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An l -cysteine-bioinspired calcium phosphate (Ca-P) coating is prepared upon magnesium alloy AZ31 in a water bath at 60 °C. FE–SEM, FTIR, XRD, electrochemical characterization, hydrogen evolution tests and XPS were used to evaluate the microstructure, chemistry and corrosion performance of the samples. Results indicate that l -cysteine promotes the nucleation process of the coating and significantly increases its thickness. This can be attributed to the complexation of the carboxyl group and mercapto group of l -cysteine with calcium ions. Indeed, the obtained Ca-P coating possesses higher corrosion resistance than that prepared in l -cysteine-free bath.

Basically, Mg–Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) coatings are prepared on the surface of micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coated magnesium (Mg) alloys at a high temperature or a low pH value. This scenario leads to the growth rate of LDH coating inferior to the dissolution rate of the MAO coating. This in turn results in limited corrosion resistance of the composite coating. In this study, a Mg–Al LDH coating on MAO-coated Mg alloy AZ31 is prepared through a water bath with a higher pH (13.76) at a lower temperature (60 °C). FE-SEM, EDS, XRD, XPS, and FT-IR are applied to analyze the surface morphology, chemical compositions, and growth process. Electrochemical polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and hydrogen evolution tests are employed to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the samples. The results disclose that the MAO coating is completely covered by the nanosheet-structured LDH coating with a thickness of approximately 3.8 μm. The corrosion current density of the MAO-LDH composite coating is decreased four orders of magnitude in comparison to its substrate; the presence of a wide passivation region in anodic polarization branch demonstrates its strong self-healing ability, indicating the hybrid coating possesses excellent corrosion resistance. The formation mechanism of the LDH coating on the MAO-coated Mg alloy is proposed. Furthermore, the cytocompatibility is assessed via an indirect extraction test for MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblasts, which indicates an acceptable cytocompatibility of osteoblasts for the composite coating., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • High pH and low temperature balance MAO dissolution rate and LDH growth rate. • EDTA-2Na accelerates the growth of LDH. • MAO-LDH coating shows a wider passivation zone and a seal-healing ability. • MAO-LDH coating has an acceptable biocompatibility for MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts. • The growth mechanism of MAO-LDH coating is proposed.

One of the major obstacles for the clinical use of biodegradable magnesium (Mg)-based materials is their high corrosion rate. Micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coatings on Mg alloys provide mild corrosion protection owing to their porous structure. Hence, in this study a dense Mg(OH)2 film was fabricated on MAO-coated Mg alloy AZ31 in an alkaline electrolyte containing ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid disodium (EDTA-2Na) to reinforce the protection. Surface morphology, chemical composition and growth process of the MAO/Mg(OH)2 hybrid coating were examined using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer. Corrosion resistance of the coatings was evaluated via potentiodynamic polarization curves and hydrogen evolution tests. Results manifested that the Mg(OH)2 coating possesses a porous nano-sized structure and completely seals the micro-pores and micro-cracks of the MAO coating. The intermetallic compound of AlMn phase in the substrate plays a key role in the growth of Mg(OH)2 film. The current density of Mg(OH)2-MAO composite coating decreases three orders of magnitude in comparison with that of bare substrate, indicating excellent corrosion resistance. The Mg(OH)2-MAO composite coating is beneficial to the formation of calcium phosphate corrosion products on the surface of Mg alloy AZ31, demonstrating a great promise for orthopaedic applications.

Conflicting results have been reported on the association of blood vitamin D level with prognosis in women with breast cancer. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D level and survival outcomes in female breast cancer patients. Two authors independently searched PubMed and Embase databases from their inception to August 25, 2020. Prospective or retrospective cohort studies evaluating the association between blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D level and survival outcomes in women with breast cancer were included. Outcome measures included overall survival (OS), breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS), and disease-free survival (DFS). Twelve studies involving 8574 female breast cancer patients were identified and analyzed. When compared the lowest with the highest category of 25-hydroxyvitamin D level, the pooled adjusted hazard ratio (HR) was 1.57 (95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.35-1.83) for OS, 1.98 (95 % CI 1.55-2.53) for DFS, and 1.44 (95 % CI 1.14-1.81) for BCSS. This meta-analysis indicates that lower blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is significantly associated with reduced survival among female breast cancer patients. Additional clinical trials are required to investigate whether vitamin D supplement can improve survival outcomes in these patients.

