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Background Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common malignant tumor. Ten-eleven translocation (TET) protein 2 (TET2), an evolutionarily conserved dioxygenases, is reported to be involved in various malignant tumor developments. Here, we aim to investigate the effect of TET2 on NPC progress in vitro and in vivo, and its detailed underlying mechanism. Methods Real-time PCR and western blotting were used to determine the expression levels of TET1/2/3 in NPC cell lines. The effects of TET2 on NPC progression were evaluated using CCK8 and invasion assays in vitro. Proteins interacted with TET2 in NPC cells were detected by immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry. The effects of TET2 or pyruvate kinase, muscle (PKM) on glycolysis in NPC cells were examined by detecting glucose uptake and lactate production. The effects of TET2 on NPC progression were evaluated using xenograft tumor model in vivo. Results TET2 expression was decreased in NPC cells, and TET2 overexpression inhibited proliferation and invasion of NPC cells, which is independent on TET2’s catalytic activity. In mechanism, TET2 N-terminal domain interacts with PKM in cytoplasm to prevent PKM dimers from translocating into nucleus, suppressing glycolysis in NPC cells, thereby inhibiting proliferation and invasion of NPC cells. Moreover, using xenograft tumor model, we found that TET2 knockout promoted NPC progression and decreased survival rate. However, administration with the inhibitor of PKM, shikonin, decreased the tumor volume of TET2-cas9 group, and increased the survival rate. Conclusion TET2 suppresses NPC development through interacting with PKM to inhibit glycolysis.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is one of the two-dimensional layered semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) with great potential in electronics, optoelectronics, and spintronic devices. Sulfur vacancies in MoS2 are the most prevalent defects. However, the effect of sulfur vacancies on the electronic structure of MoS2 is still in dispute. Here we experimentally and theoretically investigated the effect of sulfur vacancies in MoS2. The vacancies were intentionally introduced by thermal annealing of MoS2 crystals in a vacuum environment. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) was used directly to observe the electronic structure of the MoS2 single crystals. The experimental result distinctly revealed the appearance of an occupied defect state just above the valence band maximum (VBM) and an upward shift of the VBM after creating sulfur vacancies. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculations also confirmed the existence of the occupied defect state close to the VBM as well as two deep unoccupied states induced by the sulfur vacancies. Our results provide evidence to contradict that sulfur vacancies indicate the origin of n-type behaviour in MoS2. This work provides a rational strategy for tuning the electronic structures of MoS2.

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The material characteristics and properties of transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDCs) have gained research interest in various fields, such as electronics, catalytic, and energy storage. In particular, many researchers have been focusing on the applications of TMDCs in dealing with environmental pollution. TMDCs provide a unique opportunity to develop higher-value applications related to environmental matters. This work highlights the applications of TMDCs contributing to pollution reduction in (i) gas sensing technology, (ii) gas adsorption and removal, (iii) wastewater treatment, (iv) fuel cleaning, and (v) carbon dioxide valorization and conversion. Overall, the applications of TMDCs have successfully demonstrated the advantages of contributing to environmental conversation due to their special properties. The challenges and bottlenecks of implementing TMDCs in the actual industry are also highlighted. More efforts need to be devoted to overcoming the hurdles to maximize the potential of TMDCs implementation in the industry.

Additional file 1. Raw images from western blots.

Single crystals of an environmental friendly material LiInSe2 (LISe) with dimensions up to Φ16 mm × 55 mm were grown successfully through a modified vertical Bridgman technique. The quality of the crystal was measured by a high resolution X-ray diffraction rocking curve, and a full width at half-maximum (fwhm) for a, b, and c faces are 47″, 46″, 36″, respectively. It indicates that the as-grown crystal is high quality. The complete sets of dielectric, elastic, and piezoelectric constants of LISe crystals at room temperature were obtained by the resonant technique and impedance analysis for the first time. The piezoelectric constants d24 and d33 reached −13.6 pC/N and 8.5 pC/N, respectively. The corresponding electromechanical coupling coefficient k33 is 21%. In addition, the structural distortions and dipole moments of LISe were analyzed in detail. Our results show that LISe is a promising candidate as an environmental friendly piezoelectric material.

