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ObjectivesThe primary objective of this study is to analyze the clinical manifestations, diagnostic procedures, and outcomes of patients with pathologically confirmed constrictive pericarditis who presented with bilateral pleural effusions. We aim to outline a stepwise diagnostic approach that could assist clinicians in identifying CP in similar cases.MethodsIn this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of 19 cases of pathologically confirmed constrictive pericarditis. These patients were admitted to our hospital between January 2019 and December 2022 after pericardial stripping. The collected data included imaging findings, clinical manifestations, pleural effusion characteristics, postoperative pathology, and the diagnostic process.ResultsIn this study, the age of the 19 patients ranged from 25 to 74 years, with a median age of 59 years. All patients presented with bilateral pleural effusions, with or without pericardial lesions such as pericardial effusion or thickening. Pleural effusion biochemistry did not exhibit specific characteristics, and both etiology and pleural pathology were negative. Radiographic examinations, including cardiac ultrasound and chest CT, revealed signs of pericardial thickening and/or pericardial effusion or no abnormalities. Pericardial stripping was performed in all patients, and the postoperative pathology confirmed various degrees of thickened pericarditis, consistent with constrictive pericarditis. During a follow-up period of 6–18 months, most patients (17 out of 19) showed favorable recovery with no recurrence of bilateral pleural effusions.ConclusionThis study emphasizes the importance of pleural effusion as a clinical sign of constrictive pericarditis and highlights that a stepwise diagnostic approach, guided by clinical presentation and imaging, can enhance its recognition, particularly in cases with bilateral pleural effusions.

Abstract Constrictive pericarditis is a rare disease. Localized constrictive pericarditis leading to bilateral pleural effusion is more difficult to recognize, and the diagnostic procedure can be ambiguous. Here, we report two patients diagnosed with localized constrictive pericarditis who presented with bilateral pleural effusion. A thorough work‐up showed that the pleural effusion was nonspecific, as was the pathology of the pleura. One patient had a history of pericardial effusion 2 years ago, and the other had undergone surgery for an anterior mediastinum teratoma. Pericardial scarring was found on their chest CT scans. The patients underwent pericardiectomy, and localized pericardial thickening was excised. The bilateral pleural effusion was effectively cured, and the patients showed satisfactory recovery on follow‐up. Physicians should be aware of localized pericarditis leading to bilateral pleural effusion, and pericardiectomy is an effective diagnostic and therapeutic procedure.

Highlights The robust organic/inorganic hybrid interlayer derived from in situ formed tribofilms were fabricated by using a scalable rolling method. The interlayer facilitates dendrite-free lithium metal anodes by building local de-solvation environments near the interface and inhibiting both dendrite growth and electrolytes corrosion. The symmetrical cell exhibits a remarkable lifespan of 5,600 h (1.0 mA cm-2 and 1.0 mAh cm-2) and 1,350 cycles even at a harsh condition (18.0 mA cm-2 and 3.0 mAh cm-2).

Abstract A practical high-specific-energy Li metal battery requires thin (≤20 μm) and free-standing Li metal anodes, but the low melting point and strong diffusion creep of lithium metal impede their scalable processing towards thin-thickness and free-standing architecture. In this paper, thin (5 to 50 μm) and free-standing lithium strips were achieved by mechanical rolling, which is determined by the in situ tribochemical reaction between lithium and zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP). A friction-induced organic/inorganic hybrid interface (~450 nm) was formed on Li with an ultra-high hardness (0.84 GPa) and Young’s modulus (25.90 GPa), which not only enables the scalable process mechanics of thin lithium strips but also facilitates dendrite-free lithium metal anodes by inhibiting dendrite growth. The rolled lithium anode exhibits a prolonged cycle lifespan and high-rate cycle stability (in excess of more than 1700 cycles even at 18.0 mA cm−2 and 1.5 mA cm−2 at 25 °C). Meanwhile, the LiFePO4 (with single-sided load 10 mg/cm2) ||Li@ZDDP full cell can last over 350 cycles with a high-capacity retention of 82% after the formation cycles at 5 C (1 C = 170 mA/g) and 25 °C. This work provides a scalable approach concerning tribology design for producing practical thin free-standing lithium metal anodes.

