A bowl-shaped phosphangulene-protected cubic Cu58 nanocluster.

A bowl-shaped phosphangulene-protected cubic Cu58 nanocluster has been synthesized. The structure was determined by X-ray crystallography and further analyzed by multiple techniques. The phosphangulenes not only enable ligand substitutions with triphenylphosphines in a cluster-to-cluster transformation way, but also facilitate inter-cluster interactions with fullerenes. These interactions further influence the entirety's photocurrent response and ability to liberate hydrogen when stimulated by light.

Mild Synthesis of Polychlorinated Arenes for Efficient Organic Light-emitting Diodes with Dual Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence.

Polychlorinated (hetero)arenes have shown great promise for organic optoelectronics applications. However, the harsh synthetic routes for polychlorinated compounds and the possible luminescence quenching from the compact intermolecular π-π stacking induced by chlorine atoms limit their investigations and applications in luminescent materials. Herein, two isomeric polychlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds JY-1-Cl and JY-2-Cl consisting of rigidified aryl ketones and amine are designed and synthesized under mild conditions through nucleophilic chlorination intermediated by an electron donor-acceptor complex. Among them, as a result of the strong π-π interactions induced by chlorine atoms, JY-2-Cl exhibits bright monomer and dimer emissions with dual thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) characters. Notably, compared with the non-chlorinated compounds, a high photoluminescence quantum yield is maintained after introducing multiple chlorine atoms into JY-2-Cl. The first dual-TADF organic light-emitting diodes are also successfully fabricated with maximum external quantum efficiency as high as 29.1 % by employing JY-2-Cl as emitter. This work presents a new paradigm and synthesis of polychlorinated amine-carbonyl PAHs and demonstrates the great potential of the chlorinated materials for luminescent applications.

Tunable metasurface for independent controlling radar stealth properties via geometric and propagation phase modulation.

Metasurfaces have been verified as an ideal way to control electromagnetic waves within an optically thin interface. In this paper, a design method of a tunable metasurface integrated with vanadium dioxide (VO2) is proposed to realize independent control of geometric and propagation phase modulation. The reversible conversion of VO2 between insulator phase and metal phase can be realized by controlling the ambient temperature, which enables the metasurface to be switched quickly between split-ring and double-ring structures. The phase characteristics of 2-bit coding units and the electromagnetic scattering characteristics of arrays composed of different arrangements are analyzed in detail, which confirms the independence of geometric and propagation phase modulation in the tunable metasurface. The experimental results demonstrate that the fabricated regular array and random array samples have different broadband low reflection frequency bands before and after the phase transition of VO2, and the 10 dB reflectivity reduction bands can be switched quickly between C/X and Ku bands, which are in good agreement with the numerical simulation. This method realizes the switching function of metasurface modulation mode by controlling the ambient temperature, which provides a flexible and feasible idea for the design and fabrication of stealth metasurfaces.

Chemical doping of unsubstituted perylene diimide to create radical anions with enhanced stability and tunable photothermal conversion efficiency.

N-doping of perylene diimides (PDIs) to create stable radical anions is significant for harvesting photothermal energy due to their intensive absorption in the near-infrared (NIR) region and non-fluorescence. In this work, a facile and straightforward method has been developed to control the doping of perylene diimide to create radical anions using organic polymer polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a dopant. It was demonstrated that PEI is an effective polymer-reducing agent for the n-doping of PDI toward the controllable generation of radical anions. In addition to the doping process, PEI could suppress the self-assembly aggregation and improve the stability of PDI radical anions. Tunable NIR photothermal conversion efficiency (maximum 47.9%) was also obtained from the radical-anion-rich PDI-PEI composites. This research provides a new strategy to tune the doping level of unsubstituted semiconductor molecules for varying yields of radical anions, suppressing aggregation, improving stability, and obtaining the highest radical anion-based performance.

Isomeric thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters for highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes.

The isomeric strategy is an important design concept in molecular design that has a non-negligible influence on molecular properties. Herein, two isomeric thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters (NTPZ and TNPZ) are constructed with the same skeleton consisting of an electron donor and electron acceptor but different connection sites. Systematic investigations show that NTPZ exhibits a small energy gap, large up-conversion efficiency, low non-radiative decay, and high photoluminescence quantum yield. Further theoretical simulations reveal that the excited molecular vibrations play a key role in regulating the non-radiative decays of the isomers. Therefore, an NTPZ based OLED achieves better electroluminescence performances, such as a higher external quantum efficiency of 27.5% compared to a TNPZ based OLED (18.3%). This isomeric strategy not only provides an opportunity to deeply understand the relationship between substituent locations and molecular properties, but also affords a simple and effective strategy to enrich TADF materials.

