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The directional transport of liquid droplets on asymmetrical one-dimensional surfaces has broad applicability, from fog harvesting and oil/water separation to desalination, sensing, and beyond. The balance between driving and hysteresis forces determines the performance of droplet motion. To improve droplet mobility, a common strategy is to increase driving forces by introducing multiple levels/types of asymmetries along the motion direction, or to decrease resistant forces by constructing a slippery surface. However, there have been few attempts to integrate enhanced driving forces and decreased resistance into one system, mainly because traditional lubricant surface is difficult to maintain stability on physically or chemically asymmetrical surfaces. In this study, we demonstrate a new approach by employing flexible polymer brush-enabled slippery technique on a micro-grooved cone structure. We show that this technique significantly enhances droplet motion performance compared to cones with pure micro-grooves or pure polymer brush modification. This improvement is achieved through the simultaneous increase in the Laplace driving force and the decrease in hysteresis. Our design, with its cooperative surface structure and chemical modification, provides new insights for developing smart surfaces to drive liquid droplets efficiently.

Foot and ankle deformity is a common complaint in orthopedic surgery, among which the multisegment concurrent types are even more severe. As a key medical device for multisegment deformity correction, the composite parallel external fixator (PEF) design has a profound impact on the correction outcomes. However, existing PEFs share a single configuration and have inadequate adaptation to various deformity types, leading to problems, such as complex structural composition, excessive adjustment parameters, and uncomfortable wearing experience. To overcome these problems, this article proposes a novel correction requirement-dominated design approach for composite PEF. Multisite frame mounting modes and multitype struts are introduced to form required PEF configurations. Lower mobility struts can constrain the unwanted degrees-of-freedom, thus enabling the device to precisely match the requirement-function relationship. Taking the double-segment deformity as research object, clinical cases, and composite PEF assembly simulations are provided. Experiments are carried out on the mechanical prototype. The mounting test proves the interconverting ability and deformity-targeting property of the derived composite PEFs. Moreover, the motion test verifies that the device can distract patients of different weights to complete the correction path, and the stability test demonstrates that the device can resist external bumps, thus indicating the feasibility of the approach.

•RIPK1/RIPK3 in IECs activates JAK1/STAT1-mediated chemokines and MHC II molecules and triggers an inflammatory cascade.•Nonimmunosuppressive RIPK1 kinase inhibitor Zharp1-211 restores intestinal homeostasis and reduces GVHD without compromising the GVL effect.

The role of Abraxas 2 (ABRO1 or KIAA0157), a component of the lysine63-linked deubiquitinating system, in the cardiomyocyte proliferation and myocardial regeneration is unknown. Here, we found that ABRO1 regulates cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac regeneration in the postnatal heart by targeting METTL3-mediated m6A methylation of PsphmRNA. The deletion of ABRO1 increased cardiomyocyte proliferation in hearts and restored the heart function after myocardial injury. On the contrary, ABRO1 overexpression significantly inhibited the neonatal cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac regeneration in mouse hearts. The mechanism by which ABRO1 regulates cardiomyocyte proliferation mainly involved METTL3-mediated PsphmRNA methylation and CDK2 phosphorylation. In the early postnatal period, METTL3-dependent m6A methylation promotes cardiomyocyte proliferation by hypermethylation of PsphmRNA and upregulating PSPH expression. PSPH dephosphorylates cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), a positive regulator of cell cycle, at Thr14/Tyr15 and increases its activity. Upregulation of ABRO1 restricts METTL3 activity and halts the cardiomyocyte proliferation in the postnatal hearts. Thus, our study reveals that ABRO1 is an essential contributor in the cell cycle withdrawal and attenuation of proliferative response in the postnatal cardiomyocytes and could act as a potential target to accelerate cardiomyocyte proliferation and cardiac repair in the adult heart.

