A Bulk Oxygen Vacancy Dominating WO3-x Photocatalyst for Carbamazepine Degradation.

Creating oxygen vacancy in tungsten trioxide (WO3) has been considered as an effective strategy to improve the photocatalytic performance for degrading organic pollutants. In this study, oxygen vacancies were introduced into WO3 by thermal treatment under Ar atmosphere and their proportion was changed by setting different treatment times. WO3-x samples show better photoelectric properties and photocatalytic degradation performance for carbamazepine (CBZ) than an oxygen-vacancy-free sample, and WO3-x with the optimal proportion of oxygen vacancies is obtained by thermal treatment for 3 h in 550 °C. Furthermore, it discovers that the surface oxygen vacancies on WO3-x would be recovered when it is exposed to air, resulting in a bulk oxygen vacancy dominating WO3-x (bulk-WO3-x). The bulk-WO3-x exhibited much higher degradation efficiency for CBZ than WO3-x with both surface and bulk oxygen vacancies. The mechanism study shows bulk-WO3-x mainly degrades the CBZ by producing OH radicals and superoxide radicals, while oxygen-vacancy-free sample mainly oxidizes the CBZ by the photoexcited hole, which requires the CBZ to be adsorbed on the surface for degradation. The radical generated by bulk-WO3-x exhibits stronger oxidizing capacity by migrating to the solution for CBZ degradation. In summary, the influence of oxygen vacancy on photocatalytic degradation performance depends on both the proportion and location distribution and could lie in the optimization of the photodegradation mechanism. The results of this study could potentially broaden our understanding of the role of oxygen vacancies and provide optimal directions and methods for oxygen vacancy regulation for photocatalysts.

Ultrasensitive Graphene Field-Effect Biosensors Based on Ferroelectric Polarization of Lithium Niobate for Breast Cancer Marker Detection.

Herein, we present a novel ultrasensitive graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) biosensor based on lithium niobate (LiNbO3) ferroelectric substrate for the application of breast cancer marker detection. The electrical properties of graphene are varied under the electrostatic field, which is generated through the spontaneous polarization of the ferroelectric substrate. It is demonstrated that the properties of interface between graphene and solution are also altered due to the interaction between the electrostatic field and ions. Compared with the graphene field-effect biosensor based on the conventional Si/SiO2 gate structure, our biosensor achieves a higher sensitivity to 64.7 mV/decade and shows a limit of detection down to 1.7 fM (equivalent to 12 fg·mL-1) on the detection of microRNA21 (a breast cancer marker). This innovative design combining GFETs with ferroelectric substrates holds great promise for developing an ultrahigh-sensitivity biosensing platform based on graphene that enables rapid and early disease diagnosis.

Research Progress on the Geomechanical Properties of Block-in-Matrix Rocks.

The differences in geomechanical properties and the uncertainty in the spatial distribution of Bimrock pose significant challenges to the construction and disaster prediction of geotechnical engineering. To clarify the geomechanical characteristics of Bimrock, this paper summarizes the basic concepts and classification methods of Bimrock at home and abroad. It discusses the methods and characteristics of determining the geometric features of Bimrock blocks and explores the influencing factors and laws of failure modes and strength under different stress states of Bimrock. The study finds that the failure mode of Bimrock is mainly influenced by factors such as block proportion, degree of welding between blocks and matrix, strength ratio between blocks and matrix, and geometric properties of blocks. Among these factors, block proportion is the most significant, and the degree of welding is a controlling factor. However, due to the complexity of Bimrock structures, there is a lack of applicable methods and mechanical models for the evaluation of geomechanical characteristics of Bimrock in engineering practice. This article also explores the influence and research methods of the geological characteristics of Bimrock in slope and tunnel engineering and, finally, provides prospects for the future research trends relating to Bimrock.

Mediated Social Touch With Mobile Devices: A Review of Designs and Evaluations.

