High-Performance Multifunctional Carbon Fibrous Sponges Derived from Pitch.

3D carbon-based porous sponges are recognized for significant potential in oil absorption and electromagnetic interference (EMI). However, their widespread application is hindered by a common compromise between high performance and affordability of mass production. Herein, a novel approach is introduced that involves laser-assisted micro-zone heating melt-blown spinning (LMHMS) to address this challenge by creating pitch-based submicron carbon fibers (PSCFs) sponge with 3D interconnected structures. These structures bestow the resulting sponge exceptional characteristics including low density (≈20 mg cm-3), high porosity (≈99%), remarkable compressibility (80% maximum strain), and superior conductivity (≈628 S m-1). The resultant PSCF sponges realize an oil/organic solvent sorption capacity over 56 g/g and possess remarkable regenerated ability. In addition to their effectiveness in cleaning up oil/organic solvent spills, they also demonstrated strong electromagnetic shielding capabilities, with a total shielding effectiveness (SE) exceeding 60 dB across the X-band GHz range. In virtue of extreme lightweight of ≈20 mg cm-3, the specific SE of the PSCF sponge reaches as high as ≈1466 dB cm3 g-1, surpassing the performance of numerous carbon-based porous structures. Thus, the unique blend of properties renders these sponges promising for transforming strategies in addressing oil/organic solvent contaminations and providing effective protection against EMI.

Auxiliary diagnosis of subepithelial lesions by impedance measurement during EUS-guided fine-needle biopsy.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: EUS-guided FNA/biopsy (EUS-FNA/B) is the citerion standard for diagnosing subepithelial lesions (SELs); however, its diagnostic ability for SELs <20 mm is low. We developed a new diagnostic method to differentiate between GI stromal tumor (GIST) and non-GIST by measuring high-frequency impedance (H-impedance) using an EUS-FNB needle. METHODS: The H-impedance of gastric epithelial neoplasms from 16 cases were measured with a conventional impedance probe to confirm whether H-impedance is clinically useful for assessing cell density (study 1). The H-impedance values of exposed SELs from 25 cases with use of the conventional probe (study 2) and nonexposed SELs from 20 cases with use of the EUS-FNB needle probe (study 3) were measured to determine the diagnostic ability of H-impedance for differentiating GISTs from non-GISTs. RESULTS: H-impedance significantly positively correlated with cell density (P = .030) (study 1). The H-impedance of GIST (99.5) measured with a conventional probe was significantly higher than with those of the muscular layer (82.4) and leiomyoma (89.2) (P < .01) (study 2). The H-impedance of GIST measured with the EUS-FNB needle was also significantly higher than that of leiomyoma (GIST: 80.2 vs leiomyoma, 71.8; P = .015). The diagnostic yield of the impedance method for differentiating GISTs from non-GISTs had 94.4% accuracy, 88.9% sensitivity, 100% specificity, and 0.95 area under the curve. Diagnostic ability was not affected by lesion size (P = .86) (study 3). CONCLUSION: Auxiliary differential diagnosis between gastric GISTs and non-GISTs by the H-impedance measurement during EUS-FNB could be a good option, especially when the lesion is <20 mm.

Gold Nanorods: The Most Versatile Plasmonic Nanoparticles.

Gold nanorods (NRs), pseudo-one-dimensional rod-shaped nanoparticles (NPs), have become one of the burgeoning materials in the recent years due to their anisotropic shape and adjustable plasmonic properties. With the continuous improvement in synthetic methods, a variety of materials have been attached around Au NRs to achieve unexpected or improved plasmonic properties and explore state-of-the-art technologies. In this review, we comprehensively summarize the latest progress on Au NRs, the most versatile anisotropic plasmonic NPs. We present a representative overview of the advances in the synthetic strategies and outline an extensive catalogue of Au-NR-based heterostructures with tailored architectures and special functionalities. The bottom-up assembly of Au NRs into preprogrammed metastructures is then discussed, as well as the design principles. We also provide a systematic elucidation of the different plasmonic properties associated with the Au-NR-based structures, followed by a discussion of the promising applications of Au NRs in various fields. We finally discuss the future research directions and challenges of Au NRs.

Determination of Region-Specific Roles of the M3 Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptor in Gastrointestinal Motility.

