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Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Glutathione S-transferase can affect the development of cancer. Glutathione S-transferase omega 2, a member of the GST family, plays an important role in many tumors. However, the role of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 in the development of colon cancer remains unclear. Herein, our study aimed to investigate the exact role of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 in colon cancer. We used RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Genotype-Tissue Expression database to analyze Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 expressions. Then, we explore the protein information of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 in the Human Protein Atlas, GeneCards, and String database. In addition, western blot and immunohistochemistry were performed to evaluate the protein levels of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 in colon cancer tissues. We acquire data from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases. Also, we performed relevant prognostic analyses of these data. In addition, we performed a statistical analysis of the clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and the expression level of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2. Then, we performed Cox regression analysis and found independent risk factors for prognosis in patients with colon cancer. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Gene Ontology enrichment analyses were used to explore the potential biological functions of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2. The infiltration of colon cancer-immune cells was evaluated by the CIBERSORT method. RNA silencing was performed using siRNA constructs in HCT-116 and HT-29 cell lines. Cell Counting Kit-8 and EdU assays were performed to determine cell proliferation. Transwell experiments and scratch tests were used to determine cell migration. As for the mRNA and protein expression levels of cells, we used quantitative real-time PCR and western blot to detect them. Our research shows that Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 is overexpressed in colon cancer patients, and this overexpression is associated with a poor prognosis. The high expression of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 is significantly correlated stage with stage, M, and N classification progression in colon cancer by statistical analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis in colon cancer. In addition, we also found that Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 expression levels can affect the immune microenvironment of colon cancer cells. Gene silencing of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 in HT-29 and HCT-116 cells significantly inhibited tumor growth and migration. In summary, we found that Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 can be used as a molecular indicator of colon cancer prognosis. In vitro, gene silencing of Glutathione S-transferase omega 2 inhibited colon cancer cells' growth and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The immune checkpoint programmed death receptor 1 (PD‐1) and programmed death ligand 1 (PD‐L1) are biologically important immunosuppressive molecules, and the PD‐L1/PD‐1‐mediated signalling pathway is currently considered one of the main mechanisms of tumour escape immune surveillance. PD‐L1 is highly expressed on the cytomembrane of tumour cell and binds to PD‐1 receptor of activated T cells. This interaction activates PD‐L1/PD‐1 downstream signal transduction, inhibiting T cells anti‐tumour activity. Therefore, inhibitors of PD‐L1/PD‐1 activation, showing significant efficacy in some types of tumours, have been widely approved in clinical tumour therapy. Recent research on PD‐L1/PD‐1 signalling pathway regulation has shown post‐translational modifications (PTMs) form of PD‐L1 or PD‐1, including glycosylation, ubiquitination, phosphorylation, and acetylation, which may play an important role in PD‐L1/PD‐1 signalling pathway regulation and anti‐tumour function of T cells. In this review, we focused on PTMs of PD‐L1/PD‐1 research and potential applications in tumour immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been characterized by playing a crucial role in tumorigenesis. However, the detail biological function and clinical importance of lncRNAs in colorectal cancer (CRC) are unclear and have attracted different levels of in-depth research. In this context, we explored the differentially expressed profiles of lncRNAs in six CRC tissues and three adjacent non-tumor tissues from RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) study and noted a lncRNA, RP11-51O6.1, which is markedly overexpressed in CRC tissues, particularly in aggressive cases. Impressively, an elevated RP11-51O6.1 level was highly correlated with poor prognosis in clinical patients. Functional analyses revealed that RP11-51O6.1 could promote cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we reported that RP11-51O6.1 enhances cell migration and invasion in vitro. Mechanistic studies (Bioinformatics binding site analyses, the Luciferase reporter, Ago2 immunoprecipitation, the RNA pull-down, immunofluorescence colocalization, rescued assays and western blotting) implicated that RP11-51O6.1 could regulate YAP1 expression by competitively sponging miR-206 and blocking its activity in promoting CRC progression. Conclusively, our findings identify a novel RP11-51O6.1/miR-206/YAP1 regulatory axis that participates in CRC progression and development, suggesting RP11-51O6.1 is an exploitable biomarker and appealing therapeutic target in treating CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Studies on unresectable colorectal cancer liver metastasis(CRLM) rarely analyze the prognosis of the patients from the point of colonic subsites. We aimed to evaluate the effect of primary tumor resection (PTR) and different scope of colectomy on the prognosis of patients with unresectable transverse colon cancer liver metastasis (UTCLM), hepatic flexure cancer liver metastasis (UHFLM), and splenic flexure cancer liver metastasis (USFLM).Patients and Methods: The patients were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2010 to 2015. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to identify prognostic factors of overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS). Kaplan-Meier analyses and log-rank tests were conducted to assess the effectiveness of PTR on survival.Results: In total, this study included a cohort of 1960 patients: 556 cases of UHFLM, 1008 cases of UTCLM, and 396 cases of USFLM. The median survival time of whole patients was 11.0 months, ranging from 7.0 months for UHFLM patients to 15.0 months for USFLM patients. USFLM patients had the best OS and CSS, followed by UTCLM patients. UHFLM patients had the worst OS and CSS (All P < 0.001). PTR could improve the OS and CSS of UTCLM, UHFLM, and USFLM (All P < 0.001). Subgroups analysis revealed that USFLM patients with tumor size≤5 cm and negative CEA had not demonstrated an improved OS and CSS after PTR. Multivariate analysis showed that PTR and perioperative chemotherapy were common independent prognostic factors for UHFLM, UTCLM, and USFLM patients. There was no difference between segmental colon resection and larger colon resection on CSS of UHFLM, UTCLM, and USFLM patients.Conclusions: We confirmed the different survival of patients with UTCLM, UHFLM, and USFLM, and for the first time, we proved that PTR could provide survival benefits for patients with unresectable CRLM from the perspective of colonic subsites of transverse colon, hepatic flexure, and splenic flexure. Besides, PTR may not improve the prognosis of USFLM patients with CEA- negative or tumor size≤5 cm. For oncologic outcomes, we concluded that segmental colon resection seemed an effective surgical procedure for UTCLM, UHFLM, and USFLM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene has a large specific surface area and a high electron traction rate, so it can be widely used in gas-sensing devices. To analyze the gas-sensing properties of graphene, the non-linear electromagnetic field response (NLEFR) of graphene before and after ammonia adsorption is studied in this paper. Under DC bias, the change rate of output harmonic power of the multilayer graphene-sensing characteristic analysis device is 30% higher than that of DC resistance. The results of this work indicate that a new graphene-based sensor can be developed using its NLEFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ubiquitination is a critical post-translational modification which can be reversed with an enzyme family known as deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). It has been reported that dysregulation of deubiquitination leads to carcinogenesis. As a member of the DUBs family, proteasome 26 S subunit non-ATPase 7 (PSMD7) serves as an underlying tumour-promoting factor in multiple cancers. However, the clinical significance and biological functions of PSMD7 in pancreatic cancer (PC) remain unclear. Results: In this study, we first reported frequent overexpression of PSMD7 in PC tissues, and high levels of PSMD7 were markedly linked to shorter survival and a malignant phenotype in PC patients. An array of in vitro and in vivo gain/loss-of-function tests revealed that PSMD7 facilitates the progression of PC cells. Additionally, we found that PSMD7 promotes PC cell progression by activating the Notch homolog 1 (Notch1) signalling. Interestingly, in PC cells, the inhibitory effect of PSMD7 knockdown on cellular processes was comparable to that observed upon Notch1 knockdown. Mechanistically, PSMD7 deubiquitinated and stabilised sex determining region Y (SRY)-box 2 (SOX2), a key mediator of Notch1 signalling. The stabilisation of SOX2, mediated by PSMD7, dramatically increased SOX2 protein levels, subsequently activating the Notch1 pathway. Finally, restoration of SOX2 expression abrogated the PSMD7-silenced antitumour effect. Conclusions: Taken together, our work identifies and validates PSMD7 as a promoter of PC progression through augmentation of the Notch1 signalling pathway mediated by SOX2. This finding suggests that PSMD7 holds promise as a potential therapeutic target for the management of this refractory disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. To elucidate the microRNAs existent in exosomes derived from stored red blood cell (RBC) unit and their potential function. Materials and Methods. Exosomes were isolated from the supernatant derived from stored RBC units by sequential centrifugation. Isolated exosomes were characterized by TEM (transmission electron microscopy), western blotting, and DLS (dynamic light scattering). MicroRNA (miRNA) microarray was performed to detect the expression of miRNAs in 3 exosome samples. Results revealed miRNAs that were simultaneously expressed in the 3 exosome samples and were previously reported to exist in mature RBCs. Functions and potential pathways of some detected miRNAs were illustrated by bioinformatic analysis. Validation of the top 3 abundant miRNAs was carried out by qRT-PCR (quantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction). Results. TEM and DLS revealed the mean size of the exosomes (RBC-derived) as 64.08 nm. These exosomes exhibited higher abundance of short RNA than the long RNA. 78 miRNAs were simultaneously detected in 3 exosome samples and mature RBCs. Several biological processes might be impacted by these miRNAs, through their target gene(s) enriched in a particular signalling pathway. The top 3 (abundant) miRNAs detected were as follows: miR-125b-5p, miR-4454, and miR-451a. qRT-PCR revealed higher abundance of miR-451a than others. Only miR-4454 and miR-451a abundance tended to increase with increasing storage time. Conclusion. Exosomes derived from stored RBC units possessed multiple miRNAs and, hence, could serve various functions. The function of exosomes (RBC-derived) might be implemented partly by the predominantly enriched miR-451a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the spectral range from ultraviolet to near infrared, graphene lacks the capability to support plasmon polaritons, and has low optical absorptivity for applications due to its extremely small thickness. Many photonic structures based on sophisticated nanofabrication or metal plasmonics have been adopted to conquer this limitation, but they suffer from high expenses or metal parasitic losses. Here, a single-channel coherent perfect absorber simply based on two unpatterned dielectric layers is proposed to reach ∼100% light absorption in monolayer and few-layer graphene. The schemes for narrowband and broadband perfect absorption in graphene are systematically demonstrated, and their potential applications on fibre-integrated narrowband perfect absorbers, high-performance optical sensors, electric-optic modulators and broadband perfect absorbers are also investigated. Our research provides a simple and cost-effective method to completely trap the light from ultraviolet to near infrared in a sub-nanometre scale for a lot of high-performance photonic and optoelectronic devices based on graphene and potentially other 2D materials. Graphical abstract Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the light–matter interaction of graphene is an important issue for related photonic devices and applications. In view of its potential ultraviolet applications, we aim to achieve extremely high ultraviolet absorption in graphene without any nanostructure or microstructure patterning. By manipulating the polarization and angle of incident light, the ultraviolet power can be sufficiently coupled to the optical dissipation of graphene based on single-channel coherent perfect absorption in an optimized multilayered thin film structure. The ultraviolet absorbance ratios of single and four atomic graphene layers are enhanced up to 71.4% and 92.2%, respectively. Our research provides a simple and efficient scheme to trap ultraviolet light for developing promising photonic and optoelectronic devices based on graphene and potentially other 2D materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modulating near-infrared signals is critical for high density optical interconnects. In order to achieve enhanced modulation effects, we design a near-infrared modulator in combination with a gold nanostripe waveguide and graphene. Conventional assumption of isotropic permittivities for graphene leads to exaggeration of light absorption at the so-called “epsilon-near-zero” point and extreme overestimation of modulation efficiency, and the anisotropic permittivities assumption faces problems for thickness definition and lower computational efficiency. Therefore, we treat graphene as a 2D conductive surface in the simulation to solve these problems, and investigate the plasmonic effects on modulation enhancement and the trade-off on the modulation efficiency versus the insertion loss. Our method is promising for the design of advanced optical devices based on 2D materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the linear polarization state of electromagnetic waves at terahertz frequencies can be perfectly rotated to its orthogonal direction by an alternative design of anisotropic dielectric meta-reflectarrays. Numerical results demonstrate that the reflection coefficient converting to cross polarization after reflection can be as high as ~100% from 0.75 THz to 1.0 THz. The designed system does suffer little energy loss due to the absence of the metallic metamaterial unit cells and the absorptive dielectric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the study on exopolysaccharid is mainly focused on lactic acid bacteria, and the research on exopolysaccharide produced by yeast, especially Sporidiobolus pararoseus, is relatively few. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the characterization and antioxidant activities of a novel neutral exopolysaccharide SPZ, which was isolated and purified from S. pararoseus PFY-Z1. The results showed that SPZ was mainly composed of mannose, followed by glucose, with a molecular weight was 24.98 kDa, had O-glycosidic bonds, no crystalline, and no triple helix structure. Based on fourier transform-infrared, high-performance liquid chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses, SPZ was identified to be a exopolysaccharide with some side chains, presence of α-, β-pyranose ring and nine sugar residues. Furthermore, the morphology features of SPZ have performed a relatively rough and uneven surface, covered with small pores and fissures. Moreover, SPZ had higher antioxidant activities and the maximum scavenging abilities of ⋅OH, NO2− and reducing power were 28.05 ± 0.73%, 92.76 ± 1.86% and 0.345 ± 0.024, respectively. Hence, SPZ could be used as a potential antioxidant application in the food and pharmaceutical industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have fabricated a metallic nanomesh using nanosphere lithography and metal evaporation. The metallic nanomesh has a precisely controlled nanostructure showing excellent uniformity with hexagonally arrayed periodic circular holes. A P3HT:PCBM organic solar cell, with the gold nanomesh electrode, demonstrates a high fill factor of 61% and a considerable power conversion efficiency of 3.12%. Electromagnetic simulation indicates that the optical properties of the metallic nanomesh can be optimized for organic photovoltaic devices by tuning the film thickness, hole diameter, and periodicity. These results show the promising potential of using a metallic nanomesh as the transparent electrode in organic solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamaterial of twisted metallic foil pairs is proposed. Resonances are illustrated in both transmission and reflection. Negative refraction index can be realized by chiral configuration of this metamaterial. Parallel and antiparallel surface currents form magnetic and electric dipoles. The cross coupling between electric and magnetic field presents chirality. