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Most studies of visuo-spatial attention present stimuli on a 2D plane, and less is known about how attention varies in 3D space. Previous studies found better peripheral detection performance for targets at a near compared to a far depth, simulated by pictorial cues and optical flow. The current study examined whether target detectability is monotonically related to distance along the depth axis, and whether the attended distance modulates the effect of target distance. We investigated these questions in two experiments that measured how apparent distance and target eccentricity affects peripheral target detection when performed alone during passive simulated self-motion, or during a simultaneous, active central car-following task. Experiment 1 found that targets at an apparent distance of 18.5 virtual meters were detected faster and more accurately than targets at 9.25 and 37 virtual meters, and detectability declined with eccentricity. Experiment 2 examined the effect of the attended location by varying the distance between the viewer and the lead car on which participants were instructed to fixate (i.e. the headway) while equating target distances across headway conditions. Experiment 2 replicated the effects found in Experiment 1, and headway did not modulate the effect of target distance. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that target detection depends non-monotonically on the distance between the viewer and the target, and is not affected by the distance between the target and attended location. However, target detection may also have been affected by stimulus characteristics that co-varied with apparent depth, rather than depth per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic technology is a prominent source of renewable energy, but maintenance costs and efficiency attenuation of large photovoltaic devices are significant issues due to their vast energy conversion area. To reduce costs and facilitate maintenance, superhydrophobic surfaces with self‐cleaning properties have been developed for photovoltaic glass. In this study, transparent ZnO nanoarrays (NAs) are synthesized on photovoltaic glass, with Eu3+ doping enhancing the ultraviolet radiation resistance of photovoltaic devices and slightly increasing visible transmittance. A TiO2 passivation layer is introduced on the ZnO NAs surface to enhance acid resistance and mitigate corrosion caused by acidic rainwater. Fluoroalkylsilane (POTS) modification achieves superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 160.25°, as demonstrated by droplet rolling experiments. Micro‐interaction of superhydrophobic properties is further investigated by force curve measurement using atomic force microscope, showing almost no nanometer water moisture on the superhydrophobic surface, but conspicuous water moisture on the control glass surface. Finally, simulated models and practical silicon crystal solar cells fabricated using the self‐cleaning glass show excellent acid rain resistance, self‐cleaning, and long service life properties, with no power conversion efficiency degeneration during a 40‐day outdoor application test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazard maps are irreplaceable in dealing with emergency disaster cases, and geography instructors utilize paper hazard maps for teaching at various educational levels. In recent years, web hazard maps have received attention in disaster risk reduction (DRR) education. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of web hazard maps in DRR education compared with conventional paper hazard maps, an aspect that has rarely been studied previously. The core technology of online web hazard maps is geographic information systems (GIS), and their combination is referred to as Web GIS. Online DRR educational materials for Japanese and Chinese high school students were constructed using Web GIS and geospatial data, including hazard information, to investigate the educational feasibility of web hazard maps. Important findings from questionnaire surveys on students who used both paper and web hazard maps showed that 1) most students thought that informative and easy-to-use web maps need to be introduced to DRR education, and 2) they could identify risk areas more accurately using web hazard maps, indicating that DRR education should utilize modern technologies. However, the surveys also indicated a few limitations, such as usability issues and technological constraints, suggesting that DRR education should ideally combine online materials and paper maps for maximum effectiveness. The results and observations may not only be used in future studies, but also in the formulation of effective DRR courses internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the changing properties of drought events in Weihe River basin, China, by modeling the multivariate joint distribution of drought duration, severity and peak using trivariate Gaussian and Student t copulas. Monthly precipitations of Xi'an gauge are used to illustrate the meta-elliptical copula-based methodology for a single-station application. Gaussian and Student t copulas are found to produce a better fit comparing with other six symmetrical and asymmetrical Archimedean copulas, and, checked by the goodness-of-fit tests based on a modified bootstrap version of Rosenblatt's transformation, both of them are acceptable to model the multivariate joint distribution of drought variables. Gaussian copula, the best fitting, is employed to construct the dependence structures of positively associated drought variables so as to obtain the multivariate joint and conditional probabilities of droughts. A Kendall's return period (KRP) introduced by Salvadori and De Michele (2010) is then adopted to assess the multivariate recurrent properties of drought events, and its spatial distributions indicate that prolonged droughts are likely to break out with rather short recurrence intervals in the whole region, while drought status in the southeast seems to be severer than the northwest. The study is of some merits in terms of multivariate drought modeling using a preferable copula-based method, the results of which could serve as a reference for regional drought defense and water resources management. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are highly effective in the treatment of acute liver failure (ALF). The efficacy of MSCs is closely related to the inflammatory environment. Therefore, we investigated the functional changes of MSCs in response to interleukin‐33 (IL‐33) stimulation. The results showed that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) pretreated with IL‐33 had increased CCR2 expression, targeted CCL2 in the injured liver tissue, and improved the migration ability. Under LPS stimulation, the NF‐κB pathway of BMDM was activated, and its phenotype polarized to the M1‐type, while BMSCs pretreated with IL‐33 inhibited the NF‐κB pathway and enhanced M2 macrophage polarization. The M2‐type macrophages could further inhibit hepatocytes inflammation, reduce hepatocytes apoptosis, and promote hepatocytes repair. These results suggest that IL‐33 can enhance the efficacy of BMSCs in ALF and provide a new strategy for cell therapy of liver diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction of non‐radiative energy loss (ΔEnr) in all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs) is crucially important for achieving high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Herein, an efficient strategy is reported to reduce the ΔEnr by introducing luminescent unit into the backbone of polymer acceptors. Compared to the device based on PM6:PYDT, the ΔEnr in all‐PSC based on PM6:PYDT‐CzP‐9 has decreased from 0.188 to 0.183 eV. This reduction is attributed to the improvement in electroluminescence external quantum efficiency (EQEEL). The PM6:PYDT‐CzP‐9 device has shown an 18% increase in EQEEL compared to the device based on PM6:PYDT (8.4 × 10−4 vs 7.1 × 10−4), demonstrating that the incorporation of luminescent unit in