Asymmetric Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitter for Highly Efficient Red/Near-Infrared Organic Light-Emitting Diodes.

Developing highly efficient red/near-infrared thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials is of great importance for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Here, we reported an asymmetric TADF emitter (TCPQ), which exhibits a high reverse intersystem crossing rate as well as a low non-radiative rate due to molecular symmetry breaking through multiple donor substitution. The coexistence of multiple donors endows TCPQ with not only near-infrared emission but also excellent device performances. As for the TCPQ-based OLEDs, the 10 and 20 wt % doped devices exhibit outstanding external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of 21.9 and 19.2% with red emission peaks at 612 and 642 nm, respectively. Meanwhile, the non-doped device achieves an EQE of 5.4% with an emission peak at 718 nm, showing near-infrared emission. These device efficiencies are among the best performances of red/near-infrared TADF-OLEDs, demonstrating that the asymmetry design is a potential strategy for constructing long wavelength TADF materials with high efficiency.

Conceptual radar trap model realized via polarization conversion metasurface.

General metasurfaces (MSs) can realize low observability of radar by manipulating the polarization mode and transmission direction of the electromagnetic (EM) waves. Here, we propose the radar trap model to realize EM wave imprisonment. This three-layer model is composed of the transmission polarization converter, the connected dielectric substrate and the reflection polarization converter. Using Jones calculation as a guide, we optimized the geometric parameters of the upper and lower layers to realize specific polarization conversion functions. The middle layer is regarded as the support and matching layer. On this basis, the combined radar trap model can realize the imprisonment of EM waves between upper and lower layers, which is attributed to the cooperative effect of asymmetric transmission and polarization conversion. We further verified the feasibility and correctness of our investigations through two kinds of model designs based on linear and circular polarization conversion mechanisms. Good agreements are observed between simulation and experiment. Even though the design presents a narrow operating bandwidth, it still provides novel ideas for developing radar stealth technology.

Service humanoid robotics: a novel interactive system based on bionic-companionship framework.

At present, industrial robotics focuses more on motion control and vision, whereas humanoid service robotics (HSRs) are increasingly being investigated and researched in the field of speech interaction. The problem and quality of human-robot interaction (HRI) has become a widely debated topic in academia. Especially when HSRs are applied in the hospitality industry, some researchers believe that the current HRI model is not well adapted to the complex social environment. HSRs generally lack the ability to accurately recognize human intentions and understand social scenarios. This study proposes a novel interactive framework suitable for HSRs. The proposed framework is grounded on the novel integration of Trevarthen's (2001) companionship theory and neural image captioning (NIC) generation algorithm. By integrating image-to-natural interactivity generation and communicating with the environment to better interact with the stakeholder, thereby changing from interaction to a bionic-companionship. Compared to previous research a novel interactive system is developed based on the bionic-companionship framework. The humanoid service robot was integrated with the system to conduct preliminary tests. The results show that the interactive system based on the bionic-companionship framework can help the service humanoid robot to effectively respond to changes in the interactive environment, for example give different responses to the same character in different scenes.

The Potential Value of Targeting Ferroptosis in Early Brain Injury After Acute CNS Disease.

Acute central nervous system (CNS) disease is very common and with high mortality. Many basic studies have confirmed the molecular mechanism of early brain injury (EBI) after acute CNS disease. Neuron death and dysfunction are important reasons for the neurological dysfunction in patients with acute CNS disease. Ferroptosis is a nonapoptotic form of cell death, the classical characteristic of which is based on the iron-dependent accumulation of toxic lipid reactive oxygen species. Previous studies have indicated that this mechanism is critical in the cell death events observed in many diseases, including cancer, tumor resistance, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Ferroptosis may also play a very important role in EBI after acute CNS disease. Unresolved issues include the relationship between ferroptosis and other forms of cell death after acute CNS disease, the specific molecular mechanisms of EBI, the strategies to activate or inhibit ferroptosis to achieve desirable attenuation of EBI, and the need to find new molecular markers of ferroptosis that can be used to detect and study this process in vivo after acute CNS disease.

Relationship between birth weight and chronic kidney disease: evidence from systematics review and two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.

