Glucose-Driven Droplet Formation in Complexes of a Supramolecular Peptide and Therapeutic Protein.

Biology achieves remarkable function through processes arising from spontaneous or transient liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of proteins and other biomolecules. While polymeric systems can achieve similar phenomena through simple or complex coacervation, LLPS with supramolecular materials has been less commonly shown. Functional applications for synthetic LLPS systems are an expanding area of emphasis, with particular focus on capturing the transient and dynamic state of these structures for use in biomedicine. Here, a net-cationic supramolecular peptide amphiphile building block with a glucose-binding motif is shown that forms LLPS structures when combined with a net-negatively charged therapeutic protein, dasiglucagon, in the presence of glucose. The droplets that arise are dynamic and coalesce quickly. However, the interface can be stabilized by addition of a 4-arm star PEG. When the stabilized droplets formed in glucose are transferred to a bulk phase containing different glucose concentrations, their stability and lifetime decrease according to bulk glucose concentration. This glucose-dependent formation translates into an accelerated release of dasiglucagon in the absence of glucose; this hormone analogue itself functions therapeutically to correct low blood glucose (hypoglycemia). These droplets also offer function in mitigating the most severe effects of hypoglycemia arising from an insulin overdose through delivery of dasiglucagon in a mouse model of hypoglycemic rescue. Accordingly, this approach to use complexation between a supramolecular peptide amphiphile and a therapeutic protein in the presence of glucose leads to droplets with functional potential to dissipate for the release of the therapeutic material in low blood glucose environments.

Porous Tellurium-Doped Ruthenium Dioxide Nanotubes for Enhanced Acidic Water Oxidation.

Electrocatalysts with high activity and durability for acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) play a crucial role in achieving cost-effective hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. A novel electrocatalyst, Te-doped RuO2 (Te-RuO2) nanotubes, synthesized using a template-directed process, which significantly enhances the OER performance in acidic media is reported. The Te-RuO2 nanotubes exhibit remarkable OER activity in acidic media, requiring an overpotential of only 171 mV to achieve an anodic current density of 10 mA cm-2. Furthermore, they maintain stable chronopotentiometric performance under 10 mA cm-2 in acidic media for up to 50 h. Based on the experimental results and density functional calculations, this significant improvement in OER performance to the synergistic effect of large specific surface area and modulated electronic structure resulting from the doping of Te cations is attributed.

Multifunctional Heterostructured Fe3 O4 -FeTe@MCM Electrocatalyst Enabling High-Performance Practical Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Via Built-in Electric Field.

The development of capable of simultaneously modulating the sluggish electrochemical kinetics, shuttle effect, and lithium dendrite growth is a promising strategy for the commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries. Consequently, an elaborate preparation method is employed to create a host material consisting of multi-channel carbon microspheres (MCM) containing highly dispersed heterostructure Fe3 O4 -FeTe nanoparticles. The Fe3 O4 -FeTe@MCM exhibits a spontaneous built-in electric field (BIEF) and possesses both lithophilic and sulfophilic sites, rendering it an appropriate host material for both positive and negative electrodes. Experimental and theoretical results reveal that the existence of spontaneous BIEF leads to interfacial charge redistribution, resulting in moderate polysulfide adsorption which facilitates the transfer of polysulfides and diffusion of electrons at heterogeneous interfaces. Furthermore, the reduced conversion energy barriers enhanced the catalytic activity of Fe3 O4 -FeTe@MCM for expediting the bidirectional sulfur conversion. Moreover, regulated Li deposition behavior is realized because of its high conductivity and remarkable lithiophilicity. Consequently, the battery exhibited long-term stability for 500 cycles with 0.06% capacity decay per cycle at 5 C, and a large areal capacity of 7.3 mAh cm-2 (sulfur loading: 9.73 mg cm-2 ) at 0.1 C. This study provides a novel strategy for the rational fabrication of heterostructure hosts for practical Li-S batteries.

High Performance Thermoelectric Power of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 Through Synergistic Cu2GeSe3 and Se Incorporations.