polymer acceptors is highly effective in enhancing the electroluminescence performance of all‐PSCs. As a result, the PM6:PYDT‐CzP‐9 device yielded a high VOC of 0.967 V, without the sacrifice of short‐circuit current density (23.42 mA cm−2) and fill factor (77.5%), leading to a high PCE of 17.55%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the properties of photodynamic therapy (PDT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), combining them to construct multifunctional nanotheranostics can leverage strengths and avoid weaknesses for tumor diagnosis and treatment. However, certain problems remain unsolved, notably the short observation window caused by insufficient retention time. In this study, a GSH‐responsive shape‐transformable nanotheranostics Gd‐Ce6‐FFVLGGGC‐SS‐PEG are designed (abbreviated as GdCFS) by combining a single metal Gd with Ce6, and peptide (Phe‐Phe‐Val‐Leu‐Gly‐Gly‐Gly‐Cys) disulfide‐conjugated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to perform dual‐modal T1/T2 MRI specifically at the tumor site. Due to its amphiphilic features, GdCFS can self‐assemble to spherical nanoparticles, while transforming to nanofibers (NFs) in the presence of intracellular overexpressed GSH stimuli. After NFs formation, the hydrophobic core of GdCFS is exposed, resulting in T1 positive contrast enhancement, whereas NFs can simultaneously achieve T2 negative contrast enhancement. Furthermore, GSH depletion can cause imbalance in intracellular redox state, ultimately improving PDT efficacy. GdCFS benefits from the shape‐transformation in terms of sufficient retention time, thus positively minimizing the toxicity risk. On the tumor model of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, in vivo and in vitro outcomes confirm that GdCFS can be a promising candidate for early diagnosis, real‐time monitoring, and precise treatment of tumors with great biocompatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ERF transcription factors (TFs) belong to the Apetala2/Ethylene responsive Factor (AP2/ERF) TF family and play a vital role in plant growth and development processes. Capsorubin and capsaicinoids have relatively high economic and nutritional value, and they are specifically found in Capsicum. However, there is little understanding of how ERFs participate in the regulatory networks of capsorubin and capsaicinoids biosynthesis. Results: In this study, a total of 142 ERFs were identified in the Capsicum annuum genome. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis allowed us to divide ERFs into DREB (dehydration responsive element binding proteins) and ERF subfamilies, and further classify them into 11 groups with several subgroups. Expression analysis of biosynthetic pathway genes and CaERFs facilitated the identification of candidate genes related to the regulation of capsorubin and capsaicinoids biosynthesis; the candidates were focused in cluster C9 and cluster C10, as well as cluster L3 and cluster L4, respectively. The expression patterns of CaERF82, CaERF97, CaERF66, CaERF107 and CaERF101, which were found in cluster C9 and cluster C10, were consistent with those of accumulating of carotenoids (β-carotene, zeaxanthin and capsorubin) in the pericarp. In cluster L3 and cluster L4, the expression patterns of CaERF102, CaERF53, CaERF111 and CaERF92 were similar to those of the accumulating capsaicinoids. Furthermore, CaERF92, CaERF102 and CaERF111 were found to be potentially involved in temperature-mediated capsaicinoids biosynthesis. Conclusion: This study will provide an extremely useful foundation for the study of candidate ERFs in the regulation of carotenoids and capsaicinoids biosynthesis in peppers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acinetobacter sp. AL-6 combining with biochar was adapted in activated sludge (AS & co-system) to decontaminate Mn2+, Fe2+ and NH 4 +-N, and treat activated sludge (AS) for its activity and settling performance improvement. Specifically, the co-system promoted the growth of bacteria in the activated sludge, thus increasing its ability to nitrify and adsorb Mn2+ and Fe2+, resulting in the removal of high concentrations of NH 4 +-N, Mn2+, Fe2+ and COD in the reactor by 100%, 100%, 100%, and 96.8%, respectively. And the pH of wastewater was increased from 4 to 8.5 by co-system also facilitated the precipitation of Mn2+ and Fe2+. The MLVSS/MLSS ratio increased from 0.64 to 0.95 and SVI 30 decreased from 92.54 to 1.54 after the addition of co-system, which indicated that biochar helped to improve the activity and settling performance of activated sludge and prevented it from being damaged by the compound Mn2+ and Fe2+. In addition, biochar promoted the increase of the tyrosine-like protein substance and humic acid-like organic matter in the sludge EPS, thus enhanced the ability of sludge to adsorb Mn2+ and Fe2+. Concretely, compared with AS group, the proteins content and polysaccharides content of the AS & co-system group were increased by 13.14 times and 6.30 times respectively. Further, microbial diversity analysis showed that more resistant bacteria and dominant bacteria Acinetobacter sp. AL-6 in sludge enhanced the nitrification and adsorption of manganese and iron under the promotion of biochar. Pre-eminently, the more effective AS & co-system were applied to the removal of actual electrolytic manganese slag leachate taken from the contaminated site, and the removal of NH 4 +-N, Mn2+, Fe2+ and COD remained high at 100%, 100%, 71.82% and 94.72%, respectively, revealing advanced value for high engineering applications of AS & co-system. [Display omitted] • Biochar combined Acinetobacter assisted activated sludge to treat Fe and Mn. • Biochar combined Acinetobacter promoted EPS production of activated sludge. • Biochar combined Acinetobacter increased biochemical properties of activated sludge. • Biochar combined Acinetobacter enhanced survival of dominant strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong electron‐phonon coupling can hinder exciton transport and induce undesirable non‐radiative recombination, resulting in a shortened exciton diffusion distance and constrained exciton dissociation in organic solar cells (OSCs). Therefore, suppressing electron‐phonon coupling is crucially important for achieveing high‐performance OSCs. Here, we employ the solid additive to regulating electron‐phonon coupling in OSCs. The planar configuration of SA1 confers a significant advantage in suppressing lattice vibrations in the active layers, reducing the scattering of excitons by phonons. Consequently, a slow but sustained hole transfer process is identified in the SA1‐assisted film, indicating an enhancement in hole transfer efficiency. Prolonged exciton diffusion length and exciton lifetime are achieved in the blend film processed with SA1, attributed to a low non‐radiative recombination rate and low energetic disorder for charge carrier transport. As a result, a high efficiency of 20 % was achieved for ternary device with a remarkable short‐circuit current. This work highlights the important role of suppressing electron‐phonon coupling in improving the photovoltaic performance of OSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indacenodithiophene (IDT) has been widely used as the central core to design high‐performance acceptor‐donor‐acceptor (A‐D‐A)‐type non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs). NFAs based on five‐, six‐, seven‐, and nine‐membered IDT have been successfully prepared. However, less research attention has been paid to the eight‐membered IDT derivative. In this study, a novel asymmetric TTPTTT building block as an eight‐membered IDT unit are designed and synthesized. The effect of nonfluorinated, monofluorinated, and difluorinated end‐capping groups on the photovoltaic performance of TTPTTT‐based NFAs are specifically investigated. By blending with the polymer donor PBT1‐C, organic solar cells (OSCs) based on TTPTTT‐IC, TTPTTT‐2F, and TTPTTT‐4F exhibited power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 7.91, 11.52, and 12.05%, respectively. Our