A High-Entropy Prussian Blue Analog for Aqueous Potassium-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous potassium-ion batteries (AKIBs) are considered promising electrochemical energy storage systems owing to their high safety and cost-effectiveness. However, the structural degradation resulting from the repeated accommodation of large K-ions and the dissolution of active electrode materials in highly dielectric aqueous electrolytes often lead to unsatisfactory electrochemical performance. This study introduces a high-entropy Prussian blue analog (HEPBA) cathode material for AKIBs, demonstrating significantly enhanced structural stability and reduced dissolution. The HEPBA exhibits a highly reversible specific capacity of 102.4 mAh g-1, with 84.4% capacity retention after undergoing 3448 cycles over a duration of 270 days. Mechanistic insights derived from comprehensive experimental investigations, supported by theoretical calculations, reveal that the HEPBA features a robust structure resistant to dissolution, a solid-solution reaction pathway with negligible volume variation during charge-discharge, and efficient ion transport kinetics characterized by a reduced band gap and a low energy barrier. This study represents a measurable step forward in the development of long-lasting electrode materials for aqueous AKIBs.

Metformin attenuates lung ischemia-reperfusion injury and necroptosis through AMPK pathway in type 2 diabetic recipient rats.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) can aggravate lung ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury and is a significant risk factor for recipient mortality after lung transplantation. Metformin protects against I/R injury in a variety of organs. However, the effect of metformin on diabetic lung I/R injury remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to observe the effect and mechanism of metformin on lung I/R injury following lung transplantation in type 2 diabetic rats. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the following six groups: the control + sham group (CS group), the control + I/R group (CIR group), the DM + sham group (DS group), the DM + I/R group (DIR group), the DM + I/R + metformin group (DIRM group) and the DM + I/R + metformin + Compound C group (DIRMC group). Control and diabetic rats underwent the sham operation or left lung transplantation operation. Lung function, alveolar capillary permeability, inflammatory response, oxidative stress, necroptosis and the p-AMPK/AMPK ratio were determined after 24 h of reperfusion. RESULTS: Compared with the CIR group, the DIR group exhibited decreased lung function, increased alveolar capillary permeability, inflammatory responses, oxidative stress and necroptosis, but decreased the p-AMPK/AMPK ratio. Metformin improved the function of lung grafts, decreased alveolar capillary permeability, inflammatory responses, oxidative stress and necroptosis, and increased the p-AMPK/AMPK ratio. In contrast, the protective effects of metformin were abrogated by Compound C. CONCLUSIONS: Metformin attenuates lung I/R injury and necroptosis through AMPK pathway in type 2 diabetic lung transplant recipient rats.

Radiomics in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor. At present, early diagnosis of HCC is difficult and therapeutic methods are limited. Radiomics can achieve accurate quantitative evaluation of the lesions without invasion, and has important value in the diagnosis and treatment of HCC. Radiomics features can predict the development of cancer in patients, serve as the basis for risk stratification of HCC patients, and help clinicians distinguish similar diseases, thus improving the diagnostic accuracy. Furthermore, the prediction of the treatment outcomes helps determine the treatment plan. Radiomics is also helpful in predicting the HCC recurrence, disease-free survival and overall survival. This review summarized the role of radiomics in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of HCC.

Identification and Functional Validation of Auxin-Responsive Tabzip Genes from Wheat Leaves in Arabidopsis.

Leaves are an essential and unique organ of plants, and many studies have proved that auxin has significant impacts on the architecture of leaves, thus the manipulation of the three-dimensional structure of a leaf could provide potential strategies for crop yields. In this study, 32 basic leucine zipper transcription factors (bZIP TFs) which responded to 50 µM of indole-acetic acid (IAA) were identified in wheat leaves by transcriptome analysis. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the 32 auxin-responsive TabZIPs were classified into eight groups with possible different functions. Phenotypic analysis demonstrated that knocking out the homologous gene of the most down-regulated auxin-responsive TabZIP6D_20 in Arabidopsis (AtHY5) decreased its sensitivity to 1 and 50 µM IAA, while the TabZIP6D_20/hy5 complementary lines recovered its sensitivity to auxin as a wild type (Wassilewskija), suggesting that the down-regulated TabZIP6D_20 was a negative factor in the auxin-signaling pathway. These results demonstrated that the auxin-responsive TabZIP genes might have various and vital functions in the architecture of a wheat leaf under auxin response.

Constructing a Low-Cost Si-NSs@C/NG Composite by a Ball Milling-Catalytic Pyrolysis Method for Lithium Storage.

