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Magneto-optical garnet shows great potential in integrated optical isolators due to its highly efficient non-reciprocity. In this work, we prepared magneto-optical lithium-modified terbium bismuth iron garnet films using the liquid phase epitaxy method and systemically investigated the effect of lithium modification on magnetic properties. We found a trace amount of lithium modification induced in-plane magnetization and a minimum in-plane driving field around 2 Oe. Meanwhile, high remanence over 70% was obtained in tensile-strain samples. Most importantly, in comparison to unmodified samples, the calculation of anisotropy demonstrated the giant reduction of growth-induced anisotropy in the Li: TbBiIG up to 105erg/cm3. It reveals a new rule of ions’ preferred occupation in dodecahedral sublattices indirectly. Furthermore, enhanced Faraday rotation in the near-infrared band was confirmed in the samples about 1 micrometer, up to 48% higher than unmodified samples. Our work shows Li:TbBiIGs enable a prime candidate material with substantial potential for integrated optical isolation applications.

In this paper, sulfoaluminate cement (SAC) is modified with a Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) powder to prepare a repair mortar for repairing buildings with clay bricks, in addition, the adhesion and durability were studied. The experimental results show that the PVA powder-modified sulfoaluminate cement repair mortar has excellent durability and adhesion with the clay brick. At the same time, it was found that the PVA modified sulfoaluminate cement can reduce the drying shrinkage and the cracks in the bonding interface, which is beneficial to improve the adhesion. In addition, the PVA powder can reduce the total porosity of the mortar, but the increase in the capillary porosity is unfavourable to the durability of the mortar. However, the durability results show that the PVA powder effectively improves the water permeability resistance, frost resistance and sulfate corrosion resistance of the SAC repair mortar and the interface between the SAC repair mortar and clay brick. Nevertheless, under a high-temperature environment, the compressive strength and tensile bond strength of the repair mortar decreased rapidly, and also decreased with an increase in the PVA content.

The industrial by-products of fluorgypsum (FG) and steel slag (SS) were recycled for the preparation of gypsum-based cementitious materials (GBCMs). Na₂SO₄ and KAl(SO₄) ₂ were applied to activate the hydration of FG and SS, respectively. The properties of the GBCM were investigated. The residual H2SO4 and soluble F in the FG poses a great threat to the environment. Hence, the environmental impacts of the GBCM were also studied. The results demonstrate that, with an increase in the SS content of the GBCM, the water requirement for normal consistency increases, the setting times are obviously prolonged, while the mechanical strength and the linear expansion rate are lower. Due to the hydration of SS and the formation of ettringite at a late hydration age, both the compressive strength and flexural strength for FG: SS=9:1 and FG: SS=8:2 are close to that of FG: SS=10:0 at 90 d. The water resistance of the GBCM paste is also improved by adding SS into the FG. Hence, considering the mechanical strength and water resistance, the SS content of the GBCM should not exceed 20%. The H2SO4 in the GBCM can be neutralised by SS. Furthermore a novel quick and effective method, through the precipitation of AlF₃, for the immobilisation of soluble F was proposed. Therefore, FG and SS can be recycled for the production of GBCM without bringing about an adverse environmental impact.

Iron garnets are widely used in magneto-optical devices, but knowledge of the effects of common defects on performance is limited. Here, using high-resolution microscopy and spectroscopy, the authors find that magnetism is weakened near these defects causing reduced performance, but can be avoided by tuning the growth rate.

