Press Needle: A Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy for Myopia Patients with Dry Eye.

Most patients with myopia have dry eye, which has been shown to adversely affect ocular symptoms, myopia progression, and quality of life in patients with myopia. Needle prickling has been shown to be effective in providing symptom relief in patients with myopia and dry eye. Press needle is a long-lasting, easy-to-operate, and inexpensive traditional Chinese medicine treatment. The standard practice of needle insertion is very important for the treatment of myopia and dry eye. The specific steps include selecting the appropriate acupoints, piercing them with appropriate needles, and fixing them in the skin or subcutaneously at the acupoints, burying them for 2 days, resting for 1 day; the course of treatment lasts for 2 weeks. Specifically, the following indicators were assessed: uncorrected visual acuity and the ocular surface disease index. This article will explain how to standardize the operation of a press needle in the treatment of myopia and dry eye.

Electrochemical Synthesis of Nanostructured Ordered Intermetallic Materials under Ambient Conditions.

ConspectusThe enhanced catalytic properties of alloy nanostructures have made them a focus of extensive research in the field of catalysis. Alloy nanostructures can be classified into two types: disordered alloys (also known as solid solutions) and ordered intermetallics. The latter are of particular interest as they possess long-range atomic scale ordering, which leads to well-defined active sites that can be used to accurately assess structure-property relationships and their impact on (electro)catalytic performance.While many ordered intermetallics (OICs) have been synthesized and evaluated as electrocatalysts, there is still a lack of understanding on how the local structure of atoms controls their catalytic performance. Ordered intermetallics are difficult to synthesize and often require high-temperature annealing for the atoms to equilibrate into ordered structures. High temperature processing results in aggregated structures (usually >30 nm) and/or contamination from the support, which can decrease their performance and preclude these materials from being used as model systems for elucidating insight into structure and electrochemical properties. Therefore, alternative methods are required to enable more efficient atomic ordering while maintaining some level of morphological control.This Account delves into the potential of electrochemical methods as a practical alternative for synthesizing ordered intermetallics at lower temperatures. Specifically, it explores the viability of electrochemical dealloying and electrochemical deposition to synthesize Pd-Bi and Cu-Zn intermetallics at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. These methods have proven useful in synthesizing phases that are typically inaccessible under ambient conditions. The high homologous temperatures at which these materials are synthesized provide the necessary atomic mobility required for equilibration and formation of ordered phases, thus making the direct synthesis of ordered intermetallic materials at room temperature by electrochemical means a reality.Beyond synthesis, the electrocatalytic performance of these intermetallics was assessed for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which is an important process employed in fuel cells. The OICs displayed increased performance with respect to commercial Pd/C and Pt/C benchmarks because of lower coverages of spectator species. Furthermore, these materials exhibited improved methanol tolerance.This Account provides valuable insights into the electrochemical synthesis of ordered intermetallics and their potential use as highly effective catalysts for electrocatalytic reactions. By using electrochemical methods, it is possible to obtain ordered intermetallics with unique atomic arrangements and tailored properties, which can be optimized for specific catalytic applications. With further research, electrochemical synthesis methods may enable the development of new and improved ordered intermetallics with even higher catalytic activity and selectivity, making them ideal candidates for use in a wide range of industrial processes. Furthermore, the ability to access intermetallics under milder conditions may accelerate the ability to use these materials as model systems for revealing fundamental insight into electrocatalyst structure and function.

Efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab for treating advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis of phase II and III randomized controlled trials.

We conducted a meta-analysis to systematically review the efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab for advanced NSCLC. Databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) treated with pembrolizumab till July 2021. Seven RCTs and 3988 patients were included. Our analysis suggests that pembrolizumab was more effective at improving PFS (HR, 0.59; 95% CI: 0.43-0.79; p = 0.0005), OS (HR, 0.65; 95% CI: 0.55-0.76; p ＜ 0.00001) and ORR (RR, 1.85; 95% CI: 1.64-2.09; p ＜ 0.00001) than chemotherapy. Patients with higher PD-L1 expression level were tend to have a better PFS, OS and ORR. Combination therapy of pembrolizumab was superior to pembrolizumab monotherapy in enhancing PFS. Pembrolizumab did not increase the frequency of commonly reported adverse events, but the immune-related adverse events (irAEs) occurred more frequently in the pembrolizumab group than those in the chemotherapy group. The pembrolizumab significantly improved the PFS, OS and ORR, simultaneously increasing the irAEs.

Stabilizing Polyether Electrolyte with a 4 V Metal Oxide Cathode by Nanoscale Interfacial Coating.

Safety is critical to developing next-generation batteries with high-energy density. Polyether-based electrolytes, such as poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), are attractive alternatives to the current flammable liquid organic electrolyte, since they are much more thermally stable and compatible with high-capacity lithium anode. Unfortunately, they are not stable with 4 V Li(NixMnyCo1-x-y)O2 (NMC) cathodes, hindering them from application in batteries with high-energy density. Here, we report that the compatibility between PEG electrolyte and NMC cathodes can be significantly improved by forming a 2 nm Al2O3 coating on the NMC surface. This nanoscale coating dramatically changes the composition of the cathode electrolyte interphase and thus stabilizes the PEG electrolyte with the NMC cathode. With Al2O3, the capacity remains at 84.7% after 80 cycles and 70.3% after 180 cycles. In contrast, the capacity fades to less than 50% after only 20 cycles in bare NMC electrodes. This study opens a new opportunity to develop safe electrolyte for lithium batteries with high-energy density.

Nonflammable, Low-Cost, and Fluorine-Free Solvent for Liquid Electrolyte of Rechargeable Lithium Metal Batteries.

Rechargeable metallic lithium batteries are considered as promising candidates for next-generation energy storage due to their high energy densities. However, safety concerns associated with electrolyte flammability and dendrite growth hinder their practical applications. Nonflammable liquid electrolytes have attracted significant attention recently, but they are mainly based on expensive ionic liquids, fluorinated solvents, or with highly concentrated salt. Here we design a novel trisalt electrolyte composed of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI)-lithium bis(oxalato)borate (LiBOB)-LiPF6 in EC/PC solvent, which is not flammable even in contact with fire. Moreover, it creates unique protection of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film on lithium metal anode that allows 400 cycles of Li/Li(NiMnCo)1/3O2 cells with a capacity retention of 97.0% at 0.83 mA cm-2. This work illustrates that low-cost fluorine-free carbonate solvents can also realize nonflammable electrolyte with high performance, which opens new opportunities to promote safety and energy density of rechargeable lithium batteries simultaneously.