Tetraborated Intrinsically Axial Chiral Multi-resonance Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Materials.

Chiral multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (CP-MR-TADF) materials hold promise for circularly polarized organic light-emitting diode (CP-OLED) and 3D display. Herein, we present two pairs of tetraborated intrinsically axial CP-MR-TADF materials, R/S-BDBF-BOH and R/S-BDBT-BOH, with conjugation-extended bidibenzo[b,d]furan and bidibenzo[b,d]thiophene as chiral sources, which effectively participate in the distribution of frontier molecular orbitals. Due to the heavy-atom effect, sulfur atoms are introduced to accelerate the reverse intersystem crossing process and increase efficiency of molecules. R/S-BDBF-BOH and R/S-BDBT-BOH manifest ultra-pure blue emission peaking at 458/459 nm with full width at half maximum of 27 nm (0.16 eV), photoluminescence quantum yields of 90%/91% and dissymmetry factors (|gPL|) of 6.8 × 10-4/8.5 × 10-4, respectively. Correspondingly, the CP-OLEDs exhibit good performances with external quantum efficiency of 30.1% and |gEL| factors of 1.2 × 10-3.

Early megakaryocyte lineage-committed progenitors in adult mouse bone marrow.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have been considered to progressively lose their self-renewal and differentiation potentials prior to the commitment to each blood lineage. However, recent studies have suggested that megakaryocyte progenitors (MkPs) are generated at the level of HSCs. In this study, we newly identified early megakaryocyte lineage-committed progenitors (MgPs) mainly in CD201-CD48- cells and CD48+ cells separated from the CD150+CD34-Kit+Sca-1+Lin- HSC population of the bone marrow in adult mice. Single-cell colony assay and single-cell transplantation showed that MgPs, unlike platelet-biased HSCs, had little repopulating potential in vivo, but formed larger megakaryocyte colonies in vitro (on average 8 megakaryocytes per colony) than did previously reported MkPs. Single-cell RNA sequencing supported that HSCs give rise to MkPs through MgPs along a Mk differentiation pathway. Single-cell reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis showed that MgPs expressed Mk-related genes, but were transcriptionally heterogenous. Clonal culture of HSCs suggested that MgPs are not direct progeny of HSCs. We propose a differentiation model in which HSCs give rise to MgPs which then give rise to MkPs, supporting a classic model in which Mk-lineage commitment takes place at a late stage of differentiation.

Injectable Photothermal PDA/Chitosan/ß-Glycerophosphate Thermosensitive Hydrogels for Antibacterial and Wound Healing Promotion.

Controlling infections while reducing the use of antibiotics is what doctors as well as researchers are looking for. As innovative smart materials, photothermal materials can achieve localized heating under light excitation for broad-spectrum bacterial inhibition. A polydopamine/chitosan/ß-glycerophosphate temperature-sensitive hydrogel with excellent antibacterial ability is synthesized here. Initially, the hydrogel has good biocompatibility. In vitro experiments reveal its noncytotoxic property when cocultured with gingival fibroblasts and nonhemolytic capability. Concurrently, the in vivo biocompatibility is confirmed through liver and kidney blood markers and staining of key organs. Crucially, the hydrogel has excellent photothermal conversion performance, which can realize the photothermal conversion of hydrogel up to 3 mm thickness. When excited by near-infrared light, localized heating is attainable, resulting in clear inhibition impacts on both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, with the inhibition rates of 91.22% and 96.69%, respectively. During studies on mice's infected wounds, it is observed that the hydrogel can decrease S. aureus' presence in the affected area when exposed to near-infrared light, and also lessen initial inflammation and apoptosis, hastening tissue healing. These findings provide valuable insights into the design of antibiotic-free novel biomaterials with good potential for clinical applications.

Advances in pathogenic mechanisms, diagnostic methods, surgical and non-surgical treatment, and potential recurrence factors of Chronic Subdural Hematoma: A review.

