Resveratrol activates MAPK/ERK pathway to regulate oestrogen metabolism in type I endometrial cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Endometrial cancer (EC) is an oestrogen-dependent tumour, the occurrence of which is closely related to an imbalance of oestrogen homeostasis. Our previous studies explored the effects of Resveratrol(Res) on oestrogen metabolism. However, systematic research on the exact mechanism of action of Res is still lacking. Based on network pharmacology, molecular docking and animal experiments, the effects and molecular mechanisms of Res on endometrial cancer were investigated. METHODS: The target of Res was obtained from the high-throughput experiment and reference-guided database of TCM (HERB) and the Encyclopedia of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ETCM) databases, and the target of endometrial cancer was obtained by using the Genecards database. Venny map was used to obtain the intersection target of Res in the treatment of endometrial cancer, and the protein interaction network of the intersection target was constructed by importing the data into the STRING database. Then, the drug-disease-target interaction network was constructed based on Cytoscape 3.9.1 software. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed for intersection targets using the OmicShare cloud platform. Res and core targets were analysed by molecular docking. EC model mice induced by MNNG were randomly divided into the control group, Res group, MNNG group, MNNG + Res group, and MNNG + Res + MAPK/ERKi group. The protein levels of ERK and p-ERK in the mouse uterus were detected by Western blot. The levels of E1, E2, E3, 16-epiE3, 17-epiE3, 2-MeOE1, 4-MeOE1, 2-MeOE2, 4-MeOE2, 3-MeOE1, 2-OHE1, 4-OHE1, 2-OHE2, 4-OHE2, and 16α-OHE1 in the serum and endometrial tissue of mice were measured by LC‒MS/MS. RESULTS: A total of 174 intersection targets of Res anti-endometrial cancer were obtained. The signalling pathways analysed by KEGG enrichment included the AGE-RAGE signalling pathway in diabetic complications, the PI3K-Akt signalling pathway and the MAPK signalling pathway. The top 10 core targets were MAPK3, JUN, TP53, CASP3, TNF, IL1B, AKT1, FOS, VEGFA and INS. Molecular docking showed that in addition to TNF, other targets had good affinity for Res, and the binding activity with MAPK3 was stable. Western blot results showed that Res increased the phosphorylation level of ERK and that MAPK/ERKi decreased ERK activation. In the LC-MS/MS analysis, the levels of 2-MeOE1, 2-MeOE2 and 4-MeOE1 in serum and uterine tissue showed a significantly decreasing trend in the MNNG group, while that of 4-OHE2 was increased (P < 0.05). The concentrations of 4-MeOE1 in serum and 2-MeOE1 and 2-MeOE2 in the endometrial tissue of mice were significantly increased after Res treatment, and those of 4-OHE2 in the serum and uterus of mice were significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, in the MAPK/ERKi intervention group, the effect of Res on the reversal of oestrogen homeostasis imbalance was obviously weakened. CONCLUSION: Res has multiple targets and multiple approaches in the treatment of endometrial cancer. In this study, it was found that Res regulates oestrogen metabolism by activating the MAPK/ERK pathway. This finding provides a new perspective for subsequent research on the treatment of endometrial cancer.

Effectiveness and Safety of Chinese Herbal Injections Combined with SOX Chemotherapy Regimens for Advanced Gastric Cancer: a Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis.

