Aerobically Autoxidized Self-Charge Concept Derived from Synergistic Pyrrolic Nitrogen and Catechol Configurations in N, O Co-Doped Carbon Cathode Material.

Aerobically autoxidized self-charging concept has drawn significant attraction due to its promising chemical charge features without external power supply. Particularly, heteroatom-doped carbon materials with abundant oxidizable sites and good conductivity are expected to be ideal cathode materials. However, there is no well-defined aerobically autoxidized self-charging concept based on heteroatom-doped carbon materials, significantly hindering the design of related carbon cathodes. An aerobically autoxidized self-chargeable concept derived from synergistic effect of pyrrolic nitrogen and catechol configuration in carbon cathode using model single pyrrolic nitrogen and oxygen (N-5, O) co-doped carbon and O-enriched carbon is proposed. First, self-charging of N-5, O co-doped carbon cathode can be achieved by aerobic oxidation of pyrrolic nitrogen and catechol to oxidized pyrrolic nitrogen and ortho-quinone configurations, respectively. Second, introducing a single pyrrolic nitrogen configuration enhanced acidic wettability of N-5, O co-doped carbon facilitating air self-charge/galvanic discharge involving proton removal/introduction. Third, synergistic effect of pyrrolic nitrogen and hydroxyl species with the strong electron-donating ability to conjugated carbon-based backbone endows N-5, O co-doped carbon with a higher highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level more susceptible to oxidation charging. The assembled Cu/Carbon batteries can drive a timer after every air-charging run. This promising aerobically autoxidized self-charging concept can inspire exploring high-efficiency self-charging devices.

Application and development of zero-valent iron (ZVI)-based materials for environmental remediation: A scientometric and visualization analysis.

Zero-valent iron (ZVI)-based materials are among the most widely used engineered particles in the field of environmental remediation. To provide a comprehensive overview of the status and trend of the research on them, this study conducted a quantitative and visual analysis of 6296 relevant publications obtained from Web of Science between 1994 and 2022 using CiteSpace software. By using the bibliometric method, this work systematically analyzed the knowledge structure, research hotspots and trends of ZVI-based materials in this field. The results show that the research on ZVI-based materials in this field developed rapidly over the past 28 years. China is the greatest contributor with the most published articles and collaborations. Still, the USA has the most academic influence with the highest average citations per article. Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tongji University are the primary establishments that produced the greatest number of publications and had the highest h-index. Keyword cluster analysis indicates that the primary research topics are related to reductive dechlorination, sulfate radical, arsenic removal, graphene oxide, porous media, peroxymonosulfate, groundwater remediation, and permeable reactive barrier. Meanwhile, keyword burst analysis reveals that the primary research hotspots and frontiers of ZVI focus on its modification, the refractory and emerging contaminants treatment, persulfate activation, and electron transfer. However, no keywords or topics related to the environmental impact and toxicity of ZVI-based materials are available in the keyword clustering and burst analysis results, indicating this direction deserves more attention in future research. Through a comprehensive and in-depth bibliometric analysis, this paper provides new insight into the research hotspots and development trends of the research on ZVI-based materials in environmental remediation.

A prognostic nomogram to predict survival in elderly patients with small-cell lung cancer: a large population-based cohort study and external validation.

BACKGROUND: Age is an independent prognostic factor for small cell lung cancer (SCLC). We aimed to construct a nomogram survival prediction for elderly SCLC patients based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. METHODS: A total of 2851 elderly SCLC patients from the SEER database were selected as a primary cohort, which were randomly divided into a training cohort and an internal validation cohort. Additionally, 512 patients from two institutions in China were identified as an external validation cohort. We used univariate and multivariate to determine the independent prognostic factors and establish a nomogram to predict survival. The value of the nomogram was evaluated by calibration plots, concordance index (C-index) and decision curve analysis (DCA). RESULTS: Ten independent prognostic factors were determined and integrated into the nomogram. Calibration plots showed an ideal agreement between the nomogram predicted and actual observed probability of survival. The C-indexes of the training and validation groups for cancer-specific survival (CSS) (0.757 and 0.756, respectively) based on the nomogram were higher than those of the TNM staging system (0.631 and 0.638, respectively). Improved AUC value and DCA were also obtained in comparison with the TNM model. The risk stratification system can significantly distinguish individuals with different survival risks. CONCLUSION: We constructed and externally validated a nomogram to predict survival for elderly patients with SCLC. Our novel nomogram outperforms the traditional TNM staging system and provides more accurate prediction for the prognosis of elderly SCLC patients.

