Association between frailty and acute kidney injury after cardiac surgery: unraveling the moderation effect of body fat through an international, retrospective, multi-cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common and serious complication after cardiac surgery that significantly affects patient outcomes. Given the limited treatment options available, identifying modifiable risk factors is critical. Frailty and obesity, two heterogeneous physiological states, have significant implications for identifying and preventing AKI. Our study investigated the interplay among frailty, body composition, and AKI risk after cardiac surgery to inform patient management strategies. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included three international cohorts. Primary analysis was conducted in adult patients who underwent cardiac surgery between 2014 and 2019 at Wuhan XX Hospital, China. We tested the generalizability of our findings with data from two independent international cohorts, the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) and the eICU Collaborative Research Database. Frailty was assessed using a clinical lab-based frailty index (FI-LAB), while total body fat percentage (BF%) was calculated based on a formula accounting for BMI, sex, and age. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the associations between frailty, body fat, and AKI, adjusting for pertinent covariates. RESULTS: A total of 8785 patients across three international cohorts were included in the study. In the primary analysis of 3,569 patients from Wuhan XX Hospital, moderate and severe frailty were associated with an increased AKI risk after cardiac surgery. Moreover, a nonlinear relationship was observed between body fat percentage and AKI risk. When stratified by the degree of frailty, lower body fat correlated with a decreased incidence of AKI. Extended analyses using the MIMIC-IV and eICU cohorts (n=3,951 and n=1,265, respectively) validated these findings and demonstrated that a lower total BF% was associated with decreased AKI incidence. Moderation analysis revealed that the effect of frailty on AKI risk was moderated by the body fat percentage. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated results consistent with the main analyses. CONCLUSION: Higher degrees of frailty were associated with an elevated risk of AKI following cardiac surgery, and total BF% moderated this relationship. This research underscores the significance of integrating frailty and body fat assessments into routine cardiovascular care to identify high-risk patients for AKI and implement personalized interventions to improve patient outcomes.

Control of Hybrid Exciton Lifetime in MoSe2/WS2 Moiré Heterostructures.

Hybrid excitons, characterized by their strong oscillation strength and long lifetimes, hold great potential as information carriers in semiconductors. They offer promising applications in exciton-based devices and circuits. MoSe2/WS2 heterostructures represent an ideal platform for studying hybrid excitons, but how to regulate the exciton lifetime has not yet been explored. In this study, layer hybridization is modulated by applying electric fields parallel or antiparallel to the dipole moment, enabling us to regulate the exciton lifetime from 1.36 to 4.60 ns. Furthermore, the time-resolved photoluminescence decay traces are measured at different excitation power. A hybrid exciton annihilation rate of 8.9 × 10-4 cm2 s-1 is obtained by fitting. This work reveals the effects of electric fields and excitation power on the lifetime of hybrid excitons in MoSe2/WS2 1.5° moiré heterostructures, which play important roles in high photoluminescence quantum yield optoelectronic devices based on transition-metal dichalcogenides heterostructures.

Tagging large CNV blocks in wheat boosts digitalization of germplasm resources by ultra-low-coverage sequencing.

BACKGROUND: The massive structural variations and frequent introgression highly contribute to the genetic diversity of wheat, while the huge and complex genome of polyploid wheat hinders efficient genotyping of abundant varieties towards accurate identification, management, and exploitation of germplasm resources. RESULTS: We develop a novel workflow that identifies 1240 high-quality large copy number variation blocks (CNVb) in wheat at the pan-genome level, demonstrating that CNVb can serve as an ideal DNA fingerprinting marker for discriminating massive varieties, with the accuracy validated by PCR assay. We then construct a digitalized genotyping CNVb map across 1599 global wheat accessions. Key CNVb markers are linked with trait-associated introgressions, such as the 1RS·1BL translocation and 2NvS translocation, and the beneficial alleles, such as the end-use quality allele Glu-D1d (Dx5 + Dy10) and the semi-dwarf r-e-z allele. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these tagged CNVb markers promote a stable and cost-effective strategy for evaluating wheat germplasm resources with ultra-low-coverage sequencing data, competing with SNP array for applications such as evaluating new varieties, efficient management of collections in gene banks, and describing wheat germplasm resources in a digitalized manner. We also develop a user-friendly interactive platform, WheatCNVb ( http://wheat.cau.edu.cn/WheatCNVb/ ), for exploring the CNVb profiles over ever-increasing wheat accessions, and also propose a QR-code-like representation of individual digital CNVb fingerprint. This platform also allows uploading new CNVb profiles for comparison with stored varieties. CONCLUSIONS: The CNVb-based approach provides a low-cost and high-throughput genotyping strategy for enabling digitalized wheat germplasm management and modern breeding with precise and practical decision-making.

