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2D magnets provoke a surge of interest in large anisotropy in reduced dimensions and are promising for next-generation information technology where dynamic magnetic tuning is essential. Until recently, the crucial metal-organic magnet Cr(pyz) 2 ·xLiCl·yTHF with considerable high coercivity and high-temperature magnetic order opens up a new platform to control magnetism in metal-organic materials at room temperature. Here, an in-situ chemical tuning route is reported to realize the controllable transformation of low-temperature magnetic order into room-temperature hard magnetism in Cr(pyz) 2 ·xLiCl·yTHF. The chemical tuning via electrochemical lithiation and solvation/desolvation exhibits continuously variable magnetic features from cryogenic magnetism to the room-temperature optimum performance of coercivity (H c ) of 8500 Oe and energy product of 0.6 MGOe. Such chemically flexible tunability of room-temperature magnetism is ascribed to the different degrees of lithiation and solvation that modify the stoichiometry and Cr-pyrazine coordination framework. Furthermore, the additively manufactured hybrid magnets show air stability and electromagnetic induction, providing potential applications. The findings here suggest chemical tuning as a universal approach to control the anisotropy and magnetism of 2D hybrid magnets at room temperature, promising for data storage, magnetic refrigeration, and spintronics., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Background: Noninvasive methods for the early identify diagnosis of prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and prostate cancer (PCa) are current clinical challenges., Methods: The serum metabolites of 20 healthy individuals and patients with prostatitis, BPH, or PCa were identified using untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). In addition, targeted LC-MS was used to verify the organic acid metabolites in the serum of a validation cohort., Results: Organic acid metabolites had good sensitivity and specificity in differentiating prostatitis, BPH, and PCa. Three diagnostic models identified patients with PROSTATITIS: phenyllactic acid (area under the curve [AUC]=0.773), pyroglutamic acid (AUC=0.725), and pantothenic acid (AUC=0.721). Three diagnostic models identified BPH: citric acid (AUC=0.859), malic acid (AUC=0.820), and D-glucuronic acid (AUC=0.810). Four diagnostic models identified PCa: 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaric acid (AUC=0.804), citric acid (AUC=0.918), malic acid (AUC=0.862), and phenyllactic acid (AUC=0.713). Two diagnostic models distinguished BPH from PCa: phenyllactic acid (AUC=0.769) and pyroglutamic acid (AUC=0.761). Three diagnostic models distinguished benign BPH from PROSTATITIS: citric acid (AUC=0.842), ethylmalonic acid (AUC=0.814), and hippuric acid (AUC=0.733). Six diagnostic models distinguished BPH from prostatitis: citric acid (AUC=0.926), pyroglutamic acid (AUC=0.864), phenyllactic acid (AUC=0.850), ethylmalonic acid (AUC=0.843), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaric acid (AUC=0.817), and hippuric acid (AUC=0.791). Three diagnostic models distinguished PCa patients with PROSTATITISA < 4.0 ng/mL from those with PSA > 4.0 ng/mL: 5-hydromethyl-2-furoic acid (AUC=0.749), ethylmalonic acid (AUC=0.750), and pyroglutamic acid (AUC=0.929). Conclusions: These results suggest that serum organic acid metabolites can be used as biomarkers to differentiate prostatitis, BPH, and PCa., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 He, Han, Luo, Shen, Xie, Liao, Zou, Luo, Guo, Li, Li and Chen.)

High proton conductivity originated from its small size and the diffusion-free Grotthuss mechanism offers immense promise for proton-based magneto-ionic control of magnetic materials. Despite such promise, the realization of proton magneto-ionics is hampered by the lack of proton-responsive magnets as well as the solid-state sensing method. Here, we report the proton-based magneto-ionics in molecule-based magnet which serves as both solid-state proton battery electrode and radiofrequency sensing medium. The three-dimensional hydrogen-bonding network in such a molecule-based magnet yields a high proton conductivity of 1.6 × 10 -3  S cm -1 . The three-dimensional printed vascular hydrogel provides the on-demand proton stimulus to enable magneto-ionics, where the Raman spectroscopy shows the redox behavior responsible for the magnetism control. The radiofrequency proton sensor shows high sensitivity in a wide proton concentration range from 10 -6 to 1 molar under a low working radiofrequency and magnetic field of 1 GHz and 405 Oe, respectively. The findings shown here demonstrate the promising sensing application of proton-based magneto-ionics., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in human beings. It is highly fatal, as its early symptoms are not obvious. In clinical medicine, physicians rely on the information provided by pathology tests as an important reference for the final diagnosis of many diseases. Therefore, pathology diagnosis is known as the gold standard for disease diagnosis. However, the complexity of the information contained in pathology images and the increase in the number of patients far outpace the number of pathologists, especially for the treatment of lung cancer in less developed countries. To address this problem, we propose a plug-and-play visual activation function (AF), CroReLU, based on a priori knowledge of pathology, which makes it possible to use deep learning models for precision medicine. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to optimize deep learning models for pathology image diagnosis from the perspective of AFs. By adopting a unique crossover window design for the activation layer of the neural network, CroReLU is equipped with the ability to model spatial information and capture histological morphological features of lung cancer such as papillary, micropapillary, and tubular alveoli. To test the effectiveness of this design, 776 lung cancer pathology images were collected as experimental data. When CroReLU was inserted into the SeNet network (SeNet&#95;CroReLU), the diagnostic accuracy reached 98.33%, which was significantly better than that of common neural network models at this stage. The generalization ability of the proposed method was validated on the LC25000 dataset with completely different data distribution and recognition tasks in the face of practical clinical needs. The experimental results show that CroReLU has the ability to recognize inter- and intra-class differences in cancer pathology images, and that the recognition accuracy exceeds the extant research work on the complex design of network layers.

Single-cell omics is the profiling of individual cells through sequencing and other technologies including high-throughput analysis for single-cell resolution, cell classification, and identification as well as time series analyses. Unlike multicellular studies, single-cell omics overcomes the problem of cellular heterogeneity. It provides new methods and perspectives for in-depth analyses of the behavior and mechanism of individual cells in the cell population and their relationship with the body, and plays an important role in basic research and precision medicine. Single-cell sequencing technologies mainly include single-cell transcriptome sequencing, single-cell assay for transposase accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing, single-cell immune profiling (single-cell T-cell receptor [TCR]/B-cell receptor [BCR] sequencing), and single-cell transcriptomics. Single-cell TCR/BCR sequencing can be used to obtain a large amount of single-cell gene expression and immunomics data at one time, and combined with transcriptome sequencing and TCR/BCR diversity data, can resolve immune cell heterogeneity. This paper summarizes the progress in applying single-cell TCR/BCR sequencing technology to the tumor immune microenvironment, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, immunotherapy, and chronic inflammatory diseases, and discusses its shortcomings and prospects for future application., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 He, Shen, Luo, Han, Xie, Pang, Liao, Guo, Li, Li and Chen.)

