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Humans rely increasingly on sensors to address grand challenges and to improve quality of life in the era of digitalization and big data. For ubiquitous sensing, flexible sensors are developed to overcome the limitations of conventional rigid counterparts. Despite rapid advancement in bench-side research over the last decade, the market adoption of flexible sensors remains limited. To ease and to expedite their deployment, here, we identify bottlenecks hindering the maturation of flexible sensors and propose promising solutions. We first analyze challenges in achieving satisfactory sensing performance for real-world applications and then summarize issues in compatible sensor-biology interfaces, followed by brief discussions on powering and connecting sensor networks. Issues en route to commercialization and for sustainable growth of the sector are also analyzed, highlighting environmental concerns and emphasizing nontechnical issues such as business, regulatory, and ethical considerations. Additionally, we look at future intelligent flexible sensors. In proposing a comprehensive roadmap, we hope to steer research efforts towards common goals and to guide coordinated development strategies from disparate communities. Through such collaborative efforts, scientific breakthroughs can be made sooner and capitalized for the betterment of humanity. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) National Research Foundation (NRF) Submitted/Accepted version Y.L., Z.L., M.Z., and X.C. acknowledge the National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF) under NRF’s Medium Sized Centre: Singapore Hybrid-Integrated Next-Generation μElectronics (SHINE) Centre funding programme, and AME programming funding scheme of Cyber Physiochemical Interface (CPI) project (no. A18A1b0045). Y.L. acknowledges National Natural Science Foundation of China (62201243). C.J. acknowledges funding support from the National Key R&D Program of China (no. 2019YFA0706100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82151305), Lingang Laboratory (LG-QS-202202-09). T.Q.T. and N.E.L. acknowledge support by the Basic Science Research Program (no. 2020R1A2C3013480) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT. A.F. acknowledges the AFOSR (grant FA9550-22-1-0423). Y.L. and Y.Z. would like to acknowledge the NSF (award no. 2134664) and NIH (award no. R01HD108473) for financial support. X.F. acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. U20A6001). L.Y. would like to thank the A*STAR Central Research Fund (CRF) and the AME Programmatic A18A1b0045 (Cyber Physiochemical Interfaces) for funding support. C.F.G. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. T2225017). T.Q.T. acknowledges the Brain Pool Program (No. 2020H1D3A2A02111068) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science. Z.L. acknowledges the support from RIE2020 AME Programmatic Grant funded by A*STAR-SERC, Singapore (Grant No. A18A1b0045). X.G. acknowledges funding support through the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (grant no. 19JC1412400), the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (grant no. 61922057). C.D. acknowledges National Science Foundation CAREER: Conformable Piezoelectrics for Soft Tissue Imaging (grant no. 2044688) and MIT Media Lab Consortium funding. D.K. and O.G.S. acknowledge Leibniz Association and the German Research Foundation DFG (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Program SCHM 1298/22-1, KA5051/1-1 and KA 5051/3-1), as well as the Leibniz association (Leibniz Transfer Program T62/2019). C.W. acknowledges the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2021YFA1202600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 62174082). A.V.-Y.T., E.Z., Y.Z., X.Z., and J.P. acknowledge the National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF) under NRF’s Medium Sized Centre: Singapore Hybrid-Integrated Next-Generation μElectronics (SHINE) Centre funding programme, and AME programming funding scheme of Cyber Physiochemical Interface (CPI) project (no. A18A1b0045). R.Z. acknowledges National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51735007) and Beijing Natural Science Foundation (grant no. 3191001). N.M. acknowledges the support by JST PRESTO Grant Number JPMJPR20B7 and JST Adaptable and Seamless Technology transfer Program through Target-driven R&D (ASTEP) grant number JPMJTM22BK. C.P. acknowledges the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT, MSIT) (2022R1A4A3032923). M.W. acknowledges the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant (2021YFB3601200). X.Z. acknowledges National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 62074029). S.X. acknowledges the 3M nontenured faculty award. T.-W.L. and D.-G.S. acknowledge the Pioneer Research Center Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (grant no. NRF-2022M3C1A3081211). C.T.L. would like to acknowledge support from the Institute for Health Innovation and Technology (iHealthtech), the MechanoBioEngineering Laboratory at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (I-FIM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). C.T.L. also acknowledges support from the National Research Foundation and A*STAR, under its RIE2020 Industry Alignment Fund − Industry Collaboration Projects (IAF-ICP) (grant no. I2001E0059) − SIA-NUS Digital Aviation Corp Lab and the NUS ARTIC Research (grant no. HFM-RP1). X.Y. acknowledges funding support by City University of Hong Kong (grant no. 9667221). T.X. and X.Z. acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (22234006). B.C.K.T. acknowledges Cyber-Physiochemical Interfaces CPI, A*STAR A18A1b0045. H.G. acknowledges a research start-up grant (002479-00001) from Nanyang Technological University and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. W.G. acknowledges National Science Foundation grant 2145802. D.J.L. acknowledges support from the US National Science Foundation grant number CBET-2223566. G.Y. acknowledges support from The Welch Foundation award F-1861, and Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. M.D.D. acknowledges funding support from NSF (grant no. EEC1160483). J.-H.A acknowledges the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2015R1A3A2066337). J.C. acknowledges the Henry Samueli School of Engineering & Applied Science and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles for startup support and a Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant. K.T. acknowledges JST AIP Accelerated Program (no. JPMJCR21U1) and JSPS KAKENHI (grant no. JP22H00594). P.S.W. acknowledges the National Science Foundation (CMMI1636136) for support. A.M.A., M.C.H., and P.S.W. thank the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA045550) for support. S.M. and X.C. appreciated the support from the Smart Grippers for Soft Robotics (SGSR) Programme under the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus of Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.