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Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are differentially expressed in various cardiovascular disease including myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, their functional impact on cardiomyocyte cell death, in particular, in necrotic forms of death remains elusive. In this study, we found that the level of mmu_circ_000338, a cardiac- necroptosis-associated circRNA (CNEACR), was reduced in hypoxia-reoxygenation (H/R) exposed cardiomyocytes and I/R-injured mice hearts. The enforced expression of CNEACR attenuated the necrotic form of cardiomyocyte death caused by H/R and suppressed of myocardial necrosis in I/R injured mouse heart, which was accompanied by a marked reduction of myocardial infarction size and improved cardiac function. Mechanistically, CNEACR directly binds to histone deacetylase (HDAC7) in the cytoplasm and interferes its nuclear entry. This leads to attenuation of HDAC7-dependent suppression of forkhead box protein A2 (Foxa2) transcription, which can repress receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (Ripk3) gene by binding to its promoter region. In addition, CNEACR-mediated upregulation of FOXA2 inhibited RIPK3-dependent necrotic/necroptotic death of cardiomyocytes. Our study reveals that circRNAs such as CNEACR can regulate the cardiomyocyte necroptosis associated activity of HDACs, promotes cell survival and improves cardiac function in I/R-injured heart. Hence, the CNEACR/HDAC7/Foxa2/ RIPK3 axis could be an efficient target for alleviating myocardial damage caused by necroptotic death in ischemia heart diseases.

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are abundantly expressed during cardiac hypertrophy. However, their functions and molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we identified a cardiac-hypertrophy-associated piRNA (CHAPIR) that promotes pathological hypertrophy and cardiac remodelling by targeting METTL3-mediated N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation of Parp10mRNA transcripts. CHAPIR deletion markedly attenuates cardiac hypertrophy and restores heart function, while administration of a CHAPIR mimic enhances the pathological hypertrophic response in pressure-overloaded mice. Mechanistically, CHAPIR–PIWIL4 complexes directly interact with METTL3 and block the m6A methylation of Parp10mRNA transcripts, which upregulates PARP10 expression. The CHAPIR-dependent increase in PARP10 promotes the mono-ADP-ribosylation of GSK3β and inhibits its kinase activity, which results in the accumulation of nuclear NFATC4 and the progression of pathological hypertrophy. Hence, our findings reveal that a piRNA-mediated RNA epigenetic mechanism is involved in the regulation of cardiac hypertrophy and that the CHAPIR–METTL3–PARP10–NFATC4 signalling axis could be therapeutically targeted for treating pathological hypertrophy and maladaptive cardiac remodelling.

Chain extender plays a significant role in enhancing the final mechanical properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPUs) derived from polytetra methylene etherglycol (PTMG) and 4,4-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI). In this research we focused on the effect that mixed chain extender of ethylene glycol (EG) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) used has on the phase behavior and morphology of high hard block content TPUs. DSC, FTIR, and mechanical testing were mainly used to characterize the morphology and properties of the TPUs materials. Through this work we were able to show that mixed ratio of different chain extenders had dramatic effects on the properties of the TPUs. After mixing EG and BDO, the degree of hydrogen bonding, melting temperature, tensile strength, tear strength, and hardness of TPUs are all reduced, the glass transition temperature is increased. when the mixing ratio is 1: 1 , the elongation at break is increased to 672% . However, when the mixing ratio is n (EG): n (BDO) = 1: 2, the tensile strength is increased to 29.2 MPa, and the elongation at break is reduced to 353%.

We demonstrated a bioelectronic heart-on-a-chip model for studying the effects of acute hypoxia on cardiac function. A microfluidic channel enabled rapid modulation of medium oxygenation, which mimicked the regimes induced by a temporary coronary occlusion and reversibly activated hypoxia-related transduction pathways in HL-1 cardiac model cells. Extracellular bioelectronics provided continuous readouts demonstrating that hypoxic cells experienced an initial period of tachycardia followed by a reduction in beat rate and eventually arrhythmia. Intracellular bioelectronics consisting of Pt nanopillars temporarily entered the cytosol following electroporation, yielding action potential (AP)-like readouts. We found that APs narrowed during hypoxia, consistent with proposed mechanisms by which oxygen deficits activate ATP-dependent K+channels that promote membrane repolarization. Significantly, both extra- and intracellular devices could be multiplexed, enabling mapping capabilities unachievable by other electrophysiological tools. Our platform represents a significant advance toward understanding electrophysiological responses to hypoxia and could be applicable to disease modeling and drug development.