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:163-166, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25645 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Introduction Materials and Methods Results Conclusions The recent adverse reactions associated with semaglutide have led the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a “black box warning”, and it is necessary to analyze all reports of adverse reactions to improve the safety of its clinical use.Statistical analyses and signal mining were performed by obtaining the adverse event reports related to semaglutide in the FAERS database from the first quarter of 2018 to the fourth quarter of 2023. We used disproportionality and Bayesian analysis to examine clinical and demographic attributes, trends reported quarterly, and contrasts between two distinct indications (obesity and type 2 diabetes).We found 10 unexpected adverse signals related to “pancreatic cancer”, “intestinal obstruction”, “cholecystitis”, and “polycystic ovary” and both the two different indications had the same serious adverse reaction events occurring.This study identified many unexpected signals of serious adverse reactions, suggesting the importance of continuous post‐marketing surveillance of semaglutide to understand its potential risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bound state in the continuum (BIC), generally realized by structures with in-plane symmetry, has been under the spotlight in the control of the electromagnetic field. This Letter presents a terahertz metasurface that possesses broken in-plane symmetry for exciting BIC. The switch from a BIC to a quasi-BIC can be achieved through parameter modulation. According to multipolar decomposition, the BIC is constructed by the destructive interference of far-field radiation originating from the electric dipole and magnetic quadrupole. More importantly, considering that the metal material has finite conductivity, we analyze the relationship between radiation and non-radiation losses, based on the time domain coupled mode theory, which provides substantial theoretical support for the investigation of BIC phenomena. Furthermore, the proposed metasurface exciting quasi-BIC is highly sensitive to the changes in the dielectric environment, resulting in a high sensitivity of 135 GHz/RIU and a distinction between sucrose and glucose with the same solid content. As a result, our research provides a theoretical explanation of the evolution of BIC excited by the structure with broken in-plane symmetry and promotes the development of the high-performance meta-device used for sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the concept of introducing disorder into ordered metasurfaces or periodic metastructures has shown great potential in improving their performance for light extraction, scattering, reflection, and radiation. However, its use in optical biosensing enhancement is still barely reported. Here, a kind of plasmonic biosensors based on disorder‐enhanced nanograin metasurfaces (DENMs) are proposed, and utilized for high‐sensitivity detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 Omicron variant and vaccine‐induced total antibodies. With the aim to elucidate the physics of short‐range‐disordered meta‐elements in long‐range‐ordered metastructures, the meta‐atom evolution is deduced from periodic nanohole metasurfaces to DENMs and totally disordered nanograin metasurfaces. It is found that the disorder of nanograin plays a critical role in elevating the DENM surface sensitivity of biomolecules. The DENM‐based biosensing demonstrates an extremely high diagnostic specificity with the probability P < 0.0001 on distinguishing the Omicron variant from other respiratory viruses. Moreover, these biosensors are used as a convenient tool to monitor vaccine efficacy for inoculators with the third booster injections. This study implies the promise of disorder‐enhanced metasurfaces on biomedical detection and will guide their applications on virus early discovery and prevention for future mobile healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First metabolic profiling of chondrosarcoma SW-1353 cells. • Optimized pretreatment protocols for chondrosarcoma cell metabolite profiling. • Representative metabolites were quantitatively determined. • Simple, robust, and reproducible GC–MS method. • Helpful to further pathophysiology research of chondrosarcoma by metabolomics. Chondrosarcoma is the 2nd most frequent bone sarcoma. In this study, the metabolic profiling of human chondrosarcoma SW-1353 cell line was investigated for the first time. To obtain more precise information about the metabolites from chondrosarcoma cells, pretreatment methods including washing steps/solvents, harvesting conditions, and extraction protocols for chondrosarcoma SW-1353 cells were evaluated in the context of metabolite profiling by GC–MS technique. In addition, a total of 32 representative metabolites (related to amino acid metabolism, TCA cycle, glycolysis, and fatty acid metabolism) were quantitatively determined. We found that a fast water rinse step before metabolic quenching, may reduce the contaminants and improve sensitivity. Trypsin/ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid treatment led to a large amount of metabolite leakage, which was not suitable for metabolomics research. Methanol was selected as a more suitable extraction solvent among four extraction approaches applied to SW-1353 cells. The final protocol can provide a simple, robust, and reproducible method to obtain precise information about the metabolites from chondrosarcoma cells, which is helpful to further understand the chondrosarcoma cell physiology and the mechanism of drug resistance in this disease, from the perspective of metabolomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an efficient Z-transform-based finite-difference time-domain (Z-FDTD) is developed to implement and analyze electromagnetic scatterings in the 3D biaxial anisotropy. In terms of the Z-transform technique, we first discuss the conversion relationship between time- or frequency-domain derivative operators and the corresponding Z-domain operator, then build up the Z-transform-based iteration from the electric flux D converted to the electric field E based on dielectric tensor ε (and from the magnetic flux B converted to the magnetic field H in line with permeability tensor μ) by combining the constitutive formulations about the biaxial anisotropy. As a result, the iterative process about the Z-FDTD implementation can be smoothly carried out by means of combining with the Maxwell's equations. To our knowledge, it is inevitably necessary for the absorbing boundary condition (ABC) to be considered in the electromagnetic scattering; hence, we utilize the unsplit-field complex-frequency-shifted perfectly matched layer (CFS-PML) to truncate the Z-FDTD's physical region, and then capture time- and frequency-domain radiation with the electric dipole. In the 3D simulations, we select two different biaxial anisotropic models to validate the proposed formulations by using the popular commercial software COMSOL. Moreover, it is certain that those results are effective and available for electromagnetic scattering problems under the oblique incidence executed by the Z-FDTD method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of plasmonic metasurface for sensing has great potential on label-free detection of human tumor markers, which could benefit clinical examination. In this work, we adopt nanoimprint and plasma etching to optimize the nanofabrication for low-cost flexible plasmonic metasurface sensors with gold nanobump arrays, which enable facile surface bio-functionality, high sensitivity