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The ability to climb is crucial for terrestrial robots to expand their scope of application with improved navigation capacity. While some soft climbing devices are available, they often lack versatility when it comes to adapting to rough surfaces and changes in terrains. In this regard, a piezo‐based soft robot with bioinspired footpads has been developed that can deliver superior climbing performance. Through their unprecedented directional friction, these footpads enable the robot to complete rigorous climbing tasks on surfaces with a climbing angle of 0–180° and a variety of roughness from ultra‐smooth to millimeter‐scale. With a unique slide‐swing gait, the robot is able to complete fast climbing on a 90° substrate at a speed of 1.4 body lengths per second (BL/s) and self‐transitional climbing on surfaces with a roughness difference of 11 µm and an angle change of 60° in 5 s without active control. A scaled down version of this climber is also presented with increased mobility to traverse steps of 3 body heights and slits of 0.75 BH effectively. In summary, the development of this soft robot with highly directional footpads paves the way for soft robots to navigate varied surfaces and ascend challenging terrains with improved mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRs) are small noncoding RNAs that play important roles in both physiological and pathological processes through post‐transcriptional regulation. The miR‐17‐92 cluster includes six individual members: miR‐17, miR‐18a, miR‐19a, miR‐19b‐1, miR‐20a, and miR‐92a‐1. The miR‐17‐92 cluster has been extensively studied and reported to broadly function in cancer biology, immunology, neurology, pulmonology, and cardiology. This review focuses on its roles in heart development and cardiac diseases. We briefly introduce the nature of the miR‐17‐92 cluster and its crucial roles in both normal development and the pathogenesis of various diseases. We summarize the recent progress in understanding the versatile roles of miR‐17‐92 during cardiac development, regeneration, and aging. Additionally, we highlight the indispensable roles of the miR‐17‐92 cluster in pathogenesis and therapeutic potential in cardiac birth defects and adult cardiac diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Male breast cancer (BC) is a rare disease, having different clinicopathological features and survival outcomes from female patients. The aim of this research was to, combine with molecular subtypes, analyze the metastatic patterns, and prognosis between male and female patients, and to determine whether the gender was the independent prognostic factor for BC. Methods: Data used in this study were acquired from the SEER database from 2010 to 2016. The clinicopathology features and metastatic patterns were compared by the Chi‐square test and Fisher's exact test. Kaplan–Meier method was performed to compare overall survival (OS) and factors correlated with OS were determined by Cox regression models. Competing risk models were used to ascertain factors related to breast cancer‐specific death (BCSD). Results: Compared with female BC, the incidence of regional LN (HR 1.849, 95% CI 1.674–2.043, p < 0.001) and distant metastasis (HR 1.421, 95%CI: 1.157–1.744, p < 0.001) was higher in male BC. For regional LN metastasis, hormone receptor (HoR)−/HER2+ subtype occupied the majority in both male (55.56%) and female (36.86%) groups. For distant metastasis, HoR−/HER2− subtype (21.26%), and HoR−/HER2+ (7.67%) were in major in male and female group separately. Male patients shared similar combinations of metastases with female groups as for single‐site, bi‐site, and tri‐site metastasis. Gender was an independent prognostic factor for OS (p < 0.001) but not for BCSD(p = 0.620). In subgroup of patients with HoR+/HER2−(OS: p = 0.003; BCSD: p = 0.606), HoR+/HER2+(OS: p = 0.003; BCSD: p = 0.277), regional LN positive(OS: p = 0.005; BCSD: p = 0.379), or bone metastasis (OS: p = 0.030; BCSD: p = 0.862), the male cohort had poorer OS but similar BCSD with female cohort. Conclusions: Compared with female patients, male BC had different metastasis patterns and prognostic outcomes, and the affection of breast subtypes on metastasis and survivorship was also different. More attention needs to be paid for specific molecular subtype and more personalized therapeutic strategies should be customized while treating male patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red/near infrared (NIR) long persistent phosphors have received extensive attentions in biomedical, food inspection, iris recognition, biological imaging, etc. Herein, a new phosphor, Li2ZnGe3O8:Cr3+, is reported with deep red persistent luminescence peaking at 708 nm. By adjusting the Cr3+ doping