtained bitter gourd-like ANFs@Ag composite aerogel fibers will have promising applications in the field of water purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ge-Sb-Te compounds (GST), the well-known phase-change materials, are considered to be promising thermoelectric (TE) materials due to their decent thermoelectric performance. While Ge2Sb2Te5 and GeSb2Te4 have been extensively studied, the TE performance of GeSb4Te7 has not been well explored. Reducing the excessive carrier concentration is crucial to improving TE performance for GeSb4Te7. In this work, we synthesize a series of Se-alloyed GeSb4Te7 compounds and systematically investigate their structures and transport properties. Raman analysis reveals that Se alloying introduces a new vibrational mode of GeSe2, enhancing the interatomic interaction forces within the layers and leading to the reduction of carrier concentration. Additionally, Se alloying also increases the effective mass and thus improves the Seebeck coefficient of GeSb4Te7. The decrease in carrier concentration reduces the carrier thermal conductivity, depressing the total thermal conductivity. Finally, a maximum zT value of 0.77 and an average zT value of 0.48 (300–750 K) have been obtained in GeSb4Te5.5Se1.5. This work investigates the Raman vibration modes and the TE performance in Se-alloyed GeSb4Te7 sheddinglight on the performance optimization of other GST materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: The modified injection technique developed in Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences has significantly improved the visualization rate of internal mammary sentinel lymph nodes (IMSLN), however there is still a gap between the visualization rate of IMSLN obtained by this technique and that of axillary sentinel lymph nodes (ASLN). The study aimed to further improve the IMSLN visualization rate and promote the widespread use of internal mammary sentinel lymph node biopsy (IM-SLNB) by optimizing the modified injection technique. Methods: A total of 159 patients with primary breast cancer were enrolled in a prospective group and divided into the optimized radiotracer technique group (group A, n=81) and the modified injection technique group (group B, n=78). In group A, 99mTc-sulfur colloid was injected averagely into parenchyma in the gland's three most abundant regions under ultrasound guidance (total radioactive intensity 1.0-1.3 mCi; 0.8-1.0 mL/point). In group B, 99mTc-sulfur colloid was injected averagely into the parenchyma of the breast at 6 and 12 points under ultrasound guidance (total radioactive intensity 1.0-1.3 mCi; 0.8-1.0 mL/point). Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) lymphoscintigraphy was performed preoperatively, and the sentinel lymph nodes were detected intraoperatively by γ probe. In this study, we evaluated the differences in IMSLN and ASLN visualization rates between the groups, and also analyzed the factors that may affect the IMSLN visualization rate. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in visualization rate of IM-SLN measured by preoperative SPECT/CT between the two groups (P=0.806). The intraoperative visualization rate of IM-SLN was significantly higher in group A than in group B (87.65% vs 70.51%, P=0.008). Analysis of subgroups showed that the intraoperative visualization rate of IMSLN was 92.31% and 83.33% (P=0.315) in group A patients aged ≤50 years and >50 years, respectively, and the intraoperative visualization rate of IMSLN was significantly higher in group B patients aged ≤50 years than in patients aged >50 years (81.58% vs 60.00%, P=0.037). The median in vitro radioactivity count of IMSLN was significantly higher in group A than in group B (160.50 vs 59.00, P=0.005). Conclusion: The optimized radiotracer technique can effectively increase the lymphatic drainage and uptake in the internal mammary region of the radiotracer, which can significantly improve the visualization rate of IM-SLN without affecting the visualization rate of ASLN, and is conducive to the promotion and application of IM-SLNB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Internal mammary lymph node irradiation (IMNI) improves survival in patients with internal mammary lymph node (IMLN) high-risk metastatic breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to study the advantages of internal mammary sentinel lymph node (IMLN) biopsy (IM-SLNB) for assessing prognosis and directing individualized IMNI. Methods: This study evaluated patients recruited in three prospective clinical trials (NCT01642511, NCT03541278, and NCT03024463) from November 2011 to December 2021, assessed for prognostic risk variables based on IMSLN metastatic status and prognosis between subgroups. In patients who received regional lymph node irradiation, the implementation status, survival benefit, and influence of IMNI on radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) were studied. The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS), with overall survival (OS) and RILI as secondary endpoints. Results: The study enrolled 537 patients and had a 60-month median follow-up. Patients with IMSLN metastasis had a significantly worse 5-year DFS and OS (DFS: 95.1% vs 71.4%, OS: 99.1% vs 90.1%, both P<0.05), and IMSLN metastatic status was an independent risk factor for DFS and OS (both P<0.05). Adding IMNI did not improve DFS (P = 0.099) or OS (P = 0.486) in patients with negative IMSLN, while it did increase the risk of RILI (OR = 3.678, P<0.05). However, adding IMNI improved 5-year DFS (87.3% vs 52.5%, P = 0.040) for patients with positive IMSLN but had no effect on OS (P = 0.603). Conclusion: This study discovered that IMSLN metastatic status has significant prognostic importance. Patients with IMSLN metastasis who receive IMNI have significantly improved prognosis, and patients without IMSLN metastasis have a much lower risk of RILI by being exempt from IMNI without worse prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Despite the poor prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), it has been demonstrated that neoadjuvant immunotherapy in combination with chemotherapy can improve the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate and/or long-term outcome of TNBC. However, there have been no real-world studies reporting on the effectiveness of neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibitors in early TNBC. Methods: Between November 2019 and December 2021, 63 early TNBC patients treated with anti-PD-1 antibodies (pembrolizumab or camrelizumab) or anti-PD-L1 antibody (atezolizumab) in combination with chemotherapy at seven institutions were included. PCR1 defined as ypT0/Tis and ypN0 was the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints included pCR2 defined as ypT0/Tis, overall response rate (ORR), disease-free survival (DFS), drug-related adverse events (AEs) and biomarkers. Results: Among the patients in the current study, 34.9% of patients were able to achieve pCR1, and 47.6% of patients had achieved pCR2. The ORR was 82.5%. 