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Introduction Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CINP) is a debilitating complication caused by damage to the peripheral nervous system by chemotherapeutic agents, including paclitaxel (1). CINP occurs in approximately 50% to 90% [...], Epigenetics is a biological process that modifies and regulates gene expression, affects neuronal function, and contributes to pain. However, the mechanism by which epigenetics facilitates and maintains chronic pain is poorly understood. We aimed to determine whether [N.sup.6]-methyladenosine (m6A) specifically modified by methyltransferase-like 14 (METTL14) alters neuronal activity and governs pain by sensitizing the GluN2A subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in a model of chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CINP). Using dot blotting, immunofluorescence, gain/loss-of-function, and behavioral assays, we found that m6A levels were upregulated in L4-L6 DRG neurons in CINP in a DBP/METTL14-dependent manner, which was also confirmed in human DRGs. Blocking METTL14 reduced m6A methylation and attenuated pain hypersensitivity. Mechanistically, METTL14-mediated m6A modification facilitated the synaptic plasticity of DRG neurons by enhancing the GluN2A subunit of NMDAR, and inhibiting METTL14 blocked this effect. In contrast, overexpression of METTL14 upregulated m6A modifications, enhanced presynaptic NMDAR activity in DRG neurons, and facilitated pain sensation. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism of METTL14-mediated m6A modification in DRG neurons to maintain neuropathic pain. Targeting these molecules may provide a new strategy for pain treatment.

Carbon hydrocarbon compounds, especially low-carbon hydrocarbons (C1–C3), are vital raw materials in the petrochemical industry, but their efficient separation has great challenges due to their similar molecular structures and properties. In contrast to traditional low-temperature distillation and absorption separation technologies, selective adsorption employing porous materials as adsorbent has the advantages of low energy consumption, high efficiency, and high selectivity, indicating broad application possibilities in the field of low-carbon hydrocarbon separation. In this paper, the recent progress in the separation and purification of hydrocarbon mixtures by means of the two kinds of porous materials (metal–organic frameworks and molecular sieves) that have been widely used in recent years is reviewed, including purification of methane and separation of ethylene/ethane, propylene/propane, and some high-carbon hydrocarbon isomers. The structure–activity relationships between their chemical composition, structural characteristics, and separation performance are discussed to understand the separation mechanism. In conclusion, the issues encountered in the application of metal–organic frameworks and molecular sieves in the separation of low-carbon hydrocarbons are discussed in light of the current context of "carbon neutrality". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation of mixtures with close boiling points is a critical task in the petrochemical industry, and one such mixture that requires separation is o-xylene/styrene. The STED process is used to separate o-xylene/styrene, which contains a certain amount of organic sulfur in the product due to the limitations of the process. In this study, the process underwent enhancements to attain the effective separation of styrene and accomplish deep desulfurization. A mixture of sulfolane (SUL) and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) was selected as the extraction solvent after calculating the UNIFAC group contributions. An orthogonal experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the solvent/oil ratio, reflux ratio, water addition rate, and solvent ratio on the product. The correspondence between each factor and the indexes examined was determined, enabling the optimization and prediction of the styrene product quality. The final optimized conditions for the extractive distillation column are as follows: solvent/oil ratio of 7, reflux ratio of 4.5, water addition rate of 6000 kg/h, and a solvent ratio of 9:1. Under optimal conditions, the purity of the product was observed to be greater than that of the original process and the sulfur content of the product can be reduced to lower than 10 ppm at the cost of an increase of 12.31% in energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the growth and promotion of 2 inch AlN single crystals are carried out via the homogeneous physical vapor transport (PVT) method on AlN seeds. It is found that the large-size AlN crystal homo-PVT process is distinguished by the growth of prismatic grains in a macroscopic 3-dimensional mode, and overgrowth plays a key role in the merging of grains under a lateral overgrown c-plane surface. To realize efficient overgrowth, we study the control law of growth conditions through a combination of experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, and clarify that the effect of overgrowth depends on growth rate and its matching relation with temperature and pressure. Our results show that overgrowth can obviously improve