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African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large double-stranded DNA virus with a complex structural architecture and encodes more than 150 proteins, where many are with unknown functions. E184L has been reported as one of the immunogenic ASFV proteins that may contribute to ASFV pathogenesis and immune evasion. However, the antigenic epitopes of E184L are not yet characterized. In this study, recombinant E184L protein was expressed in prokaryotic expression system and four monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), designated as 1A10, 2D2, 3H6, and 4C10 were generated. All four mAbs reacted specifically with ASFV infected cells. To identify the epitopes of the mAbs, a series of overlapped peptides of E184L were designed and expressed as maltose binding fusion proteins. Accordingly, the expressed fusion proteins were probed with each E184L mAb separately by using Western blot. Following a fine mapping, the minimal linear epitope recognized by mAb 1A10 was identified as 119 IQRQGFL 125 , and mAbs 2D2, 3H6, and 4C10 recognized a region located between 153 DPTEFF 158 . Alignment of amino acids of E184L revealed that the two linear epitopes are highly conserved among different ASFV isolates. Furthermore, the potential application of the two epitopes in ASFV diagnosis was assessed through epitope-based ELISA using 24 ASFV positive and 18 negative pig serum and the method were able to distinguish positive and negative samples, indicating the two epitopes are dominant antigenic sites. To our knowledge, this is the first study to characterize the B cell epitopes of the antigenic E184L protein of ASFV, offering valuable tools for future research, as well as laying a foundation for serological diagnosis and epitope-based marker vaccine development., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Li dendrite and the shuttle effect are the two primary hindrances to the commercial application of lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs). Here, a multifunctional separator has been fabricated via successively coating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and lithium phytate (LP) onto a commercial polypropylene (PP) separator to improve the performance of LSBs. The LP coating layer with abundant electronegative phosphate group as permselective ion sieve not only reduces the polysulfide shuttle but also facilitates uniform Li + flux through the PP separator. And the highly conductive CNTs on the second layer act as a second collector to accelerate the reversible conversion of sulfide species. The synergistic effect of LP and CNTs further increases the electrolyte wettability and reaction kinetics of cells with a modified separator and suppresses the shuttle effect and growth of Li dendrite. Consequently, the LSBs present much enhanced rate performance and cyclic performance. It is expected that this study may generate an executable tactic for interface engineering of separator to accelerate the industrial application process of LSBs.

The bandgap modulation and electronic properties modulation of two-dimensional HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer induced by strain, electric field and atomic adsorption are studied by first principles. The HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer was found to be dynamically, thermally, and mechanically stable at equilibrium, and it is a direct semiconductor with a bandgap of 1.87 eV. The bandgap of the HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer can be precisely modulated by strain. Under the action of strain, HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer not only transforms from direct semiconductor to indirect semiconductor, but also improves the absorption of visible light. An external electric field in the 0-0.5 eV/Å range can also modulate the bandgap of HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer from 1.87 eV to 0 eV, and most importantly, at an external electric field of 0.5 eV/Å, HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer shows the characteristics of spin gapless semiconductor. The calculated adsorption energy shows that the structures of H, O and F atoms adsorbed by HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer can all exist stably. The bandgap of the configuration after adsorption of O and F atoms is significantly reduced compared with that of HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer. Furthermore, the HfSi 2 N 4 monolayer after adsorption of H and F atoms is transformed into a magnetic semiconductor. METHOD: All calculations were performed using Vienna ab initial simulation package, The electronic structure, mechanical properties, electronic properties and other properties were carried out using generalized gradient approximation (GGA-PBE), supplemented by HSE06 and GGA + U. The total-energy and force convergence are less than 10 -6  eV and 0.001 eV/Å, respectively. The vacuum on the z-axis is selected 20 Å. The vdW interactions were corrected using the Grimme scheme (DFT-D3)., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Diamond is considered the most promising next-generation semiconductor material due to its excellent physical characteristics. It has been more than three decades since the discovery of a special structure named n-diamond. However, despite extensive efforts, its crystallographic structure and properties are still unclear. Here, we show that subdisordered structures in diamond provide an explanation for the structural feature of n-diamond. Monocrystalline diamond with subdisordered structures is synthesized via the chemical vapor deposition method. Atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy characterizations combined with the picometer-precision peak finder technology and diffraction simulations reveal that picometer-scale shifts of atoms within cells of diamond govern the subdisordered structures. First-principles calculations indicate that the bandgap of diamond decreases rapidly with increasing shifting distance, in accordance with experimental results. These findings clarify the crystallographic structure and electronic properties of n-diamond and provide new insights into the bandgap adjustment in diamond.

Electrophoretic displays (EPDs) utilize the electrophoretic particles in electronic ink (e-ink) to display different color states with bistability. Bistability of EPDs is achieved by placing colloidal particles in a highly viscous solvent to keep the distribution of colloidal particles stable without sustaining the external field, so it only consumes power when updating the image. The feature of low power consumption makes it suitable for applications such as advertising boards, price tags, etc. Apart from these applications, recent research on lateral-driving EPDs extends its applications to smart windows, privacy control, and so on. However, achieving bistability by simply increasing the viscosity of solvent is inefficient in the case of lateral driving operation. Therefore, it is deserving to have intensive study on the mechanism of bistability from other aspects. Herein, we propose a mechanism to investigate the charge adsorption behavior on the electrode to affect the bistability of particles, which is based on the "Stern layer adsorption/desorption" model. Based on the above mechanism, we further fabricated a hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite film on the electrode to improve the bistability of lateral-driving EPD by reducing the diffusion current caused by unabsorbed charges. This developed lateral-driving EPD can significantly improve the bistability, which is enhanced from 40 s to 7 min, an increase by a factor of approximately 10. This work gives a way to consider the bistability of colloidal particles in nonpolar solvent.

