Patterned Photonic Actuators with Dynamic Shape-Morphing and Color-Changing Capabilities Fabricated by Athermal Embossing Technology.

Stimuli-responsive patterned photonic actuators, characterized by their patterned nano/microscale structures and capacity to demonstrate synergistic color changes and shape morphing in response to external stimuli, have attracted intense scientific attention. However, traditional patterned photonic actuator systems still face limitations such as cumbersome and time-consuming preparation processes and small-scale deformations. Herein, we introduce a facile approach involving an athermal embossing technique to rapidly fabricate patterned photonic actuators based on near-infrared (NIR) light-responsive liquid crystal elastomers. The resulting patterned photonic actuators demonstrate remarkable features, including brilliant angle-dependent structural color, complex three-dimensional actuation, and good color durability under NIR light stimulation. As illustrative demonstrations of the proof-of-concept, we fabricate two light-fuelled patterned photonic soft actuators: a butterfly-inspired actuator that can produce wing-flapping dynamic changes in structural color, and an origami crane-shaped actuator with shape memory, structural color information storage, and dynamic display properties. This strategy provides distinct insights into the design and fabrication of various patterned photonic soft robotic devices and intelligent actuators.

Nickel-Catalyzed Enantioselective Reductive Arylation of Common Ketones.

A nickel complex of chiral bisoxazolines catalyzed the stereoselective reductive arylation of ketones in high enantioselectivity. A range of common acyclic and cyclic ketones reacted without the aid of directing groups. Mechanistic studies using isolated complex of a chiral bis(oxazoline) (L)Ni(Ar)Br revealed that Mn reduction was not needed, while Lewis acidic titanium alkoxides were critical to ketone insertion.

Asymmetric Wettability Janus Mesh via Electrostatic Printing for Selective Oil-Water and Emulsion Separation.

Janus mesh with two-sided asymmetric wettability shows high potential for selective oil-water and emulsion separation. However, it remains a challenge to construct Janus mesh structures with good stability and extremely asymmetric wettability. Herein, a novel Janus mesh with asymmetric wettability was structured by two different precursors, polydimethylsiloxane/zinc oxide (PDMS/ZnO) and zinc oxide-polyacrylonitrile/N,N-dimethylformamide (ZnO-PAN/DMF), by electrostatic printing, including electrostatic air spraying and electrostatic spinning. The prepared Janus mesh has special micro-nanostructures on two sides, including PDMS@ZnO and ZnO@PAN. On the basis of gravity, when the placement direction is changed, Janus mesh can effectively separate oil-water mixtures of different densities and surfactant-stabilized oil-water emulsions. Meanwhile, the obtained Janus mesh exhibited good separation efficiency (>96.3%) for various oil-water mixtures, and the flux was up to 2621 ± 30 L m-2 h-1. The Janus mesh was cycled 20 times with no weakening in separation efficiency, indicating satisfactory cycling stability. The Janus mesh displayed good stability under harsh conditions (acidic, alkaline, and high temperature). The Janus mesh can realize low energy input and long-lasting oil-water separation, which has widespread application prospects in intelligent oil-water separation. This top-down electrostatic printing strategy provides a way to construct Janus interface materials with practical applications.

Tensile and High Cycle Fatigue Performance at Room and Elevated Temperatures of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Manufactured Hastelloy X.

The application potential of additive manufacturing nickel-based superalloys in aeroengines and gas turbines is extensive, and evaluating their mechanical properties is crucial for promoting the engineering application in load-bearing components. In this study, Hastelloy X alloy was prepared using the laser powder bed fusion process combined with solution heat treatment. The tensile and high cycle fatigue properties were experimentally investigated at room temperature as well as two typical elevated temperatures, 650 °C and 815 °C. It was found that, during elevated-temperature tensile deformation, the alloy exhibits significant serrated flow behavior, primarily observed during the initial stage of plastic deformation at 650 °C but occurring throughout the entire plastic deformation process at 815 °C. Notably, when deformation is small, sawtooth fluctuations are significantly higher at 815 °C compared to 650 °C. Irregular subsurface lack of fusion defects serve as primary sources for fatigue crack initiation in this alloy including both single-source and multi-source initiation mechanisms; moreover, oxidation on fracture surfaces is more prone to occur at elevated temperatures, particularly at 815 °C.

