Preparation of Mesophase Pitch with Fine-Flow Texture from Ethylene Tar/Naphthalene by Catalytic Synthesis for High-Thermal-Conductivity Carbon Fibers.

Mesophase pitch is usually prepared by radical polymerization or catalytic polymerization from coal tar, petroleum, and aromatic compounds, and the catalytic synthesis of mesophase pitch from pure aromatic compounds is more controllable in the preparation of high-quality mesophase pitch. However, the corrosive and highly toxic nature of the catalyst has limited the further development of this method. In this study, mesophase pitch was synthetized using ethylene tar and naphthalene as raw materials and boron trifluoride diethyl etherate as a catalyst. The effect of the catalytic reaction on the structure and properties of the mesophase pitch was investigated. The results show that naphthalene plays an important role in the mesophase content and reaction pressure (from above 6 MPa to 2.35 MPa). Mesophase pitch with fine-flow texture can be prepared by introducing more methylene groups, naphthenic structures, and aliphatic hydrocarbons during synthesis. Carbon fibers prepared from mesophase pitch show a split structure, and the thermal conductivity is 730 W/(m·K). This work provides theoretical support for lower toxicity and causticity and for reaction-controlled technology for the synthesis of high-purity mesophase pitch.

Clinical features, treatment strategies, and prognosis of epithelioid inflammatory myofibroblastic sarcoma in children: a multicenter experience.

Background: Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs) are a spectrum of tumors that range in morphology and biological behavior from benign, intermediate, to apparently malignant and epithelioid inflammatory myofibroblastic sarcoma (EIMS) is one of the malignant subtypes. This study tried to provide experience and new ideas for treating this rare disease. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed and followed up 12 children with EIMS admitted to Beijing Children's Hospital, Baoding Children's Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from August 2016 to May 2022. Results: Of the 12 children, 7 were male and 5 were female, with a median age of 74.50 [interquartile range (IQR), 61.50-90.00] months. Of these patients, eight had a single lesion and four had multiple lesions. The maximum diameter of the single tumor foci was 19.30 cm, the full meridian of the multiple tumor foci target lesions was 32.67 cm, and the median maximum tumor size was 11.99 (IQR, 7.80-15.70) cm. The site of disease was the abdominopelvic cavity in eight cases, the thoracic cavity in two cases, the maxillofacial region in one case, and the larynx in one case. The clinical manifestations were predominantly elevated body temperature (n=8). There was one case of ROS1 fusion mutation and nine cases of ALK fusion mutation. Of the 12 children, 6 were biopsied at the initial diagnosis and 6 were surgically treated. Follow-up treatment included preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy (n=4), peritoneal thermal perfusion therapy (n=2), targeted therapy (n=3), postoperative chemotherapy (n=5), and radiotherapy (n=3). The follow-up time was 14.50 (IQR, 10.50-31.50) months, with eight cases of tumor-free survival, two cases of death, and two cases of loss of follow-up. Conclusions: EIMS in children is extremely rare and clinically aggressive. The clinical presentation is nonspecific, and the initial diagnosis of the tumor is often large. Mutations in the ALK gene are common in EIMS. Surgery is the mainstay of EIMS treatment, and patients benefit from a multidisciplinary combination that includes targeted therapies, with long-term prognosis remaining subject to ongoing follow-up.

Correlation between white blood cell count and intestinal resection in patients with acute mesenteric vein thrombosis.

OBJECTIVE: Acute mesenteric vein thrombosis (AMVT) is an acute abdominal disease with onset, rapid progression, and extensive intestinal necrosis that requires immediate surgical resection. The purpose of this study was to determine the risk factors for nosocomial intestinal resection in patients with AMVT. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed 64 patients with AMVT diagnosed by CTA at the Affiliated Hospital of Kunming University of Science and Technology from January 2013 to December 2021. We compared patients who underwent intestinal resection (42 patients) with those who did not undergo intestinal resection (22 patients). The area under the ROC curve was evaluated, and a forest map was drawn. RESULTS: Among the 64 patients, 6 (9.38%) had a fever, 60 (93.75%) had abdominal pain, 9 (14.06%) had a history of diabetes, 8 (12.5%) had a history of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and 25 (39.06%) had ascites suggested by B ultrasound or CT after admission. The mean age of all patients was 49.86 ± 16.25 years. The mean age of the patients in the enterectomy group was 47.71 ± 16.20 years. The mean age of the patients in the conservative treatment group (without enterectomy) was 53.95 ± 15.90 years. In the univariate analysis, there were statistically significant differences in leukocyte count (P = 0.003), neutrophil count (P = 0.001), AST (P = 0.048), total bilirubin (P = 0.047), fibrinogen (P = 0.022) and DD2 (P = 0.024) between the two groups. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that admission white blood cell count (OR = 1.153, 95% CI: 1.039-1.280, P = 0.007) was an independent risk factor for intestinal resection in patients with AMVT. The ROC curve showed that the white blood cell count (AUC = 0.759 95% CI: 0.620-0.897; P = 0.001; optimal threshold: 7.815; sensitivity: 0.881; specificity: 0.636) had good predictive value for emergency enterectomy for AMVT. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with AMVT, patients with a higher white blood cell count at admission were more likely to have intestinal necrosis and require emergency enterectomy. This study is helpful for clinicians to accurately determine whether emergency intestinal resection is needed in patients with AMVT after admission, prevent further intestinal necrosis, and improve the prognosis of patients.