Cytokinesis is required for faithful division of cytoplasmic components and duplicated nuclei into two daughter cells. Midbody, a protein-dense organelle that forms at the intercellular bridge, is indispensable for successful cytokinesis. However, the regulatory mechanism of cytokinesis at the midbody still remains elusive. Here, we unveil a critical role for NudC-like protein 2 (NudCL2), a co-chaperone of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), in cytokinesis regulation by stabilizing regulator of chromosome condensation 2 (RCC2) at the midbody in mammalian cells. NudCL2 localizes at the midbody, and its downregulation results in cytokinesis failure, multinucleation and midbody disorganization. Using iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis, we find that RCC2 levels are decreased in NudCL2 knockout (KO) cells. Moreover, Hsp90 forms a complex with NudCL2 to stabilize RCC2, which is essential for cytokinesis. RCC2 depletion mirrors phenotypes observed in NudCL2-downregulated cells. Importantly, ectopic expression of RCC2 rescues the cytokinesis defects induced by NudCL2 deletion, but not vice versa. Together, our data reveal the significance of the NudCL2/Hsp90/RCC2 pathway in cytokinesis at the midbody., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Higher Education Press.)

Due to their high wavelength selectivity and strong anti-interference capability, solar-blind UV photodetectors hold broad and important application prospects in fields like flame detection, missile warnings, and secure communication. Research on solar-blind UV detectors for amorphous Ga 2 O 3 is still in its early stages. The presence of intrinsic defects related to oxygen vacancies significantly affects the photodetection performance of amorphous Ga 2 O 3 materials. This paper focuses on growing high quality amorphous Ga 2 O 3 films on silicon substrates through atomic layer deposition. The study investigates the impact of annealing atmospheres on Ga 2 O 3 films and designs a blind UV detector for Ga 2 O 3 . Characterization techniques including atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) are used for Ga 2 O 3 film analysis. Ga 2 O 3 films exhibit a clear transition from amorphous to polycrystalline after annealing, accompanied by a decrease in oxygen vacancy concentration from 21.26% to 6.54%. As a result, the response time of the annealed detector reduces from 9.32 s to 0.47 s at an external bias of 10 V. This work demonstrates that an appropriate annealing process can yield high-quality Ga 2 O 3 films, and holds potential for advancing high-performance solar blind photodetector (SBPD) development., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

To address the problem that complex bearing faults are coupled to each other, and the difficulty of diagnosis increases, an improved envelope spectrum-maximum second-order cyclostationary blind deconvolution (IES-CYCBD) method is proposed to realize the separation of vibration signal fault features. The improved envelope spectrum (IES) is obtained by integrating the part of the frequency axis containing resonance bands in the cyclic spectral coherence function. The resonant bands corresponding to different fault types are accurately located, and the IES with more prominent target characteristic frequency components are separated. Then, a simulation is carried out to prove the ability of this method, which can accurately separate and diagnose fault types under high noise and compound fault conditions. Finally, a compound bearing fault experiment with inner and outer ring faults is designed, and the inner and outer ring fault characteristics are successfully separated by the proposed IES-CYCBD method. Therefore, simulation and experiments demonstrate the strong capability of the proposed method for complex fault separation and diagnosis.

In order to fabricate a novel antioxidant nanofiber facial mask, a metal cone modified in-situ electrospinning with precise deposition was employed by utilizing Enteromorpha prolifera polysaccharides (EPPs). The metal cone could control the deposition area to achieve precise fabrication of facial mask on skin. The EPPs exhibited remarkable antioxidant ability, as evidenced by the half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC 50 ) of 1.44 mg/mL and 0.74 mg/mL against DPPH and HO• free radicals, respectively. The antioxidant ability of the facial mask was improved by elevating the electrospinning voltage from 15 kV to 19 kV, due to the improved release capacity of EPPs by 7.09 %. Moreover, the facial mask demonstrated robust skin adhesion and moisture-retaining properties compared with commercial facial mask, which was benefited by the in-situ electrospinning technology. Furthermore, cytotoxicity assay, animal skin irritation test, and ocular irritation test collectively affirmed the safety of the facial mask. Thus, this research introduces a novel in situ electrospinning with precise deposition method and a natural antioxidant additive for preparing facial mask., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) is a particle consisting of a low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-like core connected to an apolipoprotein(a) chain, which is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, studies addressing the relationship between atrial fibrillation (AF) and Lp(a) demonstrated conflicted results. Thus, we sought to evaluate this relationship by conducting this systemic review and meta-analysis. We performed a comprehensive systematic search of health science databases, including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect, to identify all relevant literature from their inception to March 1, 2023. We identified nine related articles, which were eventually included in this study. Our study showed no association between Lp(a) with new-onset AF (HR = 1.45, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.57-3.67, p = .432). In addition, genetically elevated Lp(a) was not associated with the risk of atrial fibrillation (OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 1.00-1.00, p = .461). Different stratification of Lp(a) levels may have different outcomes. Also, higher Lp(a) levels may be inversely associated with the risk of developing AF compared to those with lower levels. Lp(a) levels were not associated with incident AF. Further research is needed to identify the mechanism underlying these results and better understand Lp(a) stratification for AF and the possible inverse association between Lp(a) and AF., (© 2023 The Authors. Clinical Cardiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Flexible solar cells, with the merits of structure compactness and shape transformation, are promising power sources for future electronic devices. However, frangible indium tin oxide-based transparent conductive substrates severely limit the flexibility of solar cells. Herein, we develop a flexible transparent conductive substrate of silver nanowires semi-embedded in colorless polyimide (denoted as AgNWs/cPI) via a simple and effective substrate transfer method. A homogeneous and well-connected AgNW conductive network can be constructed through modulating the silver nanowire suspension with citric acid. As a result, the prepared AgNWs/cPI shows low sheet resistance of about 21.3 ohm sq. -1 , high transmittance at 550 nm of 94%, and smooth morphology with the peak-to-valley roughness value of 6.5 nm. The perovskite solar cells (PSCs) on AgNWs/cPI exhibit power conversion efficiency of 14.98% with negligible hysteresis. Moreover, the fabricated PSCs maintain nearly 90% initial efficiency after bending for 2000 cycles. This study sheds light on the importance of suspension modification for the distribution and connection of AgNWs and paves a way for the development of high-performance flexible PSCs for practical applications., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