Norditerpenoid alkaloids from Aconitum refractum var. circinatum as autophagy inducers.

A total of twenty-two diterpenoid alkaloids, including ten unprecedented ones, namely refractines C-L, were isolated from the roots of Aconitum refractum (Finet et Gagnep.) Hand.-Mazz. Refractine C was the first example of a natural diterpenoid alkaloid wherein C-19 is linked to N position by an oxaziridine ring. Refractine L was a rare glycosidic diterpenoid alkaloid with fructofuranoside. Most of the isolated compounds obtained from a previous study were screened for their anti-inflammatory and myocardial protective activities. The autophagy-inducing effects of some of these compounds on RAW 264.7 cells were evaluated by assessing the expression of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3-II/LC3-I). Results revealed that some compounds exerted varying levels of inhibitory effects on the proliferative activity of RAW 264.7 cells.

A unidirectional water-transport antibacterial bilayer nanofibrous dressing based on chitosan for accelerating wound healing.

Excessive accumulation of exudate from wounds often causes infection and hinders skin regeneration. To handle wound exudate quickly and prevent infection, we developed an antibacterial Janus nanofibrous dressing with a unidirectional water-transport function. The dressing consists of a hydrophilic chitosan aerogel (CS-A) as the outer layer and a hydrophobic laurylated chitosan (La-CS) nanofibrous membrane as the inner layer. These dressings achieved excellent liquid absorption performance (2987.8 ±â€¯123.5 %), air and moisture permeability (997.8 ±â€¯23.1 g/m2/day) and mechanical strength (5.1 ±â€¯2.6 MPa). This performance was obtained by adjusting the density of CS-A and the thickness of the La-CS membrane. Moreover, the dressing did not induce significant toxicity to cells and can prevent bacterial aggregation and infection at the wound site. Animal experiments showed that the dressing can shorten the inflammatory phase, enhance blood vessel generation, and accelerate collagen deposition, thus promoting wound healing. Overall, these results suggest that this Janus dressing is a promising material for clinical wound care.

Fabrication of Efficient and Simple-Structured Perovskite Solar Cells Using a Multifunctional Biocolina Surface Treatment.

The electron transport layer (ETL)-free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have gained significant interest by simplifying the manufacture process and reducing the time/energy required for the fabrication of ETLs. Unfortunately, the performance of these ETL-free PSCs still lags behind those of the conventional counterparts due to the slow electron extraction and undesired interfacial charge recombination loss at the buried interface. In this work, a facile and multifunctional biocolina thin layer is incorporated on the bottom electrodes to regulate the interface energy level alignment by forming an interface dipole layer, resulting in a suppressed nonradiative recombination and an improved charge extraction. Furthermore, the biocolina thin layer possess the capability to passivate the surface defects within the perovskite films while simultaneously facilitate the formation of perovskite crystals. Consequently, a remarkable enhancement in photovoltaic performance is observed in the biocolina-based ETL-free PSCs with an increase from 15.96% to an outstanding 20.01%. Additionally, the biocolina extends the stability and relieves the hysteresis effect through the interface defect passivation and inhibition of interface charge accumulation. This research contributes to the development of cost-effective, simplified designs for highly efficient ETL-free PSCs by modifying the bottom electrodes.

Development and therapeutic implications of small molecular inhibitors that target calcium-related channels in tumor treatment.

Calcium ion dysregulation exerts profound effects on various physiological activities such as tumor proliferation, migration, and drug resistance. Calcium-related channels play a regulatory role in maintaining calcium ion homeostasis, with most channels being highly expressed in tumor cells. Additionally, these channels serve as potential drug targets for the development of antitumor medications. In this review, we first discuss the current research status of these pathways, examining how they modulate various tumor functions such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), metabolism, and drug resistance. Simultaneously, we summarize the recent progress in the study of novel small-molecule drugs over the past 5 years and their current status.