Phase separation provides a mechanism to drive phenotype switching.

Phenotypic switching plays a crucial role in cell fate determination across various organisms. Recent experimental findings highlight the significance of protein compartmentalization via liquid-liquid phase separation in influencing such decisions. However, the precise mechanism through which phase separation regulates phenotypic switching remains elusive. To investigate this, we established a mathematical model that couples a phase separation process and a gene expression process with feedback. We used the chemical master equation theory and mean-field approximation to study the effects of phase separation on the gene expression products. We found that phase separation can cause bistability and bimodality. Furthermore, phase separation can control the bistable properties of the system, such as bifurcation points and bistable ranges. On the other hand, in stochastic dynamics, the droplet phase exhibits double peaks within a more extensive phase separation threshold range than the dilute phase, indicating the pivotal role of the droplet phase in cell fate decisions. These findings propose an alternative mechanism that influences cell fate decisions through the phase separation process. As phase separation is increasingly discovered in gene regulatory networks, related modeling research can help build biomolecular systems with desired properties and offer insights into explaining cell fate decisions.

Nasopharyngeal cancer risk assessment by country or region worldwide from 1990 to 2019.

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is 22nd most common cancer that occurs all over the world, but the prevalence rate can exhibit significant geographical differences. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database provides data related to the incidence, mortality, and disease burden of NPC worldwide from 1990 to 2019. We have designed this study in order to evaluate the potential effectiveness of health care policies and strategies for NPC prevention, diagnosis and treatment in different countries or regions around the world. METHODS: We used for the first time two distinct indicators, EAPC-ASIR and EACP-ASDR, to perform cluster analysis on 200 countries or regions around the world. RESULTS: 200 countries or regions could be divided into five diverse groups. Group 1: The incidence rate showed an increasing trend whereas the mortality rate depicted a decreasing trend. Group 2: Morbidity as well as mortality showed a slight increase; Group 3: Morbidity as well as mortality increased significantly; Group 4: Morbidity and mortality decreased significantly; Group 5: Both morbidity as well as mortality decreased slightly. Moreover, in the context of a global decline in NPC incidence, mortality and disease burden, Group 3 countries, including: "Turkmenistan", "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "Dominican Republic", "Bulgaria", "Lesotho", "Cabo Verde", "Romania", "Cuba", "Jamaica", "Azerbaijan", "Uzbekistan", "Chad", "Belize" and "Ukraine" displayed a significant increase in morbidity, mortality, and disease burden, thus indicating a dangerous trend. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that the medical and health policies formulated by the countries in Group 3 for NPC, as well as their capacity for conducting censuses, preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases, need to be substantially strengthened.

A single dose of VEGF-A circular RNA sustains in situ long-term expression of protein to accelerate diabetic wound healing.

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), which is characterised by damage to minute blood vessels or capillaries around wounds, is one of the most serious and dreaded complications of diabetes. It is challenging to repair chronic non-healing DFU wounds. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in angiogenesis and promotes wound healing in DFU. However, it is difficult to sustainably deliver VEGF to the wound site owing to its poor stability and easy degradation. To overcome this challenge, lipid nanoparticles (LNP) encapsulating circular RNA (circRNA) encoding VEGF-A have been developed to continuously generate and release VEGF-A and accelerate diabetic wound healing. First, VEGF-A circRNA was synthesized using group I intron autocatalysis strategy and confirmed by enzyme digestion, polymerase chain reaction, and sequencing assay. VEGF-A circRNA was encapsulated in ionizable lipid U-105-derived LNP (U-LNP) using microfluidic technology to fabricate U-LNP/VEGF-A circRNA. For comparison, a commercially ionizable lipid ALC-0315-derived LNP (A-LNP) encapsulating circRNA (A-LNP/circRNA) was used. Dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy characterization indicated that U-LNP/circRNA had spherical structure with an average diameter of 108.5 nm, a polydispersity index of 0.22, and a zeta potential of -3.31 mV. The messenger RNA (mRNA) encapsulation efficiency (EE%) of U-LNP was 87.12%. In vitro transfection data confirmed better stability and long-term VEGF-A expression of circRNA compared with linear mRNA. Assessment of cytotoxicity and innate immunity further revealed that U-LNP/circRNA was biocompatible and induced a weak congenital immune response. Cell scratch and angiogenesis tests demonstrated the bioactivity of U-LNP/VEGF-A circRNA owing to its VEGF-A expression. In situ bioluminescence imaging of firefly luciferase (F-Luc) probe and ELISA demonstrated that circRNA had long-term and strong expression of VEGF-A in the first week, and a gradual decrease in the next week at the wound site and surrounding areas. Finally, a diabetic mouse model was used to validate the healing effect of U-LNP/VEGF-A circRNA formulation. The results showed that a single dose of U-LNP/VEGF-A circRNA administered by dripping resulted in almost complete wound recovery on day 12, which was significantly superior to that of U-LNP/VEGF-A linear mRNA, and it also outperformed recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor (rhVEGF) injection and A-LNP/circRNA dripping. Histological analysis confirmed the healing efficiency and low toxicity of U-LNP/VEGF-A circRNA formulation. Together, VEGF-A circRNA delivered by U-105-derived LNP showed good performance in wound healing, which was ascribed to the long-term expression and continuous release of VEGF-A, and has potential applications for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer wounds.