BACKGROUND: Mediated social touch has been widely studied for remote affective communication in the field of human-computer interaction. GOAL: We conducted this literature review to comprehensively understand the state of the art of the designs and evaluations of mediated social touch for mobile devices. METHOD: We selected 52 articles based on related keywords from four main digital libraries, i.e., ACM, IEEE, Springer, and Scopus. RESULTS: We summarized from these articles how mediated social touch signal is designed, prototyped, and evaluated, and what the main research findings are. Based on the analysis, we identified opportunities for later work.

Investigation and verification of GIMAP6 as a robust biomarker for prognosis and tumor immunity in lung adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: According to previous reports, GTPase of immunity-associated protein 6 (GIMAP6) is essential for autophagy. However, it is unclear how GIMAP6 affects the development and tumor immunity of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). METHODS: In the present study, the role of GIMAP6 in vivo and in vitro was examined using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, western blotting, and Cell Counting Kit-8, colony formation and Transwell assays. Datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression databases were thoroughly analyzed using R software. A nomogram was created using GIMAP6 and prognostic characteristics. Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis were applied to explore the potential mechanism of GIMAP6 in lung cancer. The link between GIMAP6 and the immunological landscape was studied using single-cell RNA sequencing datasets from Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) 2.0 and Tumor Immune Single-cell Hub. RESULTS: Patients with high GIMAP6 expression had improved overall and disease-specific survival compared with those patients with low GIMAP6 expression. According to the receiver operating characteristic and calibration curve, the nomogram based on T stage, N stage and GIMAP6 had predictive value for prognosis. According to functional enrichment analysis, GIMAP6 was primarily involved in T-cell receptor signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, cytokine and cytokine receptor interaction. GIMAP6 was shown to be favorably linked with the infiltration of immune cells and immune-related molecules, including cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4, programmed death-ligand 1, and T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains, by single-cell sequencing and TIMER2.0 analysis. The role of GIMAP6 in lung cancer cell proliferation, invasion, migration and immunity was experimentally verified. CONCLUSION: These findings confirmed that GIMAP6 was an effective prognostic molecule that was involved in the regulation of the immune microenvironment of LUAD, and may become a predictor for the efficacy of immunotherapy.

Ultrasensitive Silicon Nanowire Biosensor with Modulated Threshold Voltages and Ultra-Small Diameter for Early Kidney Failure Biomarker Cystatin C.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequently occurring severe disease with high mortality. Cystatin C (Cys-C), as a biomarker of early kidney failure, can be used to detect and prevent acute renal injury. In this paper, a biosensor based on a silicon nanowire field-effect transistor (SiNW FET) was studied for the quantitative detection of Cys-C. Based on the spacer image transfer (SIT) processes and channel doping optimization for higher sensitivity, a wafer-scale, highly controllable SiNW FET was designed and fabricated with a 13.5 nm SiNW. In order to improve the specificity, Cys-C antibodies were modified on the oxide layer of the SiNW surface by oxygen plasma treatment and silanization. Furthermore, a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel was involved in improving the effectiveness and stability of detection. The experimental results show that the SiNW FET sensors realize the lower limit of detection (LOD) of 0.25 ag/mL and have a good linear correlation in the range of Cys-C concentration from 1 ag/mL to 10 pg/mL, exhibiting its great potential in the future real-time application.

A novel pyroptosis-related prognostic signature for lung adenocarcinoma: Identification and multi-angle verification.