Coronary artery spasm (CAS) may induce lethal ventricular arrhythmia due to severe and prolonged vessel constriction. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are associated with the occurrence of CAS. Optimal medical treatment is the first-line therapeutic option for the management of CAS, whereas patients who experienced aborted sudden cardiac death (SCD) may benefit from implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation. We report a case of a 63-year-old Chinese man receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment for liver cancer who presented with recurrent chest discomfort and syncope with an elevation of high-sensitivity troponin T. Emergent coronary angiography showed sub-total occlusion of the left anterior descending artery without other signs of CAS. Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty with a drug-coated balloon was performed successfully with the guidance of intravascular ultrasound. After 5 months, the patient returned to the emergency room for chest discomfort and another episode of syncope. The electrocardiogram showed ST-segment elevation in the inferior and V5–V6 leads compared to the previous event. Coronary angiography was repeated immediately and showed significant luminal stenosis at the midportion of the right coronary artery (RCA), whereas, after administration of intracoronary nitroglycerine, a remarkable recovery of RCA patency was noticed. A diagnosis of CAS was made, and soon after that, the patient rapidly developed ventricular arrhythmia in the coronary care unit. After successful resuscitation, the patient recovered completely and received long-acting calcium channel blockers as well as nitrates therapy. ICD implantation was performed considering the high risk of recurrence of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia. During the follow-up period, the patient has been free of angina, syncope, or ventricular arrhythmia, and ICD interrogation showed no ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. We first reported the case of a patient with CAS induced by regorafenib treatment complicated with severe atherosclerotic coronary disease who survived from sudden cardiac arrest. ICD implantation is indicated in patients who experienced aborted SCD for the prevention of the next lethal ventricular arrhythmia.

Abstract Porous polymer‐based Terahertz (THz) absorbers possess strong absorption with broadband, lightweight, and flexible features. Thus these are widely desired in THz electromagnetic shielding, radar‐cross‐section reduction, radiometer calibration, etc. However, the harsh environment of humidity, corrosiveness, and dustiness undermines the performance and service lifetime of the porous absorbers. Here, based on Ti3C2Tx MXene sponge composite foam (MSF), a superhydrophobic broadband THz absorber on a large pore‐size porous architecture by a joint hydrophobic strategy is realized. Results show that the apparent contact angles and roll‐off angles of the modified MSF reached 159.0° and 7.6°, while maintaining an ultra‐high absorption rate of 99.6% in the frequency range of 0.3–1.2 THz. Furthermore, the special Micro‐Nano hierarchical structures render the absorber a strong bounce‐off ability to the droplets of an aqueous solution. These water‐repellent properties endow the absorber the versatility of self‐cleaning and anti‐corrosion, thus can be widely applied in many scenarios including THz remote sensing, communication, and security screening as well.

Pollen development and its fertility are obligatory conditions for the reproductive success of flowing plants. Sucrose transporter 3 (OsSUT3) is known to be preferentially expressed and may play critical role in developing pollen. A 31-bp InDel was identified as a unique variation and was shown to be responsible for the expression of downstream gene in our previous study. In this study, to analyze the changes of gene expression triggered by 31-bp InDel during pollen development, two vectors (p385-In/Del::OsSUT3-GUS) were constructed and then stably introduced into rice. Histochemical and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis of transgenic plants showed that 31-bp deletion drastically reduced the expressions of downstream genes, including both OsSUT3 and GUS in rice panicle at booting stage, especially that of OsSUT3. The transcriptome profile of two types of panicles at booting stage revealed a total of 1028 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between 31-bp In and 31-bp Del transgenic plants. Further analyses showed that 397 of these genes were significantly enriched for the ‘metabolic process’ and ‘binding’. Among them, nineteen genes had a strong relationship with starch and sucrose metabolism and were identified as candidate genes potentially associated with the starch accumulation in rice pollen, which that was also verified via qRT-PCR. In summary, 31-bp InDel plays a crucial role not only in the regulation of downstream genes but in the expression of sucrose-starch metabolizing genes in multiple biological pathways, and provides a different regulation mechanism for sucrose metabolism in pollen.

The isotropic transmission of magnetostatic forward volume spin waves in magnetic films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is shown to be useful in the implementation of magnon-based micro-conduits. However, to our knowledge, non-magnetic-bias-field spin-wave propagation in a PMA magnetic insulator has not been achieved yet, which constrains the development of magnonic information devices and systems. Herein, we demonstrate a robust, bias-free spin-wave transmission in an 18.5-μm-thick bismuth-doped thulium iron garnet film with PMA. This ferrimagnetic film grown by liquid phase epitaxy exhibits high quality in both its crystal structure and its chemical composition and displays a large PMA field of ∼173 mT. The bias-free and reciprocal propagation of spin waves is demonstrated by all-electrical spectroscopy and provides a group velocity of 4.90 km s−1 and a decay length of 20.5 µm at zero magnetic field. Direct imaging of the remnant state indicates that the bias-free spin waves propagate along the oppositely oriented stripe domains with Bloch-type walls, which are formed by in-plane pre-magnetization. Our work contributes to the construction of isotropic charge-free micro-circuits with high levels of integration and nonvolatility.

