Direct Observation of Large-Scale Screw Dislocation Grids in Oxide Heteroepitaxies.

Screw dislocation is important not only for understanding plastic deformation of crystals but also for optical and electrical properties of materials. However, characterizations of screw dislocations are still challenging since there is almost no atom distortion when viewed along the dislocation line. In particular, although it is theoretically known that shear strains in heteroepitaxy systems may be relaxed via screw dislocation grids, the specific structures and thickness-dependent evolutions of these grids are still largely unknown. Here, by using orthorhombic [001]-oriented DyScO3 substrates we have directly observed large-scale screw dislocation grids in the DyScO3/BiFeO3 oxide heteroepitaxies exhibiting large shear strain. Pure screw dislocations with a[100] and a[01̅0] Burgers vectors were confirmed by multiscale transmission electron microscopy study. Our results directly confirm screw dislocation grids as a factor to tailor shear strains in epitaxial systems and suggest a practical platform for studying structures and induced responses corresponding to screw dislocations.

Intrinsic Grain Boundary Structure and Enhanced Defect States in Air-Sensitive Polycrystalline 1T'-WTe2 Monolayer.

Monolayer WTe2 has attracted significant attention for its unconventional superconductivity and topological edge states. However, its air sensitivity poses challenges for studying intrinsic defect structures. This study addresses this issue using a custom-built inert gas interconnected system, and investigate the intrinsic grain boundary (GB) structures of monolayer polycrystalline 1T' WTe2 grown by nucleation-controlled chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. These findings reveal that GBs in this system are predominantly governed by W-Te rhombi with saturated coordination, resulting in three specific GB prototypes without dislocation cores. The GBs exhibit anisotropic orientations influenced by kinks formed from these fundamental units, which in turn affect the distribution of grains in various shapes within polycrystalline flakes. Scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) analysis further reveals metallic states along the intrinsic 120° twin grain boundary (TGB), consistent with computed band structures. This systematic exploration of GBs in air-sensitive 1T' WTe2 monolayers provides valuable insights into emerging GB-related phenomena.

Comparison of Prospective and Retrospective Gated 4D Flow Cardiac MR Image Acquisitions in the Carotid Bifurcation.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the agreement of 4D flow cMRI-derived bulk flow features and fluid (blood) velocities in the carotid bifurcation using prospective and retrospective gating techniques. METHODS: Prospective and retrospective ECG-gated three-dimensional (3D) cine phase-contrast cardiac MRI with three-direction velocity encoding (i.e., 4D flow cMRI) data were acquired in ten carotid bifurcations from men (n = 3) and women (n = 2) that were cardiovascular disease-free. MRI sequence parameters were held constant across all scans except temporal resolution values differed. Velocity data were extracted from the fluid domain and evaluated across the entire volume or at defined anatomic planes (common, internal, external carotid arteries). Qualitative agreement between gating techniques was performed by visualizing flow streamlines and topographical images, and statistical comparisons between gating techniques were performed across the fluid volume and defined anatomic regions. RESULTS: Agreement in the kinematic data (e.g., bulk flow features and velocity data) were observed in the prospectively and retrospectively gated acquisitions. Voxel differences in time-averaged, peak systolic, and diastolic-averaged velocity magnitudes between gating techniques across all volunteers were 2.7%, 1.2%, and 6.4%, respectively. No significant differences in velocity magnitudes or components ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) were observed. Importantly, retrospective acquisitions captured increased retrograde flow in the internal carotid artery (i.e., carotid sinus) compared to prospective acquisitions (10.4 ± 6.3% vs. 4.6 ± 5.3%; [Formula: see text] < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Prospective and retrospective ECG-gated 4D flow cMRI acquisitions provide comparable evaluations of fluid velocities, including velocity vector components, in the carotid bifurcation. However, the increased temporal coverage of retrospective acquisitions depicts increased retrograde flow patterns (i.e., disturbed flow) not captured by the prospective gating technique.

Ferric-loaded lipid nanoparticles inducing ferroptosis-like cell death for antibacterial wound healing.