Bi2Te3-based alloys are the benchmark for commercial thermoelectric (TE) materials, the widespread demand for low-grade waste heat recovery and solid-state refrigeration makes it imperative to enhance the figure-of-merits. In this study, high-performance Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 (BST) is realized by incorporating Cu2GeSe3 and Se. Concretely, the diffusion of Cu and Ge atoms optimizes the hole concentration and raises the density-of-states effective mass (md *), compensating for the loss of "donor-like effect" exacerbated by ball milling. The subsequent Se addition further increases md *, enabling a total 28% improvement of room-temperature power factor (S2σ), reaching 43.6 µW cm-1 K-2 compared to the matrix. Simultaneously, the lattice thermal conductivity is also significantly suppressed by multiscale scattering sources represented by Cu-rich nanoparticles and dislocation arrays. The synergistic effects yield a peak ZT of 1.41 at 350 K and an average ZT of 1.23 (300-500 K) in the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te2.94Se0.06 + 0.11 wt.% Cu2GeSe3 sample. More importantly, the integrated 17-pair TE module achieves a conversion efficiency of 6.4%, 80% higher than the commercial one at ΔT = 200 K. These results validate that the facile composition optimization of the BST/Cu2GeSe3/Se is a promising strategy to improve the application of BST-based TE modules.

Beyond Conventional Enhancements: Self-Organization of a Buffer Material on Tin Oxide as a Game-Changer for Improving the Performance of Inverted Organic Solar Cells.

Inverted organic solar cells (OSCs) have garnered significant interest due to their remarkable stability. In this study, the efficiency and stability of inverted OSCs are enhanced via the in situ self-organization (SO) of an interfacial modification material Phen-NaDPO onto tin oxide (SnO2). During the device fabrication, Phen-NaDPO is spin-coated with the active materials all together on SnO2. Driven by the interactions with SnO2 and the thermodynamic forces due to its high surface energy and the convection flow, Phen-NaDPO spontaneously migrates to the SnO2 interface, resulting in the formation of an in situ modification layer on SnO2. This self-organization of Phen-NaDPO not only effectively reduces the work function of SnO2, but also enhances the ordered molecular stacking and manipulates the vertical morphology of the active layer, which suppress the surface trap-assisted recombination and minimize the charge extraction. As a result, the SO devices based on PM6:Y6 exhibit significantly improved photovoltaic performance with an enhanced power conversion efficiency of 17.62%. Moreover, the stability of the SO device is also improved. Furthermore, the SO ternary devices based on PM6:D18:L8-BO achieved an impressive PCE of 18.87%, standing as one of the highest values for single-junction inverted organic solar cells to date.

Strong electron-phonon coupling and high lattice thermal conductivity in half-Heusler thermoelectric materials.

Traditional half-Heusler thermoelectric materials, identified as 18-electron compounds, are characterized by the high power factor and the high lattice thermal conductivity. Interestingly, the emerging 19-electron half-Heusler compounds were also found to be promising thermoelectric materials, but with a 5-10 times lower lattice thermal conductivity. Since the two kinds of compounds have similar chemical and physical structures, such as TiCoSb and VCoSb, the large difference in lattice thermal conductivity is a puzzling question. Here, we present a theoretical study to clarify the lattice thermal transport in half-Heusler thermoelectric materials. Based on electronic band structure analysis, we show that the two transition-metal elements in half-Heusler compounds form the strong and direct d-d interaction that is responsible for the high lattice thermal conductivity of 18-electron compounds. In 19-electron half-Heusler compounds, however, the extra valence electron enters the d-d antibonding states, which significantly weakens the atomic bond strength, leading to a large decrease in the cohesive energy. The resulting softened acoustic phonons enhance the phonon-phonon scattering, and thus reduce the lattice thermal conductivity significantly. By constructing an artificial 18-e compound V0.5Sc0.5CoSb, it is proved that the one less electron relative to VCoSb increases the lattice thermal conductivity significantly.