Background: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have demonstrated that combining Chinese herbal injections (CHIs) with oxaliplatin plus tegafur (SOX) chemotherapy regimens improves clinical effectiveness and reduces adverse reactions in patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC). These RCTs highlight the potential applications of CHIs and their impact on AGC patient prognosis. However, there is insufficient comparative evidence on the clinical effectiveness and safety of different CHIs when combined with SOX. Therefore, we performed a network meta-analysis to rank the clinical effectiveness and safety of different CHIs when combined with SOX chemotherapy regimens. This study aimed to provide evidence for selecting appropriate CHIs in the treatment of patients with AGC. Methods: We searched eight databases from their inception until March 2023. Surface Under the Cumulative Ranking Curve (SUCRA) probability values were used to rank the treatment measures, and the Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis (CINeMA) software assessed the grading of evidence. Results: A total of 51 RCTs involving 3,703 AGC patients were identified. Huachansu injections + SOX demonstrated the highest clinical effectiveness (SUCRA: 78.17%), significantly reducing the incidence of leukopenia (93.35%), thrombocytopenia (80.19%), and nausea and vomiting (95.15%). Shenfu injections + SOX improved Karnofsky's Performance Status (75.59%) and showed a significant reduction in peripheral neurotoxicity incidence (88.26%). Aidi injections + SOX were most effective in reducing the incidence of liver function damage (75.16%). According to CINeMA, most confidence rating results were classified as "low". Conclusion: The combination of CHIs and SOX shows promising effects in the treatment of AGC compared to SOX alone. Huachansu and Shenfu injections offer the greatest overall advantage among the CHIs, while Aidi injections are optimal for reducing the incidence of liver damage. However, further rigorous RCTs with larger sample sizes and additional pharmacological studies are necessary to reinforce these findings.

Novel flavonoid 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives ameliorate MPTP-induced Parkinson's disease via Nrf2/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with a complex etiology. Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are important factors driving the progression of PD. It has been reported that 1,3,4-oxadiazole and flavone derivatives have numerous biological functions, especially in the aspect of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Based on the strategy of pharmacodynamic combination, we introduced 1,3,4-oxadiazole moiety into the flavonoid backbone, designed and synthesized a series of novel flavonoid 1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives. Further, we evaluated their toxicity, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities using BV2 microglia. Following a comprehensive analysis, compound F12 showed the best pharmacological activity. In vivo, we induced the classical PD animal model by intraperitoneal injection of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) into C57/BL6J mice. Our results showed that compound F12 ameliorated MPTP-induced dysfunction in mice. Further, compound F12 reduced oxidative stress by promoting the nucleation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and decreased the inflammatory response by inhibiting the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in vivo and in vitro. Meanwhile, compound F12 inhibited the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway to rescue microglia inflammation-mediated loss of dopaminergic neurons. In conclusion, compound F12 reduced oxidative stress and inflammation and could be as a potential agent for PD treatment.

16α-OHE1, a novel oestrogen metabolite, attenuates dysfunction of left ventricle contractility via regulation of autophagy after myocardial ischemia and reperfusion.

BACKGROUND: Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (MI/R) can exacerbate the initial cardiac damage in the myocardial functional changes, including dysfunction of left ventricular contractility. Oestrogen has been proven to protect the cardiovascular system. However, whether the oestrogen or its metabolites play the main role in attenuating dysfunction of left ventricular contractility is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: This study used the LC-MS/MS to detect oestrogen and its metabolites in clinical serum samples (n = 62) with heart diseases. After correlation analysis with markers of myocardial injury including cTnI (P < 0.01), CK-MB (P < 0.05), and D-Dimer (P < 0.001), 16α-OHE1 was identified. The result from LC-MS/MS in female and ovariectomised (OVX) rat serum samples (n = 5) matched the findings in patients. In MI/R model of animal, the recovery of left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP), rate pressure product (RPP), dp/dtmax and dp/dtmin after MI/R in OVX or male group were worsened than those in female group. Also, the infarction area of OVX or male group was larger than that in females (n = 5, p < 0.01). Furthermore, LC3 II in the left ventricle of OVX and male group was lower than that in females (n = 5, p < 0.01) by immunofluorescence. In H9C2 cells, after the application of 16α-OHE1, the number of autophagosomes was further increased and other organelles improved in MI/R. Simultaneously, LC3 II, Beclin1, ATG5, and p-AMPK/AMPK were increased, and p-mTOR/mTOR was decreased (n = 3, p < 0.01) by Simple Western. CONCLUSION: 16α-OHE1 could attenuate left ventricle contractility dysfunction via autophagy regulation after MI/R, which also offered fresh perspectives on therapeutical treatment for attenuating MI/R injury.

