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Metasurfaces of the subwavelength thicknesses provide a distinctive route for acoustic wave manipulation. Based on the advanced 3D printing, those judiciously designed 2D metamaterials enable intriguing effects such as abnormal reflection, transmission, and absorption. However, acoustic metasurfaces, with strong wave–structure interactions in subwavelength scales, have encountered a big challenge of being acoustically transparent due to the insufficient impedance mismatch underwater. Here, reconfigurable bioinspired metaskin patterning for generating multistructured waterborne ultrasound is proposed. The nanostructured metaskin exhibits the "lotus effect," with the thickness of only 70 μm (≈1/20 wavelength at 1 MHz) and a tremendous impedance mismatch (≈0.0001 transmission) for ultrasound. By depositing the strippable metaskins via self‐assembly into different patterns, the focusing, the vortex, and the Talbot structured ultrasound beams are implemented, respectively. The multistructured ultrasound has the patterned intensity fields of energy redistribution, where even weak field enhancement at low frequencies can activate the living organisms directly without using microbubbles, which enables low‐threshold and contactless behavior control via the mechanical stimulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: bioinspired metaskins; lotus effect; mechanical stimuli; self-assembled nanosurfaces; structured ultrasound EN bioinspired metaskins lotus effect mechanical stimuli self-assembled nanosurfaces structured ultrasound 1 1 1 08/18/22 20220815 NES 220815 B Bioinspired Metaskin Patterning b In article number 2203109, Long Meng, Hairong Zheng, Xue-Feng Zhu, and co-workers report a reconfigurable acoustic meta-skin with selective superhydrophobic decoration on a metal surface, which can be utilized for generating different structured ultrasounds and have potential applications in biological low-intensity ultrasound stimulation of living organisms for the study of behavioral response and contactless control. Generating Multistructured Ultrasound via Bioinspired Metaskin Patterning for Low-Threshold and Contactless Control of Living Organisms (Adv. Funct. Bioinspired metaskins, lotus effect, mechanical stimuli, self-assembled nanosurfaces, structured ultrasound. [Extracted from the article]

We propose a design of tunable double-band perfect absorbers based on the resonance absorption in acoustic metasurfaces with nesting helical tracks and deep-subwavelength thicknesses (<λ/30 with λ being the operation wavelength). By rotating the cover cap with an open aperture on the nesting helical tracks, we can tailor the effective lengths of resonant tubular cavities in the absorber at will, while the absorption peak frequency is flexibly shifted in spectrum and the acoustic impedance is roughly matched with air. The simulated particle velocity fields at different configurations reveal that sound absorption mainly occurs at the open aperture. Our experiment measurements agree well with the theoretical analysis and simulation, demonstrating the wide-spectrum and tunable absorption performance of the designed flat acoustic device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Hermitian wave system has attracted intense attentions in the past decade since it reveals interesting physics and generates various counterintuitive effects. However, in the diffusive system that is inherently non-Hermitian with natural dissipation, the robust control of heat flow is hitherto still a challenge. Here we introduce the skin effect into diffusive systems. Different from the skin effect in wave systems, where asymmetric couplings were enabled by dynamic modulations or judicious gain/loss engineering, asymmetric couplings of the temperature fields in diffusive systems can be realized by directly contacted metamaterial channels. Topological heat funneling is further presented, where the temperature field automatically concentrates towards a designated position and shows a strong immunity against the defects. Our work indicates that the diffusive system can provide a distinctive platform for exploring non-Hermitian physics as well as thermal topology. Non-Hermitian systems can house a range of unusual physical phenomena such as the skin-effect which has been typically observed in optical lattices and electrical circuits. Here, the authors show the non-Hermitian skin effect in thermal transport, demonstrating that the topologically protected heat flow can be realized by using thermal metamaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gliomas are highly aggressive and lack of efficient targeted therapy. YAP, as a Hippo pathway downstream effector, plays a key role in promoting tumor development through the interaction with transcription factor TEAD on the NH3-terminal proline-rich domain. Therefore, targeting TEAD-interacting domain of YAP may provide a novel approach for the treatment of gliomas. Materials and methods: We generated a truncated YAP protein which includes the TEAD-binding domain (YAPBD), and supposed YAPBD can interact with endogenous TEAD but lost the function to activate YAP target gene expressions. The association of YAP expression with the malignant characters of glioma tissues