Abstract The incidence and mortality rates of lung cancer are among the highest in the world. Traditional treatment methods include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Although rapid progress has been achieved in the past decade, treatment limitations remain. It is therefore imperative to identify safer and more effective therapeutic methods, and research is currently being conducted to identify more efficient and less harmful drugs. In recent years, the discovery of antitumor drugs based on the essential trace element selenium (Se) has provided good prospects for lung cancer treatments. In particular, compared to inorganic Se (Inorg-Se) and organic Se (Org-Se), Se nanomedicine (Se nanoparticles; SeNPs) shows much higher bioavailability and antioxidant activity and lower toxicity. SeNPs can also be used as a drug delivery carrier to better regulate protein and DNA biosynthesis and protein kinase C activity, thus playing a role in inhibiting cancer cell proliferation. SeNPs can also effectively activate antigen-presenting cells to stimulate cell immunity, exert regulatory effects on innate and regulatory immunity, and enhance lung cancer immunotherapy. This review summarizes the application of Se-based species and materials in lung cancer diagnosis, including fluorescence, MR, CT, photoacoustic imaging and other diagnostic methods, as well as treatments, including direct killing, radiosensitization, chemotherapeutic sensitization, photothermodynamics, and enhanced immunotherapy. In addition, the application prospects and challenges of Se-based drugs in lung cancer are examined, as well as their forecasted future clinical applications and sustainable development. Graphical Abstract

Chrysanthemi Indici Flos (CIF) is the inflorescence of Chrysanthemum indicum L., which exists in various shades of yellow and has pharmacologically active constituents. It is widely used for medicinal purposes in China, Japan, and South Korea to treat inflammatory diseases. Its external color is usually used to judge its internal quality in trade; however, the correlation between its color and chemical constituents is unknown. Here, we simultaneously determined five phenylpropanoids (neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, and isochlorogenic acids A, B, and C) and four flavonoids (linarin, luteolin, apigenin, and acacetin) of 70 CIF germplasms using a newly established UPLC method; furthermore, we measured their color parameters (L*, a*, and b*) using a spectrophotometer. Our results showed considerable variations in the bioactive constituent contents and color parameters of CIF. The content of the five phenylpropanoids and the relative correlation degree γi of the nine constituents were positively correlated with color parameters, which could be rapidly predicted based on L* and/or b*. Moreover, we screened out a high-quality germplasm with a high linarin content and bright colors using the hierarchical clustering method. Our results provide comprehensive insight into CIF's quality evaluation process, particularly the methods for procuring high-quality medicinal materials and breeding by color.

Abstract The uncontrollable dendrite growth and complex interfacial reactions are still challenging issues hindering the practical applications of lithium (Li) metal anode. A variety of materials are widely studied to regulate the surface properties of Li metal anode except for the lithiophobic materials. This study shows that a double lithiophobic sandwich structure can induce uniform Li deposition to suppress Li dendrite growth at the nucleating stage. A hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) particle layer on Cu foil (h‐BN@Cu) is prepared as the research target to intensely explore the fundamental role of the lithiophobic h‐BN layer on the diffusion and nucleation behavior of Li on the Cu surface. The h‐BN layer makes the h‐BN@Cu interface possess lower adsorption energy and more substantial charge transfer, leading to the “h‐BN‐Li‐Cu” sandwich deposition mode. Theoretical calculations, in situ monitoring, and experimental tests confirm the relevance between uniform Li deposition and the h‐BN@Cu interface structure. The h‐BN@Cu anode enables a significantly improved lifespan (over 550 h) compared to the Cu anode and enhanced cycling stability when assembled in whole cells with LiFePO4 (LFP) cathode. This discovery provides a new insight into h‐BN and other lithiophobic materials as a protective layer to improve the Li deposition behavior.

With the increasing demand for quality control in the traditional Chinese medicine industry, there is a need for the development of quality markers and a quick, non-destructive technique for the discrimination of related species. In our previous study, ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) was used for the simultaneous determination of five compounds, including three alkaloids (nitidine chloride, chelerythrine, and magnoflorine), one flavonoid (aurantiamarin), and one lignan (sesamin). In this study, the simultaneous quantification of the above-mentioned compounds could be used to discriminate the powders of roots from those of stems. To further test the reliability of the five compounds, seventy-two batches of wild and seventy-five batches of cultivated Zanthoxylum nitidum samples collected from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian provinces in China were analyzed by UPLC and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). In general, the quantitative results of UPLC were consistent with those of NIRS, and cultivated Z. nitidum has similar major bioactive compounds as the wild one, as supported by principal component analysis. Consequently, these five major bioactive compounds are suggested as potential quality markers. In addition, the NIRS method with discriminant analysis successfully differentiated Z. nitidum from three related species (Z. avicennae, Z. scandens and Toddalia asiatica) of the Rutaceae family. In summary, this study provides a method for the rapid identification of Z. nitidum and discrimination of root and stem powders, and suggests five compounds as quality markers for the evaluation of Z. nitidum.

