Compartmentalized evolution of hepatitis B virus contributes differently to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) mutations can predict hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurrence. We aimed to clarify if HBV evolves synchronously in the sera, adjacent liver and tumors and predict HCC prognosis equally. A total of 203 HBV-positive HCC patients with radical hepatectomy in Shanghai, China, during 2011-15 were enrolled in this prospective study. Quasispecies complexity (QC) in HBV core promoter region was assessed using clone-based sequencing. We performed RNA sequencing on tumors and paired adjacent tissues of another 15 HCC patients and analyzed it with three public data sets containing 127 samples. HBV QC was positively correlated to APOBEC3s' expression level (r = 0.28, P < 0.001), higher in the adjacent tissues than in the tumors (P = 6.50e-3), and higher in early tumors than in advanced tumors (P = 0.039). The evolutionary distance between the sera-derived HBV strains and the tumor-derived ones was significantly longer than that between the sera-derived ones and the adjacent tissue-derived ones (P < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analyses indicated that high HBV QC in the sera predicted an unfavorable overall survival (P = 0.002) and recurrence-free survival (RFS; P = 0.004) in HCC, whereas, in the tumors, it predicted a favorable RFS (P < 0.001). APOBECs-related HBV mutations, including G1764A, were more frequent in the sera than in the adjacent tissues. High-frequent A1762T/G1764A in the sera predicted an unfavorable RFS (P < 0.001), whereas, in the tumors, it predicted a favorable RFS (P = 0.035). In conclusion, HBV evolves more advanced in the sera than in the tumors. HBV QC and A1762T/G1764A in the sera and tumors have contrary prognostic effects in HCC.

[Refractive Index Insensitive Temperature Sensor Based on Cascading Single Mode Fiber with Few Mode Fiber].

A refractive index insensitive temperature sensor is proposed base on cascading single mode fiber with few mode fiber(FMF). During the sensor preparation, the splicing current is set to 100 mA, and a section of FMF is no core-offset splicing between two single-mode fibers. Therefore, it can motivate the transmission mode preferably and form optical fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The mode phase difference in FMF will be changed according to the outside environment. It will cause interference fringe shift. The parameter to be measured can be achieved by detecting the amount shift of interference spectrum. The FMF can transmit four modes with LP01, LP11, LP21, LP02. The transmission spectrum is also analyzed, which shows that they have two modes of LP01 and LP11 in sensor with the length of 81.5 mm. In the refractive index and temperature sensing experiment, the cascading FMF sensor with the length of 81.5 mm is used. The results show that the transmission spectrum of sensor appears obvious blue shift as temperature is increasing, the temperature sensitivity can be up to -85.9 pm·â„ƒ-1 within the range of 27.6~93.8 ℃ with good linearity. The refractive index sensitivity is 3.697 34 nm·RIU-1 within the range of 1.347 1~1.443 9. There is no obvious shift phenomenon in the transmission spectrum with the feature of refractive index insensitive. Therefore, compared with the traditional cladding mode and multimode interferometric fiber-optic sensor, the proposed sensor based on FMF is easier to control and analyze transmission mode has the advantages of simple structure, easy process and high sensitivity. It can avoid cross-sensitivity between temperature and refractive index measurement. Thus, it can be used for temperature detection of power system, biomedicine, aerospace and other fields.

Modified Wood Fibers Spontaneously Harvest Electricity from Moisture.

With the rapid development of modern society, our demand for energy is increasing. And the extensive use of fossil energy has triggered a series of problems such as an energy crisis and environmental pollution. A moisture-enabled electric generator (MEG) is a new type of energy conversion method, which can directly convert the ubiquitous moisture in the air into electrical energy equipment. It has attracted great interest for its renewable and environmentally friendly qualities. At present, most MEGs still have low power density, strong dependence on high humidity, and high cost. Herein, we report the development of a high-efficiency MEG based on a lignocellulosic fiber frame with high-power-density, all-weather, and low-cost characteristics using a simple strategy that optimizes the charge transport channel and ion concentration difference. The MEG devices we manufactured can generate the open-circuit voltage of 0.73 V and the short-circuit current of 360 µA, and the voltage can still reach 0.6 V at less than 30% humidity. It is possible to drive commercial electronic devices such as light-emitting diodes, electronic displays, and electronic calculators by simply connecting several electric generators in series. Biomass-based moisture-enabled electric generation has a low cost, is easy to integrate on a large scale, and is green and pollution-free, providing clean energy for low-humidity or high-electricity-cost areas.

Aldehyde modified cellulose-based dual stimuli responsive multiple cross-linked network ionic hydrogel toward ionic skin and aquatic environment communication sensors.

Recently, materials with complicated environmentally-sensitive abilities, high stretchability and excellent conductive sensitivity are interesting actuators in future applications. Herein, we fabricated a versatile and facile polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid/dialdehyde cellulose nanofibrils-Fe3+ hydrogel integrated with programmable dual-shape memory properties, high mechanical strength, good recoverability, and heat-induced self-healing capability. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of hydrogen bonds and dual metal coordination bonds of cellulose-based dialdehyde and carboxyl with Fe3+and then heating-freeze-thawing cycle treatment, the obtained hydrogel exhibited dual shape memory abilities, high tensile strain (up to 600 %), good self-recovery, and anti-fatigue properties. Moreover, the resultant hydrogel sensors showed revealed high strain sensitivity (gauge factor = 2.95) and satisfactory electrochemical performance; and such hydrogel-based sensor could be used as ionic skin to detect various human motions in real-time and barrier-free communication in the aquatic environment. The composite hydrogel with superior and versatile performances reported in this study could offer a great promise to be applied under extreme conditions as multifunctional sensors.

MXene/wood-derived hierarchical cellulose scaffold composite with superior electromagnetic shielding.

Electromagnetic-interference (EMI) shielding materials that are green, lightweight, and with high mechanical properties need to be urgently developed to address increasingly severe radiation pollution. However, limited EMI shielding materials are successfully used in practical applications, due to the intensive energy consumption or the absence of sufficient strength. Herein, an environmentally friendly and effective method was proved to fabricate wood-based composites with high mechanical robustness and EMI shielding performance by a MXene/cellulose scaffold assembly strategy. The lignocellulose composites with a millimeter-thick mimic the "mortar-brick" layered structure, resulting in excellent mechanical properties that can achieve the compressive strength of 288 MPa and EMI shielding effectiveness of 39.3 dB. This "top-down" method provides an alternative for the efficient production of robust and sustainable EMI shielding materials that can be used in the fields of structural materials for next-generation communications and electronic devices.