The conformal integration of electronic systems with irregular, soft objects is essential for many emerging technologies. We report the design of van der Waals thin films consisting of staggered two-dimensional nanosheets with bond-free van der Waals interfaces. The films feature sliding and rotation degrees of freedom among the staggered nanosheets to ensure mechanical stretchability and malleability, as well as a percolating network of nanochannels to endow permeability and breathability. With an excellent mechanical match to soft biological tissues, the freestanding films can naturally adapt to local surface topographies and seamlessly merge with living organisms with highly conformal interfaces, rendering living organisms with electronic functions, including leaf-gate and skin-gate transistors. On-skin transistors allow high-fidelity monitoring and local amplification of skin potentials and electrophysiological signals.

Purpose Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have favorable anti-tumor effects but can cause severe autoimmune toxicities. The number of cases of previous studies about the risk of Sjogren's syndrome (SS) induced by ICIs is low. This pharmacovigilance study is to reassess the relationship between SS and ICIs in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). Methods Case reports of SS after ICIs were extracted from 2013 Q1 to 2020 Q4 in FAERS. the clinical features of the cases were described. The disproportionality analysis, reporting odds ratio (ROR) and information component (IC), was used to estimate the correlation between SS and ICIs. The clinical features of ICI-SS were described. Results In total, 160 cases of ICI-related SS were screened out. The median age was 63.5 years, more than half of were men (59%). The median latency of SS was 45 days. 13% of SS resolved after ICIs discontinuation or dose reduction. SS was significantly associated with ICIs (ROR = 11.19, 95%CI: 9.53–13.14; IC = 3.34, 95%CI: 2.85–3.93). The signal was also observed in anti-PD-1 (ROR025 = 9.20, IC025 = 2.75), anti-PD-L1 (ROR025 = 3.34, IC025 = 1.33), and combination therapy (ROR025 = 14.49, IC025 = 2.89). Conclusions This study suggested that ICIs significantly increased the risk of SS. This association was stronger in combination therapy.

This perspective explores the development of van der Waals superlattices, which are manipulated and constructed at atomic thick level, and points out potential applications and possible future directions of this new class of materials.

The discovery of chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) opens up the possibility to manipulate spin orientation without external magnetic fields and enables new spintronic device designs

2D layered materials typically feature strong in-plane covalent chemical bonding within each atomic layer and weak out-of-plane van der Waals (vdW) interactions between adjacent layers. The non-bonding nature between neighboring layers naturally results in a vdW gap, in which various foreign species may be inserted without breaking the in-plane covalent bonds. By tailoring the composition, size, structure, and electronic properties of the intercalated guest species and the hosting layered materials, an expansive family of layered intercalation materials may be produced with highly variable compositional and structural features as well as widely tunable physical/chemical properties, invoking unprecedented opportunities in fundamental studies of property modulation and potential applications in diverse technologies, including electronics, optics, superconductors, thermoelectrics, catalysis, and energy storage. Here, the principles and protocols for various intercalation methods, including wet chemical intercalation, gas-phase intercalation, electrochemical intercalation, and ion-exchange intercalation, are comprehensively reviewed and how the intercalated species alter the crystal structure and the interlayer coupling of the host 2D layered materials, introducing unusual physical and chemical properties and enabling devices with superior performance or unique functions, is discussed. To conclude, a brief summary on future research opportunities and emerging challenges in the layered intercalation materials is given.

