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Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are a promising substitute for indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent conductive films (TCFs). However, AgNWs suffer the insufficiencies in contact resistance between the nanowires and light loss. Here, graphene oxide and moth-eye-like antireflection nanostructure have been introduced to physically "weld" the AgNWs junctions and modulate the AR properties, respectively. The sandwich structure AgNWs TCFs achieved resistance of 26.26 Ω sq−1 and transmittance of 98.67%, exhibiting promoted photoelectronic performance compared with the pure AgNWs films. The stability of sandwich structure AgNWs TCFs was improved, and their wettability was also discussed with water contact angle changed from 92.55° to 69.18°, switched from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. Though a simple solution process without mechanical or heat post-treatment, we proposed a stable sandwich structure to obviously improve the electrical and optical capabilities of AgNWs. The enhanced AgNWs TCFs with superior photoelectronic performance are believed to boost the practical applications and future development of AgNWs-based TCFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common and lethal malignancy of the biliary tract that lacks effective therapy. In many GBC cases, infiltration into adjacent organs or distant metastasis happened long before the diagnosis, especially the direct liver invasion, which is the most common and unfavorable way of spreading. Methods: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), spatial transcriptomics (ST), proteomics, and multiplexed immunohistochemistry (mIHC) were performed on GBC across multiple tumor stages to characterize the tumor microenvironment (TME), focusing specifically on the preferential enrichment of neutrophils in GBC liver invasion (GBC-LI). Results: Multi-model Analysis reveals the immunosuppressive TME of GBC-LI that was characterized by the enrichment of neutrophils at the invasive front. We identified the context-dependent transcriptional states of neutrophils, with the Tumor-Modifying state being associated with oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) metabolism. In vitro assays showed that the direct cell-cell contact between GBC cells and neutrophils led to the drastic increase in oxLDL uptake of neutrophils, which was primarily mediated by the elevated OLR1 on neutrophils. The oxLDL-absorbing neutrophils displayed a higher potential to promote tumor invasion while demonstrating lower cancer cytotoxicity. Finally, we identified a neutrophil-promoting niche at the invasive front of GBC-LI that constituted of KRT17+ GBC cells, neutrophils, and surrounding fibroblasts, which may help cultivate the oxLDL-absorbing neutrophils. Conclusions: Our study reveals the existence of a subset of pro-tumoral neutrophils with a unique ability to absorb oxLDL via OLR1, a phenomenon induced through cell-cell contact with KRT17+ GBC cells in GBC-LI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated that brain metastases patients may benefit from intracranial radiotherapy combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, it is unclear whether this treatment is effective for patients with small cell lung cancer brain metastases (SCLC‐BMs). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study by analyzing medical records of patients with SCLC‐BMs from January 1, 2017 to June 1, 2022. Data related to median overall survival (mOS), median progression‐free survival (mPFS), and intracranial progression‐free survival (iPFS) were analyzed. Results: A total of 109 patients were enrolled, of which 60 received WBRT and 49 received WBRT‐ICI. Compared to the WBRT alone cohort, the WBRT‐ICI cohort showed longer mOS (20.4 months vs. 29.3 months, p = 0.021), mPFS (7.9 months vs. 15.1 months, p < 0.001), and iPFS (8.3 months vs. 16.5 months, p < 0.001). Furthermore, WBRT‐ICI cohort had a better response rate for both BMs. (p = 0.035) and extracranial diseases (p < 0.001) compared to those receiving WBRT alone. Notably, the use of WBRT before ICI was associated with longer mOS compared to the use of WBRT after ICI (23.3 months for the ICI‐WBRT group vs. 34.8 months for the WBRT‐ICI group, p = 0.020). Conclusion: Our results indicated that WBRT combined with immunotherapy improved survival in SCLC‐BMs patients compared to WBRT monotherapy. Administering WBRT prior to ICI treatment is associated with improved survival outcomes compared to WBRT following ICI treatment, for patients with SCLC‐BMs. These findings highlight the significance of conducting further prospective researches on combination strategies of intracranial radiotherapy and ICI in SCLC‐BMs patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilization of a G-quadruplex (G4) in the promotor of the c-MYC proto-oncogene leads to inhibition of gene expression, and it thus represents a potentially attractive new strategy for cancer treatment. However, most G4 stabilizers show little selectivity among the many G4s present in the cellular complement of DNA and RNA. Intriguingly, a crescent-shaped cell-penetrating thiazole peptide, TH3, preferentially stabilizes the c-MYC G4 over other promotor G4s, but the mechanisms leading to this selective binding remain obscure. To investigate these mechanisms at the atomic level, we performed an in silico comparative investigation of the binding of TH3 and its analogue TH1 to the G4s from the promotors of c-MYC, c-KIT1, c-KIT2, and BCL2. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations, combined with in-depth analyses of non-covalent interactions and bulk and per-nucleotide binding free energies, revealed that both TH3 and TH1 can induce the formation of a sandwich-like framework through stacking with both the top and bottom G-tetrads of the c-MYC G4 and the adjacent terminal capping nucleotides. This framework produces enhanced binding affinities for c-MYC G4 relative to other promotor G4s, with TH3 exhibiting an outstanding binding priority. Van der Waals interactions were identified to be the key factor in complex formation in all cases. Collectively, our findings fully agree with available experimental data. Therefore, the identified mechanisms leading to specific binding of TH3 towards c-MYC G4 provide valuable information to guide the development of new selective G4 stabilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dust events are frequent in the Tarim Basin because of its underlying desert surface; moreover, meteorological conditions under the influence of the surrounding high terrains, especially