Silicon-based composites are promising candidates as the next-generation anode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high theoretical specific capacity, abundant reserves, and reliable security. However, expensive raw materials and complicated preparation processes give silicon carbon anode a high price and poor batch stability, which become a stumbling block to its large-scale practical application. In this work, a novel ball milling-catalytic pyrolysis method is developed to fabricate a silicon nanosheet@amorphous carbon/N-doped graphene (Si-NSs@C/NG) composite with cheap high-purity micron-size silica powder and melamine as raw materials. Through systematic characterizations such as XRD, Raman, SEM, TEM and XPS, the formation process of NG and a Si-NSs@C/NG composite is graphically demonstrated. Si-NSs@C is uniformly intercalated between NG nanosheets, and these two kinds of two-dimensional (2D) materials are combined in a surface-to-surface manner, which immensely buffers the stress changes caused by volume expansion and contraction of Si-NSs. Attributed to the excellent electrical conductivity of graphene layer and the coating layer, the initial reversible specific capacity of Si-NSs@C/NG is 807.9 mAh g-1 at 200 mA g-1, with a capacity retention rate of 81% in 120 cycles, exhibiting great potential for application as an anode material for LIBs. More importantly, the simple and effective process and cheap precursors could greatly reduce the production cost and promote the commercialization of silicon/carbon composites.

Discovery of novel heterocyclic derivatives as potential glycogen phosphorylase inhibitors with a cardioprotective effect.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of GP inhibitor as a potential pharmaceutical target on MI/R injury. Four different structural types of novel compounds (I, II, III, and IV) were designed and synthesized, obtaining 31 novel GP inhibitors. SAR studies revealed that the conjugates of 5-chloroindole with benzo six-membered heterocyclic were found to elevate the activity. In particular, compound IIIh (IC50 = 0.21 ± 0.03 µM) emerged as a potent derivative against RMGPa, being approximately 2-fold less potent than that of PSN-357. In order to screen out a compound for in vivo activity test, we further conducted an experiment of inhibition against three different subtypes of GPa (HLGPa, HMGPa and HBGPa) and the corresponding affinity experiment. As a result, compound IIIh showed strong inhibitory activity against the above three subtypes of GP, especially on HBGPa (IC50 = 0.09 ± 0.002 µM), which was relatively close to that of positive control ingliforib (IC50 = 0.16 ± 0.02 µM). The affinity of compound IIIh to HBGPa was 4.3 times higher than that of HLGPa, and 1.1 times higher than that of HMGPa. This fact further proved that compound IIIh has a higher inhibitory effect on HMGPa than the other two subtypes. Besides, in vivo activity evaluation demonstrated that compound IIIh exhibited obviously cardioprotective effect on MI/R injury mice. The discovery of compound IIIh provides a new strategy for developing novel GP inhibitors with myocardial ischemia protection.

PAFAH1B2 is a HIF1a target gene and promotes metastasis in pancreatic cancer.

Platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase IB subunit beta (PAFAH1B2) plays important roles in inflammation and anaphylaxis. However, its primary function in pancreatic cancer remains unclear. In the current study, we report that PAFAH1B2 is overexpressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and correlated inversely with patient survival. PAFAH1B2 overexpression induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration and invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo. Conversely, silencing PAFAH1B2 inhibited these aggressive phenotypes. Moreover, PAFAH1B2 overexpression in PDAC cells was directly mediated by HIF1a. PAFAH1B2 expression in PDAC clinical specimens correlated positively with HIF1a expression. Overall, our results defined PAFAH1B2 as a target gene of HIF1a and a critical driver of PDAC metastatic behaviors.

Efficient copper-catalyzed direct intramolecular aminotrifluoromethylation of unactivated alkenes with diverse nitrogen-based nucleophiles.

A mild, convenient, and step-economical intramolecular aminotrifluoromethylation of unactivated alkenes with a variety of electronically distinct, nitrogen-based nucleophiles in the presence of a simple copper salt catalyst, in the absence of extra ligands, is described. Many different nitrogen-based nucleophiles (e.g., basic primary aliphatic and aromatic amines, sulfonamides, carbamates, and ureas) can be employed in this new aminotrifluoromethylation reaction. The aminotrifluoromethylation process allows straightforward access to diversely substituted CF3-containing pyrrolidines or indolines, in good to excellent yields, through a direct difunctionalization strategy from the respective acyclic starting materials. Mechanistic studies were conducted and a plausible mechanism was proposed.

[Retracted] MicroRNA­30a suppresses the proliferation, migration and invasion of human renal cell carcinoma cells by directly targeting ADAM9.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.3892/ol.2018.8999.].