Chronic Subdural Hematoma (CSDH) is a common hemorrhagic disease in neurosurgery, and with the intensification of global aging, its incidence is gradually increasing. With the advancement of scientific technology, the etiological concepts and surgical treatments for CSDH have continually evolved over time. Currently, neuroscientists' understanding of CSDH is no longer confined to bridging vein rupture; exploration of various mechanisms such as angiogenesis, maturation of blood vessels, and inflammation is also underway. In-depth exploration and discovery of pathogenic mechanisms guide the updating of clinical treatment strategies and methods. For different types of CSDH, there is now a clear guidance for the targeted selection of treatment methods. However, the current treatment of CSDH cannot completely solve all problems, and the updating of treatment methods as well as the development and validation of new effective drugs remain challenges for the future. In addition, the recurrence of CSDH is a significant issue that needs to be addressed. Although we have reviewed potential recurrent factors that may be associated, the strength of this evidence is insufficient. Future research should gradually focus on validating these recurrent factors and exploring new ones, in order to optimize the existing understanding and treatment of CSDH.

Advanced anaerobic digestion of household food waste pretreated by in situ-produced mixed enzymes via solid-state fermentation: Feasibility and application perspectives.

Enzymatic pretreatment is an effective method which can improve the anaerobic digestion (AD) efficiency of household food waste (HFW). As an alternative to expensive commercial enzymes, mixed enzymes (MEs) produced in situ from HFW by solid-state fermentation (SSF) can greatly promote the hydrolysis rate of HFW and achieve advanced anaerobic digestion (AAD) economically sustainable. In this paper, strategies for improving the efficiency of the enzyme-production process and the abundance of MEs are briefly discussed, including SSF, fungal co-cultivation, and stepwise fermentation. The feasibility of using HFW as an applicable substrate for producing MEs (amylase, protease, and lignocellulose-degrading enzymes) and its potential advantages in HFW anaerobic digestion are comprehensively illustrated. Based on the findings, an integrated AAD process of HFW pretreated with MEs produced in situ was proposed to maximise bioenergy recovery. The mass balance results showed that the total volatile solids removal rate could reach 98.56%. Moreover, the net energy output could reach 2168.62 MJ/t HFW, which is 9.79% higher than that without in situ-produced MEs and pretreatment. Finally, perspectives for further study are presented.

Views of Hong Kong Chinese medicine practitioners on the application of the "Chinese Medicine Anti-epidemic Plans" prepared by the Chinese medicine expert group of central authorities: a focus group study.

BACKGROUND: Drawing on the extensive utilization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to combat COVID-19 in Mainland China, experts designed a series of TCM anti-epidemic strategies. This study aims to understand Hong Kong CM practitioners' application of and opinions on the "Chinese Medicine Anti-epidemic Plans." METHODS: Online focus group interviews were conducted, and purposive sampling was employed to invite 22 CM practitioners to voluntarily participate in three interview sessions. The interviews were audio recorded, then transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analyzed using template analysis. RESULTS: Three themes were derived: (1) facilitators of the "Chinese Medicine Anti-epidemic Plans," (2) barriers of the "Chinese Medicine Anti-epidemic Plans," and (3) expectations on improving the "Chinese Medicine Anti-epidemic Plans." The participants could obtain relevant information from various sources, which highlights the value of the plans for TCM medicinal cuisine and non-pharmacologic therapies and guiding junior CM practitioners, supplementing Western medicine interventions, and managing Chinese herb reserves in clinics. However, the barriers included the lack of a specialized platform for timely information release, defective plan content, limited reference value to experienced CM practitioners, and lack of applicability to Hong Kong. The expectations of the CM practitioners for improving the plans were identified based on the barriers. CONCLUSIONS: To enhance the implementation of the anti-epidemic plans, CM practitioners in Hong Kong expect to utilize a specific CM platform and refine the plans to ensure that they are realistic, focused, comprehensive, and tailored to the local context.

iGWAS: Image-based genome-wide association of self-supervised deep phenotyping of retina fundus images.

