A three-dimensional liquid diode for soft, integrated permeable electronics.

Wearable electronics with great breathability enable a comfortable wearing experience and facilitate continuous biosignal monitoring over extended periods1-3. However, current research on permeable electronics is predominantly at the stage of electrode and substrate development, which is far behind practical applications with comprehensive integration with diverse electronic components (for example, circuitry, electronics, encapsulation)4-8. Achieving permeability and multifunctionality in a singular, integrated wearable electronic system remains a formidable challenge. Here we present a general strategy for integrated moisture-permeable wearable electronics based on three-dimensional liquid diode (3D LD) configurations. By constructing spatially heterogeneous wettability, the 3D LD unidirectionally self-pumps the sweat from the skin to the outlet at a maximum flow rate of 11.6 ml cm-2 min-1, 4,000 times greater than the physiological sweat rate during exercise, presenting exceptional skin-friendliness, user comfort and stable signal-reading behaviour even under sweating conditions. A detachable design incorporating a replaceable vapour/sweat-discharging substrate enables the reuse of soft circuitry/electronics, increasing its sustainability and cost-effectiveness. We demonstrated this fundamental technology in both advanced skin-integrated electronics and textile-integrated electronics, highlighting its potential for scalable, user-friendly wearable devices.

Capillary Evaporation on High-Dense Conductive Ramie Carbon for Assisting Highly Volumetric-Performance Supercapacitors.

Conductive biomass carbon possesses unique properties of excellent conductivity and outstanding thermal stability, which can be widely used as conductive additive. However, building the high-dense conductive biomass carbon with highly graphitized microcrystals at a lower carbonization temperature is still a major challenge because of structural disorder and low crystallinity of source material. Herein, a simple capillary evaporation method to efficiently build the high-dense conductive ramie carbon (hd-CRC) with the higher tap density of 0.47 cm3 g-1 than commercialized Super-C45 (0.16 cm3 g-1 ) is reported. Such highly graphitized microcrystals of hd-CRC can achieve the high electrical conductivity of 94.55 S cm-1 at the yield strength of 92.04 MPa , which is higher than commercialized Super-C45 (83.92 S cm-1 at 92.04 MPa). As a demonstration, hd-CRC based symmetrical supercapacitors possess a highly volumetric energy density of 9.01 Wh L-1 at 25.87 kW L-1 , much more than those of commercialized Super-C45 (5.06 Wh L-1 and 19.30 kW L-1 ). Remarkably, the flexible package supercapacitor remarkably presents a low leakage current of 10.27 mA and low equivalent series resistance of 3.93 mΩ. Evidently, this work is a meaningful step toward high-dense conductive biomass carbon from traditional biomass graphite carbon, greatly promoting the highly-volumetric-performance supercapacitors.

High Curvature PEDOT:PSS Transport Layer Toward Enhanced Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes.

The rapidly developed metal halide perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) are considered as a promising candidate for next-generation display and illumination, but the unbalanced charge transport is still a hard-treat case to restrict its efficiency and operational stability. Here, a high curvature PEDOT:PSS transport layer is demonstrated via the self-assembly island-like structures by the incorporation of alkali metal salts. Benefiting from the dielectric confinement effect of the high curvature surface, the modified CsPbBr3 -based PeLEDs present a 2.1 times peak external quantum efficiency (EQE) from 6.75% to 14.23% and a 3.3 times half lifetime (T50 ) from 3.96 to 13.01 h. Besides, the PeLEDs show high luminance up to 44834 cd m-2 . Evidently, this work may provide a deep insight into the structure-activity relationship between the micro-structures at the PEDOT:PSS/perovskite interface and the performance of PeLEDs, and crack the codes for ameliorating the performance of PeLEDs via interfacial micro-structured regulation.

Engineering Structural Janus MXene-nanofibrils Aerogels for Season-Adaptive Radiative Thermal Regulation.

Aerogels have provided a significant platform for passive radiation-enabled thermal regulation, arousing extensive interest due to their capabilities of radiative cooling or heating. However, there still remains challenge of developing functionally integrated aerogels for sustainable thermal regulation in both hot and cold environment. Here, Janus structured MXene-nanofibrils aerogel (JMNA) is rationally designed via a facile and efficient way. The achieved aerogel presents the characteristic of high porosity (≈98.2%), good mechanical strength (tensile stress of ≈2 MPa, compressive stress of ≈115 kPa), and macroscopic shaping property. Based on the asymmetric structure, the JMNA with switchable functional layers can alternatively enable passive radiative heating and cooling in winter and summer, respectively. As a proof of concept, JMNA can function as a switchable thermal-regulated roof to effectively enable the inner house model to maintain >25 °C in winter and <30 °C in hot summer. This design of Janus structured aerogels with compatible and expandable capabilities is promising to widely benefit the low-energy thermal regulation in changeable climate.