Design and performance analysis of a mid-infrared broadband thermally tunable metamaterial absorption device based on the phase-change effect.

We propose a structurally simple, innovative, and multifunctional mid-infrared broadband thermally tunable metamaterial absorption device. The absorption device consists of a three-layer structure, from bottom to top: Ti substrate, SiO2 dielectric layer, and patterned VO2 layer. Through temperature control, the average absorption intensity of the absorption device can vary between 0.08 and 0.94. The absorption device's absorption mechanism is rooted in the thermal phase-change characteristics exhibited by the topologically patterned VO2. When the temperature is below 340 K, VO2 is in a dielectric state, resulting in near-total reflection performance in the mid-infrared range. When the temperature is above 340 K, VO2 undergoes a dielectric-to-metal transition, enabling the absorption device to achieve an average absorption rate of 94.12% in the ultra-wideband range of 6.26 µm-20.96 µm in the mid-infrared. This absorption range completely covers the atmospheric window wavelengths of 8 µm-14 µm, demonstrating high practical value. We explain the working mechanism of the absorption device from the perspective of the electromagnetic field. Subsequently, we study the variations in the absorption curve of the absorption device at different temperatures of VO2 and use the changes in the electric field at the same wavelength under different temperatures to explain the variations in absorption. Compared to previous work, our structure has only three layers in a single unit, making it easy to process and produce. Additionally, the absorption device's operating bandwidth and average absorption rate in the mid-infrared range have been significantly improved. Furthermore, the absorption device exhibits substantial incident angle tolerance and polarization insensitivity. We believe that this design has broad application potential in future optothermal conversion, infrared stealth, and thermal radiation.

Advancements in the study of acute lung injury resulting from intestinal ischemia/reperfusion.

Intestinal ischemia/reperfusion is a prevalent pathological process that can result in intestinal dysfunction, bacterial translocation, energy metabolism disturbances, and subsequent harm to distal tissues and organs via the circulatory system. Acute lung injury frequently arises as a complication of intestinal ischemia/reperfusion, exhibiting early onset and a grim prognosis. Without appropriate preventative measures and efficacious interventions, this condition may progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome and elevate mortality rates. Nonetheless, the precise mechanisms and efficacious treatments remain elusive. This paper synthesizes recent research models and pertinent injury evaluation criteria within the realm of acute lung injury induced by intestinal ischemia/reperfusion. The objective is to investigate the roles of pathophysiological mechanisms like oxidative stress, inflammatory response, apoptosis, ferroptosis, and pyroptosis; and to assess the strengths and limitations of current therapeutic approaches for acute lung injury stemming from intestinal ischemia/reperfusion. The goal is to elucidate potential targets for enhancing recovery rates, identify suitable treatment modalities, and offer insights for translating fundamental research into clinical applications.

Sodium butyrate ameliorates sepsis-associated lung injury by enhancing gut and lung barrier function in combination with modulation of CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells.

Sepsis-associated lung injury often coexists with intestinal dysfunction. Butyrate, an essential gut microbiota metabolite, participates in gut-lung crosstalk and has immunoregulatory effects. This study aims to investigate the effect and mechanism of sodium butyrate (NaB) on lung injury. Sepsis-associated lung injury was established in mice by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Mice in treatment groups received NaB gavage after surgery. The survival rate, the oxygenation index and the lung wet-to-dry weight (W/D) ratio were calculated respectively. Pulmonary and intestinal histologic changes were observed. The total protein concentration in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was measured, and inflammatory factors in serum and BALF were examined. Diamine oxidase (DAO), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and surfactant-associated protein D (SP-D) levels in serum and amphiregulin in lung tissue were assessed. Intercellular junction protein expression in the lung and intestinal tissues were examined. Changes in immune cells were analyzed. NaB treatment improved the survival rate, the oxygenation index and the histologic changes. NaB decreased the W/D ratio, total protein concentration, and the levels of proinflammatory cytokines, as well as SP-D, DAO and LPS, while increased the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines and amphiregulin. The intercellular junction protein expression were improved by NaB. Furthermore, the CD4+/CD8+ T-cell ratio and the proportion of CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) were increased by NaB. Our data suggested that NaB gavage effectively improved the survival rate and mitigated lung injury in CLP mice. The possible mechanism was that NaB augmented CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs and enhanced the barrier function of the gut and the lung.

Tunable bandwidth terahertz perfect absorption device based on vanadium dioxide phase transition control.

