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The role of miRNAs and its regulatory mechanism in myopia are indeterminate. Our study aimed to investigate potential myopia‐associated non‐coding RNAs and related molecules by performing a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of miRNA expression profile of mice with form‐deprivation myopia (FDM). Differentially expressed miRNAs in two raw microarray data sets (GSE58124 and GSE84220) from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were comprehensively analysed using GEO2R. Target genes were predicted using miRDB and enriched with Metascape online tool. Protein‐protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed utilizing STRING and Cytoscape. Significant differentially expressed miRNAs were validated by real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) using RNA extracted from monocular FDM ocular tissues. As result, we identified three upregulated miRNAs (mmu‐miR‐1936, mmu‐miR‐338‐5p, and mmu‐miR‐673‐3p) significantly associated with myopia in the two microarray data sets (p < 0.05 and |Log (Fold Change) |>1). GO functional analysis suggested these three miRNAs were targeted in genes mostly enriched in morphogenesis and developmental growth of retinal tissues. Enrichment analysis revealed top eight transcription factors, including PAX6 and Smad3, related to myopia. Ten hub genes, including Rbx1, Fbxl3, Fbxo27, Fbxl7, Fbxo4, Cul3, Cul2, Klhl5, Fbxl16 and Klhl42, associated with ubiquitin conjugation were identified. qRT‐PCR confirmed the increased expression of mmu‐miR‐1936 and mmu‐miR‐338‐5p (p < 0.05), but no statistical difference was observed in mmu‐miR‐673‐3p expression in myopic retinas. Our findings indicated mmu‐miR‐1936, mmu‐miR‐338‐5p and mmu‐miR‐673‐3p upregulation may be associated with myopia development via post‐transcriptional gene regulation, and identified potential molecules that could be further explored in future studies of the mechanism in myopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conductive coordination polymers (CPs) have potential in a wide range of applications because of their inherent structural and functional diversity. Three electrically conductive CPs (CuxC6S6, x=3, 4 or 5.5) derived from the same organic linker (benzenehexathiol) and metal node (copper(I)) were synthesized and studied. CuxC6S6 materials are organic–inorganic hybrid copper sulfides comprising a π‐π stacking structure and cooper sulfur networks. Charge‐transport pathways within the network facilitate conductivity and offer control of the Fermi level through modulation of the oxidation level of the non‐innocent redox‐active ligand. Two CuxC6S6 (x=4 or 5.5) CPs display high electrical conductivity and they feature a tunable structural topology and electronic structure. Cu4C6S6 and Cu5.5C6S6 act as degenerate semiconductors. Moreover, Cu5.5C6S6 is a p‐type thermoelectric material with a ZT value of 0.12 at 390 K, which is a record‐breaking performance for p‐type CPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The transforming growth factor beta (TGF‐β) superfamily plays an important role in cancer development. One aspect of this is that the transforming growth factor beta receptor III (TGFBR3) is frequently overexpressed in some tumours. However, the role of TGFBR3 in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been explored as yet. In this study, we aimed to determine the role of TGFBR3 in the development and prognosis of ESCC and the correlation between TGFBR3 expression and Ki‐67 and p53. Immunohistochemistry was performed to investigate the expression of TGFBR3 in the tumour tissue microarray consisting of ESCC tissues and matched adjacent normal tissues (n = 80). Only ESCC tissues (n = 20) were also used in our analysis. The association between TGFBR3 expression and clinicopathological characteristics, such as Ki‐67 and p53, was analysed by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient analysis. The association between TGFBR3 expression and prognosis of ESCC was analysed using Kaplan‐Meier analysis and log‐rank tests. The expression levels of TGFBR3 in oesophageal cancer tissues were markedly higher than in matched adjacent normal tissues. Furthermore, TGFBR3 overexpression was significantly associated with tumour‐node‐metastasis (TNM) stage, lymph node metastasis (N stage) and Ki‐67 expression. However, TGFBR3 overexpression was not significantly related to age, sex or p53. In univariate analysis, overall survival of ESCC patients was significantly associated with high TGFBR3 expression, sex, T stage, N stage and TNM stage. Moreover, ESCC patients with high TGFBR3 expression had poorer overall survival than those with low TGFB R3 expression. Our findings showed that TGFBR3 was upregulated in the development of human ESCC and high TGFBR3 expression was associated with high expression of Ki‐67 and poor prognosis of ESCC. Therefore, TGFBR3 may be a valuable prognostic marker and a novel therapeutic target for ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three isostructural donor–acceptor complexes DPTTA‐FXTCNQ (X = 1, 2, 4) are investigated experimentally and theoretically. By tuning the number of F atoms in the acceptor molecules, the resulting complexes display a continuous down shift of the valence band maximum, conducting band minimum, and optical bandgap. The majority carriers convert from hole (DPTTA‐F1TCNQ), balanced hole, and electron (DPTTA‐F2TCNQ) to electron (DPTTA‐F4TCNQ). This result shows that band engineering can be realized easily in the donor–acceptor complex systems by tuning the electron affinity of the acceptor. The bandgaps of these three complexes vary from 0.31 to 0.41 eV; this narrow bandgap feature is crucial for achieving high thermoelectric performance and the unintentional doping in DPTTA‐F4TCNQ leads to the effective suppression of the bipolar cancelling effect on the Seebeck coefficient and the highest power factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]