Skin infection is a major health issue that usually is caused by the continuous proliferation of bacteria in wounds. With the abuse of antibiotics worldwide, the battle against skin infection is becoming more and more difficult. Therefore, the development of new ways with different antibacterial mechanisms to current antibiotics is urgently needed. Inspired by the powerful inhibition of ferroptosis used in cancer therapy, here in our study, ferric-loaded lipid nanoparticles (Fe-LNPs) with unform size (∼130 nm) and surface charge (∼12 mV) were constructed and found to effectively inhibit the growth of both Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus, S. aureus) and negative (Escherichia coli, E. coli) strains, possibly due to induction of ferroptosis-like cell death mechanisms. Most importantly, Fe-LNPs can also effectively inhibit the proliferation of S. aureus in a skin infection model and promote the healing of wounds. The Fe-LNPs can be applied as a powerful antibacterial formulation for future application in clinic.

One-Step Growth of Bilayer 2H-1T' MoTe2 van der Waals Heterostructures with Interlayer-Coupled Resonant Phonon Vibration.

2H-1T' MoTe2 van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) have promising applications in optoelectronics due to a seamlessly homogeneous semiconductor-metal coupled interface. However, the existing methods to fabricate such vdWHs involved complicated steps that may deteriorate the interfacial coupling and are also lacking precise thickness control capability. Here, a one-step growth method was developed to controllably grow bilayer 2H-1T' MoTe2 vdWHs in the small growth window overlapped for both phases. Atomic-resolution low-voltage transmission electron microscopy shows the distinct moiré patterns in the bilayer vdWHs, revealing the epitaxial nature of the top 2H phase with the lattice parameters regulated by the underneath 1T' phase. Such epitaxially stacked bilayer vdWHs modulate the interlayer coupling by resonating their vibration modes, as unveiled by the angle-resolved polarized Raman spectroscopy and first-principles calculations.

Continuously tunable ferroelectric domain width down to the single-atomic limit in bismuth tellurite.

Emerging functionalities in two-dimensional materials, such as ferromagnetism, superconductivity and ferroelectricity, open new avenues for promising nanoelectronic applications. Here, we report the discovery of intrinsic in-plane room-temperature ferroelectricity in two-dimensional Bi2TeO5 grown by chemical vapor deposition, where spontaneous polarization originates from Bi column displacements. We found an intercalated buffer layer consist of mixed Bi/Te column as 180° domain wall which enables facile polarized domain engineering, including continuously tunable domain width by pinning different concentration of buffer layers, and even ferroelectric-antiferroelectric phase transition when the polarization unit is pinned down to single atomic column. More interestingly, the intercalated Bi/Te buffer layer can interconvert to polarized Bi columns which end up with series terraced domain walls and unusual fan-shaped ferroelectric domain. The buffer layer induced size and shape tunable ferroelectric domain in two-dimensional Bi2TeO5 offer insights into the manipulation of functionalities in van der Waals materials for future nanoelectronics.

Spin mapping of intralayer antiferromagnetism and field-induced spin reorientation in monolayer CrTe2.

Intrinsic antiferromagnetism in van der Waals (vdW) monolayer (ML) crystals enriches our understanding of two-dimensional (2D) magnetic orders and presents several advantages over ferromagnetism in spintronic applications. However, studies of 2D intrinsic antiferromagnetism are sparse, owing to the lack of net magnetisation. Here, by combining spin-polarised scanning tunnelling microscopy and first-principles calculations, we investigate the magnetism of vdW ML CrTe2, which has been successfully grown through molecular-beam epitaxy. We observe a stable antiferromagnetic (AFM) order at the atomic scale in the ML crystal, whose bulk is ferromagnetic, and correlate its imaged zigzag spin texture with the atomic lattice structure. The AFM order exhibits an intriguing noncollinear spin reorientation under magnetic fields, consistent with its calculated moderate magnetic anisotropy. The findings of this study demonstrate the intricacy of 2D vdW magnetic materials and pave the way for their in-depth analysis.