Choroidal metastasis as an initial presenting feature of lung cancer with EML4-ALK translocation is exceedingly rare and greatly impacts patient quality of life (QOL). There are no recommended treatments for such patients, and palliative care remains limited. It is unclear whether surgical resection of primary pulmonary lesions, systemic antitumor therapy, targeted therapy, or localized ocular therapy are effective in treating choroidal metastases in EML4-ALK rearranged oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here, we present the case of choroidal metastases secondary to lung cancer and EML4-ALK translocation in a 57-year-old woman who firstly underwent resection of lung lesions followed by oral administration of crizotinib without local treatment or systemic chemotherapy. Since then she had a rapid and complete response to crizotinib with 27 months of progression-free survival.

Abstract Background Wild sugarcane Saccharum spontaneum plants vary in ploidy, which complicates the utilization of its germplasm in sugarcane breeding. Investigations on cold tolerance in relation to different ploidies in S. spontaneum may promote the exploitation of its germplasm and accelerate the improvement of sugarcane varieties. Results A hypoploid clone 12–23 (2n = 54) and hyperploid clone 15–28 (2n = 92) of S. spontaneum were analysed under cold stress from morphological, physiological, and transcriptomic perspectives. Compared with clone 15–28, clone 12–23 plants had lower plant height, leaf length, internode length, stem diameter, and leaf width; depressed stomata and prominent bristles and papillae; and thick leaves with higher bulliform cell groups and thicker adaxial epidermis. Compared with clone 15–28, clone 12–23 showed significantly lower electrical conductivity, significantly higher water content, soluble protein content, and superoxide dismutase activity, and significantly higher soluble sugar content and peroxidase activity. Under cold stress, the number of upregulated genes and downregulated genes of clone 12–23 was higher than clone 15–28, and many stress response genes and pathways were affected and enriched to varying degrees, particularly sugar and starch metabolic pathways and plant hormone signalling pathways. Under cold stress, the activity of 6-phosphate glucose trehalose synthase, trehalose phosphate phosphatase, and brassinosteroid-signalling kinase and the content of trehalose and brassinosteroids of clone 12–23 increased. Conclusions Compared with hyperploid clone 15–28, hypoploid clone 12–23 maintained a more robust osmotic adjustment system through sugar accumulation and hormonal regulation, which resulted in stronger cold tolerance.

Background: Recently, RNA modifications have emerged as essential epigenetic regulators of gene expression. However, the mechanism of how RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification interacts with tumor microenvironment (TME) infiltration remains obscure.Methods: A total of 876 head and neck cancer samples considering 21 m6A regulators were included and analyzed to determine the m6A modification patterns. These modification patterns were then correlated with TME immune cell-infiltrating characteristics. A scoring system, the m6Ascore, was constructed using principal component analysis algorithms to quantify m6A modification of tumors.Results: Three m6A modification patterns were identified, with TME infiltrating characteristics highly consistent with tumors with three distinct immune phenotypes, including immune-inflamed, immune-exclude, and immune-desert phenotypes. It was demonstrated that the identification of the m6A modification patterns via m6Ascore could predict tumor progression, subtypes, TME stromal activity, variation of relevant genes, and patient prognosis. Low m6Ascore, identified to be an inflamed phenotype, is found to be associated with low stroma activity and tumor mutation burden, high survival probability, increased tumor neoantigen burden, and enhanced response to anti-PD-1/L1 immunotherapy. The therapeutic advantages and clinical benefits of patients with low m6Ascore were further verified in two immunotherapy cohorts.Conclusion: This study identified the significant role that the m6A modification played in the formation of TME characteristics. A more comprehensive understanding of the m6A modification patterns and their correlation with TME infiltration will contribute to the discovery of immunotherapy strategies with better efficacy.