Twist angle-dependent interlayer hybridized exciton lifetimes in van der Waals heterostructures.

The interlayer twist angle has a direct effect on exciton lifetimes in van der Waals heterostructures. At small angles, the interlayer and intralayer excitons in MoSe2/WS2 heterostructures are hybridized, resulting in hybridized excitons with long lifetimes and strong resonance. However, the study of twist-angle modulation of hybridized exciton lifetimes is still insufficient, leading to an unclear understanding of the mechanism through which the twist angle between layers influences the lifetime of hybridized excitons. Here, we observed the formation of hybridized excitons by constructing MoSe2/WS2 heterostructures with different twist angles. The exciton lifetime is found to increase from 0.5 ns to 3.3 ns when the twist angle is reduced from 12° to 1°. This work provides a new perspective on the modulation of the exciton lifetime, enabling further exploration in improving the efficiency of optoelectronic devices.

Temporal relationship between hepatic steatosis and fasting blood glucose elevation: a longitudinal analysis from China and UK.

BACKGROUND: The link between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes has not been fully established. We investigated the temporal relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), quantitatively assessed the impact, and evaluated the related mediation effect. METHODS: This study involved participants from the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort Study and the UK Biobank. We performed cross-lagged path analysis to compare the relative magnitude of the effects between NAFLD and T2D using two-period biochemical data. Hepatic steatosis and fasting blood glucose elevation (FBG) represented NAFLD and T2D respectively. We fitted two separate Cox proportional-hazards models to evaluate the influence of hepatic steatosis on T2D. Furthermore, we applied the difference method to assess mediation effects. RESULTS: In cross-lagged path analyses, the path coefficients from baseline hepatic steatosis to first repeat FBG (ßCMEC = 0.068, ßUK-Biobank = 0.033) were significantly greater than the path coefficients from baseline FBG to first repeat hepatic steatosis (ßCMEC = 0.027, ßUK-Biobank = -0.01). Individuals with hepatic steatosis have a risk of T2D that is roughly three times higher than those without the condition (HR = 3.478 [3.314, 3.650]). Hepatic steatosis mediated approximately 69.514% of the total effect between obesity and follow-up T2D. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings contribute to determining the sequential relationship between NAFLD and T2D in the causal pathway, highlighting that the dominant pathway in the relationship between these two early stages of diseases was the one from hepatic steatosis to fasting blood glucose elevation. Individuals having NAFLD face a significantly increased risk of T2D and require long-term monitoring of their glucose status as well.

[Ce3+-OV-Ce4+] Located Surface-Distributed Sheet Cu-Zn-Ce Catalysts for Methanol Production by CO2 Hydrogenation.

The metal-support interaction is crucial for the performance of Cu-based catalysts. However, the distinctive properties of the support metal element itself are often overlooked in catalyst design. In this paper, a sheet Cu-Zn-Ce with [Ce3+-OV-Ce4+] located on the surface was designed by the sol-gel method. Through EPR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the relationship between the content of oxygen vacancies and Ce was revealed. Ce itself induces the generation of [Ce3+-OV-Ce4+]. Through ICP-MS, XPS, and SEM-mapping, the Ce-induced formation of [Ce3+-OV-Ce4+] located on the catalyst surface was demonstrated. CO2-TPD and DFT calculations further revealed that [Ce3+-OV-Ce4+] enhanced CO2 adsorption, leading to a 10% increase in methanol selectivity compared to Cu-Zn-Ce synthesized via the coprecipitation method.