Amyloid-ß mediates intestinal dysfunction and enteric neurons loss in Alzheimer's disease transgenic mouse.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is traditionally considered as a brain disorder featured by amyloid-ß (Aß) deposition. The current study on whether pathological changes of AD extend to the enteric nervous system (ENS) is still in its infancy. In this study, we found enteric Aß deposition, intestinal dysfunction, and colonic inflammation in the young APP/PS1 mice. Moreover, these mice exhibited cholinergic and nitrergic signaling pathways damages and enteric neuronal loss. Our data show that Aß42 treatment remarkably affected the gene expression of cultured myenteric neurons and the spontaneous contraction of intestinal smooth muscles. The intra-colon administration of Aß42 induced ENS dysfunction, brain gliosis, and ß-amyloidosis-like changes in the wild-type mice. Our results suggest that ENS mirrors the neuropathology observed in AD brains, and intestinal pathological changes may represent the prodromal events, which contribute to brain pathology in AD. In summary, our findings provide new opportunities for AD early diagnosis and prevention.

Configurational Entropy-Enabled Thermostability of Cell Membranes in Extremophiles: From Molecular Mechanism to Bioinspired Design.

Understanding physicochemical interactions and mechanisms related to the cell membranes of lives under extreme conditions is of essential importance but remains scarcely explored. Here, using a combination of computer simulations and experiments, we demonstrate that the structural integrity and controllable permeability of cell membranes at high temperatures are predominantly directed by configurational entropy emerging from distorted intermolecular organization of bipolar tethered lipids peculiar to the extremophiles. Detailed simulations across multiple scales─from an all-atom exploration of molecular mechanism to a mesoscale examination of its universal nature─suggest that this configurational entropy effect can be generalized to diverse systems, such as block copolymers. This offers biomimetic inspiration for designing heat-tolerant materials based on entropy, as validated by our experiments of synthetic polymers. The findings provide new insight into the basic nature of the mechanism underlying the adaptation of organisms to extreme conditions and might open paths for designed materials inspired by entropic effects in biological systems.

Compact and water flushing resistant mesh biofilms forming at short SRT disappeared naturally under extended SRT in dynamic membrane bioreactor.

Extending the solids retention time (SRT) has been demonstrated to mitigate membrane biofouling. Nevertheless, it remains an intriguing question whether the compact and water flushing resistant mesh biofilms developed at short SRT can undergo biodegradation and be removed with extended SRT. In present study, the bio-fouled mesh filter in the 10d-SRT dynamic membrane bioreactor (DMBR), with mesh surfaces and pores covered by compact and water flushing resistant biofilms exhibiting low water permeability, was reused in the 40d-SRT DMBR without any cleanings. After being reused at 40d-SRT, its flux driven by gravity occurred from the 10th day and recovered to a regular level of 36.7 L m-2·h-1 on the 27th day. Both scanning electron microscope (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) analyses indicated that the compact mesh biofilms formed at10d-SRT biodegraded and were removed at 40d-SRT, with the residual biofilms becoming removable by water flushing. As a result, the hydraulic resistance of the bio-fouled mesh filter decreased from 4.36 × 108 to 6.97 × 107 m-1, and its flux fully recovered. The protein and polysaccharides densities in mesh-biofilms decreased from 24.4 to 9.7 mg/cm2 and from 10.7 to 0.10 mg/cm2, respectively, which probably have contributed to the disappearance of compact biofilms and the decrease in adhesion. Furthermore, the sludge and mesh-biofilms in the 40d-SRT reactor contained a higher relative abundance of dominant quorum quenching bacteria, such as Rhizobium (3.52% and 1.35%), compared to those in the 10d-SRT sludge (0.096%) and mesh biofilms (0.79%), which might have been linked to a decline in extracellular polymeric substances and, consequently, the biodegradation and disappearance of compact biofilms.

Structural Electromagnetic Absorber Based on MoS2 /PyC-Al2 O3 Ceramic Metamaterials.