Insight into Interfacial Polarization for Enhancing Piezoelectricity in Ferroelectric Nanocomposites.

The interfacial effect is widely used to optimize the properties of ferroelectric nanocomposites, however, there is still a lack of direct evidence to understand its underlying mechanisms limited by the nano size and complex structures. Here, taking piezoelectricity, for example, the mechanism of interfacial polarization in barium titanate/poly(vinylidene fluoride-ran-trifluoroethylene) (BTO/P(VDF-TrFE)) nanocomposite is revealed at multiple scales by combining Kelvin probe force microscope (KPFM) with theoretical stimulation. The results prove that the mismatch of permittivity between matrix and filler leads to the accumulation of charges, which in turn induces local polarization in the interfacial region, and thus can promote piezoelectricity independently. Furthermore, the strategy of interfacial polarization to enhance piezoelectricity is extended and validated in other two similar nanocomposites. This work uncovers the mechanism of interfacial polarization and paves newfangled insights to boost performances in ferroelectric nanocomposites.

Current status and prospect of immunotherapy for colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE: Colorectal cancer is the most common gastrointestinal tumor in China. While significant progress has been achieved in traditional chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy, the prognosis of advanced colorectal cancer is poor, and the five-year survival rate is unsatisfactory. There is an urgent need to explore new treatment modalities. In this review, we examined the latest progress of colorectal cancer immunotherapy and discussed its future prospects. METHODS: We conducted a literature review to sort out the current status of immunotherapy for different types of colorectal cancer and discussed potential combination therapy options. Results Subsequent line therapy, first-line therapy and neoadjuvant therapy for MSI-H/dMMR colorectal cancer are discussed. In addition, combination therapy options for patients with MSS/pMMR colorectal cancer are presented. Finally, current valuable biomarkers for immunotherapy are highlighted. RESULTS: Subsequent line therapy, first-line therapy and neoadjuvant therapy for MSI-H/dMMR colorectal cancer are discussed. In addition, combination therapy options for patients with MSS/pMMR colorectal cancer are presented. Finally, current valuable biomarkers for immunotherapy are highlighted. CONCLUSION: This review discussed the current status of immunotherapy for different types of colorectal cancer and biomarkers for immunotherapy.

Vertical-MXene based micro-supercapacitors with thickness-independent capacitance.

MXenes have shown great potential as an emerging two-dimensional (2D) material for micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) due to their high conductivity, rich surface chemistry, and high capacity. However, MXene sheets inherently tend to lay flat on the substrate during film formation to assemble into compact stacked structures, which hinders ion accessibility and prolongs ion transport paths, leading to highly dependent electrochemical properties on the thickness of the film. Here, we demonstrate a vertically aligned Ti3C2Tx MXene based micro-supercapacitor with an excellent electrochemical performance by a liquid nitrogen-assisted freeze-drying method. The vertical arrangement of the 2D MXene sheets allows for directional ion transport, enabling the vertical-MXene based MSCs to exhibit thickness-independent electrochemical properties even in thick films. In addition, the MSCs displayed a high areal capacitance of 87 mF cm-2 at 10 mV s-1 along with an excellent stability of ∼87.4% after 10 000 charge-discharge cycles. Furthermore, the vertical-MXene approach proposed here is scalable and can be extended to other systems involving directional transport.

Synthesis of a capillary surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate integrating sampling and detection based on meniscus self-assembled technology.

A method is proposed to fabricate a novel capillary surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate integrating sampling and detection based on meniscus evaporation self-assembled technology, named Meniscus@AgNPs@Capillary substrate. Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) were arranged in the inner wall of the capillary through meniscus evaporation. The parameters which might affect the deposition of AgNPs during evaporation were investigated, including the evaporation temperature, self-assembly time, the ratio of silver sol to ethanol, and capillary length. The enhancement effect of SERS under different fabrication conditions was investigated using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as a Raman probe. Moreover, the optimal fabricated Meniscus@AgNPs@Capillary substrate was applied to the detection of several environmental pollutants such as polystyrene nanoplastics (PSNPs) and various antibiotics, with limits of detection (LOD) of 10 µg/L and 1 µg/L, respectively. The Meniscus@AgNPs@Capillary substrate presented the advantages of time and effort saving, high sensitivity, and on-site sampling and testing.

Piezoelectric nanogenerators for personalized healthcare.