Urgent one-stage endoscopic treatment for choledocholithiasis related moderate to severe acute cholangitis: A propensity score-matched analysis.

BACKGROUND: During emergency endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), the safety and feasibility of performing one-stage endoscopic treatment for patients with acute cholangitis (AC) due to choledocholithiasis are unclear. AIM: To investigate the safety and feasibility of one-stage endoscopic treatment for moderate to severe AC. METHODS: We enrolled all patients diagnosed with moderate to severe cholangitis due to common bile duct stones from January 2019 to July 2023. The outcomes were compared in this study between patients who underwent ERCP within 24 h and those who underwent ERCP 24 h later, employing a propensity score (PS) framework. Our primary outcomes were intensive care unit (ICU) admission rates, ICU length of stay, and duration of antibiotic use. RESULTS: In total, we included 254 patients and categorized them into two groups based on the time elapsed between admission and intervention: The urgent group (≤ 24 h, n = 102) and the elective group (> 24 h, n = 152). Ninety-three pairs of patients with similar characteristics were selected by PS matching. The urgent ERCP group had more ICU admissions (34.4% vs 21.5%, P = 0.05), shorter ICU stays (3 d vs 9 d, P < 0.001), fewer antibiotic use (6 d vs 9 d, P < 0.001), and shorter hospital stays (9 d vs 18.5 d, P < 0.001). There were no significant differences observed in adverse events, in-hospital mortality, recurrent cholangitis occurrence, 30-d readmission rate or 30-d mortality. CONCLUSION: Urgent one-stage ERCP provides the advantages of a shorter ICU stay, a shorter duration of antibiotic use, and a shorter hospital stay.

Palmatine Alleviates Particulate Matter-Induced Acute Lung Injury by Inhibiting Pyroptosis via Activating the Nrf2-Related Pathway.

Particulate matter (PM) induces and enhances oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to a variety of respiratory diseases, including acute lung injury. Exploring new treatments for PM-induced lung injury has long been of interest to researchers. Palmatine (PAL) is a natural extract derived from plants that has been reported in many studies to alleviate inflammatory diseases. Our study was designed to explore whether PAL can alleviate acute lung injury caused by PM. The acute lung injury model was established by instilling PM (4 mg/kg) into the airway of mice, and PAL (50 mg/kg and 100 m/kg) was administrated orally as the treatment groups. The effect and mechanism of PAL treatment were examined by immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, Western Blotting, ELISA, and other experiments. The results showed that oral administration of PAL (50 mg/kg and 100 m/kg) could significantly alleviate lung inflammation and acute lung injury caused by PM. In terms of mechanism, we found that PAL (50 mg/kg) exerts anti-inflammatory and anti-damage effects mainly by enhancing the activation of the Nrf2-related antioxidant pathway and inhibiting the activation of the NLRP3-related pyroptosis pathway in mice. These mechanisms have also been verified in our cell experiments. Further cell experiments showed that PAL may reduce intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) by activating Nrf2-related pathways, thereby inhibiting the activation of NLRP3-related pyroptosis pathway induced by PM in Beas-2B cell. Our study suggests that PAL can be a new option for PM-induced acute lung injury.

Efficacy and safety of combined anlotinib-oral etoposide treatment for patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Despite the availability of numerous treatment options, managing patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC) remains challenging, and the prognosis of PROC is notably unfavorable. This retrospective study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of combined anlotinib-oral etoposide treatment for patients with PROC. METHODS: Data of 23 patients who were diagnosed with PROC from January 2020 to November 2022 and treated with anlotinib combined with oral etoposide for at least 2 cycles were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Among per-protocol patients, 9 (45.0%; 95% confidence interval [CI]=21.1-68.9) of 20 patients achieved partial response and 17 (85.0%, 95% CI=67.9-100.0) of 20 patients achieved disease control. The median progression-free survival was 8.7 months (95% CI=5.3-11.6). The incidence of adverse events (any grade) was 100%, and the incidence of grade 3-4 adverse events was 54.5%. CONCLUSION: Anlotinib combined with etoposide emerged effective for the treatment of PROC.