Establishment and Validation of a Pathologic Upgrade Prediction Nomogram Model for Gastric Low-Grade Intraepithelial Neoplasia Patients After the Eradication of Helicobacter pylori.

BACKGROUND: As yet, there is no unified method of treatment for the evaluation and management of gastric low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN) worldwide. METHODS: Patients with gastric LGIN who had been treated with Helicobacter pylori eradication were gathered retrospectively. Based on several relevant characteristics described and analyzed by LASSO regression analysis and multivariable logistic regression, a prediction nomogram model was established. C-index, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration plot, and decision curve analysis (DCA) were adopted to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the model. RESULTS: A total of 309 patients with LGIN were randomly divided into the training groups and the validation groups. LASSO regression analysis and multivariable logistic regression identified that 6 variables including gender, size, location, borderline, number, and erosion were independent risk factors. The nomogram model displayed good discrimination with a C-index of .765 (95% confidence interval: .702-.828). The accuracy and reliability of the model were also verified by an AUC of .764 in the training group and .757 in the validation group. Meanwhile, the calibration curve and the DCA suggested that the predictive nomogram had promising accuracy and clinical utility. CONCLUSIONS: A predictive nomogram model was constructed and proved to be clinically applicable to identify high-risk groups with possible pathologic upgrade in patients with gastric LGIN. Since it is regarded that strengthening follow-up or endoscopic treatment of high-risk patients may contribute to improving the detection rate or reducing the incidence of gastric cancer, the predictive nomogram model provides a reliable basis for the treatment of LGIN.

Establishment and Verification of a Nomogram for Predicting Survival in Patients with Small Intestinal Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to develop and validate nomograms for predicting overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in small intestinal gastrointestinal stromal tumors (SI GISTs). METHODS: Patients diagnosed with SI GISTs were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and further randomly divided into training and validating cohorts. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses were conducted in the training set to determine independent prognostic factors to build nomograms for predicting 3- and 5-year OS and CSS. The performance of the nomograms was assessed by using the concordance index (C-index), calibration plot, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: Data of a total of 776 patients with SI GISTs were retrospectively collected from the SEER database. The OS nomogram was constructed based on age, surgery, imatinib treatment, and American Joint Committee for Cancer (AJCC) stage, while the CSS nomogram incorporated age, surgery, tumor grade, and AJCC stage. In the training set, the C-index for the OS nomogram was 0.773 (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.722-0.824) and for the CSS nomogram 0.806 (95% CI: 0.757-0.855). In the internal validation cohort, the C-index for the OS nomogram was 0.741, while for the CSS nomogram, it was 0.819. Well-corresponded calibration plots both in OS and CSS nomogram models were noticed. The comparisons of AUC values showed that the established nomograms exhibited superior discrimination power than the 7th Tumor-Node-Metastasis staging system. CONCLUSION: Our nomogram can effectively predict 3- and 5-year OS and CSS in patients with SI GISTs, and its use can help improve the accuracy of personalized survival prediction and facilitate to provide constructive therapeutic suggestions.