Vertically-oriented graphene (VG) has many advantages over flat lying graphene, including a large surface area, exposed sharp edges, and non-stacking three-dimensional geometry. Recently, VG nanosheets assembled on specific substrates have been used for applications in supersensitive gas sensors and high-performance energy storage devices. However, to realize these intriguing applications, the direct growth of high-quality VG on a functional substrate is highly desired. Herein, we report the direct synthesis of VG nanosheets on traditional soda-lime glass due to its low-cost, good transparency, and compatibility with many applications encountered in daily life. This synthesis was achieved by a direct-current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (dc-PECVD) route at 580 °C, which is right below the softening point of the glass, and featured a scale-up size ∼6 inches. Particularly, the fabricated VG nanosheets/glass hybrid materials at a transmittance range of 97%–34% exhibited excellent solarthermal performances, reflected by a 70%–130% increase in the surface temperature under simulated sunlight irradiation. We believe that this graphene glass hybrid material has great potential for use in future transparent “green-warmth” construction materials.

Solar energy is a renewable and abundant energy source that has myriad potential applications to be tapped. Energy storage devices often present diminishing performance at lower temperatures, and sometimes they even fail during cold weather; therefore, a renewable technology to spur such sluggish performance not only is important for a sustainable future but also may inspire new-concept devices such as ignition sensors. Here, under solar illumination, the capacitance, energy density and power density of supercapacitors are all largely enhanced owing to the photothermal effect. The supercapacitors employ three-dimensional hierarchical graphene as the electrodes, and show an absorption of >92.88% over the entire solar spectrum, a response time of

Wearable energy sources are in urgent demand due to the rapid development of wearable electronics. Besides flexibility and ultrathin thickness, emerging 2D materials present certain extraordinary properties that surpass the properties of conventional materials, which make them advantageous for high-performance wearable energy sources. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of recent advances in 2D material based wearable energy sources including wearable batteries, supercapacitors, and different types of energy harvesters. The crucial roles of 2D materials in the wearable energy sources are highlighted. Based on the current progress, the existing challenges and future prospects are outlined and discussed.

In the chemical vapor deposition growth of large-area graphene polycrystalline thin films, the coalescence of randomly oriented graphene domains results in a high density of uncertain grain boundaries (GBs). The structures and properties of various GBs are highly dependent on the misorientation angles between the graphene domains, which can significantly affect the performance of the graphene films and impede their industrial applications. Graphene bicrystals with a specific type of GB can be synthesized via the controllable growth of graphene domains with a predefined lattice orientation. Although the bicrystal has been widely investigated for traditional bulk materials, no successful synthesis strategy has been presented for growing two-dimensional graphene bicrystals. In this study, we demonstrate a simple approach for growing well-aligned large-domain graphene bicrystals with a confined tilt angle of 30° on a facilely recrystallized single-crystal Cu (100) substrate. Control of the density of the GBs with a misorientation angle of 30° was realized via the controllable rapid growth of subcentimeter graphene domains with the assistance of a cooperative catalytic surface-passivation treatment. The large-area production of graphene bicrystals consisting of the sole specific GBs with a tunable density provides a new material platform for fundamental studies and practical applications.

Graphene exhibits properties of atomic thickness, high transparency, and high carrier mobility, which is highly desirable for a flexible transparent conductive material. However, the electronic properties of large-area chemical vapor deposition grown graphene film suffer from insulated polymer contaminations introduced by the transfer process and the easily cracked nature. Here, we report a preparation method of a transfer-medium-free large-area nanofiber-reinforced graphene (a-PAN/G) film simply by annealing the electrostatically spun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers on the graphene film. The film could be free-standing on water and suspended in air with high transparency and enhanced electrical and mechanical properties compared to that of a monolayer graphene film. The flexible transparent a-PAN/G films were demonstrated as active materials for sensitive pressure sensors. The obtained pressure sensors demonstrate high sensitivity (44.5 kPa-1 within 1.2 kPa), low operating voltage (0.01-0.5 V), and excellent stability for 5500 loading-unloading cycles, revealing promising potential applications in wearable electronics.