Breast cancer is a multistep, multifactorial, and heterogeneous disease. Significant transformations have occurred in the systemic management of breast cancer in the past decade. Due to the further understanding of pathogenesis, scientists have found plenty of signaling pathways and correspondingly therapeutic targets in breast cancer, such as hormone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K), v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog (AKT), mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6), poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP), and programmed death-1 (PD-1). Targeted therapy, which optimizes the accuracy of antitumor activity and minimizes toxicity to normal tissues, plays a crucial role in breast cancer treatment in the era of precision medicine. In this review, we aimed to summarize the latest developments in targeted therapy for breast cancer and discuss the existing problems.

Droplet energy harvesting technologies, such as droplet triboelectric nanogenerators (D-TENGs) and droplet-based electricity generators (DEGs), which are not restricted by geographical location, have been vigorously developed in recent years. However, achieving electricity generation with high performance is still challenging. Here, we demonstrate a new approach for droplet-based energy harvesting device named droplet electrochemical cell (DECC) which could enhance energy generation performance by utilizing the formation of non-equilibrium electrical double layers. The DECC is designed by drawing inspiration from the zinc-copper primary battery system and demonstrated remarkable results when tested with dynamically impinging water droplets. The peak current and transferred charge generated by a 100 μL droplet are found to be 400 μA and 3.2 μC, respectively. The short circuit current is also found to increase by approximately 30 times when the dynamic impinging frequency of the droplets is increased. This study provides valuable insights into the development of energy harvesting devices based on droplets.

In this paper we report a “steel–concrete” inspired layered hybrid spine cage combining a titanium mesh and a bioceramic scaffold, which were welded together through a bioglass bonding layer using a novel multistep manufacturing methodology including three-dimensional slip deposition, gel casting, freeze-drying, and cosintering. The interfacial welding strength achieved 27 ± 0.7 MPa, indicating an excellent structural integrity of the hybrid cage construct. The biocramic scaffold layer consisting of wollastonite and hydroxyapatite had an interconnected, highly porous structure with a pore size of 100–500 μm and a porosity of >85%, well fufilling the structural requirements of bone regeneration. Simulated body fluid immersion assay showed that the hybrid cage exhibited excellent biodegradability to facilitate rapid bone-like apatite formation. In vitro studies demonstrated that the bioceramic scaffold on the hybrid cage supported attachment, spreading, growth, and migration of bone/vessel-forming cells and triggered osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells. In vivo studies further suggested that the bioceramic scaffold on the hybrid cage could actively promote fast generation of new bone tissues within 12 weeks of implantation in a rabbit femoral condyle model. This study has provided a new design and fabrication methodology of hybrid cages by integrating strong mechanical properties with excellent biological activities including osteoinductivity and bone regeneration ability, for spine fusion and segmental bone reconstruction.

Liquid-solid-based triboelectric nanogenerators (LS-TENG) are new tools for collecting energy from water in nature. Recent efforts have been made on LS-TENG based on superhydrophobic surfaces with faster sliding speed of water droplets and more efficient LS separation comparing to the hydrophobic ones, resulting in higher energy output performance. However, there is a tradeoff between sliding speed and LS contact area. Solving this tradeoff will raise both the output capability and energy conversion efficiency. In this study, we demonstrate a new TENG based on liquid-organogel (LG) interface. By introducing organogel as the triboelectric layer, a new slippery contact mode is established between water droplets and organogel. In physical chemistry, the slippery contact is applauded for the high sliding speed and large contact area, which creates an opportunity for our current task. During sliding of a water droplet on LG-TENG, the electrostatic induction yielded a transferred charge of ~12 nC per droplet, which is 3 times greater than that from control experiment based on LS-TENG. In despite of the high output performance, the LG-TENG is of low-cost and up-scalability, which make it a ready candidate for harvesting distributed energy from natural resources on the vast outdoor facilities.