As an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has drawn great attention in solar-blind photodetection owing to its wide bandgap and high thermal conductivity. In this work, a metal-semiconductor-metal structural two-dimensional h-BN photodetector was fabricated by using mechanically exfoliated h-BN flakes. The device achieved an ultra-low dark current (16.4 fA), high rejection ratio ( R 205nm / R 280nm = 235) and high detectivity up to 1.28 × 10 11 Jones at room temperature. Moreover, due to the wide bandgap and high thermal conductivity, the h-BN photodetector showed good thermal stability up to 300 °C, which is hard to realize for common semiconductor materials. The high detectivity and thermal stability of h-BN photodetector in this work showed the potential applications of h-BN photodetectors working in solar-blind region at high temperature., (© 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Micro-oxidation is a fatal problem for some precision oxygen-free copper materials, and it is difficult to detect with the naked eyes. However, manual inspection using microscope equipment is expensive, subjective, and time-consuming. The automatic high-definition micrograph system equipped with micro-oxidation detection algorithm can detect more quickly, efficiently, and accurately. In this study, a micro-oxidation small objection detection model, MO-SOD, is proposed to detect the oxidation degree on oxygen-free copper surface based on microimaging system. This model is developed for rapid detection on the robot platform combined with high-definition microphotography system. The proposed MO-SOD model consists of three modules: small target feature extraction layer, key small object attention pyramid integration layer, and anchor-free decoupling detector. The small object feature extraction layer focuses on the local features of small object to improve the perception of micro-oxidation spots and also takes the global features into account to reduce the impact of noisy background on feature extraction. Key small object attention pyramid integration block couples key small object feature attention and pyramid to detect the micro-oxidation spots in the image. The performance of MO-SOD model is further improved by combining the anchor-free decoupling detector. In addition, the loss function is improved to combine CIOU loss and focal loss to achieve effective micro-oxidation detection. The MO-SOD model is trained and tested from three oxidation levels in an oxygen-free copper surface microscope image data set. The test results show that the average accuracy (mAP) of MO-SOD model is 82.96%, which is superior to other most advanced detectors., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Developing advanced thermal interface materials (TIMs) to bridge heat-generating chip and heat sink for constructing an efficient heat transfer interface is the key technology to solve the thermal management issue of high-power semiconductor devices. Based on the ultra-high basal-plane thermal conductivity, graphene is an ideal candidate for preparing high-performance TIMs, preferably to form a vertically aligned structure so that the basal-plane of graphene is consistent with the heat transfer direction of TIM. However, the actual interfacial heat transfer efficiency of currently reported vertically aligned graphene TIMs is far from satisfactory. In addition to the fact that the thermal conductivity of the vertically aligned TIMs can be further improved, another critical factor is the limited actual contact area leading to relatively high contact thermal resistance (20-30 K mm 2  W -1 ) of the "solid-solid" mating interface formed by the vertical graphene and the rough chip/heat sink. To solve this common problem faced by vertically aligned graphene, in this work, we combined mechanical orientation and surface modification strategy to construct a three-tiered TIM composed of mainly vertically aligned graphene in the middle and micrometer-thick liquid metal as a cap layer on upper and lower surfaces. Based on rational graphene orientation regulation in the middle tier, the resultant graphene-based TIM exhibited an ultra-high thermal conductivity of 176 W m -1  K -1 . Additionally, we demonstrated that the liquid metal cap layer in contact with the chip/heat sink forms a "liquid-solid" mating interface, significantly increasing the effective heat transfer area and giving a low contact thermal conductivity of 4-6 K mm 2  W -1 under packaging conditions. This finding provides valuable guidance for the design of high-performance TIMs based on two-dimensional materials and improves the possibility of their practical application in electronic thermal management., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

In recent years, we have witnessed numerous indoor fires caused by the flammable properties of cotton. Flame-retardant cotton deserves our attention. A novel boric acid and diethylenetriaminepenta (methylene-phosphonic acid) (DTPMPA) ammonium salt-based chelating coordination flame retardant (BDA) was successfully prepared for cotton fabrics, and a related retardant mechanism with ion transfer was investigated. BDA can form a stable chemical and coordination bond on the surface of cotton fibers by a simple three-curing finishing process. The limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of BDA-90 increased to 36.1%, and the LOI value of cotton fabric became 30.3% after 50 laundering cycles (LCs) and exhibited excellent durable flame retardancy. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods were used to observe the bonding mode and morphology of BDA on cotton fibers. A synergistic flame-retardant mechanism of condensed and gas phases was concluded from thermogravimetry (TG), cone calorimeter tests, and TG-FTIR. The test results of whiteness and tensile strength showed that the physical properties of BDA-treated cotton fabric were well maintained.