results indicate that the asymmetric TTPTTT building block as an eight‐membered IDT derivative is a promising central core unit for designing high‐performance A‐D‐A type NFAs. A novel TTPTTT building block as an eight‐membered indacanodithiophene derivative is developed. The effect of nonfluorinated, momofluorinated, and difluorinated end‐capping group on photovoltaic performance of asymmtry TTPTTT non‐fullerene acceptors (NFAs) is investigated. As a result, organic solar cells based on TTPTTT‐4F exhibit a high efficiency of 12.05%, indicating that the asymmetric TTPTTT unit is a promising central core unit for designing efficient A‐D‐A type NFAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To identify driver methylation genes and a novel subtype of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) by multi-omics and elucidate its molecular features and clinical significance. Methods: We collected LUAD patients from public databases, and identified driver methylation genes (DMGs) by MethSig and MethylMix algrothms. And novel driver methylation multi-omics subtypes were identified by similarity network fusion (SNF). Furthermore, the prognosis, tumor microenvironment (TME), molecular features and therapy efficiency among subtypes were comprehensively evaluated. Results: 147 overlapped driver methylation were identified and validated. By integrating the mRNA expression and methylation of DMGs using SNF, four distinct patterns, termed as S1-S4, were characterized by differences in prognosis, biological features, and TME. The S2 subtype showed unfavorable prognosis. By comparing the characteristics of the DMGs subtypes with the traditional subtypes, S3 was concentrated in proximal-inflammatory (PI) subtype, and S4 was consisted of terminal respiratory unit (TRU) subtype and PI subtype. By analyzing TME and epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) features, increased immune infiltration and higher expression of immune checkpoint genes were found in S3 and S4. While S4 showed higher EMT score and expression of EMT associated genes, indicating S4 may not be as immunosensitive as the S3. Additionally, S3 had lower TIDE and higher IPS score, indicating its increased sensitivity to immunotherapy. Conclusion: The driver methylation-related subtypes of LUAD demonstrate prognostic predictive ability that could help inform treatment response and provide complementary information to the existing subtypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a typical monoecism vegetable with individual male and female flowers, which has been used as a plant model for sex determination. It is well known that light is one of the most important environmental stimuli, which control the timing of the transition from vegetative growth to reproductive development. However, whether light controls sex determination remains elusive. To unravel this problem, we performed high-throughput RNA-Seq analyses, which compared the transcriptomes of shoot apices between R2B1(Red light:Blue light = 2:1)-treated and R4B1(Red light:Blue light = 4:1)-treated cucumber seedlings. Results showed that the higher proportion of blue light in the R2B1 treatment significantly induced the formation of female flowers and accelerated female flowering time in this whole study. The genes related to flowering time, such as flowering locus T (FT) and SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CO1 (SOC1), were up-regulated after R2B1 treatment. Furthermore, the transcriptome analysis showed that up-regulation and down-regulation of specific DEGs (the differentially expressed genes) were primarily the result of plant hormone signal transduction after treatments. The specific DEGs related with auxin formed the highest percentage of DEGs in the plant hormone signal transduction. In addition, the expression levels of transcription factors also changed after R2B1 treatment. Thus, sex differentiation affected by light quality might be induced by plant hormone signal transduction and transcription factors. These results provide a theoretical basis for further investigation of the regulatory mechanism of female flower formation under different light qualities in cucumber seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In acidic mine wastewater, Mn and Fe are among the prime heavy metals and pose a great threat to the ecological environment and human health. Combining biological and physical methods to treat heavy metal contaminated water bodies is a promising remediation technique. In this study, grapefruit peel biochar immobilized Acinetobacter sp. AL-6 (co-system) was applied to treat the contaminated water with co-existing Mn2+, Fe2+ and NH 4 +-N. The results showed that almost 100% of Mn2+, Fe2+, Zn2+ and Cu2+ were removed in bioreactor, and was transferred to Mn2+, Fe3+, Zn2+ and Cu2+ precipitates on the surface of co-system without N 2 O accumulation. Especially, Mn2+ and Fe2+ were adsorbed in extracellular polymers (EPS) of strain AL-6. The present study mainly confirmed that the combined system of biochar and bacteria had great potential in the complex water removal of multiple heavy metals and NH 4 +-N, and also revealed the regulation of heavy metals by the EPS of strain. [Display omitted] • Biochar-immobilized Acinetobacter can be applied for Fe and Mn bioremediation. • EPS production was promoted by higher Fe for resisting unscrupulous stress. • Fe and Mn can be adsorbed by the surface of EPS. • CO 2 could suppressed by the increasing Fe concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lysosomes are acidic intracellular organelles with autophagic functions that are critical for protein degradation and mitochondrial homeostasis, while abnormalities in lysosomal physiological functions are closely associated with neurological disorders. Transmembrane protein 175 (TMEM175), an ion channel in the lysosomal membrane that is essential for maintaining lysosomal acidity, has been proven to coordinate with V-ATPase to modulate the luminal pH of the lysosome to assist the digestion of abnormal proteins and organelles. However, there is considerable controversy about the characteristics of TMEM175. In this review, we introduce the research progress on the structural, modulatory, and functional properties of TMEM175, followed by evidence of its relevance for neurological disorders. Finally, we discuss the potential value of TMEM175 as a therapeutic target in the hope of providing new directions for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. • TMEM175 is a highly permeable ion channel for both protons and potassium ions in the lysosomal membrane. • TMEM175 affects lysosomal autophagy by regulating intra-lysosomal acidity and alkalinity. • TMEM175 mutation is a high-risk factor for neurodegenerative disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signaling influenced tumour occurrence and development. Overexpression of FGFR had been observed in many types of cancers, including colon cancer. FGFR inhibitor is considered to be effective in treating colon cancer patients.Methods: First, the kinase inhibition rate was determined. MTT, western blotting, colony formation, EdU and comet assays were performed to evaluate the anti-tumour effects of F1-7 in vitro. RNA-seq and bioinformatics analysis were used for further verification. Additionally, a xenograft model was generated to investigate the anti-tumour effect of F1-7.Results: F1-7 can inhibit the proliferation of colon cancer cells in vitro. It could significantly inhibit FGFR phosphorylation and its downstream signaling pathway. Whole-genome RNA-seq analysis found that the changed genes were not only functionally focused on MAPK signaling pathway but also related to cell apoptosis and ferroptosis. Experimental evidence demonstrated that F1-7 can directly increase the level of cellular DNA damage. The occurrence of DNA damage led to cell cycle arrest and inhibition of cell metastasis and cell apoptosis. Mouse model experiments also confirmed that F1-7 could inhibit tumour growth by inhibiting the FGFR pathway.Conclusions: F1-7 exhibits anti-tumour