A Comparison of Rendering Techniques for 3D Line Sets With Transparency.

This article presents a comprehensive study of rendering techniques for 3D line sets with transparency. The rendering of transparent lines is widely used for visualizing trajectories of tracer particles in flow fields. Transparency is then used to fade out lines deemed unimportant, based on, for instance, geometric properties or attributes defined along with them. Accurate blending of transparent lines requires rendering the lines in back-to-front or front-to-back order, yet enforcing this order for space-filling 3D line sets with extremely high-depth complexity becomes challenging. In this article, we study CPU and GPU rendering techniques for transparent 3D line sets. We compare accurate and approximate techniques using optimized implementations and several benchmark data sets. We discuss the effects of data size and transparency on quality, performance, and memory consumption. Based on our study, we propose two improvements to per-pixel fragment lists and multi-layer alpha blending. The first improves the rendering speed via an improved GPU sorting operation, and the second improves rendering quality via transparency-based bucketing.

Direct Visualization of Large-Scale Intrinsic Atomic Lattice Structure and Its Collective Anisotropy in Air-Sensitive Monolayer 1T'- WTe2.

Probing large-scale intrinsic structure of air-sensitive 2D materials with atomic resolution is so far challenging due to their rapid oxidization and contamination. Here, by keeping the whole experiment including growth, transfer, and characterizations in an interconnected atmosphere-control environment, the large-scale intact lattice structure of air-sensitive monolayer 1T'-WTe2 is directly visualized by atom-resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy. Benefit from the large-scale atomic mapping, collective lattice distortions are further unveiled due to the presence of anisotropic rippling, which propagates perpendicular to only one of the preferential lattice planes in the same WTe2 monolayer. Such anisotropic lattice rippling modulates the intrinsic point defect (Te vacancy) distribution, in which they aggregate at the constrictive inner side of the undulating structure, presumably due to the ripple-induced asymmetric strain as elaborated by density functional theory. The results pave the way for atomic characterizations and defect engineering of air-sensitive 2D layered materials.

Strained Epitaxy of Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Wrinkle Arrays.

Wrinkling two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) provides a mechanism to adjust the physical and chemical properties as per need. Traditionally, TMDCs wrinkles achieved by transferring exfoliated materials on prestretched polymer suffer from poor control and limited sample area, which significantly hinders desirable applications. Herein, we fabricate large-area monolayer TMDCs wrinkle arrays directly on the m-quartz substrate using strained epitaxy. The uniaxial thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the substrate and TMDCs materials enables the generation of large uniaxial thermal strain. By quenching the TMDCs after growth, this uniaxial thermal strain can be quickly released as a form of wrinkle arrays along the [0001]quartz direction. Using WS2 as a model system, the size of as-grown wrinkles can be finely modulated within sub-100 nm by changing the quenching temperature. These WS2 wrinkles can be locally folded and form various multilayer structures with odd layer numbers during the transfer process. Besides, the corrugated structures in WS2 wrinkles induce significant changes to optical properties including anisotropic Raman response, enhanced photoluminescence, and second harmonic generation emissions. Furthermore, these wrinkle arrays exhibit enhanced chemical reactivity that can be selectively engineered to ribbon arrays with improved electrocatalytic performance. The developed strategy of strained epitaxy here should enable flexibility in the design of more sophisticated 2D-based structures, offering a simple but effective way toward the modulation of properties with enhanced performances.

Construction and Validation of an Autophagy-Related Prognostic Risk Signature for Survival Predicting in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients.