and simple optical measurement in the visible range. A high bulk refractive index sensitivity of 454.4 nm/RIU is achieved for the prototype plasmonic metasurface sensors at the wavelengths from 620 nm to 720 nm. The rapid quantitative tumor marker sensing of carcinoembryonic antigen in human serum samples from less than 10 ng/mL to more than 87 ng/mL is achieved, which demonstrates good agreement with the conventional chemiluminescence immunoassay system and sufficiently covers the threshold tumor marker concentration of 20 ng/mL for early cancer prediction. Our method is capable of low-cost high-throughput manufacturing for flexible lightweight plasmonic metasurface sensors, which will facilitate wide applications on portable biomedical sensing devices for future point-of-care diagnosis and mobile healthcare. • Large-scale metasurfaces on lightweight flexible substrates for portable biosensing. • Cost-effective fabrication for mass production by soft nanoimprint lithography. • The entire gold encapsulation benefits the process of antibody functionalization. • Low-cost and compact reflection-type sensing system in the visible range. • High sensitivity for detecting tumor markers, which is competitive with the conventional immunoassay system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have paid great attention to pursuing metal‐free nanostructures as alternatives to metallic counterparts in the field of surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for label‐free sensing. However, these metal‐free investigations are hindered by the tiny enhancement factor of the local near field. Here, the design of all‐dielectric SERS metasurfaces is proposed with quasi‐bound states in the continuum (Q‐BIC), inspired by transformer‐based deep learning. By manipulating the incident angle, the mechanism of strong coupling Q‐BIC is introduced with a large Rabi splitting of ≈105 meV, which opens a bandgap and forms an anti‐crossing behavior. Compared to conventional approaches, the strong coupling Q‐BIC scheme not only boosts an extraordinary SERS enhancement factor of ≈107 but also extends the field‐enhancing scale up to ten‐fold. The theoretical optimization implies overwhelming dominance versus the conventional metallic nanostructure design for SERS. The study denotes an approach to utilize the strong coupling effects of Q‐BIC in all‐dielectric SERS metasurfaces and will provide essential design guides for more powerful sensing applications based on SERS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: MYO18B has been identified as a novel tumor suppressor gene in several cancers. However, its specific roles in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been well defined. Methods: We firstly identified the expression and prognostic values of MYO18B in HCC using TCGA cohort and our clinical data. Then, MYO18B knockdown by RNA inference was implemented to investigate the effects of MYO18B on HCC cells. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot were used to determine gene and protein expression levels. CCK-8 and colony formation assays were performed to examine cell proliferation capacity. Wound healing and transwell assays were used to evaluate the migration and invasion of HepG2 cells. Results: MYO18B was overexpressed and correlated with poor prognosis in HCC. MYO18B expression was an independent risk factor for overall survival. Knockdown of MYO18B significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of HepG2 cells. Meanwhile, MYO18B knockdown could effectively suppress the phosphorylation of PI3K, AKT, mTOR and P70S6K, suggesting that MYO18B might promote HCC progression by targeting PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Conclusions: MYO18B promoted tumor growth and migration via the activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. MYO18B might be a promising target for clinical intervention of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is critical to reveal the change in tuyere parameters for the efficient consumption of coal particles and natural gas in the lower zone of the blast furnace. Combined with the actual size and injection conditions of the blast furnace for natural gas utilization, the three-dimensional simulation model involving the tuyere, two lances, raceway and blowpipe is built to explore the influence of the tuyere diameter, tuyere length and inclination angle of tuyere on the difference of flow, temperature, gas concentration and fuel reaction in the tuyere and raceway. The research outcomes show that the change of tuyere diameter has the most significant influence on the gas velocity in the three conditions. The high-temperature district in the computational domain increases gradually with the diameter of the tuyere. However, the result is contrary to the increase of the length and inclination angle of the tuyere. Besides, when the diameter, length and inclination angle increase, the burnout of pulverized coal has a trend of decreasing, increasing and increasing, respectively. To obtain a better fuel combustion effect, it is recommended that the diameter of the tuyere should not exceed 160 mm, the length of the tuyere should not exceed 530 mm, and the inclination angle of the tuyere should not exceed 7° under the current operating conditions. • A 3D model of actual size of blast furnace injection natural gas and coal is used. • Effect of tuyere conditions on the combustion of natural gas and coal is studied. • The size of the raceway is considered after the tuyere diameter changes. • Suggestions are provided for efficient combustion of coal and natural gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting the direct $Z$ -transform ($\text{D}Z\text{T}$) method due to its higher accuracy instead of the approximate $Z$ -transform ($\text{A}Z\text{T}$) methods and efficient and switchable truncations between the 1st- and 2nd-order uniaxial perfectly matched layers (UPMLs) with the complex-frequency-shifted (CFS) scheme are shown to terminate the relevant finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) regions. The proposed $\text{D}Z\text{T}$ -CFS-UPML formulations can possess the switchable function in terms of relevant FDTD problems so that the optimal performance can be obtained with the tradeoff among memory requirement, CPU time, and absorption accuracy. For the FDTD problem with the strong evanescent and weak low-frequency propagating waves, the proposed $\text{D}Z\text{T}$ -CFS-UPML formulations can be switched to the 1st-order PML truncation, and for the other cases with both low-frequency propagating and strong evanescent waves, the 2nd-order PML is the best choice. Two numerical simulations have been carried out to illustrate the validity and flexibility of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of metamaterial shows great potential in the field of solar energy harvesting. In the past decade, the design of broadband solar metamaterial absorber (SMA) has attracted a surge of interest. The conventional design typically requires brute‐force optimizations with a huge sampling space of structure parameters. Very recently, deep learning (DL) has provided a promising way in metamaterial design, but its application on SMA development is barely reported due to the complicated features of broadband spectrum. Here, this work develops the DL model based on metamaterial spectrum transformer (MST) for the powerful design of high‐performance SMAs. The MST divides the optical spectrum of metamaterial into N patches, which overcomes the severe problem of overfitting in traditional DL and boosts the learning capability significantly. A flexible design tool based on free customer definition is developed to facilitate the real‐time on‐demand design of metamaterials with various optical functions. The scheme is applied to the design and fabrication of SMAs with graded‐refractive‐index nanostructures. They demonstrate the high average absorptance of 94% in a broad solar spectrum and exhibit exceptional advantages over many state‐of‐the‐art counterparts. The outdoor testing implies the high‐efficiency energy collection of about 1061 kW h m−2 from solar radiation annually. This work paves a way for the rapid smart design of SMA, and will also provide a real‐time developing tool for many other metamaterials and metadevices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondrial RNA (mtRNA) plays a critical role in synthesis of mitochondrial proteins. Interfering mtRNA is a highly effective way to induce cell apoptosis. Herein, we report a near‐infrared (NIR) light‐mediated mitochondrial RNA modification approach for long‐term