The controlled growth of high-quality graphene on a large scale is of central importance for applications in electronics and optoelectronics. To minimize the adverse impacts of grain boundaries in large-area polycrystalline graphene, the synthesis of large single crystals of monolayer graphene is one of the key challenges for graphene production. Here, we develop a facile surface-engineering method to grow large single-crystalline monolayer graphene by the passivation of the active sites and the control of graphene nucleation on copper surface using the melamine pretreatment. Centimeter-sized hexagonal single-crystal graphene domains were successfully grown, which exhibit ultrahigh carrier mobilities exceeding 25,000 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and quantum Hall effects on SiO2 substrates. The underlying mechanism of melamine pretreatments were systematically investigated through elemental analyses of copper surface in the growth process of large single-crystals. This present work provides a surface design of a catalytic substrate for the controlled growth of large-area graphene single crystals.

In the field of water remediation, a 3D hydrophobic material with both remote controllability and high oil adsorption performance is highly desirable. To achieve it, magnetic components and microstructures are most likely involved. However, the simple enrolling of magnetic materials always results in quite low adsorption capacity. Additionally, the control of microstructures on 3D materials is immature, which limits the improvement of water/oil selectivity and oil adsorption speed. Herein, we devised 0D/2D hybrid dimensional magnetic microstructures with a well-defined morphology on melamine foams, which provided magnetism for remote controllability and highly rough surfaces for substantially enhanced water/oil selectivity. Hence, the resultant materials acquired magnetic-driven properties and superhydrophobicity/superoleophilicity simultaneously. Thus, they possess controllable, ultrafast, and high throughput oil uptake ability and high oil/water separation performance. The present strategy may open a new avenue to devise high-performance magnetic 3D assemblies for water remediation.

A quartz fiber based 3D monolithic materials was fabricated, which combines ultrahigh thermostability, remote controllability, mechanical flexibility, high water/oil selectivity, high processing capacity, and regeneration ability. This material exhibited great potential in water remediation, such as large absorption capacity (50- to 172-fold weight gain) toward oil standing in front of all magnetic sorbents and remarkable oil/water separation performance.

Objective To investigate the distribution of HPV subtypes and analyze variation in infection trends during a 6-year period in Sichuan Province, China. Methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at a center in Chengdu between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2014. Patients with at least one type of cervical disease confirmed by histology and cytology were eligible for inclusion. Cervical specimens were tested for the presence of high-risk and low-risk HPV subtypes by reverse membrane hybridization. Results Among 10 682 participants, 3370 women (31.5%) were infected with HPV. The most frequently detected high-risk genotypes were HPV16 (n = 791; 27.1%), HPV58 (n = 476; 16.3%), HPV33 (n = 273; 9.4%), HPV52 (n = 244; 8.4%), and HPV18 (n = 201; 6.9%). The most frequently detected low-risk genotype was HPV6 (n = 703; 40.8%). The detection rates of HPV33 (from 7.9% to 10.2%) and HPV58 (from 14.0% to 16.7%) increased over the 6-year period, whereas those of HPV16 (from 32.3% to 24.9%) and HPV18 (from 10.0% to 6.2%) decreased. The prevalence of HPV infection was highest among women aged 21–25 years (χ2 = 191.189; P Conclusion HPV58 and HPV33 were the most prevalent subtypes in Sichuan. Changes in the prevalences of infection with different HPV subtypes have been identified.

Surface tension, fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) methods have been used to investigate the interaction between a biological surfactant sodium deoxycholate (NaDC) and proteins including bovine serum albumin (BSA) and gelatin. It can be seen from the surface tension measurements that both NaDC/BSA and NaDC/gelatin systems can form complexes and the ability of NaDC/BSA to lower surface tension is more obvious than that of NaDC/gelatin. The formation of the complexes influences not only the polarity of the microenvironment of the systems but also their fluorescence spectra. The far-UV CD spectra shows that the α-helical network of BSA increases first and then decreases as the concentration of NaDC increases, while the random coil content of gelatin always increases. A model of interaction between protein and NaDC influenced by the concentration of NaDC has been brought out based on the data gained from this study.