Existing imaging genetics studies have been mostly limited in scope by using imaging-derived phenotypes defined by human experts. Here, leveraging new breakthroughs in self-supervised deep representation learning, we propose a new approach, image-based genome-wide association study (iGWAS), for identifying genetic factors associated with phenotypes discovered from medical images using contrastive learning. Using retinal fundus photos, our model extracts a 128-dimensional vector representing features of the retina as phenotypes. After training the model on 40,000 images from the EyePACS dataset, we generated phenotypes from 130,329 images of 65,629 British White participants in the UK Biobank. We conducted GWAS on these phenotypes and identified 14 loci with genome-wide significance (p<5×10-8 and intersection of hits from left and right eyes). We also did GWAS on the retina color, the average color of the center region of the retinal fundus photos. The GWAS of retina colors identified 34 loci, 7 are overlapping with GWAS of raw image phenotype. Our results establish the feasibility of this new framework of genomic study based on self-supervised phenotyping of medical images.

A novel long non-coding RNA MIR4500HG003 promotes tumor metastasis through miR-483-3p-MMP9 axis in triple-negative breast cancer.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. The 5-year survival rate is over 90% in BC patients, but once BC cells metastasis into distal organs, it is dramatically decreasing to less than 30%. Especially, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients usually lead to poor prognosis and survival because of metastasis. Understanding the underline mechanisms of TNBC metastasis is a critical issue. Non-coding RNAs, including of lncRNAs and microRNAs, are non-protein-coding transcripts and have been reported as important regulators in TNBC metastasis. However, the underline mechanisms for non-coding RNAs regulating TNBC metastasis remain largely unclear. Here, we found that lncRNA MIR4500HG003 was highly expressed in highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells and overexpression of MIR4500HG003 enhanced metastasis ability in vitro and in vivo and promoted MMP9 expression. Furthermore, we found MIR4500HG003 physically interacted with miR-483-3p and reporter assay showed miR-483-3p attenuated MMP9 expression. Importantly, endogenous high expressions of MIR4500HG003 were correlated with tumor recurrence in TNBC patients with tumor metastasis. Taken together, our findings suggested that MIR4500HG003 promotes metastasis of TNBC through miR-483-3p-MMP9 signaling axis and may be used as potential prognostic marker for TNBC patients.

Comparison of different treatment strategies for T3N1-3 stage gastric cancer based on the SEER database.

Treatment options for T3N1 stage gastric cancer exhibit regional variation, with optimal approach remaining unclear. We derived our data from the SEER database, using Cox proportional risk regression models for univariate and multivariate analyses of 5-years overall survival (5yOS) and 5-years cancer-specific survival (5yCSS). The results showed that younger age, female, non-white race, highly differentiated histologic grade, non-Signet ring cell adenocarcinoma, low N stage, lesser curvature of the stomach, OP followed by adjuvant C/T with or without RT, partial gastrectomy, C/T and others, Radiation therapy, and Chemotherapy were significantly associated with better 5yOS and 5yCSS. For patients with stage T3N1-3 gastric cancer, multimodal treatment regimens demonstrate superior survival outcomes compared to surgery or radiotherapy alone. Among them, OP followed by adjuvant C/T with or without RT emerges as particularly efficacious, potentially offering enhanced benefits for non-Asian populations.

Multifunctional nanogel loaded with cerium oxide nanozyme and CX3CL1 protein: Targeted immunomodulation and retinal protection in uveitis rat model.