imaging and effective suppression of tumors. A tumor‐targetable NIR fluorescent probe f‐CRI consisting of a cyclic RGD peptide, a NIR fluorophore IR780, and a singlet oxygen (1O2)‐labile furan group for RNA modification was rationally designed and synthesized. This probe was demonstrated to dominantly accumulate in cellular mitochondria and could be covalently conjugated onto mtRNA upon 808 nm irradiation resulting in prolonged retention in tumors. More notably, this covalent modification of mtRNA by f‐CRI could perturb the function of mitochondria leading to remarkable tumor suppression. We thus envision that our current approach would offer a potential approach for cancer RNA interference therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondrial RNA (mtRNA) plays a critical role in synthesis of mitochondrial proteins. Interfering mtRNA is a highly effective way to induce cell apoptosis. Herein, we report a near‐infrared (NIR) light‐mediated mitochondrial RNA modification approach for long‐term imaging and effective suppression of tumors. A tumor‐targetable NIR fluorescent probe f‐CRI consisting of a cyclic RGD peptide, a NIR fluorophore IR780, and a singlet oxygen (1O2)‐labile furan group for RNA modification was rationally designed and synthesized. This probe was demonstrated to dominantly accumulate in cellular mitochondria and could be covalently conjugated onto mtRNA upon 808 nm irradiation resulting in prolonged retention in tumors. More notably, this covalent modification of mtRNA by f‐CRI could perturb the function of mitochondria leading to remarkable tumor suppression. We thus envision that our current approach would offer a potential approach for cancer RNA interference therapeutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An unsplit-field and accurate Crank–Nicolson cycle-sweep-uniform finite-difference time-domain (CNCSU-FDTD) method based on the complex-frequency-shifted perfectly matched layer (CFS-PML) is proposed. It is applied to 3-D low-frequency subsurface electromagnetic sensing problems. The presented CNCSU-FDTD takes advantage of both CFS-PML and unconditionally stable CN method so that it can attenuate evanescent waves, eliminate late-time reflections, and overcome the stability limits of the FDTD method. The time step intervals in CNCSU-FDTD can be 1000 times larger than that in the regular FDTD for the low-frequency sensing centered at 25 Hz while remaining accurate. Several 3-D numerical examples in the airborne transient electromagnetics system have been demonstrated to validate the proposed method. The CFS-PML-based CNCSU-FDTD method not only attains good accuracy but also saves several dozen times of CPU time as compared with the regular FDTD method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light absorption of suspended monolayer graphene in the ultraviolet range is relatively low, which impedes the potential applications for graphene-based optoelectronic devices. To enhance the light-matter interaction in a wide spectral range, we propose two plasmonic structures based on a metal-dielectric-metal configuration. After rigorous optimization of geometric parameters, broadband and enhanced ultraviolet light absorption of graphene can be achieved. The bandwidth above 30% absorption rate can reach up to 245 nm (from 240 nm to 485 nm), while the relative bandwidth can reach up to 68%. The optimal absorption peak is as high as 54%. Besides, the absorption spectrum can be tuned by adjusting the geometric parameters. Physical insight is revealed with electric and magnetic field distributions. Furthermore, the tolerance for the incident angle is demonstrated, and the dependence of the polarization angle is discussed. Our approach shows promising potential for novel graphene-based applications in the ultraviolet range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of plasmonic stack metamaterials (PSMs) is critical due to their promising potentials in the fields of optical absorbers, sensors, and thermal irradiation. Compared with the classical circuit‐based optimization, the design by deep learning (DL) has attracted greater attention, since it is not essential to obtain their equivalent circuit parameters. Currently, a DL model for their higher‐precision design, especially with complicated spectral features, is still quite in demand. Here, a divide‐and‐conquer DL model based on a bidirectional artificial neural network is proposed. As proof‐of‐concept examples, the PSMs consisting of two metal/dielectric/metal/dielectric subwavelength stacks are adopted to demonstrate the validity of the paradigm. It demonstrates a significant prediction error reduction of 37.5% with the 47.8% decrease of training parameters than the conventional method in the forward network, which supports a powerful inverse design from spectra to PSM structures. Furthermore, a flexible tool based on the free customer definition, which facilitates the real‐time design of PSMs with various circuit‐analog functions, is developed. The fabrication and measurement experiments verify the design performance of the method. The study enhances the precision and convenience of on‐demand circuit‐analog PSMs and will provide a guide for fast high‐performance inverse design of many other metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building extraction based on remote sensing images has been widely used in many industries. However, state-of-the-art methods produce an incomplete segmentation of buildings owing to unstable multi-scale context aggregation and a lack of consideration of semantic boundaries, ultimately resulting in large uncertainties in predictions at building boundaries. In this study, efficient fine building extraction methods were explored, which demonstrated that the rational use of edge features can significantly improve building recognition performance. Herein, a fine building extraction network based on a multi-scale edge constraint (MEC-Net) was proposed, which integrates the multi-scale feature fusion advantages of UNet++ and fuses edge features with other learnable multi-scale features to achieve the effect of prior constraints. Attention was paid to the alleviation of noise interference in the edge features. At the data level, according to the improvement of copy-paste according to the characteristics of remote sensing imaging, a data augmentation method for buildings (build-building) was proposed, which increased the number and diversity of positive samples by simulating the construction of buildings to increase the generalization of MEC-Net. MEC-Net achieved 91.13%, 81.05% and 74.13% IoU on the WHU, Massachusetts and Inria datasets, and it has a good inference efficiency. The experimental results show that MEC-Net outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, demonstrating its superiority. MEC-Net improves the accuracy of building boundaries by rationally using previous edge features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Shexian Dryland Stone Terraced System (SDSTS) in the Taihang Mountains was formally recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by Food and Agriculture Organization on May 20, 2022. People there have been relying on the terraced fields for centuries, using various plants, including medicinal plants. However, little information was reported about the flora in SDSTS, nor medicinal plants. Thus, the present study aims to identify and document medicinal plants traditionally used by the local people living around the SDSTS and associated ethnobotanical knowledge. Methods: We conducted investigations in Shexian County, Hebei Province, North China, where SDSTS is distributed. Then, Wangjinzhuang, a community located in the core zone of SDSTS, was chosen as the case site. We selected the informants through purposive and snowball sampling. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and key informant interviews. The medicinal plants traditionally used by the local people were documented and analyzed. We examined and confirmed the botanical identification based on voucher specimens and by cross-checking the descriptions with the series of books, scientific papers on medicinal plants, and the plant databases. Results: The local people have rich traditional knowledge to collect and use medicinal plants in SDSTS. Records of 123 medicinal plant species belonging to 51 families were obtained from SDSTS. Asteraceae was represented by 16 species, followed by Fabaceae, Lamiaceae and Ranunculaceae. (They all have 8 species.) The majority of the reported plant species were commonly processed into decoctions. And 180 diseases affecting humans were reported to be treated with traditional medicinal plants from SDSTS. Conclusion: It is the first ethnobotanical study on medicinal plants in China-Nationally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, and in globally important agricultural heritage systems as well. Medicinal plants are crucial for people living in Shexian County. It is necessary to recognize and respect traditional knowledge peculiar to the mountainous region of northern China, especially for those involved in the human–nature interaction and the role of knowledge in agrobiodiversity conservation and rural development that local residents have persisted for centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metasurfaces are planar or 2D forms of metamaterials made up of arrays of antennas with a subwavelength thickness. They have been rapidly developed in the recent years due to their ability to manipulate light–matter interaction in both linear and non‐linear regimes at the nanoscale. Various metasurfaces display remarkable optical features, such as acute resonance, significant near‐field enhancement, and suitable capacity to support electric and magnetic modes, on account of the strong light–matter interaction and the low optical loss. Due to these important properties, they can be used in several advanced optoelectronic applications, like surface‐enhanced spectroscopy, photocatalysis, and sensing. This review reports on the recent progress of metamaterials and metasurfaces in molecular optical sensors. The principles that govern plasmonic and dielectric metasurfaces along with their features are outlined, supported by numerous examples. Then, the factors that result in a high Q‐factor are presented in order to show that metamaterials and metasurfaces can be used for label‐free sensing in a variety of detection mechanisms, including surface‐enhanced spectroscopy, refractometric sensing, and surface‐enhanced thermal emission spectroscopy via infrared absorption and Raman scattering, as well as chiral sensing. Finally, the challenges for future development are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the phospholipid is hydroxylated, the charge of the modified phospholipid obtained will change accordingly, and thus microcapsule containing modified phospholipid will remain stable in the gastric juice. Keywords: enzymatic hydrolysate of soybean protein isolate; Lactobacillus plantarum; microencapsulation; modified phospholipid EN enzymatic hydrolysate of soybean protein isolate Lactobacillus plantarum microencapsulation modified phospholipid 499 511 13 08/09/22 20220701 NES 220701 1 Introduction I Lactobacillus plantarum i can regulate the microbial flora in the intestine, maintain the balance of the intestinal environment, and promote the immune development [[1]], which is of great benefit to human and animal health. Therefore, it is possible to design a microcapsule based on EHSPI and modified phospholipid as composite-wall materials, which can not only improve the microcapsule stability in gastric juice, but also inhibit the flocculation of droplets in the intestinal digestion. 3.3 Influence of the modified phospholipid content on coating characteristics Modified phospholipid is the product of phospholipid hydroxylation, and is more hydrophilic than phospholipid, and it is a widely used emulsifier in food industry [[44]]. [Extracted from the article]

The current study was conducted to investigate effects of hydroxyselenomethionine (HMBSe) with symmetrical and chelated chemical structure, a novel organic selenium (Se) source, on lactation performance, anti-oxidative status and immunities, and transfer efficiencies for early lactation dairy cows compared with that of sodium selenite (SS). Forty-five multiparous early-lactating dairy cows with similar days in milk, 56.0 d and milk yield 36.1 kg/d, were fed with same basal diet containing 0.04 mg of Se/kg of dry matter (DM) basis. They were assigned to 1 of 3 treatments according to one-way ANOVA design: control (basal diet, without Se supplementation), SS (0.30 mg of Se/kg of DM), or HMBSe (0.30 mg of Se/kg of DM). The experiment lasted for 9 weeks, with the first week as adaptation. Results showed that the organic HMBSe cows increased the milk yield, 4% fat-corrected milk yield, the numbers of red blood cells in whole blood, Se concentrations in milk and serum, ratio of milk to serum significantly (P < 0.01); feed efficiency, energy-corrected milk yield, contents of superoxide dismutase in serum, hemoglobin, and the numbers of white blood cells in whole blood significantly (P < 0.05) compared to control and SS. Moreover, HMBSe cows had trends to increase glutathione peroxidase activities (P = 0.09), total antioxidant capacity (P = 0.06), and had trends to decrease the contents of malonaldehyde (P = 0.07) in serum compared to control and SS. In conclusion, HMBSe was more effective on the lactation performances, anti-oxidative status, and immunities and Se transfer efficiencies for early-lactating dairy cows compared to control and SS, which was very meaningful to develop the enriched Se milk products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An increasing number of studies have shown that immune-related long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) do not require a unique expression level. This finding may help predict the survival and drug sensitivity of patients with colon cancer. Methods: We retrieved original transcriptome and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), sorted the data, differentiated mRNAs and lncRNAs, and then downloaded immune-related genes. Coexpression analysis predicted immune-related lncRNAs (irlncRNAs) and univariate analysis identified differentially expressed irlncRNAs (DEirlncRNAs). We have also amended the lasso pending region. Next, we compared the areas under the curve (AUCs), counted the Akaike information standard (AIC) value of the 3-year receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and determined the cutoff point to establish the best model to differentiate the high or low disease risk group of colon cancer patients. Results: We reevaluated the patients regarding the survival rate, clinicopathological features, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, immunosuppressive biomarkers, and chemosensitivity. A total of 155 irlncRNA pairs were confirmed, 31 of which were involved in the Cox regression model. After the colon cancer patients were regrouped according to the cutoff point, we could better distinguish the patients based on adverse survival outcomes, invasive clinicopathological features, the specific tumor immune cell infiltration status, high expression of immunosuppressive biomarkers, and low chemosensitivity. Conclusions: In this study, we established a characteristic model by pairing irlncRNAs to better predict the survival rate, chemotherapy efficacy, and prognostic value of patients with colon cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prostate cancer is among the most common malignancies for men, with limited therapy options for last stages of the tumor. There are some different options for treatment and control of prostate tumor growth. However, targeting some specific molecules and cells within tumors has been attracted interests in recent years. The tumor microenvironment (TME) has an important role in the initiation of various malignancies, which can also expand the progression of tumor and facilitate invasion of malignant cells. By regulating immune responses and distinct changes in the metabolism of cells in the tumor, TME has substantial effects in the resistance of cancer cells to therapy. TME in various solid cancers like prostate cancer includes various cells, including cancer cells, supportive stromal cells, immunosuppressive cells, and anticancer inflammatory cells. Natural products including herbal-derived agents and also other natural compounds have been well studied for their anti-tumor potentials. These compounds may modulate various signaling pathways involved in TME, such as immune responses, the metabolism of cells, epigenetics, angiogenesis, and extracellular matrix (ECM). This paper provides a review of the current knowledge of prostate TME and complex interactions in this environment. Additionally, the potential use of natural products and also nanoparticles loaded with natural products as therapeutic adjuvants on different cells and therapeutic targets within prostate TME will be discussed. [Display omitted] • This review highlights the effects of natural products and nanoparticles loaded with natural products on prostate tumor microenvironment • The role of tumor