Spindle Monitor: A Tool for Real-Time Assessment and Concurrent Treatment of Postoperative Tumor Prognosis.

Cancer surgery remains a mainstay in clinical treatment. However, the efficacy of subsequent therapies largely depends on the precise evaluation of postoperative prognoses, underscoring the critical need for a comprehensive and accurate assessment of surgical outcomes. Nanoprobes targeting tumors offer a promising solution for visual prognostic assessment. In this study, we developed a "Spindle Monitor" system, designated as APPADs (Au NBPs@PDA-pep-AS1411-Dox), composed of core-shell nanoparticles. The core was made up of gold nanobipyramids (Au NBPs), coated with polydopamine (PDA), and subsequently loaded with peptide chains, AS1411, and doxorubicin (Dox). Upon deployment in the acidic tumor microenvironment (TME), APPADs released substantial amounts of Dox, initiating the apoptotic process. This triggered the activity of caspase-3, which is a crucial executor in the apoptotic pathway. Consequently, DEVD, a specific recognition site for caspase-3, was cleaved, enabling the disconnection of FITC-conjugated peptide chains and the recovery of fluorescence. Through assessing this fluorescence imaging effect, local laser irradiation could be precisely guided to the postoperative site, facilitating a synergistic combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy. Specifically, our "Spindle Monitor" APPADs had been validated to achieve accurate fluorescence imaging in vitro and in vivo, which demonstrated its potential value as a versatile tool for evaluating postoperative prognosis in surgical treatments, such as thyroid cancer, and assessing chemotherapy efficacy in difficult cases, like late-stage osteosarcoma. This promising tool lays a good foundation for development in visual prognosis evaluation after tumor surgery.

Spatiotemporal variations and structural characteristics of carbon emissions at the county scale: a case study of Wu'an City.

In China, the county is not only an important component of industrial areas and a large contributor of carbon emissions, but also a key administrative unit for the implementation of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals and policies. The spatiotemporal variations and structural characteristics of carbon emissions at the county scale are of great significance to China's dual goals of regional carbon policy implementation and low carbon spatial planning. Thus, it is important and insightful to conduct an in-depth and detailed examination of these characteristics while focusing on a typical iron and steel industry county-level city in North China. This study systematically calculated the carbon emissions of the county-level city of Wu'an from 2008 to 2017, and explored their structural characteristics and spatiotemporal variations. The results showed that (1) under the influence of macroeconomic and national policies, the carbon emissions of county-level cities dominated by the iron and steel industry show obvious phased characteristics; (2) there is a significant negative correlation between industry carbon emission concentrations and industrial carbon emissions; (3) within the steel industry system, sintering, iron smelting, steelmaking, and metal product processing are the main sources of carbon emissions, and the coal-based production process of the iron and steel industry needs a fundamental reformation; and (4) the carbon emission of Wu'an City shows obvious spatial differentiation characteristics. The geographic distribution of carbon emissions in Wu'an City is very unbalanced and tended to cluster together in urban areas, industrial and mining areas, and major towns. Taking 2014 as the turning point, the spatial pattern of carbon emissions in Wu'an City presents different variation characteristics.

Impact of Economic Development Level and Agricultural Water Use on Agricultural Production Scale in China.

The change of agricultural production scale is directly related to food security and the stable development of social economy. Particularly, the influence of economic development level and agricultural water use on agricultural production scale cannot be ignored. Therefore, this paper uses the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test models to discuss the effects of the level of economic development, agricultural water use, the level of urbanization, and the market price of agricultural products on the scale of agricultural production in China. The analysis results indicated that agricultural water use, the level of urbanization, and the market price of agricultural products promoted an increase of the scale of agricultural production at the total sample level; a 1% increase for these three variables will result in an increase of the scale of agricultural production of 0.634%, 0.377%, and 0.292%, respectively. The influence of economic development level on agricultural production scale accords with Kuznets curve. However, at the regional level, the influence of each variable on the eastern region is consistent with the trend of the total sample. In the central region, the impact of economic development on agricultural production scale shows a U-shaped curve, and the improvement of urbanization level inhibits the expansion of agricultural production scale. In the western region, all variables failed to pass the significance test. The results of the FMOLS model were validated by the fixed effects model. The results of causality tests showed that bidirectional causality existed between the scale of agricultural production and the level of economic development, the scale of agricultural production and agricultural water use, the level of economic development and the market price of agricultural products, and the level of urbanization and the market price of agricultural products. In different regions, there were differences in causality between variables. Therefore, based on the empirical results, we put forward some policy suggestions to maintain the scale of agricultural production.