B-cell epitopes (BCEs) are a set of specific sites on the surface of an antigen that binds to an antibody produced by B-cell. The recognition of BCEs is a major challenge for drug design and vaccines development. Compared with experimental methods, computational approaches have strong potential for BCEs prediction at much lower cost. Moreover, most of the currently methods focus on using local information around target residue without taking the global information of the whole antigen sequence into consideration. We propose a novel deep leaning method through combing local features and global features for BCEs prediction. In our model, two parallel modules are built to extract local and global features from the antigen separately. For local features, we use Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) to capture information of spatial neighbors of a target residue. For global features, Attention-Based Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Att-BLSTM) networks are applied to extract information from the whole antigen sequence. Then the local and global features are combined to predict BCEs. The experiments show that the proposed method achieves superior performance over the state-of-the-art BCEs prediction methods on benchmark datasets. Also, we compare the performance differences between data with or without global features. The experimental results show that global features play an important role in BCEs prediction. Our detailed case study on the BCEs prediction for SARS-Cov-2 receptor binding domain confirms that our method is effective for predicting and clustering true BCEs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Lu, Li, Ma, Nan and Zhang.)

The quantitative study of rare earth compounds is important for the improvement of existing magnesium alloy systems and the design of new magnesium alloys. In this paper, the effective separation of matrix and compound in Mg-Zn-Ce-Zr alloy was achieved by a low-temperature chemical phase separation technique. The mass fraction of the (Mg, Zn) 12 Ce compound was determined and the effect of the (Mg, Zn) 12 Ce phase content on the heat deformation organization and properties was investigated. The results show that the Mg-Zn-Ce compound in both the as-cast and the homogeneous alloys is (Mg, Zn) 12 Ce. (Mg, Zn) 12 Ce phase formation depends on the content and the ratio of Zn and Ce elements in the initial residual melt of the eutectic reaction. The Zn/Ce mass ratios below 2.5 give the highest compound contents for different Zn contents, 5.262 wt.% and 7.040 wt.%, respectively. The increase in the amount of the (Mg, Zn) 12 Ce phase can significantly reduce the critical conditions for dynamic recrystallization formation. Both the critical strain and the stress decrease with increasing rare earth content. The reduction of the critical conditions and the particle-promoted nucleation mechanism work together to increase the amount of dynamic recrystallization. In addition, it was found that alloys with 6 wt.% Zn elements tend to undergo a dynamic recrystallization softening mechanism, while alloys with 3 wt.% Zn elements tend to undergo a dynamic reversion softening mechanism.

Magneto-ionics, real-time ionic control of magnetism in solid-state materials, promise ultralow-power memory, computing, and ultralow-field sensor technologies. The real-time ion intercalation is also the key state-of-charge feature in rechargeable batteries. Here, we report that the reversible lithiation/delithiation in molecular magneto-ionic material, the cathode in a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, accurately monitors its real-time state of charge through a dynamic tunability of magnetic ordering. The electrochemical and magnetic studies confirm that the structural vacancy and hydrogen-bonding networks enable reversible lithiation and delithiation in the magnetic cathode. Coupling with microwave-excited spin wave at a low frequency (0.35 GHz) and a magnetic field of 100 Oe, we reveal a fast and reliable built-in magneto-ionic sensor monitoring state of charge in rechargeable batteries. The findings shown herein promise an integration of molecular magneto-ionic cathode and rechargeable batteries for real-time monitoring of state of charge.

Objective: Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) was a nutritional status assessment technique specifically tailored for patients with oncology. The goal of this study was to develop a machine learning (ML) prediction model for predicting PG-SGA categorization of patients with tumor., Methods: From 2014 to 2020, patients at the First Hospital of Jilin University performed laboratory testing, bioelectrical impedance, physical measures, and the PG-SGA scale. A total of 8230 patients were involved in the study. Patients with missing or partial data were removed, leaving 7287 patients, of which 3743 were males and 3544 were females. ML was used to design a clinical prediction model for PG-SGA categories., Results: Through the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and the correlation matrix, 135 variables were screened and 6 variables were retained; ML was performed among the remaining variables. The accuracy of neural network prediction models was 70.3% and 70.4% for males and females in the training cohort, respectively, and 74.4% and 73.2% for males and females in the validation cohort, respectively. The area under curve (AUC) of males was 0.87 for PG-SGA scores "0-3", 0.70 for PG-SGA scores "4-8" and 0.74 for PG-SGA scores ">8". As for females, the AUC was 0.85 for PG-SGA scores "0-3", 0.65 for PG-SGA scores "4-8" and 0.76 for PG-SGA scores ">8". The results of confusion matrix showed that the models were of good predictive validity. The prediction model was nearly 90% accurate for predictions that do not require nutritional support., Conclusion: We demonstrated that neural network learning is the best clinical prediction model using ML. The model can work as a prediction for the PG-SGA classification of patients with cancer and can be promoted further in the clinic., Competing Interests: Dr Xiangliang Liu, Dr Yuguang Li and Dr Wei Ji, are all first authors. The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 Liu et al.)

Realizing van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy in the 1980s represents a breakthrough that circumvents the stringent lattice matching and processing compatibility requirements in conventional covalent heteroepitaxy. However, due to the weak vdW interactions, there is little control over film qualities by the substrate. Typically, discrete domains with a spread of misorientation angles are formed, limiting the applicability of vdW epitaxy. Here, the epitaxial growth of monocrystalline, covalent Cr 5 Te 8 2D crystals on monolayer vdW WSe 2 by chemical vapor deposition is reported, driven by interfacial dative bond formation. The lattice of Cr 5 Te 8 , with a lateral dimension of a few tens of micrometers, is fully commensurate with that of WSe 2 via 3 × 3 (Cr 5 Te 8 )/7 × 7 (WSe 2 ) supercell matching, forming a single-crystalline moiré superlattice. This work establishes a conceptually distinct paradigm of thin-film epitaxy, termed "dative epitaxy", which takes full advantage of covalent epitaxy with chemical bonding for fixing the atomic registry and crystal orientation, while circumventing its stringent lattice matching and processing compatibility requirements; conversely, it ensures the full flexibility of vdW epitaxy, while avoiding its poor orientation control. Cr 5 Te 8 2D crystals grown by dative epitaxy exhibit square magnetic hysteresis, suggesting minimized interfacial defects that can serve as pinning sites., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Zinc-air batteries are a promising alternative to lithium ion batteries due to their large energy density, safety, and low production cost. However, the stability of the zinc-air battery is often low due to the formation of dendrite which causes short circuiting and the CO 2 adsorption from the air which causes carbonate formation on the air electrode. In this work, we demonstrate a zinc-air battery design with acidic oxygen reduction reaction for the first time via the incorporation of a bipolar membrane. The bipolar membrane creates a locally acidic environment in the air cathode which could lead to a higher oxygen reduction reaction activity and a better 4-electron selectivity toward water instead of the 2-electron pathway toward peroxide. Locally acidic air cathode is also effective at improving the cell's durability by preventing carbonate formation. Gas chromatography confirms that CO 2 adsorption is 7 times lower in the bipolar membrane compared to a conventional battery separator. A stable cycling of 300+ hours is achieved at 5 mA/cm 2 . Dendrite formation is also mitigated due to the mechanical strength of the membrane. The insights from this work could be leveraged to develop a better zinc-air battery design for long-term energy storage applications.