Background Recent studies in cancer biology suggest that metabolic glucose reprogramming is a potential target for cancer treatment. However, little is known about drug intervention in the glucose metabolism of cancer stem cells (CSCs) and its related underlying mechanisms. Methods The crude realgar powder was Nano-grinded to meets the requirements of Nano-pharmaceutical preparations, and Nano-realgar solution (NRS) was prepared for subsequent experiments. Isolation and characterization of lung cancer stem cells (LCSCs) was performed by magnetic cell sorting (MACS) and immunocytochemistry, respectively. Cell viability and intracellular glucose concentration were detected by MTT assay and glucose oxidase (GOD) kit. Protein expressions related to metabolic reprogramming was detected by ELISA assay. Determination of the expression of HIF-1α and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways was carried out by RT-PCR and western blotting analysis. A subcutaneous tumor model in BALB/c-nu mice was successfully established to evaluate the effects of Nano-realgar on tumor growth and histological structure, and the expression of HIF-1α in tumor tissues was measured by immunofluorescence. Results Nano-realgar inhibits cell viability and induces glucose metabolism in LCSCs, and inhibits protein expression related to metabolic reprogramming in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Nano-realgar downregulated the expression of HIF-1α and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways in vitro and in vivo. Nano-realgar inhibits tumor growth and changes the histological structure of tumors through in vivo experiments and consequently inhibits the constitutive activation of HIF-1α signaling. Conclusions These results reveal that Nano-realgar inhibits tumor growth in vitro and in vivo by repressing metabolic reprogramming. This inhibitory effect potentially related to the downregulation HIF-1α expression via PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway.

A hexagonal nanosheet Mg(OH)2 coating was prepared through a one-step hydrothermal method using LiOH solution as mineralizer and then modified by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) to minimize the rapid corrosion of AZ31 Mg alloy. The performance of the coating was evaluated using electrochemical technique, hydrogen evolution measurements, nanoscratch test, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The results suggested that the corrosion rate of bare AZ31 Mg alloys was significantly reduced by one and two orders of magnitude through the protection from Mg(OH)2 coating and modification with EDTA (i.e., EDTA-Mg(OH)2 coating), respectively. FESEM micrographs indicated that the modification in EDTA elicits to the formation of an EDTA-Mg(OH)2 composite with a thickness as twice as that of as-prepared Mg(OH)2 coating. Nanoscratch tests revealed strong adhesion between the composite or Mg(OH)2 coating and the substrate. The study of formation and corrosion mechanisms of the coatings manifested that Mg(OH)2 was first formed near the intermetallic compound AlMn particles and gradually covered the entire surface, wherein the AlMn particles played an important role in the coating growth process. And it also proved that EDTA accelerated the formation of Mg(OH)2.

A polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)/polyacrylic acid (PAA) layer-by-layer (LbL) assembled composite coating with a multilayer structure for the corrosion protection of AZ31 magnesium alloy was prepared by a novel spin-casting method. The microstructure and composition of this coating were investigated by means of SEM, XRD and FT-IR measurements. Moreover, electrochemical, immersion and scratch tests in vitro were performed to measure the corrosion performance and the adhesion strength. These results indicated that the (PVP/PAA)10 composite coating with defect-free, dense and uniform morphologies could be successfully deposited on the surface of magnesium alloy. The coating had excellent corrosion resistance and adhesion strength.

An electrically conductive coating was prepared on micro-arc oxidized (MAO) Mg alloy AZ31 via antimony tin oxide (ATO) particles doping in methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) coating. A sandwich structure was observed as the ATO particles agglomerated at the top and bottom layers in the MTMS coating via field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Electrochemical and hydrogen evolution tests revealed high corrosion resistance of the composite coating. Although the ATO-doped MAO/MTMS coating showed a low electrical conductivity, a conductive path was formed on the coating surface layer, enhancing the transfer of static charges. The formation and corrosion mechanisms of the composite coatings are proposed.

In this paper, a novel face description method called a completed model of local ternary pattern (CLTP) for face representation and recognition. Firstly, the original face image is divided into small blocks from which the local difference value sign-magnitude transform was computed. Extracting the histogram statistical characteristics of each block by CLTP_P, CLTP_N and CLTP_M, and information entropy of the sub blocks are calculated separately. Then the histograms of all the blocks are linked to get the CLTP feature to be used as the final face descriptor. Finally, .the k- nearest neighbor classifier with chi-square is used for classification and recognition. Experimental results on AR and Yale face databases show that the proposed method has good face representation under different facial expression, partial occlusion, different illumination. Also the recognition rate is higher than LTP and variations of LTP method.

Poor corrosion and wear resistance of magnesium (Mg) alloys restrict their applications. Herein, corrosion and wear-resistant films are formed upon Mg alloy AZ31 through a micro-arc oxidation (MAO) process in silicate electrolyte in the presence of carbon spheres (CS). Surface morphology, chemical composition, corrosion resistance, hardness, and coefficient of friction (CoF) of the MAO coatings are investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), electrochemical and hydrogen evolution measurements, automatic micro-hardness testing, and reciprocating tribometer, respectively. Results demonstrate that the surface morphology and hardness of MAO coatings vary with the concentration of CS. The presence of CS results in an increased coating thickness from 8.0 ± 1.8 to 12.2 ± 1.8 μm, mean pore size from 0.7 ± 0.1 to 1.9 ± 0.1 μm, open porosity of MAO coating from 4.2 ± 0.4 to 5.6% ± 1.1%, and coating hardness from 347.0 ± 59.0 to 853.0 ± 67.3 Vickers-hardness (HV). Furthermore, CS-modified MAO coatings lead to improved corrosion resistance in comparison with that of the neat MAO counterparts. Moreover, the high hardness and formation of SiC of CS-modified coatings lead to a low and stabilized CoF, which implies an enhanced wear resistance.