microenvironment on the development, invasion, and also therapeutic resistance of prostate cancers has been discussed • The possible synergic effects of natural products on the prostate cancer therapy by anticancer modalities discussed • Promising role of nanocarriers for delivery of natural products has been discussed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Metastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC) extremely affects the prognosis of CRC patients. Recently, the genetic methylation has been shown to associate with tumor metastasis. This research aimed to explore the Syk gene, which is frequently hypermethylated in different cancers, and its impact on the metastasis of CRC cells. Methods: We employed the UALCAN database for the detection of the methylation levels of Syk in different cancers. CIBERSORT, TIMER and TISIDB tools were employed to analyze the association of Syk expression with immune features of CRC. Treatment with decitabine has been noted to restore the expression of Syk in CRC cells. The invasion and migration abilities of CRC cell lines were determined using transwell and wound healing assays. The correlation between Syk and c‐Myc was established using the GEPIA2 database and Western blot assays. ​Results: Our results, based on UALCAN, revealed that the methylation level of Syk was altered in diverse cancers including colon adenocarcinoma. We found that expression profile and methylation level of Syk was correlated with immune features of colon adenocarcinoma. Decitabine can restore the expression of Syk in HCT116 and SW480 cells, hence affecting their migration and invasion. Results from GEPIA2 showed that Syk expression was correlated with c‐Myc, while Western blotting analysis revealed a negative association between the expression level of Syk and c‐Myc. ​Conclusions:​ ​This study demonstrates that the expression of Syk could be restored by decitabine in colorectal cancer, thus affecting the migration and invasion abilities of CRC cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THz molecular fingerprint sensing is a promising non-destructive method to accurately detect ultra-thin carbon-based materials in the nanoscale. Due to their extremely low THz absorption, plasmonic metamaterials or all-dielectric metasurfaces have been adopted to enhance the light-matter interaction for detection. However, they cause considerable parasitic losses or complicated material processing on a patterned surface. Here, we propose a lithography-free all-dielectric sensor to enhance THz absorption via an evanescent wave, which can lead to high detecting performance by a coupled mode. In view of the molecular broadband features, we use a thickness-multiplexed scheme to boost the detection of fingerprint significantly. The enhancing factor for the minimum fluctuation of fingerprint feature points is up to 534. Our method drastically enhances the broadband fingerprint intensity of the ultra-thin nanoscale layer and make it comparable to that of a 700-times thick sample layer, measured with a regular approach. Our study paves the way for broadband THz fingerprint sensing of trace-amount analytes and will inspire many burgeoning THz detection applications on 2D or ultra-thin carbon-based nanomaterials. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common tumor with high morbidity and mortality. Current specific diagnosis regarding CRC remains complicated and costly, and specific diagnostic biomarkers are lacking. Methods: To find potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for CRC, we screened and analyzed many CRC sequencing data by The Cancer Genome Atlas Program and Gene Expression Omnibus, and validated that CEP55 may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for CRC by molecular cytological experiments and immunohistochemistry, among others. Results: We found that CEP55 is upregulated in CRC tissues and tumor cells and can promote CRC proliferation and metastasis by activating the p53/p21 axis and that CEP55 mutations in tumor patients result in worse overall survival and disease‐free survival time. Besides, we also found that genes, such as CDK1, CCNB1, NEK2, KIF14, CDCA5, and RFC3 were upregulated in tumors, and their mutations would affect the prognosis of CRC patients, but these results await for more experimental evidence. Conclusion: Our study validates CEP55 as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for CRC, and we also provide multiple genes and potential molecular mechanisms that may serve as diagnostic and prognostic markers for CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current work, by an ordinary one‐step hydrothermal strategy, the covalently bonded graphitic carbon nitride/molybdenum disulfide (g‐C3N4/MoS2) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized. SEM, TEM analyses evidenced the well distribution of MoS2 nanoparticles on g‐C3N4. The covalent bond (C−S bond) between two‐dimensional (2D) g‐C3N4 and zero‐dimensional (0D) MoS2 were confirmed by FTIR and XRD. Furthermore, the average friction coefficient and wear rate of g‐C3N4/MoS2 nanocomposites at 0.20 wt % concentration could separately reach up to 27.86 % and 70.87 % reduction by comparing pure oil, benefiting from synergistic lubrication of g‐C3N4 nanosheets plus spherical MoS2. In the work, novel guidance will be provided for the potential application of multi‐dimensional g‐C3N4‐based nanocomposites in lubricating field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• NG and COG consumption is computed based on BF mass and heat balance and simulated. • The raceway state is compared as the coal ratio is same and NG and COG are used. • NG injection has more effect on coal reaction behaviors compared with COG. The application of hydrogen-rich gas in the pulverized coal injection technology represents a precious solution to mitigate carbon emissions. In this research, a three-dimensional physical model has been constructed based on the actual dimensions of the gas lance, coal lance, blowpipe, tuyere and raceway of a prominent blast furnace in China. A comparative analysis of the tuyere and raceway status, along with the coal combustion behaviors, is conducted using numerical simulation method after the injection volume of the two hydrogen-rich gases changes. The simulation outcomes demonstrate that the introduction of natural gas into the blast furnace has a comparatively larger influence on the temperature within the raceway, in contrast to the injection of coke oven gas, leading to a more noticeable temperature reduction. Additionally, the average temperature at the tuyere outlet is about 20 K higher with coke oven gas injection compared to natural gas injection under equivalent coal ratios. Furthermore, the burnout of particles is lower in the case of natural gas injection compared to coke oven gas injection. When the injection rates of natural gas and coke oven gas increase, and the coal ratio decreases from 170 kg/t to 140 kg/t, the burnout of coal powder decreases from 68.11% to 64.12% and 64.73%, respectively. The impact of injecting natural gas on coal powder combustion is more pronounced. The research offers a theoretical guide for advancing the mixed application of natural gas, coke oven gas, and particles in the blast furnace, serving as a valuable guide for practical implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic metasurface biosensing has excellent potential in label-free detection of tumor biomarkers. In general, a variety of plasmonic metasurface nanofabrication leads to various degree of metallic surface roughness. However, the metasurface roughness effects on plasmonic sensing of tumor markers have been barely reported. Here we fabricate high-roughness (HR) gold nanohole metasurfaces with nanobumps and investigate their biosensing in comparison with the low-roughness (LR) counterparts. The HR metasurfaces demonstrate the surface sensitivity of multilayer polyelectrolyte molecules, which is 57.0% higher than the LR ones. The HR metasurfaces also illuminate higher immunoassay sensitivity to multiple lung cancer biomarkers, including carcinoembryonic antigen, neuron-specific enolase and cytokeratin fragment 21–1. The highest increasement of tumor marker sensitivity is up to 71.4%. The biosensing enhancement is attributed to the introduction of gold nanobumps on metasurfaces, which provides more hot-spot regions, higher localized near-field intensity and better optical impedance matching. Furthermore, the biosensing of HR metasurfaces effectively covers the threshold values of tumor markers for early lung cancer diagnosis, and is used for the