33 patients with non-pCR2 tumors were found to have a median DFS of 20.7 months (95% CI 16.3 months-not reached). The DFS of patients with pCR2 and non-pCR2 after neoadjuvant therapy was significantly different (HR = 0.28, 95% CI 0.10–0.79; P = 0.038). The most common AEs were nausea (63.4%), fatigue (42.7%), leucopenia (30.0%) and elevated transaminase (11.7%). Conclusion: It is possible to achieve a meaningful pCR rate and DFS by combining neoadjuvant checkpoint blockade with chemotherapy in patients with high-risk TNBC. Compared to clinical trials, however, there was a slightly lower pCR rate in this multicentered real-world study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the pseudo-binary alloys between GeTe and Sb2Te3, GeSbTe-based compounds are promising thermoelectric materials. Although Ge2Sb2Te5 and GeSb2Te4 have widely been studied, the thermoelectric properties of GeSb4Te7 have not been well understood yet. In this work, we design a series of GeSb4-xBixTe7 solid solutions and systematically study the variation in the crystal structure, electrical, and thermal transport properties. Alloying Bi effectively reduces the carrier concentration and, thus, enhances the Seebeck coefficient. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivity is greatly reduced via large mass fluctuations. A maximum zT of 0.69 at 550 K and an average zT value of 0.52 between 300 and 700 K have been achieved for GeSb1.5Bi2.5Te7. These findings will promote the understanding and development of GeSbTe-based thermoelectric materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-throughput sequencing, culture-dependent workflows, and microbiome transfer experiments reveal whether potassium phosphite (KP), an environmentally acceptable agricultural chemical, could specifically enrich the antagonistic bacterial community that inhibited the growth of the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum. The application of KP enriched the potential antagonistic bacteria Paenibacillus and Streptomyces in soil, but depleted most dominant genera belonging to gram negative bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, Massilia, and Flavobacterium on day 7. Moreover, the KP-modulated soil microbiome suppressed R. solanacearum growth in soil. The predicted functions related to the synthesis of antagonistic substances, such as streptomycin, and the predicted functions related to tellurite resistance and nickel transport system were significantly enriched, but the synthesis of lipopolysaccharide (distinct component lipopolysaccharide in gram negative bacteria) were significantly depleted in the KP-treated soils. In addition, the copy numbers of specific sequences for Streptomyces coelicoflavus and Paenibacillus favisporus were significantly increased in the soil amended with KP, inhibited the growth of R. solanacearum, and had a higher tolerance of KP than R. solanacearum. Our study linked the application of fertilizers to the enrichment of antagonistic bacteria, which could support future work that aims to precisely regulate the soil microbiome to protect the host from infection by soil-borne pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic adaptation is an emerging hallmark of cancer, as it provides tumor cells sufficient energy and metabolic intermediates. Although tumor cells are believed to highly rely on Warburg effect to satisfy their energy demand, more studies have pointed out that various types of tumor cells are highly dependent on oxidative phosphorylation to drive the tumorigenesis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-c coactivator 1α (PGC1α), the crucial member of PGC1 family, is aberrantly expressed in several cancer types, implicating its role in tumor proliferation, migration, invasion, metastasis, and chemoresistance. Numerous studies have reported that PGC1α participates in the regulation of tumor development by altering the transcriptional programs as well as the metabolic phenotypes. Thus, PGC1α-targeted therapy is therapeutically exploitable to target the metabolic vulnerabilities in tumor cells. This review mainly focuses on the current underlying mechanisms for its roles in regulating metabolic adaptation of tumor cells and its upstream regulators; how PGC1α participates in the regulation of the tumor proliferation, migration, invasion, metastasis, therapy resistance; and the feasibility of PGC1α-targeted therapy for cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a rapid-forming in-situ sprayable hydrogel with the functions of tumor treatment and wound healing is essential for eliminating residual tumor tissue and promoting wound healing caused by surgical resection. On account of its semiconductor properties, β-FeSi 2 (FS) was widely explored as a thermoelectric material. In this work, FS was first applied as a bioactive material for the application of tissue engineering. Excitedly, we found that FS could be used as a novel antitumor agent. It exhibited excellent photothermal performance, and the released Fe ions could generate •OH under the acidic conditions and excessive H 2 O 2 in the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, the sprayable β-FeSi 2 -incorporated sodium alginate (FS/SA) hydrogel was prepared as an instant gelation after spraying in situ , contributing to timely tumor-induced skin wound healing and efficiently suppressing