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As an effective way to obtain freshwater resources, atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology has been a wide concern of researchers. Therefore, hydrogels gradually become key materials for atmospheric water harvesters due to their high specific surface area and three-dimensional porous structure. Here, we construct a core-shell hydrogel-based atmospheric water harvesting material consisting of a shell sodium polyacrylate (PAAS) hydrogel with an open pore structure and a core thermosensitive poly

Mortalin is involved in the malignant phenotype of many cancers. However, the specific molecular mechanisms involving Mortalin in lung adenocarcinoma remain unclear. In this study, we showed that both Mortalin mRNA and protein are overexpressed in lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, Mortalin overexpression was positively correlated with poor overall survival. In vitro experiments showed that Mortalin silencing inhibited the proliferation, colony formation and migration abilities of A549 and H1299 cells. Mortalin promotes EMT progression, angiogenesis and tumor progression by activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. In vivo experiments further confirmed that Mortalin promoted malignant progression of lung adenocarcinoma. Taken together, our data suggest that Mortalin represents an attractive prognostic marker and therapeutic target in lung adenocarcinoma patients.

The aim of the study is to assess the clinical value of the combined computed tomography (CT)/ultrasound (US) guidance in microwave ablation (MWA) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).From July 16, 2016, to June 20, 2021, medical records of 150 HCC patients treated with MWA were retrospectively analyzed. Ninety-two patients with 115 liver tumors underwent MWA under combined CT/US guidance, and 58 patients with 73 liver tumors received MWA under CT guidance alone. The clinical efficacy of combined CT/US-guided MWA was analyzed. We compared the complications, procedure time, and CT scan times between the 2 groups.The total complete ablation rate and complete ablation rate of high-risk location tumors were significantly higher in the group treated with combined CT/US guidance (P = 0.0471 and P = 0.0347, respectively), the imaging guidance modality (odds ratio, 0.303; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.095-0.970; P = 0.044) was an independent factor for ablation efficacy. These 2 groups also had significant differences in the procedure time (P = 0.0171), the incidence rate of pneumothorax (P = 0.0209), abdominal pain (P = 0.0196), nausea or vomiting (P = 0.0026), and intraoperative CT scan times (P0.001). The overall complication rates (P = 0.4023) and recurrence rates (P = 0.5063) between the 2 groups were not statistically significant. However, CT/US group has a better short-term progressive free survival (log-rank P = 0.103, Breslow P = 0.030). In multivariate analysis, guidance modality (hazard ratio, 0.586; 95% CI, 0.368-0.934; P = 0.025) and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage (hazard ratio, 2.933; 95% CI, 1.678-5.127; P0.001) were risk factor for progressive free survival.Percutaneous MWA under the combined CT/US guidance for HCC can improve clinical benefits.

Efficient collection of water from fog provides a potential solution to solve the global freshwater shortage problem, particularly in the desert or arid regions. In this work, a flexible and highly efficient fog collector was prepared by mimicking the back exoskeleton structure of the Namib desert beetle. The improved fog collector was constructed by a superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic patterned fabric via a simple weaving method, followed by in-situ deposition of copper particles. Compared with the conventional fog collector with a plane structure, the fabric has shown a higher water-harvesting rate at 1432.7 mg/h/cm2, owing to the biomimetic three-dimensional structure, its enhanced condensation performance enabled by the copper coating and the rational distribution of wetting units. The device construction makes use of the widely available textile materials through mature manufacturing technology, which makes it highly suitable for large-scale industrial production.

Medical research reveals that keeping the skin surface dry can effectively prevent a variety of fungal skin diseases. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to develop a light, thin, comfortable and breathable functional garment fabric with efficient one-way water transmission for people's requirements. Here, we successfully prepared a three-layer stacking sandwich coating to construct a Janus nonwoven material with efficient unidirectional water transport function, viz. PDMS-ormosil-PDMS@nonwoven fabric (PDMS-ormosil-PDMS@NF). Theoretical analysis showed that the loading of ormosil particles could enhance the surface roughness, while PDMS could strengthen the hydrophobic properties and bondability between the ormosil particles and fabric, thus acting as an environmentally friendly fluorine-free treating agent. The results revealed that the hydrophilic-hydrophobic PDMS-ormosil-PDMS@nonwoven fabric maintained excellent hydrophobic stability and good air permeability even after abrasion, which solved the existing problems of aerogel poor deposition and PDMS poor permeability, benefiting the application of textiles with unidirectional water transport performance.