High-Speed Variable Polynomial Toeplitz Hash Algorithm Based on FPGA.

In the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) network, authentication protocols play a critical role in safeguarding data interactions among users. To keep pace with the rapid advancement of QKD technology, authentication protocols must be capable of processing data at faster speeds. The Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), which functions as a cryptographic hash function, is a key technology in digital authentication. Irreducible polynomials can serve as characteristic functions of the Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR) to rapidly generate pseudo-random sequences, which in turn form the foundation of the hash algorithm. Currently, the most prevalent approach to hardware implementation involves performing block computations and pipeline data processing of the Toeplitz matrix in the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to reach a maximum computing rate of 1 Gbps. However, this approach employs a fixed irreducible polynomial as the characteristic polynomial of the LFSR, which results in computational inefficiency as the highest bit of the polynomial restricts the width of parallel processing. Moreover, an attacker could deduce the irreducible polynomials utilized by an algorithm based on the output results, creating a serious concealed security risk. This paper proposes a method to use FPGA to implement variational irreducible polynomials based on a hashing algorithm. Our method achieves an operational rate of 6.8 Gbps by computing equivalent polynomials and updating the Toeplitz matrix with pipeline operations in real-time, which accelerates the authentication protocol while also significantly enhancing its security. Moreover, the optimization of this algorithm can be extended to quantum randomness extraction, leading to a considerable increase in the generation rate of random numbers.

Source-independent quantum random number generator against tailored detector blinding attacks.

Randomness, mainly in the form of random numbers, is the fundamental prerequisite for the security of many cryptographic tasks. Quantum randomness can be extracted even if adversaries are fully aware of the protocol and even control the randomness source. However, an adversary can further manipulate the randomness via tailored detector blinding attacks, which are hacking attacks suffered by protocols with trusted detectors. Here, by treating no-click events as valid events, we propose a quantum random number generation protocol that can simultaneously address source vulnerability and ferocious tailored detector blinding attacks. The method can be extended to high-dimensional random number generation. We experimentally demonstrate the ability of our protocol to generate random numbers for two-dimensional measurement with a generation speed of 0.1 bit per pulse.

Rational Design of Monolithic g-C3N4 with Floating Network Porous-like Sponge Monolithic Structure for Boosting Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline under Simulated and Natural Sunlight Illumination.

In order to solve the problems of powder g-C3N4 catalysts being difficult to recycle and prone to secondary pollution, floating network porous-like sponge monolithic structure g-C3N4 (FSCN) was prepared with a one-step thermal condensation method using melamine sponge, urea, and melamine as raw materials. The phase composition, morphology, size, and chemical elements of the FSCN were studied using XRD, SEM, XPS, and UV-visible spectrophotometry. Under simulated sunlight, the removal rate for 40 mg·L-1 tetracycline (TC) by FSCN reached 76%, which was 1.2 times that of powder g-C3N4. Under natural sunlight illumination, the TC removal rate of FSCN was 70.4%, which was only 5.6% lower than that of a xenon lamp. In addition, after three repeated uses, the removal rates of the FSCN and powder g-C3N4 samples decreased by 1.7% and 2.9%, respectively, indicating that FSCN had better stability and reusability. The excellent photocatalytic activity of FSCN benefits from its three-dimensional-network sponge-like structure and outstanding light absorption properties. Finally, a possible degradation mechanism for the FSCN photocatalyst was proposed. This photocatalyst can be used as a floating catalyst for the treatment of antibiotics and other types of water pollution, providing ideas for the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants in practical applications.

NeRC: Rendering Planar Caustics by Learning Implicit Neural Representations.

