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The healing of human skin wounds is susceptible to perturbation caused by excessive mechanical stretching, resulting in enlarged scars, hypertrophic scars, or even keloids in predisposed individuals. Keloids are fibro‐proliferative scar tissues that extend beyond the initial wound boundary, consisting of the actively progressing periphery and the quiescent center. The stretch‐associated outgrowth and enhanced angiogenesis are two features of the periphery of keloids. However, which cell population is responsible for transducing the mechanical stimulation to the progression of keloids remains unclear. Herein, through integrative analysis of single‐cell RNA sequencing of keloids, we identified CD74+ fibroblasts, a previously unappreciated subset of fibroblasts with pro‐angiogenic and stretch‐induced proliferative capacities, as a key player in stretch‐induced progression of keloids. Immunostaining of keloid cryosections depicted a predominant distribution of CD74+ fibroblasts in the periphery, interacting with the vasculature. In vitro tube formation assays on purified CD74+ fibroblasts ascertained their pro‐angiogenic function. BrdU assays revealed that these cells proliferate upon stretching, through PIEZO1‐mediated calcium influx and the downstream ERK and AKT signaling. Collectively, our findings propose a model wherein CD74+ fibroblasts serve as pivotal drivers of stretch‐induced keloid progression, fueled by their proliferative and pro‐angiogenic activities. Targeting the attributes of CD74+ fibroblasts holds promise as a therapeutic strategy for the management of keloids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezocatalytic therapy (PCT) based on 2D layered materials has emerged as a promising non‐invasive tumor treatment modality, offering superior advantages. However, a systematic investigation of PCT, particularly the mechanisms underlying the reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by 2D nanomaterials, is still in its infancy. Here, for the first time, biodegradable piezoelectric 2D bilayer nickel‐iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe‐LDH) nanosheets (thickness of ≈1.86 nm) are reported for enhanced PCT and ferroptosis. Under ultrasound irradiation, the piezoelectric semiconducting NiFe‐LDH exhibits a remarkable ability to generate superoxide anion radicals, due to the formation of a built‐in electric field that facilitates the separation of electrons and holes. Notably, the significant excitonic effect in the ultrathin NiFe‐LDH system enables long‐lived excited triplet excitons (lifetime of ≈5.04 µs) to effectively convert triplet O2 molecules into singlet oxygen. Moreover, NiFe‐LDH exhibited tumor microenvironment (TME)‐responsive peroxidase (POD)‐like and glutathione (GSH)‐depleting capabilities, further enhancing oxidative stress in tumor cells and inducing ferroptosis. To the best of knowledge, this is the first report on piezoelectric semiconducting sonosensitizers based on LDHs for PCT and ferroptosis, providing a comprehensive understanding of the piezocatalysis mechanism and valuable references for the application of LDHs and other 2D materials in cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addressing the challenge of hypoxia within the tumor microenvironment (TME), a significant obstacle to effective cancer therapy, this research introduces a pioneering nanozyme engineered to utilize water and oxygen as reactants. Utilizing ultrasonic piezoelectricity, this nanozyme converts these substrates into oxygen (O2) and reactive oxygen species, thereby amplifying oxidative stress without relying on endogenous H2O2. This approach involves the strategic engineering of porous ZnSnOv:Mn nanosheets (named MZSO NSs), which are distinguished by oxygen‐rich vacancies and enhanced piezoelectric properties. This breakthrough represents the initial attempt to merge catalytic activities akin to catalase (CAT) with the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), confirmed through both enzymatic reactions and electrochemical voltammetric analysis. The predominant mechanism of ultrasound‐augmented oxygen generation in MZSO is identified as piezoelectric hole‐induced OER. Supporting theoretical analyses clarify the synergistic impact of oxygen vacancies and Mn doping on the dynamics of carriers and the OER process, leading to a notable increase in catalytic efficiency. These findings highlight the potential of piezoelectric‐enhanced OER electrocatalysts to alleviate hypoxia in the TME, providing novel insights into the development of piezoelectric acoustic sensitizers for the treatment of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an innovative genetically optimized dynamic composite strategy for achieving profitability in futures markets. Utilizing daily data from 35 actively traded futures contracts (1984–2022), we highlight the potential advantages of integrating the momentum effect into dynamic moving average strategies. This enhancement can boost the strategy's capability to capture and capitalize on market trends, ensuring consistent and stable returns. The developed dynamically composite technical trading strategy aspires to be a valuable reference for investors and the finance academic community, contributing to advancements in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circadian disruption such as shift work, jet lag, has gradually become a global health issue and is closely associated with various metabolic disorders. The influence and mechanism of circadian disruption on renal injury in chronic kidney disease (CKD) remains inadequately understood. Here, we evaluated the impact of environmental light disruption on the progression of chronic renal injury in CKD mice. By using two abnormal light exposure models to induce