A Novel Sensor for Undrained Shear Strength Measurement in Very Soft to Soft Marine Sediments Based on Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry Technology.

Due to the short supply of conventional fill materials, such as sand, land reclamation using dredged marine deposits has recently been proposed, in which marine deposits with high water content are blow-filled into reclaiming areas. The strength development of the filled marine soils is of great importance during the sedimentation and consolidation to guide the filling process and construction of reclamation. In this study, a novel sensor based on optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) technology with a simple design was developed for undrained shear strength measurement. The novel sensor consists of an optical fiber and a series of polyoxymethylene coins. Owing to the merits of OFDR technology on high resolution, fully distributed sensing, and immunity to electromagnetic interference, the novel sensor can be used to determine undrained shear strength profiles of very soft to soft marine sediments/soils with good accuracy. The sensor was calibrated in remolded marine deposits with different water contents. The good feasibility and performance of the novel sensor for undrained shear strength measurement were well validated in two physical model tests on marine deposits treated by horizontal drains with vacuum preloading.

Aggregation-Induced Electrochemiluminescence of Tetraphenylbenzosilole Derivatives in an Aqueous Phase System for Ultrasensitive Detection of Hexavalent Chromium.

Herein, aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AIECL) of tetraphenylbenzosilole derivatives in an aqueous phase system with the participation of a co-reactant was systematically investigated for the first time. All organics that we studied exhibit excellent stability and dramatically enhanced electrochemiluminescence (ECL) and photoluminescence (PL) emission when the water fraction increases. The influence of substituents in the structure of tetraphenylbenzosilole derivatives on AIECL performance was proved by fluorescence, cyclic voltammetry, and related theoretical calculation. Among them, 2,3-bis(4-cyanophenyl)-1,1-diphenyl-benzosilole (TPBS-C) with strong electron-withdrawing cyano groups exhibits the best ECL behavior with the highest ECL efficiency (184.36%). The strongest ECL emission of TPBS-C not only stems from the aggregated molecules that restrict the intramolecular motion of peripheral phenyl groups, which inhibits the nonradiative transition, but also comes from the fact that TPBS-C has the lowest reduction potential, and twice the reduction process of TPBS-C occurs to produce more anion radicals (TPBS-C·-). Significantly, the ECL sensor based on TPBS-C nanoaggregates exhibits excellent detection performance for toxic Cr(VI) with a wide linear range from 10-12 to 10-4 M and an extremely low detection limit of 0.83 pM. This work developed an efficient luminophore with unique AIECL properties and realized the ultrasensitive detection of Cr(VI) in the aqueous phase system.

Tetraphenylbenzosilole: An AIE Building Block for Deep-Blue Emitters with High Performance in Nondoped Spin-Coating OLEDs.

1,1,2,3,4,5-Hexaphenylsilole (HPS) is a star building block of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) in constructing OLED emitters. However, their development is obstructed by their complicated preparation and difficulty of achieving blue/deep-blue emission via structure modification and tuning. In this study, a benzo-group modification strategy was adopted to increase the skeleton rigidity and reduce the vibrational-rotational motion of peripheral substituted phenyl groups. The resulting building block, named tetraphenylbenzosilole (TPBS), was synthesized easily via a silyl radical cascade process with intermolecular radical cyclization. After the structure of the reaction substrate was tuned, four TPBS-based derivatives were obtained which not only inherited AIE characteristics from HPS but also exhibited high-efficiency deep-blue emission in the aggregated state thanks to their tuned HOMOs/LUMOs. Similar to HPS, propeller-like conformations in their single crystals were observed. In nondoped spin-coating OLEDs, these AIEgens all exhibited satisfactory performance with high EQEs (3.1-3.6%) at CIE coordinates of (0.15, 0.10), the best result reported so far for spin-coating-type AIEgens in blue nondoped OLEDs. All of the data showed the feasibility of our strategy for solving the shortage of AIEgens serving as building blocks for deep-blue emitters. We foresee the development of systems based on TPBS or its derivative materials inspired by this work.

Promoting Subordinate, Efficient Ruthenium Sites with Interstitial Silicon for Pt-Like Electrocatalytic Activity.

The fundamental understanding and rational manipulation of catalytic site preference at extended solid surfaces is crucial in the search for advanced catalysts. Herein we find that the Ru top sites at metallic ruthenium surface have efficient Pt-like activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but they are subordinate to their adjacent, less active Ru3 -hollow sites due to the stronger hydrogen-binding ability of the latter. We also present an interstitial incorporation strategy for the promotion of the Ru top sites from subordinate to dominant character, while maintaining Pt-like catalytic activity. Our combined theoretical and experimental studies further identify intermetallic RuSi as a highly active, non-Pt material for catalyzing the HER, because of its suitable electronic structure governed by a good balance of ligand and strain effects.

Comparative Proteomics of Rubber Latex Revealed Multiple Protein Species of REF/SRPP Family Respond Diversely to Ethylene Stimulation among Different Rubber Tree Clones.