Limited by the types of suitable absorbents as well as the challenges in engineering the nanostructures (e.g., defects, dipoles, and hetero-interface) using state-of-the-art additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, the electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption performance of the current ceramic-based materials is still not satisfying. Moreover, because of the high residual porosity and the possible formation of cracks during sintering or pyrolysis, AM-formed ceramic components may in many cases exhibit low mechanical strength. In this work, semiconductive MoS2 and conductive PyC modified Al2 O3 (MoS2 /PyC-Al2 O3 ) ceramic-based structural EM metamaterials are developed by innovatively harnessing AM, precursor infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP), and hydrothermal methods. Three different meta-structures are successfully created, and the ceramic-based nanocomposite benefit from its optimization of EM parameters. Ultra-broad effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 35 GHz is achieved by establishment of multi-loss mechanism via nanostructure engineering and fabrication of meta-structures via AM. Due to the strengthening by the PyC phase, the bending strength of the resulting ceramics can reach ≈327 MPa, which is the highest value measured on 3D-printed ceramics of this type that has been reported so far. For the first time, the positive effect deriving from the engineering of the microscopic nano/microstructure and of the macroscopic meta-structure of the absorber on the permittivity and EM absorption performance is proposed. Integration of outstanding mechanical strength and ultra-broad EAB is innovatively realized through a multi-scale design route. This work provides new insights for the design of advanced ceramic-based metamaterials with outstanding performance under extreme environment.

Comammox Nitrospira and Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea Are Dominant Ammonia Oxidizers in Sediments of an Acid Mine Lake Containing High Ammonium Concentrations.

Exploring nitrifiers in extreme environments is vital to expanding our understanding of nitrogen cycle and microbial diversity. This study presents that complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) Nitrospira, together with acidophilic ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), dominate in the nitrifying guild in sediments of an acid mine lake (AML). The lake water was characterized by acidic pH below 5 with a high ammonium concentration of 175 mg-N/liter, which is rare on the earth. Nitrification was active in sediments with a maximum nitrate production potential of 70.5 µg-N/(g-dry weight [dw] day) for mixed sediments. Quantitative PCR assays determined that in AML sediments, comammox Nitrospira and AOA amoA genes had relative abundances of 52% and 41%, respectively, among the total amoA genes. Further assays with 16S rRNA and amoA gene amplicon sequencing and metagenomics confirmed their dominance and revealed that the comammox Nitrospira found in sediments belonged to comammox Nitrospira clade A.2. Metagenomic binning retrieved a metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) of the comammox Nitrospira from sediments (completeness = 96.76%), and phylogenomic analysis suggested that it was a novel comammox Nitrospira. Comparative genomic investigation revealed that this comammox Nitrospira contained diverse metal resistance genes and an acidophile-affiliated F-type ATPase. Moreover, it had a more diverse genomic characteristic on nitrogen metabolism than the AOA in sediments and canonical AOB did. The results suggest that comammox Nitrospira is a versatile nitrifier that can adapt to acidic environments even with high ammonium concentrations. IMPORTANCE Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) was previously considered the sole dominant ammonia oxidizer in acidic environments. This study, however, found that complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) Nitrospira was also a dominant ammonia oxidizer in the sediments of an acidic mine lake, which had an acidic pH < 5 and a high ammonium concentration of 175 mg-N/liter. In combination with average nucleotide identity analysis, phylogenomic analysis suggested it is a novel strain of comammox Nitrospira. Moreover, the adaption of comammox Nitrospira to the acidic lake had been comprehensively investigated based on genome-centric metagenomic approaches. The outcomes of this study significantly expand our understanding of the diversity and adaptability of ammonia oxidizers in the acidic environments.

Rational Construction of a Triple-Phase Reaction Zone Using CuO-Based Heterostructure Nanoarrays for Enhanced Water Oxidation Reaction.