Herein, a single crystal of FeSi4P4 (FSP) with dimensions up to 8 × 7 × 3 mm3 was successfully grown using a seeded flux growth method. Single crystal X-ray diffraction results revealed that the FSP crystal crystallized in the chiral space group P1 (no. 1). High-resolution X-ray diffraction presents a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 36′′ and 46′′ for the (100) and (001) FSP crystals, respectively, which indicates that FSP crystals have high crystalline quality. FSP is thermally stable up to 1157.1 °C and has a high thermal conductivity of 35 W (m K)−1 at room temperature. The magnetic analysis shows that the FSP crystal is paramagnetic in the range from 5 to 300 K. The Hall effect measurement suggests that the FSP crystal is a promising p-type semiconductor at room temperature.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have recently attracted great interest due to their promising optoelectronic applications. Orthorhombic SiP (o-SiP) is a 2D layered crystal and may have a significant impact on optoelectronic technologies. Large-sized bulk o-SiP single crystals have been successfully grown by a seeded flux method. The size and morphology of o-SiP crystals can be controlled by changing the growth conditions. The carrier mobility and band gap of o-SiP were characterized in detail. The photoresponse properties of o-SiP were investigated and a relatively fast response has been demonstrated. The experimental results indicate that o-SiP may be an excellent candidate for applications in electronics and optoelectronics.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the most common type of malignancy of the neck and head in Southeast Asia and North Africa. Long noncoding RNA (LncRNA) Differentiation antagonizing nonprotein coding RNA (DANCR) has been reported to exert oncogenic functions in various malignant tumors. However, whether DANCR is involved in NPC tumorgenesis and its underlying mechanisms are still unknown. In the current study, we investigated the expression and biological functions of DANCR in NPC cells and found that DANCR is highly expressed in NPC cells and IL-6 stimulation upregulates DANCR expression through an STAT3-dependent manner. Besides, DANCR knockdown attenuates IL-6-induced proliferation and invasion of NPC cells. Furthermore, DANCR specifically interacts with STAT3 to promote STAT3 activation in NPC cells. Moreover, DANCR knockdown evidently decreases IL-6 induced the association between STAT3 and JAK1 in NPC cells. In addition, we also found that DANCR also indirectly binds to JAK1 through interacting with STAT3 under IL-6 stimulation in NPC cells. Taken together, the present study for the first time demonstrates that DANCR, acting as an oncogene in NPC, promotes NPC progression by interacting with STAT3 and enhancing JAK1 binding to STAT3 to strengthen IL-6/JAK1/STAT3 signaling, suggesting that it may be a potential target to be used as a novel strategy to develop NPC therapeutics.

Bulk semi-organic nonlinear optical (NLO) single-crystals of tri-diethylammonium hexachlorobismuthate (TDCB) with sizes up to 22 × 21 × 15 mm3 have been grown from concentrated hydrochloric acid by the slow-cooling method. TDCB crystallizes in the trigonal system, the R3c space group, with a = 14.699(4) A and c = 19.102(5) A. Its morphology has been indexed to reveal the major facets of the crystal to be {110} and {012}. Transmittance spectra of TDCB show an optical transmission in the entire visible region with the cutoff wavelength at 365 nm. The powder second harmonic generation (SHG) measured by using the Kurtz and Perry technique indicates that TDCB is a phase-matchable NLO material with a SHG efficiency of 1.8 times that of KH2PO4 (KDP). Its specific heat and thermal expansion were investigated as a function of temperature, and the relationship between the structure and the thermal properties has been discussed. Furthermore, laser-induced damage threshold measurements show a threshold up to 2.32 GW cm−2. All the results demonstrate that the semi-organic crystal TDCB is promising in NLO applications.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has attracted a great deal of attention because of its outstanding physical, chemical and optoelectronic properties. The method used to prepare large sized MoS2 crystals of very high quality is still an important issue for determining the feasibility of its application. Herein, we propose a novel Sn flux method to grow single crystal MoS2, and bulk MoS2 single crystals with a size of 3 mm × 5 mm were successfully obtained by using a cooling rate of 2–4 °C h−1. The growth mechanism of the MoS2 crystal in Sn flux was investigated in detail using optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The obvious screw dislocation steps that are revealed suggest that the growth of MoS2 is controlled by a screw-dislocation-driven (SDD) spiral growth mechanism. The flux-grown MoS2 crystals were exfoliated to produce high-quality large-scale films using the liquid-phase exfoliation method. Using ultrathin MoS2 films as a saturable absorber, a passively Q-switched laser at a wavelength of 1.06 μm was constructed and operated, with a narrow pulse width of 326 ns.

