Angiographic quantitative flow ratio-guided coronary intervention (FAVOR III China): a multicentre, randomised, sham-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Compared with visual angiographic assessment, pressure wire-based physiological measurement more accurately identifies flow-limiting lesions in patients with coronary artery disease. Nonetheless, angiography remains the most widely used method to guide percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In FAVOR III China, we aimed to establish whether clinical outcomes might be improved by lesion selection for PCI using the quantitative flow ratio (QFR), a novel angiography-based approach to estimate the fractional flow reserve. METHODS: FAVOR III China is a multicentre, blinded, randomised, sham-controlled trial done at 26 hospitals in China. Patients aged 18 years or older, with stable or unstable angina pectoris or patients who had a myocardial infarction at least 72 h before screening, who had at least one lesion with a diameter stenosis of 50-90% in a coronary artery with a reference vessel of at least 2·5 mm diameter by visual assessment were eligible. Patients were randomly assigned to a QFR-guided strategy (PCI performed only if QFR ≤0·80) or an angiography-guided strategy (PCI based on standard visual angiographic assessment). Participants and clinical assessors were masked to treatment allocation. The primary endpoint was the 1-year rate of major adverse cardiac events, a composite of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, or ischaemia-driven revascularisation. The primary analysis was done in the intention-to-treat population. The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03656848). FINDINGS: Between Dec 25, 2018, and Jan 19, 2020, 3847 patients were enrolled. After exclusion of 22 patients who elected not to undergo PCI or who were withdrawn by their physicians, 3825 participants were included in the intention-to-treat population (1913 in the QFR-guided group and 1912 in the angiography-guided group). The mean age was 62·7 years (SD 10·1), 2699 (70·6%) were men and 1126 (29·4%) were women, 1295 (33·9%) had diabetes, and 2428 (63·5%) presented with an acute coronary syndrome. The 1-year primary endpoint occurred in 110 (Kaplan-Meier estimated rate 5·8%) participants in the QFR-guided group and in 167 (8·8%) participants in the angiography-guided group (difference, -3·0% [95% CI -4·7 to -1·4]; hazard ratio 0·65 [95% CI 0·51 to 0·83]; p=0·0004), driven by fewer myocardial infarctions and ischaemia-driven revascularisations in the QFR-guided group than in the angiography-guided group. INTERPRETATION: In FAVOR III China, among patients undergoing PCI, a QFR-guided strategy of lesion selection improved 1-year clinical outcomes compared with standard angiography guidance. FUNDING: Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the National Clinical Research Centre for Cardiovascular Diseases, Fuwai Hospital.

Mating Disruption of Chilo suppressalis From Sex Pheromone of Another Pyralid Rice Pest Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).

The rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker), and the rice leaf folder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenée, are two of the most destructive lepidopteran pests in rice. Since these two pyralid insects overlap in their occurrence in rice paddy fields, farmers prefer to set their pheromone-baited traps together in the rice fields for their monitoring. However, our field observation demonstrated that no male adult of C. suppressalis was captured in traps baited with commercial sex pheromone of C. suppressalis (CCS) combined with commercial sex pheromone of C. medinalis (CCM). To confirm that the C. medinalis sex pheromone component(s) interfere with the attraction of males of the rice stem borers to their conspecific females, single components of C. medinalis sex pheromone combined with CCS in traps were tested in the laboratory and rice paddy field. The results revealed that the two alcohol components in CCM, i.e., (Z)-11-octadecen-1-ol (Z11-18: OH) and (Z)-13-octadecen-1-ol (Z13-18: OH) may cause a significant reduction in capturing C. suppressalis males caused by CCS. We recommend against using these sex pheromones together in the field and suggest that Z11-18: OH and Z13-18: OH could be potential inhibitors or antagonists of C. suppressalis sex pheromone to control the rice stem borer.

Enhancing Oxygen Reduction Activity of Pt-based Electrocatalysts: From Theoretical Mechanisms to Practical Methods.