Initial [18F]DCFPyL PET/CT in treatment-naïve prostate cancer: correlation with post-ADT PSA outcomes and recurrence.

PURPOSE: Positron emission tomography (PET) with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) targeting tracers has emerged as a valuable diagnostic tool for prostate cancer (PCa), androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) stands as the cornerstone treatment for advanced PCa, yet forecasting the response to hormonal therapy poses a significant clinical hurdle. METHODS: In a prospective cohort of 86 PCa patients undergoing short-term ADT, this study evaluated the prognostic potential of [18F]DCFPyL PET/CT scans. Comprehensive data encompassing clinical profiles, baseline prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, and imaging metrics were assessed. We developed predictive models for assessing decreases in PSA levels (PSA50 and PSA70) based on a combination of PET-related parameters and clinical factors. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was utilized to ascertain the prognostic value of PET-based metrics. RESULTS: In this study, elevated [18F]DCFPyL uptake within the primary tumor, as indicated by a SUV ≥ 6.78 (p = 0.0024), and a reduction in the tumor volume (TV) of primary PSMA-avid tumor with PSMA-TV < 41.96 cm3 (p = 0.038), as well as an increased burden of metastatic PSMA-avid tumor, with PSMA-TV (PSMA-TV ≥ 71.39 cm3) (p = 0.012) were identified in association with diminished progression-free survival (PFS). PET and clinical parameters demonstrated constrained predictive capacity for PSA50 response as indicated by an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.442. CONCLUSION: Our study revealed that pretreatment [18F]DCFPyL uptake in primary or metastatic tumor sites is prognostically relevant in high-risk PCa patients undergoing ADT. Further research is needed to develop robust predictive models in this multifaceted landscape of PCa management.

The anticancer activity of bile acids in drug discovery and development.

Bile acids (BAs) constitute essential components of cholesterol metabolites that are synthesized in the liver, stored in the gallbladder, and excreted into the intestine through the biliary system. They play a crucial role in nutrient absorption, lipid and glucose regulation, and the maintenance of metabolic homeostasis. In additional, BAs have demonstrated the ability to attenuate disease progression such as diabetes, metabolic disorders, heart disease, and respiratory ailments. Intriguingly, recent research has offered exciting evidence to unveil their potential antitumor properties against various cancer cell types including tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer, oral squamous cell carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, gastric cancer, colon cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, prostate cancer, gallbladder cancer, neuroblastoma, and others. Up to date, multiple laboratories have synthesized novel BA derivatives to develop potential drug candidates. These derivatives have exhibited the capacity to induce cell death in individual cancer cell types and display promising anti-tumor activities. This review extensively elucidates the anticancer activity of natural BAs and synthetic derivatives in cancer cells, their associated signaling pathways, and therapeutic strategies. Understanding of BAs and their derivatives activities and action mechanisms will evidently assist anticancer drug discovery and devise novel treatment.

Managing fragmented croplands for environmental and economic benefits in China.

Cropland fragmentation contributes to low productivity and high abandonment risk. Using spatial statistics on a detailed land use map, we show that 10% of Chinese croplands have no potential to be consolidated for large-scale farming (>10 ha) owing to spatial constraints. These fragmented croplands contribute only 8% of total crop production while using 15% of nitrogen fertilizers, leading to 12% of fertilizer loss in China. Optimizing the cropping structure of fragmented croplands to meet animal food demand in China can increase animal food supply by 19%, equivalent to increasing cropland proportionally. This crop-switching approach would lead to a 10% and 101% reduction in nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions, respectively, resulting in a net benefit of US$ 7 billion yr-1. If these fragmented croplands were relocated to generate large-scale farming units, livestock, vegetable and fruit production would be increased by 8%, 3% and 14%, respectively, and reactive nitrogen and greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 16% and 5%, respectively, resulting in a net benefit of US$ 44 billion yr-1. Both solutions could be used to achieve synergies between food security, economic benefits and environmental protection through increased agricultural productivity, without expanding the overall cropland area.