Observational studies showed an inverse association between birth weight and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adulthood existed. However, whether such an association is causal remains fully elusive. Moreover, none of prior studies distinguished the direct fetal effect from the indirect maternal effect. Herein, we aimed to investigate the causal relationship between birth weight and CKD and to understand the relative fetal and maternal contributions. Meta-analysis (n = ~22 million) showed that low birth weight led to ~83% (95% confidence interval [CI] 37-146%) higher risk of CKD in late life. With summary statistics from large scale GWASs (n = ~300 000 for birth weight and ~481 000 for CKD), linkage disequilibrium score regression demonstrated birth weight had a negative maternal, but not fetal, genetic correlation with CKD and several other kidney-function related phenotypes. Furthermore, with multiple instruments of birth weight, Mendelian randomization showed there existed a negative fetal casual association (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.01-1.16) between birth weight and CKD; a negative but non-significant maternal casual association (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 0.98-1.21) was also identified. Those associations were robust against various sensitivity analyses. However, no maternal/fetal casual effects of birth weight were significant for other kidney-function related phenotypes. Overall, our study confirmed the inverse association between birth weight and CKD observed in prior studies, and further revealed the shared maternal genetic foundation between low birth weight and CKD, and the direct fetal and indirect maternal causal effects of birth weight may commonly drive this negative relationship.

Comparative study of three different combination surgical methods for recurrent patella dislocation.

PURPOSE: The effects of different combination of surgical techniques for recurrent patella dislocation (RPD) remain unclear. Thus, aim of this study was to investigate the surgical outcomes of different combination of surgical techniques for RPD. METHODS: The clinical data of 79 patients with RPD from August 2014 to October 2016 were analysed retrospectively. Knee joint was assessed according to measurements of the congruence angle (CA), patellar tilt angle (PTA) and lateral patellofemoral angle (LPFA). Knee function was evaluated by Kujala patellofemoral score, Lysholm knee score and Tegner score. Patients were followed up by out-patient examination and telephone till October 2018. RESULTS: Preoperative clinical characteristics were similar across groups. It was statistically insignificant among three groups in CA, PTA, LPFA and redislocation rate. In term of knee functions, the MPFL reconstruction and LPR release group had the highest score (Lysholm score: 91.82 ± 4.64, Kujala score: 94.22 ± 4.26, Tegner score: 5.80 ± 1.00, respectively) and the LPR release and MPR plication had the lowest score (Lysholm score: 78.10 ± 6.90, Kujala score: 80.91 ± 4.30, Tegner score: 4.98 ± 1.22, respectively). CONCLUSION: Three combinations of surgical methods were similar in terms of postoperative joint congruence and redislocation rate, but MPFL reconstruction combined with LPR release is worthy to be promoted with the highest knee function scores.

Mutations in COL1A1 Gene Change Dentin Nanostructure.

Although many studies have attempted to associate specific gene mutations with dentin phenotypic severity, it remains unknown how the mutations in COL1A1 gene influence the mechanical behavior of dentin collagen and matrix. Here, we reported one osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) pedigree caused by two new inserting mutations in exon 5 of COL1A1 (NM_000088.3:c.440_441insT;c.441_442insA), which resulted in the unstable expression of COL1A1 mRNA and half quantity of procollagen production. We investigated the morphological and mechanical features of proband's dentin using atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscope. Increased D-periodic spacing, variably enlarged collagen fibrils coating with fewer minerals were found in the mutated collagen. AFM analysis demonstrated rougher dentin surface and sparsely decreased Young's modulus in proband's dentin. We believe that our findings provide new insights into the genetic-/nano- mechanisms of dentin diseases, and may well explain OI dentin features with reduced mechanical strength and a lower crosslinked density.

Functional neovascularization in tissue engineering with porcine acellular dermal matrix and human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Endothelial cells-matrix interactions play an important role in promoting and controlling network formation. In this study, porcine acellular dermal matrix (PADM) was used to guide human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) adhesion and proliferation as a potential system for vascularization of engineered tissues. We fabricated PADM using a modified protocol and assessed their composition and ultrastructures. Subsequently, the viability of HUVECs and the formation of capillary-like networks were evaluated by seeding cells directly on PADM scaffolds or PADM digests in vitro. We further investigated the function of the HUVECs seeded on the PADM scaffolds after subcutaneous transplantation in athymic mice. Moreover, the function of the neovessels formed in the PADM scaffolds was assessed by implantation into cutaneous wounds on the backs of mice. The results showed that PADM scaffolds significantly increased proliferation of HUVECs, and the PADM digest induced HUVECs formed many tube-like structures. Moreover, HUVECs seeded on the PADM scaffolds formed numerous capillary-like networks and some perfused vascular structures after implantation into mice. PADM seeded with HUVECs and fibroblasts were also able to form many capillary-like networks in vitro. Further, these neovessels could inosculate with the murine vasculature after implantation into cutaneous wounds in mice. The advantage of this method is that the decellularized matrix not only provides signals to maintain the viability of endothelial cells but also serves as the template structure for regenerated tissue. These findings indicate that PADM seeded with HUVECs may be a potential system for successful engineering of large, thick, and complex tissues.