were determined by immunohistochemistry. TEAD-binding capacity of YAPBD was determined by co-immunoprecipitation. The cell proliferation and migration were determined by MTT assay, xenograft assay, wound healing assay and transwell assay, respectively. YAP target genes were detected by Western blot. Results: YAP was highly expressed in glioma tissues and associated with tumor malignancy. YAPBD could block the TEAD–YAP complex formation by competing with YAP binding to TEAD. YAPBD could inhibit glioma cell growth both in vitro and in vivo, through the induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. The cell cycle-related gene cyclin D1 and c-myc, and anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and survivin were inhibited after YAPBD overexpression. Furthermore, YAPBD also decreased cell migration and invasion, and repressed epithelial–mesenchymal transition. Conclusion: YAPBD can block glioma cell survival and repress YAP-dependent gene expressions, indicating gene therapy which targets TEAD-YAP complex would be a potential and significant novel approach for human malignant gliomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since the Victorian era, montage, the process of pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or superimposing photographs, has been a very popular post-editing imaging technique. Despite showing a strong power in demonstrating complex wave field effects, this technique has neither been fully explored in acoustic imaging nor been realized in real-time systems with the capability beyond diffraction limits. On the other hand, the recent prospect of metamaterials has shown their great potentials in super-resolution acoustic imaging. However, the miracle jigsaw of more advanced functional modulation of acoustic wave fields at deep subwavelength scale still remains elusive. Here we report the experimental implementation of super-resolution acoustic image montage through a judiciously designed biaxial metamaterial lens. Based on the non-diffraction birefringence in the biaxial metamaterials, we realized various montage functionalities such as duplication, composition, and decomposition of sound images with distinctive deep subwavelength features. Our work represents an important step in developing versatile functional acoustic metamaterial devices for imaging purposes, as it provides on-demand editing of sound field patterns beyond diffraction limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation initiation factors (eIFs) are over-activated in many human cancers and may contribute to their progression. The small molecule 4EGI-1, a potent inhibitor of translation initiation through disrupting eIF4E/eIF4G interaction, has been shown to exert anti-cancer effects in human cancer cells. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the anti-cancer effects of 4EGI-1 in human glioma U251 cells. We found that 4EGI-1 impaired the assembly of the eIF4F complex, and inhibited proliferation of U251 cells via inducing apoptosis. 4EGI-1 treatment induced collapse of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which were prevented by the ROS scavenger N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). In addition, 4EGI-1 inhibited mitochondrial ATP synthesis via suppressing complex I activity, but had no effects on mitochondrial biogenesis. The results of fluorescence staining showed that 4EGI-1 indeed fragmented the mitochondrial network of U251 cells. We found a significant decrease in optic atrophy type 1 (Opa-1) and mitofusin 1 (Mfn-1) related to fusion proteins as well as an increase in fission protein dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp-1). Furthermore, the anti-cancer effects of 4GI-1 were partially nullified by knock down of Drp-1 using siRNA. These data indicate that the use of inhibitors that directly target the translation initiation complex eIF4F could represent a potential novel approach for human glioma therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-step method was developed to evaluate potato resistance to black scurf caused by Rhizoctonia solani. Tuber piece inoculum was first conducted in the laboratory, which was also first reported in this study. After inoculation with pathogen discs and culture for 48 h, the necrotic spots on the inoculated potato pieces were generated and measured by the crossing method. Further evaluation was conducted through field experiments using a wheat bran inoculum method. The wheat bran inoculum was placed into the pit dispersedly and surrounded seed tubers. Each cultivar or line was subjected to five treatments of 0-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-g soil inoculum. The results showed that 2-4 g of wheat bran inoculum was the optimum for identifying tuber black scurf resistance. The laboratory scores positively correlated with the incidence and severity of black scurf in the field. According to the results in the laboratory, relatively resistant cultivars could be selected for further estimation of tuber black scurf resistance in field experiments. It is a practical and effective screening method for rapid identification of resistant potato germplasm, which can reduce workload in the field, shorten time required for identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]