The fuel booster pump is one of the most vulnerable physical assets in an operating engine due to the harsh environmental and operational conditions. However, because of its high structural complexity and extreme operational conditions, the reliability design of the fuel booster pump becomes especially difficult, particularly by means of experiments. Thus, to overcome such a problem, advanced simulation techniques have become adequate solutions for the reliability assessment and analysis of a fuel booster pump at the design stage. In this paper, by considering the effects of the uncertainties of multiple design parameters, fatigue life distributions of the four key components (which are the sealing bolt, spline shaft, graphite ring, and inducer, respectively) in a fuel booster pump were first predicted by PoF-based reliability simulations. Then, through further sensitivity analysis on each key component, the design parameters most sensitive to the component mean fatigue life were detected from a total of 25 candidate parameters. These parameters include the "nominal diameter" and "preload" for the sealing bolt, "major and minor diameters of the small spline" for the spline shaft, "inside diameter" for the graphite ring, and "fuel pressure on the blade front surface" for the inducer, respectively. These sensitivity results were found to be in good agreement with the results from the qualitative cause analysis on each key component.

Background: Cancer and diabetes mellitus (DM) are prevalent, but there still a lack of convinced evidence clearly explaining the extent of the effect of diabetes in cancer., Data and Methods: Clinical data of 2,929 cancer patients were collected. Diabetes were diagnosed according to the Diabetes Diagnosis and Treatment Criteria. BMI was classified by the BMI standards for Chinese adults published by the Working Group on Obesity. All involved patients were classified into the non-DM group and DM group. The Kaplan-Meier curve, log-rank test and Cox regression analyses were used to perform survival analysis., Results: Compared with non-DM patients, OS in DM patients was significant shorter in lung cancer (HR = 2.076, P = 0.001 in early stage; HR = 2.118, P < 0.001 in advanced stage), digestive tract cancer (HR = 1.768, P = 0.020 in early stage; HR = 2.454, P = 0.005 in advanced stage), leukemia (HR = 2.636, P < 0.001), breast cancer (HR = 2.495, P = 0.047 in early stage; HR = 2.929, P = 0.019 in advanced stage) and liver cancer (HR = 3.086, P < 0.001 in early stage; HR = 2.219, P = 0.049 in advanced stage). DM negatively influenced OS when the BMI was within the normal range in overall cancer (HR = 2.468, P < 0.001), lung cancer (HR = 2.297, P < 0.001), digestive tract cancer (HR = 2.354, P < 0.001), liver cancer (HR = 2.406, P = 0.001), leukemia (HR = 4.039, P < 0.001) and breast cancer (HR = 4.222, P = 0.008). Among those with BMI ≥ 24 kg/m 2 , DM played a role only in lung cancer (HR = 1.597, P = 0.037)., Conclusions: Patients with diabetes tend to combine worse body composition and inflammation status, and that glycemic control can ameliorate the impairment of diabetes to some extent., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Liu, Zheng, Ji, Zhang, Li, Liu, Cui and Li.)

Nitrogen-doped graphene-supported single atoms convert CO 2 to CO, but fail to provide further hydrogenation to methane - a finding attributable to the weak adsorption of CO intermediates. To regulate the adsorption energy, here we investigate the metal-supported single atoms to enable CO 2 hydrogenation. We find a copper-supported iron-single-atom catalyst producing a high-rate methane. Density functional theory calculations and in-situ Raman spectroscopy show that the iron atoms attract surrounding intermediates and carry out hydrogenation to generate methane. The catalyst is realized by assembling iron phthalocyanine on the copper surface, followed by in-situ formation of single iron atoms during electrocatalysis, identified using operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The copper-supported iron-single-atom catalyst exhibits a CO 2 -to-methane Faradaic efficiency of 64% and a partial current density of 128 mA cm -2 , while the nitrogen-doped graphene-supported one produces only CO. The activity is 32 times higher than a pristine copper under the same conditions of electrolyte and bias., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Urban taxi serves as an irreplaceable tool in public transportation systems. The balancing of demand-and-supply can be of significant social benefit, for which the equilibrium method for urban taxis, especially with dynamic trip demands, is not well studied yet. In this paper, we formally define the equilibrium problem and propose a coarse-grained dynamic balancing algorithm. It efficiently evaluates the trip demand distribution pattern and schedules supplies to more unbalanced regions. We first propose a density-based blocking algorithm to detect regions that are with more travel demands. A trip demand merging strategy is then proposed, which checks the correlation of trip demands to merge the trips into ones. To reduce the computation load, a lazy trip correlation strategy is devised to speed up the merging process. By calculating the defined balance factor, a scheduling algorithm is proposed to realize the trip merge and supply translocation based balancing approach. We evaluated our approach using a month of global positioning system (GPS) trajectories generated by 13,000 taxis of Shanghai. By learning the spatiotemporal distribution of historical taxi demand-and-supplies, we simulated an inflated trip demand platform. Tested on this platform with extensive experiments, the proposed approach demonstrates its effectiveness and scalability.

Antibodies consisting of variable and constant regions, are a special type of proteins playing a vital role in immune system of the vertebrate. They have the remarkable ability to bind a large range of diverse antigens with extraordinary affinity and specificity. This malleability of binding makes antibodies an important class of biological drugs and biomarkers. In this article, we propose a method to identify which amino acid residues of an antibody directly interact with its associated antigen based on the features from sequence and structure. Our algorithm uses convolution neural networks (CNNs) linked with graph convolution networks (GCNs) to make use of information from both sequential and spatial neighbors to understand more about the local environment of target amino acid residue. Furthermore, we process the antigen partner of an antibody by employing an attention layer. Our method improves on the state-of-the-art methodology.