Increased serum visfatin level is associated with fat deposition of the lumbar spine in ankylosing spondylitis patients.

Objectives: To assess the serum visfatin levels in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), as well as its correlation with fat deposition of the lumbar spine. Methods: Serum visfatin levels were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 50 AS patients and 75 sex-and age-matched healthy controls. The clinical and laboratory indexes of AS patients were recorded, and the lumbar spine magnetic resonance scan was performed to evaluate the lumbar spine fat deposition in AS patients. The level of serum visfatin and its correlation with lumbar fat deposition were analyzed, and the risk factors of AS lumbar MRI fat deposition were evaluated by Logistic regression. Results: Serum visfatin levels in AS patients were elevated compared with that in healthy controls (p < 0.001), and were more significant in patients with fat deposition and syndesmophyte formation (p = 0.017 and p = 0.014, respectively). Serum visfatin levels were positively correlated with CRP, BASDAI, mSASSS and fat deposition (all p < 0.05). Age (OR = 1.085, 95% CI: 1.005-1.173, p = 0.038), disease duration (OR = 1.267, 95% CI: 1.017-1.578, p = 0.035), and visfatin (OR = 1.846, 95% CI: 1.004-3.393, p = 0.048) were risk factors for fat deposition in AS patients. Conclusions: The level of serum visfatin in AS patients is significantly increased, which is associated with fat deposition on lumbar MRI. Elevated visfatin level is an independent risk factor for AS lumbar fat deposition.

Temporal and spatial variations and the relationships of land use pattern and ecosystem services in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the key and largest ecological hotspot globally with enormous multiple ecosystem services. The vast and unique alpine ecosystems in this area have been subjected to the increased human disturbances, such as intensified land use. To explore the magnitude, spatiotemporal pattern and transformation process of land use in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and their impacts on the major ecosystem services during 1980-2020, we used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs model to simulate the spatiotemporal variations of three types of ecosystem services, including habitat quality, carbon storage, and water yield. We analyzed the impacts of land use change on ecosystem services. The findings revealed that land use pattern remained generally stable from 1980 to 2020, with alpine grassland and desert as the dominant land use types. Habitat quality had generally enhanced, while carbon storage and water yield increased firstly and then declined. The magnitudes of three services gradually increased from the northwest to the southeast, corresponding to the spatial transformation pattern from desert via grassland to forest. The correlation between land use intensity and ecosystem services showed significant spatial heterogeneity, particulaly in counties greatly affected by land use intensity which concentrated predominantly in the mid-west, southern, and mid-east regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results have certain guiding significance for formulating land use policy and regulating land use pattern of alpine ecosystems in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Exploration of an Prognostic Signature Related to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma and Their Response Targeting Immunotherapy.

Background: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays a pro-apoptotic role in colorectal adenocarcinoma (COAD). This study aimed to develop a novel ER-stress-related prognostic risk model for COAD and provide support for COAD cohorts with different risk score responses to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. Methods: TCGA-COAD and GSE39582 were included in this prospective study. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses were performed to identify prognostic ER stress-related genes (ERSGs). Accordingly, the immune infiltration landscape and immunotherapy response in different risk groups were assessed. Finally, the expression of prognostic genes in 10 normal and 10 COAD tissue samples was verified using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results: Eight prognostic genes were selected to establish an ERSG-based signature in the training set of the TCGA-COAD cohort. The accuracy of this was confirmed using a testing set of TCGA-COAD and GSE39582 cohorts. Gene set variation analysis indicated that differential functionality in high-low-risk groups was related to immune-related pathways. Corresponding to this, CD36, TIMP1, and PTGIS were significantly associated with 19 immune cells with distinct proportions between the different risk groups, such as central memory CD4T cells and central memory CD8T cells. Moreover, the risk score was considered effective for predicting the clinical response to immunotherapy, and the immunotherapy response was significantly and negatively correlated with the risk score of individuals with COAD. Furthermore, the immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment was less effective in the high-risk group, where the expression levels of PD-L1 and tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion scores in the high-risk group were significantly increased. Finally, the experimental results demonstrated that the expression trends of prognostic genes in clinical samples were consistent with the results from public databases. Conclusion: Our study established a novel risk signature to predict the COAD prognosis of patients and provide theoretical support for the clinical treatment of COAD.

Anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of Streblus indicus.

The bark of Streblus indicus, a Dai medicine in China, has been listed in the Chinese Materia Medica as possessing hemostatic and analgesic properties. Ethnic medicine books record that its bark or leaves for the treatment of mumps and lymphoma. However, according to the literature survey, anti-inflammatory and analgesic studies available for leaves and branches of S. indicus have been seldom reported so far. The current study focuses on the metabolites of S. indicus bark and leaves responsible for anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects on the basis of bioactive-included acetic acid writhing, hot-plate, and xylene-induced ear swelling. The secretion of inflammatory mediators, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1ß, IL-4, and IL-10, were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory by xylene-induced in mouse ear cells. Histological examination was used to assess the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of the branches and leaves of S. indicus, and Western blot analysis determined the mechanism of the methanolic extract of branches and leaves. Different metabolites of S. indicus significantly alleviated analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, with no discernable differences among them. All metabolites decreased the levels of TNF-α, IL-1ß, and IL-6 and increased the levels of IL-4 and IL-10. The analgesic and anti-inflammatory mechanism of the methanolic extract was related to the NF-kB signaling pathway. These results not only would account for scientific knowledge for the traditional application of S. indicus, but also provide a credible theoretical foundation for the further development of anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents.

Region-Controlled Framework Interface Mediated Anion Exchange Chemical Transformation to Designed Metal Phosphosulfide Heteronanostructures.

Postsynthetic chemical transformation provides a powerful platform for creating heteronanostructures (HNs) with well-defined materials and interfaces that generate synergy or enhancement. However, it remains a synthetic bottleneck for the precise construction of HNs with increased degrees of complexity and more elaborate functions in a predictable manner. Herein, we define a general transformative protocol for metal phosphosulfide HNs based on tunable hexagonal Cu1.81S frameworks with corner-, edge- and face-controlled growth of Co2P domains. The region-controlled Cu1.81S-Co2P framework interfaces can serve as "kinetic barriers" in mediating the direction and rate between P and S anion exchange reactions, thus leading to a family of morphology and phase designed Cu3P1-xSx-Co2P HNs with hollow (branched, dotted and crown), porous and core-shell architectures. This study reveals the internal transformation mechanism between metal sulfide and phosphide nanocrystals, and opens up a new way for the rational synthesis of metastable HNs that are otherwise inaccessible.

Mn-Incorporation-Induced Phase Transition in Bottom-Up Synthesized Colloidal Sub-1-nm Ni(OH)2 Nanosheets for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Catalysis.

Sub-1-nm structures are attractive for diverse applications owing to their unique properties compared to those of conventional nanomaterials. Transition-metal hydroxides are promising catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), yet there remains difficulty in directly fabricating these materials within the sub-1-nm regime, and the realization of their composition and phase tuning is even more challenging. Here we define a binary-soft-template-mediated colloidal synthesis of phase-selective Ni(OH)2 ultrathin nanosheets (UNSs) with 0.9 nm thickness induced by Mn incorporation. The synergistic interplay between binary components of the soft template is crucial to their formation. The unsaturated coordination environment and favorable electronic structures of these UNSs, together with in situ phase transition and active site evolution confined by the ultrathin framework, enable efficient and robust OER electrocatalysis. They exhibit a low overpotential of 309 mV at 100 mA cm-2 as well as remarkable long-term stability, representing one of the most high-performance noble-metal-free catalysts.