Rare-earth iron garnet thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have recently attracted a great deal of attention for spintronics applications. Bismuth substituted iron garnets are particularly popular among these various films because Bi3+ with a larger ion radius can adjust the lattice constant, strain state, and PMA of the films. In this paper, Tm2BiFe5O12 (TmBiIG) and Y2BiFe5O12 (YBiIG) garnet films with a series of thicknesses are prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering, and these films exhibit robust PMA. The microstructural properties, magnetic properties, and the anomalous Hall effect of these two kinds of films are discussed in detail. Due to their larger magnetostriction coefficient and proper tensile strain, TmBiIG films exhibit better PMA than YBiIG films, which have lower damping. As the thickness of TmBiIG and YBiIG films increases, the PMA becomes weaker, and the 40 nm YBiIG turns back to in-plane easy magnetization, but PMA is still obvious for the 64 nm TmBiIG. The ferromagnetic resonance linewidth of the 32 nm TmBiIG film is 249.08 Oe @ 13 GHz, and the damping factor is 1.49 × 10−2, which is close to that of Tm3Fe5O12. YBiIG films have better damping characteristics than TmBiIG films; however, the value is larger than that of yttrium iron garnet because of surface roughness and defects caused by larger lattice mismatch. In addition, on account of fewer defects and smaller surface roughness, the Hall voltage and Hall resistivity in TmBiIG/Pt heterostructures are larger than in YBiIG/Pt.

Although the wider electrochemical window, higher temperature stability, and better battery safety of Li _7 La _3 Zr _2 O _12 (LLZO) electrolytes than organic liquid, organogels, and polyelectrolytes, the limited ionic conductivity still far away from the practical electrochemical applications. Herein, LLZO electrolytes were by solid phase method. In order to further improve its electrochemical performance, aluminum substitution was introduced to replace Li ^+ sites and thus the highly conductive cubic phase was stabilized. The results show that with the increase of the substitution amount, the ion conductivity presents a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. It was found that 0.15Al-LLZO ceramics presented optimized ionic conductivity (1.184 × 10 ^–4 S·cm ^−1 ) and 92.5% of bulk density at 1150 °C for 21 h treatment. On the other hand, with the combination of molecular simulations, the relationship between the influence of aluminum substitution on the differential charge density of the garnet solid electrolyte and the electrochemical performance was investigated. It is believed that such an experimental-modeling combination will expand the fundamental understanding of elements variation/substitution effects on solid electrolytes, especially for lithium metal oxides.

Abstract Based on highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays (NTAs), we successfully fabricated the Cu2O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction by a simple thermal decomposition process for the first time. The anodic TiO2 NTAs were functioned as both “nano-container” and “nano-reactors” to load and synthesize the narrow band Cu2O nanoparticles. The loaded Cu2O expanded absorption spectrum of the TiO2 NTAs from ultraviolent range to visible light range. We found that the Cu2O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction films had visible activity towards photocatalytic degrading methyl orange (MO). The photocatalytic abilities of the Cu2O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction films were found increased with the Cu2O content from 0.05 to 0.3 mol/L. This could be explained by more electron-hole pairs generated and less recombination, when the Cu2O-TiO2 heterojunction got formed. Here, we put forward this promising method, hoping it can facilitate the mass production and applications of Cu2O-TiO2 NTA heterojunction.

Background/Aims: Cardiotoxicity is a predominant side-effect of nilotinib during chronic myeloid leukemia treatment. The underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. The role of autophagy and mitochondrial signaling was investigated in nilotinib-treated cardiac H9C2 cells. Methods: Cytotoxicity was assessed using Cell Death Detection kit. Immunoblot and immunofluorescence staining was performed, and cathepsin B and caspase3 activity was assessed in nilotinib-treated H9C2 cells with or without distinct pathway inhibitor or specific siRNA. Results: Nilotinib time- and dose-dependently induced H9C2 apoptosis, which was not completely prevented by the pan caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk. Following nilotinib treatment, mitochondrial membrane potential decreased significantly accompanied with remarkable morphological changes. Nuclear translocation of mitochondrial apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) and increased p53 was detected in nilotinib-treated cells. AIF knockdown prevented nilotinib-induced increase of p53 and apoptosis. Additionally, increased cathepsin B activity was detected, and inhibition of cathepsin B by CA-074Me prevented nilotinib-induced apoptosis and nuclear translocation of AIF. Moreover, increased Atg5 and transition of LC3-I to LC3-II was revealed following nilotinib treatment. Increased cathepsin B activity and apoptosis by nilotinib was significantly prohibited by specific autophagy inhibitor bafilomycin A and Atg5 knockdown. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that nilotinib increases autophagy and cathepsin B activity, leading to mitochondrial AIF release and nuclear translocation, which is responsible for p53 and apoptosis induction in H9C2 cells.