Background: Owing to its simplicity, speed, small incision, and low cost, peripheral blood collection is widely used in routine blood testing. However, there are certain differences between the detection results of peripheral and venous blood specimens. This investigation and analysis aimed to investigate and analyze the status and opinions of laboratory physicians on the application of peripheral blood for routine blood testing., Methods: A questionnaire was used to investigate and analyze the current status of laboratory physicians with regards to routine peripheral blood testing. The content of the questionnaire included the following aspects: the proportion of peripheral blood specimens, the difficulty of detecting peripheral blood, factors affecting the results of peripheral blood specimens, the proportion of the simultaneous detection of blood test and C-reactive protein (CRP), as well as the proportion and ideals of hypersensitive CRP (hs-CRP), which included a total of 10 re-examination rules., Results: Laboratory physicians from 410 hospitals participated in the investigation. The proportion of routine blood tests using peripheral blood specimens in the laboratory departments of tertiary hospitals was low (P=0.006). Difficulties in routine blood tests with peripheral blood specimens were dominated by insufficient blood volume (67.8%). The factors affecting the results of routine blood tests with peripheral blood specimens were dominated by the mixing method (86.6%). When abnormal results were determined by routine blood tests using peripheral blood specimens, they were retested most commonly by making slide smears (82.4%) or re-examined using the remaining peripheral blood (66.1%). The same rules for re-examination of peripheral and venous blood were applied in most medical institutions (86.1%). When the platelet count decreased in routine blood tests using peripheral blood samples, the most common measures included sample agglutination checks (88.5%), instrument alarm message checks (82.4%), and making slide smears for re-examination (73.6%). More laboratory physicians expected blood analyzers to be integrated instruments that could provide both routine blood and hs-CRP testing (80.5%)., Conclusions: There are numerous difficulties in routine blood testing using peripheral blood, and thus, more convenient and accurate blood analysis instruments should be developed.

Charge carrier transport in colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solids is strongly influenced by coupling among CQDs. The shape of as-synthesized CQDs results in random orientational relationships among facets in CQD solids, and this limits the CQD coupling strength and the resultant performance of optoelectronic devices. Here, colloidal-phase reconstruction of CQD surfaces, which improves facet alignment in CQD solids, is reported. This strategy enables control over CQD faceting and allows demonstration of enhanced coupling in CQD solids. The approach utilizes post-synthetic resurfacing and unites surface passivation and colloidal stability with a propensity for dots to couple via (100):(100) facets, enabling increased hole mobility. Experimentally, the CQD solids exhibit a 10× increase in measured hole mobility compared to control CQD solids, and enable photodiodes (PDs) exhibiting 70% external quantum efficiency (vs 45% for control devices) and specific detectivity, D* > 10 12  Jones, each at 1550 nm. The photodetectors feature a 7 ns response time for a 0.01 mm 2 area-the fastest reported for solution-processed short-wavelength infrared PDs., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Objective: To analyze the molecular regulation network of circular RNA (circRNA) in colon cancer (CC) by bioinformatics method., Methods: hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007843 and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007331 proved to be associated with CC in previous studies were chosen as the research object. ConSite database was used to predict the transcription factors associated with circRNA, and the CC-associated transcription factors were screened out after intersection. The CircInteractome database was used to predict the RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) interacting with circRNAs and screen out the CC-associated RBPs after an intersection. Furthermore, the CircInteractome database was used to predict the miRNAs interrelated with circRNAs, and the HMDD v3.2 database was used to search for miRNAs associated with CC. The target mRNAs of miRNA were predicted by the miRWalk v3.0 database. CC-associated target genes were screened out from the GeneCards database, and the upregulated genes were enriched and analyzed by the FunRich 3.1.3 software. Finally, the molecular regulatory network diagram of circRNA in CC was plotted., Results: The ConSite database predicted a total of 14 common transcription factors of hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007843 and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007331, among which Snail, SOX17, HNF3, C-FOS, and ROR α -1 were related to CC. The CircInteractome database predicted that the RBPs interacting with these two circRNAs were AGO2 and EIF4A3, and both of them were related to CC. A total of 17 miRNAs interacting with hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007843 and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007331 were predicted by CircInteractome database. miR-145-5p, miR-21, miR-330-5p, miR-326, and miR-766 were associated with CC according to the HMDDv3.2 database. miR-145-5p and miR-330-5p, lowly expressed in CC, were analyzed in the follow-up study. A total of 676 common target genes of these two miRNAs were predicted by the miRWalk3.0 database. And 57 target genes were involved in the occurrence and development of CC from the GeneCards database, with 23 genes downregulated and 34 genes upregulated. Additionally, GO analysis showed that the 34 upregulated genes were mainly enriched in biological processes such as signal transduction and cell communication. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the upregulated genes were closely related to integrin, ErbB receptor, and ALK1 signal pathways. Finally, a complete regulatory network of hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007843 and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0007331 in CC was proposed, whereby each one of the participants was either directly or indirectly associated and whose deregulation may result in CC progression., Conclusion: Predicting the molecular regulatory network of circRNAs by bioinformatics provides a new theoretical basis for further occurrence and development pathogenesis of CC and good guidance for future experimental research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 Zeping Han et al.)

In recent years, the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) have been continuously improved, but the mortality rate continues to be high, especially in advanced patients. CRC patients usually have no obvious symptoms in the early stage and are already in the advanced stage when they are diagnosed. The 5-year survival rate is only 10%. The blood markers currently used to screen for CRC, such as carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9, have low sensitivity and specificity, whereas other methods are invasive or too expensive. As a result, recent research has shifted to the development of minimally invasive or noninvasive biomarkers in the form of body fluid biopsies. Non-coding RNA molecules are composed of microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, small nucleolar RNAs, and circular RNAs, which have important roles in the occurrence and development of diseases and can be utilized for the early diagnosis and prognosis of tumors. In this review, we focus on the latest findings of mRNA-ncRNA as biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of CRC, from fluid to tissue level., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 He, Wu, Han, Hu, Lin, Li and Cao.)

In the problem of electrochemical CO 2 reduction, the discovery of earth-abundant, efficient, and selective catalysts is essential to enabling technology that can contribute to a carbon-neutral energy cycle. In this study, we adapt an optical high throughput screening method to study multi-metallic catalysts for CO 2 electroreduction. We demonstrate the utility of the method by constructing catalytic activity maps of different alloyed elements and use X-ray scattering analysis by the atomic pair distribution function (PDF) method to gain insight into the structures of the most active compositions. Among combinations of four elements (Au, Ag, Cu, Zn), Au 6 Ag 2 Cu 2 and Au 4 Zn 3 Cu 3 were identified as the most active compositions in their respective ternaries. These ternary electrocatalysts were more active than any binary combination, and a ca. 5-fold increase in current density at potentials of -0.4 to -0.8 V vs. RHE was obtained for the best ternary catalysts relative to Au prepared by the same method. Tafel plots of electrochemical data for CO 2 reduction and hydrogen evolution indicate that the ternary catalysts, despite their higher surface area, are poorer catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction than pure Au. This results in high Faradaic efficiency for CO 2 reduction to CO.