The terahertz stealth and shielding performance of a new type of two-dimensional material, borophene, has been studied theoretically and experimentally. Studies have shown that borophene materials have good terahertz stealth and shielding properties. First-principles calculations show that compared with single-layer borophene, few-layer borophene has good terahertz stealth and shielding performance in the range of 0.1~2.7 THz. In the range of 2~4 layers, the terahertz stealth and shielding performance of few-layer borophene increases with the increase of the number of layers. The finite element simulation calculation results also confirmed this point. Using the few-layer borophene prepared by our research group as a raw material, a PDMS composite was prepared to verify the terahertz stealth and shielding performance of the few-layer borophene. In the ultra-wide frequency range of 0.1~2.7 THz, the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of the PDMS material mixed with few-layer borophene can reach 50 dB, and the reflection loss (RL) can reach 35 dB. With the concentration of few-layer borophene increasing, the terahertz stealth and shielding effectiveness of the material is enhanced. In addition, the simultaneous mixing of few-layer borophene and few-layer graphene will make the material exhibit better terahertz stealth and shielding performance compared with mixing separately.

Lab experiments, field pilots, and numerical modeling focusing on fluid flow aspects have indicated that multi-branch wells are technically effective and promising. Several researchers have conducted some experiments for a fishbone well strategy with mixed results. Our objective in this work is to study the impact of the different fishbone well patterns, such as branch angle, on the distribution of remaining oil after water flooding. In this paper, the interference effect between branches on oil recovery is studied in three steps. First, the interferences between fishbone wells with different branch angles were measured by hydro-electric simulation experiments. Second, two-dimensional visualization water flooding experiments were carried out to clarify the remaining oil distribution at different branch angles. Third, the distribution of oil and water in fishbone wells was verified by establishing a numerical model. The modeling results agree well with the experimental phenomena. At the same time, the variation trend of water and oil production in each branch is analyzed by numerical simulation results. The results indicate that the production is strongly dependent on the branch angles, and the highest recovery was 60.2% at a 45° branch angle., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

A new two-dimensional material B 2 S 2 has been successfully synthesized for the first time and validated using first-principles calculations, with fundamental properties analyzed in detail. B 2 S 2 has a similar structure as transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) such as MoS 2 , and the experimentally prepared free-standing B 2 S 2 nanosheets show a uniform height profile lower than 1 nm. A thickness-modulated and unique oxidation-level dependent band gap of B 2 S 2 is revealed by theoretical calculations, and vibration signatures are determined to offer a practical scheme for the characterization of B 2 S 2 . It is shown that the functionalized B 2 S 2 is able to provide favorable sites for lithium adsorption with low diffusion barriers, and the prepared B 2 S 2 shows a wide band photoluminescence response. These findings offer a feasible new and lighter member for the TMD-like 2D material family with potential for various aspects of applications, such as an anode material for Li-ion batteries and electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Manipulating catalytic active sites and reaction kinetics in alkaline media is crucial for rationally designing mighty water-splitting electrocatalysts with high efficiency. Herein, the coupling between oxygen vacancies and interface engineering is highlighted to fabricate a novel amorphous/crystalline CrO x -Ni 3 N heterostructure grown on Ni foam for accelerating the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the electron transfer from amorphous CrO x to Ni 3 N at the interfaces, and the optimized Gibbs free energies of H 2 O dissociation (ΔG H-OH ) and H adsorption (ΔG H ) in the amorphous/crystalline CrO x -Ni 3 N heterostructure are conducive to the superior and stable HER activity. Experimental data confirm that numerous oxygen vacancies and amorphous/crystalline interfaces in the CrO x -Ni 3 N catalysts are favorable for abundant accessible active sites and enhanced intrinsic activity, resulting in excellent catalytic performances for HER and OER. Additionally, the in situ reconstruction of CrO x -Ni 3 N into highly active Ni 3 N/Ni(OH) 2 is responsible for the optimized OER performance in a long-term stability test. Eventually, an alkaline electrolyzer using CrO x -Ni 3 N as both cathode and anode has a low cell voltage of 1.53 V at 10 mA cm -2 , together with extraordinary durability for 500 h, revealing its potential in industrial applications., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

It was interesting to experimentally find that the thermal insulation of silica aerogels was improved by doping graphene sheets with high heat conductivity. The underlying mechanism is investigated in the present work from the perspective of gas-solid interaction using a comprehensive analysis of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, theoretical modeling, and experimental data. The MD-modeled small pores are demonstrated to effectively represent big pores in silica aerogels because of similar heat conduction physics, because it is found that adsorption does not contribute to gas heat conduction. Meanwhile, based on the experimentally measured density, the porous structures are schematically re-engineered using molecular modeling for the first time. The evaluated pore size distributions numerically present a consistency with available experimental data. Inspired by the visualization of the 3D pore structure, we proposed a graphene/silica/nitrogen model to evaluate the role of graphene in heat conduction: it can not only reduce effective gas collision (impede heat transport) but also enhance the gas-solid coupling effect. The former is dominant because of the high porosity, leading to an improvement in thermal insulation. The competition between them can be the reason for the "trade-off" phenomenon in the graphene doping effect in the available experiment.

NLRP3 inflammasome is involved in the pathology of multiple human inflammatory diseases but there are still no clinically available medications targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome. We have previously identified RRx-001 as a highly selective and potent NLRP3 inhibitor, however, it contains high-energy nitro functional groups and may cause potential processing problems and generates highly toxic oxidants. Here, we show that compound 149-01, an RRx-001 analogue without high-energy nitro functional groups, is a potent, specific and covalent NLRP3 inhibitor. Mechanistically, 149-01 binds directly to cysteine 409 of NLRP3 to block the NEK7-NLRP3 interaction, thereby preventing NLRP3 inflammasome complex assembly and activation. Furthermore, treatment with 149-01 effectively alleviate the severity of several inflammatory diseases in mice, including lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced systemic inflammation, monosodium urate crystals (MSU)-induced peritonitis and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Thus, our results indicate that 149-01 is a potential lead for developing therapeutic agent for NLRP3-related inflammatory diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lin, Yang, Li, Lin, Deng, He and Zhou.)

