Recent Progress and Perspective of an Evolving Carbon Family From 0D to 3D: Synthesis, Biomedical Applications, and Potential Challenges.

A variety of imaging techniques are available for detecting biological processes with sufficient penetration depth and temporal resolution. However, inflammation, cardiovascular, and cancer-related disorders might be difficult to diagnose with typical bioimaging methods because of the lack of resolution in the imaging of deep tissues. Therefore, nanomaterials are the most promising candidate to overcome this hurdle. This review is on the utilization of carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs), ranging from zero-dimension (0D) to three-dimension (3D), in the development of fluorescence (FL) imaging, photoacoustic imaging (PAI), and biosensing for the early detection of cancer. Nanoengineered CNMs, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and functional carbon quantum dots (QDs), are being further studied for multimodal biometrics and targeted therapy. CNMs have many advantages over conventional dyes in FL sensing and imaging, including clear emission spectra, long photostability, low cost, and high FL intensity. Nanoprobe production, mechanical illustrations, and diagnostic therapeutic applications are the key areas of focus. The bioimaging technique has facilitated a greater understanding of the biochemical events underlying multiple disease etiologies, consequently facilitating disease diagnosis, evaluation of therapeutic efficacy, and drug development. This review may lead to the development of interdisciplinary research in bioimaging and sensing as well as possible future concerns for researchers and medical physicians.

P T symmetry in a superconducting hybrid quantum system with longitudinal coupling.

We propose a scheme consisting of coupled nanomechanical cantilever resonators and superconducting flux qubits to engineer a parity-time- (P T-) symmetric phononic system formed by active and passive modes. The effective gain (loss) of the phonon mode is achieved by the longitudinal coupling of the resonator and the fast dissipative superconducting qubit with a blue-sideband driving (red-sideband driving). A P T-symmetric to broken-P T-symmetric phase transition can be observed in both balanced gain-to-loss and unbalanced gain-to-loss cases. Applying a resonant weak probe field to the dissipative resonator, we find that (i) for balanced gain and loss, the acoustic signal absorption to amplification can be tuned by changing the coupling strength between resonators; (ii) for unbalanced gain and loss, both acoustically induced transparency and anomalous dispersion can be observed around Δ = 0, where the maximum group delay is also located at this point. Our work provides an experimentally feasible scheme to design P T-symmetric phononic systems and a powerful platform for controllable acoustic signal transmission in a hybrid quantum system.

Erratum: Arshad, N., et al. Super Hydrophilic Activated Carbon Decorated Nanopolymer Foam for Scalable, Energy Efficient Photothermal Steam Generation, as an Effective Desalination System. Nanomaterials 2020, 10, 2510.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...].

Tunable Chiral Bound States with Giant Atoms.

We propose tunable chiral bound states in a system composed of superconducting giant atoms and a Josephson photonic-crystal waveguide (PCW), with no analog in other quantum setups. The chiral bound states arise due to interference in the nonlocal coupling of a giant atom to multiple points of the waveguide. The chirality can be tuned by changing either the atom-waveguide coupling or the external bias of the PCW. Furthermore, the chiral bound states can induce directional dipole-dipole interactions between multiple giant atoms coupling to the same waveguide. Our proposal is ready to be implemented in experiments with superconducting circuits, where it can be used as a tunable toolbox to realize topological phase transitions and quantum simulations.

Super Hydrophilic Activated Carbon Decorated Nanopolymer Foam for Scalable, Energy Efficient Photothermal Steam Generation, as an Effective Desalination System.

Clean water scarcity is still an intense, prolonged global issue that needs to be resolved urgently. The solar steam generation has shown great potential with a high energy conversion efficiency for clean water production from seawater and wastewater. However, the high evaporation rate of water cannot be preserved due to the inevitable fouling of solar absorbers. Herein, a self-floatable and super hydrophilic solar-driven steam generator composed of activated carbon coated melamine foam (ACM). The deposited ACM photothermal layer exhibits outstanding solar absorption (92%) and an efficient evaporation rate of 1.27 kg m-2 h-1, along with excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (80%) as compared to commercially available primitive solar stills. The open porous assembly of melamine foam equipped with 80% flexibility (0.8 MPa) enabled smooth water transport and sustain heat accumulation within the matrix. The thermal insulation of ACM is 10 times greater than pure water. Moreover, open porous assembly of designed solar-powered steam generator rejects salt ions as well as volatile organic compounds efficiently. The low-cost and facile fabrication of photothermal based water production presents a potential solution to single step drinking water supply from various resources of the sea, the lakes and mixtures of emulsified oil and industrial wastewater.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells overexpressing GATA-4 improve cardiac function following myocardial infarction.

INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to examine whether GATA-4 overexpressing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells can improve cardiac function in a murine myocardial infarction model compared with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells alone. METHODS: A lentiviral-based transgenic system was used to generate bone mesenchymal stem cells which stably expressed GATA-4 (GATA-4-bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells). Apoptosis and the myogenic phenotype of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were measured using Western blot and immunofluorescence assays co-cultured with cardiomyocytes. Cardiac function, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell homing, cardiac cell apoptosis, and vessel number following transplantation were assessed, as well as the expression of c-Kit. RESULTS: In GATA-4-bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells-cardiomyocyte co-cultures, expression of myocardial-specific antigens, cTnT, connexin-43, desmin, and α-actin was increased compared with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells alone. Caspase 8 and cytochrome C expression was lower, and the apoptotic rate was significantly lower in GATA-4 bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Cardiac function following myocardial infarction was also increased in the GATA-4 bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell group as demonstrated by enhanced ejection fraction and left ventricular fractional shortening. Analysis of the cardiac tissue revealed that the GATA-4 bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell group had a greater number of DiR-positive cells suggestive of increased homing and/or survival. Transplantation with GATA-4-bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells significantly increased the number of blood vessels, decreased the proportion of apoptotic cells, and increased the mean number of cardiac c-kit-positive cells. CONCLUSION: GATA-4 overexpression in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells exerts anti-apoptotic effects by targeting cytochrome C and Fas pathways, promotes the aggregation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in cardiac tissue, facilitates angiogenesis, and effectively mobilizes c-kit-positive cells following myocardial infarction, leading to the improvement of cardiac function after MI.