Pt-based electrocatalysts are considered as one of the most promising choices to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and the key factor enabling their success is to reduce the required amount of platinum. Herein, we focus on illuminating both the theoretical mechanisms which enable enhanced and sustained ORR activity and the practical methods to achieve them in catalysts. The various multi-step pathways of ORR are firstly reviewed and the rate-determining steps based on the reaction intermediates and their binding energies are analyzed. We then explain the critical aspects of Pt-based electrocatalysts to tune oxygen reduction properties from the viewpoints of active sites exposure and altering the surface electronic structure, and further summarize representative research progress towards practically achieving these activity enhancements with a focus on platinum size reduction, shape control and core Pt elimination methods. We finally outline the remaining challenges and provide our perspectives with regard to further enhancing their activities.

Evaluation of Wetting Behaviors of Liquid Sodium on Transition Metals: An Experimental and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study.

In sodium-cooled fast reactors, the wettability of sodium with materials is closely related to sodium-related operations and the detection accuracy of instruments and meters, so how to achieve the selection of materials with different wettability requirements is a key problem in engineering design. To meet these requirements, the wetting behaviors of liquid sodium with nine transition metals were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results show that metals such as zinc and gold, which react with sodium to form intermetallic compounds at the interface, exhibit superior wettability. Followed by the metals that have strong interatomic interactions even though they do not react with sodium or dissolve each other, such as cobalt, nickel and copper, while the wettability of these systems tends to be poor at low temperatures. Systems that do not react with each other or have strong interatomic affinities proved to be the most difficult to wet. Notably, metals with the closest-packed crystal structures of fcc and hcp generally have better wettability than those with a bcc structure. They can be a valuable guide for experimental research and technical control.

CNN1 regulates the DKK1/Wnt/ß-catenin/c-myc signaling pathway by activating TIMP2 to inhibit the invasion, migration and EMT of lung squamous cell carcinoma cells.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of calponin 1 (CNN1) on the invasion and migration of lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) cells and the associations between CNN1, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP2), Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) and the Wnt/ß-catenin/c-myc signaling pathway. The expression levels of CNN1 and TIMP2 in LUSC cells and the association between CNN1 and TIMP2 were predicted using the GEPIA database. The cells were transiently transfected to overexpress CNN1, which resulted in inhibition of DKK1 and TIMP2 expression levels. Wound healing and Transwell assays were used to detect the invasive and migratory abilities of LUSC cells. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting were used to investigate the expression levels of CNN1, MMP2, MMP9, E-cadherin, N-cadherin (N-cad), SLUG, DKK1, ß-catenin and c-myc. The expression levels of N-cad were detected using immunofluorescence staining. The results indicated that overexpression of CNN1 inhibited the invasion and migration of NCI-H2170 cells. Inhibition of DKK1 reversed this change and the expression levels of ß-catenin and c-myc were upregulated, whereas the expression levels of DKK1 were downregulated with a concomitant inhibition of TIMP2. In summary, these results demonstrated that CNN1 regulated the DKK1/Wnt/ß-catenin/c-myc signaling pathway by activating TIMP2 to inhibit the invasion, migration and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of LUSC cells.

Phylogeny and evolution of chloroplast tRNAs in Adoxaceae.

Chloroplasts are semiautonomous organelles found in photosynthetic plants. The major functions of chloroplasts include photosynthesis and carbon fixation, which are mainly regulated by its circular genomes. In the highly conserved chloroplast genome, the chloroplast transfer RNA genes (cp tRNA) play important roles in protein translation within chloroplasts. However, the evolution of cp tRNAs remains unclear. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the evolutionary characteristics of chloroplast tRNAs in five Adoxaceae species using 185 tRNA gene sequences. In total, 37 tRNAs encoding 28 anticodons are found in the chloroplast genome in Adoxaceae species. Some consensus sequences are found within the Ψ-stem and anticodon loop of the tRNAs. Some putative novel structures were also identified, including a new stem located in the variable region of tRNATyr in a similar manner to the anticodon stem. Furthermore, phylogenetic and evolutionary analyses indicated that synonymous tRNAs may have evolved from multiple ancestors and frequent tRNA duplications during the evolutionary process may have been primarily caused by positive selection and adaptive evolution. The transition and transversion rates are uneven among different tRNA isotypes. For all tRNAs, the transition rate is greater with a transition/transversion bias of 3.13. Phylogenetic analysis of cp tRNA suggested that the type I introns in different taxa (including eukaryote organisms and cyanobacteria) share the conserved sequences "U-U-x2-C" and "U-x-G-x2-T," thereby indicating the diverse cyanobacterial origins of organelles. This detailed study of cp tRNAs in Adoxaceae may facilitate further investigations of the evolution, phylogeny, structure, and related functions of chloroplast tRNAs.