BACKGROUND: The specific role of the M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor in gastrointestinal motility under physiological conditions is unclear, due to a lack of subtype-selective compounds. AIMS: The objective of this study was to determine the region-specific role of the M3 receptor in gastrointestinal motility. METHODS: We developed a novel positive allosteric modulator (PAM) for the M3 receptor, PAM-369. The effects of PAM-369 on the carbachol-induced contractile response of porcine esophageal smooth muscle and mouse colonic smooth muscle (ex vivo) and on the transit in mouse small intestine and rat colon (in vivo) were examined. RESULTS: PAM-369 selectively potentiated the M3 receptor under the stimulation of its orthosteric ligands without agonistic or antagonistic activity. Half-maximal effective concentrations of PAM activity for human, mouse, and rat M3 receptors were 0.253, 0.345, and 0.127 µM, respectively. PAM-369 enhanced carbachol-induced contraction in porcine esophageal smooth muscle and mouse colonic smooth muscle without causing any contractile responses by itself. The oral administration of 30 mg/kg PAM-369 increased the small intestinal transit in both normal motility and loperamide-induced intestinal dysmotility mice but had no effects on the colonic transit, although the M3 receptor mRNA expression is higher in the colon than in the small intestine. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided the first direct evidence that the M3 receptor has different region-specific roles in the motility function between the small intestine and colon in physiological and pathophysiological contexts. Selective PAMs designed for targeted subtypes of muscarinic receptors are useful for elucidating the subtype-specific function.

Negligible procedure-related dissemination risk of mucosal incision-assisted biopsy for gastrointestinal stromal tumors versus endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration/biopsy.

BACKGROUND: Mucosal incision-assisted biopsy (MIAB) is a valuable alternative to endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration/biopsy (EUS-FNAB) for sampling gastric subepithelial lesions (SELs). This study aimed to evaluate the potential risk of dissemination and impact on postoperative prognosis associated with MIAB, which has not yet been investigated. METHODS: Study 1: A prospective observational study was conducted to examine the presence or absence and growth rate of tumor cells in gastric juice before and after the procedure in patients with SELs who underwent MIAB (n = 25) or EUS-FNAB (n = 22) between September 2018 and August 2021. Study 2: A retrospective study was conducted to examine the impact of MIAB on postoperative prognosis in 107 patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors diagnosed using MIAB (n = 39) or EUS-FNAB (n = 68) who underwent surgery between January 2001 and July 2020. RESULTS: In study 1, although no tumor cells were observed in gastric juice in MIAB before the procedure, they were observed in 64% of patients after obtaining samples (P < 0.001). In contrast, no tumor cells were observed in the gastric juice in EUS-FNAB before and after the procedure. In study 2, there was no significant difference in 5-year disease-free survival between MIAB (100%) and EUS-FNAB (97.1%) (P = 0.27). CONCLUSION: MIAB is safe, with little impact on postoperative prognosis, although the procedure releases some tumor cells after damaging the SEL's pseudocapsule.

Development of a new endoscopy system to visualize bilirubin for the diagnosis of duodenogastroesophageal reflux.

OBJECTIVES: Reflux hypersensitivity (RH) is a form of refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease in which duodenogastroesophageal reflux (DGER) plays a role. This study aimed to determine the usefulness of an endoscopy system equipped with image-enhanced technology for evaluating DGER and RH. METHODS: The image enhancement mode for detecting bilirubin and calculated values were defined as the Bil mode and Bil value, respectively. First, the visibility of the Bil mode was validated for a bilirubin solution and bile concentrations ranging from 0.01% to 100% (0.002-20 mg/dL). Second, visibility scores of the Bil mode, when applied to the porcine esophagus sprayed with a bilirubin solution, were compared to those of the blue laser imaging (BLI) and white light imaging (WLI) modes. Third, a clinical study was conducted to determine the correlations between esophageal Bil values and the number of nonacid reflux events (NNRE) during multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring as well as the utility of esophageal Bil values for the differential diagnosis of RH. RESULTS: Bilirubin solution and bile concentrations higher than 1% were visualized in red using the Bil mode. The visibility score was significantly higher with the Bil mode than with the BLI and WLI modes for 1% to 6% bilirubin solutions (P < 0.05). The esophageal Bil value and NNRE were significantly positively correlated (P = 0.031). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the differential diagnosis of RH was 0.817. CONCLUSION: The Bil mode can detect bilirubin with high accuracy and could be used to evaluate DGER in clinical practice.

Nanohelix-Induced Optical Activity of Liquid Metal Nanoparticles.