Development of a novel bioartificial cornea using 3D bioprinting based on electrospun micro-nanofibrous decellularized extracellular matrix.

Corneal damage contributes to blindness in millions of people. Simulating natural corneas with artificial corneas is challenging due to material and manufacturing limitations, including poor mechanical properties, complex manufacturing processes, and ocular histocompatibility. In this study, electrospun micro-nanofibrous decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) is combined with digital light processing 3D bioprinting and validated as a bioartificial cornea for the first time. Electrospinning gives the material a controllable shape, and the electrospun micro-nanofibrous dECM, with preserved inherent biochemical components, can better mimic the natural ECM native microenvironment. An efficient platform can be developed for creating novel structural materials, when combined with intelligent manufacturing. Artificial biological corneas developed using this method showed five-fold improvements in mechanical properties (248.5 ± 35.67 kPa vs. 56.91 ± 3.68 kPa,p< 0.001), superior guidance for cell organization and adhesion, and better maintenance of the cellular phenotype of keratocytes. In animal studies,in vivotransplantation of this artificial cornea showed better regeneration, which accelerated corneal epithelialization and maintained corneal transparency. This method has potential for biomedical applications, and bioartificial corneas manufactured by this method have ideal properties as an alternative to lamellar keratoplasty, with promise for clinical transformation.

FPLS-DC: functional partial least squares through distance covariance for imaging genetics.

MOTIVATION: Imaging genetics integrates imaging and genetic techniques to examine how genetic variations influence the function and structure of organs like the brain or heart, providing insights into their impact on behavior and disease phenotypes. The use of organ-wide imaging endophenotypes has increasingly been used to identify potential genes associated with complex disorders. However, analyzing organ-wide imaging data alongside genetic data presents two significant challenges: high dimensionality and complex relationships. To address these challenges, we propose a novel, nonlinear inference framework designed to partially mitigate these issues. RESULTS: We propose a functional partial least squares through distance covariance (FPLS-DC) framework for efficient genome wide analyses of imaging phenotypes. It consists of two components. The first component utilizes the FPLS-derived base functions to reduce image dimensionality while screening genetic markers. The second component maximizes the distance correlation between genetic markers and projected imaging data, which is a linear combination of the FPLS-basis functions, using simulated annealing algorithm. In addition, we proposed an iterative FPLS-DC method based on FPLS-DC framework, which effectively overcomes the influence of inter-gene correlation on inference analysis. We efficiently approximate the null distribution of test statistics using a gamma approximation. Compared to existing methods, FPLS-DC offers computational and statistical efficiency for handling large-scale imaging genetics. In real-world applications, our method successfully detected genetic variants associated with the hippocampus, demonstrating its value as a statistical toolbox for imaging genetic studies. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The FPLS-DC method we propose opens up new research avenues and offers valuable insights for analyzing functional and high-dimensional data. In addition, it serves as a useful tool for scientific analysis in practical applications within the field of imaging genetics research. The R package FPLS-DC is available in Github: https://github.com/BIG-S2/FPLSDC.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of lycoctonine derivatives with cardiotonic and calcium channels inhibitory activities.