activity by inhibiting the FGFR pathway. It could be a novel therapeutic agent for targeting colon cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Co 2 Y ferrites were successfully prepared under different sintering temperatures (T a). • Resonances ascribed to exchange coupling between Fe2+ and Fe3+ appear in 13–17 GHz. • Nature resonance frequency decreases form 10.2 GHz to 1.9 GHz with increasing T a. • The effective absorption bandwidth of T a = 1000 °C reaches 7.3 GHz at only 1.4 mm. The Ba 2 Co 2 Fe 12 O 22 (Co 2 Y) ferrites were prepared via the sol–gel method, and the dielectric and magnetic properties were tuned by changing sintering temperature (T a). It can be noted that the nature resonance frequency of Co 2 Y decreases form 10.2 GHz to 1.9 GHz with increasing sintering temperature, and the resonance peaks ascribed to exchange coupling between Fe2+ ions and Fe3+ ions appear in 13–17 GHz. Due to the synergy of Fe2+ ions and oxygen vacancies, the real part of complex permittivity (ε′) of Co 2 Y ferrites decreases firstly, and then increases with increasing sintering temperature. The excellent microwave absorption properties are obtained at T a = 1100 °C, its effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) reaches 7.3 GHz at a thickness of only 1.4 mm. The outstanding properties are mainly ascribed to a combination of multiple reflections, dipole polarization, natural resonance, exchange resonance and good impedance matching. Our research provides an efficient approach for obtaining the thin and broadband microwave absorbers by adjusting the sintering temperature of Co 2 Y ferrites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the challenge about insufficiency of training set and limited feedback information in each relevance feedback (RF) round during the process of content based image retrieval (CBIR). We propose a novel active learning scheme to utilize the labeled and unlabeled images to build the initial Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier for image retrieving. In our framework, two main components, a pseudo-label strategy and an improved active learning selection method, are included. Moreover, a feature subspace partition algorithm is proposed to model the retrieval target from users by the analysis from relevance labeled images. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method on a range of databases with respect to the retrieval accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient and accurate distinction of histopathological subtype of lung cancer is quite critical for the individualized treatment. So far, artificial intelligence techniques have been developed, whose performance yet remained debatable on more heterogenous data, hindering their clinical deployment. Here, we propose an end-to-end, well-generalized and data-efficient weakly supervised deep learning-based method. The method, end-to-end feature pyramid deep multi-instance learning model (E2EFP-MIL), contains an iterative sampling module, a trainable feature pyramid module and a robust feature aggregation module. E2EFP-MIL uses end-to-end learning to extract generalized morphological features automatically and identify discriminative histomorphological patterns. This method is trained with 1007 whole slide images (WSIs) of lung cancer from TCGA, with AUCs of 0.95–0.97 in test sets. We validated E2EFP-MIL in 5 real-world external heterogenous cohorts including nearly 1600 WSIs from both United States and China with AUCs of 0.94–0.97, and found that 100–200 training images are enough to achieve an AUC of > 0.9. E2EFP-MIL overperforms multiple state-of-the-art MIL-based methods with high accuracy and low hardware requirements. Excellent and robust results prove generalizability and effectiveness of E2EFP-MIL in clinical practice. Our code is available at https://github.com/raycaohmu/E2EFP-MIL. [Display omitted] • A novel end-to-end and highly-generalized weakly supervised deep learning method to aid in lung cancer subtype diagnosis. • Patch sampling module and feature aggregation module to learn features more effectively and comprehensively. • Data efficient, 100 to 200 slides instead of thousands of ones is enough obtain test AUCs of > 0.9. • International, multicentre evaluation showing a promising generalizability on more heterogenous real-world data. • Results better than the other deep learning methods in the identification of lung cancer subtypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sandwich microstructure composites composed of Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ and different mass fractions of expanded graphite (0, 1, 2, 3 wt%) were prepared, and their microwave absorption properties were studied. The microscopic morphology, composition, soft magnetic properties, chemical structure, electromagnetic parameters, and absorption properties of the Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ /EG composites were analyzed. The results show that Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ is an irregular particle with an average particle size of about 3 µm and EG is a multi-layer structure with an average interlayer spacing of about 2.7 µm. The saturation magnetization (M s) value of Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ is 135 emu/g, and the coercivity (H c) is 53 Oe. The effect of the loading of expanded graphite in the Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ /EG composites on their microwave absorbing properties is discussed. It was found that the well-designed two-component and appropriately loaded expanded graphite endowed the Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ /EG composites with excellent absorption properties. When the mass fraction of expanded graphite was 1% and the thickness of the absorber was 1.42 mm, the reflection loss reached −67.3 dB at 14.9 GHz with an effective bandwidth of 5.74 GHz. Compared with other expanded graphite-based absorbing materials, Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ /EG composites exhibited better electromagnetic wave absorption performance at a lower thickness. The enhancement of the absorption performance is attributed to the optimization of impedance matching and the synergistic action between multiple loss mechanisms. • Sandwich microstructure Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ /EG composites were prepared and charactered. • The introduction of Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ improved the absorption performance of expanded graphite-based absorbers. • The minimum RL of −67.3 dB and bandwidth of 5.74 GHz were obtained at 1.42 mm. • The balance between impedance matching and electromagnetic attenuation of Ce 2 Fe 17 N 3-δ /EG absorbers was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a leading cause of mortality worldwide, with hypercholesterolemia being a major risk factor. Although various lipid-lowering therapies exist, many patients fail to achieve optimal cholesterol control, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic approaches. ASGR1 (asialoglycoprotein receptor 1), predominantly expressed on hepatocytes, has emerged as a key regulator of cholesterol metabolism and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) clearance. This receptor's ability to regulate lipid homeostasis positions it as a promising target for therapeutic intervention in hypercholesterolemia and related cardiovascular diseases. This review critically examines the biological functions and regulatory mechanisms of ASGR1 in cholesterol metabolism, with a focus on its potential as a therapeutic target for hypercholesterolemia and related cardiovascular diseases. By analyzing recent advances in ASGR1 research, this article explores its role in liver-specific pathways, the implications of ASGR1 variants in CVD risk, and the prospects for developing ASGR1-targeted therapies. This review aims to provide a foundation for future research and clinical applications in hypercholesterolemia management., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.. All rights reserved.)