Directional liquid transport along one-dimensional structures finds vast applications in fog harvest, liquid separation, sensing, chemical synthesis, and numerous other scenarios. Dynamically, the liquid transport speed is boosted by the driving force and retarded by the hysteresis from the liquid/substrate interface. A capillary force-relied lubricant film or a covalently attached polymer brush on the surface could increase liquid mobility temporarily by reducing the interfacial hysteresis. However, the easy depletion of the lubricant film and the stringent restriction of the substrate severely hamper droplet’s directional transport in a long run. Herein, we report a feasible and durable hysteresis reduction design with the polymer-brush stabilized lubricating surface (PBSLS). The PBSLS is achieved through incorporating liquid-like polydimethylsiloxane brushes (b-PDMS) and the liquid PDMS oligomer (o-PDMS). The covalent attached b-PDMS “locks” the lubricant oil o-PDMS to the cone surface via strong intermolecular van der Waals force in between. The PBSLS on the cone surface can be sustained under constant shearing force from liquid transport for at least 6 h. A cone with such PBSLS shows increased ability of droplet transport and enhanced fog collection performance in the long run. This design supplies an effective way toward regulating macro-level interfacial performance through surface design on the molecular level.

The ionic piece, whatever it is anion or cation, was well blocked by the TEG film on GCE surface while neutral piece could penetrate the film.

Inspired by novel creatures, researchers have developed varieties of fog drop transport systems and made significant contributions to the fields of heat transferring, water collecting, antifogging, and so on. Up to now, most of the efforts in directional fog drop transport have been focused on static surfaces. Considering it is not practical to keep surfaces still all the time in reality, conducting investigations on surfaces that can transport fog drops in both static and dynamic states has become more and more important. Here we report the wings of Morpho deidamiabutterflies can directionally transport fog drops in both static and dynamic states. This directional drop transport ability results from the micro/nano ratchet-like structure of butterfly wings: the surface of butterfly wings is composed of overlapped scales, and the scales are covered with porous asymmetric ridges. Influenced by this special structure, fog drops on static wings are transported directionally as a result of the fog drops’ asymmetric growth and coalescence. Fog drops on vibrating wings are propelled directionally due to the fog drops’ asymmetric dewetting from the wings.

In many areas of the world, fog harvesting could be a sustainable solution to water shortage. However, due to the limitation of deposition efficiency and shedding rate of the droplets, the fog/water conversion efficiency is extremely low. Here, a self-powered fog harvesting system by integrating triboelectric plasma is developed. Taking the advantage of space charges injected through triboelectric plasma into the fog flow, tiny water droplets deposit onto the collecting mesh with unprecedentedly high efficiency. By endowing the mesh with superhydrophobicity, water collected on it sheds off quickly, which guarantees fast regeneration of the fog collection system. The final water harvest rate reaches 1311.79 g/(m2·min), about 3.28 times of the maximum value reported in literatures, with the fog/water conversion efficiency of 55.5%. More importantly, the energy consumption is minimized to 0.052 kWh/m3, far lower than ~ 3–5 kWh/m3energy consumption in the frequently-used reverse-osmosis desalination technique and ~ 2 kWh/m3in the newly-developed high voltage power supply-assisted fog harvesting system. A physical model based on the synergistic effect of triboelectric plasma and surface wettability is proposed to illuminate the mechanism. This self-powered efficient fog harvesting system provides great promise to relieve local water scarcity energy-effectively.