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a common type of malignant tumors in urinary system. Evaluating the prognostic outcome at the time of initial diagnosis is essential for patients. Autophagy is known to play a significant role in tumors. Here, we attempted to construct an autophagy-related prognostic risk signature based on the expression profile of autophagy-related genes (ARGs) for predicting the long-term outcome and effect of precise treatments for ccRCC patients. Methods: We obtained the expression profile of ccRCC from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database and extract the portion of ARGs. We conducted differentially expressed analysis on ARGs and then performed enrichment analyses to confirm the anomalous autophagy-related biological functions. Then, we performed univariate Cox regression to screen out overall survival (OS)-related ARGs. With these genes, we established an autophagy-related risk signature by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression. We validated the reliability of the risk signature with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, survival analysis, clinic correlation analysis, and Cox regression. Then we analyzed the function of each gene in the signature by single-gene gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Finally, we analyzed the correlation between our risk score and expression level of several targets of immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Results: We established a seven-gene prognostic risk signature, according to which we could divide patients into high or low risk groups and predict their outcomes. ROC analysis and survival analysis validated the reliability of the signature. Clinic correlation analysis found that the risk group is significantly correlated with severity of ccRCC. Multivariate Cox regression revealed that the risk score could act as an independent predictor for the prognosis of ccRCC patients. Correlation analysis between risk score and targets of precise treatments showed that our risk signature could predict the effects of precise treatment powerfully. Conclusion: Our study provided a brand new autophagy-related seven-gene prognostic risk signature, which could perform as a prognostic indicator for ccRCC. Meanwhile, our study provides a novel sight to understand the role of autophagy and suggest therapeutic strategies in the category of precise treatment in ccRCC.

High expression of NSUN5 promotes cell proliferation via cell cycle regulation in colorectal cancer.

NSUN5, a gene encodes a cytosine-5 RNA methyltransferase, is rarely mentioned in cancers. Our study is the first one to evaluate the role of NSUN5 in the progression of colorectal cancer. Data from TCGA was used to show the different expression of NSUN5 between CRC tumor tissues and adjacent normal ones. The NSUN5 expression in the tissue microarray was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). qRT-PCR was conducted for NSUN5 expression examination in CRC cell lines. Cell proliferation was analyzed by the Celigo machine. GESA and correlation analysis were performed to reveal the possible underlying mechanism. The effects of NSUN5 expression on CRC cell behavior in vitro were analyzed by flow cytometry and ß-galactosidase staining. The expression of cell-cycle related proteins were evaluated by western blot. Subcutaneously implanted tumor model was carried out for animal experiment. NSUN5 expression was up-regulated in CRC tumor tissues and cells, and associated with advanced tumor stages (III, IV). NSUN5 could promote cell proliferation, trigger cell cycle arrest in vitro and boost tumor growth in vivo. In addition, knockdown of NSUN5 could lead to a higher expression of Rb and a lower expression of CDK4, CDK6, p-Rb and CCNE1, but made no difference on P21, Bcl-2, caspase3 and C-Caspase3 of CRC cells. Taken together, we identify NSUN5 as a promoter in CRC development via cell cycle regulation.

Erratum: High expression of NSUN5 promotes cell proliferation via cell cycle regulation in colorectal cancer.

[This corrects the article on p. 3858 in vol. 12, PMID: 32774740.].

Te-Vacancy-Induced Surface Collapse and Reconstruction in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulator MnBi2Te4.

MnBi2Te4 is an antiferromagnetic topological insulator that has stimulated intense interest due to its exotic quantum phenomena and promising device applications. The surface structure is a determinant factor to understand the magnetic and topological behavior of MnBi2Te4, yet its precise atomic structure remains elusive. Here we discovered a surface collapse and reconstruction of few-layer MnBi2Te4 exfoliated under delicate protection. Instead of the ideal septuple-layer structure in the bulk, the collapsed surface is shown to reconstruct as a Mn-doped Bi2Te3 quintuple layer and a MnxBiyTe double layer with a clear van der Waals gap in between. Combined with first-principles calculations, such surface collapse is attributed to the abundant intrinsic Mn-Bi antisite defects and the tellurium vacancy in the exfoliated surface, which is further supported by in situ annealing and electron irradiation experiments. Our results shed light on the understanding of the intricate surface-bulk correspondence of MnBi2Te4 and provide an insightful perspective on the surface-related quantum measurements in MnBi2Te4 few-layer devices.

Ray Tracing Generalized Tube Primitives: Method and Applications.