Liquid metals (such as gallium or Ga) exist in liquid states under ambient conditions and are hardly sculpted in chiral structures. Herein, through electron-beam evaporation of Ga, hemispherical achiral Ga nanoparticles (NPs) are randomly immobilized along helical surfaces of SiO2 nanohelices (NHs), functioning as a chiral template. Helical assembly of Ga NPs shows chiroplasmonic optical activity owing to collective plasmon-plasmon interactions, which can be tuned as a function of a helical SiO2 pitch (P) and the amount of Ga evaporated. At a P of ≈150 nm, the chiroplasmonic optical activity, evaluated with anisotropic g-factor, can be as large as ≈0.1. Because the SiO2 NHs and Ga NPs have high environmental stability of nanostructures, the chiroplasmonic optical activity shows excellent anti-aging stability, despite slight blue shift and chiroplasmonic degradation for the first 2 weeks. Spontaneous oxidation of the Ga NPs enables the formation of dense Ga2 O3 layers covering Ga cores to prevent further oxidation and thus to stabilize the chiroplasmonic optical activity. This work devises an alternative approach to impose optical activity onto Ga NPs, providing an additional degree of freedom (i.e., chirality) for Ga-based flexible electronic devices to develop advanced applications of 3D display, circular polarizers, bio-imaging, and bio-detection.

Chiral Nanoparticles with Enhanced Thermal Stability of Chiral Structures through Alloying.

Metallic chiral nanoparticles (CNPs) promisingly function as asymmetric catalysts but lack an important study in thermal stability of optical activity that stems from metastable chiral lattices. In this work, annealing is applied to silver (Ag) CNPs, fabricated by glancing angle deposition (GLAD), and causes elimination of optical activity at 200 °C, mainly ascribed to chiral-to-achiral lattice transformation. The Ag CNPs are remarkedly enhanced in thermal stability through an alloying with aluminum (Al) via layer-by-layer GLAD to generate binary Ag0.5 Al0.5 CNPs composed of solid-state liquids, whose optical activity vanishes at 700 °C. Ease in the diffusion of Al atoms in the host Ag CNPs and thermal insulation from the Al2 O3 layers partially covering the binary CNPs effectively prohibit structural relaxation of the metastable chiral lattices, accounting for the significant enhancement in thermal stability of chiral lattices. This is a pioneering work to investigate the fundamental principles determining the thermal stability of metallic CNPs in terms of chiral structures and optical activity. It paves the way toward applying metallic CNPs to asymmetric catalysis at high temperature to accelerate an asymmetric synthesis of enantiomers with designable chirality, which is one of the most important topics in modern chemistry.

Constructing Head-to-Tail Cyclic Peptide DNA-Encoded Libraries Using Two-Directional Synthesis Strategy.

Macrocyclic peptides are an important class of therapeutic agents for the biological targets that are difficult to modulate by small-molecule compounds. Meanwhile, DNA-encoded library technology (DELT) provides a powerful platform for hits discovery. The unity of both fields has proven highly productive in finding cyclic peptide hits against diverse pharmaceutical proteins. Many researchers have extended the chemical toolbox for constructing head-to-tail macrocyclic DNA-encoded libraries with various ring sizes. However, the linear peptides of different lengths necessitate tuning the distance between closing sites and DNA-linked sites to perform the macrocyclization process, presumably due to the constrained conformation of linear precursors. To tackle this issue and streamline the synthetic workflow, we report a two-directional synthesis strategy. This method starts from a trifunctional reagent and prepares DNA-linked macrocyclic peptides of ring size between 15 (5-mer) and 24 (8-mer) via amide bond formation reaction, a common method to create macrocyclic peptides.

Electrocardiogram evolution of acute anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction following pericarditis.

Electrocardiogram is a powerful tool for differentiating acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and pericarditis. However, an unusual ECG presentation of the simultaneous occurrence of the two conditions has not been reported previously. In this article, we report a case of ECG evolution of acute anterior STEMI following pericarditis with pericardial effusion (PE) and find that QRS complex widening in ECG lead with maximal ST-segment elevation is also applicable for identifying STEMI even in patients with prior pericarditis. Undoubtedly, our case can help prevent emergency physicians from making incorrect diagnoses and administering inappropriate treatments.

Non-Destructive Detection of Moldy Walnuts Based on Hyperspectral Imaging Technology.

Walnuts with their shells are a popular agricultural product in China. However, mildew from growth can sometimes be processed into foods. It is difficult to visually determine which walnuts have mildew without breaking the shells. A non-destructive method for detecting walnuts with mildew was studied by combining spectral data with image information. A total of 120 "Lüling" walnuts with shells were used for the mildew experiment. The characteristics of the spectral data from six surfaces of all samples were collected in the range of 370-1042 nm on days 0, 15, and 30. The spectrum was pretreated using SNV, and the feature bands were extracted using PCA and modeled using a support vector machine (SVM). The results show that the overall classification accuracy was 93%, with an of accuracy of 100% for INEN walnuts (normal internally and externally). The accuracy for IMEM walnuts (mildew internally and externally) reached 87.29%. There was an accuracy of 78.6% for IMEN walnuts (mildew internally and normal externally). The non-destructive detection of mildewed walnuts can be undertaken using hyperspectral imaging technology, which provides a new technique for exploring the mechanisms of walnuts with mildew.