The integration of data from multiple modalities generated by single-cell omics technologies is crucial for accurately identifying cell states. One challenge in comprehending multi-omics data resides in mosaic integration, in which different data modalities are profiled in different subsets of cells, as it requires simultaneous batch effect removal and modality alignment. Here, we develop Multi-omics Mosaic Auto-scaling Attention Variational Inference (mmAAVI), a scalable deep generative model for single-cell mosaic integration. Leveraging auto-scaling self-attention mechanisms, mmAAVI can map arbitrary combinations of omics to the common embedding space. If existing well-annotated cell states, the model can perform semisupervised learning to utilize existing these annotations. We validated the performance of mmAAVI and five other commonly used methods on four benchmark datasets, which vary in cell numbers, omics types, and missing patterns. mmAAVI consistently demonstrated its superiority. We also validated mmAAVI's ability for cell state knowledge transfer, achieving balanced accuracies of 0.82 and 0.97 with less 1% labeled cells between batches with completely different omics. The full package is available at https://github.com/luyiyun/mmAAVI., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Far-red lights (FRs), with a wavelength range between 700 and 800 nm, have substantial impacts on plant growth, especially horticultural crops. Previous studies showed conflicting results on the effects of FRs on vegetable growth and quality. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis on the influence of FRs on vegetable growth, aiming to provide a comprehensive overview of their effects on the growth and nutritional indicators of vegetables. A total of 207 independent studies from 55 literature sources were analyzed. The results showed that FR treatment had significant effects on most growth indicators, including increasing the fresh weight (+25.27%), dry weight (+21.99%), plant height (+81.87%), stem diameter (+12.91%), leaf area (+18.57%), as well as reducing the content of chlorophyll (-11.88%) and soluble protein (-11.66%), while increasing soluble sugar content (+19.12%). Further subgroup analysis based on various factors revealed significant differences in the effects of FR on different physiological indicators, such as FR intensity, plant species, duration of FR exposure, and the ratio of red light to FR. In general, moderate FR treatment is beneficial for vegetable growth. This study provides important references and guidelines for optimizing the application of FR in the future.

Double-fibril network morphology (DFNM), in which the donor and the acceptor can self-assemble into a double-fibril structure, is beneficial for exciton dissociation and charge transport in organic solar cells. Herein, it is demonstrated that such DFNM can be constructed and optimized in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) with the assistance of 2-alkoxynaphthalene volatile solid additives. It is revealed that the incorporation of 2-alkoxynaphthalene can induce a stepwise regulation in the aggregation of donor and acceptor molecules during film casting and thermal annealing processes. Through altering the alkoxy of 2-alkoxynaphthalene solid additives, both the intermolecular interactions and molecular miscibility with the host materials can be precisely tuned, which allows for the optimization of the molecular aggregation process and facilitation of molecular self-assembly, and thus leading to reinforced molecular packing and optimized DFNM. As a result, an unprecedented efficiency of 19.50% (certified as 19.1%) is obtained for 2-ethoxynaphthalene-processed PM6:PY-DT-X all-PSCs with excellent photostability (T 80  = 1750 h). This work reveals that the optimization of DFNM via solid additive strategy is a promising avenue to boosting the performance of all-PSCs., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Dimer acceptors in organic solar cells (OSCs) offer distinct advantages, including a well-defined molecular structure and excellent batch-to-batch reproducibility. Their high glass transition temperature (T g ) aids in achieving an optimal kinetic morphology, thereby enhancing device stability. Currently, most of dimer acceptor materials are linked with conjugated units in order to obtain high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). In this study, different from previous works on conjugation-linked dimer acceptors, a novel series of dimer acceptors are synthesized (named T1, T4, T6, and T12), each linked with different flexible alkyl linkers, and investigated their PCEs, device stability, and flexibility robustness. When blended with PM6, the T6-based device achieves a PCE of 17.09%, comparable to the fully conjugated T0-based device's PCE of 17.12%. The molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations suggested that flexible conjugation-broken linkers (FCBLs) promote intermolecular electronic couplings, thereby maintaining good electron mobilities of dimer acceptors. Notably, the T6-based device exhibits impressive long-term stability with a T80 lifetime of 1427 h, while in the T0-based device, T 80 is only 350 h. The present work has thus established the relationship between the length of flexible alkyl linkers in such dimer acceptors and the performance and stability of OSCs, which is important to further designing new materials for the fabrication of efficient and stable OSCs., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) in improving the use of guideline accordant antihypertensive treatment in primary care settings in China., Design: Pragmatic, open label, cluster randomised trial., Setting: 94 primary care practices in four urban regions of China between August 2019 and July 2022: Luoyang (central China), Jining (east China), and Shenzhen (south China, including two regions)., Participants: 94 practices were randomised (46 to CDSS, 48 to usual care). 12 137 participants with hypertension who used up to two classes of antihypertensives and had a systolic blood pressure <180 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure <110 mm Hg were included., Interventions: Primary care practices were randomised to use an electronic health record based CDSS, which recommended a specific guideline accordant regimen for initiation, titration, or switching of antihypertensive (the intervention), or to use the same electronic health record without CDSS and provide treatment as usual (control)., Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was the proportion of hypertension related visits during which an appropriate (guideline accordant) treatment was provided. Secondary outcomes were the average reduction in systolic blood pressure and proportion of participants with controlled blood pressure (<140/90 mm Hg) at the last scheduled follow-up. Safety outcomes were patient reported antihypertensive treatment related events, including syncope, injurious fall, symptomatic hypotension or systolic blood pressure <90 mm Hg, and bradycardia., Results: 5755 participants with 23 113 visits in the intervention group and 6382 participants with 27 868 visits in the control group were included. Mean age was 61 (standard deviation 13) years and 42.5% were women. During a median 11.6 months of follow-up, the proportion of visits at which appropriate treatment was given was higher in the intervention group than in the control group (77.8% (17 975/23 113) v 62.2% (17 328/27 868); absolute difference 15.2 percentage points (95% confidence interval (CI) 10.7 to 19.8); P<0.001; odds ratio 2.17 (95% CI 1.75 to 2.69); P<0.001). Compared with participants in the control group, those in the intervention group had a 1.6 mm Hg (95% CI -2.7 to -0.5) greater reduction in systolic blood pressure (-1.5 mm Hg v 0.3 mm Hg; P=0.006) and a 4.4 percentage point (95% CI -0.7 to 9.5) improvement in blood pressure control rate (69.0% (3415/4952) v 64.6% (3778/5845); P=0.07). Patient reported antihypertensive treatment related adverse effects were rare in both groups., Conclusions: Use of a CDSS in primary care in China improved the provision of guideline accordant antihypertensive treatment and led to a modest reduction in blood pressure. The CDSS offers a promising approach to delivering better care for hypertension, both safely and efficiently., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03636334., Competing Interests: Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and declare: support from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen; in the past three years, HMK received options for Element Science and Identifeye and payments from F-Prime for advisory roles, and he is a cofounder of, and holds equity in, Hugo Health, Refactor Health, and Ensight-AI, and he is associated with research contracts through Yale University from Janssen, Kenvue, and Pfizer; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Sustaining crop production and food security are threatened by a burgeoning world population and adverse environmental conditions. Traditional breeding methods for vegetable crops are time-consuming, laborious, and untargeted, often taking several years to develop new and improved varieties. The challenges faced by a long breeding cycle need to be overcome. The speed breeding (SB) approach is broadly employed in crop breeding, which greatly shortens breeding cycles and facilities plant growth to obtain new, better-adapted crop varieties as quickly as possible. Potential opportunities are offered by SB in plant factories, where optimal photoperiod, light quality, light intensity, temperature, CO 2 concentration, and nutrients are precisely manipulated to enhance the growth of horticultural vegetable crops, holding promise to surmount the long-standing problem of lengthy crop breeding cycles. Additionally, integrated with other breeding technologies, such as genome editing, genomic selection, and high-throughput genotyping, SB in plant factories has emerged as a smart and promising platform to hasten generation turnover and enhance the efficiency of breeding in vegetable crops. This review considers the pivotal opportunities and challenges of SB in plant factories, aiming to accelerate plant generation turnover and improve vegetable crops with precision and efficiency., 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 © 2024 He, Ju, Liu, Song, Zhang, Zhang, Hu, Liu, Li and Liu.)