Utilizing the phase transition principle of VO2, this paper presents a tunable ultra-wideband terahertz perfect absorption device with simple structure and tunability. The proposed broadband terahertz perfect absorption device is a three-layer structure with a metal reflective layer, a silicon dioxide dielectric layer and a VO2 layer from bottom to top. It was found that the terahertz perfect absorption device's absorption could be dynamically adjusted from 1.2% to 99.9% when changing from an insulated to a metallic state. With the VO2 in the metallic state, the terahertz perfect absorption device has an absorption efficiency of more than 90% in 4.00 to 10.08 THz's ultra-broadband range and near-perfect absorption is achieved in the ranges of 4.71 THz to 5.16 THz and 7.74 THz to 8.06 THz. To explain the working principle of this terahertz perfect absorption device, this paper utilizes wave interference's principle, theory of impedance matching and electric field analysis. Compared to previously reported terahertz metamaterial devices, the vanadium dioxide device proposed in this paper is significantly optimized in terms of tunable range and absorption bandwidth. In addition, the terahertz perfect absorption device is polarization insensitive and maintains good absorptivity over a wide-angle incidence range. This tunable ultra-wideband terahertz perfect absorption device could have applications in the fields of modulation, stealth devices, and thermal emission devices.

Multilayer stacked ultra-wideband perfect solar absorber and thermal emitter based on SiO2-InAs-TiN nanofilm structure.

In this paper, a broadband solar absorber is constructed and simulated based on the finite difference time domain method (FDTD). The modeled structure of the absorber consists of cyclic stacking of five absorber cells with different periods on refractory metal W, where a single absorber cell is composed of a three-layer SiO2-InAs-TiN square film. Due to the Fabry-Perot resonance and the surface plasmon resonance (SPR), an absorptivity greater than 90% within a bandwidth of 2599.5 nm was achieved for the absorber. Notably, one of these bands, 2001 nm, is a high-efficiency absorption with an absorption rate greater than 99%. The average absorption efficiency reaches 99.31% at an air mass of 1.5 (AM 1.5), and the thermal radiation efficiencies are 97.35% and 97.83% at 1000 K and 1200 K, respectively. At the same time, the structure of the absorber is also polarization-independent, and when the solar incidence angle is increased to 60°, it still achieves an average absorption of 90.83% over the entire wavelength band (280 nm to 3000 nm). The novelty of our work is to provide a design idea based on a unit structure with multiple cycles, which can effectively expand the absorption bandwidth of the absorber in the visible-near-infrared wavelengths. The excellent performances make the structure widely used in the field of solar energy absorption.

[Therapeutic effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) combined with plasma cryoprecipitate (CRYO) on the corneal injury induced by paraquat].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of epidermal growth factor (EGF) combined with plasma cryoprecipitate (CRYO) on the corneal injury induced by paraquat (PQ). METHODS: According to the "Toxicological test methods of pesticides for registration" (GB 15670-1995), the conjunctival sacs of 18 health New Zealand rabbits were exposed to 100 µl 20% PQ, which were randomly divided into EGF, CRYO and EGF plus CRYO groups. The routine treatments (normal saline washing and antibiotic eyedrops) were administrated to the injured eyes of 3 groups, at the same time the left eyes of 3 groups were treated with EGF, CRYO and EGF plus CRYO, respectively. The injury of conjunctival, iris and corneal, fluorescent stranded and pathology changes of corneal were observed. The injury score was calculated and the recovery time of corneal injury was recorded. RESULTS: The recovery time of corneal injury in EGF and EGF plus CRYO groups were 19.50 ± 3.08 and 18.67 ± 2.73 days, respectively which were significantly lower than those (27.33 ± 2.58 and 26.83 ± 3.13 days) in corresponding routine treatment controls (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: EGF and EGF plus CRYO could be used to treat the corneal injury induced by paraquat.

Complete photonic bandgap in silicon nitride slab assisted by effective index difference between polarizations.

The slab effective index difference between the transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) polarizations was utilized to obtain complete photonic bandgap (CPBG) in a silicon nitride (SixNy) photonic crystal slab. For this, coincident frequency range in the TE photonic bandgap (PBG) and TM PBG, which denotes the CPBGs of the slab, must be found with the same structure. Through adjusting the effective index pair of TE and TM polarizations by changing the thickness of the SixNy core layer, and also optimizing the structure parameters within the photonic crystal plane, a large normalized CPBG of 5.62% was theoretically obtained in a slab of SixNy with a refractive index of 2.5. Moreover, based on the obtained CPBG, a microcavity which could support both TE and TM polarization was theoretically demonstrated. The cavity modes for different polarizations were both well confined, which proved the reliability of the CPBG. In addition, using the same method, the lowest refractive index of SixNy on silica slab for a CPBG could be extended to as low as 2. The results indicate that there is potential for development of various high-performance CPBG devices based on SixNy slab technology.