Caustics are challenging light transport effects for photo-realistic rendering. Photon mapping techniques play a fundamental role in rendering caustics. However, photon mapping methods render single caustics under the stationary light source in a fixed scene view. They require significant storage and computing resources to produce high-quality results. In this paper, we propose efficiently rendering more diverse caustics of a scene with the camera and the light source moving. We present a novel learning-based volume rendering approach with implicit representations for our proposed task. Considering the variety of materials and textures of planar caustic receivers, we decompose the output appearance into two components: the diffuse and specular parts with a probabilistic module. Unlike NeRF, we construct weights for rendering each component from the implicit signed distance function (SDF). Moreover, we introduce the centering calibration and the sine activation function to improve the performance of the color prediction network. Extensive experiments on the synthetic and real-world datasets illustrate that our method achieves much better performance than baselines in the quantitative and qualitative comparison, for rendering caustics in novel views with the dynamic light source. Especially, our method outperforms the baseline on the temporal consistency across frames. Code will be available at https://github.com/JiaxiongQ/NeRC.

Roxadustat alleviates nitroglycerin-induced migraine in mice by regulating HIF-1α/NF-κB/inflammation pathway.

Sensitization of central pain and inflammatory pathways play essential roles in migraine, a primary neurobiological headache disorder. Since hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is implicated in neuroprotection and inflammation inhibition, herein we investigated the role of HIF-1α in migraine. A chronic migraine model was established in mice by repeated injection of nitroglycerin (10 mg/kg, i.p.) every other day for 5 total injections. In the prevention and acute experiments, roxadustat, a HIF-1α stabilizer, was orally administered starting before or after nitroglycerin injection, respectively. Pressure application measurement, and tail flick and light-aversive behaviour tests were performed to determine the pressure pain threshold, thermal nociceptive sensitivity and migraine-related light sensitivity. At the end of experiments, mouse serum samples and brain tissues were collected for analyses. We showed that roxadustat administration significantly attenuated nitroglycerin-induced basal hypersensitivity and acute hyperalgesia by improving central sensitization. Roxadustat administration also decreased inflammatory cytokine levels in serum and trigeminal nucleus caudalis (TNC) through NF-κB pathway. Consistent with the in vivo results showing that roxadustat inhibited microglia activation, roxadustat (2, 10, and 20 µM) dose-dependently reduced ROS generation and inflammation in LPS-stimulated BV-2 cells, a mouse microglia cell line, by inhibiting HIF-1α/NF-κB pathway. Taken together, this study demonstrates that roxadustat administration ameliorates migraine-like behaviours and inhibits central pain sensitization in nitroglycerin-injected mice, which is mainly mediated by HIF-1α/NF-κB/inflammation pathway, suggesting the potential of HIF-1α activators as therapeutics for migraine.

[The first metatarsophalangeal joint fusion combined with lateral toe rotation Weil osteotomy for hallux valgus with severe metatarsal adduction].