Purpose Human hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-like 2 (HSDL2) is a characterized SDR gene that not only catalyses the oxidation and reduction of multiple substrates but also regulates different metabolic and signalling pathways. Accumulating evidences suggest that HSDL2 play an important role in cancer progression. However, the role of HSDL2 in breast cancer has not yet been determined. Thus, this study aims to explore the relevance of HSDL2 in breast cancer progression. Patients and methods The location of HSDL2 protein was detected in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells by using immunofluorescence (IF) staining. The expression level of HSDL2 was evaluated by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining in 119 breast cancer tissues and 40 normal breast tissues. Then, the correlations between the overexpression of HSDL2 and clinicopathological features of breast cancer patients were evaluated by using the chi-square test, and the survival rates were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. In addition, the role of HSDL2 in breast cancer proliferation was assessed by MTT and colony formation assays, and cell cycle distribution was detected by flow cytometry analysis and Western blot. Results IF staining and IHC analysis consistently showed that HSDL2 was predominantly expressed in the cytoplasm of breast cancer cells. The positive rate of HSDL2 protein was significantly higher in breast cancer tissues (87.4%, 104/119) than in adjacent normal breast tissues (25%, 10/40) (p

Mortalin is a member of the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family that promotes the development of many cancers. It is reportedly a tumor promoter, but the mechanism of Mortalin in breast cancer is unclear. We designed a series of experiments to explore the correlation between Mortalin and the malignancy of breast cancer, and to assess the potential of Mortalin as a novel therapeutic target in breast cancer. The expression level of Mortalin in breast cancer tissues was detected. Then, we did a series of functional experiment. The findings indicated that Mortalin facilitates the proliferation, metastasis, and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of breast cancer. In our research, Mortalin is regulated EMT process and malignant progression of breast cancer through Wnt/β-Catenin signaling pathway. The findings imply that Mortalin significantly promotes the progression of breast cancer malignancy and reduces patient survival, suggesting that Mortalin as a biomarker and prognostic factor in breast cancer.

SPOCK1 is highly expressed in many types of cancer and has been recognized as a promoter of cancer progression. Its regulatory mechanism in breast cancer (BC) remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the precise function of SPOCK1 in BC progression and to identify the mechanism by which SPOCK1 is involved in cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) experiments and database analysis showed that high expression of SPOCK1 was positively associated with histological grade, lymph node metastasis (LN) and poor clinical prognosis in BC. A series of in vitro and in vivo assays elucidated that altering the SPOCK1 level led to distinct changes in BC cell proliferation and metastasis. Investigations of potential mechanisms revealed that SPOCK1 interacted with SIX1 to enhance cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and EMT by activating the AKT/mTOR pathway, whereas inhibition of the AKT/mTOR pathway or depletion of SIX1 reversed the effects of SPOCK1 overexpression. Furthermore, SPOCK1 and SIX1 were highly expressed in BC and might indicate poor prognoses. Altogether, the SPOCK1/SIX1 axis promoted BC progression by activating the AKT/mTOR pathway to accelerate cell proliferation and promote metastasis in BC, so the SPOCK1/SIX1 axis might be a promising clinical therapeutic target for preventing BC progression.

A Pd0 -catalyzed four-component cascade reaction of an aryl halide, CO, an N-tosylhydrazone, and an amine affording α-amino ketone has been developed. This reaction involves a sequential carbonylation, metal carbene migratory insertion, and amination. Control experiments and DFT calculations further reveal the reaction sequence and chemoselectivity of individual components in this cascade process.