The development of flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators has experienced rapid progress in the past decade and is serving as the technological foundation of future state-of-the-art personalized healthcare. Due to their highly efficient mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion, easy implementation, and self-powering nature, these devices permit a plethora of innovative healthcare applications in the space of active sensing, electrical stimulation therapy, as well as passive human biomechanical energy harvesting to third party power on-body devices. This article gives a comprehensive review of the piezoelectric nanogenerators for personalized healthcare. After a brief introduction to the fundamental physical science of the piezoelectric effect, material engineering strategies, device structural designs, and human-body centered energy harvesting, sensing, and therapeutics applications are also systematically discussed. In addition, the challenges and opportunities of utilizing piezoelectric nanogenerators for self-powered bioelectronics and personalized healthcare are outlined in detail.

Engineering Biomimetic Nanostructured "Melanosome" Textiles for Advanced Solar-to-Thermal Devices.

In nature, deep-sea fish featured with close-packed melanosomes can remarkably lower light reflection, which have inspired us to design ultrablack coatings for enhanced solar-to-thermal conversion. Herein, a biomimetic ultrablack textile is developed enabled by the formation of hierarchical polypyrrole (Ppy) nanospheres. The fabricated textile exhibits prominently suppressed reflectance of lower than 4% and highly enhanced absorption of up to 96%. Further experimental results and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation evidence the formation process of hierarchical nanospheres. Based on high-efficient solar-to-thermal conversion, the biomimetic textile with desirable conductivity allows the development of a salt-free solar evaporator, enabling a sustainable seawater evaporation rate of up to 1.54 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun. Furthermore, the biomimetic hierarchical textile exhibits good superhydrophobicity, enhanced photothermal property, and high electrothermal conversion, demonstrating significant potential in wearable thermal management (rescue vests) in water conditions.

Air-Stable Conductive Polymer Ink for Printed Wearable Micro-Supercapacitors.

Printed electronics are expected to facilitate the widespread distributed wearable electronics in the era of the Internet of things. However, developing cheap and stable electrode inks remains a significant challenge in the printed electronics industry and academic community. Here, overcoming the weak hydrophilicity of polyaniline, a low-cost, easy-fabricating, and air-stable conducting polymer (CP) ink is devised through a facile assemble-disperse strategy delivering a high conductivity in the order of 10-2 S cm-1 along with a remarkable specific capacitance of 386.9 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 (dehydrated state). The additive-free CP ink is directly employed to print wearable micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) via the spray-coating method, which deliver a high areal capacitance (96.6 mF cm-2 ) and volumetric capacitance (26.0 F cm-3 ), outperforming most state-of-the-art CP-based supercapacitors. This work paves a new approach for achieving scalable MSCs, thus rendering a cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and pervasive energy solution for next-generation distributed electronics.

Lactobacillus paracasei R3 protects against dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice via regulating Th17/Treg cell balance.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), mainly comprising ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's Disease, are most often a polygenic disorder with contributions from the intestinal microbiome, defects in barrier function, and dysregulated host responses to microbial stimulation. Strategies that target the microbiota have emerged as potential therapies and, of these, probiotics have gained the greatest attention. Herein, we isolated a strain of Lactobacillus paracasei R3 (L.p R3) with strong biofilm formation ability from infant feces. Interestingly, we also found L.p R3 strain can ameliorate the general symptoms of murine colitis, alleviate inflammatory cell infiltration and inhibit Th17 while promote Treg function in murine dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Overall, this study suggested that L.p R3 strain significantly improves the symptoms and the pathological damage of mice with colitis and influences the immune function by regulating Th17/Treg cell balance in DSS-induced colitis in mice.

Sputum microbiota as a potential diagnostic marker for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

The prevalence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains makes disease control more complicated, which is the main cause of death in tuberculosis (TB) patients. Early detection and timely standard treatment are the key to current prevention and control of drug-resistant TB. In recent years, despite the continuous advancement in drug-resistant TB diagnostic technology, the needs for clinical rapid and accurate diagnosis are still not fully met. With the development of sequencing technology, the research of human microecology has been intensified. This study aims to use 16 rRNA sequencing technology to detect and analyze upper respiratory flora of TB patients with anti-TB drug sensitivity (DS, n = 55), monoresistance isoniazide (MR-INH, n = 33), monoresistance rifampin (MR-RFP, n = 12), multidrug resistance (MDR, n = 26) and polyresistance (PR, n = 39) in southern China. Potential microbial diagnostic markers for different types of TB drug resistance are searched by screening differential flora, which provides certain guiding significance for drug resistance diagnosis and clinical drug use of TB. The results showed that the pulmonary microenvironment of TB patients was more susceptible to infection by external pathogens, and the infection of different drug-resistant Mtb leads to changes in different flora. Importantly, seven novel microorganisms (Leptotrichia, Granulicatella, Campylobacter, Delfitia, Kingella, Chlamydophila, Bordetella) were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as diagnostic markers for different drug resistance types of TB. Leptotrichia, Granulicatella, Campylobacter were potential diagnostic marker for TB patients with INH single-resistance. Delftia was a potential diagnostic marker for TB patients with RFP single drug-resistance. Kingella and Chlamydophila can be used as diagnostic markers for TB patients with PR. Bordetella can be used as a potential diagnostic marker for identification of TB patients with MDR.