The construction workers' unsafe behavior is the direct cause of security incidents. Analysis the formation mechanism of construction workers' unsafe behavior from the perspective of behavior psychology,and find out the factors affecting the safe behavior of construction workers ,among the factors,the most critical is fostering safe behavior habits. Through the questionnaire survey on the management of the building units in Nanjing and using the SPSS software to conduct the statistical analysis of the four methods of fostering safe behavior habits. The conclusion is that the safe education and training is the most important to foster safe behavior habits. At last,the paper gives the feasible measures combined with foreign experience in safety training mode.

A random-arranged experimental design method was employed to optimize the technology of styrene/butylacrylate/acrylic acid (St/BA/AA) emulsion polymerization with high solid content. The random-designed experimental results were analyzed with regression analysis by using statistical analysis system (SAS), and the optimal regression equations between the principal factors and the emulsion properties were in turn established. It is shown that the viscosity of emulsions is greatly affected by the following factors: solid content, the interaction between the emulsifier content and solid content, the interaction between the initiator concentration and reaction temperature, the interaction between functional monomer and reaction temperature.

An in situ fully light‐driven switching of superhydrophobic adhesion is demonstrated based on simply spin‐coating a hydrophobic azo‐polymer on an optimized micro‐nanopost arrayed silicon substrate. Furthermore, the detailed designing principles are discussed, which might shed light on efficient exploitation of superhydrophobic liquid/solid interfaces for smart microfluidic control.

Air pollution may cause pernicious effects on human health, and is a widespread problem in the world. Air quality management systems have became an important research issue with strong implications for inhabitants’ health. Monitoring and forecasting of air quality indicators plays an important role in the management systems. Artificial intelligent techniques are successfully used in modelling of highly complex and nonlinear phenomena. In this paper, a model, which is radial basis function (RBF) neural network, is established to estimate the impact of meteorological indicators on SO2. The proposed model achieves 9.91% in mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) compared to real observation data sequence. For air quality, it could be a promising candidate for forecasting the air quality indicators data sequence.

Recently, manual observation sequence has been gradually replaced by automatic observation sequence. The difference between manual observation sequence and automatic observation sequence is somewhat inevitable. This challenges the the homogeneity and the continuity of historical weather data, and influences atmospheric researches and applications. Therefore, based on the understanding of the influence caused by the two observation sequences, how to modify the data sequence of manual observation to automatic observation sequence has become a problem. In this paper, a model, which is a neural network based on the particle swarm optimization technique (PSONN), is established to modify the wind speed data sequence from manual observation to automatic observation. The proposed model achieves 15.6% in mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) compared to manual observation data sequence. For wind speed, it could be a promising candidate for modifying manual observing data sequence to automatic observing data sequence.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogels were fabricated with distinctly different internal microstructures. The internal microstructures of the PNIPAM hydrogels were characterized by SEM, and the effects of the internal microstructures of the PNIPAM hydrogels on their thermo-responsive volume phase-transition and controlled-release characteristics were experimentally investigated. The results showed that there were two kinds of microstructures of PNIPAM hydrogels, a homogeneous netlike microstructure and a heterogeneous microstructure with microgel clusters, and the thermo-responsive volume phase-transition behaviors and controlled-release characteristics of the PNIPAM hydrogels were found to be heavily dependent on their internal microstructures. The homogeneous internal microstructure caused a remarkably greater volume change, while the heterogeneous internal microstructure resulted in a more rapid responsiveness and a more ideal thermo-responsive controlled-release property. Consequently, for different applications, PNIPAM hydrogels should be designed and fabricated with different internal microstructures.

An aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen bromide illuminated by a 60W incandescent light bulb serves as a source of bromine radicals. Various substituted toluenes (NO2, Cl, Br, H, CH3) were high selectively brominated at the benzyl position for monobromination in CH2Cl2at ice water with catalyst free. This simple but effective bromination of toluene derivatives with an aqueous H2O2–HBr system is characterized with the use of inexpensive reagents and a lower impact on the environment, which make it a good alternative to the existing bromination methods.

The economical, environmentally friendly title system represents a green method for the C‐H bond activation of alkanes.

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