circadian disruption, we found that circadian disruption induced by weekly light/dark cycle reversal (LDDL) significantly exacerbated renal dysfunction, accelerated renal injury, and promoted renal fibrosis in mice with 5/6 nephrectomy and unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). Mechanistically, RNA‐seq analysis revealed significant immune and metabolic disorder in the LDDL‐conditioned CKD kidneys. Consistently, renal content of ATP was decreased and ROS production was increased in the kidney tissues of the LDDL‐challenged CKD mice. Untargeted metabolomics revealed a significant buildup of lipids in the kidney affected by LDDL. Notably, the level of β‐NMN, a crucial intermediate in the NAD+ pathway, was found to be particularly reduced. Moreover, we demonstrated that both β‐NMN and melatonin administration could significantly rescue the light‐disruption associated kidney dysfunction. In conclusion, environmental circadian disruption may exacerbate chronic kidney injury by facilitating inflammatory responses and disturbing metabolic homeostasis. β‐NMN and melatonin treatments may hold potential as promising approaches for preventing and treating light‐disruption associated CKD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating the ranking of polymer in triboelectric series over a wide range is of great help for material's selection of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Herein, fluorinated poly(phthalazinone ether)s (FPPEs) with tunable molecular structure and aggregate structure are synthesized by co‐polycondensation, while the large positive ranking shift in the triboelectric series can be achieved by introducing phthalazinone moieties with strong electron donating capability. FPPE‐5, which includes abundant phthalazinone moieties, is more positive than all of the previously reported triboelectric polymers. Hence, the regulating range of FPPEs in this work updates a new record in triboelectric series, which is wider than that of previous works. A peculiar crystallization behavior, capable of trapping and storing more electrons, has been observed in FPPE‐2 with 25% phthalazinone moieties. Correspondingly, FPPE‐2 is more negative than FPPE‐1 without a phthalazinone moiety, which is an unexpected shift against the common changing tendency in triboelectric series. With FPPEs films as the probing material, a tactile TENG sensor is applied to enable material identification via electrical signal polarity. Hence, this study demonstrates a strategy to regulate the series of triboelectric polymers by copolymerization using monomers with distinct electrification capabilities, where both the monomer ratio and the peculiar nonlinear behavior can control triboelectric performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non‐contact triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on floating plane motion can achieve a very low interface abrasion and high durability. However, the output performance of non‐contact TENG is still less than 72 µC m−2, due to the decay of tribo‐induced charges in air. Here, this work proposes two different charge excitation strategies for non‐contact mode TENG by elevating the electric insulation strength to avoid air breakdown, while both the external charge excitation and the self‐excitation system are developed. A double dielectric layer capacitance model is also established to analyze the change of charge density. A maximum output charge density of 260.15 µC m−2 is obtained using the external charge excitation with 6 kV excitation voltage. In addition, the self‐excitation strategy with non‐contact mode and more compact system is also demonstrated and an output charge density of 212.5 µC m−2 is achieved with the help of developed voltage multiple circuit, which is 2.97 times of the reported highest record for non‐contact TENG. The charge‐excited TENG via high electric insulation strategy realized in this work provides a promising way for boosting the output performance of TENGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central to the composition, structure and function of any microbial community is the complex species interaction web. But understanding the overwhelming complexity of ecological interaction webs has been challenging, owing at least partly to the lack of efficient tools for disentangling species interactions in natural or artificial microbial communities.In this study, we developed a microbial experimental system which allows for rapidly generating microbial consortia with programmable ecological interactions. We engineered the model organism Escherichia coli to construct metabolism‐ and quorum sensing‐based modules. The two engineered modules were used to create synthetic microbial consortia of synergy, competition and exploitation.We showed that each of synthetic microbial consortia displayed the unique mode of population dynamics under certain initial inoculation conditions. We also demonstrated that the transitions between exploitation and the types of competition or synergy based on the same paired strains were plausible by tuning the two engineered modules. We lastly derived mathematical models to quantitatively capture the experimentally observed population dynamics of these synthetic microbial consortia.This approach offers a fresh angle to engineering microbial systems for experimentally testing ecological questions with a much greater control and manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the thermionic emission effect, the electron transferred to dielectric surface can be released into vacuum after the contact electrification (CE). Therefore, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) cannot maintain effective electrical output under high temperature conditions. In order to obtain high thermal charge stability, polyimide is modified