Risk factors for postoperative acute kidney injury in overweight patients with acute type A aortic dissection.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical characteristics of patients with overweight acute type A aortic dissection, and to explore the risk factors of acute kidney injury in patients with overweight acute type A aortic dissection. METHODS: From March 2019 to February 2022, the clinical data of 71 patients with acute type a aortic dissection diagnosed by CTA and undergoing surgical treatment with BMI > 24 in the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province were retrospectively analyzed, and analyzed by univariate and logistic multivariate analysis methods. RESULTS: The mean BMI of all included patients was 27.23, The mean surface area of all included human populations was 1.833. The mean age of all patients was (52.06 ± 10.71) years old, and 35 patients developed acute kidney injury after surgery. Multi-factor Logistics regression analysis confirmed the risk factors for postoperative acute kidney injury in overweight patients with acute type A aortic dissection, including gender, CPB transit time and intraoperative infusion of suspended red blood cells. Seven patients in the AKI group died in hospital after surgery and two patients died in the non-AKI group. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with overweight acute Type A aortic dissection, the incidence of AKI is 49.30%. According to multi-factor Logistics regression analysis, gender, CPB transit time and intraoperative suspended red blood cell volume are independent risk factors for postoperative acute kidney injury in patients with overweight acute Type A aortic dissection.

Phase Transformation from Amorphous RuSx to Ru-RuS2 Hybrid Nanostructure for Efficient Water Splitting in Alkaline Media.

Ruthenium (Ru)-based materials, as a class of efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, play an important role in hydrogen generation by electrolysis of water in an alkaline solution for clean hydrogen energy. Hybrid nanostructure (HN) materials, which include two or more components with distinct functionality, show better performance than their individual materials, since HN materials can potentially integrate their advantages and overcome the weaknesses. However, it remains a challenge to construct Ru-based HN materials with desired crystal phases for enhanced HER performances. Herein, a series of new Ru-based HN materials (t-Ru-RuS2, S-Ru-RuS2, and T-Ru-RuS2) through phase engineering of nanomaterials (PEN) and chemical transformation are designed to achieve highly efficient HER properties. Owing to the plentiful formation of heterojunctions and amorphous/crystalline interfaces, the t-Ru-RuS2 HN delivers the most outstanding overpotential of 16 mV and owns a small Tafel slope of 29 mV dec-1 at a current density of 10 mA cm-2, which exceeds commercial Pt/C catalysts (34 mV, 38 mV dec-1). This work shows a new insight for HN and provides alternative opportunities in designing advanced electrocatalysts with low cost for HER in the hydrogen economy.

Effects of seasonal grazing on plant and soil microbial diversity of typical temperate grassland.

Biodiversity is the decisive factor of grassland ecological function and process. As the most important human use of grassland, grazing inevitably affects the grassland biodiversity. However, comprehensive studies of seasonal grazing on plant and soil bacterial, archaeal and fungal diversity of typical temperate grassland are still lacking. We examined the impact of seasonal grazing, including no-grazing (NG), continuous grazing (CG), grazing in May and July (G57), grazing in June and August (G68), and grazing in July and September (G79) on grassland plant and soil microbial diversity based on a long-term field grazing experiment. The results showed that the aboveground plant biomass (AGB) of the seasonal grazing plots was significantly higher than that of the CG plots. Compared with NG, CG increased significantly the Margalef richness index of plant community, while did not significantly change the Shannon, Simpson and Pielou evenness of plant community. Grazing changed the composition and biomass of dominant vegetation. Long-term grazing decreased the proportion of Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel. and increased the proportion of Cleistogenes squarrosa (Trin.) Keng. There was no significant change in the Shannoneven, Shannon and Coverage indices of soil bacteria, archaea and fungi between NG and the grazing plots. But the Chao index of soil fungi in G57, G68 and G79 and archaea in G57, G79 was significantly higher than that in CG. The results of correlation analysis showed that the plant diversity in the CG plots was significantly negatively correlated with the soil bacterial diversity. The plant richness in the G57 and G68 plots was significantly positively correlated with the soil archaea richness. Our study showed that seasonal grazing was a sustainable grazing management strategy for maintaining typical grassland plant and soil microbial diversity in northern of China.

Bibliometric analysis: Research trends of acupuncture treatment to cognitive impairment in recent 15 years.