In this paper, the Y2Bi1Fe5O12 films were grown on substituted gadolinium gallium garnet substrate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering and their magnetic properties were investigated. We found that the 20 nm-thick film had the best perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) under the combined effect of stress-induced anisotropy and surface roughness of the film; the applied magnetic field required for its out-of-plane magnetization saturation was 90 Oe, the remanence ratio was 0.8, the coercive force was 30 Oe, and the damping constant was 3.37 × 10−3. The PMA of the films was reduced due to the relaxation of the stress as the thickness of the film increased, and the easy magnetization axis became in-plane as the thickness reached 40 nm.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a common cardiac condition in patients with diabetes mellitus, which results in cardiac hypertrophy and subsequent heart failure. Chronic inflammation in the diabetic heart results in loss of cardiomyocytes and subsequentially cardiac dysfunction. Accumulated evidence implicated pyroptosis as a vital contributor to the hyperglycemia-induced cardiac inflammatory response. Exendin-4, a GLP analog, promotes survival of cardiomyocytes in cardiovascular diseases, including diabetic cardiomyopathy. However, the role of Exendin-4 in cardiac pyroptosis remains to be elucidated. Our study revealed that Exendin-4 treatment protected against heart remolding and dysfunction and attenuated cardiac inflammation in high-fat diet-fed rats. The activity of caspase-1 and production of pyroptotic cytokines were significantly inhibited by Exendin-4 treatment in the diabetic heart and in high glucose-treated cardiomyocytes as well. In an effort to understand the signaling mechanisms underlying the antipyroptotic property of Exendin-4, we found that blockade of AMPK, an oxidative stress sensor, activity diminished the antipyroptotic property of Exendin-4. Phosphorylation of AMPK resulted in degeneration of TXNIP that promoted the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Exendin-4 treatment decreased the protein level of TXNIP. Moreover, RNA silencing of TXNIP mimicked the antipyroptotic actions of Exendin-4. These findings promoted us to propose a new signaling pathway mediating cardioprotective effect of Exendin-4 under hyperglycemic conditions: Exendin-4 → ROS↓ → pAMPK↑ → TXNIP↓ → caspase-1↓ → IL-1β and IL-18↓ → pyroptosis↓. In general, our study identified Exendin-4 as a pyroptotic inhibitor protecting against hyperglycemia-induced cardiomyocyte pyroptosis via the AMPK-TXNIP pathway.

Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) is a promising candidate for spin wave devices. In the thin film devices, the interface between YIG and substrate may play important roles in determining the device properties. Here, we use spherical aberration-corrected scanning electron microscopy and spectroscopy to study the atomic arrangement, chemistry and electronic structure of the YIG/Gd3Ga5O12 (GGG) interface. We find that the chemical bonding of the interface is FeO-GdGaO and the interface remains sharp in both atomic and electronic structures. We provide an efficient method to study the interface chemical bonding, and these results give necessary information for understanding the properties of interface and also for atomistic calculation.

In this paper, a series of polycrystalline ferrite samples were prepared with the composition of Zn0.1Li0.525-xTi0.15MgxFe2.225-0.5xO4 (LiZn) (x=0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20) using both microwave sintering (MS) and conventional sintering (CS) technologies, respectively. The sintering time and temperature were 22 hours and 1000°C for the CS process, and 2 hours and 880°C for the MS process. Experiments showed that the MS treated LiZn ferrites exhibited more excellent magnetic properties and denser, more uniform micro-structures comparing with the ones treated by CS method. For the LiZn ferrite (x=0.1) sintered at 880°C using MS, the saturation magnetic induction (Bs) is 242.3 mT, the coercive force (Hc) is 135 A/m, the square ratio (Br/Bs) is 0.87 and the ferromagnetic resonance line-width (Δ H) is 143.2 Oe. These results represented very good properties for an X-band phase shifter material and indicated that the MS method is a potentially important technique for fabricating low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC).