Thermal-Induced Dopant Precipitation Enabling High-Quality Surface Modification of LiCoO2.

Surface modification is an effective approach for overcoming the interfacial degradations to enable high electrochemical performance of battery materials, yet it is still challenging to realize high-quality surface modification with simple processing, low cost, and mass production. Herein, a thermal-induced surface precipitation phenomenon is reported in a Ti-dopped LiCoO2 , which can realize an ultrathin (≈5 nm) and uniform surface modification by a simple annealing process. It is revealed that surface Li-deficiency enables bulk Ti to precipitate and segregate on the non-(003) surface facets, forming a Ti-enriched disordered layered structure. Such a surface modification layer can not only stabilize the interfacial chemistry but also significantly improve the charge/discharge reaction kinetics, leading to much-improved cycling stability and rate capability. Dopants surface precipitation is a unique outward diffusion process, which differs from the current surface modification techniques and further diversifies these approaches for realizing high-quality surface modification of battery materials.

Identification and characterization of nucleotide metabolism and neuroendocrine regulation-associated modification patterns in stomach adenocarcinoma with auxiliary prognostic assessment and immunotherapy response prediction.

Background: The significance of nucleotide metabolism and neuroendocrine in cellular immune response and cancer is becoming more well-established. However, the mechanisms underlying nucleotide metabolism and neuroendocrine involvement in stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) remain unclear. Methods: First, a pan-cancer overview of nucleotide metabolism and neuroendocrine-related genes (NMNGs) was explored through the integration of expression profiles, prognostic values, mutation information, methylation levels, and pathway-regulation relationships. We next extensively assessed variations in prognosis and tumor microenvironment (TME) features across the various modification patterns, based on an extensive analysis of the NMNG modification patterns of 808 STAD samples based on 46 NMNGs. Utilizing principal component analysis methodologies, the NMNGscore was developed to measure NMNG alteration patterns of individual tumors. Results: Pan-cancer analysis shows that NMNGs mostly act as risk genes in multiple cancer types, especially in STAD. Based on the NMNGs we detected two different NMNG modification patterns in STAD. Both patterns showed distinct immune cell infiltration features and biological behavior, with NMNGcluster A exhibiting a worse prognosis and a larger amount of immune infiltration. Differentially expressed genes with prognostic relevance were used to classify the STAD samples into three genomic subgroups. Analysis of survival rates revealed that cluster B genes were associated with longer life expectancy than clusters A and C. Individual STAD patients' NMNG alteration patterns were analyzed by analyzing their NMNGscore signatures. NMNGscore and immune cells showed a statistically significant adverse correlation with each other. Increased longevity, a higher incidence of mutations, and a better response to immunotherapy were associated with patients' NMNG scores. Conclusions: Our findings provide a personalized prediction tool for prognosis and immunotherapy sensitivity in patients, as well as a promising knowledge of nucleotide metabolism and neuroendocrine in STAD.

Synergistic Effect of Stretched Bridging Block and Released Packing Frustration Leads to Exotic Nanostructures.

The self-assembly of amphiphilic macromolecules into various mesocrystals has attracted abiding interest. Although many interesting mesocrystals have been achieved, mesocrystals of a low coordination number (CN) such as simple cubic are rarely reported. Here we purposely design an AB-type multiblock copolymer to target exotic spherical phases of low CNs. Self-consistent field theory reveals that two sophisticated mechanisms are realized in the copolymer, that is, stretched bridging block and released packing frustration, synergistically leading to the formation of three spherical phases with extremely low CNs, including the simple cubic spheres (CN = 6), the cubic diamond spheres (CN = 4), and normally aligned hexagonal-packing spheres (6 < CN < 8) in a considerable parameter region. Moreover, we demonstrate that these exotic phases are hard to be stabilized by either of the two mechanisms individually.

Metabolomic study of the intervention effects of Shuihonghuazi Formula, a Traditional Chinese Medicinal formulae, on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) rats using performance HPLC/ESI-TOF-MS.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Metabolomics is the comprehensive assessment of endogenous metabolites of a biological system in a holistic context, and its property consists with the global view of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Shuihonghuazi Formula (SHHZF) has been used for liver cancer early treatment in clinical for more than thirty years, but its mechanism remains unclear completely. This paper was designed to explore the therapeutic effects of SHHZF on liver cancer and its metabolomic characters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the rats were given diethylnitrosamine (DEN) at the dosage of 70mg/kg for 14 weeks. From the 7th weeks, SHHZF was given to the rats which lasted for 10 weeks. Therapeutic effects of SHHZF was compared with that of cyclophosphamide (CTX). High performance liquid-chromatography/electrospray-ionization time of flight mass spectrometer (HPLC/ESI-TOF-MS) combined with pattern recognition approaches including principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), was integrated to approximate the comprehensive metabolic signature and discover differentiating metabolites by Agilent MPP 12.1. The changes in metabolic profiling in plasma were restored to their baseline values after SHHZF treatment according to the PLS-DA score plots. RESULTS: The results indicated that 23 ions as "differentiating metabolites". The alterations in those metabolites were associated with perturbations in fatty acid and bile acid metabolism, in response to liver cancer through immune and nervous system. And SHHZF could increase the uptake and utilization of linoleic acid and oleic acid, increase arachidonic acid-like substance content and enhance organism immunity of liver cancer rats. And it also could increase the translation from phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to phosphatidylcholine (PC), linoleic acid metabolism and inhibits abnormal metabolism of bile acid. CONCLUSIONS: The mechanism of therapeutic effects of SHHZF on liver cancer by adjusting the activities of PE N-methyl transferase (PEMT), Lysophospholipase D, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and lysophospholipase was elucidated by the method of metabonomics for the first time.