Water pollution has caused serious water shortage, and this trend becomes increasingly serious in the world. Therefore, how to efficiently access water resources is crucial for human beings. Considering the easy blockage problem of traditional fog-harvesting mesh, we used the fog catcher brushes structure to avoid the problem effectively. Besides, most of the modified coatings on fog-harvesting materials contain fluorosilane, which is expensive, harmful and unstable for a long time using. In addition to the general properties of dimethyl silicone oil, hydrogen methyl silicone oil can participate in a variety of chemical reactions and have a good film-forming performance due to its molecular structure containing active Si–H keys compared to the similar studies about the oil-infused coating. Besides, the low contact angle hysteresis of the droplet can benefit for the droplet sliding off the surface, which further improve the fog-harvesting efficiency. In this paper, mechanical cutting method, water bath method, and spray coating method were successfully combined to construct slippery “fog catcher brushes” with alumina micro-needle structured surfaces from micro control to macro design. Furthermore, the effect of wettability, pattern shape and pattern size on fog-harvesting performance were investigated. Experiment results indicated that slippery surface benefited for the fog deposition and transportation compared with the superhydrophilic and plain surface. When the fog droplets passed through the sample with 10-teeth arc-shaped pattern, it would fully contact the surface, and only a small amount of fog droplets escaped from the surface. With the adjacent droplets coalescing, the droplets slided off along both sides of the pattern, then the contact surface decreased gradually from the top to the bottom, so droplets could transport rapidly. Analysis demonstrated that the slippery arc-shaped fog catcher brushes with 10-teeth had a good effect on the capturing and transporting of fog droplets, which offered a way to rationally construct materials with enhanced fog-harvesting performance from micro control to macro design.

Hydrogen is an attractive alternative to fossil fuels that addresses several environmental and energy shortage issues. Nano-sized TiO2-based photocatalysts with unique structural and functional properties are the most extensively studied photocatalytic nanomaterials for hydrogen production and pollutant degradation. However, titania is hampered by a wide band gap, low utilization of solar light and a rapid recombination of electron/hole pairs. These issues limit its photocatalytic performance. In this review, we present the latest developments in the fabrication of different higher dimensional TiO2 nanostructured materials that aim to address these inherent limitations to an otherwise very promising material. Specifically, we will look into critical engineering strategies to enlarge the active surface area, enhance visible light absorption and suppress the recombination of electrons/holes that benefit their photo/photoelectric-catalytic water splitting activity. Finally, the current challenges and perspectives for TiO2 nanostructures are also discussed. Continuous efforts are necessary to endow TiO2-based materials with novel advanced functionality and commercialization potential in the coming years.

Purpose To investigate the effect of miR-200c/PAI-2 on macrophage polarization into M2-type TAMs in TNBC. Methods and materials PAI-2 expression in MDA-MB-231con, MDA-MB-231miR-200ab and MDA-MB-231miR-200c breast cancer cells was evaluated by RT-PCR and immunofluorescence (IF), while the expression of the TAM marker F4/80 and the M2-type TAM marker CD206 in MDA-MB-231con, MDA-MB-231miR-200c and MDA-MB-231miR-200c/siPAI-2 mouse lung metastatic tumor tissues was examined with immunohistochemistry (IHC). The effects of RAW264.7 cells on MDA-MB-231con, MDA-MB-231miR-200c and MDA-MB-231miR-200c/siPAI-2 were examined by transwell co-culture. CD206 expression in RAW264.7 cells were confirmed by immunostaining. The level of PAI-2 and IL-10 in the co-culture supernatants were assessed using ELISA. Results 1. RT-PCR and IF analysis showed that PAI-2 was upregulated in MDA-MB-231miR-200c cells. 2. IHC assays analysis showed that the numbers of F4/80 and CD206 positive cells were increased in MDA-MB-231miR-200c tumor tissues, while in MDA-MB-231miR-200c/siPAI-2 tumor tissues were decreased. 3. Transwell co-culture assays analysis showed that MDA-MB-231miR-200c cells significantly promoted the cell migration ability compared with the control group, while knockdown PAI-2 significantly inhibited the cell migration ability (P Conclusions miR-200c promotes the malignant progressions of TNBC by PAI-2 upregulation and M2 phenotype macrophages polarization.