To study the molecular mechanism by which miR-203a affects the development of CML, bioinformatics software was used to predict the upstream transcription factors and downstream target genes of miR-203a. A 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends assay was performed to detect gene transcription initiation sites. A chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was used to verify the binding of transcription factors and promoter regions. A double luciferase reporter gene vector was constructed to demonstrate the regulatory effect of miR-203a on target genes. Real-time PCR and western blotting were used to detect the relative expression levels of genes and proteins, respectively. The results showed that there was a binding site for the transcription factor EGR1 in the upstream promoter region of miR-203a. WT1, BMI1, and XIAP were identified as target genes regulated by miR-203a. EGR1 and miR-203a were downregulated in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the CML K562 cell line, while WT1, BMI1, and XIAP were upregulated. The transcription initiation site of miR-203a was identified in the upstream promoter region (G nucleotide at -339 bp), and the transcription factor EGR1 could bind to the promoter region (at -268 bp) of miR-203a and increase its expression. Over expression of miR-203a inhibited the proliferation of K562 cells. A rescue assay showed that overexpression of WT1, BMI1, and XIAP offset the antitumor effect of miR-203a. Conclusion, EGR1 positively regulated the expression of miR-203a, thus relieving the inhibition of miR-203a on the translation of its target genes (WT1, BMI1, and XIAP) and affecting the proliferation of K562 cells., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 He, Han, An, Li, Xie, Zhou, He, Lv, He, Qu, Liu and Li.)

The objective of this study is to investigate the inhibitory effect and mechanism of long noncoding RNA PCGEM1 siRNA combined with baicalein on prostate cancer LNCaP cells. LNCaP cells transfected with small hairpin RNA lentiviral vector targeting PCGEM1 were constructed and their expression in LNCaP cells was absent. The stable cell line of LNCaP cells infected with LV3-shRNA-PCGEM1 was successfully constructed. In addition, LV3-shRNA-PCGEM1 was able to increase the baicalein-induced inhibitory effects on LNCaP cells, and the susceptibility was 2.3 fold higher than that of baicalein alone. LV3-shRNA-PCGEM1 combined with baicalein also inhibited the colony formation, increased G2 and S phase cells, inhibited the expression of PCGEM1, and induced autophagy of LNCaP cells. In summary, LV3-shRNA-PCGEM1 may improve the sensitivity of LNCaP cells to baicalein, and the molecular mechanism may be associated with the decrease of PCGEM1 expression and the induction of autophagy. Our findings provided an experimental basis for the combined treatment of Chinese traditional and Western medicine on prostate cancer in a clinical setting., (© 2020 American Association for Anatomy.)

Electrolysis offers an attractive route to upgrade greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to valuable fuels and feedstocks; however, productivity is often limited by gas diffusion through a liquid electrolyte to the surface of the catalyst. Here, we present a catalyst:ionomer bulk heterojunction (CIBH) architecture that decouples gas, ion, and electron transport. The CIBH comprises a metal and a superfine ionomer layer with hydrophobic and hydrophilic functionalities that extend gas and ion transport from tens of nanometers to the micrometer scale. By applying this design strategy, we achieved CO 2 electroreduction on copper in 7 M potassium hydroxide electrolyte (pH ≈ 15) with an ethylene partial current density of 1.3 amperes per square centimeter at 45% cathodic energy efficiency., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

The electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide, powered by renewable electricity, to produce valuable fuels and feedstocks provides a sustainable and carbon-neutral approach to the storage of energy produced by intermittent renewable sources 1 . However, the highly selective generation of economically desirable products such as ethylene from the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) remains a challenge 2 . Tuning the stabilities of intermediates to favour a desired reaction pathway can improve selectivity 3-5 , and this has recently been explored for the reaction on copper by controlling morphology 6 , grain boundaries 7 , facets 8 , oxidation state 9 and dopants 10 . Unfortunately, the Faradaic efficiency for ethylene is still low in neutral media (60 per cent at a partial current density of 7 milliamperes per square centimetre in the best catalyst reported so far 9 ), resulting in a low energy efficiency. Here we present a molecular tuning strategy-the functionalization of the surface of electrocatalysts with organic molecules-that stabilizes intermediates for more selective CO 2 RR to ethylene. Using electrochemical, operando/in situ spectroscopic and computational studies, we investigate the influence of a library of molecules, derived by electro-dimerization of arylpyridiniums 11 , adsorbed on copper. We find that the adhered molecules improve the stabilization of an 'atop-bound' CO intermediate (that is, an intermediate bound to a single copper atom), thereby favouring further reduction to ethylene. As a result of this strategy, we report the CO 2 RR to ethylene with a Faradaic efficiency of 72 per cent at a partial current density of 230 milliamperes per square centimetre in a liquid-electrolyte flow cell in a neutral medium. We report stable ethylene electrosynthesis for 190 hours in a system based on a membrane-electrode assembly that provides a full-cell energy efficiency of 20 per cent. We anticipate that this may be generalized to enable molecular strategies to complement heterogeneous catalysts by stabilizing intermediates through local molecular tuning.

Producing liquid fuels such as ethanol from CO 2 , H 2 O, and renewable electricity offers a route to store sustainable energy. The search for efficient electrocatalysts for the CO 2 reduction reaction relies on tuning the adsorption strength of carbonaceous intermediates. Here, we report a complementary approach in which we utilize hydroxide and oxide doping of a catalyst surface to tune the adsorbed hydrogen on Cu. Density functional theory studies indicate that this doping accelerates water dissociation and changes the hydrogen adsorption energy on Cu. We synthesize and investigate a suite of metal-hydroxide-interface-doped-Cu catalysts, and find that the most efficient, Ce(OH) x -doped-Cu, exhibits an ethanol Faradaic efficiency of 43% and a partial current density of 128 mA cm -2 . Mechanistic studies, wherein we combine investigation of hydrogen evolution performance with the results of operando Raman spectroscopy, show that adsorbed hydrogen hydrogenates surface *HCCOH, a key intermediate whose fate determines branching to ethanol versus ethylene.

Circular ribonucleic acids (circRNAs) are widely expressed in human cells and play an important role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Some circRNAs have microRNA (miRNA) binding response elements and interact with miRNA to regulate the expression of target genes.Four patients with a preliminary diagnosis of dengue fever (DF), peripheral whole blood sample in anticoagulant was collected before treatment (pretreatment group) and after effective treatment (posttreatment group), and eight samples were separated and used to screen differentially expressed circRNAs with microarray analysis. The relative expression level of circRNAs was determined using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). TargetScan v7.1 and miRDB v5 bioinformatics software were used to predict circRNA-binding miRNAs; dual luciferase reporters were constructed to detect binding between circRNA and miRNA. Microarray screening revealed 263 differentially expressed circRNAs in peripheral leukocytes pretreatment versus posttreatment; 107 of these were upregulated and 156 were downregulated. RT-PCR confirmed that hsa&#95;circ&#95;0015962 was significantly upregulated and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0006459 significantly downregulated (P < 0.05). Moreover, hsa&#95;circ&#95;0015962 binds to miR-4683, and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0006459 binds to miR-133b.Downregulation of hsa&#95;circ&#95;0006459 and upregulation of hsa&#95;circ&#95;0015962 affect the treatment response of DF and are potential biomarkers in DF patients. The molecular mechanism involves hsa&#95;circ&#95;0006459-mediated targeted negative regulation of miR-133b and hsa&#95;circ&#95;0015962-mediated targeted negative regulation of miR-4683.

Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck is an important economic product in South China, but the presence of quarantine pests in this product proposes the potential threat to international trade security. To find a proper phytosanitary cold treatment for Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae) , commonly called oriental fruit fly, one of the most serious quarantine insects in navel orange, eggs in petri dish and larvae in navel orange fruits were exposed to a 1.7 °C cold chamber for 0-11 days to compare the tolerance to cold treatment. The 2nd instar larva (4 days) is the most tolerant stage, and the estimated time for 99.9968% mortality at the 95% confidence level is 11.3 (9.5, 14.6) days. Then 15 days was selected as the target time for the confirmatory tests, resulting in no survivors from 37,792 treated larvae with the efficacy of 99.9921% mortality at the 95% confidence level. The quality assessments were conducted to compare the effect on the navel orange fruit between cold treatment and the conventional cold storage. Results indicated that the cold treatment did not negatively affect the fruit quality. Therefore, this cold treatment showed potential as a commercial quarantine treatment for navel orange in international trade.

B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) is a regulator protein involved in apoptosis. In the past few decades, this protein has been demonstrated to have high efficacy in cancer therapy, and several approaches targeting Bcl-2 have been tested clinically (e.g., oblimersen, ABT-737, ABT-263, obatoclax mesylate, and AT-101). This review reports potential Bcl-2 inhibitors according to current information on their underlying mechanism and the results of clinical trials. In addition, the function and mechanisms of other potentially valuable Bcl-2 inhibitors that did not show efficacy in clinical studies are also discussed. This summary of the development of Bcl-2 inhibitors provides worthwhile viewpoints on the use of biomedical approaches in future cancer therapy., Competing Interests: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article., (Copyright © 2019 Zeping Han et al.)

The electrochemical reduction of CO 2 has seen many record-setting advances in C 2 productivity in recent years. However, the selectivity for ethanol, a globally significant commodity chemical, is still low compared to the selectivity for products such as ethylene. Here we introduce diverse binding sites to a Cu catalyst, an approach that destabilizes the ethylene reaction intermediates and thereby promotes ethanol production. We develop a bimetallic Ag/Cu catalyst that implements the proposed design toward an improved ethanol catalyst. It achieves a record Faradaic efficiency of 41% toward ethanol at 250 mA/cm 2 and -0.67 V vs RHE, leading to a cathodic-side (half-cell) energy efficiency of 24.7%. The new catalysts exhibit an in situ Raman spectrum, in the region associated with CO stretching, that is much broader than that of pure Cu controls, a finding we account for via the diversity of binding configurations. This physical picture, involving multisite binding, accounts for the enhanced ethanol production for bimetallic catalysts, and presents a framework to design multimetallic catalysts to control reaction paths in CO 2 reductions toward desired products.

The anomalously high mobility of hydroxide and hydronium ions in aqueous solutions is related to proton transfer and structural diffusion. The role of counterions in these solutions, however, is often considered to be negligible. Herein, we explore the impact of alkali metal counter cations on hydroxide solvation and mobility. Impedance measurements demonstrate that hydroxide mobility is attenuated by lithium relative to sodium and potassium. These results are explained by ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and experimental vibrational hydration shell spectroscopy, which reveal substantially stronger ion pairing between OH - and Li + than with other cations. Hydration shell spectra and theoretical vibrational frequency calculations together imply that lithium and sodium cations have different effects on the delocalization of water protons donating a hydrogen bond to hydroxide. Specifically, lithium leads to enhanced proton delocalization compared with sodium. However, proton delocalization and the overall diffusion process are not necessarily correlated.

The solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) is pivotal in stabilizing lithium metal anodes for rechargeable batteries. However, the SEI is constantly reforming and consuming electrolyte with cycling. The rational design of a stable SEI is plagued by the failure to control its structure and stability. Here we report a molecular-level SEI design using a reactive polymer composite, which effectively suppresses electrolyte consumption in the formation and maintenance of the SEI. The SEI layer consists of a polymeric lithium salt, lithium fluoride nanoparticles and graphene oxide sheets, as evidenced by cryo-transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and surface-sensitive spectroscopies. This structure is different from that of a conventional electrolyte-derived SEI and has excellent passivation properties, homogeneity and mechanical strength. The use of the polymer-inorganic SEI enables high-efficiency Li deposition and stable cycling of 4 V Li|LiNi 0.5 Co 0.2 Mn 0.3 O 2 cells under lean electrolyte, limited Li excess and high capacity conditions. The same approach was also applied to design stable SEI layers for sodium and zinc anodes.

Solid-state Li metal battery technology is attractive, owing to the high energy density, long lifespans, and better safety. A key obstacle in this technology is the unstable Li/solid-state electrolyte (SSE) interface involving electrolyte reduction by Li. Herein we report a novel approach based on the use of a nanocomposite consisting of organic elastomeric salts (LiO-(CH 2 O) n -Li) and inorganic nanoparticle salts (LiF, -NSO 2 -Li, Li 2 O), which serve as an interphase to protect Li 10 GeP 2 S 12 (LGPS), a highly conductive but reducible SSE. The nanocomposite is formed in situ on Li via the electrochemical decomposition of a liquid electrolyte, thus having excellent chemical and electrochemical stability, affinity for Li and LGPS, and limited interfacial resistance. XPS depth profiling and SEM show that the nanocomposite effectively restrained the reduction of LGPS. Stable Li electrodeposition over 3000 h and a 200 cycle life for a full cell were achieved., (© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

It is of great interest and big challenge to control the collective behaviors of nanomotors to mimic the aggregation/separation behavior of biological systems. Here, a light-acoustic combined method is proposed to control the aggregation/separation of artificial nanomotors. It is shown that nanomotors aggregate at the pressure node in acoustic field and afterward present a collective "firework" separation behavior induced by light irradiation. The collective behavior is found to be applicable for metallic materials and polymers even different light wavelengths are used. Physical insights on the collective firework behavior resulting from the change of acoustic streaming caused by optical force are provided. It is found that diffusion velocity and diffusion region of cluster can be controlled by adjusting light intensity and acoustic excitation voltage, and irradiation direction, respectively. This harmless, controllable, and widely applicable method provides new possibilities for groups of nanomachines, drug release, and cargo transport in nanomedicine and nanosensors.