Study on Deterioration of Gray Brick with Different Moisture Contents under Freeze-Thaw Environment.

Generally, brick buildings are in the open-air environment year round, and damage to them is aggravated by the effect of repeated freezing and thawing cycles. In order to determine freeze-thaw damage and deterioration mechanism, the initial moisture content of gray brick specimens was set as 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, 100%. The effects of moisture content and the number of freeze-thaw cycles on the quality, mechanical properties and microstructure of gray brick were investigated by uniaxial compression tests and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests. Numerical simulations were applied to model the freezing and thawing process. The results showed that: as the number of freeze-thaw cycles increased, the mass loss rate and peak strength reduction rate of gray brick both increased. The initial moisture content had a greater impact on damage to gray brick due to freeze-thaw; ω = 80% was defined as the limit moisture content of gray brick. Under the repeated action of freeze-thaw cycles, the areas affected by thermal stress were mainly concentrated in the center of the outer surface and the center of the side of gray bricks. The maximum thermal stress after 55 freeze-thaw cycles was 1.522 × 10-2 MPa. This research results provide a theoretical basis for the prevention and protection of frost damage of brick buildings in a freeze-thaw environment.

Malignancy Suspicious Region Guided Deep Neural Networks for Gastric Ulcer Classification.

Malignant transformation of gastric ulcer can result in gastric cancer, hence an accurate gastric ulcer classification method is of vital importance. Despite marvelous progress has been achieved in recent years, there are still many challenges in diagnosis of gastric ulcer. In this paper, we propose a mechanism to mimic gastroenterologist's behaviours based on deep learning techniques, by integrating the segmented malignancy suspicious masks with gastroscopic images for gastric ulcer classification, which instructs the model to focus on the area where symptoms occur for gastric ulcer diagnosis. Specifically, a U-Net-type deep neural network is built to segment the suspicious pathological regions from gastroscopic images, then the segmented regions are treated as an attention channel of gastroscopic images for the gastric ulcer classification by a ResNet-type deep neural network. Experiments on a real gastroscopic dataset with 900+ patient cases demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves much better performance for gastric ulcer diagnosis, compared with standard method with only gastroscopic images.

Unexplained septic shock after colonoscopy with polyethylene glycol preparation in a young adult: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Colonoscopy has become a routine physical examination as people's health awareness has increased. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is greatly used in bowel preparation before colonoscopy due to its price and safety advantages. Septic shock after colonoscopy with PEG preparation is extremely rare, with only very few cases in critically ill patients. Herein, we describe a case of septic shock in a healthy young adult immediately following colonoscopy with PEG preparation. CASE SUMMARY: A 33-year-old young adult presented to our hospital for colonoscopy with PEG bowel preparation due to recurrent diarrhea for 7 years. The male's previous physical examination showed no abnormal indicators, and colonoscopy results were normal; however, he exhibited septic shock and markedly elevated white blood cell, C-reactive protein, and procalcitonin levels on the second day after colonoscopy. Immediate resuscitation and intensive care with appropriate antibiotics improved his condition. However, the blood and stool cultures did not detect the pathogen. CONCLUSION: Septic shock after colonoscopy is rare, especially in young adults. The authors considered the possibility of opportunistic infections after PEG bowel preparation, and clinicians should monitor patients for the possibility of such complications.

Experimental Study on the Effect of Carbonation Reaction on the Properties of Imitation Site Soil.

In this study, sodium methylsilicate and lime were selected to prepare the same proportion of Imitation Site Soil, and according to the principle of carbonation reaction of restoration materials, the effect of carbonation reaction on the performance of restoration soil of earthen sites was studied. The study has good significance for the conservation and restoration of earthen sites. The samples were cured with CO2 concentration and curing age as variables. After curing, the samples were tested to determine their water-resistant properties, uniaxial compressive strength, and pH value and a micro scanning electron microscope was used. The results indicated that the carbonation reaction can quickly improve the water resistance and compressive strength of imitation site soil, and reduced the water absorption by 16.67% compared to the specimens conditioned at 0.03% CO2 concentration. The UCS of specimens at 5%, 10%, and 15% CO2 concentrations increased by 72.22%, 131.19%, and 219.27%, respectively, compared with those at 0.03% CO2 concentration after the specimens were environmentally maintained in the carbonation chamber at 0.03%, 5%, 10%, and 15% CO2 concentrations for 120 h, respectively. The internal particle gradation of the imitation site soil improved after carbonation. These results provide a basis for improving the restoration technology of earthen sites.