Effectively addressing retinal issues represents a pivotal aspect of blindness-related diseases. Novel approaches involving reducing inflammation and rebalancing the immune response are paramount in the treatment of these conditions. This study delves into the potential of a nanogel system comprising polyethylenimine-benzene boric acid-hyaluronic acid (PEI-PBA-HA). We have evaluated the collaborative impact of cerium oxide nanozyme and chemokine CX3CL1 protein for targeted immunomodulation and retinal protection in uveitis models. Our nanogel system specifically targets the posterior segment of the eyes. The synergistic effect in this area reduces oxidative stress and hampers the activation of microglia, thereby alleviating the pathological immune microenvironment. This multifaceted drug delivery system disrupts the cycle of oxidative stress, inflammation, and immune response, suppressing initial immune cells and limiting local retinal structural damage induced by excessive immune reactions. Our research sheds light on interactions within retinal target cells, providing a promising avenue for the development of efficient and innovative drug delivery platforms.

Designing Temperature-Insensitive Solvated Electrolytes for Low-Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries.

Lithium metal batteries face problems from sluggish charge transfer at interfaces, as well as parasitic reactions between lithium metal anodes and electrolytes, due to the strong electronegativity of oxygen donor solvents. These factors constrain the reversibility and kinetics of lithium metal batteries at low temperatures. Here, a nonsolvating cosolvent is applied to weaken the electronegativity of donor oxygen in ether solvents, enabling the participation of anionic donors in the solvation structure of Li+. This strategy significantly accelerates the desolvation process of Li+ and reduces the side effects of solvents on interfacial transport and stability. The designed anion-aggregated electrolyte has a unique temperature-insensitive solvation structure and enables lithium metal anodes to achieve a high average Coulombic efficiency at room temperature and -20 °C. A high-loading LiFePO4||Li cell exhibited high reversibility with a 100% capacity retention after 150 cycles at room temperature, -20, and -40 °C. The practical 1 Ah-level LiFePO4||Li pouch-cell delivered 81% and 61% of the capacity at room temperature when charged and discharged at -20 and -40 °C, respectively. This strategy of constructing temperature-insensitive solvation by electronegativity regulation offers a novel approach for developing electrolytes of low-temperature batteries.

p21/Zbtb18 repress the expression of cKit to regulate the self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells.

The maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is a complex process involving numerous cell-extrinsic and -intrinsic regulators. The first member of the cyclin-dependent kinase family of inhibitors to be identified, p21, has been reported to perform a wide range of critical biological functions, including cell cycle regulation, transcription, differentiation, and so on. Given the previous inconsistent results regarding the functions of p21 in HSCs in a p21-knockout mouse model, we employed p21-tdTomato (tdT) mice to further elucidate its role in HSCs during homeostasis. The results showed that p21-tdT+ HSCs exhibited increased self-renewal capacity compared to p21-tdT- HSCs. Zbtb18, a transcriptional repressor, was upregulated in p21-tdT+ HSCs, and its knockdown significantly impaired the reconstitution capability of HSCs. Furthermore, p21 interacted with ZBTB18 to co-repress the expression of cKit in HSCs and thus regulated the self-renewal of HSCs. Our data provide novel insights into the physiological role and mechanisms of p21 in HSCs during homeostasis independent of its conventional role as a cell cycle inhibitor.

Recent Trends and Innovations in Bead-Based Biosensors for Cancer Detection.

Demand is strong for sensitive, reliable, and cost-effective diagnostic tools for cancer detection. Accordingly, bead-based biosensors have emerged in recent years as promising diagnostic platforms based on wide-ranging cancer biomarkers owing to the versatility, high sensitivity, and flexibility to perform the multiplexing of beads. This comprehensive review highlights recent trends and innovations in the development of bead-based biosensors for cancer-biomarker detection. We introduce various types of bead-based biosensors such as optical, electrochemical, and magnetic biosensors, along with their respective advantages and limitations. Moreover, the review summarizes the latest advancements, including fabrication techniques, signal-amplification strategies, and integration with microfluidics and nanotechnology. Additionally, the challenges and future perspectives in the field of bead-based biosensors for cancer-biomarker detection are discussed. Understanding these innovations in bead-based biosensors can greatly contribute to improvements in cancer diagnostics, thereby facilitating early detection and personalized treatments.