In our previous study, a screening of a variety of lycotonine-type diterpenoid alkaloids were screened for cardiotonic activity revealed that lycoctonine had moderate cardiac effect. In this study, a series of structurally diverse of lycoctonine were synthesized by modifying on B-ring, D-ring, E-ring, F-ring, N-atom or salt formation on lycoctonine skeleton. We evaluated the cardiotonic activity of the derivatives by isolated frog heart, aiming to identify some compounds with significantly enhanced cardiac effects, among which compound 27 with a N-isobutyl group emerged as the most promising cardiotonic candidate. Furthermore, the cardiotonic mechanism of compound 27 was preliminarily investigated. The result suggested that the cardiotonic effect of compound 27 is related to calcium channels. Patch clamp technique confirmed that the compound 27 had inhibitory effects on CaV1.2 and CaV3.2, with inhibition rates of 78.52 % ± 2.26 % and 79.05 % ± 1.59 % at the concentration of 50 µM, respectively. Subsequently, the protective effect of 27 on H9c2 cells injury induced by cobalt chloride was tested. In addition, compound 27 can alleviate CoCl2-induced myocardial injury by alleviating calcium overload. These findings suggest that compound 27 was a new structural derived from lycoctonine, which may serve as a new lead compound for the treatment of heart failure.

A novel dual-activatable ultrasensitive chemiluminescent probe for mercury (II) monitoring: From rational design to multiple application.

Real-time optical sensing of mercury has been developed rapidly in recent years but remains challenging such as bearing background interference. Herein, a Hg2+ and base dual-activatable ultrasensitive chemiluminescent probe CL-Hg based on benzothiazole-phenoxyl-dioxetane with profits of excitation light-free and minimal interference is presented. The photophysical properties study and sensing performance verified CL-Hg is coupled with unique advantages of long-term detection (more than 400 min), ultrahigh sensitivity (LOD = 0.52 nM), and high specificity to Hg2+, and visualization detection by the paper-based test strips. More importantly, CL-Hg showed the qualitative and quantitative detection capability for Hg2+ with great recyclability in real samples of water, seafood, and beverages, holding great potential for on-site monitoring of Hg2+ levels in the actual samples. To our knowledge, this is the first work achieving the detection of Hg2+ by chemiluminescence. Overall, the Hg2+-activated visualization platform offers a practical method for detecting Hg2+ in various application scenarios.

Native architecture of a human GBP1 defense complex for cell-autonomous immunity to infection.

All living organisms deploy cell-autonomous defenses to combat infection. In plants and animals, large supramolecular complexes often activate immune proteins for protection. In this work, we resolved the native structure of a massive host-defense complex that polymerizes 30,000 guanylate-binding proteins (GBPs) over the surface of gram-negative bacteria inside human cells. Construction of this giant nanomachine took several minutes and remained stable for hours, required guanosine triphosphate hydrolysis, and recruited four GBPs plus caspase-4 and Gasdermin D as a cytokine and cell death immune signaling platform. Cryo-electron tomography suggests that GBP1 can adopt an extended conformation for bacterial membrane insertion to establish this platform, triggering lipopolysaccharide release that activated coassembled caspase-4. Our "open conformer" model provides a dynamic view into how the human GBP1 defense complex mobilizes innate immunity to infection.

Congenital heart disease detection by pediatric electrocardiogram based deep learning integrated with human concepts.

Early detection is critical to achieving improved treatment outcomes for child patients with congenital heart diseases (CHDs). Therefore, developing effective CHD detection techniques using low-cost and non-invasive pediatric electrocardiogram are highly desirable. We propose a deep learning approach for CHD detection, CHDdECG, which automatically extracts features from pediatric electrocardiogram and wavelet transformation characteristics, and integrates them with key human-concept features. Developed on 65,869 cases, CHDdECG achieved ROC-AUC of 0.915 and specificity of 0.881 on a real-world test set covering 12,000 cases. Additionally, on two external test sets with 7137 and 8121 cases, the overall ROC-AUC were 0.917 and 0.907 while specificities were 0.937 and 0.907. Notably, CHDdECG surpassed cardiologists in CHD detection performance comparison, and feature importance scores suggested greater influence of automatically extracted electrocardiogram features on CHD detection compared with human-concept features, implying that CHDdECG may grasp some knowledge beyond human cognition. Our study directly impacts CHD detection with pediatric electrocardiogram and demonstrates the potential of pediatric electrocardiogram for broader benefits.