To coordinate trade-off among separation, permeation and stability, we prepared an amino-rich carbon quantum dots (CQDs-NH2) nanofiltration (NF) membrane with a granular surface structure, an ultra-thin active layer and abundant amine groups by double “one-step” methods (synthesizing CQDs-NH2 by heating of poly-ethylenimine polymer first and then polymerizing trimesoyl chloride (TMC) and CQDs-NH2). Through the in-situ small angle X-ray scattering, we observed that the radius of CQDs-NH2 first decreased slightly and then increased significantly with the heating temperature increasing, and the minimum average radius was 4.64 nm. The optimized conditions of 1.6 wt% CQDs-NH2 solution, 0.2 wt% TMC solution, 60 ℃ curing temperature and 7.5 min curing time were used to prepare polyethersulfone/CQDs-NH2-TMC NF membrane, which exhibited the remarkable performance with permeation flux of 11.98 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and S Li , M g of 14.42. The original interfacial binding force of polyethersulfone/CQDs-NH2-TMC composite membrane was 146.6 μN, which was two times higher than that of polyethersulfone/poly-ethylenimine-TMC composite membrane due to the “anchor effect” and compatibility. Importantly, during a 120-h continuous filtration, the permeate flux and separation performance were still stable with only small fluctuations, same as the interfacial binding force.

Superhydrophobic cotton fabrics were prepared via a facile and environmentally friendly strategy to deposit an organically modified silica aerogel (ormosil) thin film onto the fabrics first, followed by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) topcoating. The PDMS–ormosil coating displayed a uniform 3D fractal-like structure with numerous loose micro-scale pores, while the PDMS layer increased the binding strength of the hierarchical ormosil film to form a highly robust porous network on the fibers. In comparison with hydrophilic cotton fabrics, the modified cotton fabric exhibited a highly superhydrophobic activity with a water contact angle higher than 160° and a sliding angle lower than 10°. The as-constructed PDMS–ormosil@fabrics are able to withstand 100 cycles of abrasion and 5 cycles of accelerated machine wash without an apparent decrease of superhydrophobicity. In addition, the superhydrophobic cotton fabrics are very stable in strongly acidic and alkaline solutions. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic coating has no or negligible adverse effect on the important textile physical properties of the cotton fabric, such as the strength, air permeability, and flexibility. The composite super-antiwetting fabrics have demonstrated excellent anti-fouling, self-cleaning ability and are highly efficient in oil–water separation for various oil–water mixtures. This facile synthesis technique has the advantages of scalable fabrication of multifunctional fabrics for potential applications in self-cleaning and versatile water–oil separation.

A Pd

Recently, long non-coding RNA activated by transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) (lncRNA ATB) was shown to be useful in cancer prognosis, however, its prognostic value in human cancer has been inconsistent. Our study aimed to explore the prognostic role of lncRNA ATB expression in cancer prognosis.PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were thoroughly searched to retrieve studies focusing on the prognostic role of lncRNA ATB expression in cancer, and meta-analysis was performed.A total of 15 studies were included into this meta-analysis. High lncRNA ATB expression was significantly related to shorter overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.44, 95%CI = 1.98-3.01, P 0.01), recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 1.85, 95%CI = 1.42-2.40, P 0.01), disease-free survival (DFS) (HR = 3.61, 95%CI = 2.45-5.33, P 0.01), and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 2.97, 95%CI = 2.12-4.16, P 0.01) when compared with low lncRNA ATB expression in cancer. Moreover, Patients with high lncRNA ATB expression tended to have worse tumor differentiation (P 0.01), more advanced clinical stage (P 0.01), deeper tumor invasion (P 0.01), earlier distant metastases (P = 0.02), lymph node metastases (P = 0.04), and vascular invasion (P 0.01) when compared with those with low lncRNA ATB expression.High lncRNA ATB expression was significantly associated with worse prognosis in cancer. LncRNA ATB expression could be used as a prognostic biomarker for human cancer.