Wh-Words: Existential or Universal Quantifiers in Child Mandarin?

Wh-words have been analysed as existential quantifiers (Chierchia in Logic in grammar: polarity, free choice, and intervention. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013; Fox, in Sauerland U, Stateva P (eds) Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics (Palgrave studies in pragmatics, language and cognition). Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, pp 71-120, 2007; Liao in Alternative and exhaustification: non-interrogative uses of Chinese wh-words. Harvard University, 2010) or universal quantifiers (Nishigauchi, in: Theoretical and applied linguistics at Kobe Shoin 2, Kobe Shoin Institute for Linguistic Sciences, 1999). These two accounts have distinct predictions on how children initially interpret wh-words. The universal account predicts that children should initially interpret wh-words as universal quantifiers, whereas the existential account anticipates that children should start out with the existential interpretation. To adjudicate between the two accounts, the present study was designed to explore pre-schoolers' semantic knowledge of wh-quantification. Specifically, it investigated the interpretation of the wh-word shenme 'what' with 4-and 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children and a control group of adults. Using a Truth Value Judgment Task (Crain and Thornton in Investigations in universal grammar: a guide to experiments on the acquisition of syntax and semantics. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1998), Experiment 1 evaluated whether children interpret the wh-word shenme 'what' as closer in meaning to the polarity sensitive item renhe 'any' or the universal quantifier suoyou 'all' in the antecedent of ruguo 'if' conditionals. Using a Question-Answer Task, Experiments 2 & 3 respectively investigated whether children interpret shenme 'what' as closer in meaning to renhe 'any' or suoyou 'all' in two types of questions: yes-no questions with the particle ma and A-not-A questions. It was found that both children and adults interpret shenme 'what' as closer in meaning to renhe 'any' than suoyou 'all'. The findings suggest that Mandarin-speaking pre-schoolers already have adult-like semantic knowledge of wh-quantification: wh-words are existential quantifiers rather than universal quantifiers. Due to the paucity of primary linguistic input, children's early mastery of the non-interrogative wh-words appear to support the biolinguistic approach to language acquisition (Chomsky in Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1965; Pinker in Language learnability and language development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1984; Crain et al. in Language acquisition from a biolinguistic perspective. Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.09.004 ).

Effect of paternal-maternal parenting styles on college students' internet addiction of different genders: The mediating role of life satisfaction.

This study aimed to understand the current situation of paternal-maternal parenting style, life satisfaction, and internet addiction among college students and explored the influence of paternal-maternal parenting styles and life satisfaction on the internet addiction of male and female college students. A questionnaire survey was administered to 967 college students in China. Life satisfaction partially mediated the effect of the paternal-maternal parenting styles on the internet addiction among college students. However, this mediating role completely varied by gender, and the dimensions of parental styles also had different effects. For male college students, life satisfaction mediated the two dimensions of parenting styles (the father's emotional warmth, the father's overprotection) and internet addiction; the mother's emotional warmth directly related to the internet addiction. Among females, life satisfaction played a partial mediating role between two dimensions of parenting styles (the father's emotional warmth, the mother's interference and protection) and internet addiction. the father's punitiveness and over-involvement were directly related to female students' internet addiction. The study reveals that the mediating effect of life satisfaction on parenting styles and internet addiction among college students is influenced by gender, and the relationship between different parenting styles and internet addiction also varies. These findings indicate that paying attention to the role of the family, especially the parenting style of fathers, is crucial for preventing internet addiction in the future. Prevention and intervention should be treated differently for male and female students.

Sustainable upcycling of mixed spent cathodes to a high-voltage polyanionic cathode material.