Rubber elongation factor (REF) and small rubber particle protein (SRPP) are two key factors for natural rubber biosynthesis. To further understand the roles of these proteins in rubber formation, six different genes for latex abundant REF or SRPP proteins, including REF138,175,258 and SRPP117,204,243, were characterized from Hevea brasiliensis Reyan (RY) 7-33-97. Sequence analysis showed that REFs have a variable and long N-terminal, whereas SRPPs have a variable and long C-terminal beyond the REF domain, and REF258 has a ß subunit of ATPase in its N-terminal. Through two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), each REF/SRPP protein was separated into multiple protein spots on 2-DE gels, indicating they have multiple protein species. The abundance of REF/SRPP proteins was compared between ethylene and control treatments or among rubber tree clones with different levels of latex productivity by analyzing 2-DE gels. The total abundance of each REF/SRPP protein decreased or changed a little upon ethylene stimulation, whereas the abundance of multiple protein species of the same REF/SRPP changed diversely. Among the three rubber tree clones, the abundance of the protein species also differed significantly. Especially, two protein species of REF175 or REF258 were ethylene-responsive only in the high latex productivity clone RY 8-79 instead of in RY 7-33-97 and PR 107. Some individual protein species were positively related to ethylene stimulation and latex productivity. These results suggested that the specific protein species could be more important than others for rubber production and post-translational modifications might play important roles in rubber biosynthesis.

Efficacy of 3rd generation TKI in patients with EGFR mutation lung adenocarcinoma with bone metastases: A review of 3 case reports and literature.

RATIONALE: With the advancement of targeted therapies, epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors have become the preferred initial treatment for patients with advanced epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. Osimertinib, a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is effective against exon 19 and 21 mutations as well as the T790M mutation. It has been approved by both the food and drug administration and European Medicines Agency for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated tumors, including those who have acquired T790M mutations. PATIENT CONCERNS: To evaluate the effectiveness of osimertinib in treating patients with EGFR-mutated advanced lung adenocarcinoma and bone metastases, we present the treatment outcomes of 3 patients with EGFR 19 deletion-mutated advanced lung adenocarcinoma and bone metastases who received osimertinib treatment in recent years. All 3 cases involved elderly female patients, aged 62, 62, and 54, respectively. DIAGNOSES: All 3 cases exhibited a diagnosis of pulmonary adenocarcinoma accompanied by osseous metastases, with genetic testing revealing the presence of an EGFR 19del mutation. INTERVENTIONS: In the first case, following 17 months of gefitinib therapy, disease progression prompted a switch to osimertinib treatment. In the second case, bone metastases were detected after 20 months of pemetrexed-carboplatin chemotherapy, leading to a transition to osimertinib therapy. In the third case, after 11 months of erlotinib treatment, bone metastases were identified. Subsequent interventions, including radiation therapy, pemetrexed-carboplatin chemotherapy, pemetrexed-bevacizumab maintenance therapy, and docetaxel chemotherapy, failed to arrest the progression of bone metastases. As a result, a combination of osimertinib and anlotinib targeted therapy was administered. OUTCOMES: All 3 patients experienced relatively good and favorable survival outcomes, with a progression-free survival of 22.7 months, 12 months, and 17.7 months, respectively. LESSONS: These cases suggest that osimertinib is a promising treatment option for patients with EGFR 19 deletion-mutated lung adenocarcinoma and bone metastases, although further clinical studies are needed to confirm its efficacy.

Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis-based analysis provides global insights into the cotton ovule and fiber proteomes.

Proteomic analysis of upland cotton was performed to profile the global detectable proteomes of ovules and fibers using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE). A total of 1,203 independent protein spots were collected from representative 2DE gels, which were digested with trypsin and identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization-time-offlight/ time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry. The mass spectrometry or tandem mass spectrometry (MS or MS/MS) data were then searched against a local database constructed from Gossypium hirsutum genome sequences, resulting in successful identification of 975 protein spots (411 for ovules and 564 for fibers). Functional annotation analysis of the 975 identified proteins revealed that ovule-specific proteins were mainly enriched in functions related to fatty acid elongation, sulfur amino acid metabolism and post-replication repair, while fiber-specific proteins were enriched in functions related to root hair elongation, galactose metabolism and D-xylose metabolic processes. Further annotation analysis of the most abundant protein spots showed that 28.96% of the total proteins in the ovule were mainly located in the Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondrion and ribosome, whereas in fibers, 27.02% of the total proteins were located in the cytoskeleton, nuclear envelope and cell wall. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses of the ovule-specific protein spots P61, P93 and P198 and fiber-specific protein spots 230, 477 and 511 were performed to validate the proteomics data. Protein-protein interaction network analyses revealed very different network cluster patterns between ovules and fibers. This work provides the largest protein identification dataset of 2DE-detectable proteins in cotton ovules and fibers and indicates potentially important roles of tissue-specific proteins, thus providing insights into the cotton ovule and fiber proteomes on a global scale.

Identification and functional characterization of HbOsmotin from Hevea brasiliensis.

Latex in the laticiferous cell network of Hevea brasiliensis tree is composed of cytoplasm that synthesizes natural rubber. Ethylene stimulation of the tree bark enhances latex production partly by prolonging the duration of latex flow during the tapping process. Here, we identified an osmotin-like cDNA sequence (HbOsmotin) from H. brasiliensis that belongs to the pathogenesis-related 5 (PR-5) gene family. The HbOsmotin protein is present in the lutoids of latex in H. brasiliensis, whereas in onion epidermal cells, this protein is predominantly distributed around the cell wall, suggesting that it may be secreted from the cytoplasm. We investigated the effects of exogenous ethylene on HbOsmotin transcription and protein accumulation in rubber latex, and further determined the protein function after osmotic stress in Arabidopsis. In regularly tapped trees, HbOsmotin expression was drastically inhibited in rubber latex after tapping, although the expression was subsequently recovered by ethylene stimulation. However, in virgin plants that had never been tapped, exogenous ethylene application slightly decreased HbOsmotin expression. HbOsmotin overexpression in Arabidopsis showed that HbOsmotin reduced the osmotic stress tolerance of the plant, which likely occurred by raising the water potential. These data indicated that HbOsmotin may contribute to osmotic regulation in laticiferous cells.