We present a general high-performance technique for ray tracing generalized tube primitives. Our technique efficiently supports tube primitives with fixed and varying radii, general acyclic graph structures with bifurcations, and correct transparency with interior surface removal. Such tube primitives are widely used in scientific visualization to represent diffusion tensor imaging tractographies, neuron morphologies, and scalar or vector fields of 3D flow. We implement our approach within the OSPRay ray tracing framework, and evaluate it on a range of interactive visualization use cases of fixed- and varying-radius streamlines, pathlines, complex neuron morphologies, and brain tractographies. Our proposed approach provides interactive, high-quality rendering, with low memory overhead.

Modulation of charged a1/a2 domains and piezoresponses of tensile strained PbTiO3 films by the cooling rate.

Controlling domain width, orientation, and patterns in oxide ferroelectrics are not only important for fundamental research but also for potential electronic application. Here, a series of PbTiO3 thin films under various cooling rates were deposited on (110)-oriented NdScO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition and investigated by using conventional transmission electron microscopy, Cs-corrected scanning TEM and piezoresponse force microscopy. Contrast analysis and electron diffraction revealed that PbTiO3 films are a1/a2 domain patterns under large tensile strains with different cooling rates. The a1/a2 domains distribute periodically and the domain width increases with decrease in the cooling rates. Upon increasing the cooling rate, the domain density increases and the domain configurations become complicated. There are special square frame-like domain patterns with charged domain walls found in the PTO films with the fast cooling rate. PFM measurement shows that the PTO films with high cooling rate exhibit enhanced piezoresponse behavior which is ascribed to the high density domain/domain walls and special domain configurations. The formation mechanism of the different domain configurations is discussed in terms of the effect of cooling rates, defects and thermal kinetics. These results are expected to provide useful information for domain/domain wall control and thus facilitate further modulation of the properties for potential applications.

An integrated bioinformatical analysis to evaluate the role of KIF4A as a prognostic biomarker for breast cancer.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of human kinesin family member 4A (KIF4A) as an effective biomarker for breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Cancer Genome Atlas data and 12 independent public breast cancer microarray data sets were downloaded and analyzed using individual and pooled approaches. RESULTS: The results of our study revealed a strong and positive correlation between KIF4A expression and malignant features of breast cancer. KIF4A had a strong prognostic value in both ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancers comparable to or even better than tumor size, lymph node invasion, and Elston grade. We also found that KIF4A might be the target gene of microRNA-335, which can suppress KIF4A expression by targeting the 3'-untranslated region of its mRNA. CONCLUSION: KIF4A might serve as a robust prognostic predictor for breast cancer. Targeting KIF4A activity could be a promising therapeutic option in breast cancer treatment.

Thickness-Dependent Evolution of Piezoresponses and Stripe 90° Domains in (101)-Oriented Ferroelectric PbTiO3 Thin Films.

High-index ferroelectric films as (101)-orientated ones exhibit enhanced dielectric responses, piezoelectric responses, and exotic ferroelectric switching behaviors, which are potential candidates for applications in memories and capacitors. However, possible domain patterns and domain wall structures in (101)-oriented ferroelectric thin films are still elusive, which results in difficulties in understanding the origin and further modulating their special properties. In this work, a series of PbTiO3 (PTO) thin films with 35, 50, 60, and 70 nm in thickness were grown on (101)-oriented (LaAlO3)0.29(SrTa1/2Al1/2O3)0.71 (LSAT(101)) substrates by pulsed laser deposition and investigated by both piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and (scanning) transmission electron microscopy ((S)TEM). PFM measurements reveal that periodic stripe domains are dominant in 50 nm thick PTO films. Besides stripe domains, a/ c domains appear in films with thickness more than 60 nm. A thickness-dependent evolution of piezoresponse amplitude indicates that the 50 nm thick PTO films demonstrate a superior piezoresponse. Electron diffraction and contrast analysis clarify that all these (101)-oriented PTO films contain periodic stripe ferroelectric 90° domains. The domain periods increase with the film thickness following Kittel's law. Aberration-corrected STEM imaging reveals that the stripe ferroelectric 90° domains have an alternate arrangement of wide and narrow c domains with polarization directions along [100] for c1 domains and [001̅] for c2 domains, forming a "head-to-tail" polarization configuration. Further strain analysis reveals that stripe domains have uniform strain distributions and distinct lattice rotations around domain walls. It is proposed that the periodic arrangement of high-density stripe 90° domains in 50 nm thick PTO films is the main contributor to the superior piezoresponse behavior. These results are expected to provide useful information to understand the domain structures in (101)-oriented PTO thin films and thus facilitate further modulation of the properties for potential applications.