Sustainable battery recycling is essential for achieving resource conservation and alleviating environmental issues. Many open/closed-loop strategies for critical metal recycling or direct recovery aim at a single component, and the reuse of mixed cathode materials is a significant challenge. To address this barrier, here we propose an upcycling strategy for spent LiFePO4 and Mn-rich cathodes by structural design and transition metal replacement, for which uses a green deep eutectic solvent to regenerate a high-voltage polyanionic cathode material. This process ensures the complete recycling of all the elements in mixed cathodes and the deep eutectic solvent can be reused. The regenerated LiFe0.5Mn0.5PO4 has an increased mean voltage (3.68 V versus Li/Li+) and energy density (559 Wh kg-1) compared with a commercial LiFePO4 (3.38 V and 524 Wh kg-1). The proposed upcycling strategy can expand at a gram-grade scale and was also applicable for LiFe0.5Mn0.5PO4 recovery, thus achieving a closed-loop recycling between the mixed spent cathodes and the next generation cathode materials. Techno-economic analysis shows that this strategy has potentially high environmental and economic benefits, while providing a sustainable approach for the value-added utilization of waste battery materials.

Constructing Bipolar Dual-Active Sites through High-Entropy-Induced Electric Dipole Transition for Decoupling Oxygen Redox.

It remains a significant challenge to construct active sites to break the trade-off between oxidation and reduction processes occurring in battery cathodes with conversion mechanism, especially for the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR/OER) involved in the zinc-air batteries (ZABs). Here, using a high-entropy-driven electric dipole transition strategy to activate and stabilize the tetrahedral sites is proposed, while enhancing the activity of octahedral sites through orbital hybridization in a FeCoNiMnCrO spinel oxide, thus constructing bipolar dual-active sites with high-low valence states, which can effectively decouple ORR/OER. The FeCoNiMnCrO high-entropy spinel oxide with severe lattice distortion, exhibits a strong 1s→4s electric dipole transition and intense t2g(Co)/eg(Ni)-2p(OL) orbital hybridization that regulates the electronic descriptors, eg and t2g, which leads to the formation of low-valence Co tetrahedral sites (Coth) and high-valence Ni octahedral sites (Nioh), resulting in a higher half-wave potential of 0.87 V on Coth sites and a lower overpotential of 0.26 V at 10 mA cm-2 on Nioh sites as well as a superior performance of ZABs compared to low/mild entropy spinel oxides. Therefore, entropy engineering presents a distinctive approach for designing catalytic sites by inducing novel electromagnetic properties in materials across various electrocatalytic reactions, particularly for decoupling systems.

Immunogenic Material Vaccine for Cancer Immunotherapy by Structure-Dependent Immune Cell Trafficking and Modulation.

Inherently immunogenic materials offer enormous prospects in enhancing vaccine efficacy. However, the understanding and improving material adjuvanticity remain elusive. Herein how the structural presentation of immunopotentiators in a material governs the dynamic dialogue between innate and adaptive immunity for enhanced cancer vaccination is reported. The immunopotentiator manganese into six differing structures that resemble the architectures of two types of pathogens (spherical viruses or rod-like bacteria) is precisely manipulated. The results reveal that innate immune cells accurately sense and respond to the architectures, of which two outperformed material candidates (151 nm hollow spheres and hollow microrods with an aspect ratio of 4.5) show higher competence in creating local proinflammatory environment with promoted innate immune cell influx and stimulation on dendritic cells (DCs). In combination with viral peptides, model proteins, or cell lysate antigens, the outperformed microrod material remarkably primes antigen-specific CD8 cytolytic T cells. In prophylactic and therapeutic regimens, the microrod adjuvanted vaccines display optimal aptitude in tumor suppression in four aggressive murine tumor models, by promoting the infiltration of heterogeneous cytolytic effector cells while decreasing suppressive immunoregulatory populations in tumors. This study demonstrates that a rationally selected architecture of immunogenic materials potentially advances the clinical reality of cancer vaccination.