the coherence of c-plane orientations and crystal quality, which provides a foundation for quality promotion through iterative homo-PVT growth on large-size AlN seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), arising as chemical derivatives during the high-temperature culinary treatment of proteinaceous comestibles, exhibit notable carcinogenic potential. In this paper, a composite aerogel (AGD-UiO-66) with high-capacity and fast adsorption of HAAs was made with anchoring defective UiO-66 (D-UiO-66) mediated by lauric acid on the backbone of cellulose nanofibers (CNF). AGD-UiO-66 with hierarchical porosity reduced the mass transfer efficiency for the adsorption of HAAs and achieved high adsorption amount (0.84–1.05 μmol/g) and fast adsorption (15 min). The isothermal adsorption model demonstrated that AGD-UiO-66 belonged to a multilayer adsorption mechanism for HAAs. Furthermore, AGD-UiO-66 was successfully used to adsorb 12 HAAs in different food (roasted beef, roasted pork, roasted salmon and marinade) with high recoveries of 94.65%–104.43%. The intrinsic potential of AGD-UiO-66 demonstrated that it could be widely applicable to the adsorption of HAAs in foods. [Display omitted] • The "defective design" solves the mass transfer hindrance of micropores in UiO-66. • Combination of MOFs with CNFs to form aerogels with perfectly hierarchical porosity. • AGD-UiO-66 can be used for the adsorptive removal of hazardous substances from food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the growth of semi-polar GaN thick films was investigated on an m-plane sapphire by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). By optimizing parameters of the HVPE process, both (11−22) and (10−13) semi-polar GaN films have been successfully obtained with a mirror surface and excellent crystal quality on different GaN templates grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), respectively. The influence of MO-GaN templates on the HVPE growth was further studied. The results revealed that the same plane of a semi-polar HVPE-GaN thick layer was grown on a single-phase template, such as GaN (11−22)HVPE on (11−22)MO-template and GaN (10−13)HVPE on (10−13)MO-template. However, on mixed-phase MO-templates, a single-phase (11−22) GaN thick layer was found to grow even if the original templates contain both (11−22) and (10−13) plane components. Meanwhile, in contrast with the difficult growth of GaN (10−13) with a smooth surface, it is easier to acquire GaN (11−22) thick layers by a HVPE method. A wider window for the growth of the (11−22) plane could partly explain the reason why the pure GaN (11−22) plane could be grown on mixed-phase ((11−22) & (10−13)) MO-templates. In order to explain this phenomenon, both formation energy (Ef) and migration barrier (Em) of these semi-polar faces were calculated. Our results indicated that the Ef of GaN (10−13) (−0.56 eV) is higher than that of (11−22) (−10.73 eV), and the Em of (10−13) (0.30 eV) is lower than that of (11−22) (1.89 eV). So the (11−22)-plane growth was more likely to be prevalent in competition between two phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microstructure observations, thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) tests, hydrogen permeation measurements, electrochemical tests, and slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) tests are conducted investigate the beneficial effect of Nb microalloying on the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of high‐strength low‐alloy (HSLA) steels in a simulated deep‐sea environment. The results show that the addition of Nb significantly decreases the SCC susceptibility of HSLA steel in a simulated deep‐sea environment, and the role of Nb is attributed to microstructure optimization and the strong hydrogen‐trap function of nanosized NbC precipitates with hydrogen activation energy up to 100.5 kJ mol−1. In the simulated deep‐sea environment, the SCC resistance of HSLA steel is enhanced by microstructure optimization and the hydrogen‐trap function via Nb microalloying, and both anodic dissolution (AD) and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) are weakened. Moreover, the improvement of SCC resistance of HSLA steel with a higher hydrogen concentration via Nb microalloying is more obvious, in which the decrease of hydrogen‐induced anodic dissolution (HIAD) and HE effects is more distinct, and the strong hydrogen‐trap effect of NbC precipitates is the predominant mechanism to improve SCC resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al- and La-modified adsorbent materials (PO–Al, PO–La) were prepared by impregnating Polygonum orientale Linn. straw with Al2(SO4)3 and La(NO3)3·6H2O solutions. The potential of removing fluoride using these modified adsorbents was examined. In the PO, PO–Al and PO–La adsorption systems, the fluoride adsorption process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics, and the kinetic constants for k2 and R2 were 0.0276 and 0.9609; 0.2070 and 0.9994; 0.1266 and 0.9933, respectively. The adsorption equilibrium results showed the best match with Langmuir isotherms. Moreover, the maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of PO, PO–Al and PO–La are 0.0923, 3.3190 and 1.2514 