Highly Stable Low-Cost Electrochemical Gas Sensor with an Alcohol-Tolerant N,S-Codoped Non-Precious Metal Catalyst Air Cathode.

The emerging applications of electrochemical gas sensors (EGSs) in Internet of Things-enabled smart city and personal health electronics bring out a new challenge for common EGSs, such as alcohol fuel cell sensors (AFCSs) to reduce the dependence on a pricy Pt catalyst. Here, for the first time, we propose a low-cost novel N,S-codoped metal catalyst (FeNSC) to accelerate oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and replace the Pt catalyst in the cathode of an AFCS. The optimal FeNSC shows high ORR activity, stability, and alcohol tolerance. Furthermore, the FeNSC-based AFCS not only demonstrates excellent linearity, low detection limit, high stability, and superior sensitivity to that of the commercial Pt/C-based AFCS but also outperforms commercial Pt/C-based AFCS in the exposed cell regarding great linearity, high sensitivity, and great stability. Such a promising sensor performance not just proves the concept of the FeNSC-based ACFS but enlightens the next-generation designs toward low-cost, highly sensitive, and durable EGSs.

Histidine decarboxylase-expressing PMN-MDSC-derived TGF-ß1 promotes the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of metastatic lung adenocarcinoma.

Metastasis is a major risk for lung adenocarcinoma-related mortality. Accumulating evidence raises the possibility that anticancer therapies might be more sensitive by targeting premetastatic niches in addition to the cancer cells themselves. Here, we identified a subpopulation of metastatic lung adenocarcinoma, which was characterized by EMT-related markers such as E-cadherin, Twist, SMAD, and ß-catenin. EMT+ cases exhibited poorer prognosis than EMT- patients, reflecting the pro-metastatic features of EMT. Immunohistochemical staining decorated CD15+ PMN-MDSCs surrounding EMT+ cancer cells in lymph nodes. Metastatic tissues secreted high levels of chemokines, including CXCL1, CXCL5, and CCL2, into the circulation to recruit histidine decarboxylase (Hdc)-positive PMN-MDSCs into metastatic colonies through upregulated CXCR2. The percentage of Hdc+ PMN-MDSCs increased in the setting of metastasis. Hdc+ PMN-MDSCs obtained from EMT+ metastatic masses expressed a higher level of TGF-ß1, rather than TGF-ß2 and TGF-ß3, compared to EMT- counterparts. The depletion of Hdc+ PMN-MDSCs or downregulation of TGF-ß1 significantly decreased EMT+ percentage and, thus, hampered the metastasis process in murine models. Together, our findings suggest that metastatic tumor secretes high levels of chemokines to recruit Hdc+ PMN-MDSCs, which, in turn, express TGF-ß1 to induce cancer cells to undergo EMT at metastatic sites.

A convergent route for the total synthesis of malyngamides O, P, Q, and R.

A convergent, enantioselective and general synthetic route to a class of marine natural products-malyngamides O (1), P (2), Q (3), R (4), 5''-epi-3 and 5''-epi-4-bearing a novel vinyl chloride structural motif was developed. The key steps involved construction of the vinyl chloride functionality by Wittig reaction, a DCC/HOBt-promoted amidation, an aldol reaction in the construction of the basic backbone of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5''-epi-3, and 5''-epi-4, and methylation of an enol moiety via either base/acid conditions or a Mitsunobu reaction. Moreover, the absolute configuration of the stereogenic center at C-5'' in 3 was further confirmed by synthesis of the natural product and its C-5'' epimer.

[Development of a cryosurgery & radiofrequency alternating tumor ablation device].

The combination of the cryosurgery using LN2 and intelligent RF ablation therapeutic instrument based on the theory of local destruction is introduced in this paper, and this alternating therapy is believed to have a better controlling effect on tumor ablation. In heating period, a fuzzy algorithm is used to control the RF power to realize a more smoothly heating process to the target area.

In Situ Polymer Graphenization Ingrained with Nanoporosity in a Nitrogenous Electrocatalyst Boosting the Performance of Polymer-Electrolyte-Membrane Fuel Cells.