Previous studies have shown that genetic polymorphisms in exon7 of the NSUN7 gene can be used as an infertility marker in Iranian men with asthenospermia. However, there have been no equivalent studies in China. In the present study, we investigated the possible association between the genetic polymorphisms in exon7 of NSUN7 and asthenospermia in a Chinese Han population. We recruited 240 asthenospermic men as a patient group and 256 normospermic men as a control group, and analyzed the semen parameters on the basis of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. The genetic polymorphisms in exon7 of NSUN7 were detected by DNA sequence analysis. The results were analyzed statistically and a P value0.05 was considered significant. There were two genetic polymorphisms, c.906CT and c.922TG, in exon7 of NSUN7. We found relatively similar genotypes and allele frequencies between the two groups (P = 0.928, P = 0.928, respectively). The combined genotypes of the two polymorphisms did not identify a haplotype associated with asthenospermia (P = 0.824, P = 0.824, respectively). Our findings revealed that genetic polymorphisms in exon7 of the NSUN7 gene are not associated with asthenospermia in Chinese Han men.

We investigated azoospermia region microdeletions in male infertility patients with Klinefelter syndrome (KFS), as well as the association between azoospermia symptoms in patients with KFS and Y chromosome microdeletion polymorphisms. A total of 111 cases with male infertility confirmed to have KFS (47, XXY) and 94 fertile men were included in this study. Peripheral blood was drawn and DNA was extracted from these samples. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction was performed to screen the partial deletions of 25 sequence-tagged sites on the Y chromosome. In 111 cases with KFS, 1 case contained the AZFb+d+c deletion. The Gr/Gr deletion was identified in 12 KFS cases and 5 control cases. In addition, the b2/b3 deletion was identified in 13 KFS cases and 6 control cases. There were no significant differences in phenotype and genotype of the 2 partial AZFc deletions between patients and controls (P > 0.05). Our results suggest that patients with KFS may also have Y chromosome microdeletions to varying degrees and that the gr/gr deletion and b2/b3 deletion may not play a role in the susceptible genetic background of azoospermia in patients with KFS in the Sichuan population.

Aluminum (Al) foil, as the most accepted cathode current collector for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), is susceptible to local anodic corrosions during long-term operations. Such corrosions could lead to the deterioration or even premature failure of the batteries and are generally believed to be a bottleneck for next-generation 5 V LIBs. Here, it is demonstrated that Al foil armored by conformal graphene coating exhibits significantly reinforced anodic corrosion resistance in both LiPF6 and lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulphonyl) imide (LiTFSI) based electrolytes. Moreover, LiMn2O4 cells using graphene-armored Al foil as current collectors (LMO/GA) demonstrate enhanced electrochemical performance in comparison with those using pristine Al foil (LMO/PA). The long-term discharge capacity retention of LMO/GA cell after ≈950 h straight operations at low rate (0.5 C) reaches up to 91%, remarkably superior to LMO/PA cell (75%). The self-discharge propensity of LMO/GA is clearly relieved and the rate/power performance is also improved with graphene mediations. This work not only contributes to the long-term stable operations of LIBs but also might catalyze the deployment of 5 V LIBs in the future.

Graphene has generated vast interest in various field, due to its excellent electrical, optical, mechanical and thermal properties, which has motivated huge interest in its production in a controllable and scalable manner. Amongst various synthetic approaches, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) possesses unique advantages with regards to large-scale synthesis of high-quality and uniform graphene, where graphene can be prepared in the forms of either 3D powders or 2D thin films. The substrates for graphene growth, including metallic substrate, semiconductor, insulating substrate, is designable for diverse applications. The focus here is concentrated on the CVD strategies for synthesizing graphene with controllable domain size, thickness and scalability, and potential applications of graphene, underlying mechanism and potential applications of 2D and 3D graphene on a variety of substrates.

The effect of polymers (hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) and hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide (HMPAM)) on the stability of oil-in-water nano-emulsions has been studied in paraffin oil/Span 20-Tween 20/water systems by method of phase inversion composition (PIC). The stabilization of nano-emulsions was investigated by visual observation and the change of water content induced by centrifugation. Droplet size distributions of nano-emulsions were obtained by a laser-scanner particle size distribution analyzer. The interfacial tension and charge of nano-emulsions were obtained by interfacial tension and zeta potential measurements. All the results indicate that the droplet size can be decreased by the addition of HMPAM, while almost no change could be observed when the HPAM was added. Meanwhile, HMPAM has a better effect on the stabilization of nano-emulsions than HPAM. It may conclude that the HMPAM molecules adsorbed at the oil/water interface of the nano-emulsion droplets. Therefore, the stability of nano-emulsion with the addition of HMPAM is based on both an associative thickening mechanism caused by the alkyl chains of HMPAM molecules and the adsorption of HMPAM at the oil/water interface, which can form a solid film to prevent the Ostwald ripening of nano-emulsion droplets.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatible neural electrodes are important for combining high-resolution electrophysiological measurements with more global MRI mapping of brain activity, which is critical for fundamental neuroscience studies, as well as clinical evaluation and monitoring. Copper is a favorable material to use in MRI because it has magnetic susceptibility close to water and tissues. However, the cytotoxicity of copper precludes its direct implantation for neural recording. Here, we overcome this limitation by developing a graphene encapsulated copper (G-Cu) microelectrode. The toxicity of copper is largely eliminated, as evidenced by the in vitro cell tests and in vivo histology studies. Local field potentials and single-unit spikes were recorded from rodent brains with the G-Cu microelectrodes. Notably, the G-Cu microelectrodes show no image artifacts in a 7.0 T MRI scanner, indicating minimal magnetic field distortion in their vicinity. This high MRI compatibility of our G-Cu probes would open up new opportunities for fundamental brain activity studies and clinical applications requiring continuous MRI and electrophysiological recordings.

