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Abstract Due to radiation resistance and the immunosuppressive microenvironment of metastatic osteosarcoma, novel radiosensitizers that can sensitize radiotherapy (RT) and antitumor immunity synchronously urgently needed. Here, the authors developed a nanoscale metal–organic framework (MOF, named TZM) by co‐doping high‐atomic elements Ta and Zr as metal nodes and porphyrinic molecules (tetrakis(4‐carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (TCPP)) as a photosensitizing ligand. Given the 3D arrays of ultra‐small heavy metals, porous TZM serves as an efficient attenuator absorbing X‐ray energy and sensitizing hydroxyl radical generation for RT. Ta–Zr co‐doping narrowed the highest occupied molecular orbital‐lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO–LUMO) energy gap and exhibited close energy levels between the singlet and triplet photoexcited states, facilitating TZM transfer energy to the photosensitizer TCPP to sensitize singlet oxygen (1O2) generation for radiodynamic therapy (RDT). The sensitized RT–RDT effects of TZM elicit a robust antitumor immune response by inducing immunogenic cell death, promoting dendritic cell maturation, and upregulating programmed cell death protein 1 (PD‐L1) expression via the cGAS–STING pathway. Furthermore, a combination of TZM, X‐ray, and anti‐PD‐L1 treatments amplify antitumor immunotherapy and efficiently arrest osteosarcoma growth and metastasis. These results indicate that TZM is a promising radiosensitizer for the synergistic RT and immunotherapy of metastatic osteosarcoma.

As an important property of rock material, brittleness plays a vital role in rock engineering. This paper raised the concept of elastic strain energy release rate and proposed an elastic strain energy release rate based brittleness index based on the most acceptable definition of brittleness. Mechanical and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance parameters of sandstone under various Freezing-Thawing (F-T) cycles are also acquired and analyzed. Then, the proposed brittleness index is used to compare with two recently proposed brittleness indices to verify its correctness and applicability. Finally, the brittleness index is applied to evaluate the brittle behavior of F-T cycles treated sandstone under uniaxial compression. The results show that elastic modulus, value of the postpeak modulus, and peak stress decrease with F-T cycles, and the porosity and microstructure develop with F-T cycles. The proposed brittleness index is highly related to F-T cycles, peak stress, porosity, and elastic modulus of sandstone that suffered recurrent F-T cycles. It declines exponentially with F-T cycles and porosity increase while growing exponentially with peak stress and elastic modulus increase.

With the growth of DC electricity load, the difficulty to improve the power quality, and the increasing penetration of renewable power, flexible DC distribution network, which contains complex renewable energy generation equipment and a large number of power electronic converters, become an important research direction. The modelling of the DC distribution network is an essential step for the research on the coordination control. However, the traditional modelling will be a burden for simulation software. This article models all electrical devices as equivalent power sources based on the proportional–integral control and the power–voltage curve, ignoring the complex internal control processes. Based on the simplified models of power, load, DC/DC converters, and AC/DC converters considering droop control, a simplified model of a multi-terminal flexible DC distribution network is derived. Taking the impact of droop control into account, the simulation of DC distribution power flow under the different distribution of generation and load is done. Results show that the simplified model of DC distribution network with droop control can accurately and rapidly simulate the transient process and steady states of the testing network.

In order to figure out the damage characteristics and mechanisms of sandstone under coupled effect of acid erosion and recurrent freezing-thawing cycles, sulfuric acid is chosen as acid solution, and sandstone, representative stone in Sichuan province, is chosen as a sample to conduct the freezing-thawing cycling test. In the meantime, chemical component of the solution is also tested and recorded in the progress of freezing-thawing cycling. Then, the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) test and magnetic resonance images (MRI) test on samples are conducted with the help of the AniMR-150 NMR imaging system. After a series of tests, the sample’s appearance, dry mass, porosity, T2 spectrum, solution’s pH, solution’s metallic ion concentration, and magnetic resonance images are obtained and analyzed. The results show that dry mass loss and porosity grow with F-T cycles increase and pH value decrease. Montmorillonite, illite, and clay in sandstone react with sulfuric acid solution; as a consequence, K+, Mg2+, Fe3+, and Al3+ separate out, and the solution’s pH and concentration of K+, Mg2+, Fe3+, and Al3+ increase with F-T cycles. Acid erosion and F-T cycling lead to the generation of new micropores and expansion of micropores at the beginning; when the acid solution is exhausted, new micropores generate under the effect of freezing-thawing cycling, and micropores in samples keep developing and expanding with the increase of freezing-thawing cycles. Coupled effect of acid corrosion and recurrent freezing-thawing cycling causes much more serious deterioration to sandstone samples than acid corrosion.

Tumor suppressor candidate 5 (TUSC5) is a gene expressed abundantly in white adipose tissue (WAT), brown adipose tissue (BAT), and peripheral afferent neurons. Strong adipocyte expression and increased expression following peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) agonist treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes suggested a role for Tusc5 in fat cell proliferation and/or metabolism. However, the regulation of Tusc5 in WAT and its potential association with obesity phenotypes remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that the TUSC5 gene is a bona fide PPARγ target and evaluated whether its WAT expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TUSC5 coding region are associated with human obesity. Induction of Tusc5 mRNA levels in 3T3-L1 adipocytes by troglitazone and GW1929 followed a dose-response consistent with these agents' binding affinities for PPARγ. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments confirmed that PPARγ protein binds a ∼−1.1 kb promotor sequence of murine TUSC5 transiently during 3T3-L1 adipogenesis, concurrent with histone H3 acetylation. No change in Tusc5 mRNA or protein levels was evident in type 2 diabetic patients treated with pioglitazone. Tusc5 expression was not induced appreciably in liver preparations overexpressing PPARs, suggesting that tissue-specific factors regulate PPARγ responsiveness of the TUSC5 gene. Finally, we observed no differences in Tusc5 WAT expression or prevalence of coding region SNPs in lean versus obese human subjects. These studies firmly establish the murine TUSC5 gene locus as a PPARγ target, but the significance of Tusc5 in obesity phenotypes or in the pharmacologic actions of PPARγ agonists in humans remains equivocal.

Objectives. Idiopathic epiretinal membrane (iERM) or idiopathic macular hole (iMH) is frequently used as a “healthy” control in comparison of vitreous cytokines with other vitreoretinal diseases. This study aimed to investigate if there is a difference in vitreal cytokines expression between patients with iERM and iMH. Methods. In this prospective study, all subjects received standard pars plana vitrectomy surgery, and 0.5 ml of native vitreous sample was extracted during the vitrectomy. Luminex technology and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to profile the concentration of 52 classic angiogenic, inflammatory, and profibrotic cytokines and chemokines. Statistical analyses were performed by the Mann–Whitney U test, followed by multiple comparisons by the Bonferroni correction. Results. Vitreal samples from 13 iERM and 24 iMH were studied. Of the 52 tested cytokines, 41 were similar in expression, and 5 were under the detection limit, while 6 cytokines (MMP-8, Eotaxin, MIP-1a, RANTES, TGF-β2, and IL-4) were differently expressed between two groups (p