Li-alloy-based anode materials are very promising for breaking current energy limits of lithium-ion battery technologies. Unfortunately, these materials still suffer from poor solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) stability, resulting in unsatisfied electrochemical performances. The typical SEI formation method, electrochemical decomposition of electrolytes onto the active material surface, lacks a deliberate control of the SEI functions and structures. Here we propose a general method of manipulating the formation process, chemical composition, and morphology of the SEI for Li-alloy anodes, using Si and Ge nanoparticle anodes as the platform. The SEI was fabricated through a covalent anchoring of multiple functional components onto the active material surface, followed by electrochemical decomposition of the functional components and conventional electrolyte. Click reaction, serving as the covalent anchoring approach, allows an accurate control of the SEI composition and structure at the molecular level through tuning the chemical structure and amount of variety of functional components and provides an intimate contact between the SEI and the Li-alloy material surface contributed by the covalent bonding. The optimized Si nanoparticle SEI, functionalized by a unique combination of diverse components and containing a high concentration of organic components attributed to the preanchored functional components, presented a stable composition and durable morphology during cycling and led to an improved first cycle efficiency of Si nanoparticle anodes and its long cycle life in a full cell. This general method displays potential benefits to construct stable SEIs for other Li-alloy anodes.

The lithium (Li) metal anode suffers severe interfacial instability from its high reactivity toward liquid electrolytes, especially carbonate-based electrolytes, resulting in poor electrochemical performance of batteries that use 4 V high-capacity cathodes. We report a new skin-grafting strategy that stabilizes the Li metal-liquid electrolyte interface by coating the Li metal surface with poly((N-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane-4-methyl)-5-norbornene-exo-2,3-dicarboximide), a chemically and electrochemically active polymer layer. This layer, composed of cyclic ether groups with a stiff polycyclic main chain, serves as a grafted polymer skin on the Li metal anode not only to incorporate ether-based polymeric components into the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) but also to accommodate Li deposition/dissolution under the skin in a dendrite/moss-free manner. Consequently, a Li-metal battery employing a Li metal anode with the grafted skin paired with LiNi 0.5 Co 0.2 Mn 0.3 O 2 cathode has a 90.0% capacity retention after 400 charge/discharge cycles and a capacity of 1.2 mAh/cm 2 in a carbonate-based electrolyte. This proof-of-concept study provides a new direction for regulating the interfacial chemistry of Li metal anodes and for enabling high-performance Li-metal batteries.

We report the synthesis and properties of rod-shaped gold/iron oxide nanomotors that are powered by visible light in dilute hydrogen peroxide solutions. Electrochemical measurements confirmed that the light-driven nanomotors operate by a self-electrophoretic mechanism, modulated by the photovoltage and the photoconductivity of gold/iron oxide. Due to the magnetism of iron oxide, the nanomotors can be steered by an external magnetic field without incorporating additional magnetic materials into the nanomotors.

We report the fabrication of tadpole-shaped Si-Au micromotors using glancing angle deposition. These micromotors are activated by visible light and can move in either deionized water or organic solvents without the addition of chemical fuels. By controlling the light intensity, the velocity of the micromotors can be modulated and the motion can be switched on and off reversibly. Gas chromatographic measurements and buffered oxide etch (BOE) experiments show that the mechanism of propulsion is self-electrophoresis modulated by the photoconductivity of the amorphous silicon segment. The direction of motion of the microswimmers can also be controlled by applying an external magnetic field if a ferromagnetic Ni layer is added in the fabrication process.

Maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) performs an important role in self-renewal and proliferation of progenitor cells or tumor stem cells, and is expressed in aggressive cancers, contributing to tumorigenesis. However, the function of MELK in metastasis is unknown. In the present study, the lung cancer A549 cell line was utilized in order to study the role of MELK in epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs), the initial step of tumor metastasis. It was identified that transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) could downregulate the expression of MELK, and that MELK could inhibit EMT by regulating TGF-β signaling. MELK can interact with Smad proteins, which represses TGF-β/Smad-mediated signaling activity. The findings of the present study identified the effect of MELK in TGF-β signaling and the EMT process.

Sirtuin 6, a member of sirtuin family, is generally regarded as a tumor suppressor as it participates in suppressing hypoxia-inducible factor 1α and MYC transcription activity by deacetylating H3K9 (histone H3 lysine 9) and H3K56 (histone H3 lysine) at promoters of target genes, leading to the aerobic glycolysis inhibition and cell growth suppression. However, its expression has recently been reported to be highly elevated in a series of tumors, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer, indicating that sirtuin 6 plays dual roles in tumorigenicity in a cell/tumor type-specific manner. To our knowledge, the biological roles of sirtuin 6 in esophageal cancer cells have still been underestimated. In the study, data from quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction-based assays and immunohistochemical assays revealed that sirtuin 6 was remarkably overexpressed in esophageal squamous tumor tissues. Moreover, its upregulation was closely related with clinical features, such as gender, pathology, tumor-node-metastasis, and cell differentiation. Subsequently, the biological tests showed that it promoted cell proliferation and induced the expression of Bcl2, a key anti-apoptotic factor, in esophageal carcinoma cells. Moreover, using the ratio of LC3II/I, a widely recognized autophagy biomarker, we showed that it apparently induced cell autophagy, which was further confirmed by the autophagy flux assays. In addition, results from western blotting assays and immunoprecipitation assays displayed that sirtuin 6 specifically interacted with ULK1 and positively regulated its activity by inhibiting its upstream factor mammalian target of rapamycin activity. In summary, our studies shed insights into the crucial functions of sirtuin 6 in esophageal carcinoma cells and provide evidence supporting sirtuin 6-based personalized therapies in esophageal carcinoma cell patients.

Correction for 'Visible-light controlled catalytic Cu 2 O-Au micromotors' by Dekai Zhou, et al., Nanoscale, 2017, DOI: 10.1039/c6nr08088j.

Visible light driven Cu 2 O-Au micromotors exhibit rapid on/off switching and speed control. Electrochemical measurements confirm that the light-induced movement of the Cu 2 O-Au micromotors involves a self-electrophoresis mechanism modulated by the photoconductivity of Cu 2 O. This study extends the utilization of the electromagnetic spectrum for micro/nanomotors into the visible range.

Introduction: The inflammatory receptor Toll-like receptors (TLRs) activation could induce endothelial inflammatory responses, which plays an important role in the development of many diseases including atherosclerosis. We already found that TLR2 activation of Peptidoglycan (PGN) stimulation could increase intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in HCAECs. Since anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-37 exhibits intra- and extracellular properties for suppressing innate inflammation, we want to investigate whether IL-37 suppresses ICAM-1 expression and this effect is in parallel with the inhibition of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) activation upon PGN stimulation in HCAECs., Methods: HCAECs were treated with IL-37-transfection plasmid or silent mRNA or nothing for 24h, and we test IL-37 expression by immunoblotting. Same treatments prior to PGN stimulation (10μg/ml), we analyzed the expression of ICAM-1 and NF-κB mRNA at 0, 30min, 1 and 2h by real-time PCR. ICAM-1 protein at 24h and NF-κB activation at 0-2h were measured by immunoblotting., Results: IL-37 and silent IL-37 transfection change the expression of IL-37 protein. Stimulation of PGN increased both NF-κB activation and ICAM-1 expression at mRNA and protein level, but these inflammatory cytokines' expression was significantly decreased in IL-37-transfection cells. Interestingly, both NF-κB activation and ICAM-1 expression were significantly increased when IL-37 was silent., Conclusions: As an anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-37 could decrease both NF-κB and ICAM-1 expression upon TLR2 activation in HCAECs. The suppressed effect of IL-37 on ICAM-1 may be due to its inhibition on NF-κB., (Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The controlled exfoliation of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) into pristine single- or few-layer nanosheets remains a significant barrier to fundamental studies and device applications of TMDs. Here we report a novel strategy for exfoliating crystalline MoS2 into suspensions of nanosheets with retention of the semiconducting 2H phase. The controlled reaction of MoS2 with substoichiometric amounts n-butyllithium results in intercalation of the edges of the crystals, which are then readily exfoliated in a 45 vol % ethanol-water solution. Surprisingly, the resulting colloidal suspension of nanosheets was found (by electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy) to consist mostly of trilayers. The efficiency of exfoliation of the pre-intercalated sample is increased by at least 1 order of magnitude relative to the starting MoS2 microcrystals, with a mass yield of the dispersed nanosheets of 11-15%.

