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The influence and underlying mechanisms of human adipose-derived stem cells (Hu-ADSCs) on breast cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment remain unclear. Understanding the association between Hu-ADSCs and cancer cells may provide targets for breast cancer treatment and reference for the clinical application of stem cells. Therefore, a Hu-ADSC and breast cancer MCF7 cell coculture system was established to investigate the paracrine effects of Hu-ADSCs on MCF7 cell migration and invasion, in addition to the potential mechanism of action by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Hu-ADSCs enhanced MCF7 cell migration and invasion by decreasing the expression of epithelial marker E-cadherin, and increasing the expression of interstitial marker N-cadherin and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) transcription factors in vitro. The EMT effect of cocultured MCF7 cells was inhibited with the addition of anti-transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 or phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor LY294002, accompanied by a significant decrease in phosphorylated (p)-mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (Smad) and p-protein kinase B (AKT) expression. The data suggested that the paracrine effect of Hu-ADSCs in the tumor microenvironment promoted the EMT of MCF7 cells by cross interacting with the TGF-β/Smad and PI3K/AKT pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beta-gallium oxide (β-Ga 2 O 3 ) is emerging as a promising ultrawide band gap (UWBG) semiconductor, which is vital for high-power, high-frequency electronics and deep-UV optoelectronics. It is especially significant for flexible wearable electronics, enabling the fabrication of high-performance Ga 2 O 3 -based devices at low temperatures. However, the limited crystallinity and pronounced structural defects arising from the low-temperature deposition of Ga 2 O 3 films significantly restrict the heterojunction interface quality and the relevant electrical performance of Ga 2 O 3 -based devices. In this work, cuprous oxide (Cu 2 O)/Zr-doped β-Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction diodes are fabricated by magnetron sputtering without intentional substrate heating, followed by an investigation into their microstructure and electrical behaviors. Zr doping can markedly enhance the Ga 2 O 3 crystallinity at low substrate temperatures, transforming the amorphous structure of pristine Ga 2 O 3 films into the crystallized β phase. Moreover, crystalline β-Ga 2 O 3 facilitates the epitaxial growth of the Cu 2 O phase, suppressing the formation of detrimental secondary phase CuO at the heterojunction interface. Benefiting from the high-quality heterojunction interface, the Cu 2 O/Zr-doped β-Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction diode exhibits a near-ideal electrical behavior with a low ideality factor of 1.6. The consistent electrical parameters extracted from current-voltage ( J-V ) and capacitance-voltage ( C-V ) measurements also confirm the high quality of β-Ga 2 O 3 . This work highlights the potential for the low-temperature production of high-quality β-Ga 2 O 3 -based heterojunction devices through Zr doping.

The present study provides a facile one-pot pyrolysis strategy to prepare serial nitrogen-doped (N-doped) metal/carbon composites derived from six types of metal ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA-M, M = Co, Cu, Mn, Fe, Mg, and Ca). N-doped Co/C composite integrated carbonaceous with magnetic components to attain dielectric-magnetic double loss mechanisms. The minimum reflection loss and effective absorption bandwidth reached -57.6 dB at 1.75 mm and 4.64 GHz at 1.52 mm, respectively. The electromagnetic simulation further confirms that the dissipation ability increases with the improvement of carbonization temperature. Results show that altering the metal species of precursors can significantly improve the electrochemical performance of the composites using the identical strategy. N-doped Cu/C composite performed a maximum specific capacitance of 2383.3 F g -1 at 0.5 A g -1 -1 , and maintained 86.3% cycling stability at 20 A g -1 after 5000 cycles. The energy density of a symmetrical two-electrode configuration achieved 350.13 Wh kg -1 at a power density of 4000.04 W kg -1 . Density functional theory calculations indicate that nitrogen dopants cause faster ion transport and stronger adsorption capacity. Moreover, the bifunctionality of other composites types are also systematically characterized., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

The photocatalytic conversion of lignin into value-added chemicals especially those functionalized molecules represent one of the most important strategies for sustainable and environmental-friendly development. Cleavage of C-C bonds in lignin under mild photocatalytic conditions for refining lignin into useful molecules is meaningful but challenging. Meanwhile, the assembly of diverse functional groups into active lignin fragments during the depolymerization is of great challenging. Herein, using cheap iron catalysts under visible light irradiation, the highly selective and efficient cleavage of Cα-Cβ bond in lignin is realized via ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) and hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) processes. The subsequent divergent functionalization of generated lignin fragment-based radical intermediates enables an efficient formation of diverse functionalized molecules. This method is also effective for cleavage of Cα-Cβ bond in native lignin, yielding two identified benzaldehyde monomers in a total yield of 8.7 wt%., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

People form impressions about others during daily social encounters and infer personality traits from others' behaviors. Such trait inference is thought to rely on two universal dimensions: competence and warmth. These two dimensions can be used to construct a 'social cognitive map' organizing massive information obtained from social encounters efficiently. Originating from spatial cognition, the neural codes supporting the representation and navigation of spatial cognitive maps have been widely studied. Recent studies suggest similar neural mechanism subserves the map-like architecture in social cognition as well. Here we investigated how spatial codes operate beyond the physical environment and support the representation and navigation of social cognitive map. We designed a social value space defined by two dimensions of competence and warmth. Behaviorally, participants were able to navigate to a learned location from random starting locations in this abstract social space. At the neural level, we identified the representation of distance in the precuneus, fusiform gyrus, and middle occipital gyrus. We also found partial evidence of grid-like representation patterns in the medial prefrontal cortex and entorhinal cortex. Moreover, the intensity of grid-like response scaled with the performance of navigating in social space and social avoidance trait scores. Our findings suggest a neurocognitive mechanism by which social information can be organized into a structured representation, namely cognitive map and its relevance to social well-being., Competing Interests: ZL, SW, JW, WW, SQ, CL No competing interests declared, (© 2023, Liang et al.)