Liquid mobility on super-wettable materials is of interest for enhanced heat transfer, self-cleaning, anti-fouling, anti-icing, water-harvesting, and oil–water separation. Here, we review different mechanisms related to liquid mobility on super-wettable materials, encompassing some classical wetting theories and liquid transport behaviors observed on biological surfaces with special textures. Then, the different categories of liquid behaviors on super-wettability materials are summarized, focusing on recent progress on vertical motion (droplet self-propelling and bouncing), horizontal transportation (transportation on one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) materials), and interfacial penetration (oil–water penetration and water penetration). Along these lines, we also review the latest applications in energy and the environment, followed by presenting the outlook and key challenges. Accepted version

An ultrasonication-assisted successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) strategy was developed for uniform deposition of high density p-type Bi2O3 quantum dots on n-type TiO2 nanotube arrays (Bi2O3@TiO2 NTAs), which were constructed by electrochemical anodization in ethylene glycol containing the electrolyte. Compared with pristine TiO2 NTAs, the Bi2O3 quantum dots sensitized TiO2 NTAs exhibited highly efficient photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO). The kinetic constant of Bi2O3@TiO2 NTAs prepared by an ultrasonication-assisted SILAR process of 4 cycles was 1.95 times higher than that of the pristine TiO2 NTA counterpart. The highly efficient photocatalytic activity is attributed to the synergistic effect between the formation of a uniform p–n heterojunction with high-density for enhancing light absorption and facilitating photogenerated electron–hole separation/transfer. The results suggest that Bi2O3@TiO2 p–n heterojunction nanotube arrays are very promising for enhancing the photocatalytic activity and open up a promising strategy for designing and constructing high efficiency heterogeneous semiconductor photocatalysts.

Ice accumulation poses a series of severe issues in daily life. Inspired by the nature, superwettability surfaces have attracted great interests from fundamental research to anti‐icing and ice‐phobic applications. Here, recently published literature about the mechanism of ice prevention is reviewed, with a focus on the anti‐icing and ice‐phobic mechanisms, encompassing the behavior of condensate microdrops on the surface, wetting, ice nucleation, and freezing. Then, a detailed account of the innovative fabrication and fundamental research of anti‐icing materials with special wettability is summarized with a focus on recent progresses including low‐surface energy coatings and liquid‐infused layered coatings. Finally, special attention is paid to a discussion about advantages and disadvantages of the technologies, as well as factors that affect the anti‐icing and ice‐phobic efficiency. Outlooks and the challenges for future development of the anti‐icing and ice‐phobic technology are presented and discussed. Accepted version

The rapid development of globalization and industrialization has caused a series of environment problems due to the increased consumption of fossil energy sources. To address these concerns, water splitting for hydrogen production in the presence of a semiconductor photocatalyst is studied extensively as a potential method to provide clean and renewable hydrogen source. In article 1600152, Yuekun Lai and co‐workers review various methods to construct 1D TiO2 nanotubes, and modified strategies to enhance solar light harvesting and energy conversion efficiency. Furthermore, the mechanism and applications of photo/photoelectro‐catalytic water splitting are comprehensively discussed.

A transition-metal-free Buchner reaction using trifluoromethylated N-tosylhydrazones as substrates is reported. A series of trifluoromethylated cycloheptatriene derivatives can be synthesized by this straightforward method.

An efficient and practical methodology has been developed to introduce the CF3 group onto quinones through Cu(I)-catalyzed direct C-H trifluoromethylation of quinones.

We have developed a stereospecific, nickel-catalyzed Miyaura borylation of allylic pivalates, which delivers highly enantioenriched α-stereogenic γ-aryl allylboronates with good yields and regioselectivities. Our complementary sets of conditions enable access to either enantiomer of allylboronate product from a single enantiomer of readily prepared allylic pivalate substrate. Excellent functional group tolerance, yields, regioselectivities, and stereochemical fidelities are observed. The stereochemical switch from stereoretention to stereoinversion largely depends upon solvent, and can be explained by competitive pathways for the oxidative addition step. Our mechanistic investigations support a stereoretentive pathway stemming from a directed oxidative addition and a stereoinvertive pathway that is dominant when MeCN blocks coordination of the directing group by binding the nickel catalyst.