The treatment effects of acotiamide in esophagogastric outflow obstruction: a prospective longitudinal observational study.

OBJECTIVES: We have found that an altered lower esophageal sphincter (LES) accommodation response is an underlying cause of esophagogastric junction outflow obstruction (EGJOO). The objective of this study was to examine the treatment effect of acotiamide, a prokinetic agent which improves impaired gastric accommodation in functional dyspepsia, in patients with EGJOO. METHODS: A prospective observational longitudinal study was conducted between October 2014 and March 2020. Acotiamide (100 mg, 3 times a day) was administered to 25 patients with EGJOO for 4 weeks. High-resolution manometry (HRM) was performed just before and after 4 weeks of treatment. RESULTS: As the primary outcome, the extent of integrated relaxation pressure (IRP) after treatment (14.6, 12.1-22.0 mmHg) was significantly lower than that before treatment (19.4, 17.1-27.4 mmHg). The extent of LES accommodation index after treatment (32.7, 21.0-40.0 mmHg) was also significantly lower than that before treatment (39.3, 31.2-50.2 mmHg). Acotiamide normalized the IRP (< 15 mmHg) in 13 of 25 patients with EGJOO (52%), and the IRP was decreased in 20 of 25 patients with EGJOO (80%). As the secondary outcome, the total FSSG score in 25 patients with EGJOO before and after acotiamide treatment showed no significant difference. In a sub-analysis of 13 patients in whom EGJOO was normalized by acotiamide, however, dysphagia was reported to be significantly improved by acotiamide. CONCLUSIONS: Acotiamide has a treatment effect on patients with EGJOO via a reduction in the IRP level through the lowering of both the basal LES pressure and LES accommodation response. Dysphagia is a key symptom to be evaluated and treated in patients with EGJOO.

In Vivo Half-Life Extension of BMP1/TLL Metalloproteinase Inhibitors Using Small-Molecule Human Serum Albumin Binders.

Reducing the required frequence of drug dosing can improve the adherence of patients to chronic treatments. Hence, drugs with longer in vivo half-lives are highly desirable. One of the most promising approaches to extend the in vivo half-life of drugs is conjugation to human serum albumin (HSA). In this work, we describe the use of AlbuBinder 1, a small-molecule noncovalent HSA binder, to extend the in vivo half-life and pharmacology of small-molecule BMP1/TLL inhibitors in humanized mice (HSA KI/KI). A series of conjugates of AlbuBinder 1 with BMP1/TLL inhibitors were prepared. In particular, conjugate c showed good solubility and a half-life extension of >20-fold versus the parent molecule in the HSA KI/KI mice, reaching half-lives of >48 h with maintained maximal inhibition of plasma BMP1/TLL. The same conjugate showed a half-life of only 3 h in the wild-type mice, suggesting that the half-life extension was principally due to specific interactions with HSA. It is envisioned that conjugation to AlbuBinder 1 should be applicable to a wide range of small molecule or peptide drugs with short half-lives. In this context, AlbuBinders represent a viable alternative to existing half-life extension technologies.

Protease-Activated Receptor 2 (PAR-2) Antagonist AZ3451 Mitigates Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein (Ox-LDL)-Induced Damage and Endothelial Inflammation.

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)-induced endothelial dysfunction plays an important role in the initiation and development of cardiovascular diseases, especially atherosclerosis (AS). Protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR-2) is a receptor for inflammatory proteases. However, the biological function of PAR-2 in endothelial cells and the pathophysiological process of AS are still unknown. In the current study, we found that treatment with ox-LDL increased the gene and protein expressions of PAR-2 in EA.hy926 endothelial cells. Interestingly, we found that antagonism of PAR-2 with its specific antagonist AZ3451 could ameliorate ox-LDL-induced lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. Treatment with AZ3451 considerably improved the mitochondrial function by restoring the mitochondrial membrane potential and increasing the levels of intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Also, we found that AZ3451 attenuated ox-LDL-induced expression and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-8 (IL-8). Treatment with AZ3451 also mitigated the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). Notably, our results demonstrated that the presence of AZ3451 alleviated ox-LDL-induced expression of the endothelial cell adhesion molecules vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). Mechanistically, we found that AZ3451 attenuated ox-LDL-induced activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) by reducing the levels of intracellular NF-κB p65 and the luciferase activity of NF-κB promoter. Based on these findings, we conclude that PAR-2 might become a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of AS.