Rich, porous graphene frameworks decorated with uniformly dispersed active sites are prepared by using polyaniline as a graphene precursor and introducing phenanthroline as a pore-forming agent. The unprecedented fuel-cell performance of this electrocatalyst is linked to the graphene frameworks with vast distribution of pore sizes, which maximizes the active-sites accessibility, facilitates mass-transport properties, and improves the carbon corrosion resistance.

Co-N Decorated Hierarchically Porous Graphene Aerogel for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Acid.

Nitrogen-functionalized graphene materials have been demonstrated as promising electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), owning to their respectable activity and excellent stability in alkaline electrolyte. However, they exhibit unacceptable catalytic activity in acid medium. Here, a hierarchically porous Co-N functionalized graphene aerogel is prepared as an efficient catalyst for the ORR in acid electrolyte. In the preparation process, polyaniline (PANI) is introduced as a pore-forming agent to aid in the self-assembly of graphene species into a porous aerogel networks, and a nitrogen precursor to induce in situ nitrogen doping. Therefore, a Co-N decorated graphene aerogel framework with a large surface area (485 m(2) g(-1)) and an abundance of meso/macropores is effectively formed after heat treatment. Such highly desired structures can not only expose sufficient active sites for the ORR but also guarantee the fast mass transfer in the catalytic process, which provides significant catalytic activity with positive onset and half wave potentials, low hydrogen peroxide yield, high resistance to methanol crossover, and remarkable stability that is comparable to commercial Pt/C in acid medium.

Nanosized particles of organically modified silica as microreactors to enhance the regioselectivity in the photocycloaddition of 9-substituted anthracenes.

[reaction: see text] Nanosized particles of modified silica with 3-ammoniumpropyl residue have been prepared and successfully used as microreactors to control the regioselectivity of the photocycloaddition of five 9-substituted anthracences [AnCH(2)N(+)(CH(3))(3)Br(-) (1), AnCH(2)COO(-)Na(+) (2), AnCH(2)CH(2)COOH (3), AnCH(2)OH (4), AnCH(3) (5), where An = 9-anthryl]. While the photocycloaddition of the five substrates in methanol mainly gave rise to their head-to-tail (h-t) photocyclomers, irradiation of 1-4 incorporated in the suspension of the modified silica in methanol almost exclusively yielded the head-to-head (h-h) photocyclomers with high quantum yields.

Efficient oxygen reduction electrocatalyst based on edge-nitrogen-rich graphene nanoplatelets: toward a large-scale synthesis.

The large-scale synthesis of nitrogen doped graphene (N-graphene) with high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance has received a lot of attention recently. In this work, we have developed a facile and economical procedure for mass production of edge-nitrogen-rich graphene nanoplatelets (ENR-GNPs) by a combined process of ball milling of graphite powder (GP) in the presence of melamine and subsequent heat treatment. It is found that the ball milling process can not only crack and exfoliate pristine GP into edge-expanded nanoplatelets but also mechanically activate GP to generate appropriate locations for N-doping. Analysis results indicate that the doped N atoms mainly locate on the edge of the graphitic matrix, which contains ca. 3.1 at.% nitrogen content and can be well-dispersed in aqueous to form multilayer nanoplatelets. The as-prepared ENR-GNPs electrocatalyst exhibits highly electrocatalytic activity for ORR due to the synergetic effects of edge-N-doping and nanosized platelets. Besides, the stability and methanol tolerance of ENR-GNPs are superior to that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst, which makes the nanoplatelets a promising candidate for fuel cell cathode catalysts. The present approach opens up the possibility for simple and mass production of N-graphene based electrocatalysts in practice.

Catalyst-free synthesis of crumpled boron and nitrogen co-doped graphite layers with tunable bond structure for oxygen reduction reaction.