Biological technology used to treat flue gas is useful to replace conventional treatment, but there is sulfide inhibition. However, no sulfide toxicity effect was observed in haloalkaliphilic bioreactors. The performance of the ethanol-fed bioreactor was better than that of lactate-, glucose-, and formate-fed bioreactor, respectively. To support this result strongly, Illumina MiSeq paired-end sequencing of 16S rRNA gene was applied to investigate the bacterial communities. A total of 389,971 effective sequences were obtained and all of them were assigned to 10,220 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) at a 97% similarity. Bacterial communities in the glucose-fed bioreactor showed the greatest richness and evenness. The highest relative abundance of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) was found in the ethanol-fed bioreactor, which can explain why the performance of the ethanol-fed bioreactor was the best. Different types of SRB, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria, and sulfur-reducing bacteria were detected, indicating that sulfur may be cycled among these microorganisms. Because high-throughput 16S rRNA gene paired-end sequencing has improved resolution of bacterial community analysis, many rare microorganisms were detected, such as Halanaerobium, Halothiobacillus, Desulfonatronum, Syntrophobacter, and Fusibacter. 16S rRNA gene sequencing of these bacteria would provide more functional and phylogenetic information about the bacterial communities., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Exfoliated 2H molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has unique properties and potential applications in a wide range of fields, but corresponding studies have been hampered by the lack of effective routes to it in bulk quantities. This study presents a rapid and efficient route to obtain exfoliated 2H MoS2, which combines fast sonication-assisted lithium intercalation and infrared (IR) laser-induced phase reversion. We found that the complete lithium intercalation of MoS2 with butyllithium could be effected within 1.5 h with the aid of sonication. The 2H to 1T phase transition that occurs during the lithium intercalation could be also reversed by IR laser irradiation with a DVD optical drive.

Survivin is essential to angiogenesis and revascularization, but its role in coronary collateral formation remains unclear. The role of survivin in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) patients was investigated. Coronary CTO patients (n=46; mean age 60.1±8.5, male 54.3%) (CTO group) and normal control patients (n=18; mean age 58.0±10.0, male 55.6%) underwent angiographic collateral vessel grading by Rentrop classification (C0 - C3) and provided peripheral blood between June 2006 and February 2007. Rat hind limb ischemia models were constructed using four equal groups of Sprague-Dawley rats (n=36): normal control, sham operation, operation and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). PBMC numbers and characteristics, collateral vessels, survivin, CD4, CD8, CD44, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression were determined using RT-PCR, flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry and western blot analysis. PBMC survivin mRNA and protein expression levels were higher in patients with good collateral circulation (C2 + C3) than in patients with no collateral flow (C0) (all P<0.05). Survivin single-positive and survivin and CD8, VEGF and ICAM-1 double-positive percentages were elevated in patients with good collateral circulation compared to those with normal and no collateral flow (all P<0.05), consistent with the rat model results, wherein higher survivin levels produced significantly larger and more visible collateral vessels. In conclusion, elevated survivin expression in PBMCs, particularly survivin and CD8, VEGF, and ICAM-1 double-positive PBMCs, may be crucial for good collateral formation in patients with coronary CTO, as confirmed by assessment of a rat model.

Aims: Data concerning the incidence of venous obstruction in patients referred for lead extraction is limited. Thus, we aimed to assess the incidence of venous obstruction in patients referred for lead extraction and the implications for tool selection., Methods and Results: Contrast venography of the access vein was obtained in 202 patients (147 men; mean age, 62.4 ± 14.5 years) scheduled for lead extraction. The indication for lead extraction included infection (n = 145, 72%) and other causes (n = 57, 28%). Two patients with device infection had superior vena caval occlusion. Access vein occlusion occurred in 6 (11%) patients without infection vs. 46 (32%) patients with infection [P = 0.002; odds ratio (OR) 3.94; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.58-9.87]. No significant differences between occluded and non-occluded patients were seen for age, sex, device type, number of leads, time from implant of the initial lead, or anticoagulation therapy (all P>0.05). Procedural duration and fluoroscopy exposure time were significantly lower in the open group than in the occluded group (P < 0.05). Patients with venous occlusion required more advanced tools for lead extraction, such as dilator sheaths, evolution sheaths, and needle's eye snares (P = 0.019)., Conclusion: Both systemic and local infections are associated with increased risk of access vein occlusion. We found no support for the hypothesis that venous occlusion increases with the number of leads present. Lead extraction was more difficult in patients with venous occlusion, requiring advanced tools and more time., (Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2014. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

A novel halophilic strain that could carry out heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification was isolated and named as Halomonas campisalis ha3. It removed inorganic nitrogen compounds (e.g. NO3 (-), NO2 (-) and NH4 (+)) simultaneously, and grew well in the medium containing up to 20 % (w/v) NaCl. PCR revealed four genes in the genome of ha3 related to aerobic denitrification: napA, nirS, norB and nosZ. The optimal conditions for aerobic denitrification were pH 9.0, at 37 °C, with 4 % (w/v) NaCl and sodium succinate as carbon source. The nitrogen removal rate was 87.5 mg NO3 (-)-N l(-1 )h(-1). Therefore, this strain is a potential aerobic denitrifier for the treatment of saline wastewater.

Seven new Schiff base copper(II) complexes with planar four-coordinate copper(II) centers have been synthesized and structurally characterized. The solid state structures of complexes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 present a square-planar coordination geometry at the metal centers while complex 2 shows a slightly distorted square-planar geometry. Density functional theory calculations have been performed to evaluate the electronic structure of copper(II) complex 7. Inhibition of jack bean urease by copper(II) complexes 1-7 have also been investigated, and potent inhibitory activities with IC50 range of 2.60-17.00μM have been observed for these mononuclear copper(II) complexes. A docking analysis using a DOCK program was conducted to explain the urease inhibitory activity of the copper(II) complexes and the structure-activity relationships were further discussed., (© 2013.)