Single crystal LiInS2 (LIS) is a promising candidate for mid-infrared (MIR) frequency conversion to obtain MIR laser output. Large-sized LIS crystals with a diameter of 16 mm and a length of 50 mm were grown by the modified Bridgman method. The as-grown LIS crystals were annealed in different atmospheres, and the effects of annealing on the electrical and optical properties were studied in detail. The visible-near-infrared and MIR transmission spectra of the crystals were studied before and after annealing in different atmospheres. The experimental results indicate that the optimal annealing conditions for a grown crystal are to use an atmosphere of LIS vapor at 700 °C for 160 h. The electrical properties were investigated before and after annealing in the LIS vapor atmosphere. After proper postgrowth annealing, the quality of the crystal was significantly improved, which resulted in an increase in the damage threshold from 0.9 to 1.2 J/cm2.

A mid-infrared LiInSe 2 (LISe) single crystal was successfully grown by the modified vertical Bridgman technique with dimensions of about ∅12 mm×30 mm. A large amount of high purity polycrystalline LISe used for crystal growth was synthesized in one run by a novel two-step synthesis method. The thermal properties of the crystal were carefully investigated by measuring the melting point, specific heat, and thermal diffusivity, and deriving the thermal conductivity. The transmission spectrum showed that the 50% transmittance level extends from 0.65 to 12.6 μm. The excellent thermal conductivity and optical properties indicate that LISe is one of only a few promising candidates for high average power nanosecond OPOs pumped by ~1 μm lasers.

A large single LiGa3Te5 (LGT) crystal was grown with size up to O16 mm × 50 mm for the first time using a modified vertical Bridgman–Stockbarger method. LGT crystallizes in the non-centrosymmetric system, space group R32, with a = b = 14.343(7) A, c = 17.617 A, Z = 12, and V = 3139 A3. A detailed description of the polyhedral connections in the LGT structure is presented. The X-ray rocking curve, specific heat and thermal conductivity are also investigated. The room-temperature transmission of the as-grown LGT without any coating is above the 40% level from 3.5 to 18 μm. The cut-off edges at short and long wavelength are 0.9 and 25 μm, respectively. Owing to its wide transparency range, LGT is a promising candidate for MIR and far-infrared NLO applications, and even for THz transmission and generation.

The metal–ferroelectric–insulator–semiconductor (MFIS) structure has been fabricated using Bi 3.54 Nd 0.46 Ti 3 O 12 (BNdT) as a ferroelectric layer. The BNdT films can crystallize well at 700°C for 1 h. The J – V curve shows the MFIS structure has a good insulating property. C – V hysteresis loops at various sweeping speed were collected as were polarization types. The leakage current density, dielectric constant and dielectric loss were found to be dependent on the annealing temperature. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss at a frequency of 100 kHz are 98 and 0.092, respectively.

The objective of this study was to correlate the expression pattern of candidate genes with the intramuscular fat (IMF) content and fatty acid composition of the Longissimus dorsi muscle of Duroc × Shanzhu commercial crossbred pigs. Animals of both sexes were slaughtered at a body weight of about 90 kg. The IMF content and fatty acid composition of the Longissimus dorsi muscle were measured and correlated with candidate genes mRNA expression (AdPLA, ADRB3, LEPR, MC4R, PPARγ, PPARα, LPL, PEPCK, and SCD). Females presented higher IMF content (p < 0.05) than males. The total saturated fatty acid (SFA) in males was greater (p < 0.01), whereas the total monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) (p < 0.01) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (p < 0.05) were lower than in females. The expressions of AdPLA, MC4R, PEPCK, and SCD correlated with the IMF content (p < 0.05). AdPLA showed a positive association with MUFA and a negative association with SFA (p < 0.05). LEPR and MC4R were both positively and significantly associated with C18:3 and C20:0 (p < 0.05). PPARα and PPARγ were negatively correlated with SFA, and PPARγ was positively associated with MUFA (p < 0.05). LPL was positively associated with MUFA and negatively associated with SFA (p < 0.05). PEPCK was negatively correlated with PUFA (p < 0.05). SCD was positively associated with MUFA (p < 0.05). The revealed correlations may confirm that these candidate genes are important for fat deposition and fatty acid composition in pigs, and the evaluation and use of these genes may be useful for improving porcine meat quality.