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is an aggressive disease of heterogeneous characteristics with poor prognosis and high mortality. Pyroptosis, a newly uncovered type of programmed cell death with an inflammatory nature, has been determined to hold substantial importance in the progression of tumors. Despite this, the knowledge about pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) in LUAD is limited. This study aimed to develop and validate a prognostic signature for LUAD based on PRGs. Methods: In this research, gene expression information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) served as the training cohort and data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) was utilized as the validation cohort. PRGs list was taken from the Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB) and previous studies. Univariate Cox regression and Lasso analysis were then conducted to identify prognostic PRGs and develop a LUAD prognostic signature. The Kaplan-Meier method, univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were employed to assess the independent prognostic value and forecasting accuracy of the pyroptosis-related prognostic signature. The correlation between prognostic signature and immune infiltrating was analyzed to examine the role in tumor diagnosis and immunotherapy. Further, RNA-seq as well as quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis in separate data sets was applied in order to validate the potential biomarkers for LUAD. Results: A novel prognostic signature based on 8 PRGs (BAK1, CHMP2A, CYCS, IL1A, CASP9, NLRC4, NLRP1, and NOD1) was established to predict the survival of LUAD. The prognostic signature proved to be an independent prognostic factor of LUAD with satisfactory sensitivity and specificity in the training and validation sets. High-risk scores subgroups in the prognostic signature were significantly associated with advanced tumor stage, poor prognosis, less immune cell infiltration, and immune function deficiency. RNA sequencing and qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that the expression of CHMP2A and NLRC4 could be used as biomarkers for LUAD. Conclusion: We have successfully developed a prognostic signature consisting of eight PRGs that providing a novel perspective on predicting prognosis, assessing infiltration levels of tumor immune cells, and determining the outcomes of immunotherapy for LUAD.

Polyethylene Glycol Functionalized Silicon Nanowire Field-Effect Transistor Biosensor for Glucose Detection.

Accurate monitoring of blood glucose levels is crucial for the diagnosis of diabetes patients. In this paper, we proposed a simple "mixed-catalyzer layer" modified silicon nanowire field-effect transistor biosensor that enabled direct detection of glucose with low-charge in high ionic strength solutions. A stable screening system was established to overcome Debye screening effect by forming a porous biopolymer layer with polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified on the surface of SiNW. The experimental results show that when the optimal ratio (APTMS:silane-PEG = 2:1) modified the surface of silicon nanowires, glucose oxidase can detect glucose in the concentration range of 10 nM to 10 mM. The sensitivity of the biosensor is calculated to be 0.47 µAcm-2mM-1, its fast response time not exceeding 8 s, and the detection limit is up to 10 nM. This glucose sensor has the advantages of high sensitivity, strong specificity and fast real-time response. Therefore, it has a potential clinical application prospect in disease diagnosis.

Pan-cancer analysis of the prognostic and immunological role of nucleophosmin/nucleoplasmin 3 (NPM3) and its potential significance in lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: Nucleophosmin/nucleoplasmin 3 (NPM3), a member of the NPM protein family, is widely expressed in various human tissues. Although previous studies identified elevated NPM3 expression in several cancers, a systematic pan-cancer analysis remains lacking. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of NPM3 to determine its role in tumorigenesis and tumor development. Methods: Using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and various bioinformatics analysis tools, we conducted a pan-cancer analysis of NPM3. Additionally, we collected gene expression and clinical data from 890 patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) from TCGA and the Gene Expression Omnibus database. We performed Cox regression analyses to explore the independent prognostic value of NPM3 expression in LUAD and plotted a nomogram to predict patient survival. We also used real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) to examine the expression levels of NPM3 in seven pairs of LUAD and paraneoplastic tissue samples. Results: NPM3 expression was significantly increased in 20 types of cancer and was associated with poor prognosis in five types (P < 0.05). NPM3 expression was negatively correlated with DNA methylation and positively correlated with copy number variation. NPM3 was also significantly associated with immune cell infiltration in various cancers. Cox regression analyses revealed that NPM3 expression could serve as an independent prognostic marker of LUAD. Moreover, our nomogram demonstrated good predictive ability for the prognosis of patients with LUAD. Finally, the high expression of NPM3 in LUAD was verified using RT-qPCR. Conclusion: NPM3 is a promising biomarker for predicting pan-cancer prognosis and immunotherapeutic efficacy.

An All-Dielectric Metamaterial Terahertz Biosensor for Cytokine Detection.