Background and Aims: Personalized antihypertensive drug selection is essential for optimizing hypertension management. The study aimed to develop a machine learning (ML) model to predict individual blood pressure (BP) responses to different antihypertensive medications., Methods and Results: We used data from a pragmatic, cluster-randomized trial on hypertension management in China. Each patient's multiple visit records were included, and two consecutive visits were paired as the index and subsequent visits. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method was used to select index visit variables for predicting subsequent BP. The dataset was randomly divided into training and test sets in a 7:3 ratio. Model performance was evaluated using mean absolute error (MAE) and R-square in the test set. A total of 19,013 hypertension management visit records (6282 patients) were included. The mean age of the study population was 63.9 years, and 2657 (42.3%) were females. A total of 12 phenotypical features (age, sex, smoking within seven days, body mass index, waist circumference, index visit systolic BP, diastolic BP, heart rate, comorbidities of diabetes, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, and stroke), together with currently taking any prescribed antihypertensive medication regimens and visits time interval were selected to build the model. The Extreme Gradient Boost model performed best among all candidate algorithms, with an MAE of 8.57 mmHg and an R 2  = 0.28 in the test set., Conclusion: The ML techniques exhibit significant potential for predicting individual responses to antihypertensive treatments, thereby aiding clinicians in achieving optimal BP control safely and efficiently., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03636334. Registered July 3, 2018, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03636334., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Italian Diabetes Society, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The development of high-efficiency organic solar cells (OSCs) processed from non-halogenated solvents is crucially important for their scale-up industry production. However, owing to the difficulty of regulating molecular aggregation, there is a huge efficiency gap between non-halogenated and halogenated solvent processed OSCs. Herein, we fabricate o-xylene processed OSCs with approaching 20 % efficiency by incorporating a trimeric guest acceptor named Tri-V into the PM6:L8-BO-X host blend. The incorporation of Tri-V effectively restricts the excessive aggregation of L8-BO-X, regulates the molecular packing and optimizes the phase-separation morphology, which leads to mitigated trap density states, reduced energy loss and suppressed charge recombination. Consequently, the PM6:L8-BO-X:Tri-V-based device achieves an efficiency of 19.82 %, representing the highest efficiency for non-halogenated solvent-processed OSCs reported to date. Noticeably, with the addition of Tri-V, the ternary device shows an improved photostability than binary PM6:L8-BO-X-based device, and maintains 80 % of the initial efficiency after continuous illumination for 1380 h. This work provides a feasible approach for fabricating high-efficiency, stable, eco-friendly OSCs, and sheds new light on the large-scale industrial production of OSCs., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

The interplay between the immune system and cancer underscores the central role of immunotherapy in cancer treatment. In this context, the innate immune system plays a critical role in preventing tumor invasion. Myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) is crucial for innate immunity, and activation of MyD88 promotes the production of inflammatory cytokines and induces infiltration, polarization, and immune escape of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, abnormal MyD88 signaling induces tumor cell proliferation and metastasis, which are closely associated with poor prognosis. Therefore, MyD88 could serve as a novel tumor biomarker and is a promising target for cancer therapy. Current strategies targeting MyD88 including inhibition of signaling pathways and protein multimerization, have made substantial progress, especially in inflammatory diseases and chronic inflammation-induced cancers. However, the specific role of MyD88 in regulating tumor immunity and tumorigenic mechanisms remains unclear. Therefore, this review describes the involvement of MyD88 in tumor immune escape and disease therapy. In addition, classical and non-classical MyD88 inhibitors were collated to provide insights into potential cancer treatment strategies. Despite several challenges and complexities, targeting MyD88 is a promising avenue for improving cancer treatment and has the potential to revolutionize patient outcomes.

The incorporation of real-world data (RWD) into medical product development and evaluation has exhibited consistent growth. However, there is no universally adopted method of how much information to borrow from external data. This paper proposes a study design methodology called Tree-based Monte Carlo (TMC) that dynamically integrates patients from various RWD sources to calculate the treatment effect based on the similarity between clinical trial and RWD. Initially, a propensity score is developed to gauge the resemblance between clinical trial data and each real-world dataset. Utilizing this similarity metric, we construct a hierarchical clustering tree that delineates varying degrees of similarity between each RWD source and the clinical trial data. Ultimately, a Gaussian process methodology is employed across this hierarchical clustering framework to synthesize the projected treatment effects of the external group. Simulation result shows that our clustering tree could successfully identify similarity. Data sources exhibiting greater similarity with clinical trial are accorded higher weights in treatment estimation process, while less congruent sources receive comparatively lower emphasis. Compared with another Bayesian method, meta-analytic predictive prior (MAP), our proposed method's estimator is closer to the true value and has smaller bias.