Multifunctional implantable particles for skin tissue regeneration: preparation, characterization, in vitro and in vivo studies.

The transplantation of cell-polymer constructs has been developed as a novel approach to curing tissue defects. However, a number of methodological problems remain to be solved, including the loss of a proper cellular milieu, the relatively long period of culture time and the complexity of the application. The aim of the present article is to evaluate the feasibility of porous gelatin-based implantable particles as a novel strategy for delivery of cultured cells and bioactive molecules to correct dermal defects. For this purpose, implantable porous gelatin particles (100-230 microm) encapsulating proliferative growth factors were prepared and characterized, and their influence on fibroblasts was assessed. In vivo examinations were undertaken to observe guided dermal tissue regeneration after the transplantation of the implantable particles. Our results indicate the feasibility of transplanting multifunctional implantable particles as a culture substrate, as a protein transplantation vehicle or as a biodegradable implant for skin regeneration, thus giving an indication of the possible applications in tissue engineering.

Pathological characteristics of gastric leiomyoblastoma.

AIM: To determine the pathological characteristics of gastric leiomyoblastoma. METHODS: All tissues were obtained during surgery or gastroscopy. Tissue specimens for examination by light microscope were 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm in size, fixed in 40 g/L neutral buffered formaldehyde, embedded in paraffin, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The fresh tissues obtained for electron microscopy were 1 mm x 1 mm x 1 mm in size, and fixed in phosphate buffered 30 g/L glutaraldehyde, postfixed in 10 g/L osmium tetroxide and dehydrated in graded alcohol, embebbed in Epon 812. Ultrathin sections of 50 nm were stained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and examined under a JEM-2000 EX transmission electron microscope. RESULTS: The most important histopathological feature of leiomyoblastoma was the predominance of large, rounded or polygonal cells with characteristic perinuclear clear zone in cytoplasms. The tumor cells arranged in patch, cell junction or junctional complex could be found occasionally between cells under electron microscope. Most of the neoplastic cytoplasms were filled with myofilaments, dense bodies, and dense patches. Rough endoplasmic reticulum dilatated as lakes, and large quantities of protein secretions of intermediate electron density were found in the dilated cisternae. Intracisternal segregation could also be found. The nuclei were round or oval, and anomalous nuclei were found in part of cells. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of gastric leiomyoblastoma can be confirmed by electron microscopy. The clear appearance of tumor cells is due to the dilation of rough endoplasmic reticulum, not fat droplets, glycogens or mucus in cytoplasm.

[Effects of collagen I coating on the porous poly-lactide-co-glycolid on adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of collagen I on the adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of MSCs on PLGA. METHODS: Collagen I was added onto the surface of pores in pieces of 3-D porous poly-lactide-co-glycolid (PLGA). Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were obtained from New Zealand rabbits and were cultured for 3 generations, inoculated into the pores of PLGA pieces with the volume of 0.3 cm x 1.2 cm x 2.0 cm, and then cultured in solution with [(3)H]-thymidine deoxyribose (TdR). PLGA pieces not coated by collagen I were used as controls. The incorporation rate of [(3)H]-TdR was detected 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours, and 7, 14, and 21 days after culture, shown in count per minute (CPM) value, to determine the adhesion and proliferation of the MSCs. RT-POCR was used to examine the expressions of mRNA of the osteoblast markers: osteocalcin (OCN), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and osteopontin (OPN). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of MSCs. RESULTS: The CPM value since 6 hours after culture between the experimental group and control group began to be significantly different (both P < 0.05) The CPM values 7, 14, and 21 days after culture between the experimental group and control groups (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). OCN, ALP, and OPN mRNA were expressed in MSCs of the experimental group and only ALP mRNA was weakly expressed in the control group. SEM showed the distribution of spindle and polygonal cells in the pores of the 3-D PLGA pieces and distribution of cylindrical or round cells in the control group. CONCLUSION: Collagen I is effective in promoting the adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of MSCs on PLGA.