In this paper, in order to understand the influence of the unbalanced coefficient of composite laminates on the static aeroelasticity of high aspect wings, a series of numerical simulation calculations were carried out, and this work wants to provide some reference for the structural design of aircraft. Considering the influence of geometric nonlinearity, the unidirectional fluid-solid coupling calculation method based on loose coupling is used to control the change of unbalanced coefficient of laminates on the basis of layering angle, layering thickness, and layering region, so as to observe the changes caused to the wings. The relationship between the unbalanced coefficient and the constant thickness layup and the variable thickness layup with 0° and ±45° layup angles was studied, respectively. Then, the layup angle of 90° was added to study the influence of the unbalanced coefficient on the static aeroelasticity of the wing structure with the change of the layup angle and the different choice of layup region. The results show that the deformation is the smallest when the unbalanced coefficient is 0.5, and the deformation trend is evenly distributed along both sides when the unbalanced coefficient is 0.5. When the unbalanced coefficient is changed, adding the 90° layup angle can significantly reduce the overall deformation of the wing and show different sensitivity characteristics to different layup areas. The increase of the unbalanced coefficient makes the chordal displacement gradually change from linear distribution to nonlinear distribution along the spread direction, and the displacement will gradually decrease.

Summary: Honeycomb-layered phases Na3M2XO6 (M = Ni, Cu, Co; X = Sb, Bietc.) have been intensively pursued as high-voltage and high-rate capability cathode materials for Na-ion batteries (NIBs), but the crystal structure is not well elucidated. Herein, structural analysis was conducted on pristine Na3Ni2SbO6 material using electron microscopy and associated spectroscopies to reveal its crystallographic features. Experimental observations along multiple zone axes indicate that structural disorder is intrinsic in the pristine Na3Ni2SbO6, characteristic of randomly stacked layers with three variants of monoclinic structure. Stacking disorder is demonstrated by the non-vertical relationship of adjacent Ni2SbO6 layers in [100] zone axis, the different Ni/Sb atomic arrangements in [010] zone axis, and the Ni/Sb random overlap in [001] zone axis. The insight on the structural disorder may inspire studies on their phase transformations upon cycling and provide some clues to potentially solve the voltage/capacity decay problems of these honeycomb-layered materials. : Imaging Methods in Chemistry; Materials Science; Energy Materials Subject Areas: Imaging Methods in Chemistry, Materials Science, Energy Materials

Abstract High energy density lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are promising next‐generation energy storage devices. However, the uncontrollable dendrite growth and huge volume change limit their practical applications. Here, a new Mg doped Li–LiB alloy with in situ formed lithiophilic 3D LiB skeleton (hereinafter called Li–B–Mg composite) is presented to suppress Li dendrite and mitigate volume change. The LiB skeleton exhibits superior lithiophilic and conductive characteristics, which contributes to the reduction of the local current density and homogenization of incoming Li+ flux. With the introduction of Mg, the composite achieves an ultralong lithium deposition/dissolution lifespan (500 h, at 0.5 mA cm−2) without short circuit in the symmetrical battery. In addition, the electrochemical performance is superior in full batteries assembled with LiCoO2 cathode and the manufactured composite. The currently proposed 3D Li–B–Mg composite anode may significantly propel the advancement of LMB technology from laboratory research to industrial commercialization.

A new class of freestanding cross-linked hybrid polymer electrolytes (HPEs) with POSS as the cross-linker was prepared by a one-step free radical polymerization reaction. Octavinyl octasilsesquioxane (OV-POSS) with eight functional corner groups was used to provide cross-linking sites for the connection of polymer segments and the required mechanical strength to separate the cathode and anode. The unique cross-linked structure offers additional free volume for the motion of EO chains and provides fast and continuously interconnected ion-conducting channels along the nanoparticles/polymer matrix interface. The HPE exhibits the highest ionic conductivity of 1.39 × 10−3 S cm−1, as well as excellent interfacial compatibility with the Li electrode at 80°C. In particular, LiFePO4/Li cells based on the HPE deliver good rate capability and long-term cycling performance with an initial discharge capacity of 152.1 mAh g−1 and a capacity retention ratio of 88% after 150 cycles with a current density of 0.5 C at 80°C, demonstrating great potential application in high-performance LIBs at elevated temperatures.