Driving requires vision, yet there is little empirical data about how vision and cognition support safe driving. It is difficult to study perception during natural driving because the experimental rigor required would be dangerous and unethical to implement on the road. The driving environment is complex, dynamic, and immensely variable, making it extremely challenging to accurately replicate in simulation. Our proposed solution is to study vision using stimuli which reflect this inherent complexity by using footage of real driving situations. To this end, we curated a set of 750 crowd-sourced video clips (434 hazard and 316 no-hazard clips), which have been spatially, temporally, and categorically annotated. These annotations describe where the hazard appears, what it is, and when it occurs. In addition, perceived dangerousness changes from moment to moment and is not a simple binary detection judgement. To capture this more granular aspect of our stimuli, we asked 48 observers to rate the perceived hazardousness of 1356 brief video clips taken from these 750 source clips on a continuous scale. These ratings span the entire scale, have high interrater agreement, and are robust to driving history. This novel stimulus set is not only useful for understanding drivers' ability to detect hazards, but is also a tool for studying dynamic scene perception and other aspects of visual function. While this stimulus set was originally designed for behavioral studies, researchers interested in other areas such as traffic safety or computer vision may also find this dataset a useful resource., (© 2023. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

The low prevalence effect (LPE) is a cognitive limitation commonly found in visual search tasks, in which observers miss rare targets. Drivers looking for road hazards are also subject to the LPE. However, not all road hazards are equal; a paper bag floating down the road is much less dangerous than a rampaging moose. Here, we asked whether perceived hazardousness modulated the LPE. To examine this, we took a dataset in which 48 raters assessed the perceived dangerousness of hazards in recorded road videos (Song et al. in Behav Res Methods, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02299-8 ) and correlated the ratings with data from a hazard detection task using the same stimuli with varying hazard prevalence rates (Kosovicheva et al. in Psychon Bull Rev 30(1):212-223, 2023. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02159-0 ). We found that while hazard detectability increased monotonically with hazardousness ratings, the LPE was comparable across perceived hazardousness levels. Our findings are consistent with the decision criterion account of the LPE, in which target rarity induces a conservative shift in criterion. Importantly, feedback was necessary for a large and consistent LPE; when participants were not given feedback about their accuracy, the most dangerous hazards showed a non-significant LPE. However, eliminating feedback was not enough to induce the opposite of the LPE-prevalence induced concept change (Levari et al. in Science 360(6396):1465-1467, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8731 ), in which participants adopt a more liberal criterion when instances of a category become rare. Our results suggest that the road hazard LPE may be somewhat affected by the inherent variability of driving situations, but is still observed for highly dangerous hazards., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Oligomer acceptors in organic solar cells (OSCs) have garnered substantial attention owing to their impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) and long-term stability. However, the simple and efficient synthesis of oligomer acceptors with higher glass transition temperatures (T g ) remains a formidable challenge. In this study, we propose an innovative strategy for the synthesis of tetramers, denoted as Tet-n, with elevated T g s, achieved through only two consecutive Stille coupling reactions. Importantly, our strategy significantly reduces the redundancy in reaction steps compared to conventional methods for linear tetramer synthesis, thereby improving both reaction efficiency and yield. Furthermore, the OSC based on PM6:Tet-1 attains a high PCE of 17.32 %, and the PM6:L8-BO:Tet-1 ternary device achieves an even more higher PCE of 19.31 %. Remarkably, the binary device based on the Tet-1 tetramer demonstrates outstanding operational stability, retaining 80 % of the initial efficiency (T 80 ) even after 1706 h of continuous illumination, which is primarily attributed to the enhanced T g (247 °C) and lower diffusion coefficient (1.56×10 -27  cm 2  s -1 ). This work demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed approach in the straightforward and efficient synthesis of tetramers materials with higher T g s, thus offering a viable pathway for developing high-efficiency and stable OSCs., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Mononuclear macrophage infiltration in the central nervous system is a prominent feature of neuroinflammation. Recent studies on the pathogenesis and progression of multiple sclerosis have highlighted the multiple roles of mononuclear macrophages in the neuroinflammatory process. Monocytes play a significant role in neuroinflammation, and managing neuroinflammation by manipulating peripheral monocytes stands out as an effective strategy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, leading to improved patient outcomes. This review outlines the steps involved in the entry of myeloid monocytes into the central nervous system that are targets for effective intervention: the activation of bone marrow hematopoiesis, migration of monocytes in the blood, and penetration of the blood-brain barrier by monocytes. Finally, we summarize the different monocyte subpopulations and their effects on the central nervous system based on phenotypic differences. As activated microglia resemble monocyte-derived macrophages, it is important to accurately identify the role of monocyte-derived macrophages in disease. Depending on the roles played by monocyte-derived macrophages at different stages of the disease, several of these processes can be interrupted to limit neuroinflammation and improve patient prognosis. Here, we discuss possible strategies to target monocytes in neurological diseases, focusing on three key aspects of monocyte infiltration into the central nervous system, to provide new ideas for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases., (Copyright © 2025 Copyright: © 2025 Neural Regeneration Research.)

High-efficiency organic solar cells are often achieved using toxic halogenated solvents and additives that are constrained in organic solar cells industry. Therefore, it is important to develop materials or processing methods that enabled highly efficient organic solar cells processed by halogen free solvents. In this paper, we report an innovative processing method named auxiliary sequential deposition that enables 19%-efficiency organic solar cells processed by halogen free solvents. Our auxiliary sequential deposition method is different from the conventional blend casting or sequential deposition methods in that it involves an additional casting of dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophene between the sequential depositions of the donor (D18-Cl) and acceptor (L8-BO) layers. The auxiliary sequential deposition method enables dramatic performance enhancement from 15% to over 18% compared to the blend casting and sequential deposition methods. Furthermore, by incorporating a branched-chain-engineered acceptor called L8-BO-X, device performance can be boosted to over 19% due to increased intermolecular packing, representing top-tier values for green-solvent processed organic solar cells. Comprehensive morphological and time-resolved characterizations reveal that the superior blend morphology achieved through the auxiliary sequential deposition method promotes charge generation while simultaneously suppressing charge recombination. This research underscores the potential of the auxiliary sequential deposition method for fabricating highly efficient organic solar cells using environmentally friendly solvents., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Oligomer acceptors have recently emerged as promising photovoltaic materials for achieving high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and long-term stability in organic solar cells (OSCs). However, the limited availability of diverse acceptors, resulting from the sole synthetic approach, has hindered their potential for future industrialization. In this study, we present a facile and effective stepwise approach that utilizes two consecutive Stille coupling reactions for the synthesis of oligomer acceptors. To demonstrate the feasibility of the novel approach, we successfully synthesize a trimer acceptor, Tri-Y6-OD, and further systematically investigate the impact of oligomerization on device performance and stability. The results reveal that this approach has significant advantages compared to the conventional method, including reduced formation of unwanted by-products and lower difficulties in purification. Remarkably, the OSC based on PM6 : Tri-Y6-OD achieves an impressive PCE of 18.03 % and maintains 80 % of the initial PCE (T 80 ) for 1523 h under illumination, surpassing the performance of the corresponding small molecule acceptor Y6-OD-based device. Furthermore, the versatility of the synthetic strategy in obtaining diverse acceptors is further demonstrated. Overall, our findings provide a facile, versatile and stepwise way for synthesizing oligomer acceptors, thereby facilitating the development of stable and efficient OSCs., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that cancer development is closely linked to abnormal gene expression, including alterations in the transcriptional activity of transcription factors. The Forkhead box class N (FOXN) proteins FOXN1-6 form a highly conserved class of transcription factors, which have been shown in recent years to be involved in the regulation of malignant progression in a variety of cancers. FOXNs mediate cell proliferation, cell-cycle progression, cell differentiation, metabolic homeostasis, embryonic development, DNA damage repair, tumor angiogenesis, and other critical biological processes. Therefore, transcriptional dysregulation of FOXNs can directly affect cellular physiology and promote cancer development. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the transcriptional activity of FOXNs is regulated by protein-protein interactions, microRNAs (miRNA), and posttranslational modifications (PTM). However, the mechanisms underlying the molecular regulation of FOXNs in cancer development are unclear. Here, we reviewed the molecular regulatory mechanisms of FOXNs expression and activity, their role in the malignant progression of tumors, and their value for clinical applications in cancer therapy. This review may help design experimental studies involving FOXN transcription factors, and enhance their therapeutic potential as antitumor targets., (©2023 American Association for Cancer Research.)