mg/g, respectively, in 30 °C. The regeneration results show that the effectively regenerating ability of modified adsorbents. Al-modified adsorbent showed the best results in terms of cost-effectiveness and adsorption efficiency for fluoride adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A stable bilayer nano-emulsions were prepared with peptides from cod bone. • The bilayer nano-emulsions exhibit high stability. • The interfacial peptides identified by Nano-LC-Q-TOF-MS. To ensure emulsions to be continuously stable, the hydrolysates recovered from cod bones by papain acted as a natural surfactant to synthesize high-stability bilayer nano-emulsions. As assisted by Tween 20, the average diameter of synthesized nano-emulsion with enzymatic hydrolysate could exhibit stability between 300–400 nm under a broad range of pH (4–8), temperatures (30–90 °C) and salt concentration (25–250 mM). With the addition of the hydrolysates, the rate of increase of the TBARS value in the emulsion decreased. Moreover, the bilayer structure of the nano-emulsion was characterized under an atomic force microscopy and a cryo-scanning electron microscopy. Nano-LC-Q-TOF-MS was adopted to primarily identify peptides that contained hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acids at the emulsion interface. Besides, the absorbed peptides on the interface of emulsion enhanced the stability of emulsion lipid oxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes with precise molecular-sieving performance have become increasingly important in chemical and pharmaceutical industries, desiring superior membranes with both high permeability and selectivity. Herein, the V-shape Tröger's base (TB) structure is incorporated in the polyamide network to engineer microporosity as well as the molecular-sieving performance of the thin-film composite (TFC) polyamide membrane for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). The TFC membrane containing the TB structure features a rigid and contorted chain structure, which affords high and stable methanol permeability in OSN applications. Furthermore, the H-bond interaction between the H of amide groups and N in TB reinforces the interchain interaction, endowing the membrane with a precise selectivity to organic solutes. The as-prepared TFC membrane demonstrated high methanol permeance of 16.6 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 and sieving performance to organic molecules with molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) down to 349 Da. Furthermore, the membrane demonstrates shape selectivity for organic solutes, exploiting the fine microporous structure. This study may provide insights into the molecular design of TFC membranes by finely tuning the molecular features for precise solute separations. TFC membranes prepared by interfacial polymerization using TBDA as an aqueous monomer with a V-shape structure were selected for the formation of trapped nanovoids in the polymer network. [Display omitted] • The V-shape TBDA was explored as aqueous phase to incorporate contorted polymer chains in the polymer network. • The PA-TBDA TFC membranes with a fine microporous structure exhibit both size and shape selectivity for organic solutes. • The PA-TBDA TFC membranes show excellent methanol permeance of 16.6 L m−2 h −1 bar −1 with MWCO down to 349 Da. • The PA-TBDA TFC membranes demonstrate excellent long-term stability and can be operated at 10 bar for 7 days in DMF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-modified zeolites and function-matched metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have been adapted to different scenarios of sulfides capture in order to meet increasingly stringent quality requirements and environmental regulations. However, achieving enhanced performances of both adsorption capacity and moisture resistance is still challenging. In this study, we provided an approach to the synthesis of AgY@Cu-BTC hybrid composite for enhanced sulfides capture and moisture resistance. Multiple characterizations confirmed the hybrid structure of AgY@Cu-BTC. Additionally, computational simulation and dynamic adsorption measurement were combined to evaluate the adsorption of several typical sulfides on synthesized adsorbents, and reveal the competitive adsorption mechanism. Both Ag species and ethanol solvent lead to the partial reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) within the AgY@Cu-BTC framework. The dynamic adsorption capacity of the AgY@Cu-BTC is 1.54 times and 1.38 times higher than those of the parent AgY and Cu-BTC, respectively. Moreover, the AgY@Cu-BTC retains much more adsorption capability for sulfides than the AgY sample with the same water content. Present study highlights the competitive adsorption of various sulfides on the hybrid structures as well as the influences of pre-adsorbed water on sulfide adsorption, and provides insights into the function-oriented development of adsorption materials. [Display omitted] • Core-shell AgY@Cu-BTC was synthesized using zeolite AgY as precursor. • AgY@Cu-BTC shows higher dynamic adsorption capacity than the parent AgY and Cu-BTC. • AgY@Cu-BTC exhibits much better moisture resistance than AgY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]