GATA-4-expressing mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction via secreted exosomes.

This study aimed to investigate whether exosomes secreted by mouse GATA-4-expressing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) could induce BMSC differentiation into myocyte precursors, decrease cardiomyocyte apoptosis, and improve cardiac function following myocardial infarction (MI). BMSCs were transduced with a lentivirus carrying a doxycycline (DOX)-inducible GATA-4 or control lentivirus, and secreted exosomes from these BMSCs were collected and co-cultured with BMSCs or cardiomyocytes under hypoxic and serum free conditions. Furthermore, exosomes were injected into mice 48 h after MI. Cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography at 48, 72, and 96 h after exosome treatment. Quantitative PCR showed that co-culture of BMSCs with GATA-4-BMSC exosomes increased cardiomyocyte-related marker expression. Co-culture of GATA-4-BMSC exosomes with cardiomyocytes in anoxic conditions decreased apoptosis as detected by flow cytometry. Injection of GATA-4-BMSC exosomes in mice 48 h after MI increased cardiac function over the next 96 h; increased cardiac blood vessel density and number of c-kit-positive cells and decreased apoptotic cardiomyocyte cells were also observed. Differential expression of candidate differentiation- and apoptosis-related miRNAs and proteins that may mediate these effects was also identified. Exosomes isolated from GATA-4-expressing BMSCs induce differentiation of BMSCs into cardiomyocyte-like cells, decrease anoxia-induced cardiomyocyte apoptosis, and improve myocardial function after infarction.

[Effect of Tongxinluo on Apoptosis of Rat Cardiac Microvascular Endothelial Cells].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the protective effects of Tongxinluo (TXL) on apoptosis of rat cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (RCMECs) resulting from homocysteine (Hcy) induced endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), and to determine the signaling pathway behind its protection. METHODS: Primary cultured RCMECs were isolated from neonatal rats using tissue explant method. The morphology of RCMECs was observed using inverted microscope, identified and differentiated by CD31 immunofluorescence method. Selected were well growing 2nd-4th generations of RCMECs. The optimal action time was determined by detecting the expression of glucose regulated protein 78 (GRP78) using immunofluorescence method. In the next experiment RCMECs were divided into 5 groups, i.e., the blank control group, the Hcy induced group (Hcy 10 mmol/L, 10 h), the Hcy + TXL group (Hcy 10 mmol/L + TXL 400 µg/mL), the Hcy +LY294002 group (Hcy 10 mmol/L + LY294002 5 µmol/L, LY294002 as the inhibitor of PI3K), the Hcy + LY294002 + TXL group (Hcy 10 mmol/L + LY294002 5 µmol/L + TXL 400 µg/mL). The apoptosis rate of RCMECs was detected by flow cytometry. mRNA and protein expressions of GRP78, C/ EBP homologous protein (CHOP), and cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-12 (caspase12) were detected by real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot respectively. Expression levels of phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (P-PI3K), total phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (T- P13K) , phosphorylation of kinase B (P-Akt) , and total kinase B (T-Akt) were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: Ten hours Hcy action time was determined. Compared with the blank control group, the apoptosis rate was increased (22.77%), mRNA and protein expressions of GRP78, CHOP, and Caspase-12 were increased, protein expressions of P-PI3K and P-Akt,ratios of P-PI3K/T-PI3K and P-Akt/T-Akt were decreased in the Hcy induced group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Compared with the Hcy induced group, the apoptosis rate was decreased (10.17%), mRNA and protein expressions of GRP78, CHOP, and Caspase-12 were decreased, and expression levels of P-PI3K, P-Akt, P-PI3K/T-PI3K, and P-Akt/T-Akt were increased in the Hcy + TXL group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). Compared with the Hcy + TXL group, the apoptosis rate was increased (17.9%), mRNA and protein expressions of GRP78, CHOP, and Caspase-12 were increased, expression levels of P-PI3K and P-Akt, ratios of P-PI3K/T-PI3K and P-Akt/T-Akt were decreased in the Hcy + TXL + LY294002 group (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: TXL could inhibit the apoptosis of RCMECs resulting from Hcy-induced ERS and its mechanism might be associated with activating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Enhanced electromechanical coupling of a nanomechanical resonator to coupled superconducting cavities.

We investigate the electromechanical coupling between a nanomechanical resonator and two parametrically coupled superconducting coplanar waveguide cavities that are driven by a two-mode squeezed microwave source. We show that, with the selective coupling of the resonator to the cavity Bogoliubov modes, the radiation-pressure type coupling can be greatly enhanced by several orders of magnitude, enabling the single photon strong coupling to be reached. This allows the investigation of a number of interesting phenomena such as photon blockade effects and the generation of nonclassical quantum states with electromechanical systems.