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A ternary MIL-100(Fe)@PMo12@3DGO nanocomposite was designed and fabricated, which exhibits excellent peroxidase-like activity and the lowest limit of detection (0.14 μM) for glucose.

Using smart photochromic and luminescent tissues in camouflage/cloaking of natural creatures has inspired efforts to develop synthetic stimuli-responsive materials for data encryption and anticounterfeiting. Although many optical data-encryption materials have been reported, they generally require only one or a simple combination of few stimuli for decryptions and rarely offer output corruptibility that prevents trial-and-error attacks. Here, we report a series of multiresponsive donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts (DASAs) with unprecedented switching behavior and controlled reversibility via diamine conformational locking and substrate free-volume engineering and their capability of sequential logic encryption (SLE). Being analogous to the digital circuits, the output of DASA gel–based data-encryption system depends not only on the present input stimulus but also on the sequence of past inputs. Incorrect inputs/sequences generate substantial fake information and lead attackers to the point of no return. This work offers new design concepts for advanced data-encryption materials that operate via SLE, paving the path toward advanced encryptions beyond digital circuit approaches.

Developing advanced materials for highly secure data-encryption is crucial but very challenging, as most data-encryption materials (the message area) are chemically different from the substrates (the background) on which they are being written, leading to high risks of data leakage by deciphering via sophisticated instrumental analysis.

Data encryption, protection, and anticounterfeiting are crucial in the modern information society. Though a number of technologies have been developed, data security is still facing severe challeng...

Many creatures gain unique patterns on their bodies, which not only represent their distinct characteristics but also endow diverse functionalities that are crucial to their survival. Though being common in nature, realizing diverse patterns with a number of functionalities and well-defined hierarchical structures in biomimetic materials remains challenging. Here, relying on the fast and quantitative reaction between poly(penta fluorophenyl) acrylate gel and alkylamine derivatives, an efficient method named direct ink writing (DIW) for constructing versatile functional patterns on gels is developed by using alkylamines as the ink and a capillary as the pen. Through carefully designing alkylamine derived functional groups, a variety of functional patterns are programmed on the gel. Precisely tuning the ink concentration, volume, and reaction time results in desired bending angles, curvatures and targeted shape morphing. Further, by virtue of programmable shape morphing, and the dynamic multi-responsive fluorescent ink together with a “POOLING” data extraction algorithm used in Convolutional Neural Network, advanced data encryption and anti-counterfeiting are achieved. This work not only provides a robust tool for constructing functional patterns on biomimetic materials, but also inspires new approaches for data encryption and protection, and builds a connection between smart gels and artificial intelligence.

Nonvolatile transistor memories (NVTMs) are fabricated based on a polymer blend dielectric containing poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate) (pPFPA) and branched-poly(ethylene imine) (bPEI). Detailed stu...

Numerous emerging applications in modern society require humidity sensors that are not only sensitive and specific but also durable and intelligent. However, conventional humidity sensors do not have all of these simultaneously because they require very different or even contradictory design principles. Here, inspired by camel noses, we develop a porous zwitterionic capacitive humidity sensor. Relying on the synergistic effect of a porous structure and good chemical and thermal stabilities of hygroscopic zwitterions, this sensor simultaneously exhibits high sensitivity, discriminability, excellent durability, and, in particular, the highest respond speed among reported capacitive humidity sensors, with demonstrated applications in the fast discrimination between fresh, stale, and dry leaves, high-resolution touchless human-machine interactive input devices, and theireal-time/imonitoring humidity level of a hot industrial exhaust. More importantly, this sensor exhibits typical synapse behaviors such as paired-pulse facilitation due to the strong binding interactions between water and zwitterions. This leads to learning and forgetting features with a tunable memory, thus giving the sensor artificial intelligence and enabling the location of water sources. This work offers a general design principle expected to be applied to develop other high-performance biochemical sensors and the next-generation intelligent sensors with much broader applications.