Wafer-sized single-crystalline Cu (100) surface can be readily achieved on stacked polycrystalline Cu foils via simple oxygen chemisorption-induced reconstruction, enabling fast growth of large-scale millimeter-sized single-crystalline graphene arrays under molecular flow. The maximum growth rate can reach 300 μm min-1 , several orders of magnitude higher than previously reported values for millimeter-sized single-crystalline graphene growth on Cu foils.

To assess the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of ubiquitin-specific protease 8 gene (USP8) with male infertility among ethnic Han Chinese from Sichuan.A total of 316 infertile males were recruited (case group), which included 72 severe oligozoospermic (SO) cases and 244 non-obstructive azoospermic (NOA) cases. The control group consisted of 149 fertile males. The genotypes of 4 SNPs (rs2241769, rs11857513, rs7174015 and rs3743044) were determined with a Sequenom MassArray technique. The frequencies of genotype, allele and haploptye were analyzed.No significant difference was detected in the allelic or genotypic frequencies of the 4 SNPs between the two groups (P0.05). Based on linkage disequilibrium analysis and haplotype construction, the frequency distribution of haplotype CAAG showed a significant difference between non-obstructive azoospermic patients and the controls (P=0.021).The 4 SNPs (rs2241769, rs11857513, rs7174015 and rs3743044) of USP8 gene may not be associated with male infertility in ethnic Hans from Sichuan. While the haplotype CAAG may be a down-regulating factor for the risk of NOA.

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is based on molecular overtone and combination vibrations. It is difficult to assign specific features under complicated system. So it is necessary to find the relevance between NIRS and target compound. For this purpose, the chondroitin sulfate (CS) ethanol precipitation process was selected as the research model, and 90 samples of 5 different batches were collected and the content of CS was determined by modified carbazole method. The relevance between NIRS and CS was studied throughout optical pathlength, pretreatment methods and variables selection methods. In conclusion, the first derivative with Savitzky–Golay (SG) smoothing was selected as the best pretreatment, and the best spectral region was selected using interval partial least squares (iPLS) method under 1 mm optical cell. A multivariate calibration model was established using PLS algorithm for determining the content of CS, and the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) is 3.934 g⋅L-1. This method will have great potential in process analytical technology in the future.

A water-in-oil microemulsion was prepared by using nonionic surfactant Triton X-100, 1-hexanol, cyclohexane and AgNO3 aqueous solution with a concentration of 0.2 mol L−1. Successive addition of sodium borohydride (NaBH4), ammonium hydroxide (NH3·H2O) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) to this microemulsion leads to the formation of hierarchically-organized Ag@SiO2 hybrid nanoparticles with Ag nanocrystals randomly distributed inside amorphous SiO2, as proved by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) observations. In many cases, H2 gas bubbles, which were produced during the reduction of Ag+, were found to influence the structures of Ag nanocrystals. The morphologies of the hybrid nanoparticles and the H2-induced cavities can be easily tuned by the molar ratio of AgNO3 to NaBH4 and the volume ratio of AgNO3 aqueous solution to TEOS. Embedded in amorphous SiO2, the Ag nanoparticles are highly stable, while the unprotected Ag nanocrystals underwent fast aggregation. The inner Ag nanocrystals have dominant (111) planes and are optically active, as shown by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and UV-vis measurement, respectively. These properties make these Ag@SiO2 hybrid nanoparticles fascinating candidates for a variety of applications in catalysis and life science.