OBJECTIVE: To explore clinical effect of the first metatarsophalangeal joint fusion combined with lateral toe rotation Weil osteotomy in treating hallux valgus with severe metatarsal adduction. METHODS: From March 2017 to August 2021, 37 patients ( 69 feet ) with severe plantar adductor hallux valgus were treated with the first metatarsophalangeal joint fusion combined with rotational Weil osteotomy were retrospectively analyzed, including 8 males(11 feet) and 29 females (58 feet), aged from 67 to 83 years old with an average of (70.03±2.87) years old;3 cases on the left side, 2 cases on the right side and 32 cases on both sides. Visual analogue scale(VAS) was used to evaluate degree of pain relief before operation, 6 weeks after operation and at the final follow-up. American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Surgery (AOFAS) forefoot score was used to evaluate function of the affected foot before operation and final follow-up. Hallux valgus angle(HVA) and intermetatarsal angle(IMA) were measured before operation and at the final follow-up. RESULTS: Thirty-seven patients(69 feet) were followed up from 12 to 48 months with an average of(22.8±0.6) months. Bone healing was achieved at the first metatarsophalangeal joint from 7 to 10 weeks with an average of (8.00±1.21) weeks after operation, without delay and nonunion. HVA was increased from (44.30±2.84)° before operation to (15.20±2.13) °at the final follow-up, and had statistical difference(t=65.781, P<0.05);while no difference in IMA before and after operation(P>0.05). VAS was decreased from (6.73±1.48) points to (2.78±0.71) points at 6 months after operation(t=3.279, P<0.05), and had difference compared with the latest follow-up(1.16±1.12)(t=4.859, P<0.05). AOFAS forefoot score increased from (52.14±5.78) preoperatively to (86.70±4.86) at the fonal follow-up, and 25 feet got excellent results, 40 feet good and 4 feet fair. CONCLUSION: The first metatarsophalangeal joint fusion combined with lateral toe rotation Weil osteotomy in treating severe plantar adduction hallux valgus could significantly relieve pain and appearance of forefoot, stabilize the first sequence, and significantly improve walking function.

Experimental measurement-device-independent type quantum key distribution with flawed and correlated sources.

The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) is severely threatened by discrepancies between realistic devices and theoretical assumptions. Recently, a significant framework called the reference technique was proposed to provide security against arbitrary source flaws under current technology such as state preparation flaws, side channels caused by mode dependencies, the Trojan horse attacks and pulse correlations. Here, we adopt the reference technique to prove security of an efficient four-phase measurement-device-independent QKD using laser pulses against potential source imperfections. We present a characterization of source flaws and connect them to experiments, together with a finite-key analysis against coherent attacks. In addition, we demonstrate the feasibility of our protocol through a proof-of-principle experimental implementation and achieve a secure key rate of 253 bps with a 20 dB channel loss. Compared with previous QKD protocols with imperfect devices, our study considerably improves both the secure key rate and the transmission distance, and shows application potential in the practical deployment of secure QKD with device imperfections.

A Comprehensive Identification and Expression Analysis of VQ Motif-Containing Proteins in Sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum L.) under Phytohormone Treatment and Cold Stress.

The VQ motif-containing proteins play a vital role in various processes such as growth, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses and development. However, there is currently no report on the VQ genes in sugarcane (Saccharum spp.). Herein, 78 VQ genes in Saccharum spontaneum were identified and classified into nine subgroups (I-IX) by comparative genomic analyses. Each subgroup had a similar structural and conservative motif. These VQ genes expanded mainly through whole-genome segmental duplication. The cis-regulatory elements (CREs) of the VQ genes were widely involved in stress responses, phytohormone responses and physiological regulation. The RNA-seq data showed that SsVQ gene expression patterns in 10 different samples, including different developmental stages, revealed distinct temporal and spatial patterns. A total of 23 SsVQ genes were expressed in all tissues, whereas 13 SsVQ genes were not expressed in any tissues. Sequence Read Archive (SRA) data showed that the majority of SsVQs responded to cold and drought stress. In addition, quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the SsVQs were variously expressed under salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), abscisic acid (ABA) and cold treatment. This study conducted a full-scale analysis of the VQ gene family in sugarcane, which could be beneficial for the functional characterization of sugarcane VQ genes and provide candidate genes for molecular resistance breeding in cultivated sugarcane in the future.

The causal relationship between sleep traits and the risk of schizophrenia: a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND: Observational studies suggest that sleep disturbances are commonly associated with schizophrenia. However, it is uncertain whether this relationship is causal. To investigate the bidirectional causal relation between sleep traits and schizophrenia, we performed a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study with the fixed effects inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. METHODS: As genetic variants for sleep traits, we selected variants from each meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) conducted using data from the UK Biobank (UKB). RESULTS: We found that morning diurnal preference was associated with a lower risk of schizophrenia, while long sleep duration and daytime napping were associated with a higher risk of schizophrenia. Multivariable MR analysis also showed that sleep duration was associated with a higher risk of schizophrenia after adjusting for other sleep traits. Furthermore, genetically predicted schizophrenia was negatively associated with morning diurnal preference and short sleep duration and was positively associated with daytime napping and long sleep duration. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, sleep traits were identified as a potential treatment target for patients with schizophrenia.