Metallic vanadium dichalcogenides with high conductivity and large layer spacing are fantastically potential to be cathode candidates for aqueous zinc ion batteries. However, simply reliance on the reversible Zn 2+ intercalation/deintercalation process in the layer structure of vanadium dichalcogenides makes it suffer from low specific capacity and limited cycling number. Here we report a facile in-situ electrochemical oxidation strategy to boost the zinc ion storage capacity of interlayer-expanded vanadium disulfide (VS 2 ·NH 3 ) hollow spheres with satisfying cyclic stability. The hydrated vanadium oxide (V 2 O 5 ·nH 2 O) generated from oxidized VS 2 ·NH 3 , are endowed with reduced nanosheet size and subordinated porous structure, which provides abundant accessible sites and accelerates the zinc ion diffusion process. As a result, the VS 2 ·NH 3 derived cathode after the electrochemical oxidation process delivers a high reversible capacity of 392 mA h g -1 at 0.1 A g -1 and long cyclic stability (110% capacity retention at 3 A g -1 after 2000 cycles). The efficient oxidation process of VS 2 ·NH 3 cathode and the storage mechanism in the subsequent cycles are schematically investigated. This work not only reveals the zinc ion storage mechanism of the oxidized VS 2 ·NH 3 but also sheds light on advanced design for high-performance Zn ion cathode materials., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Cactus spines have inspired a wide range of micro- and nano-structures that cause droplets to move spontaneously and directionally. The conical shape and the surface wettability gradient are two typical characteristics in such systems. The cross section of the existing conical fibers is usually assumed to be an ideal circle. In fact, microridges are observed on the spine surface of the cactus, and the function is not yet fully understood. The present work thus focuses on how microridges affect droplet self-transport. Structures mimicking microridges are first investigated by constructing pyramidal cross sections with concave or convex lateral faces. The dissipative particle dynamics method is then employed to numerically investigate and theoretically analyze the dynamic behaviors of droplets on these conical fibers with different cross sections. The results show that the microridges reduce the base radius and the contact area of the droplet, thereby increasing the driving force and reducing the friction force. Moreover, by mimicking the microridges structure, we propose a conical fiber with a triple concave cross section, which increases the droplet velocity and the distance traveled over the traditional circular fiber. This work reveals the role of the microridges in the droplet self-transport, which opens up new prospects for the manufacture of fiber systems for microfluidics and liquid manipulation.

Stretchable and transparent electrodes (STEs) are indispensable components in numerous emerging applications such as optoelectrical devices and wearable devices used in health monitoring, human-machine interaction, and artificial intelligence. However, STEs have limitations in conductivity, robustness, and transmittance owing to the exposure of the substrate and fatigue deformation of nanomaterials under strain. In this study, an STE consisting of conductive materials embedded in in situ self-cracking strain-spread channels by wettability self-assembly is fabricated. Finite element analysis is used to simulate the crevice growth using the representative unit cell network and strain deformation using a random network. The embedded conductive materials are partly protected by the strain-opening crevice channel, and network dissociation is avoided under stretching, showing a maximum strain of 125%, a transmittance of approximately 89.66% (excluding the substrate) with a square resistance of 9.8 Ω sq -1 , and high stability in an environment with high temperature and moisture. The wettability self-assembly coating process is verified and expanded to several kinds of hydrophilic inks and hydrophobic coating materials. The fabricated STE can be employed as a strain sensor in motion sensing, vital sign and posture feedback, and mimicking bioelectronic spiderweb with spatial gravity induction.

Filamin A, the first discovered non-muscle actin filament cross-linking protein, plays a crucial role in regulating cell migration that participates in diverse cellular and developmental processes. However, the regulatory mechanism of filamin A stability remains unclear. Here, we find that nuclear distribution gene C (NudC), a cochaperone of heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), is required to stabilize filamin A in mammalian cells. Immunoprecipitation-mass spectrometry and western blotting analyses reveal that NudC interacts with filamin A. Overexpression of human NudC-L279P (an evolutionarily conserved mutation in NudC that impairs its chaperone activity) not only decreases the protein level of filamin A but also results in actin disorganization and the suppression of cell migration. Ectopic expression of filamin A is able to reverse these defects induced by the overexpression of NudC-L279P. Furthermore, Hsp90 forms a complex with filamin A. The inhibition of Hsp90 ATPase activity by either geldanamycin or radicicol decreases the protein stability of filamin A. In addition, ectopic expression of Hsp90 efficiently restores NudC-L279P overexpression-induced protein stability and functional defects of filamin A. Taken together, these data suggest NudC L279P mutation destabilizes filamin A by inhibiting the Hsp90 chaperoning pathway and suppresses cell migration., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Liu, Xu, Zhang, Yang, Feng, Lu, Zhang, Chen, Xu, Sun, Yang, Liu, Zhou and Yang.)