Understanding the Potential Screening Effect through the Discretely Structured ZnO Nanorods Piezo Array.

The potential screening effect of one-dimensional ZnO nanorods from carriers has been theoretically proved to severely limit its piezoelectricity, but its exact mechanism needs to be further revealed in experiments to guide the design of piezoelectric semiconductors. Here, a discretely structured design was proposed to prevent the free carriers from tunneling among adjacent ZnO nanorods for suppressing the screening effect. Piezoresponse force microscope and finite element analysis were employed in combination to uncover the underlying mechanism in experiment. Further, the output voltage of this discretely structured device was 1.62 times higher than that of the nondesigned device, which clearly authenticates this suppression behavior. Besides, this design prompts an unexpected improvement in flexibility, where the flexural modulus of this piezo-film was reduced by 35.74%. Notably, this work opens a new way to understand the potential screening effect, as expected, and to advance the development of piezo-electronics toward better piezoelectricity and more excellent flexibility.

Manipulating Relative Permittivity for High-Performance Wearable Triboelectric Nanogenerators.

As the world marches into the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), the practice of human health care is on the cusp of a revolution, driven by an unprecedented level of personalization enabled by a variety of wearable bioelectronics. A sustainable and wearable energy solution is highly desired , but challenges still remain in its development. Here, we report a high-performance wearable electricity generation approach by manipulating the relative permittivity of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). A compatible active carbon (AC)-doped polyvinylidene fluoride (AC@PVDF) composite film was invented with high relative permittivity and a specific surface area for wearable biomechanical energy harvesting. Compared with the pure PVDF, the 0.8% AC@PVDF film-based TENG obtained an enhancement in voltage, current, and power by 2.5, 3.5, and 9.8 times, respectively. This work reports a stable, cost-effective, and scalable approach to improve the performance of the triboelectric nanogenerator for wearable biomechanical energy harvesting, thus rendering a sustainable and pervasive energy solution for on-body electronics.

[Bioinformatics-based identification of the key genes associated with prostate cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To identify the key genes associated with the pathogenesis of PCa using the bioinformatics approach for a deeper insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of PCa. METHODS: The microarray datasets GSE70770, GSE32571 and GSE46602 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and differentially expressed genes (DEG) in the normal prostate tissue and PCa were identified with the GEO2R tool, followed by functional enrichment analysis. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs was constructed by STRING and visualized with the Cytoscape software. RESULTS: A total of 235 DEGs were identified, including 61 up-regulated and 174 down-regulated genes, which were mainly enriched in focal adhesion kinase (FAK), ECM-receptor interaction, and other signaling pathways. From the PPI network were screened out 12 highly connected hub genes, including MYH11, TPM1, TPM2, SMTN, MYL9, VCL, ACTG1, CNN1, CALD1, ACTC1, MYLK and SORBS1, which were shown by hierarchical cluster analysis to be capable of distinguishing prostate cancer from non-cancer tissue. CONCLUSIONS: A total of 235 DEGs and 12 hub genes were identified in this study, which may contribute to a further understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the development and progression of PCa, and provide new candidate targets for the diagnosis and treatment of the malignancy.

Cellulose II Aerogel-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator.

Cellulose-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have gained increasing attention. In this study, a novel method is demonstrated to synthesize cellulose-based aerogels and such aerogels are used to fabricate TENGs that can serve as mechanical energy harvesters and self-powered sensors. The cellulose II aerogel is fabricated via a dissolution-regeneration process in a green inorganic molten salt hydrate solvent (lithium bromide trihydrate), where. The as-fabricated cellulose II aerogel exhibits an interconnected open-pore 3D network structure, higher degree of flexibility, high porosity, and a high surface area of 221.3 m2 g-1. Given its architectural merits, the cellulose II aerogel-based TENG presents an excellent mechanical response sensitivity and high electrical output performance. By blending with other natural polysaccharides, i.e., chitosan and alginic acid, electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups are introduced into the composite cellulose II aerogels, which significantly improves the triboelectric performance of the TENG. The cellulose II aerogel-based TENG is demonstrated to light up light-emitting diodes, charge commercial capacitors, power a calculator, and monitor human motions. This study demonstrates the facile fabrication of cellulose II aerogel and its application in TENG, which leads to a high-performance and eco-friendly energy harvesting and self-powered system.