Exploiting Spin Fluctuations for Enhanced Pure Spin Current.

We demonstrate the interplay of pure spin current, spin-polarized current, and spin fluctuation in 3d Ni_{x}Cu_{1-x}. By tuning the compositions of the Ni_{x}Cu_{1-x} alloys, we separate the effects due to the pure spin current and spin-polarized current. By exploiting the interaction of spin current with spin fluctuation in suitable Ni-Cu alloys, we obtain an unprecedentedly high spin Hall angle of 46%, about 5 times larger than that in Pt, at room temperature. Furthermore, we show that spin-dependent thermal transport via anomalous Nernst effect can serve as a sensitive magnetometer to electrically probe the magnetic phase transitions in thin films with in-plane anisotropy. The enhancement of spin Hall angle by exploiting spin current fluctuation via composition control makes 3d magnets functional materials in charge-to-spin conversion for spintronic application.

A new and systematic review on the efficiency and mechanism of different techniques for OPFRs removal from aqueous environments.

Organic phosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs), as a new type of emerging contaminant, have drawn great attention over the last few years, due to their wide distribution in aquatic environments and potential toxicities to humans and living beings. Various treatment methods have been reported to remove OPFRs from water or wastewater. In this review, the performances and mechanisms for OPFRs removal with different methods including adsorption, oxidation, reduction and biological techniques are overviewed and discussed. Each technique possesses its advantage and limitation, which is compared in the paper. The degradation pathways of typical OPFRs pollutants, such as Cl-OPFRs, alkyl OPFRs and aryl OPFRs, are also reviewed and compared. The degradation of those OPFRs depends heavily upon their structures and properties. Furthermore, the implications and future perspectives in such area are discussed. The review may help identify the research priorities for OPFRs remediation and understand the fate of OPFRs during the treatment processes.

Printed Ultrastable Bioplasmonic Microarrays for Point-of-Need Biosensing.

Paper-based point-of-need (PON) biosensors are attractive for various applications, including food safety, agriculture, disease diagnosis, and drug screening, owing to their low cost and ease of use. However, existing paper-based biosensors mainly rely on biolabels, colorimetric reagents, and biorecognition elements and exhibit limited stability under harsh environments. Here, we report a label-free paper-based biosensor composed of bioplasmonic microarrays for sensitive detection and quantification of protein targets in small volumes of biofluids. Bioplasmonic microarrays were printed using an ultrastable bioplasmonic ink, rendering the PON sensors excellent thermal, chemical, and biological stability for their reliable performance in resource-limited settings. We fabricated silicone hydrophobic barriers and bioplasmonic microarrays with direct writing and droplet jetting approaches on a three-dimensional (3D) nanoporous paper. Direct writing hydrophobic barriers can define hydrophilic channels less than 100 µm wide. High-resolution patterning of hydrophilic test domains enables the handling and analysis of small fluid volumes. We show that the plasmonic sensors based on a vertical flow assay provide similar sensitivity and low limit of detection with a 60 µL sample volume compared to those with 500 µL samples based on an immersion approach and can shorten assay time from 90 to 20 min.

Turn-on fluorescence ferrous ions detection based on MnO2 nanosheets modified upconverion nanoparticles.