A variety of metal elements have exhibited strong reductive and dehalogenative capabilities for the removal of persistent organic pollutants, owing to electron transfer or electron-hole activation through various methods. Herein, a bimetallic C Ni -Al 2 O 3 structure (AlC Ni ) was successfully synthesized to simultaneously function as sorbent and catalyst in the reduction of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFOA) polluted wastewater. Using a reaction period of 3 h, 98% of PFOA was removed by AlC Ni through a mechanochemical stirring method and 70.43% of fluorine ions was released from PFOA anchored onto the surface of AlC Ni . Both thermocatalysis and photocatalysis technologies were incorporated and compared when utilized in tandem with AlC Ni to mitigate the PFOA. In addition, peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and sodium sulfite (Na 2 SO 3 ) were also integrated into experiments, separately, as a strong oxidant and reductant to improve the degradation effect of PFOA. However, the degradation efficiency of both were lower than that of AlC Ni , even when assisted by elevated temperatures and ultraviolet irradiation. The feasibility of employing AlC Ni for PFOA degradation was further investigated at various temperature and pH conditions. The data obtained from HPLC-MS/MS, TOC, and IC with multiple characterizations of AlC Ni /PFOA, proposed the predominant degradation pathways comprising adsorption, defluorination-hydroxylation, and decarboxylation. This study provides a valuable remediation method without utilizing chemical agents and special activation for PFOA by AlC Ni , which can be suitable for large-scale sewage treatment applications., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Once two-dimensional boron-based materials were forecasted, their excellent physical and chemical properties have realized attractive application value in the field of materials science. However, borophene could not exist independently and stably in nature. Molecular beam epitaxy is the only way being used currently for the preparation of borophene, which has low yield and harsh experimental installation conditions. Here, we propose the theory that few-layer borophene supported by silver nanoparticles can exist stably and large-scale preparation of few-layer borophene can be performed by mechanical resonance first. We have revealed that the structure of the prepared borophene is α-sheet and its thickness is less than 4 nm. The oxidation rate of borophene from the experiment is about 0.19, which indicates that the few-layer borophene possesses good structure stability. We have also studied the structure stability of borophene on silver nanoparticles by first principles calculation. The calculation proves that few-layer borophene can exist stably supported with silver nanoparticles. Furthermore, the terahertz shielding and stealth performance of the few-layer borophene have been explored. The maximum terahertz shielding effectiveness value of the prepared material could reach up to 50 and 21.5 dB for the reflection loss value in the broadband range of 0.1-2.7 THz. The large-scale preparation of few-layer borophene through the mechanical method makes it possible to study the properties of borophene and achieve low-cost large-scale applications, such as the study of terahertz shielding and stealth performance in the article, which facilitates the lightweight material design for terahertz shielding and stealth.

Graphene shows great potential applications in functional coating, electrodes, and ultrasensitive sensors, but high-yield and scalable preparation of few-layer graphene (FLG) by mechanical exfoliation method is still a formidable challenge. In this work, a novel two-step method for high-yield preparation of FLG is developed by combining resonance ball milling and hydrothermal treatment. During the resonance ball milling process, the utilization of magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles as a new "particle wedge" is beneficial to facilitate fragment and delamination of graphitic layers. In addition, further hydrothermal treatment can enhance ball milling product (BMP) exfoliation because of the shear force driven by the Brownian motion of various molecules at high temperature and high pressure. As expected, the two-step method can have high exfoliation efficiency up to 92% (≤10 layers). Moreover, the FLG nanosheet ink can easily achieve the formation of FLG coatings on the surface of various substrates, resulting in good electrical conductivity, which possesses potential applications in various fields including functional coating, energy storages, and electrochemical sensors, etc. Our work provides a new-fashioned strategy for mechanical large-scale production of graphene.

An efficient visible light photoredox catalyzed aerobic deprotection of 1,3-oxathiolanes using organic dye Eosin Y as a photocatalyst is disclosed. The deprotection procedure features the use of a metal-free catalyst, mild conditions, a broad range of substrate scope, and good functional group tolerance. 35 examples were tested under the standard conditions and most of them afforded the deprotected products in modest to high yields.

A Mn/Co dual nanoparticle-decorated hierarchical carbon structure was derived from a Zn/Mn/Co/chitosan composite hydrogel. This strategy critically relied on the formation of a supramolecularly crosslinked hydrogel that allowed the efficient and homogeneous incorporation of highly active Mn/Co species onto the surface of hierarchical carbon structures. The resultant electrocatalyst outperformed Pt/C toward the oxygen reduction reaction in 0.1 M KOH electrolytes.

The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color center in chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond has been widely investigated in quantum information and quantum biosensors due to its excellent photon emission stability and long spin coherence time. However, the temperature dependence of the energy level of NV color centers in diamond is different from other semiconductors with the same diamond cubic structure for the high Debye temperature and very small thermal expansion coefficient of diamond. In this work, a diamond sensor for temperature measurement with high precision was fabricated based on the investigation of the energy level shifts of NV centers by Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The results show that the intensity and linewidth of the zero-phonon line of NV centers highly depend on the environmental temperature, and the energy level shifts of NV centers in diamond follow the modified Varshni model very well, a model which is better than the traditional version. Accordingly, the NV color center shows the ability in temperature measurement with a high accuracy of up to 98%. The high dependence of NV centers on environmental temperature shows the possibility of temperature monitoring of NV center-based quantum sensors in biosystems.

Engineering nanoarray structures with favorable hydrophilicity is proposed to unlock the electrocatalysis of NiFe2O4 for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The resulting electrode, consisting of NiFe2O4 nanospindles directly grown on FeNi3 foam, features enlarged active surface area, high hydrophilicity and increased electronic conductivity, which achieves superior OER activity and remarkable durability.