Objectives: Acupuncture therapy has been used for cognitive impairment-related diseases, however, there are still few studies on the overall trend of acupuncture therapy on cognitive impairment based on bibliometric analysis. The purpose of this study was to explore the research trend of the impact of acupuncture on cognitive impairment in the past 15 years, analyze the research trends and hotspots, and provide new ideas and theoretical basis for future research directions. Methods: From the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), the relevant literature on the treatment of cognitive impairment with acupuncture from 2007 to 2022 was retrieved. Then, based on the CiteSpace and VOSviewer software of the Java platform, the cooperation between countries and institutions in this field, the co-citation of journals and documents, and the cooperation between authors and authors, etc. were analyzed. In addition, the co-occurrence and burst analysis of keywords are also carried out, and a visual knowledge map is drawn. Results: As of August 08, 2022, a total of 394 records related to the treatment of cognitive impairment with acupuncture were identified. The analysis results show: The number and rate of annual publications have steadily increased, with some fluctuations from year to year. The countries that contribute the most to this field are China and the USA. Among them, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Capital Medical University are tied for first place in terms of the number of published papers. Tao Jing is the most prolific author and the number one cited author. Conclusions: The number of publications on acupuncture for cognitive impairment is expected to increase rapidly in future research, suggesting a bright future for the field. Future research hotspots will focus on pain, injury, protocol, diagnosis, guidelines, etc. It is also necessary to strengthen cross-regional and cross-country cooperation among various academic groups.

In-Situ Doping B4C Nanoparticles in Mesophase Pitch for Preparing Carbon Fibers with High Thermal Conductivity by Boron Catalytic Graphitization.

The boron carbide (B4C) nanoparticles doping mesophase pitch (MP) was synthesized by the in-situ doping method with tetrahydrofuran solvent, and the corresponding MP-based carbon fibers (CFs) were successfully prepared through the melt-spinning, stabilization, carbonization and graphitization processes. The structural evolution and properties of boron-containing pitches and fibers in different processes were investigated for exploring the effect of B4C on mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of CFs. The results showed that the B4C was evenly dispersed in pitch fibers to provide active sites of oxygen, resulting in a homogeneous stabilization and ameliorating the split-ting microstructures of CFs. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of B1-MP-CF prepared with 1 wt.% B4C increased to 1051 W/m•K, which was much higher than that of B0-MP-CF prepared without B4C (659 W/m•K). While the tensile strength of B4C-doped CFs was lower than that of pristine CFs. In addition, a linear relationship equation between the graphite microcrystallite parameter (ID/IG) calculated from Raman spectra and the thermal conductivity (λ) calculated according to the electrical resistivity was found, which was beneficial to understand the thermal properties of CFs. Therefore, the doping B4C nanoparticles in MP did play a significant role in reducing the graphitization temperatures due to the boron catalytic graphitization but decreasing the mechanical properties due to the introduction of impurities.

Selective-Epitaxial Hybrid of Tripartite Semiconducting Sulfides for Enhanced Solar-to-Hydrogen Conversion.

The design and synthesis of advanced semiconductors is crucial for the full utilization of solar energy. Herein, colloidal selective-epitaxial hybrid of tripartite semiconducting sulfides CuInS2 Cd(In)SMoS2 heteronanostructures (HNs) via lateral- and vertical-epitaxial growths, followed by cation exchange reactions, are reported. The lateral-epitaxial CuInS2 and Cd(In)S enable effective visible to near-infrared (NIR) solar spectrum absorption, and the vertical-epitaxial ultrathin MoS2 offer sufficient edge sulfur sites for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Furthermore, the integrated structures exhibit unique epitaxial-staggered type II band alignments for continuous charge separation. They achieve the H2 evolution rate up to 8 mmol h-1 g-1 , which is ≈35 times higher than bare CdS and show no deactivation after long-term cycling, representing one of the most efficient and robust noble-metal-free photocatalysts. This design principle and transformation protocol open a new way for creating all-in-one multifunctional catalysts in a predictable manner.

[Twenty years in the 21st century: identification technologies for and multimodal research on chemical changes in exploration of processing mechanism of Chinese medicine].

Chinese medicine undergoes complex chemical changes during processing and identifying these changes is the key to the processing mechanism. In the past 20 years of the 21 st century, research on the chemical changes in Chinese medicine after processing has focused the changes in the biopharmaceutical process in addition to the variation during processing. With the surging of information technologies, various identification technologies(instrumental analysis techniques, molecular biological techniques, data mining techniques, and biotransformation techniques) have developed rapidly and been widely applied to the research on processing mechanism. Thus, based on the chemical changes in the processing and biopharmaceutical process, the author suggested a research tactic of multimodal identification as the core by reorganizing key technologies for chemical identification from studies of the processing mechanism of Chinese me-dicine, aiming at establishing an interdisciplinary multi-dimensional research model for the processing mechanism of Chinese medicine.

[Twenty years in the 21st century: research approaches and techniques in modern system biology for mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing].

Clarifying the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing is pivotal to the modernization of Chinese medicine. Research on Chinese medicinal processing gives priority to the mechanisms of the processing in enhancing efficacy, reducing toxicity, and repurposing medicinals. During the past 20 years, scholars have carried out in-depth studies on the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing via modern system biology. They mainly focused on the changes of medicinal properties and efficacy caused by processing using techniques of modern pharmacology and molecular biology, spectrum-efficacy correlation, and biophoton emission. However, these techniques fail to reflect the holistic view of traditional Chinese medicine. With the introduction of system biology, multi-omics techno-logies(genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) have surged, which have been applied to the research on the mec-hanisms of Chinese medicinal processing. These multi-omics technologies have advantages in the research on holism. This study aims to summarize the research techniques and approaches in system biology for mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing in the past 20 years and analyze the limitations and advantages of them. It is concluded that the multi-omics techniques of system biology can reconstruct the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing. This study provides a new direction for further research on the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing.

Improvement in Mechanical Properties of 3D-Printed PEEK Structure by Nonsolvent Vapor Annealing.

The broad applications of 3D-printed poly-ether-ether-ketone (3D-PEEK) structures are largely hampered by their inadequate mechanical properties that can be improved by post treatments. At present, thermal annealing is generally used to improve the mechanical properties of 3D-PEEK. However, it cannot simultaneously improve strength and ductility. Here, a cost-effective postprocessing method is developed to improve the mechanical properties of 3D-PEEK, based on annealing in nonsolvent vapor at room temperature. The annealing in nonsolvent vapor at room temperature simultaneously improves the strength, ductility, and fracture energy of as-printed 3D-PEEK by 22.6%, 151.3%, and 109.1%, respectively. The improved mechanical properties are attributed to enhanced interfacial bonding, increased crystallinity, decreased pinhole defects, and stress relaxation in the 3D-PEEK. Moreover, the annealing in both polar solvents (such as acetone and chloroform) and nonpolar solvents (such as n-hexane) are demonstrated to be effective for improving the mechanical properties of 3D-PEEK. The nonsolvent vapor-annealed 3D-PEEK can thus have potential applications in the fields of medical implants, automotive, aerospace, and more.

Single-layer graphene prevents Cassie-wetting failure of structured hydrophobic surface for efficient condensation.

HYPOTHESIS: Structured hydrophobic surfaces often suffer from Cassie-wetting failure due to trapped water in structure gaps for a long-term operation. Sustainable Cassie-wetting on such surface could be achieved by coating an atom-thick and moisture-impermeable graphene on it. EXPERIMENTS: Water contact angles were measured to clarify the effect of graphene on wetting, and water impermeability was verified by moisture deposition and evaporation. Sliding angle measurements and vapor condensation were carried out to demonstrate the stable Cassie-state wetting and application. FINDINGS: Interestingly we found the graphene does not significantly disrupt the wetting behavior of the structured hydrophobic surface, showing a wettability transparency. Moreover, the impermeability of graphene keeps moisture away from the structure gaps. Owning to the combination of these two properties, droplets on the graphene-coated structured surface exhibit a stable Cassie-state hydrophobic wetting, even under the situation of moisture deposition and evaporation. Using the modified surface, we also found a 40-100% increase in condensation efficiency for a 5-hour vapor condensation at a subcooling of 40 °C. These results suggest an effective strategy to prevent Cassie-wetting failure of structured hydrophobic surface and are expected to promote its further application in more complex conditions.

Twenty years in the 21st century: research approaches and techniques in modern system biology for mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing / 中国中药杂志

Clarifying the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing is pivotal to the modernization of Chinese medicine. Research on Chinese medicinal processing gives priority to the mechanisms of the processing in enhancing efficacy, reducing toxicity, and repurposing medicinals. During the past 20 years, scholars have carried out in-depth studies on the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing via modern system biology. They mainly focused on the changes of medicinal properties and efficacy caused by processing using techniques of modern pharmacology and molecular biology, spectrum-efficacy correlation, and biophoton emission. However, these techniques fail to reflect the holistic view of traditional Chinese medicine. With the introduction of system biology, multi-omics techno-logies(genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics) have surged, which have been applied to the research on the mec-hanisms of Chinese medicinal processing. These multi-omics technologies have advantages in the research on holism. This study aims to summarize the research techniques and approaches in system biology for mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing in the past 20 years and analyze the limitations and advantages of them. It is concluded that the multi-omics techniques of system biology can reconstruct the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing. This study provides a new direction for further research on the mechanisms of Chinese medicinal processing.