The development of high-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts for the production and conversion of clean energy is paramount yet also full of challenges. Herein, we proposed a simple and universal method to precisely fabricate the hierarchically structured CuO/TMOs loaded on Cu foil (CuO/TMOs/CF) (TMO represents Mn3O4, NiO, CoO, and CuO) nanorod-array electrodes as a highly active and stable OER electrocatalyst, employing Cu(OH)2/CF as a self-sacrificing template by the subsequent H2O2-induced chemical deposition (HiCD) and pyrolysis process. Taking CuO/Mn3O4/CF as an example, we systematically investigated its structure-performance relationship via experimental and theoretical explorations. The enhanced OER activity can be ascribed to the rational design of the nanoarray with multiple synergistic effects of abundant active sites, excellent electronic conductivity of the metallic Cu foil substrate, strong interface charge transfer, and quasi-superhydrophilic/superaerophobic property. Consequently, the optimal CuO/Mn3O4/CF presents an overpotential of 293 mV to achieve a current density of 20 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH media, comparable to that of commercial RuO2 (282 mV), delivering excellent durability by the electrolysis of water at a potential of around 1.60 V [vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] without evident degeneration. This work might offer a feasible scheme for developing a hybrid nanoarray OER electrocatalyst via regulating electron transportation and mass transfer.

A comprehensive analysis and literature review of vertebral artery variation in craniovertebral junction using three-dimensional computed tomography angiography.

PURPOSE: To describe vertebral artery (VA) variation in patients with or without osseous anomalies at congenital craniovertebral junction (CVJ). METHODS: In the present study, we retrospectively analyzed 258 patients with VA variation who underwent three-dimensional computed tomography angiography (3D CTA) in our hospital from March 2017 to October 2019. RESULTS: Among 258 patients, 180 were accompanied by skeleton structural malformation, including 105 cases of occipital ossification of the atlas, 8 cases of the bipartite atlas, 7 cases of hypoplasia of the posterior arch of the atlas, 45 cases of C2/3 congenital fusion, 2 cases of C2/3/4 congenital fusion, and 13 cases of congenital os odontoid. VA variation was divided into type A (VA variation in the CVJ area without osseous anomalies) and type B (VA variation in the CVJ area with osseous anomalies). There are totally 10 subtypes, including type A1 (atlas occipitalization with VA entrance approach close to middle line, 20.2%); type A2 (atlas occipitalization with VA entrance approach far from middle line, 30.2%); type A3 (first intersegmental VA in C1-C2, 1.9%); type A4 (fenestration of the VA, 2.3%); type A5 (VA bulging type, 6.6%); type A6 (VA exposures with the absence of the posterior atlas arch, 2.3%); type A7 (C2 inner wall type, 0.4%); type A8 (single vertebral artery, 2.3%); type B1 (posterior ponticuli, 2.7%); and type B2 (high-riding VA, 31.4%). CONCLUSION: This study is expected to take the lead in the most comprehensive classification of VA variation.

A comprehensive quality evaluation method of different medicinal parts of Physalis Calyx seu Fructus by fingerprints, chemometrics, antioxidant activity, network pharmacology and molecular docking.

Physalis Calyx seu Fructus (PCF) is a herb widely used in China for its function of clearing heat and detoxifying, benefitting the pharynx and reducing phlegm, both in health care and in tea drinking. However, the quality of its fruit and calyx is uneven and the storage period is short. Therefore, it is crucial to develop other parts of PCF with longer storage periods and obvious medicinal effects. Firstly, high-performance liquid chromatography was used to develop the fingerprint of different parts of PCF, and various chemometric analyses were conducted to screen out chemical markers. The calyxes of PCF were found to cluster together, distinct from the fruits, roots, stems and leaves. The active components of PCF were concentrated in the persistent calyxes, and flavonoids were mainly found in the persistent calyxes and leaves. Secondly, the extraction of persistent calyxes showed the strongest scavenging ability of DPPH and ABTS. Finally, the important chemical markers were verified by network pharmacological analysis and molecular docking. It provides a reference for the clinical application of PCF, and the obtained chemical markers offer a scientific basis for quality evaluation.