The development of accurate, reliable devices for glucose detection has drawn much attention from the scientific community over the past few years. Here, we report a single-step method to fabricate Ni nanoparticle-modified graphene-diamond hybrid electrodes via a catalytic thermal treatment, by which the graphene layers are directly grown on the diamond surface using Ni thin film as a catalyst, meanwhile, Ni nanoparticles are formed in situ on the graphene surface due to dewetting behavior. The good interface between the Ni nanoparticles and the graphene guarantees efficient charge transfer during electrochemical detection. The fabricated electrodes exhibit good glucose sensing performance with a low detection limit of 2 μM and a linear detection range between 2 μM-1 mM. In addition, this sensor shows great selectivity, suggesting potential applications for sensitive and accurate monitoring of glucose in human blood.

Phosphorescence shows great potential for application in bioimaging and ion detection because of its long-lived luminescence and high signal-to-noise ratio, but establishing phosphorescence emission in aqueous environments remains a challenge. Herein, we present a general design strategy that effectively promotes phosphorescence by utilising water molecules to construct hydrogen-bonded networks between carbon dots (CDs) and cyanuric acid (CA). Interestingly, water molecules not only cause no phosphorescence quenching but also greatly enhance the phosphorescence emission. This enhancement behaviour can be explained by the fact that the highly ordered bound water on the CA particle surface can construct robust bridge-like hydrogen-bonded networks between the CDs and CA, which not only effectively rigidifies the C=O bonds of the CDs but also greatly enhances the rigidity of the entire system. In addition, the CD-CA suspension exhibits a high phosphorescence lifetime (687 ms) and is successfully applied in ion detection based on its visible phosphorescence.

The second near-infrared window emission (1.0-1.7 μm, NIR-II) has received extensive attention with the advantages of negligible tissue scattering, reduced autofluorescence, and less background noise. Here a novel analysis platform based on quantum dots (QDs) for highly selective detection of Zn 2+ and Cd 2+ with an enhanced NIR-II fluorescence is reported for the first time. We have developed a facile two-step route to synthesize the water-soluble Ag 2 S QDs, constituting of a green hydrothermal process and followed surface ligands exchange. Surface passivation was proposed to be the mechanism for the enhanced fluorescence. The added Zn 2+ or Cd 2+ could react with the surface thioglycollic acid to form Zn-thiol or Cd-thiol complex passivation shell, which restored surface defects and suppressed nonradiative recombination pathway. The detection platform exhibited a linear relationship between the ion concentrations and enhanced fluorescence and had a detection limit as low as 760 nM for Zn 2+ and 546 nM for Cd 2+ at pH = 7.4. Furthermore, the as-synthesized Ag 2 S QDs showed good robustness in real sample matrix and were demonstrated to be able to detect exogenous Zn(II) in cells. These properties suggest potential applications of detection of Zn 2+ in biology and Cd 2+ in environment via the NIR-II fluorescent Ag 2 S QDs.

Si-based nanostructure composites have been intensively investigated as anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries because of their ultra-high-energy storage capacity. However, it is still a great challenge to fabricate a perfect structure satisfying all the requirements of good electrical conductivity, robust matrix for buffering large volume expansion, and intact linkage of Si particles upon long-term cycling. Here, we report a novel design of Si-based multicomponent three-dimensional (3D) networks in which the Si core is capped with phytic acid shell layers through a facile high-energy ball-milling method. By mixing the functional Si with graphene oxide and functionalized carbon nanotube, we successfully obtained a homogeneous and conductive rigid silicon-based gel through complexation. Interestingly, this Si-based gel with a fancy 3D cross-linking structure could be writable and printable. In particular, this Si-based gel composite delivers a moderate specific capacity of 2711 mA h g -1 at a current density of 420 mA g -1 and retained a competitive discharge capacity of more than 800.00 mA h g -1 at the current density of 420 mA g -1 after 700 cycles. We provide a new method to fabricate durable Si-based anode material for next-generation high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most lethal tumors worldwide, which is mainly due to the high recurrence and metastasis rate after hepatectomy. In this study, we found that PTIP expression was dramatically upregulated in human HCC tissues and cell lines. High expression of PTIP was shown to be associated with aggressive clinicopathological features, including liver cirrhosis, vascular invasion and advanced stage. In addition, PTIP overexpression was independently associated with shorter survival and increased HCC recurrence in patients. Knockdown of the PTIP expression significantly inhibited invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo , whereas ectopic expression of PTIP significantly promoted invasion and metastasis. Mechanistically, PTIP promotes HCC progress by facilitating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Notably, we also found that PTIP might increase miR-374a expression to promote EMT and metastasis in HCC. In summary, our study identified PTIP as a new potential prognostic indicator and therapeutic target for HCC., Competing Interests: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to declare.

Ni 3 S 2 nanowire arrays doped with vanadium(V) are directly grown on nickel foam by a facile one-step hydrothermal method. It is found that the doping can promote the formation of Ni 3 S 2 nanowires at a low temperature. The doped nanowires show excellent electrocatalytic performance toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and outperform pure Ni 3 S 2 and other Ni 3 S 2 -based compounds. The stability test shows that the performance of V-doped Ni 3 S 2 nanowires is improved and stabilized after thousands of linear sweep voltammetry test. The onset potential of V-doped Ni 3 S 2 nanowire can be as low as 39 mV, which is comparable to platinum. The nanowire has an overpotential of 68 mV at 10 mA cm -2 , a relatively low Tafel slope of 112 mV dec -1 , good stability and high Faradaic efficiency. First-principles calculations show that the V-doping in Ni 3 S 2 extremely enhances the free carrier density near the Fermi level, resulting in much improved catalytic activities. We expect that the doping can be an effective way to enhance the catalytic performance of metal disulfides in hydrogen evolution reaction and V-doped Ni 3 S 2 nanowire is one of the most promising electrocatalysts for hydrogen production.