KDM5B demethylates H3K4 to recruit XRCC1 and promote chemoresistance.

Chemotherapy is the main treatment for human cancers including gastric cancer. However, in response to chemotherapeutic drugs, tumor cells can develop drug resistance by reprogramming intracellular metabolic and epigenetic networks to maintain their intrinsic homeostasis. Previously, we have established cisplatin-resistant gastric cancer cells as a drug resistant model, and elucidated the XRCC1 as the core DNA repair mechanism of drug resistance. This study investigated the regulation of XRCC1 by lysine demethylase 5B (KDM5B) in drug resistance. We found that the methylation level of H3K4 decreased significantly in drug-resistant cells. The chemical inhibitor of H3K4 demethylases, JIB-04, restored the methylation of H3K4 and blocked the co-localization of XRCC1 and γH2AX, eventually improved drug sensitivity. We further found that the expression level of KDM5B increased significantly in drug-resistant cells. Knockdown of KDM5B increased the methylation level of H3K4 and blocked the localization of XRCC1 to the DNA damage site, leads to increased drug sensitivity. In the sensitive cells, overexpression of KDM5B suppressed H3K4 methylation levels, which resulted to resistance to cisplatin. Moreover, we found that the posttranslational modification of KDM5B is responsible for its high expression in drug-resistant cells. Through mass spectrometry screening and co-immunoprecipitation validation, we found that the molecular chaperone HSP90 forms a complex with KDM5B in drug resistance cells. Interestingly, HSP90 inhibitor 17-AAG induced KDM5B degradation in a time-and-dose-dependent manner, indicating that HSP90 protected KDM5B from protein degradation. Targeting inhibition of HSP90 and KDM5B reversed drug resistance both in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, molecular chaperon HSP90 interacted with KDM5B to protect it from ubiquitin-dependent proteasomal degradation. Increased KDM5B demethylated H3K4 and facilitated the recruitment of XRCC1 to repair damaged DNA. Therefore, inhibition of HSP90 or KDM5B represented a novel approach to reverse chemoresistance in human cancers.

CCL2-SQSTM1 positive feedback loop suppresses autophagy to promote chemoresistance in gastric cancer.

Chemotherapy is one of the most important approaches for the treatment of various cancers. However, tumor cells often develop resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs. The tumor microenvironment reconstituted by various cytokines secreted from immune cells was recently found to play important roles in affecting therapeutic response of tumor cells. Herein, we reported that tumor cells can secrete autocrine cytokines to confer chemoresistance by inactivating proapoptotic autophagy. Through cytokine screening, we found that drug resistant cancer cells secreted more CCL2 than drug sensitive cells. Such secreted CCL2 could not only maintain chemoresistance in drug-resistant cancer cells but also confer drug resistance to drug-sensitive cancer cells. CCL2 attenuated drug-induced cytotoxicity by activating PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling to inhibit proapoptotic autophagy and increase SQSTM1 expression. CCL2 expression in primary carcinoma tissues also correlated well with SQSTM1 expression. Either CCL2 knock-down or autophagy induction successfully reversed drug resistance of tumor cells. Moreover, increased expression of SQSTM1 in turn activated CCL2 transcription via NF-κB signal pathway, representing a positive feedback loop to maintain drug resistance. Therefore, our results provided a new insight to understand drug resistance, and indicated the potential value of CCL2 as a biomarker and intervention target for chemotherapy resistance.