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Although UV light-switchable luminescent films are of importance for application in soft optical devices and anticounterfeiting labels, there are still challenges in developing such films integrated with outstanding luminescent property, high self-healing efficiency, and simultaneously excellent mechanical strength. Herein, double-network (DN) luminescent films are designed and constructed via an intermolecular hydrogen bond crosslinking strategy of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in sulfur quantum dots (S-QDs) and polyurethane (PU), where S-QDs ("stone" one) play dual roles of acting both as a soft segment to crosslink another segment PU ("bird" one) and also as the origin of a luminescence center ("bird" two) in films. In addition, lanthanide(III) complexes (LnCs, Ln═Eu

Tumor heterogeneity, which is associated with poor outcomes, has not been exhibited in the University of California, Los Angeles, Integrated Staging System (UISS), and the Stage, Size, Grade and Necrosis (SSIGN) scores. Radiomics allows an in-depth characterization of heterogeneity across the tumor, but its incremental value to the existing prognostic models for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) outcome is unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between the radiomics-based tumor heterogeneity and postoperative risk of recurrence in localized ccRCC, and to assess its incremental value to UISS and SSIGN.A multicenter 866 ccRCC patients derived from 12 Chinese hospitals were studied. The endpoint was recurrence-free survival (RFS). A CT-based radiomics signature (RS) was developed and assessed in the whole cohort and in the subgroups stratified by UISS and SSIGN. Two combined nomograms, the R-UISS (combining RS and UISS) and R-SSIGN (combining RS and SSIGN), were developed. The incremental value of RS to UISS and SSIGN in RFS prediction was evaluated. R statistical software was used for statistics.Patients with low radiomics scores were 4.44 times more likely to experience recurrence than those with high radiomics scores (P0.001). Stratified analysis suggested the association is significant among low- and intermediate-risk patients identified by UISS and SSIGN. The R-UISS and R-SSIGN showed better predictive capability than UISS and SSIGN did with higher C-indices (R-UISS vs. UISS, 0.74 vs. 0.64; R-SSIGN vs. SSIGN, 0.78 vs. 0.76) and higher clinical net benefit.The radiomics-based tumor heterogeneity can predict outcome and add incremental value to the existing prognostic models in localized ccRCC patients. Incorporating radiomics-based tumor heterogeneity in ccRCC prognostic models may provide the opportunity to better surveillance and adjuvant clinical trial design.

A heat treatment method is developed to produce blue afterglow materials, achieving a photoluminescence quantum yield of 65% and an emission lifetime of 0.18 s (afterglow: >2 s). The afterglow is activated by the confinement effect of boric acid.

Selective detection of Al3+ is of great significance both for the benefit of human health and environmental safety considerations. In this work, a sensitive and selective fluorescence assay for Al3+ was proposed based on the green emissive Cu nanoclusters (Cu NCs). Different from the commonly reported works, the green emissive Cu NCs showed dual emission bands at 450 and 510 nm, attributed to the reaction product between polyvinyl pyrrolidone and ascorbic acid and the Cu core, respectively. Al3+ could induce the aggregation of Cu NCs by forming covalent bonds, which results in the enhancement of photoluminescence intensity. This enhancement phenomenon is rather selective to Al3+, which endows the detection in real samples. These results provide new insights for the fluorescence mechanisms of metal NCs, which also provided a functional luminescent material for various applications, such as chemical sensing, bioimaging and photoelectric devices.

The hydroboration of alkynes is crucial due to the wide applications in organic synthesis, while such reaction is often completed with low turnover frequency (TOF) value and long reaction time. Therefore, it is very important and necessary that the hydroboration of alkynes is performed with high TOF value, however the corresponding investigations have been never reported hitherto. Herein, a new Cu-organic framework 1 with mixed-valence Cu(I) and Cu(II) blocks was successfully synthesized and employed for the hydroboration of alkynes with bis(pinacolato)diboron (B2Pin2). 1 displays good thermostability and excellent solvent stability. Catalytic explorations reveal that 1 can serve as a high efficient heterogeneous catalyst for this reaction with a record TOF value of 310 h−1 under mild conditions, and 1 as catalysts which can be recycled at least five times without adding any cocatalysts. Mechanism investigations suggest that the Cu(I) and Cu(II) clusters in the framework of 1 have a synergistic catalytic effect in the hydroboration of alkynes, which can effectively activate the alkyne to react with B2Pin2. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations explicitly elucidate the reaction pathways, and the results indicate that the Cu(I) and Cu(II) clusters in 1 as the catalytic sites can greatly reduce the Gibbs free energy of the hydroboration of alkyne in different degree, which accounts for the high catalytic activity of 1.

Developing solid luminescent materials with a unity quantum yield and tunable emission color is promising, although it is still a difficult task. A straightforward heat-treatment method has been developed to load 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) into the matrix of boric acid (BA) to produce powders with a near-unity quantum yield and tunable emission color from yellow to green. Our results suggest that the emission of the powders originates from PTCDA, and the tunability of the emission color is caused by the hydrolysis of PTCDA in the alkaline environment. The near-unity quantum yield is attributed to the BA matrix, which confines PTCDA. In addition, the powder also shows excellent thermal stability that allows its application in light-emitting diodes. The above results are important for the development of solid-state luminescent materials for various applications, and also provide a clue for studying the emission properties of luminescent materials.