In this paper, we report an all-dielectric metamaterial terahertz biosensor, which exhibits a high Q factor of 35 at an 0.82 resonance peak. A structure with an electromagnetically induced transparency effect was designed and fabricated to perform a Mie resonance for the terahertz response. The biosensor exhibits a limit of detection of 100 pg/mL for cytokine interleukin 2 (IL-2) and a linear response for the logarithm of the concentration of IL-2 in the range of 100 pg/mL to 1 µg/mL. This study implicates an important potential for the detection of cytokines in serum and has potential application in the clinical detection of cytokine release syndrome.

Identification of prognostic factors and nomogram model for patients with advanced lung cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background and aim: Some patients with lung cancer can benefit from immunotherapy, but the biomarkers that predict immunotherapy response were not well defined. Baseline characteristic of patients may be the most convenient and effective markers. Therefore, our study was designed to explore the association between baseline characteristics of patients with lung cancer and the efficacy of immunotherapy. Methods: A total of 216 lung cancer patients from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital who received immunotherapy between 2017 and 2021 were included in the retrospective analysis. All baseline characteristic data were collected and then univariate log-rank analysis and multivariate COX regression analysis were performed. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to evaluate patients' progression-free survival (PFS). A nomogram based on significant biomarkers was constructed to predict PFS rate of patients receiving immunotherapy. We evaluated the prediction accuracy of nomogram using C-indices and calibration curves. Results: Univariate analysis of all collected baseline factors showed that age, clinical stage, white blood cell (WBC), lymphocyte (LYM), monocyte (MON), eosinophils (AEC), hemoglobin (HB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), albumin (ALB) and treatment line were significantly associated with PFS after immunotherapy. Then these 10 risk factors were included in a multivariate regression analysis, which indicated that age (HR: 1.95, 95% CI [1.01-3.78], P = 0.048), MON (HR: 1.74, 95% CI [1.07-2.81], P = 0.025), LDH (HR: 0.59, 95% CI [0.36-0.95], P = 0.030), and line (HR: 0.57, 95% CI [0.35-0.94], P = 0.026) were significantly associated with PFS in patients with lung cancer receiving immunotherapy. Patients with higher ALB showed a greater trend of benefit compared with patients with lower ALB (HR: 1.58, 95% CI [0.94-2.66], P = 0.084). Patients aged ≥51 years, with high ALB, low LDH, first-line immunotherapy, and high MON had better response rates and clinical benefits. The nomogram based on age, ALB, MON, LDH, line was established to predict the prognosis of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI). The C-index of training cohort and validation cohort were close, 0.71 and 0.75, respectively. The fitting degree of calibration curve was high, which confirmed the high prediction value of our nomogram. Conclusion: Age, ALB, MON, LDH, line can be used as reliable predictive biomarkers for PFS, response rate and cancer control in patients with lung cancer receiving immunotherapy. The nomogram based on age, ALB, MON, LDH, line was of great significance for predicting 1-year-PFS, 2-year-PFS and 3-year-PFS in patients with advanced lung cancer treated with immunotherapy.

Acrylamide Hydrogel-Modified Silicon Nanowire Field-Effect Transistors for pH Sensing.

In this study, we report a pH-responsive hydrogel-modified silicon nanowire field-effect transistor for pH sensing, whose modification is operated by spin coating, and whose performance is characterized by the electrical curve of field-effect transistors. The results show that the hydrogel sensor can measure buffer pH in a repeatable and stable manner in the pH range of 3-13, with a high pH sensitivity of 100 mV/pH. It is considered that the swelling of hydrogel occurring in an aqueous solution varies the dielectric properties of acrylamide hydrogels, causing the abrupt increase in the source-drain current. It is believed that the design of the sensor can provide a promising direction for future biosensing applications utilizing the excellent biocompatibility of hydrogels.