the Tibetan Plateau, may also trigger dust events. However, the terrain effect of the Tibetan Plateau on the dust aerosol distribution over the Tarim Basin remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the Tibetan Plateau terrain on the dust aerosol variations in three dust events over the Tarim Basin using the Weather Research and Forecasting Chemistry model. With decreasing altitude of the Tibetan Plateau, dust concentration (DC) decreased in the upper layers and increased in the low layers. The DC within the entire atmospheric layers increased by 8.52%, 24.03%, and 43.05% on average during three dust events at Tibetan Plateau altitudes of 3000 m, 2000 m, and 1000 m, respectively, thereby indicating that the DC in the lower layers increasingly dominated the entire atmospheric layers as the Tibetan Plateau altitude decreased. Low-elevation terrain enhanced the planetary boundary layer height, near-surface wind speed, and surface air temperature, but weakened atmospheric stratification stability, all of which are beneficial for strengthening dust emissions and vertical mixing in the lower layers of the Tarim Basin. Furthermore, a decrease in the Tibetan Plateau altitude led to forming a vertical circulation, with the south to rise and the north to sink over the Tarim Basin. Meteorological field and vertical circulation could adequately explain the changes in the distribution of dust aerosols over the Tarim Basin. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of the effect of the Tibetan Plateau terrain on changes in the dust aerosol in the Tarim Basin and surrounding central Asian regions. [Display omitted] • Tibetan Plateau altitude decreased leads to less DC of the upper layers and more DC in the low layers over the Tarim Basim; • DC in the lower layers increasingly dominated the entire atmospheric layers with the Tibetan Plateau altitude decreased. • Meteorological field and vertical circulation commonly cause the change of dust aerosols distribution over the Tarim Basim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiscale piezoelectric materials and structures have shown their promising potential of applications in sensor, energy harvester, actuator and so on. However, the large complexity of such materials and structures poses a significant challenge to the accurate and efficient prediction of their piezoelectric behavior which is significant for guiding and optimizing their applications. In this paper, a Direct FE 2 method was proposed for concurrent multilevel modeling of the coupled electromechanical behavior of multiscale piezoelectric materials and structures. The energy equilibrium and kinematic constraints between macro- and meso-scales were satisfied by prescribing periodic boundary conditions for both displacement and electric potential, which were derived from the governing equation of FEM. Another boundary condition was prescribed to the center node of each RVE, to prevent rigid motion and shifting of electric potential of meso-scale RVEs. All these boundary conditions can be easily prescribed to the Direct FE 2 using multiple points constraints (MPCs), a commonly used feature in most commercial software. The accuracy, computational efficiency and ease of numerical implementation of the proposed Direct FE 2 method were validated using a series of multiscale simulations, including the quasi-static response of homogeneous piezoelectric panels, an arc honeycomb structure, a regular honeycomb structure and a piezoelectric composite panel, as well as the dynamic response of the piezoelectric composite panel. It shows that the proposed Direct FE 2 method will be valuable for large-scale simulations of complicated multiscale piezoelectric materials and structures. • A Direct FE 2 method is proposed for concurrent multilevel modeling of multiscale piezoelectric materials and structures. • The proposed methods can accurately capture the coupled electromechanical response of piezoelectric materials and structures. • The computational efficiency of the proposed method is 9 times higher than traditional FE simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vertical distribution and transport properties of dust aerosols play a key role in regional and even global climate and environmental changes. However, there are still gaps in understanding the optical properties, transport mechanisms, and topographic effects on dust in the dust-prone area-southern margin of the Tarim Basin. In this study, we use the Ground-Based Aerosol Lidar (GBQL-01) installed in Hotan and Minfeng in cooperation with the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) to synthesize and analyze the dust formation process at the southern margin of the basin once, and to test the reliability of the ground-based aerosol lidar. The variability characteristics of meteorological elements during this dust process will be discussed. Furthermore, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) was used to reproduce this dust process. The results show that the vertical transport of dust particles reaches about 4 km and 3 km in Hotan and Minfeng, respectively, and the dust aerosol stratification intensity is obvious within 1 km height in both places, and there is a dust aerosol layer at 3 km height in both places. The high winds are blocked by the large topography of the Tianshan Mountains and the northern slopes of the Tibet Plateau, and they change to northeasterly winds, triggering dusty weather outbreaks at the southern margin of the Tarim Basin. When the dusty weather subsided, dust aerosols with concentrations of 300–400 μg m−3 were still present at an altitude of 4 km, and a clear suspended dust phenomenon was formed. Meanwhile, the increase of wind speed and relative humidity, as well as the decrease of temperature, easily contribute to the occurrence of dusty weather and the transport of particulate matter. This work provides a useful reference for the study of regional climate change, topographic effects and "suspended dust". • The evaluation of the ground-based aerosol lidar's performance was conducted in an integrated manner using CALIPSO and particulate matter data. This assessment is essential for future studies. • Data on the height of dust stratification in the southern margin of the Tarim Basin (Hotan and Minfeng) was collected, confirming the presence of a stable aerosol layer at an altitude of 3 km. • The analysis using the WRF-Chem model clearly demonstrates the influence of topographic effects on dust aerosols. Additionally, this study confirms the occurrence of a unique phenomenon known as "suspended dust.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]