Surface Reconstruction from Point Clouds: A Survey and a Benchmark.

Reconstruction of a continuous surface of two-dimensional manifold from its raw, discrete point cloud observation is a long-standing problem in computer vision and graphics research. The problem is technically ill-posed, and becomes more difficult considering that various sensing imperfections would appear in the point clouds obtained by practical depth scanning. In literature, a rich set of methods has been proposed, and reviews of existing methods are also provided. However, existing reviews are short of thorough investigations on a common benchmark. The present paper aims to review and benchmark existing methods in the new era of deep learning surface reconstruction. To this end, we contribute a large-scale benchmarking dataset consisting of both synthetic and real-scanned data; the benchmark includes object- and scene-level surfaces and takes into account various sensing imperfections that are commonly encountered in practical depth scanning. We conduct thorough empirical studies by comparing existing methods on the constructed benchmark, and pay special attention on robustness of existing methods against various scanning imperfections; we also study how different methods generalize in terms of reconstructing complex surface shapes. Our studies help identity the best conditions under which different methods work, and suggest some empirical findings. For example, while deep learning methods are increasingly popular in the research community, our systematic studies suggest that, surprisingly, a few classical methods perform even better in terms of both robustness and generalization; our studies also suggest that the practical challenges of misalignment of point sets from multi-view scanning, missing of surface points, and point outliers remain unsolved by all the existing surface reconstruction methods. We expect that the benchmark and our studies would be valuable both for practitioners and as a guidance for new innovations in future research. We make the benchmark publicly accessible at https://Gorilla-Lab-SCUT.github.io/SurfaceReconstructionBenchmark.

The therapeutic and biomarker significance of ferroptosis in chronic myeloid leukemia.

Background: The relationship between ferroptosis and the progression and treatment of hematological tumors has been extensively studied, although its precise association with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) remains uncertain. Methods: Multi-transcriptome sequencing data were utilized to analyze the ferroptosis level of CML samples and its correlation with the tumor microenvironment, disease progression, and treatment response. Machine learning algorithms were employed to identify diagnostic ferroptosis-related genes (FRGs). The consensus clustering algorithm was applied to identify ferroptosis-related molecular subtypes. Clinical samples were collected for sequencing to validate the results obtained from bioinformatics analysis. Cell experiments were conducted to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of induced ferroptosis in drug-resistant CML. Results: Ferroptosis scores were significantly lower in samples from patients with CML compared to normal samples, and these scores further decreased with disease progression and non-response to treatment. Most FRGs were downregulated in CML samples. A high ferroptosis score was also associated with greater immunosuppression and increased activity of metabolic pathways. Through support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE), least absolute shrinkage selection operator (LASSO), and random forest (RF) algorithms, we identified five FRGs (ACSL6, SLC11A2, HMOX1, SLC38A1, AKR1C3) that have high diagnostic value. The clinical diagnostic value of these five FRGs and their effectiveness in differentiating CML from other hematological malignancies were validated using additional validation cohorts and our real-world cohort. There are significant differences in immune landscape, chemosensitivity, and immunotherapy responsiveness between the two ferroptosis-related molecular subtypes. By conducting cellular experiments, we confirmed that CML-resistant cells are more sensitive to induction of ferroptosis and can enhance the sensitivity of imatinib treatment. Conclusion: Our study unveils the molecular signature of ferroptosis in samples from patients with CML. FRG identified by a variety of machine learning algorithms has reliable clinical diagnostic value. Furthermore, the characterization of different ferroptosis-related molecular subtypes provides valuable insights into individual patient characteristics and can guide clinical treatment strategies. Targeting and inducing ferroptosis holds great promise as a therapeutic approach for drug-resistant CML.

Impacts of climate change on the potential distribution of Pulex simulans and Polygenis gwyni.