detection of clinical serum samples. The testing deviation is less than 4% compared with commercial immunoassay, which implies promising applications on medical examinations. Our research provides a scientific guide to surface roughness engineering for plasmonic metasensing in the future point-of-care testing. [Display omitted] • The gold nanobumps of plasmonic metasurfaces enhance the near-field intensity and provide much more hot-spot regions. • The sensitivity enhancement of tumor marker by increasing metasurface roughness is up to 71.4%. • The serum tests of high-roughness metasurfaces have the deviation of lower than 4% to commercial immunoassay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic metamaterials are receiving increasing attentions due to their great ability to confine light energy at the nanoscale for perfect absorption and various applications in the near infrared and visible region. However, the common practices to achieve the tunable absorption are to adjust the morphology of plasmonic metamaterials. This strategy has a low fabrication efficiency, which limits the applications of plasmonic metamaterials. Here, the absorption efficiency and peak position of the plasmonic metamaterial consisting of Au nanohole array/SiO2 spacer/Au film are tuned by simply controlling the thicknesses of the hexagonal Au nanohole array and the spacer layer, respectively. An ultrahigh absorption of ≈99% and a high surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect (with an average surface enhancement factor of 106) are achieved at the desired laser wavelength. The substrate can be as large as 10 mm in diameter and shows a high uniformity for SERS detection. This work provides a simple way to flexibly tune the optical properties of plasmonic metamaterials for various promising applications such as plasmon‐mediated chemical reactions and biosensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The probability distributions of hydrological series are primarily determined according to the best fitting of empirical probability from observation data. The fitted distribution functions are variable in different watersheds, and thus difficult to be applied to estimate probability of any discharge occurrence at other stations. In this study, chaotic characteristics of annual discharge series are analyzed by using correlation dimension analysis at 12 hydrological stations in the six main rivers in China. It is found that the correlation integral of annual discharge series represents the probability distribution of difference between any two annual discharges. The derived probability function can be perfectly fitted by the Pearson III function. Although the six basins have distinctively different climate conditions from the northern cold temperature zone to the southern subtropical zone, the correlation dimension of chaotic characteristics for annual discharges are similar at the 12 hydrological stations. The mean of difference between any two annual discharges, the maximum and minimum of annual discharge are found to be high correlation with the mean of annual discharge. Moreover, the derived probability distributions at 12 hydrological stations can be normalized by a universal distribution function, and the derived probability is high correlation with the probability distribution of annual discharge. This universal probability distribution can be easily applied to obtain probability distributions of annual discharge series over any stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The GINS complex has been implicated in the prognosis of various cancers. It comprises four subunits, encoded by GINS1, GINS2, GINS3, and GINS4 genes. Based on the current understanding, no report exists on the role of the GINS complex in pancreatic cancer. Methods: We employed various bioinformatics databases including GEPIA, UALCAN, GEPIA2, and Kaplan Meier Plotter to identify the expression profile of the four genes (GINS1, GINS2, GINS3, and GINS4), their correlation with pancreatic cancer grade as well as their prognostic value of in pancreatic cancer. Western blotting and qRT-PCR analyses were conducted to verify the expression profiles of the four genes in pancreatic cancer. CCK8 and EdU cell experiments were conducted to reveal the role played by the four genes in pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. Results: Based on GEPIA, Western blotting, and qRT-PCR analyses, all the four genes in the GINS complex were overexpressed in pancreatic cancer. Notably, the expression of each member was significantly associated with pancreatic cancer grade. The prognostic analysis revealed that not only the whole GINS complex but also each individual were prognostic biomarkers for pancreatic cancer. CCK8 and EdU experiments demonstrated that inhibition of the expression of each GINS member lowered pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. Conclusion: This work implicated GINS1, GINS2, GINS3, and GINS4 genes as critical prognostic markers for pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wet chemical reduction method was used to modify polydopamine (PDA) functionalized oxygenated carbon nitride (O‐g‐C3N4) nanosheets to prepare in situ growth of Cu nanoparticles (Cu NPs) decorated on nanosheets. The PDA attached to the surface of O‐g‐C3N4 provided a uniformly distributed platform for copper nanoparticles. It also provided rich functional groups and provided good conditions for the dispersion of Cu/PDA/O‐g‐C3N4 in pure oil. Through TEM testing, Cu NPs with a diameter of 5–10 nm were evenly distributed on the PDA/O‐g‐C3N4 nanosheets. Through the sliding test on the steel surface, it was obvious that adding 0.2 wt % Cu/PDA/O‐g‐C3N4 to pure oil had a lowest coefficient of friction. In addition, the wear marks on the surface of Cu/PDA/O‐g‐C3N4 steel discs were studied with an optical microscope and a three‐dimensional profiler and its wear resistance was better than Cu NPs, O‐g‐C3N4 and Cu/O‐g‐C3N4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A system-combined alternating-direction-implicit finite-difference time-domain (SC-ADI-FDTD) is fully presented and well corroborated for 3-D electromagnetic applications. Spatial differential operators of Maxwell’s equations can be expressed as two matrices with the different time-steps in original ADI-FDTD method. From this matrix form, the system chart can be drawn by combining with digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. Based on the intuitive process of the original ADI-FDTD method, we can avoid the repeated computation. Due to the limited computer memory, we employ the unsplited-field convolution perfectly matched layer (CPML) to terminate the FDTD computational domain. Compared with HFSS commercial software, conventional FDTD and original ADI-FDTD methods, the proposed SC-ADI-FDTD method can be well demonstrated and further validated by adopting electromagnetic applications, such as microwave circuits and antennas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Low-rank coal within 0.074–0.15 mm has weak explosive and meets the requirements of blast furnace injection. • The particle size reduction of low-rank coal makes its combustibility better. • The apparent activation energy of coal decreases with the increase of volatile content and particle size by the difference of heat and mass transfer process. Low-rank coal resources are abundant, which is the key to realizing coal high-value utilization. This paper focused on the effect of particle size of low-rank coal on combustion performance by experiment and kinetic analysis, and proved the feasibility and safety of low-rank coal enlarged particle size for blast furnace injection. Form the research results, the explosive, combustion and gasification behavior of samples are related to its volatile content, the oxygen content, the specific surface area and the reactive sites in the coal. Safety is the key to realize the injection high-proportion or even all low-rank coal, and the increasing of particle size can effectively inhibit its explosive and reduce its combustibility. For low-rank coal with 25%-40%, d 2 (0.074–0.150 mm) is an appropriate particle size for blast furnace injection, which ensures safety and better combustibility. Furthermore, there are differences in the heat and mass transfer process of different particle sizes during the combustion process by affecting its behaviors such as organic matter consumption and volatile matter removal. The apparent activation energy of coal decreases with the increase of volatile content and particle size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]