Two-dimensional materials based on ternary system of B, C and N are useful ranging from electric devices to catalysis. The bonding arrangement within these BCN nanosheets largely determines their electronic structure and thus chemical and (or) physical properties, yet it remains a challenge to manipulate their bond structures in a convenient and controlled manner. Recently, we developed a synthetic protocol for the synthesis of crumpled BCN nanosheets with tunable B and N bond structure using urea, boric acid and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as precursors. By carefully selecting the synthesis condition, we can tune the structure of BCN sheets from s-BCN with B and N bond together to h-BCN with B and N homogenously dispersed in BCN sheets. Detailed experiments suggest that the final bond structure of B and N in graphene depends on the preferentially doped N structure in BCN nanosheets. When N substituted the in-plane carbon atom with all its electrons configured into the π electron system of graphene, it facilitates the formation of h-BCN with B and N in separated state. On the contrary, when nitrogen substituted the edge-plane carbon with the nitrogen dopant surrounded with the lone electron pairs, it benefits for the formation of B-N structure. Specially, the compound riched with h-BCN shows excellent ORR performance in alkaline solution due to the synergistic effect between B and N, while s-BCN dominant BCN shows graphite-like activity for ORR, suggesting the intrinsic properties differences of BCN nanosheets with different dopants bond arrangement.

Advanced oxygen reduction electrocatalyst based on nitrogen-doped graphene derived from edible sugar and urea.

Designing and fabricating advanced oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts is critical importance for the sake of promoting widespread application of fuel cells. In this work, we report that nitrogen-doped graphene (NG), synthesized via one-step pyrolysis of naturally available sugar in the presence of urea, can serve as metal-free ORR catalyst with excellent electrocatalytic activity, outstanding methanol crossover resistance as well as long-term operation stability in alkaline medium. The resultant NG1000 (annealed at 1000 °C) exhibits a high kinetic current density of 21.33 mA/cm(2) at -0.25 V (vs Ag/AgCl) in O2-saturated 0.1 M KOH electrolyte, compared with 16.01 mA/cm(2) at -0.25 V for commercial 20 wt % Pt/C catalyst. Notably, the NG1000 possesses comparable ORR half-wave potential to Pt/C. The effects of pyrolysis temperature on the physical prosperity and ORR performance of NG are also investigated. The obtained results demonstrate that high activation temperature (1000 °C) results in low nitrogen doping level, high graphitization degree, enhanced electrical conductivity, and high surface area and pore volume, which make a synergetic contribution to enhancing the ORR performance for NG.

Identifying the active site in nitrogen-doped graphene for the VO2+/VO2(+) redox reaction.

Nitrogen-doped graphene sheets (NGS), synthesized by annealing graphite oxide (GO) with urea at 700-1050 °C, were studied as positive electrodes in a vanadium redox flow battery. The NGS, in particular annealed at 900 °C, exhibited excellent catalytic performance in terms of electron transfer (ET) resistance (4.74 ± 0.51 and 7.27 ± 0.42 Ω for the anodic process and cathodic process, respectively) and reversibility (ΔE = 100 mV, Ipa/Ipc = 1.38 at a scan rate of 50 mV s(-1)). Detailed research confirms that not the nitrogen doping level but the nitrogen type in the graphene sheets determines the catalytic activity. Among four types of nitrogen species doped into the graphene lattice including pyridinic-N, pyrrolic-N, quaternary nitrogen, and oxidic-N, quaternary nitrogen is verified as a catalytic active center for the [VO](2+)/[VO2](+) couple reaction. A mechanism is proposed to explain the electrocatalytic performance of NGS for the [VO](2+)/[VO2](+) couple reaction. The possible formation of a N-V transitional bonding state, which facilitates the ET between the outer electrode and reactant ions, is a key step for its high catalytic activity.

Intramolecular triplet energy transfer in donor-acceptor molecules linked by a crown ether bridge.

Bichromophoric compounds BP-C-NP and BP-C-NBD were synthesized with benzophenone chromophore (BP) as the donor, and 2-naphthyl (NP) and norbornadiene group (NBD) as the acceptor, respectively. Their intramolecular triplet energy transfer was examined. The bridges linking the donor and acceptors in these molecules involve a crown ether moiety complexing a sodium ion. Phosphorescence quenching, flash photolysis and photosensitized isomerization experiments indicate that intramolecular triplet energy transfer occurs with rate constants of about 3.3 x 10(5) and 4.8 x 10(5) s(-1) and efficiencies of about 33 and 42 % for BP-C-NP and BP-C-NBD, respectively. Theoretical calculations indicate that these molecules adopt conformations below room temperature which allow their two-end chromophores conducive to through-space energy transfer.