The ability to release the adhered drops on superhydrophobic surfaces is very important for self-cleaning, antifrosting/icing, microfluidic device, and heat transfer applications. In this paper, three types of in situ electrochemical anodizing TiO

Titanium dioxide nanotube arrays (TiO2 NTAs) have attracted much interest due to their unique highly ordered array structure, outstanding properties, and potential applications in photo/photoelectrocatalytic degradation of pollutants, hydrogen production, supercapacitors, dye-sensitized solar cells, sensors, and biomedical devices. It has been fabricated via a facile electrochemical anodic oxidation of Ti substrate in fluoride-containing electrolytes. Combined with our previous work, we comprehensively review the recent progress of TiO2 TNAs on the synthesis processes, forming mechanism, and modification used to improve the photoelectric properties. In addition, this article summarizes some of the recent advances on the photo/photoelectrocatalytic degradation of pollutants. Besides, other applications and the future development of TiO2 TNAs are also briefly discussed and addressed.

The identification of molecular markers for diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis is a significant issue in the management of patients with gastric cancer. We compared the expression profiles of 23 gastric cancers and 22 normal gastric tissues using cDNA microarrays. We divided the samples into two sets, 11 pairs as a training set and 12 unpaired gastric cancer and 11 unpaired normal gastric tissues as a test set. We selected significant genes in the training set and validated the significance of the genes in the test set. We obtained 238 classifier genes that showed a maximum cross-validation probability and clear hierarchical clustering pattern in the training set, and showed excellent class prediction probability in the independent test set. The classifier genes consisted of known genes related to the biological features of cancer and 28% unknown genes. We obtained genome-wide molecular signatures of gastric cancer, which provides preliminary exploration data for the pathophysiology of gastric cancer.

An efficient copper-catalyzed allylic trifluoromethylation reaction has been developed. This reaction provides a general and straightforward way to synthesize allylic trifluoromethylated compounds under mild conditions.

An ultrasonication-assisted successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) strategy was developed for uniform deposition of high density p-type Bi2O3 quantum dots on n-type TiO2 nanotube arrays (Bi2O3@TiO2 NTAs), which were constructed by electrochemical anodization in ethylene glycol containing the electrolyte. Compared with pristine TiO2 NTAs, the Bi2O3 quantum dots sensitized TiO2 NTAs exhibited highly efficient photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO). The kinetic constant of Bi2O3@TiO2 NTAs prepared by an ultrasonication-assisted SILAR process of 4 cycles was 1.95 times higher than that of the pristine TiO2 NTA counterpart. The highly efficient photocatalytic activity is attributed to the synergistic effect between the formation of a uniform p-n heterojunction with high-density for enhancing light absorption and facilitating photogenerated electron-hole separation/transfer. The results suggest that Bi2O3@TiO2 p-n heterojunction nanotube arrays are very promising for enhancing the photocatalytic activity and open up a promising strategy for designing and constructing high efficiency heterogeneous semiconductor photocatalysts.

The reaction efficiency is influenced by the properties of the N-tosylarylhydrazones, with aryl substituents equipped with an electron-donating 4-methoxy or 2-methyl group providing only low or trace amounts of product, respectively.

A mild synthesis of trifluoromethyl-substituted pyrazoles from propargyl hydrazones in the absence of a transition metal catalyst is described.

A mild and efficient method for the synthesis of 3-trifluoromethylpyrazoles has been established via trifluoromethylation/cyclization of α,β-alkynic hydrazones using a hypervalent iodine reagent under transition-metal-free conditions.

Nowadays, the pollution of water has become worse in many parts of the world, which causes a severe shortage of clean water and attracts widespread attention worldwide. Bioinspired from nature, i.e. spider silk, cactus, Namib desert beetle, Nepenthes alata, special wettability surfaces have attracted great interest from fundamental research to water-harvesting applications. Here, recently published literature about creatures possessing water-harvesting ability are reviewed, with a focus on the corresponding water-harvesting mechanisms of creatures in dry or arid regions, consisting of the theory of wetting and transporting. Then a detailed account of the innovative fabrication technologies and bionic water-harvesting materials with special wetting are summarized, i.e. bio-inspired artificial spider silk, bio-inspired artificial cactus-like structures, and bio-inspired artificial Namib desert beetle-like surfaces. Special attentions are paid to the discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies, as well as factors that affect the amount of water-harvesting. Finally, conclusions, future outlooks and the current challenges for future development of the water-harvesting technology are presented and discussed.