tumors through photothermal and chemodynamic therapy (PTT and CDT). Furthermore, the released bioactive Fe and Si ions could promote the migration and differentiation of endothelial cells and the pro-angiogenesis of skin wounds. Accordingly, such sprayable hydrogel played an effective role in emergency wound treatment with the advantage of convenience and portability. Overall, with incorporation of FS into the sprayable FS/SA hydrogel, the composite hydrogel possessed dual functions of tumor therapy and skin wound healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupling of a phase transition to electron and phonon transports provides extra degree of freedom to improve the thermoelectric performance, while the pertinent experimental and theoretical studies are still rare. Particularly, the impaction of chemical compositions and phase transition characters on the abnormal thermoelectric properties across phase transitions are largely unclear. Herein, by varying the Cu content x from 1.75 to 2.10, we systemically investigate the crystal structural evolution, phase transition features, and especially the thermoelectric properties during the phase transition for Cu x Se. It is found that the addition of over-stoichiometry Cu in Cu x Se could alter the phase transition characters and suppress the formation of Cu vacancies. The critical scatterings of phonons and electrons during phase transitions strongly enhance the Seebeck coefficient and diminish the thermal conductivity, leading to an ultrahigh dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit of ∼1.38 at 397 K in Cu2.10Se. With the decreasing Cu content, the critical electron and phonon scattering behaviors are mitigated, and the corresponding thermoelectric performances are reduced. This work offers inspirations for understanding and tuning the thermoelectric transport properties during phase transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, a deformable and ductile inorganic semiconductor Ag2S has attracted intense attention due to its potential application in self-powered wearable and hetero-shaped electronics. However, the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of Ag2S is greatly limited by its extremely low carrier concentration. In this study, via doping I into Ag2S-based materials, we tune the carrier concentration into the optimal range as well as suppressing the lattice thermal conductivity. A maximum zT value of 0.26 is achieved for Ag2S0.7Se0.295I0.005 at 300 K, about three times higher than the matrix compound. More importantly, doping I has little effect on the ductility and deformability of Ag2S-based materials. Our study shows that I-doped Ag2S-based materials are good candidates for developing flexible thermoelectric technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermoelectric materials require not only high performance to maximize the energy conversion efficiency but also good mechanical properties to guarantee machinability and reliable operation. It is usually hard to embrace both at once. Herein, we demonstrated the entropy engineering as a promising avenue to realize both exceptional thermoelectric performance and robust mechanical properties in multicomponent alloys Cu 2- y Ag y Te 1-2 x S x Se x. Entropy engineering by mixing multiple elements stabilizes the high-symmetry hexagonal structure, extends the solubility limit of Ag, and concurrently lessens the phase transition numbers. Furthermore, with co-alloying of S/Se and Ag in Cu 2 Te, the carrier concentration is largely reduced while the effective mass is enhanced, yielding higher Seebeck coefficient and power factor. Owing to the strong phonon scattering by lattice disorder, the thermal conductivity is decreased by one order of magnitude, reaching 0.29 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature, which is even lower than the amorphous limit. A state-of-the-art peak zT of 1.4 and average zT of 0.74 are achieved in Cu 1.9 Ag 0.1 Te 0.6 S 0.2 Se 0.2. Moreover, the mechanical properties are significantly improved in virtue of the entropy engineering strengthening effect, making it more promising for thermoelectric applications. Record-high average zT of 0.74 and remarkably improved compressive strength were achieved in multicomponent alloys Cu 2- y Ag y Te 1-2 x S x Se x through entropy engineering [Display omitted]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• OLR1 was highly upregulated in the breast cancer compared with nontumor tissues. • High expression of OLR1 was significantly correlated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. • OLR1 markedly affected the immune infiltration level of breast cancer. Oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor 1 (OLR1), a key receptor for oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), plays a crucial role in cancer and inflammatory disease. However, the correlation between OLR1 expression and immune infiltration in breast cancer (BC) remain unclear. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the expression level of OLR1 in BC tissues and explore the prognostic importance of OLR1 using quantitative real-time PCR, immunohistochemical analysis and different databases. The significantly enriched KEGG and GO pathways were used to identify the potential biological function of OLR1 via LinkedOmics analysis. Furthermore, we detected the correlation between OLR1 expression and a variety of immune infiltrating cells via Tumor Immune Estimation Resource database and GEPIA database. Our study revealed that OLR1 upregulation was observed in BC tissues and correlated with worse clinical outcomes and advanced clinicopathological factors. Meanwhile, OLR1 regulated various immunity-related pathways, especially the polarization of macrophages. Immunohistochemical analysis further confirmed the significant correlation between OLR1 expression and tumor infiltration of M2 macrophages as well as tumor-associated macrophages. OLR1 upregulation indicated poor prognosis in BC, possibly through inducing macrophage polarization and triggering immune evasion. Collectively, OLR1 may represent a potential therapeutic target for BC tailored therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]