Association of pre-existing lung interstitial changes with immune-related pneumonitis in patients with non-small lung cancer receiving immunotherapy.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Many pieces of literature have evaluated the predictive value of pre-existing lung interstitial changes for immunotherapy-related pneumonia in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the results of studies are still controversial. The purpose of this article is to explore whether pre-existing lung interstitial changes can predict the occurrence of immunotherapy-related pneumonia. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase were used to search for relevant documents. Two investigators respectively carried out literature screening, quality evaluation, and data extraction strictly according to the inclusion criteria. Odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% CIs were applied to assess the predictive value of interstitial lung disease (ILD), interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA), and radiation pneumonitis (RP). Stata 12.0 software was used for the statistical analysis of data. RESULTS: Seventeen studies involving 2758 patients were included in the final analysis. NSCLC patients with pulmonary interstitial changes were more likely to develop immune-related pneumonia after immunotherapy (OR = 3.68, 95% CI: 2.49-5.44). Subgroup analysis revealed that ILD (OR = 3.59, 95% CI: 2.22-5.82), RP (OR = 3.63, 95% CI: 1.80-7.30), and ILA (OR = 6.64, 95% CI: 1.78-24.8) were all predictors of immune-related pneumonia. As the preliminary screening of other risk factors, gender, neutrophilic lymphocyte ratio (NLR), actual eosinophil count (AEC), and drug type may have potential predictive value for immunotherapy-related pneumonia. There was no significant statistical heterogeneity and publication bias in our study. Further research is needed to update and validate our results. CONCLUSION: Pulmonary interstitial changes can be considered as a predictive factor of immune-related pneumonia after immunotherapy in NSCLC patients.

Perceived Depth and Roughness of Virtual Buttons With Touchscreens.

With the rapidly increasing penetration of touchscreens in various application sectors, more sophisticated and configurable haptic effects can be rendered on touchscreens (e.g., buttons). In this paper, we presented a design process to instantiate a wide range of vibrotactile stimuli for rendering various virtual buttons on touchscreens. We study the perceived depth and roughness of rendered virtual buttons. There are two stages: the design of the drive signals and the main study. We generated and screened drive signals to render vibrotactile stimuli for virtual buttons through varying envelope shapes, superposition methods, compound waveform composition (CWC) types, durations, and frequencies. The results show that the perceived depth of virtual buttons can be very deep, and the perceived roughness can be very rough around the resonant frequency. Perceived depth and roughness decrease when the frequency increases or decreases from the resonant frequency. A longer duration of vibrotactile stimuli and adding pulse numbers could increase the perceived depth and roughness. Perceived depth and roughness have a similar trend with varying frequencies at a fixed duration.

Design of an AIE-Active Flexible Self-Assembled Monolayer Probe for Trace Nitroaromatic Compound Explosive Detection.

In this work, a series of molecules TPE-PA-n (n = 3-11) were designed with classic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) 1,1,2,2-tetraphenylethene (TPE) for self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), which are applied for the detection of trace nitroaromatic compound (NAC) explosives. Phosphoric acid that acts as an anchor is used to connect with TPE through alkyl chains of various lengths. It is found that the alkyl chains play a role in pulling TPE luminogens to aggregate for light emission, which can affect the fluorescence and sensing performance of the SAMs. Ulteriorly, a model is built to explore the influence of the alkyl chain length on the device performance, which is determined by the three effects of the alkyl chain: flexibility, the coupling effect, and the odd-even effect. By comparison, the functional molecules with the chain length of 8 were finally selected and further applied for NAC sensors. By means of fluorescence spectra, the SAM sensor was proved to have good stability, reversibility, selectivity, and sensitivity, and its detection limits for trinitrotoluene, dinitrotoluene, and nitrobenzene were 1.2, 6.0, and 35.7 ppm, respectively. This work provides new ideas for the design and preparation of flexible sensors for trace NAC detection with high performance, low cost, and easy operation.

Fabrication of Low Cost and Low Temperature Poly-Silicon Nanowire Sensor Arrays for Monolithic Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuits Applications.