Pulex simulans and Polygenis gwyni are vectors of many flea-borne diseases. They were widely recorded in the United States and Mexico between 1970 and 2000. Maximum entropy models were used to explore the habitats of both fleas under different climate scenarios to provide the scientific basis for the surveillance and control of flea-borne diseases. We screened climate variables by principal component analysis and Pearson's correlation test and evaluated model performance by ROC curve. ArcMap was used to visualize expressions. Under current climatic conditions, the medium and highly suitable areas for P. simulans are estimated to be 9.16 × 106 km2 and 4.97 × 106 km2, respectively. These regions are predominantly located in South America, along the Mediterranean coast of Europe, the southern part of the African continent, the Middle East, North China, and Australia. For P. gwyni, the medium and highly suitable areas under current climatic conditions are approximately 4.01 × 106 and 2.04 × 106 km2, respectively, with the primary distribution in North China extending to the Himalayas, near the Equator in Africa, and in a few areas of Europe. Under future climate scenarios, in the SSP3-7.0 scenario for the years 2081-2100, the area of high suitability for P. simulans is projected to reach its maximum. Similarly, in the SSP2-4.5 scenario for 2061-2080, the area of high suitability for P. gwyni is expected to reach its maximum. Under global climate change, there is a large range in the potential distribution for both fleas, with an overall upward trend in the area of habitat under future climate scenarios. Governments should develop scientific prevention and control measures to prevent the invasive alien species flea.

Flexible porous organic polymers constructed using C(sp3)-C(sp3) coupling reactions and their high methane-storage capacity.

Carbon-carbon coupling is a basic design principle for the synthesis of porous organic polymers, which are widely used in gas adsorption/separation, photocatalysis, energy storage, etc. However, the C(sp3)-C(sp3) coupling reaction to construct porous organic polymers remains an important yet elusive objective due to its low reactivity and unknown side reactions. Herein, we report that nickel bis(1,5-cyclooctadiene) (Ni(COD)2), which was a famous catalyst for C(sp2)-C(sp2) coupling reactions, enables highly efficient C(sp3)-C(sp3) homo-coupling reactions to construct porous linear crystalline polymers and flexible three-dimensional porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) under mild reaction conditions. The resulting linear polymers generated with dibromomethyl arenes have good crystallinity and high melting points (T m = 286 °C) due to controllability of reaction sites. Furthermore, the PAFs (PAF-64, PAF-65 and PAF-66) stemmed from tri-/tetra-bromomethyl arenes show high surface area (S BET = 390 m2 g-1) and high methane-storage capacity (up to 313 cm3 cm-3) because of their flexible frameworks. This work sheds new light on the construction of novel porous polymers through C(sp3)-C(sp3) coupling reactions and the development of methane-storage materials.

Relationships Between Meteorological Factors and Mongolian Gerbils and Its Flea Burdens - Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, 2012-2021.

Introduction: Plague is a significant global infectious disease, its spread is linked to host and flea populations. Meteorological conditions can impact flea populations and host densities, hence influencing plague outbreaks. Investigating the connection between meteorological factors, flea populations, and rodent densities in Inner Mongolia's natural plague foci can aid in predicting and managing plague outbreaks. Methods: Monthly data on flea index, rodent density, meteorological factors, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were collected for the study area. Generalized additive modeling (GAM) was used to analyze the non-linear and lag effects of meteorological factors on flea index and rodent density. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to investigate the relationships among meteorological factors, NDVI, flea index, and rodent density. Results: GAM analysis revealed that temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, and NDVI had significant linear, non-linear, and time-lagged impacts on the density of Mongolian gerbils and the flea index. SEM analysis indicated that meteorological factors could directly influence the density and flea index of Mongolian gerbils, or indirectly impact NDVI, subsequently influencing gerbil density and the flea index. Conclusions: Meteorological factors primarily influence gerbil density and flea index indirectly by affecting NDVI and the relationship between flea index and gerbil density. This study offers additional support for the significance of meteorological factors and NDVI in influencing the vector-rodent system, offering valuable insights for predicting and managing plague outbreaks.

Fluorescent carbon dots for discriminating cell types: a review.

Carbon dots (CDs) are quasi-spherical carbon nanoparticles with excellent photoluminescence, good biocompatibility, favorable photostability, and easily modifiable surfaces. CDs, serving as fluorescent probes, have emerged as an ideal tool for cellular differentiation owing to their outstanding luminescence performance and tunable surface properties. In this review, we summarize the recent research progress with CDs in the differentiation of cancer/normal cells, Gram-positive/Gram-negative bacteria, and live/dead cells, as well as the cellular differences used for differentiation. Additionally, we summarize the preparation methods, raw materials, and properties of the CDs used for cell discrimination. The differentiation mechanisms and the advantages or limitations of the differentiation methods are also introduced. Finally, we propose several research challenges in this field and future research directions that require extensive investigation. It is hoped that this review will help researchers in the design of new CDs as ideal fluorescent probes for realizing diverse cell differentiation applications.