Value of Tranexamic Acid and Progressive Nursing in Accelerating Postoperative Rehabilitation After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Context: Knee arthritis is the primary cause of disability in middle-aged and older adults. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is also a common treatment in clinics and has a remarkable effect on improving knee-joint function. However, TKA is an invasive procedure that includes a large amount of trauma. It can easily lead to an increase in perioperative blood loss coupled with a long operation time, which can increase the risk of postoperative complications, and also has a long recovery time. Objective: The study intended to analyze the value of tranexamic acid (TXA) plus progressive nursing in accelerating the postoperative rehabilitation of patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Design: The research team designed a prospective non-randomized controlled trial. Setting: The study took place at Cangzhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) - Western Medicine (WM) Hebei in Cangzhou, Hebei, China. Participants: Participants were 115 patients with knee arthritis who underwent TKA at the hospital between February 2019 and October 2021. Intervention: Of the 115 participants, 55 were assigned to the control group and received conventional nursing care, and 60 were assigned to the intervention group and after surgery received TXA plus progressive nursing. Outcome Measures: The study measured blood loss postoperatively and identified any complications that participants experienced during treatment. At baseline and postintervention, the study also measured knee-joint range of motion (ROM), and the participants completed the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) knee survey, the Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living (ADL), the Self-Rating Depression (SDS) and Self-Rating Anxiety (SAS) scales, a nursing-satisfaction survey, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Bref (WHO-QOL-BREF) survey. Results: Postoperatively, the blood loss in the intervention group was significantly lower than that in control group, and the knee joint ROM was significantly better in the intervention group (P < .05). In addition, the postoperative Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Barthel scores in the intervention group were significantly higher, and the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) scores were significantly lower in the intervention group compared with control group (P < .05). Moreover, a lower incidence of complications and better quality of life were determined for the intervention group (P < .05). Conclusions: Compared with conventional nursing, TXA plus progressive nursing can more effectively promote postoperative recovery of TKA patients; but the exact role of TXA and progressive nursing in TKA deserves further exploration.

Species Differentiation and Quality Evaluation for Atractylodes Medicinal Plants by GC/MS Coupled with Chemometric Analysis.

The utilization of rhizomes from the genus Atractylodes has been challenging due to their closely related origins. In this study, we developed an analytical strategy to differentiate Atractylodes lancea (A. lancea), Atractylodes chinensis (A. chinensis), Atractylodes japonica (A. japonica), and Atractylodes macrocephala (A. macrocephala), and compared their volatile compositions. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to analyze the volatile profiles of essential oils extracted from 59 batches of samples. Chemometric methods enabled a better understanding of the differences in volatile oils between the four species and identified significant components affecting their classification and quality. A total of 50 volatile components were identified from the essential oils by GC/MS. Unsupervised and supervised chemometric analyses accurately distinguished A. lancea, A. chinensis, A. japonica, and A. macrocephala. Furthermore, five characteristic chemical markers, namely hinesol, ß-eudesmol, atractylon, atractylodin and atractylenolide I, were obtained, and their respective percentage contents in individual species and samples were determined. This study provides a valuable reference for the quality evaluation of medicinal plants with essential oils and holds significance for species differentiation and the rational clinical application of Atractylodes herbs.

FEM Simulation-Based Adversarial Domain Adaptation for Fatigue Crack Detection Using Lamb Wave.

Lamb wave-based damage detection technology shows great potential for structural integrity assessment. However, conventional damage features based damage detection methods and data-driven intelligent damage detection methods highly rely on expert knowledge and sufficient labeled data for training, for which collecting is usually expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, this paper proposes an automated fatigue crack detection method using Lamb wave based on finite element method (FEM) and adversarial domain adaptation. FEM-simulation was used to obtain simulated response signals under various conditions to solve the problem of the insufficient labeled data in practice. Due to the distribution discrepancy between simulated signals and experimental signals, the detection performance of classifier just trained with simulated signals will drop sharply on the experimental signals. Then, Domain-adversarial neural network (DANN) with maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) was used to achieve discriminative and domain-invariant feature extraction between simulation source domain and experiment target domain, and the unlabeled experimental signals samples will be accurately classified. The proposed method is validated by fatigue tests on center-hole metal specimens. The results show that the proposed method presents superior detection ability compared to other methods and can be used as an effective tool for cross-domain damage detection.

