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Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic materials have important applications in optics, spintronics, biomedicine, and energy conversion fields. To achieve higher integration and continue Moore's Law, it is necessary to search for 2D ferromagnetic materials. However, the low Curie temperature (Tc) of most 2D ferromagnetic materials seriously hinders their practical applications. Therefore, the search for room-temperature 2D ferromagnetic materials is of great significance for the advancement of technological applications. This article provides a systematic and comprehensive review of the synthesis methods of room-temperature 2D ferromagnetic materials that have been discovered and created to date, as well as an overview of the physical properties of the 2D ferromagnetic materials. Finally, the challenges and prospects of the room-temperature 2D ferromagnetic materials in the fields of synthesis and application are briefly summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon-based electromagnetic wave absorbing materials (absorbers) adhered with metallic sulfide nanoparticles of good electrical conductivity attract increasing researchers' attention. In this study, on the basis of carbon fiber (Cf)@Fe3O4 nanocomposites obtained by the electrostatic spinning and reflow method, Cf@FeS2 nanocomposite was successfully prepared during a further hydrothermal process. The products exhibit excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performances with a minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −54.11 dB at 2.13 mm matching thickness. At the same time, the optimal effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) value of 6.04 GHz at a thickness of 1.98 mm covers the whole Ku band, suggesting its excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performances. In addition, the interlaced network structure constructed by carbon fiber, outstanding conductivity of FeS2 nanoparticles, and interfacial polarization from hetero-structure play significant parts in enhancing the electromagnetic parameters and absorption performances. All these results suggest that the Cf@FeS2 nanocomposites can be taken as a new electromagnetic wave-absorbing material under their low density, simple craft, and strong absorption characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, electromagnetic pollution has caused people's considerable attention. Developing absorbing material with low cost, lightweight, simple preparation, and high electromagnetic attenuation efficiency has become a feasible means to deal with this problem. In this work, core-shell SiCNWs@MnO2@PPy (NWs: nanowires, PPy: polypyrrole) heterostructures composed of SiC nanowires core, MnO2 nanosheets inter-layer, and PPy coating were successfully prepared through chemical vapor deposition and two-step electrodeposition process. Taking advantage of the interfacial polarization and dipole polarization, the obtained product displays excellent electromagnetic wave absorption performances with the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −50.59 dB when the matching thickness is 2.41 mm, and the optimal effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) value reaches to 6.64 GHz at a matching thickness of 2.46 mm, revealing that the SiCNWs@MnO2@PPy nanocomposite could be served as a promising electromagnetic wave absorbing material. On the basis of systematic analysis concerning the electromagnetic parameters, the dissipation process of the incident electromagnetic wave was demonstrated reasonably, which may provide a referable preparation strategy for novel heterostructures, especially nonmagnetic lightweight absorbing material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Three-dimensional ordered porous carbon foam with abundant hetero-atoms is successfully prepared through employing silica microspheres template. The pore volume and specific surface area are effectively adjusted by an equivalent substitute strategy to investigate their influence on electromagnetic wave absorption performances. The attenuation mechanism of electromagnetic wave is clarified according to the contribution of conduction loss and polarization loss on dielectric loss.Three-dimensional (3D) ordered porous carbon is generally believed to be a promising electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorbing material. However, most research works targeted performance improvement of 3D ordered porous carbon, and the specific attenuation mechanism is still ambiguous. Therefore, in this work, a novel ultra-light egg-derived porous carbon foam (EDCF) structure has been successfully constructed by a simple carbonization combined with the silica microsphere template-etching process. Based on an equivalent substitute strategy, the influence of pore volume and specific surface area on the electromagnetic parameters and EMW absorption properties of the EDCF products was confirmed respectively by adjusting the addition content and diameter of silica microspheres. As a primary attenuation mode, the dielectric loss originates from the comprehensive effect of conduction loss and polarization loss in S-band and C band, and the value is dominated by polarization loss in X band and Ku band, which is obviously greater than that of conduction loss. Furthermore, in all samples, the largest effective absorption bandwidth of EDCF-3 is 7.12 GHz under the thickness of 2.13 mm with the filling content of approximately 5 wt%, covering the whole Ku band. Meanwhile, the EDCF-7 sample with optimized pore volume and specific surface area achieves minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of − 58.08 dB at 16.86 GHz while the thickness is 1.27 mm. The outstanding research results not only provide a novel insight into enhancement of EMW absorption properties but also clarify the dominant dissipation mechanism for the porous carbon-based absorber from the perspective of objective experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-functional pituitary adenoma (NFPA) is highly heterogeneous with different hormone expression subtypes. Of them, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-positive expression is an important subtype of NFPAs. It is well-known that FSH exerted its functions through binding its receptor. However, the expression rate of FSH receptor was significantly higher in aggressive pituitary adenomas. This study aimed to investigate the molecular characteristics of FSH-positive NFPAs for effective stratification of patient, target treatment, prognostic assessment, and personalized treatment of FSH-positive NFPAs. Methods: Tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics was used to investigate differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between FSH-positive and negative NFPAs. Gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were used to analyze the DEPs. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between invasive and non-invasive NFPAs from GEO database were analyzed with pathway enrichment analysis. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed based on DEPs in excetral cellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, and PI3K-Akt pathways. Cytoscape was used to obtain most significant modules. Western blot was used to validate the expressions of upregulated proteins (ITGA1, ITGA6, and ITGB4), the expression and phosphorylated status of Akt in PI3K-Akt pathway, and the expression of FSH receptors in FSH-positive relative to negative NFPAs. Results: A total of 594 DEPs (374 upregulated and 220 downregulated) were identified between FSH-positive and negative NFPAs. Nineteen KEGG pathway networks were identified to involve DEPs, and reveal molecular differences between FSH-positive and negative NFPAs, including three important pathways that were significantly associated with tumor invasiveness and aggressiveness: ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways. Further, focal adhesion pathway was also confirmed with invasiveness-related NFPA DEG data that were derived from GEO database. Moreover, the significantly upregulated DEPs (ITGA1, ITGA6, and ITGB4) that were associated with tumor invasiveness and aggressiveness were confirmed by immunoaffinity analysis in FSH-positive vs. negative NFPAs. Also, the phosphorylation level but not its expression level of AKT in PI3K-AKT signaling was significantly increased, and the expression level of FSH receptor was significantly increased in FSH-positive relative to negative NFPAs. Also, overlapping analysis of 594 DEPs and 898 DEGs revealed 45 invasiveness-related DEPs, including 11 upregulated DEPs (ITGA6, FARP1, PALLD, PPBP, LIMA1, SCD, UACA, BAG3, CLU, PLEC, and GATM) that were also upregulated genes in invasive NFPAs, and 8 downregulated DEPs (ALCAM, HP, FSTL4, IL13RA2, NPTX2, DPP6, CRABP2, and SLC27A2) that were also downregulated genes in invasive NFPAs. Conclusions: FSH-positive expression was an important NFPA subtype. It was the first time for this study to reveal FSH-related proteomic variations and the corresponding molecular network alterations in FSH-positive relative to negative NFPAs. Also, three signaling pathways (ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways) and involved upregulated proteins (ITGA1, ITGA6, ITGB4, pAKT, and FSHR) were significantly associated with tumor invasiveness and aggressiveness, and a set of invasiveness-related DEPs were identified with overlapping analysis of 594 DEPs in FSH-positive vs. negative NFPAs and 898 DEGs in invasive vs. non-invasive NFPAs. These findings offered the scientific evidence to in-depth understand molecular characteristics of FSH-positive NFPAs, and effectively stratify the post-surgery patients for personalized prognostic assessment and targeted treatment of FSH-positive NFPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monodispersed dendritic mesoporous silica/carbon nanospheres (DMS/CNs) with adjustable particle sizes and carbon contents have been controllably fabricated via a facile oil-water biphase stratification approach combined with an in situ carbonization of surfactant template strategy. The obtained materials were utilized as adsorbents for the adsorptive desulfurization of dibenzothiophene, and the results showed that the adsorbent with the smaller particle size and larger pore size had a faster adsorption equilibrium and DMS/CNs with the higher carbon contents exhibited better sulfur adsorption capacity. This might be because the carbon substrate deposited on the mesoporous channels could alter the textural and chemical properties of materials and thus could improve the adsorptive performance. Moreover, DMS/CNs with the unique center-radial pore structure and large surface area were favorable for the incorporation of active metals, and the adsorptive capacity and selectivity could be greatly enhanced after the incorporation of AgNO3. The superior adsorptive performance might result from a good combination of its unique pore channels and a synergistic effect between carbon substrate and silver species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a stable and recyclable Pd catalyst supported on N-containing silane coupling agent modified silica hollow microspheres with macroporous shells (Pd/N-SHMs) was successfully prepared and used for the selective hydrogenation of nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) with enhanced catalytic performance. The results showed that Pd/N-SHMs possessed small-sized and well-dispersed Pd nanoparticles (NPs) and the macroporous shells were beneficial for the diffusion of macromolecular NBR, and thus with such a catalyst, the reaction could occur under mild conditions and high hydrogenation degree (96.6%) with 100% selectivity to C=C was obtained. The prepared catalyst could be easily recycled and reused with a high efficiency. More importantly, because of the strong coordination between Pd and diamine ligands, Pd NPs could be anchored