Currently, the low survival rate and poor prognosis of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma are ascribed to the lack of early and accurate diagnosis and resistance to radiotherapy. In parallel, the integration of imaging-guided diagnosis and precise treatment has gained much attention in the field of theranostic nanotechnology. However, constructing dual-modal imaging-guided nanotheranostics with desired imaging performance as well as great biocompatibility remains challenging. Therefore, we developed a simple but multifunctional nanotheranostic GdCPP for the early and accurate diagnosis and efficient treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which combined fluorescence imaging and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) onto a single nanoplatform for imaging-guided subsequent photodynamic therapy (PDT). GdCPP had an appropriate particle size (81.93 ± 0.69 nm) and was highly stable, resulting in sufficient tumor accumulation, which along with massive reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation upon irradiation further significantly killed tumor cells. Moreover, GdCPP owned much stronger r 1 relaxivity (9.396 mM -1 s -1 ) compared to clinically used Gd-DTPA (5.034 mM -1 s -1 ) and exhibited better T 1 WI MRI performance. Under dual-modal imaging-guided PDT, GdCPP achieved efficient therapeutic outcomes without causing any noticeable tissue damage. The results of in vitro and in vivo studies indicated that GdCPP may be a suitable candidate for dual-modal imaging-guided precision tumor therapy.

Background: Small pulmonary nodules (<3 cm) can sometimes be unrecognizable and nonpalpable in video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Near-infrared fluorescence (NIF) VATS after indocyanine green (ICG) inhalation may effectively guide surgeons to locate the nodules., Objective: This study aimed to investigate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of ICG inhalation-based NIF imaging for guiding small pulmonary nodule resections., Methods: Between February and May 2021, the first-stage, non-randomized trial enrolled 21 patients with different nodule depth, ICG inhalation doses, post-inhalation surgery times, and nodule types at a tertiary referral hospital. Between May 2021 and May 2022, the second-stage randomized trial enrolled 56 patients, who were randomly assigned to the fluorescence VATS (FLVATS) or the white-light VATS (WLVATS) group. The ratio of effective guidance and the time consumption for nodule localization were compared., Results: The first-stage trial proved this new method is safe and feasible, and established a standardized protocol with optimized nodule depth (≤1 cm), ICG dose (0.20-0.25 mg/kg), and surgery window (50-90 min after ICG inhalation). In the second-stage trial, the FLVATS achieved 87.1% helpful nodule localization guidance, which was significantly higher than the WLVATS (59.1%, p < 0.05). The mean nodule locating time (standard deviation) was 1.8 [0.9] and 3.3 [2.3] min, respectively. Surgeons adopting FLVATS were significantly faster (p < 0.01), especially when locating small ground-glass opacities (1.3 [0.6] min vs. 7.0 [3.5] min, p < 0.05). Five of 31 nodules (16.1%) were only detectable by FLVATS, whereas both white light and palpation failed., Conclusions: This new method is safe and feasible for small pulmonary nodule resection. It significantly improves nodule localization rates with less time consumption, and hence is highly worthy for clinical promotion. Clinical Trial Registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry Identifier: ChiCTR2100047326., (© 2023. Society of Surgical Oncology.)

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most prevalent internal RNA modification in eukaryotic cells, is dynamically regulated in response to a wide range of physiological and pathological states. Nonetheless, the involvement of METTL14-induced m6A in liver fibrosis (LF) has yet to be established., Methods: In vitro, HSC cell lines with knock-down and overexpression of METTL14 were constructed, and the effects of METTL14 gene on the phenotypic function of activated HSCs were observed. The proliferation rate was measured by CCK8 and EDU, the cell proliferation cycle was measured by flow detector, the migration rate was measured by Transwell, and the contractility of F-actin was observed after phalloidin staining. The downstream target gene NOVA2 of METTL14 was screened by combined sequencing of MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq, combined with signal analysis. Adeno-associated virus (AAV) was injected into the tail vein in vivo to knock down the expression of METTL14, so as to further observe the role of METTL14 in the progress of LF., Results: our research showed that the methylase METTL14 content was decreased in hepatic tissue from patients with LF, leading to a lowered degree of m6A modification. Functionally, we discovered that knocking down m6A methyltransferase METTL14 led to increased HSC activation and a substantial worsening of LF. Mechanically, as shown in a multiomics study of HSCs, depleting METTL14 levels decreased m6A deposition onNOVA2 mRNA transcripts, which prompted the activation of YTHDF2 to detect and degrade the decrease of NOVA2 mRNA., Conclusions: METTL14 functioned as a profibrotic gene by suppressing NOVA2 activity in a mechanism dependent on m6A-YTHDF2. Moreover, knocking down METTL14 exacerbated LF, while NOVA2 prevented its development and partly reversed the damage., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.)

Morphology control greatly influences the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and long-term stability of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs); however, it remains challenging owing to their complex crystallization behavior. Herein, a small amount of Y6 (2 wt%) is introduced as a solid additive into a PM6:PY-DT blend. Y6 remained inside the active layer and interacted with PY-DT to form a well-mixed phase. Increased molecular packing, enlarged phase separation size, and decreased trap density are observed for the Y6-processed PM6:PY-DT blend. The corresponding devices showed simultaneously improved short-circuit current and fill factor, achieving a high PCE of over 18% and excellent long-term stability, with a T 80 lifetime of 1180 h and an extrapolated T 70 lifetime of 9185 h at maximum power point tracking (MPP) conditions under continuous one-sun illumination. This Y6-assisted strategy is successfully applied to other all-polymer blends, demonstrating its universality for all-PSCs. This work paves a new way for the fabrication of all-PSCs with high efficiency and superior long-term stability., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)