concentration, the competitive site occupation at [ZnO6] and [GeO6] polyhedral enables different traps behaviors including trap types, trap concentration and trap depth, which in turn leads to different afterglow duration time from 2 to 20 h. The persistent luminescence mechanisms originated from different trap models have been discussed, and it is found that they can cooperate or inhibit each other, enabling different luminescence depending on time. The dynamic anti‐counterfeiting applications have been demonstrated, which provides a new way to rationally designing for multi‐functional luminescent materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer has become the most common cancer in women, and nontriple negative breast cancer (non‐TNBC) accounts for 80–90% of all invasive breast cancers. Early detection, diagnosis, and treatment are considered key to a successful cure. Conventionally, breast imaging and needle core biopsy are used for detection and monitoring. However, small variations in volume might be ignored in imaging, and traditional biopsies are spatially and temporally limited, leading to a significant delay in cancer detection and thus prompting renewed focus on early and accurate diagnosis. In this article, we investigated whether there is an accurate molecule in peripheral blood that can help diagnose breast cancer. Similar to microRNAs, tRNA‐derived fragments (tRFs) have been reported to be involved in many pathological processes in breast cancer, but whether they can serve as candidate biomarkers for breast cancer remains unclear. Using high‐throughput sequencing technology, we identified 4,021 differentially expressed tRFs in normal and breast cancer cell lines, and eight tRFs were selected to establish a signature as a predictive biomarker of non‐TNBC. Furthermore, quantitative reverse‐transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was performed to verify the expression of the signature and analyze the correlation between dysregulated tRFs and breast cancer. The results indicated that tDR‐7816, tDR‐5334, and tDR‐4733 might be promising biomarkers. Through further bioinformatics analysis, we predicted that tDR‐7816 influences the xenobiotic metabolic processes that support the oncogenesis of breast cancer. In summary, our results provide a rationale for using circulating tDR‐7816 expression as a novel potential biomarker for the diagnosis of patients with early non‐TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of epithelial breast malignancy, and chemoresistance is the major obstacle for cancer therapy. TNBC is associated with a hypoxic phenotype, and hypoxia contributes to the chemoresistance in breast cancer. Transfer RNA‐derived fragments (tDRs) represent a new class of small noncoding RNAs that can be induced specifically by hypoxia. Here, we conducted a comparative analysis of the aberrant expression of tDRs in hypoxia‐treated TNBC cell lines through the use of high‐throughput sequencing technique. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was used to validate the differently expressed tDRs between two samples. The results showed that tDR‐0009 [derived from transfer RNA (tRNA)Gly‐GCC‐1‐1] and tDR‐7336 (derived from tRNA Gly‐GCC‐1–2) were significantly upregulated when the SUM‐1315 cell lines were stimulated by hypoxia. Gene ontology (GO) and pathway analysis indicated that these two upregulated tDRs were mainly involved in maintenance of stem cell population and cellular response to interleukin (IL)‐6, which may be the underlying mechanism of hypoxia‐induced tDRs that facilitate the doxorubicin resistance in TNBC. The protein–protein interaction network for predicted target genes established by the STRING database manifested that tDR‐0009 (tDR‐7336) might be involved in the chemoresistance of TNBC via regulation of the activation of phosphorylation of STAT3. In summary, our study provided a comprehensive analysis of the deviant expression profiling of tDRs in hypoxia‐treated TNBC cell lines. Specific tDRs may be a new class of regulatory factors involved in the hypoxia‐induced chemoresistance in TNBC, and they could serve as potential biomarkers and intervention targets. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with a hypoxic phenotype, and hypoxia contributes to the chemoresistance in breast cancer. Transfer RNA‐derived fragments (tDRs) represent a new class of small noncoding RNAs that can be induced specifically by hypoxia. We provided a comprehensive analysis of the deviant expression profiling of tDRs in hypoxia‐treated TNBC cell lines. Specific tDRs may be a new class of regulatory factors involved in the hypoxia‐induced chemoresistance in TNBC, and they could serve as potential biomarkers and intervention targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]