A 66-year-old woman having intermittent abdominal distention for 2 months was referred to our hospital. An enhanced abdominal CT scan showed multiple hepatic lesions, suspected of metastases. An 18F-FDG PET/CT scan, which was performed to seek primary tumor, showed multiple lesions with intense 18F-FDG uptake in the liver and lymph nodes located in cardiophrenic angle, abdominal cavity, and retroperitoneal space. All 18F-FDG-avid lesions were suspected of metastases. However, no suspected primary tumor was identified by the 18F-FDG PET/CT scan, which prompted the liver biopsy. Pathologic analysis revealed the presence of plasmacytoma.

Elemental sulfur is not traditionally considered as an afterglow material, even though it can be endowed with fluorescence properties through processing it into nanodots. Herein, we discovered that elemental sulfur powder could emit room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) with a lifetime of 3.7 ms. A long-lived (12 s) afterglow emission at 77 K could also be observed by the naked eye. Detailed investigations suggested that such a special phenomenon was attributed to impurity-related traps coupled with conduction and valence bands. After the sulfur is processed into nanodots, the rigid environment formed by the cross-linking of the surface ligands could stabilize the excited charges from quenching. This results in the promotion of RTP intensity and lifetime to achieve an emission lifetime of 200 ms. These results confirm the unique RTP of elemental sulfur powder, and also suggest the potential of sulfur-based materials as versatile components for the development of RTP materials.

The discriminative detection of glutathione (GSH) from cysteine (Cys) remains a challenge because of their similarity in structure and chemical properties. This study reported a strategy for selective and sensitive detection of GSH based on the GSH-promoted blue fluorescence of UiO-66-NH

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) predominantly translocates raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) in the phloem and accumulates RFOs in leaves. Galactinol synthase (GolS) catalyzes the critical step of RFO biosynthesis, and determining the functional diversity of multiple GolS isoforms in cucumber is of scientific significance. In this study, we found that all four isoforms of CsGolS in the cucumber genome were upregulated by different abiotic stresses. β-Glucuronidase staining and tissue separation experiments suggested that CsGolS1 is expressed in vascular tissues, whereas the other three CsGolSs are located in mesophyll cells. Further investigation indicates that CsGolS1 plays double roles in both assimilate loading and stress response in minor veins, which could increase the RFO concentration in the phloem sap and then improve assimilate transport under adverse conditions. Cold-induced minor vein-specific overexpression of CsGolS1 enhanced the assimilate translocation efficiency and accelerated the growth rates of sink leaves, fruits, and whole plants under cold stress. Finally, our results demonstrate a previously unknown response to adverse environments and provide a potential biotechnological strategy to improve the stress resistance of cucumber.

Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is an important clinical diagnosing index for liver dysfunction and organophosphate toxicity. However, the current assays for BChE activity are suffering from the relative poor detection sensitivity. In this work, an ultrasensitive fluorescence assay for BChE activity was developed based on the self-polymerization modulated fluorescence of sulfur quantum dots (S-dots). The luminescence of S-dots can be quenched by the self-polymerized dopamine. The hydrolysate of substrates, thiocholine, under the catalysis of BChE can reduce dopamine, which results in the inhibition of self-polymerization and the fluorescence recovery of S-dots. BChE can be quantitatively detected by recording the recovered fluorescence of S-dots, and a linear relationship is observed between the ratio of fluorescence and the concentration of BChE in the range from 0.01 to 10 U/L. A limit of detection as low as 0.0069 U/L calculated, which is the lowest number so far. The assay also shows excellent selectivity towards various interference species and acetylcholinesterase. These features allowed the direct detection of BChE activity in human serum, demonstrating the great practical applications of our assay.

The study describes an unusual case that a patient with previous history of adenocarcinoma of sigmoid colon who has developed chronic suppurative cholecystitis and peritonitis was misdiagnosed as metastasis. This case is presented to illustrate the importance of considering benign etiologies that may mimic metastatic disease when interpreting positron emmision tomography (PET)/CT scans.