Non-Abelian Braiding of Topological Edge Bands.

Braiding is a geometric concept that manifests itself in a variety of scientific contexts from biology to physics, and has been employed to classify bulk band topology in topological materials. Topological edge states can also form braiding structures, as demonstrated recently in a type of topological insulators known as Möbius insulators, whose topological edge states form two braided bands exhibiting a Möbius twist. While the formation of Möbius twist is inspiring, it belongs to the simple Abelian braid group B_{2}. The most fascinating features about topological braids rely on the non-Abelianness in the higher-order braid group B_{N} (N≥3), which necessitates multiple edge bands, but so far it has not been discussed. Here, based on the gauge enriched symmetry, we develop a scheme to realize non-Abelian braiding of multiple topological edge bands. We propose tight-binding models of topological insulators that are able to generate topological edge states forming non-Abelian braiding structures. Experimental demonstrations are conducted in two acoustic crystals, which carry three and four braided acoustic edge bands, respectively. The observed braiding structure can correspond to the topological winding in the complex eigenvalue space of projective translation operator, akin to the previously established point-gap winding topology in the bulk of the Hatano-Nelson model. Our Letter also constitutes the realization of non-Abelian braiding topology on an actual crystal platform, but not based on the "virtual" synthetic dimensions.

Hydroxyl-aluminum pillared bentonite enhanced Mn(II) removal by chlorine oxidation.

Al-PILC was used to catalyze the chlorine oxidation of Mn(II) in aqueous solution. The effects of various catalysts, catalyst dosage, chlorine dosage, pH value, temperature and organic content on the oxidation process were investigated. Results show that 1.5 mg/L chlorine can quickly oxidize Mn(II) from 0.5 mg/L to less than 0.04 mg/L with 10 mg/L Al-PILC. Using catalysts with higher porosity and higher SA, increase in chlorine concentration, increase in catalyst dosage, higher pH, and higher temperature can significantly enhance the rate of Mn(II) catalytic oxidation. The Mn(II) oxidation process includes the homogeneous oxidation, catalytic oxidation on the surface of the catalysts and self-catalytic oxidation produced by the newly produced MnOx. Al-PILC surface provides active sites for chlorine oxidation Mn(II) in the water, and also provides binding sites for the newly produced MnOx, which has higher catalytic activity and thus has an self-catalytic oxidation effect. The higher the porosity and SA of Al-PILC, the more catalytic oxidation active sites and loading sites, and the better the catalytic oxidation effect. The study promotes the understanding of chlorine catalyzed oxidation Mn(II) in aqueous solution, but also provide important guide to study newly efficient catalysts to oxidize Mn(II) with chlorine in aqueous solution.

Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Topological Magnet MnBi2Te4 Films.

The interface of two materials can harbor unexpected emergent phenomena. One example is interface-induced superconductivity. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to grow a series of heterostructures formed by stacking together two nonsuperconducting antiferromagnetic materials, an intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide FeTe. Our electrical transport measurements reveal interface-induced superconductivity in these heterostructures. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy measurements, we observe a proximity-induced superconducting gap on the top surface of the MnBi2Te4 layer, confirming the coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in the MnBi2Te4 layer. Our findings will advance the fundamental inquiries into the topological superconducting phase in hybrid devices and provide a promising platform for the exploration of chiral Majorana physics in MnBi2Te4-based heterostructures.

Hyperbaric oxygen enhances tumor penetration and accumulation of engineered bacteria for synergistic photothermal immunotherapy.

Bacteria-mediated cancer therapeutic strategies have attracted increasing interest due to their intrinsic tumor tropism. However, bacteria-based drugs face several challenges including the large size of bacteria and dense extracellular matrix, limiting their intratumoral delivery efficiency. In this study, we find that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO), a noninvasive therapeutic method, can effectively deplete the dense extracellular matrix and thus enhance the bacterial accumulation within tumors. Inspired by this finding, we modify Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) with cypate molecules to yield EcN-cypate for photothermal therapy, which can subsequently induce immunogenic cell death (ICD). Importantly, HBO treatment significantly increases the intratumoral accumulation of EcN-cypate and facilitates the intratumoral infiltration of immune cells to realize desirable tumor eradication through photothermal therapy and ICD-induced immunotherapy. Our work provides a facile and noninvasive strategy to enhance the intratumoral delivery efficiency of natural/engineered bacteria, and may promote the clinical translation of bacteria-mediated synergistic cancer therapy.