Search

The treatment of radioactive iodine in nuclear waste has always been a critical issue of social concern. The rational design of targeted and efficient capture materials is of great significance to the sustainable development of the ecological environment. In recent decades, crystalline materials have served as a molecular platform to study the binding process and capture mechanism of iodine molecules, enabling people to understand the interaction between radioactive iodine guests and pores intuitively. Cluster-based crystalline materials, including molecular clusters and cluster-based metal-organic frameworks, are emerging candidates for iodine capture due to their aggregative binding sites, precise structural information, tunable pores/packing patterns, and abundant modifications. Herein, recent progress of different types of cluster materials and cluster-dominated metal-organic porous materials for iodine capture is reviewed. Research prospects, design strategies to improve the affinity for iodine and possible capture mechanisms are discussed.

Quantum coherence is one of the most fundamental and striking features in quantum physics. Considered the standard coherence (SC), the partial coherence (PC) and the block coherence (BC) as variance of quantum states under some quantum channels (QCs) [Formula: see text], we propose the concept of channel-based coherence of quantum states, called [Formula: see text]-coherence for short, which contains the SC, PC and BC, but does not contain the positive operator-valued measure (POVM)-based coherence. By our definition, a state [Formula: see text] is said to be [Formula: see text]-incoherent if it is a fixed point of a QC [Formula: see text], otherwise, it is said to be [Formula: see text]-coherent. First, we find the set [Formula: see text] of all [Formula: see text]-incoherent states for some given channels [Formula: see text] and prove that the set [Formula: see text] forms a nonempty compact convex set for any channel [Formula: see text]. Second, we define [Formula: see text]-incoherent operations ([Formula: see text]-IOs) and prove that the set of all [Formula: see text]-IOs is a nonempty convex set. We also establish some characterizations of a [Formula: see text]-IO in terms of its Kraus operators. Lastly, we discuss the problem of quantifying [Formula: see text]-coherence and prove some related properties.

Hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanorods were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method, which were used as nanoadditives to prepare the flame-retardant microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) composite aerogels. Flame-retardant and thermal properties of MCC/HAP composite aerogels were evaluated. When tests were performed at room temperature, the composite aerogels exhibited enhanced thermal stability and low thermal conductivity but more rapid thermal dynamic transfer rate during heating and thermal dissipation rate during cooling compared to pure MCC aerogel. The MCC aerogel containing 50 wt % HAP yielded a reduction of 93.7% in peak heat release rate (PHRR), and the smoldering occurred when exposed to a flame or the cone heater. The remarkable improvement in the flame-retardant properties of MCC/HAP should be attributed to these possible mechanisms: (i) the increased thermal dynamic transfer performance during heating has an adverse effect on the increment in time to ignition and time to PHRR; (ii) the nonflammable H...

Docetaxel-mediated chemotherapy is the first line therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients, but its therapeutic benefit is limited by the development of resistance. Although Forkhead box protein M1 (FOXM1) has been implicated in prostate tumorigenesis and metastasis, its role in docetaxel resistance has not been studied. Here, we showed that FOXM1 expression was upregulated in the docetaxel resistant CRPC cell lines (PC3-DR and VCaP-DR) and knockdown of FOXM1 sensitized the cells to docetaxel both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, autophagy was found to be significantly enhanced in resistant cells. Moreover, FOXM1 overexpression cells showed increased autophagic flux and higher numbers of autophagosomes. Knockdown of ATG7, beclin-1 or cotreatment with chloroquine, partly restored sensitivity to docetaxel in the FOXM1-overexpressing cells. Mechanistically, FOXM1 targeted AMPK/mTOR to activate the autophagy pathway and altered docetaxel response in CRPC. These findings identify the role of FOXM1 as well as the mechanism underlying FOXM1 action in docetaxel sensitivity and may, therefore, aid in design of CRPC therapies.