To investigate the effects of OA set of whole tumor and reference volumes of interest (VOIs) based on PET/FLAIR imaging were delineated and transferred to the corresponding [Based on the analysis of whole tumor volume and biopsy site, TBRmean, TBRmax, nCBFmean, and nCBFmax showed no statistically significant differences between gliomas with and without MGMT promoter methylation (all p0.05). Furthermore, stereotactic biopsy demonstrated that TBRmean, TBRmax, nCBFmean, and nCBFmax showed no correlation with MGMT promoter methylation (r = -0.117, p = 0.579; r = -0.161, p = 0.443; r = -0.271, p = 0.191; r = -0.300, p = 0.145; respectively).MGMT promoter methylation status shows no effect on [• Based on whole tumor VOI assessment, MGMT promoter methylation status shows no effect on [

Perineural invasion (PNI) has been recognized as an important prognosis factor in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the value ofA total of 131 patients with non-metastatic CRC who undergo PET/CT scan were retrospectively enrolled. Univariate analysis was used to compare the differences between PNI-present and PNI-absent groups. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to select the independent predictors for PNI status. Akaike information criterion (AIC) was used to select the best prediction models for PNI status. CT radiomics signatures (RSs) and PET-RSs were selected by maximum relevance minimum redundancy (mRMR) and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm (LASSO) regression and radiomics scores (Rad-scores) were calculated for each patient. The prediction models with or without Rad-score were established. According to the nomogram, nomogram scores (Nomo-scores) were calculated for each patient. The performance of different models was assessed with the area under the curve (AUC), specificity, and sensitivity. The clinical usefulness was assessed by decision curve (DCA). Multivariate Cox regression was used to selected independent predictors of progression-free survival (PFS).Among all the clinical information, PET/CT features, and metabolic parameters, CEA, lymph node metastatic on PET/CT (N stage), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were independent predictors for PNI (p 0.05). Six CT-RSs and 12 PET-RSs were selected as the most valuable factors to predict PNI. The Rad-score calculated with these RSs was significantly different between PNI-present and PNI-absent groups (p 0.001). The AUC of the constructed model was 0.90 (95%CI: 0.83-0.97) in the training cohort and 0.80 (95%CI: 0.65-0.95) in the test cohort. The nomogram's predicting sensitivity was 0.84 and the specificity was 0.83 in the training cohort. The clinical model's predicting sensitivity and specificity were 0.66 and 0.85 in the training cohort, respectively. Besides, DCA showed that patients with non-metastatic CRC could get more benefit with our model. The results also indicated that N stage, PNI status, and the Nomo-score were independent predictors of PFS in patients with non-metastatic CRC.The nomogram, integrating clinical data, PET/CT features, metabolic parameters, and radiomics, performs well in predicting PNI status and is associated with the outcome in patients with non-metastatic CRC.

We provide an all fiber spectrally flat supercontinuum (SC) source generated by pumping a 20 m graded-index multimode fiber (MMF). The fiber pigtails of the all-fiber pump pulse laser and the MMF fused with a special method. After measuring the spectrum and the power, the output power extending from the visible to the mid-infrared is 2 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first watt-class and spectrally flat all fiber structured SC source based on graded-index MMF. Finally, we studied the evolution of the SC with increasing output power, which permitted us to more clearly recognize the nonlinear phenomena in the generation of the SC.

Sulfur quantum dots (S-dots) show great potential for applications in various field, due to their favorable biocompatibility, high stability, and antibacterial properties. However, the use of S-dots in chemical sensing is limited by the lack of functional groups on the surface. In this work, a fluorescence glutathione (GSH) assay is developed based on the GSH modulated quenching effect of Cu2O nanoparticles (NP) on S-dots. The fluorescence of S-dots is effectively quenched after forming complex with Cu2O NP through a static quenching effect (SQE). Introducing of GSH can trigger the decomposition of Cu2O NP into GSH-Cu(I) complex, which leads to the weaken of SQE and the partial recover of the fluorescence. The intensity of recovered fluorescence shows a positive correlation with the concentration of GSH in the concentration range of 20 to 500 μM. The fluorescence GSH assay shows excellent selectivity and robustness towards various interferences and high concentration salt, which endow the successful detection of GSH in human blood sample. The presented results provide a new door for the design of fluorescence assays, which also provides a platform for the applications in nanomedicine and environmental science.

Accurate detection of heparin (Hep) is essential to ensure the safety of Hep medication in clinical treatment. Although a large number of Hep optical probes have been reported in the past decade, it is still an arduous task to design a Hep optical probe with satisfactory overall performance, such as dual-mode response, stability and applicability in high-concentration serum substrates. Herein, a double-charged cationic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogen, PYNN, was rationally designed and readily synthesized for efficient colorimetric and fluorimetric detection of Hep. PYNN exhibits typical AIE characteristics and good water solubility, thus emitting faint fluorescence in aqueous media. In the presence of negatively charged Hep, PYNN molecules are immobilized on the Hep chain through electrostatic and van der Waals interactions to produce a PYNN-Hep complex, causing remarkable changes in the absorption and fluorescence spectra of PYNN. The spectral response of PYNN to Hep is highly sensitive, selective, rapid, reversible and stable to ambient temperature and storage time. The absorbance ratio of PYNN at 430 nm and 370 nm and its fluorescence intensity at 580 nm meet good linear relationships with Hep concentration, with a detection limit of 6.8 ng/mL, colorimetrically and fluorimetrically, 5.9 ng/mL. PYNN can serve as a highly efficient optical probe for the dual-readout approach of Hep levels in a 10% serum matrix without interference from serum components. Our work provides an efficient, convenient and practical tool for the rapid identification and precise detection of Hep, which is of great significance for its clinical detection.