Gold Nanobipyramids: An Emerging and Versatile Type of Plasmonic Nanoparticles.

Gold nanobipyramids (Au NBPs) and gold nanorods (Au NRs) are two types of elongated plasmonic nanoparticles with their longitudinal dipolar plasmon wavelengths synthetically tunable from the visible region to the near-infrared region. Both have highly polarization-dependent absorption and scattering cross sections because of their anisotropic geometries. In terms of their differences, each Au NBP has five equally angularly separated twinning planes that are aligned parallel to the length direction, while the most common Au NRs are single-crystalline. As a result, Au NBPs possess two sharp end tips, while Au NRs have rounded or flat ends, resulting in very different plasmonic properties. In general, Au NBPs exhibit larger local electric field enhancements, larger optical cross sections, narrower line widths, better shape and size uniformity, and higher refractive index sensitivity than Au NRs. With the recent development of reliable methods for the growth of Au NBPs with high purity and uniformity, Au NBPs have been attracting much interest for the investigation of their intriguing plasmonic properties and applications. In this Account, we provide a concise introduction to Au NBPs, including their fascinating plasmonic properties, wet-chemistry growth methods, plasmonic applications, and structure-directing function. The synthesis of uniform Au NBPs with variable sizes is of vital importance to control their plasmonic properties. In the synthesis part, we summarize the recent developments on the synthesis of Au NBPs, with a focus on the role of seeds in the seed-mediated growth of pentatwinned Au NBPs and methods to improve their number purity. The excellent plasmonic properties of Au NBPs make them promising candidates for numerous applications. To further explore the largely improved functionalities of Au NBPs, different types of Au-NBP-based hybrid nanostructures have been prepared. They exhibit synergistic interactions between Au NBPs and the other components. We highlight the widespread plasmonic applications of Au NBPs and Au-NBP-based hybrid nanostructures in the fields of spectroscopy, photocatalysis, sensing, switching, and biomedical technologies. We next turn to the structure-directing function of Au NBPs to demonstrate the Au-NBP-directed growth of metal nanostructures and their applications. The structure-directing function is enabled by the unique pentatwinned crystalline structure of Au NBPs. Finally, we conclude with remarks on the future perspectives and research directions on Au NBPs as well as the remaining challenges. We hope that this Account will act as a platform to offer fascinating opportunities and stimulate fast-growing research on the various aspects of Au NBPs.

Direct Blow-Spinning of Nanofibers on a Window Screen for Highly Efficient PM2.5 Removal.

Particulate matter (PM) pollution has caused many serious public health issues. Whereas indoor air protection usually relies on expensive and energy-consuming filtering devices, direct PM filtration by window screens has attracted increasing attention. Recently, electrospun polymer nanofiber networks have been developed as transparent filters for highly efficient PM2.5 removal; however, it remains challenging to uniformly coat the nanofibers on window screens on a large scale and with low cost. Here, we report a blow-spinning technique that is fast, efficient, and free of high voltages for the large-scale direct coating of nanofibers onto window screens for indoor PM pollution protection. We have achieved a transparent air filter of 80% optical transparency with >99% standard removal efficiency level for PM2.5. A test on a real window (1 m × 2 m) in Beijing has proven that the nanofiber transparent air filter acquires excellent PM2.5 removal efficiency of 90.6% over 12 h under extremely hazy air conditions (PM2.5 mass concentration > 708 µg/m3). Moreover, we show that the nanofibers can be readily coated on the window screen for pollution protection and can be easily removed by wiping the screen after hazardous days.

Continuous Draw Spinning of Extra-Long Silver Submicron Fibers with Micrometer Patterning Capability.

Ultrathin metal fibers can serve as highly conducting and flexible current and heat transport channels, which are essential for numerous applications ranging from flexible electronics to energy conversion. Although industrial production of metal fibers with diameters of down to 2 µm is feasible, continuous production of high-quality and low-cost nanoscale metal wires is still challenging. Herein, we report the continuous draw spinning of highly conductive silver submicron fibers with the minimum diameter of ∼200 nm and length of more than kilometers. We obtained individual AgNO3/polymer fibers by continuous drawing from an aqueous solution at a speed of up to 8 m/s. With subsequent heat treatment, freestanding Ag submicron fibers with high mechanical flexibility and electric conductivity have been obtained. Woven mats of aligned Ag submicron fibers were used as transparent electrodes with high flexibility and high performance with sheet resistance of 7 Ω sq-1 at a transparency of 96%. Continuous draw spinning opened new avenues for scalable, flexible, and ultralow-cost fabrication of extra-long conductive ultrathin metal fibers.