Increasing the HIV testing among MSM through HIV test result exchange mechanism: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: HIV testing is an essential gateway to HIV prevention and treatment thus controlling the HIV epidemic. More innovative interventions are needed to increase HIV testing among men who have sex with men (MSM) since their testing rate is still low. We proposed an online HIV test results exchange mechanism whereby the one without a certified online HIV report will be asked to test HIV for exchanging HIV report with others. The exchange mechanism is developed as an extension to the existing online HIV testing service system. Through the extended system, MSM can obtain certified online HIV reports and exchange their reports with friends via WeChat. This study aims to assess effectiveness of the exchange mechanism to increase the HIV testing rate among MSM. METHODS: This study will use a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) design. Participants are recruited based on the unit of individual social network, the sender and the receivers of the HIV report. An individual social network is composed of one sender (ego) and one or more receivers (alters). In this study, MSM in an HIV testing clinic are recruited as potential egos and forwarded online reports to their WeChat friends voluntarily. Friends are invited to participate by report links and become alters. Ego and alters serve as a cluster and are randomized to the group using the certified online HIV report with exchange mechanism (intervention group) or without exchange mechanism (control group). Alters are the intervention targeting participants. The primary outcome is HIV testing rate. Other outcomes are sexual transmitted infections, sexual behaviors, HIV testing norms, stigma, risk perception and HIV report delivery. The outcomes will be assessed at baseline and follow-up questionnaires. Analysis will be according to intention to treat approach and using mixed-effect models with networks and individuals as random effects. DISCUSSION: This is the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of an HIV test result exchange mechanism to increase the HIV testing among MSM. This assessment of the intervention will also provide scientific evidence on other potential effects. Findings from this study will yield insights for sustainability driven by communities' intrinsic motivation. Trail registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03984136. Registered 12 June 2019.

Large Polaron Condensation in a Pseudo-Bilayer Quantum Hall Composite.

There is much interest regarding the "coupled ferroelectricity and superconductivity" in the two-dimensional material, bilayer Td-MoTe2; however, the value and the type of electric polarization are unknown. The device structure and the measurement method show that the measured material is the composite of the pseudo-bilayer quantum Hall system, with a thickness of about thirty-six nanometers. The derived dielectric hysteresis loops and the calculated electronic structure reveal that the condensed large polarons are responsible for the reverse ferroelectricity and the coupled superconductivity. The maximum value of polaron-type electric polarization is ~12 nC/µm2 or 1.2 × 104 µc/cm2.

Self-Reporting Microsensors Inspired by Noctiluca Scintillans for Small-Defect Positioning and Electrical-Stress Visualization in Polymers.

Small defects induce concentrated electrical stress in dielectric polymers, leading to premature failure of materials. Existing sensing methods fail to effectively visualize these defects owing to the invisible-energy state of the electric field. Thus, it is necessary to establish a nondestructive method for the real-time detection of small defects in dielectric polymers. In this study, a self-reporting microsensor (SRM) inspired by Noctiluca scintillans is designed to endow materials with the ability of self-detection for defects and electrical stress. The SRM leverages the energy of a nearby electric field to emit measurable fluorescence, enabling defect localization and diagnosis as well as electrical-stress visualization. A controllable dielectric microsphere is constructed to achieve an adjustable electroluminescence threshold for the SRM, thereby increasing its detection accuracy while decreasing the electroluminescence threshold. The potential degradation in the polymer performance owing to SRM implantation is addressed by assembling long molecular chains on the SRM surface to spontaneously generate an interpenetrating network. Results of finite element analyses and experiments demonstrate that the SRM can effectively realize nondestructive visualization and positioning of small defects and concentrated electrical stress in polymers, positioning it as a promising sensing method for monitoring the electric field and charge distribution in materials.

Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Esculetin-Furoxan-DEAC Ternary Hybrids for Anti-Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Twelve new hybrid compounds of Esculetin with nitric oxide (NO) donors and/or mitochondrial targeting groups were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their anti-tumor activity and mechanism in vitro and in vivo. Notably, the most potent compound A11 exhibited nanomolar antiproliferative activity on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) MDA-MB-231 cells (IC50 = 8 nM) with a strikingly selective inhibitory effect. The mechanism of A11 involves targeting MDA-MB-231 cells' mitochondria, releasing a high NO concentration, and increasing the expression of cyclophilin D (CypD), leading to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and triggering cancer cell apoptosis. Additionally, A11 could arrest the cell cycle at the G2/M phase to achieve anti-tumor effects. Moreover, A11 demonstrated a superior TNBC inhibition rate and diminished toxicity relative to doxorubicin (DOX) in vivo. In summary, A11 serves as a noteworthy contender for TNBC treatment with high potency and minimal toxicity.

Architecture inspired structure engineering toward carbon nanotube hybrid for microwave absorption promotion.

Constructing sophisticated 3D structure has been shown to be fruitful in developing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) microwave absorbers (MAs). However, issues with the unclear electromagnetic (EM) responding synergy of CNTs toward substrate and the limited dissipation property caused by the large dense CNTs networks throughout the reported models still need to be resolved. Inspired by the creeper-window-room-structured architecture, an analogous conformal nanostructure of amorphous carbon/CNTs (N-AC/CNTs) hybrid is constructed through an in situ autocatalytic planting approach. By this model, not only the inheritance of frequency dependence characteristic but the co-inheritance of lossy behavior and impedance matching is demonstrated. Moreover, by virtue of the unique structure, a synergistic reinforcing dielectric loss from conductive loss and dielectric polarization was introduced. Therefore, N-AC/CNTs-750 shows impressive EM performance. This work hereby unveils the synergy of EM response from CNTs toward substrate, and provides a pioneering insight into developing architecture-inspired structure engineering to construct high-performance MAs.

Confronting the water potential information gap.

Water potential directly controls the function of leaves, roots, and microbes, and gradients in water potential drive water flows throughout the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Notwithstanding its clear relevance for many ecosystem processes, soil water potential is rarely measured in-situ, and plant water potential observations are generally discrete, sparse, and not yet aggregated into accessible databases. These gaps limit our conceptual understanding of biophysical responses to moisture stress and inject large uncertainty into hydrologic and land surface models. Here, we outline the conceptual and predictive gains that could be made with more continuous and discoverable observations of water potential in soils and plants. We discuss improvements to sensor technologies that facilitate in situ characterization of water potential, as well as strategies for building new networks that aggregate water potential data across sites. We end by highlighting novel opportunities for linking more representative site-level observations of water potential to remotely-sensed proxies. Together, these considerations offer a roadmap for clearer links between ecohydrological processes and the water potential gradients that have the 'potential' to substantially reduce conceptual and modeling uncertainties.

Spatial and temporal variability of root-zone soil moisture acquired from hydrologic modeling and AirMOSS P-band radar.

The accurate estimation of grid-scale fluxes of water, energy, and carbon requires consideration of sub-grid spatial variability in root-zone soil moisture (RZSM). The NASA Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) mission represents the first systematic attempt to repeatedly map high-resolution RZSM fields using airborne remote sensing across a range of biomes. Here we compare 3-arc-sec (~100-m) spatial resolution AirMOSS RZSM retrievals from P-band radar acquisitions over 9 separate North American study sites with analogous RZSM estimates generated by the Flux-Penn State Hydrology Model (Flux-PIHM). The two products demonstrate comparable levels of accuracy when evaluated against ground-based soil moisture products and a significant level of temporal cross-correlation. However, relative to the AirMOSS RZSM retrievals, Flux-PIHM RZSM estimates generally demonstrate much lower levels of spatial and temporal variability, and the spatial patterns captured by both products are poorly correlated. Nevertheless, based on a discussion of likely error sources affecting both products, it is argued that the spatial analysis of AirMOSS and Flux-PIHM RZSM fields provide meaningful upper and lower bounds on the potential range of RZSM spatial variability encountered across a range of natural biomes.