with strong electron withdrawing groups like trifluoromethyl (CF3) and sulfone group (SO2) in backbone. The fluorinated polyimides (F‐PI) with a big band gap can provide a tribocharge density of 170 µC m−2 (4 times of common Kapton film) and become more negative than polytetrafluoroethylene in triboelectric series. In addition, BaTiO3 nanoparticles are doped in F‐PI film for inducing deep traps and interfacial polarizations for CE, which can further enhance the charge density (200 µC m−2) and thermal charge stability. Finally, a flutter‐driven TENG (FD‐TENG) is designed based on this BaTiO3‐doped F‐PI film to harvest wind energy and sense wind velocity. This FD‐TENG can maintain 32% of its output performance at 200 °C in comparison with room temperature, which is the highest thermal charge stability reported for triboelectric polymers. Therefore, this BaTiO3‐doped F‐PI has great application prospects for energy generation and motion detection in hot wind tunnel and many other harsh environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the limited data and research on bladder cancer with distant metastasis, the role of surgery on the primary tumor site in metastatic bladder cancer has been controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of surgery on patients with metastatic bladder cancer and to identify any factors correlated with the treatment efficacy. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results dataset, we performed a large population‐based retrospective study. We classified patents with distant metastasis into subgroups according to their histology type and metastatic pattern. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to balance clinical variables bias in a 1:3 ratio. A total of 2470 patients with distant metastasis were identified from 2010 to 2016. After PSM, the study eventually included 1068 patients in the surgery group and 356 patients in the non‐surgery group. The histologic types, the number of metastatic sites, liver metastasis, surgery, and chemotherapy were significant prognostic variables for patients with distant metastasis before and after PSM. In terms of histologic types, the survival of patients with transitional cell papillary carcinoma, transitional cell non‐papillary carcinoma and adenocarcinoma can be improved by surgery alone, while the survival of patients with squamous cell carcinoma can be improved only by combining chemotherapy and surgery. In terms of the number of metastatic sites, surgery alone was an independent prognostic factor in patients with 1 or 2 metastatic sites. In terms of the specificity of metastatic organs, surgery affected overall survival for patients with bone metastasis only, liver metastasis only and lung metastasis only, but for distant lymph nodes metastasis only. It may be helpful to classify patients with bladder cancer and distant metastasis into different groups by integrating variables including histology types and metastatic patterns to choose appropriate treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify the interaction between known regulators of atherosclerosis, microRNA‐92a (miR‐92a), Rho‐associated coiled‐coil‐forming kinase (ROCK) and myosin light chain kinase (MLCK), we examined their expressions during proliferation and migration of platelet‐derived growth factor‐BB (PDGF‐BB)‐regulated vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), both in vivo and in vitro. During the formation of atherosclerosis plaque in mice, a parallel increase in expression levels of MLCK and miR‐92a was observed while miR‐92a expression was reduced in ML‐7 (an inhibitor of MLCK) treated mice and in MLCK‐deficient VSMCs. In vitro results indicated that both MLCK and miR‐92a shared the same signalling pathway. Transfection of miR‐92a mimic partially restored the effect of MLCK's deficiency and antagonized the effect of Y27632 (an inhibitor of ROCK) on the down‐regulation of VSMCs activities. ML‐7 increased the expression of Kruppel‐like factor 4 (KLF4, a target of miR‐92a), and siRNA‐KLF4 increased VSMCs' activity level. Consistently, inhibition of either MLCK or ROCK enhanced the KLF4 expression. Moreover, we observed that ROCK/MLCK up‐regulated miR‐92a expression in VSMCs through signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) activation. In conclusion, the activation of ROCK/STAT3 and/or MLCK/STAT3 may up‐regulate miR‐92a expression, which subsequently inhibits KLF4 expression and promotes PDGF‐BB‐mediated proliferation and migration of VSMCs. This new downstream node in the ROCK/MLCK signalling pathway may offer a potential intervention target for treatment of atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time location system (RLS) based on RFID is an effective indoor positioning system. The battery-free and low cost UHF passive tags can be attached on almost any objects, which are recognized as the best medium to achieve high precision ranging and positioning for large-scale objects. This paper proposes an indoor range measurement based on multifrequency phase difference of arrival (MF-PDoA) using UHF RFID passive tags and discusses the measurement principle, experiment implementation, and results evaluation in detail. After a theoretical overview of MF-PDoA range measurement principle, it introduces an experimental prototype under EPC C1G2 standard for range measurements. Both our prototype and a commercial off-the-shelf RFID reader have been used to verify the measurement method. We propose a Kalman filter and weighting method to process the measuring data. Experiment results indicate that, in a real environment, this method can effectively improve the ranging accuracy, which lays a foundation to extend the proposed measurement into two to three dimensions indoor object positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]