Carbon Nanolights in Piezopolymers are Self-Organizing Toward Color Tunable Luminous Hybrids for Kinetic Energy Harvesting.

Herein, an all-solid-state sequential self-organization and self-assembly process is reported for the in situ construction of a color tunable luminous inorganic/polymer hybrid with high direct piezoresponse. The primary inorganic self-organization in solid polymer and the subsequent polymer self-assembly are achieved at high pressure with the first utilization of piezo-copolymer (PVDF-TrFE) as the host matrix of guest carbon quantum dots (CQDs). This process induces the spontaneous formation of a highly ordered, microscale, polygonal, and hierarchically structured CQDs/PVDF-TrFE hybrid with multicolor photoluminescence, consisting of very thermodynamic stable polar crystalline nanowire arrays. The electrical polarization-free CQDs/PVDF-TrFE hybrids can efficiently harvest the environmental available kinetic mechanical energy with a new large-scale group-cooperation mechanism. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current outputs reach up to 29.6 V cm-2 and 550 nA cm-2 , respectively. The CQDs/PVDF-TrFE-based hybrid nanogenerator demonstrates drastically improved durable and reliable features during the real-time demonstration of powering commercial light emitting diodes. No attenuation/fluctuation of the electrical signals is observed for ≈10 000 continuous working cycles. This study may offer a new design concept for progressively but spontaneously constructing novel multiple self-adaptive complex inorganic/polymer hybrids that promise applications in the next generation of self-powered autonomous optoelectronic devices.

Comparison of two different minimally invasive percutaneous nephrostomy sheaths for the treatment of staghorn stones.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the safety and effectiveness of using a conventional nephrostomy sheath (NS) vs using a new NS with suction and evacuation functions in minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy (MPCNL) for the treatment of staghorn stones. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective and randomised study of 60 patients with staghorn stones randomly assigned into two groups of 30 patients. One group underwent MPCNL using conventional NS, whereas the other group underwent MPCNL with suction-evacuation NS (SENS). Patient demographics, stone characteristics, intraoperative data, perioperative data, and surgical results were collected and analysed. RESULTS: The patient demographics and stone characteristics were similar amongst the two groups. The SENS group had a significantly lower peak and a significantly lower average renal pelvic pressure (RPP) throughout the procedure. The SENS group was more efficient for stone removal and had a much shorter stone treatment time, a lesser use of the stone extractor, and ultimately a higher stone-free rate (SFR). The effects of a lower RPP and shorter stone treatment time translated into less severe postoperative complications as measured per modified Clavien grade. CONCLUSION: Using SENS in MPCNL for the treatment of staghorn stones has the advantages of lower RPP, increased effectiveness in stone retrieval, decreased surgery related complications, and an improved SFR.

Takeaway food in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China: Composition and nutritional value.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The popularity of takeaway has caused health problems. To analyse the basic nutrients and composition of popular takeaway meals in Chengdu, China. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We randomly collected 105 takeaway meals from takeaway platforms. The quality of ingredients such as grains, vegetables, and meat were assessed and weighed. The samples were then homogenised, and the nutrients were detected following the AOAC Official Methods of Analysis. RESULTS: Compared with Chinese and US dietary reference intakes, the average energy, protein, salt, fat, vitamin, and available carbohydrate contents exceeded dietary recommendations for one takeaway meal. By contrast, the whole grain, vegetable, fruit, dairy product, egg, mineral, and dietary fibre contents were insufficient. Food compositions and basic nutrients differed among takeaway meals prepared with various cooking methods and meats. Fried rice had the lowest nutritional value. The fried dish set meal had high energy density. The nutrient content of poultry takeaway meals was more balanced compared with other meals assessed, and salt and fat were excessive in mixed meat meals. In addition, meatless takeaway meals tended to have high fat content because of excess vegetable oil added for better taste. CONCLUSIONS: Takeaway meals should have lower contents of energy, fat, carbohydrate, and salt and higher contents of whole grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and eggs. Attention should be paid to the high energy density of the fried dish set meal to prevent resultant health problems such as obesity. Consumers, takeaway outlets, and government agencies need to work together to address the health problems.