steadily over the support and only 5.0 ppm Pd residues was detected in products. This reaction was considered as pseudo-first order at high H2 pressures, and the reaction activation energy was calculated to be as low as 18.1 kJ/mol. Our contribution is to provide an efficient and recyclable supported Pd catalyst, which may promote the development of heterogeneous catalytic systems for unsaturated macromolecular hydrogenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (PPPM) is the hot spot and future direction in the field of cancer. Cancer is a complex, whole-body disease that involved multi-factors, multi-processes, and multi-consequences. A series of molecular alterations at different levels of genes (genome), RNAs (transcriptome), proteins (proteome), peptides (peptidome), metabolites (metabolome), and imaging characteristics (radiome) that resulted from exogenous and endogenous carcinogens are involved in tumorigenesis and mutually associate and function in a network system, thus determines the difficulty in the use of a single molecule as biomarker for personalized prediction, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for cancer. A key molecule-panel is necessary for accurate PPPM practice. Pattern recognition is an effective methodology to discover key molecule-panel for cancer. The modern omics, computation biology, and systems biology technologies lead to the possibility in recognizing really reliable molecular pattern for PPPM practice in cancer. The present article reviewed the pathophysiological basis, methodology, and perspective usages of pattern recognition for PPPM in cancer so that our previous opinion on multi-parameter strategies for PPPM in cancer is translated into real research and development of PPPM or precision medicine (PM) in cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel spatiotemporal graphical model for unsupervised video object segmentation. The core of our model is a layered-CRF (conditional random field) that contains two layers, i.e., pixel layer and supervoxel layer. First, the heat diffusion based segmentation and salient region detection is integrated to obtain the segmentation results of the first frame. The results are used as input seeds to train dual probabilistic models of each object class. In the spatiotemporal layered-CRF framework we extend binary segmentation to multiple object segmentation. We add intra-frame spatial matching potential and inter-frame temporal supervoxels consistent potential to link the pixel layer and the supervoxel layer. This improves the spatiotemporal smoothing throughout the video sequence in the proposed model. The proposed unsupervised method lightens the burden of labeling training samples and obtains a smooth and accurate object boundary in video segmentation. The experiments on two public datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms several state-of-the-art methods in both single and multiple foreground cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been emerging as important multifunctional hybrid materials, not only due to the diversify framework architectures, but also contribute to the rich interactions among metals, ligands and guests. Nitro explosives have important influences for environmental protection and national homeland security. In this review, a brief description of luminescent MOFs is presented, accompanied by a short comment on the four types of metal-based luminescent MOFs as sensing materials for nitro explosives detection. Then the trends and challenges of luminescent MOFs as sensing materials for nitro explosives are also prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a common complication in elderly pneumonia patients who have a rapid progression, and is accompanied by a high mortality rate. Because the treatment options of ALI are limited to supportive care, identifying pneumonia patients who are at higher risk of ALI development is the emphasis of many studies. Here, we approach this problem from an immunological perspective by examining CD19(+)CD24(hi)CD38(hi) B cells, an important participant in acute and chronic inflammation. We find that elderly pneumonia patients have elevated CD19(+)CD24(hi)CD38(hi) B cell frequency compared to healthy individuals. This B cell population may express a higher level of IL-10, which has been was shown to suppress CD4(+) T cell-mediated proinflammatory cytokine interferon gamma (IFNg) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa) production, through an IL-10-dependent mechanism. We also observe that the frequency of CD19(+)CD24(hi)CD38(hi) B cell is positively correlated with the frequency of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)Tregs in peripheral blood. Moreover, consistent with CD19(+)CD24(hi)CD38(hi) B cell's anti-inflammatory role, we find that pneumonia patients who later developed ALI have reduced level of CD19(+)CD24(hi)CD38(hi) B cells. Together, our results demonstrated that CD19(+)CD24(hi)CD38(hi) B cells in pneumonia patients possess regulatory function in vivo, and are associated with a reduced ALI risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of glycerol carbonate (GC) from glycerol and urea was investigated over a series of lanthanum compounds. Among them, LaCl showed the best catalytic activity. The conversion of glycerol could be 95.4 % with 99.9 % selectivity towards GC under the optimum reaction conditions. Then, it was found that for these catalysts, their solubility in the reaction system during reaction was the key to achieve high glycerol conversion and GC selectivity. Meanwhile, catalytic tests and FTIR measurements of the liquid phases after reaction confirmed that this approach could be divided into two steps, and the second one was the key step. Interestingly, it was revealed that some La-containing complex species could be formed via NH coordination to La during the reaction. Furthermore, a possible reaction mechanism was proposed based on these systematic experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a cantilever-type silicon microheater operating at high temperature with low power consumption for the catalytic combustion methane sensor. The cantilever supported silicon microheaters were designed and fabricated with thick device silicon of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. The temperature dependence and electrical characteristic of the thick-silicon microheater resistor, including a key temperature corresponding to the twist point of temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) were tested. A series of test microheaters was also designed in order to further investigate the influence of the length of support cantilever on power consumption. The twist point of TCR of the microheater was used as the reference point for the power evaluation. Experimental results demonstrated that the solid state heat conduction dominates the power losses and the total power consumption can be reduced to a satisfied minimum about 60 mW with the length-extension of the support cantilever for the thick silicon heater. Results also showed that the thick silicon heater is suitable for gas sensor operating at the high temperature with low power consumption, which is a particularly attractive quality for the use of battery-operated handheld methane gas monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis, a clinical syndrome occurring in patients following infection or injury, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. CD86 (B7-2) is a costimulatory molecule on antigen-presenting cells and plays critical roles in immune responses. In the current study, we investigated the association of two CD86 polymorphisms, rs1129055G/A and rs17281995G/C, with susceptibility to pneumonia-induced sepsis and examined the effects of these two polymorphisms on gene expression in monocytes. CD86 rs1129055G/A and rs17281995G/C were identified in 192 pneumonia-induced septic patients and 201 healthy controls. Data showed that frequencies of the rs1129055GA and AA genotypes were significantly lower in patients than in controls (odds ratio [OR] = 0.57, 95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.35-0.93, p = 0.023, and OR = 0.40, 95 % CI, 0.23-0.71, p = 0.002). Interestingly, the other polymorphism, rs17281995G/C, revealed significantly increased numbers in pneumonia-induced sepsis compared to controls (OR = 1.85, 95 % CI, 1.07-3.20, p = 0.025). Further analyses about CD86 gene expression revealed that both messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels of CD86 were downregulated in monocytes from controls carrying rs17281995GC genotype than those carrying wild-type rs17281995GG genotype ( p = 0.022 and p = 0013). These results suggest that polymorphisms in CD86 gene have diverse effects on the pathogenesis of pneumonia-induced sepsis, in which rs17281995G/C may increase the risk of the disease by interfering gene expression of CD86 in monocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pneumonia is one of the most serious infectious diseases for elderly people who have impaired organ functions and are more susceptible to infection. Elderly patients having pneumonia often need long-term hospitalization, leading to declined quality of life, and increase of financial burden to the society and their family. Therefore, studies on novel therapeutic strategies and the clinical prognosis of the pneumonia patients are imperative. In the present study, we found that the Chinese herbal medicine Fu Zheng decoction had great immunomodulatory effects during the recovery period of elderly pneumonia patients. Patients treated with combined treatment of Fu Zheng decoction and antibiotic had a faster decline of temperature and a more significant decrease of C reactive protein and inflammatory factors level, and it is easier for them to cough off phlegm, compared with the antibiotic only treatment. Furthermore, the inflammation absorption and the reduction of NK-cell proportion as well as the inflammatory factors were more remarkable in the patients taken Fu Zheng decoction. Especially, the Fu Zheng decoction treatment could decrease the duration of antibiotic treatment, which may help reduce the side effects of antibiotics. Our study also found that MyD88 might play a role in the immunomodulatory effect of Fu Zheng decoction. Our study provides novel insight for the further development of intravenous injection of Chinese materia medica preparation on the regulation of immune function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of spring snowmelt infiltration in a seasonal soil frost area on groundwater recharge was evaluated by systematically monitoring meteorological factors, soil temperature and humidity, groundwater table and temperature, electrical conductivity, and the value of δ18O in a small field site over a 2-year period. The variation of soil temperature and humidity, groundwater table during the freezing period, and the snowmelt period respectively, as well as their correspondence to the relevant environmental factors, and the influencing factors of the permeability of frozen layer were analyzed. The results showed that the evaluation of precipitation infiltration in seasonal soil frost areas should be divided into three stages: a non-freezing period, a freezing period, and a snowmelt period. Snow is the main form of precipitation during the freezing period, and groundwater cannot be recharged. During the snowmelt period of spring, the snow cover that accumulated during the freezing period infiltrates together with rainfall and has a significant effect on groundwater recharge. The general precipitation infiltration process occurs after the frozen soil thaws completely. These research results can improve the accuracy of groundwater recharge calculations for snowmelt infiltration in the seasonal soil frost area of Northeast China and provide a scientific basis for the evaluation and management of regional water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]