China has the largest W reserves in the world, which are mainly concentrated in south China. Although previous studies have been carried out on whether mantle material is incorporated in granites associated with W deposits, the conclusions have been inconsistent. However, rare gas isotopes can be used to study the contribution of mantle-to-W mineralization. In this paper, we investigated the He and Ar isotope compositions of fluid inclusions in pyrite and wolframite from the Xingluokeng ultra-large W-Mo deposit to evaluate the origin of ore-forming fluids and discuss the contribution of the mantle-to-tungsten mineralization. The He-Ar isotopic compositions showed that the 3He/4He ratios of the ore-forming fluid of the Xingluokeng deposit ranged from 0.14 to 1.01 Ra (Ra is the 3He/4He ratio of air, 1 Ra = 1.39 × 10−6), with an average of 0.58 Ra, which is between the 3He/4He ratios of mantle fluids and crustal fluids, suggesting that the mantle-derived He was added to the mineralizing fluid, with a mean of 8.7%. The 40Ar/36Ar ratios of these samples ranged from 361 to 817, with an average of 578, between the atmospheric 40Ar/36Ar and the crustal and/or mantle 40Ar/36Ar. The results of the He-Ar isotopes from Xingluokeng W-Mo deposit showed that the ore-forming fluid of the deposit was not the product of the evolution of pure crustal melt. The upwelling mantle plays an important role in the formation of tungsten deposits.

Interleukin-10 (IL-10), interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and transforming growth factor α (TGF-α) have been implicated in the progression of breast cancer. However, the diagnostic and prognostic roles of these cytokines in ductal carcinoma remain unclear. The present study therefore aimed to determine the serum levels of IL-10, IL-17 and TGF-α in subjects with benign and malignant breast diseases and to evaluate the clinical significance of these cytokines in ductal carcinoma. Pre-operative serum samples were collected from 378 patients with breast disease and 70 healthy subjects. IL-10, IL-17A and TGF-α levels were measured using ELISA. Serum levels of these cytokine in patients with different breast diseases were evaluated. Furthermore, correlations between levels of these cytokines and the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in ductal carcinoma were determined. The results demonstrated that serum levels of IL-10 and IL-17A were significantly increased in subjects with atypical hyperplasia and ductal carcinoma. Furthermore, IL-10 and IL-17A levels were increased in patients with a more serious clinical tumor stage and tumors that were ER- and PR-. Furthermore, high serum levels of TGF-α were associated with HER2+ tumors. A strong positive correlation was identified between TGF-α and IL-17A levels. Therefore, the results of the current study revealed that elevated serum IL-10, IL-17A and TGF-α levels are strongly associated with ductal carcinoma, specifically with tumor stage. High serum levels of IL-10 and IL-17A were also associated with the negative expression of ER and PR in ductal carcinoma, and high serum levels of TGF-α were associated with the positive expression of HER2 in ductal carcinoma. Thus, serum cytokine levels may be measured to identify patients with a poor prognosis who may benefit from more aggressive management and treatment.

Background: Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a member of the lipocalin family. Recently, an elevated NGAL expression was reported in several types of cancers. However, the characteristics of NGAL expression in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) are still unknown. Aim: To demonstrate the role of NGAL in ESCC. Methods: NGAL expression in 81 paraffin sections, including ESCC, normal mucosa, simple hyperplasia and dysplasia, and in 73 fresh specimens of ESCC was analysed by immunohistochemistry, western blot and gelatin zymography. Results: On immunohistochemical study, ESCC showed a diverse staining pattern for NGAL. However, only a weak positive signal was present within a restricted cytoplasmic area in the normal oesophageal epithelium. In dysplasia, altered NGAL expression could also be observed. On western blot study, NGAL expression level was found to be significantly higher in ESCC than in normal mucosa (p = 0.030), and to be positively correlated with cell differentiation. However, no significant association was observed between NGAL expression and cell proliferation. In addition, the enzymic activity of the NGAL/matrix metalloproteinase 9 complex was much higher in ESCC than in normal mucosa, and was significantly correlated with the depth of tumour invasion in zymography analysis (p = 0.006). Conclusions: The findings suggest that NGAL is involved in the differentiation pathway and invasive progression of ESCC.