A novel hollow-structured CuO derived from chitosan-coated Cu/Cu 2 O composite hollow spheres was mass produced via a supramolecular hydrogel templating method and homogeneously co-doped with C and N. Evaluation of the as-produced co-doped CuO hollow spheres as anode materials for Li ion batteries showed that they had superior electrochemical properties.

A biopolymer-chitosan based Supramolecular Hydrogel type solid state Electrolyte (SHE) is prepared via a simple and fast cross-linking between chitosan and Li + /Ag + . The obtained SHE itself shows high thermal stability and excellent flexible and mouldable properties. When integrated in an asymmetric supercapacitor with MnO 2 as the positive electrode and active carbon as the negative electrode, it can survive more than 10 000 cycles with the areal capacity of 10 mF cm -2 at the 1.8 mA cm -2 current density.

It is a challenge to prepare organic electrodes for sodium-ion batteries with long cycle life and high capacity. The highly reactive radical intermediates generated during the sodiation/desodiation process could be a critical issue because of undesired side reactions. Here we present durable electrodes with a stabilized α-C radical intermediate. Through the resonance effect as well as steric effects, the excessive reactivity of the unpaired electron is successfully suppressed, thus developing an electrode with stable cycling for over 2,000 cycles with 96.8% capacity retention. In addition, the α-radical demonstrates reversible transformation between three states: C=C; α-C·radical; and α-C - anion. Such transformation provides additional Na + storage equal to more than 0.83 Na + insertion per α-C radical for the electrodes. The strategy of intermediate radical stabilization could be enlightening in the design of organic electrodes with enhanced cycling life and energy storage capability.

The superior performance of metal oxide nanocomposites has introduced them as excellent candidates for emerging energy sources, and attracted significant attention in recent years. The drawback of these materials is their inherent structural pulverization which adversely impacts their performance and makes the rational design of stable nanocomposites a great challenge. In this work, functional V 2 O 5 -C-SnO 2 hybrid nanobelts (VCSNs) with a stable structure are introduced where the ultradispersed SnO 2 nanocrystals are tightly linked with glucose on the V 2 O 5 surface. The nanostructured V 2 O 5 acts as a supporting matrix as well as an active electrode component. Compared with existing carbon-V 2 O 5 hybrid nanobelts, these hybrid nanobelts exhibit a much higher reversible capacity and architectural stability when used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. The superior cyclic performance of VCSNs can be attributed to the synergistic effects of SnO 2 and V 2 O 5 . However, limited data are available for V 2 O 5 -based anodes in lithium-ion battery design.

The expression level of tumor-related mRNA can reveal significant information about tumor progression and prognosis, so specific mRNA in cells provides an important approach for biological and disease studies. Here, fluorescence lifetime imaging of nanoflares in living cells was first employed to detect specific intracellular mRNA. We characterized the lifetime changes of the prepared nanoflares before and after the treatment of target mRNA and also compared the results with those of fluorescence intensity-based measurements both intracellularly and extracellularly. The nanoflares released the cy5-modified oligonucleotides and bound to the targets, resulting in a fluorescence lifetime lengthening. This work puts forward another dimension of detecting specific mRNA in cells and can also open new ways for detection of many other biomolecules.

This is Part I of a two-part paper documenting the development of a novel asymmetric flow control method to improve the stability of a high-pressure-ratio turbocharger centrifugal compressor. Part I focuses on the nonaxisymmetrical flow in a centrifugal compressor induced by the nonaxisymmetrical geometry of the volute while Part II describes the development of an asymmetric flow control method to avoid the stall on the basis of the characteristic of nonaxisymmetrical flow. To understand the asymmetries, experimental measurements and corresponding numerical simulation were carried out. The static pressure was measured by probes at different circumferential and stream-wise positions to gain insights about the asymmetries. The experimental results show that there is an evident nonaxisymmetrical flow pattern throughout the compressor due to the asymmetric geometry of the overhung volute. The static pressure field in the diffuser is distorted at approximately 90 deg in the rotational direction of the volute tongue throughout the diffuser. The magnitude of this distortion slightly varies with the rotational speed. The magnitude of the static pressure distortion in the impeller is a function of the rotational speed. There is a significant phase shift between the static pressure distributions at the leading edge of the splitter blades and the impeller outlet. The numerical steady state simulation neglects the aforementioned unsteady effects found in the experiments and cannot predict the phase shift, however, a detailed asymmetric flow field structure is obviously obtained.

This is part II of a two-part paper involving the development of an asymmetrical flow control method to widen the operating range of a turbocharger centrifugal compressor with high-pressure ratio. A nonaxisymmetrical self-recirculation casing treatment (SRCT) as an instance of asymmetrical flow control method is presented. Experimental and numerical methods were used to investigate the impact of nonaxisymmetrical SRCT on the surge point of the centrifugal compressor. First, the influence of the geometry of a symmetric SRCT on the compressor performance was studied by means of numerical simulation. The key parameter of the SRCT was found to be the distance from the main blade leading edge to the rear groove (S r ). Next, several arrangements of a nonaxisymmetrical SRCT were designed, based on flow analysis presented in part I. Then, a series of experiments were carried out to analyze the influence of nonaxisymmetrical SRCT on the compressor performance. Results show that the nonaxisymmetrical SRCT has a certain influence on the performance and has a larger potential for stability improvement than the traditional symmetric SRCT. For the investigated SRCT, the surge flow rate of the compressor with the nonaxisymmetrical SRCTs is about 10% lower than that of the compressor with symmetric SRCT. The largest surge margin (smallest surge flow rate) can be obtained when the phase of the largest S r is coincident with the phase of the minimum static pressure in the vicinity of the leading edge of the splitter blades.