NQO1 (NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase, also known as DT-diaphorase) plays a prominent role in maintaining cellular homeostasis. NQO1 is abnormally elevated in many solid cancer types, including those of the adrenal gland, breast, colon, lung, ovary, and thyroid. However, little is known about the status of NQO1 in gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC). To investigate the clinicopathological significance of NQO1 expression in GAC, and thus evaluate its role as a potential prognostic marker, 203 cases of primary GAC, 31 of gastric dysplasia, and 53 of adjacent non-tumor tissues were selected for immunohistochemical staining of NQO1 protein. Correlations between NQO1 overexpression and clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated by χ(2) test and Fisher's exact test, while survival rates were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. The relationship between prognostic factors and patient survival was analyzed by Cox proportional hazards model. Through these analyses it was found that the strongly positive rate of NQO1 protein in GAC was significantly higher than that in gastric dysplasia and adjacent non-tumor tissues. Analysis by qRT-PCR also confirmed that NQO1 mRNA levels were increased in GAC compared with those detected in either adjacent non-tumor tissues or normal gastric mucosa. Additionally, the NQO1 expression rate was positively correlated with tumor size, serosal invasion, tumor stage, and both disease-free survival and 5-year survival rates. Further analysis showed that although NQO1 was not an independent predictor of GAC, elevated expression of NQO1 could predict lower disease-free survival and 5-year survival times in late-stage patients. In conclusion, NQO1 plays an important role in the progression of GAC, and might be a potential, but not an independent, poor prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target of GAC.

A novel method using CuI as the catalyst and the hypervalent iodine reagent (II) as both the CF3-source and the oxidant is developed for the synthesis of trifluoromethylated quinones.

A novel strategy for aromatic trifluoromethylation by converting aromatic amino group into CF3 group is reported herein. This method, which can be considered as trifluoromethylation variation of the classic Sandmeyer reaction, uses readily available aromatic amines as starting materials and is performed under mild conditions.

Introduction Although advanced gastric cancer has many limitations and response rate is marginal in chemotherapy. Overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2(HER-2/neu) gene and its protein are associated with increased cell division and a high rate of tumor growth and have been reported in several malignancies. Especially, approximately 30% of breast cancer patients have overexpression of HER-2/neu protein and the overexpression metastasize faster, induces resistance of the chemotherapy and down-regulate function of estrogen receptor. Recombinant humanized anti-HER2 antibody (Herceptin) inhibits proliferation of HER-2/neu overexpressing tumor cells and the use of that in combination in metastatic breast cancer have increased cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents. Methods We evaluated the expression of HER-2/neu protein in gastric cell lines by FACS and then comparing the cytotoxicity in chemotherapeutics (doxorubicin, cisplatin, paclitaxel, 5-FU) alone and in combination with Herceptin according to the expression of HER-2/neu protein by MTT assay. Results 1. NCI-N87 (88%) gastric cancer cell line and SK-BR-3 (89%) breast cancer cell line with strong positivity of HER-2/neu expression. YBC-2 (55%) and YBC-3 (48%) gastric cancer cell line with intermediated, weak positivity respectively. Negative control U-87 MG (6%) brain cancer cell line were showed low expression of HER-2/neu. 2. Cell growth was dose-dependently inhibited in HER-2/neu positive, control cell line SK-BR-3 by Herceptin treatment but not observed in HER-2/neu negative control cell line U-87 MG. Effective growth inhibition was not observed in gastric cancer cell lines with single treatment of Herceptin, all cell lines observed the dose-dependent growth inhibition to chemotherapeutic agents (doxorubicin, cisplatin, paclitaxel and 5-FU). 3. Combination of Herceptin with doxorubicin observed synergistic effects in all cancer cell lines except YBC-3, combination of Herceptin with cisplatin observed NCI-N87 and SK-BR-3 and combination of Herceptin with paclitaxel observed synergistic effects in YBC-2. Combination of Herceptin with 5-FU observed antagonistic effects in all cancer cell lines. Conclusions According to HER-2/neu expression level, effect of anti-cancer agents was observed differently in combination of Herceptin with chemotherapeutic agents. This suggests that HER-2/neu expression level can be applied standard of combination drug selection in combination of Herceptin With chemotherapeutic agents in gastric cancer.