In this paper, the poly-Si nanowire (NW) field-effect transistor (FET) sensor arrays were fabricated by adopting low-temperature annealing (600 °C/30 s) and feasible spacer image transfer (SIT) processes for future monolithic three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D-ICs) applications. Compared with other fabrication methods of poly-Si NW sensors, the SIT process exhibits the characteristics of highly uniform poly-Si NW arrays with well-controlled morphology (about 25 nm in width and 35 nm in length). Conventional metal silicide and implantation techniques were introduced to reduce the parasitic resistance of source and drain (SD) and improve the conductivity. Therefore, the obtained sensors exhibit >106 switching ratios and 965 mV/dec subthreshold swing (SS), which exhibits similar results compared with that of SOI Si NW sensors. However, the poly-Si NW FET sensors show the Vth shift as high as about 178 ± 1 mV/pH, which is five times larger than that of the SOI Si NW sensors. The fabricated poly-Si NW sensors with 600 °C/30 s processing temperature and good device performance provide feasibility for future monolithic three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D-IC) applications.

A Gd-doped HfO2 single film for a charge trapping memory device with a large memory window under a low voltage.

In this study, a performance-enhanced charge trapping memory device with a Pt/Gd-doped HfO2/SiO2/Si structure has been investigated, where Gd-doped HfO2 acts as a charge trapping and blocking layer. The device demonstrates a large memory window of 5.4 V under a ±5 V sweeping voltage (360% of the device with pure HfO2), which is extremely attractive in low-power applications. In addition, the device also exhibits good retention characteristics with a 24.5% charge loss after the retention time of 1 × 105 seconds and robust endurance performance with a 1% degradation after 1 × 104 program/erase cycles. It is considered that the high density of defect states and the reduction in the defect energy levels induced by Gd-doping contribute to the performance improvement.

Hypoxia-Targeting Organometallic Ru(II)-Arene Complexes with Enhanced Anticancer Activity in Hypoxic Cancer Cells.

As hypoxia is an important factor to limit chemotherapeutic efficacy in tumors, we herein report three ruthenium(II)-arene complexes containing a hypoxia inducible factor-1α inhibitor (YC-1), which endow the organometallic complexes with potential for hypoxia targeting. In vitro tests showed the resulting complexes had higher anticancer activities in hypoxia than in normoxia against the tested cancer cell lines. Western blot analysis revealed that complexes 1-3 blocked HIF-1α protein accumulation under hypoxic conditions. Moreover, these complexes displayed much less cytotoxicity toward the normal human umbilical vein endothelial cell line (HUVEC), indicating that complexes 1-3 may be selectively cytotoxic for human cancer cell lines. These findings proved that ligation with YC-1 endowed these organometallic ruthenium(II) complexes with potential for hypoxia targeting in addition to enhancing their anticancer activities.

Wettability alteration in a functional capillary tube for visual quantitative point of care testing.

Capillarity is an extremely common physical-chemical phenomenon related to wettability in nature, which has wide theoretical and practical interest. Herein, we reported a facile sensing device based on capillary force change in a vertical capillary tube. In this height-based capillary sensor (HCS), the inner surface of the capillary tube was modified with a layer of molecules with wetting responsibility based on the well-known simple surface chemistry. With targets in different concentrations, the wettability of the surface modified with responsive molecules would produce different changes. The responsive surfaces would change the capillary force of the vertical capillary tube, and result in different column heights. Like a thermometer, H+ and phenol have been quantified visually based on the height of the liquid inside the capillary tube.

Candle Soot Coating for Latent Fingermark Enhancement on Various Surfaces.

We demonstrate a facile method termed candle soot coating (CSC) for fast developing latent fingermarks (LFMs) on various kinds of surfaces (glass, ceramic, metal, paper and adhesive tape). The CSC method can be considered as simple, fast, and low-cost as well as providing high contrast for LFM visualization in potential forensic applications.