Flexible and Robust Triboelectric Nanogenerators with Chemically Prepared Metal Electrodes and a Plastic Contact Interface Based on Low-Cost Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive.

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are devices that can harvest energy from mechanical motions; such devices can be used to power wearable sensors and various low-power electronics. To increase the lifetime of the device, scientists mainly use the method of making TENG in a hard skeleton to simplify the complex possible relative movements between two triboelectric parts. However, the hard skeletons cannot be embedded in soft and lightweight clothing. To make matters worse, the materials used in the garments must be able to withstand high mechanical forces when worn, such as the pressure of more than 100 KPa exerted by body pressure or everyday knocks. Notably, the TENGs are usually made of fragile materials, such as vacuum-evaporated metal electrodes and nano-sized coatings, on the contact interface; these electrodes and coatings often chip or wear off under the action of external loads. In this work, we succeeded in creating a thin, light-weight, but extremely robust garment-integrated triboelectric nanogenerator (G-TENG) that can be embedded in clothing and pass the water wash test. First, we chemically deposited a durable electrode with flexible properties for G-TENG using a novel technique called polymer-assisted metal deposition (PAMD). The as-formed metal electrodes are firmly bonded to the plastic substrate by a sub-10 nm adhesive polymer brush and can withstand a pressure of 22.5 MPa and a tear force of 0.7 MPa. We then removed the traditionally used fragile nanoparticle materials and the non-durable poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer at the triboelectric interface, and then used a cost-effective, durable and slightly flowable pressure-sensitive adhesive to form a plastic contact interface. Such a soft plastic interface can ensure full contact of the triboelectric materials, which is excellent in complex environments and ultimately improves the power generation efficiency of the devices. The as-formed low-cost energy harvesting device could become an industry standard for future smart clothing.

Design Principles for Maximizing Hole Utilization of Semiconductor Quantum Wires toward Efficient Photocatalysis.

Maximizing hole-transfer kinetics-usually a rate-determining step in semiconductor-based artificial photosynthesis-is pivotal for simultaneously enabling high-efficiency solar hydrogen production and hole utilization. However, this remains elusive yet as efforts are largely focused on optimizing the electron-involved half-reactions only by empirically employing sacrificial electron donors (SEDs) to consume the wasted holes. Using high-quality ZnSe quantum wires as models, we show that how hole-transfer processes in different SEDs affect their photocatalytic performances. We found that larger driving forces of SEDs monotonically enhance hole-transfer rates and photocatalytic performances by almost three orders of magnitude, a result conforming well with the Auger-assisted hole-transfer model in quantum-confined systems. Intriguingly, further loading Pt cocatalyts can yield either an Auger-assisted model or a Marcus inverted region for electron transfer, depending on the competing hole-transfer kinetics in SEDs.

Effects of glucosamine hydrochloride combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on symptoms and HSS scores in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

To investigate the effects of glucosamine hydrochloride combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on symptoms and HSS scores in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Totally 80 cases of patients with KOA admitted to Cangzhou Hospital of integrated TCM-WM from February 2016 to December 2019 were selected and divided into the Control Group and Observation Group by Random Number Table Method, with 40 cases in each group. After treatment, the Observation Group tends to have lower VAS scores and WOMAC scores than the Control Group (P<0.05). The Observation Group tends to perform better than the Control Group on symptom improvement rate and HSS scores (P<0.05). The expression levels of related inflammatory factors and matrix metalloproteinase (MMPs) are similar before and after treatment in the Control Group (P>0.05). The expression levels of related inflammatory factors and MMPs get lower after treatment in the Observation Group (P<0.05). The evaluation indexes and total scores of the Observation Group are better than those of the Control Group (P<0.05). Glucosamine hydrochloride combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs treatment could decrease the expression levels of inflammatory cytokines, relieve knee pain and arthritis symptoms, improve knee function and improve the HSS scores in patients with KOA.