A turn on upconversion fluorescence probe based on the combination of ~32 nm NaYF4: Yb/Tm nanoparticles and MnO2 nanosheets has been established for rapid, sensitive detection of Fe2+ ions levels in aqueous solutions and serum. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), absorption and emission spectra have been used to characterize the crystal structure, morphology and optical properties of the samples. MnO2 nanosheets on the surface of UCNPs act as a fluorescence quencher, resulting in the quenching of the blue fluorescence (with excitation/emission maximum of 980/476 nm) via fluorescence resonance energy transfer from upconversion nanoparticles to MnO2 nanosheets. With the adding of Fe2+, upconversion fluorescence of the nanocomposites recovers due to the reduction of MnO2 to Mn2+. Because of the low background of the probe offered by upconversion fluorescence, this probe can be used for detecting Fe2+ in aqueous solutions in the range of 0.1-22 µM with detection limit of 0.113 µM. The developed method has also been applied to detect 10 µM Fe2+ ions in serum with recoveries ranging from 97.6 to 105.3% for the five serum samples. Significantly, the probe shows fast response and stable signal, which is beneficial for long-time dynamic sensing. Thus, the proposed strategy holds great potential for disease diagnosis and treatment.

Enhanced photocatalytic performance of visible-light-driven CuOx/TiO2-x for degradation of gaseous formaldehyde: Roles of oxygen vacancies and nano copper oxides.

Photocatalysis is an effective method for the removal of formaldehyde (HCHO), and high-efficiency visible-light-driven photocatalysts were urgently required. Herein, oxygen vacancies (OVs) and nano copper oxides (CuOx) synergistically modified TiO2 (CuOx/TiO2-x) photocatalysts were synthesized by one-step hydrothermal followed by impregnation method. The photocatalytic decomposition of HCHO reached 100% at initial concentration of 180 ppm under relative humidity (RH) = 60% by 0.1g CuOx/TiO2-x in 150 min visible light irradiation. Characterization results explored the complementary effect of OVs and CuOx systematically. The OVs increased the separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers and act as adsorption/active sites in HCHO photocatalytic oxidation. The moisture and O2 were adsorbed and actived by OVs to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). After doped CuOx on the surface of TiO2-x, the photoexcited electrons in Cu2O could transfer to the conduction band (CB) of TiO2-x and the photoexcited electrons of TiO2-x could be captured by Cu nanoparticles. Therefore, more ROS were generated due to the synergistic effect of OVs and CuOx. The In-situ Fourier transform infrared (in-situ FTIR) measurements show the hydroxyl radical (•OH) was the dominant radical in HCHO photocatalytic oxidation, while •O2- could also upgrade the photodegradation efficiency of HCHO. Furthermore, the stability tests showed the degradation efficiency of HCHO still reached 90% after five recycles, indicating that CuOx/TiO2-x nanocomposites displayed a stable and high photoactivity in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) decomposition.

A novel UV, moisture and magnetic field triple-response smart insulating material achieving highly targeted self-healing based on nano-functionalized microcapsules.

During the long-term operation of solid insulation materials, strong electric fields and mechanical stress cause electrical trees and cracks that are undetectable and irreversible, leading to the failure of electronic and electrical devices. A promising means of protecting against these problems is to endow the insulating materials with some self-healing capability alongside their excellent intrinsic properties. However, this has proved extremely challenging. In this paper, we describe an ultraviolet light, moisture, and magnetic field triple-response microcapsule that enables epoxy resin materials to heal themselves against various forms of damage without affecting the intrinsic performance of the matrix. In particular, microcapsules wrapped inside functional shells containing Fe3O4 nanoparticles are precisely controlled by a targeted magnetic field and distributed in the vulnerable area of the insulation materials, resulting in a high healing rate at low doping concentrations. Using the in situ ultraviolet light emitted by the electrical trees, artificial ultraviolet light, and moisture in the operating environment, it is possible to induce active or passive curing of the healing agent, thus realizing the intelligent, non-contact, and targeted self-healing of mechanical cracks and electrical tree damage. This method opens an avenue toward the development of self-healing insulation materials for electrical and electronic applications.