Radiative cooling for vertical solar panels.

Radiative cooling presents a method for reducing the operational temperature of solar panels without additional energy consumption. However, its applicability to PV modules has been limited by the thermal properties of existing materials. To overcome these challenges, we introduce a V-shaped design that enhances cooling in vertical PV modules by effectively harnessing thermal radiation from both the front and rear sides, resulting in a substantial temperature reduction of 10.6°C under 1 sun illumination in controlled laboratory conditions. Field tests conducted in warm and humid conditions, specifically in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, demonstrate a remarkable 15% increase in efficiency while maintaining an operating temperature 0.2°C lower than that of conventional horizontal PV modules, corresponding to a significant 16.8% increase in power output. Our innovative V-shaped design offers a promising thermal strategy suitable for diverse climates, contributing to improved performance and reduced module temperatures, thereby supporting the global pursuit of carbon neutrality.

Eggshell Biowaste-Derived Flexible and Self-Cleaning Films for Efficient Subambient Daytime Radiative Cooling.

The management of the abundant eggshell biowaste produced worldwide has become a problematic issue due to the generated odor and microorganisms after direct disposal of the eggshell biowaste in landfills. Herein, we propose a new method to convert the hazardous eggshell biowaste to valuable resources for energy management applications. Eggshell-based films are fabricated by embedding eggshell powders into a polymer matrix to achieve highly efficient subambient daytime radiative cooling. Benefiting from the Mie scattering of the eggshell particles/air pores in the solar spectrum and the strong emission of the eggshell in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) range, the eggshell-based films present a high reflection of 0.96 in the solar spectrum and a high emission of 0.95 in the mid-IR range, with notable average temperature reductions of 4.1 and 11 °C below the ambient temperature during daytime and nighttime, respectively. Moreover, the eggshell-based films exhibit excellent flexibility and self-cleaning properties, which are beneficial for practical long-term outdoor applications. Our proposed design provides a new means for environmentally friendly and sustainable management of eggshell biowaste.

SEVERE BURN-INDUCED MITOCHONDRIAL RECRUITMENT OF CALPAIN CAUSES ABERRANT MITOCHONDRIAL DYNAMICS AND HEART DYSFUNCTION.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondrial damage is an important cause of heart dysfunction after severe burn injury. However, the pathophysiological process remains unclear. This study aims to examine the mitochondrial dynamics in the heart and the role of µ-calpain, a cysteine protease, in this scenario. Rats were subjected to severe burn injury treatment, and the calpain inhibitor MDL28170 was administered intravenously 1 h before or after burn injury. Rats in the burn group displayed weakened heart performance and decreased mean arterial pressure, which was accompanied by a diminishment of mitochondrial function. The animals also exhibited higher levels of calpain in mitochondria, as reflected by immunofluorescence staining and activity tests. In contrast, treatment with MDL28170 before any severe burn diminished these responses to a severe burn. Burn injury decreased the abundance of mitochondria and resulted in a lower percentage of small mitochondria and a higher percentage of large mitochondria. Furthermore, burn injury caused an increase in the fission protein DRP1 in the mitochondria and a decrease in the inner membrane fusion protein OPA1. Similarly, these alterations were also blocked by MDL28170. Of note, inhibition of calpain yielded the emergence of more elongated mitochondria along with membrane invagination in the middle of the longitude, which is an indicator of the fission process. Finally, MDL28170, administered 1 h after burn injury, preserved mitochondrial function and heart performance, and increased the survival rate. Overall, these results provided the first evidence that mitochondrial recruitment of calpain confers heart dysfunction after severe burn injury, which involves aberrant mitochondrial dynamics.

Carbon Additive Manufacturing with a Near-Replica "Green-to-Brown" Transformation.

Nanocomposites containing nanoscale materials offer exciting opportunities to encode nanoscale features into macroscale dimensions, which produces unprecedented impact in material design and application. However, conventional methods cannot process nanocomposites with a high particle loading, as well as nanocomposites with the ability to be tailored at multiple scales. A composite architected mesoscale process strategy that brings particle loading nanoscale materials combined with multiscale features including nanoscale manipulation, mesoscale architecture, and macroscale formation to create spatially programmed nanocomposites with high particle loading and multiscale tailorability is reported. The process features a low-shrinking (<10%) "green-to-brown" transformation, making a near-geometric replica of the 3D design to produce a "brown" part with full nanomaterials to allow further matrix infill. This demonstration includes additively manufactured carbon nanocomposites containing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and thermoset epoxy, leading to multiscale CNTs tailorability, performance improvement, and 3D complex geometry feasibility. The process can produce nanomaterial-assembled architectures with 3D geometry and multiscale features and can incorporate a wide range of matrix materials, such as polymers, metals, and ceramics, to fabricate nanocomposites for new device structures and applications.

Imaging-based intelligent spectrometer on a plasmonic rainbow chip.

Compact, lightweight, and on-chip spectrometers are required to develop portable and handheld sensing and analysis applications. However, the performance of these miniaturized systems is usually much lower than their benchtop laboratory counterparts due to oversimplified optical architectures. Here, we develop a compact plasmonic "rainbow" chip for rapid, accurate dual-functional spectroscopic sensing that can surpass conventional portable spectrometers under selected conditions. The nanostructure consists of one-dimensional or two-dimensional graded metallic gratings. By using a single image obtained by an ordinary camera, this compact system can accurately and precisely determine the spectroscopic and polarimetric information of the illumination spectrum. Assisted by suitably trained deep learning algorithms, we demonstrate the characterization of optical rotatory dispersion of glucose solutions at two-peak and three-peak narrowband illumination across the visible spectrum using just a single image. This system holds the potential for integration with smartphones and lab-on-a-chip systems to develop applications for in situ analysis.

Super-Resolution Displacement Spectroscopic Sensing over a Surface "Rainbow".

Subwavelength manipulation of light waves with high precision can enable new and exciting applications in spectroscopy, sensing, and medical imaging. For these applications, miniaturized spectrometers are desirable to enable the on-chip analysis of spectral information. In particular, for imaging-based spectroscopic sensing mechanisms, the key challenge is to determine the spatial-shift information accurately (i.e., the spatial displacement introduced by wavelength shift or biological or chemical surface binding), which is similar to the challenge presented by super-resolution imaging. Here, we report a unique "rainbow" trapping metasurface for on-chip spectrometers and sensors. Combined with super-resolution image processing, the low-setting 4× optical microscope system resolves a displacement of the resonant position within 35 nm on the plasmonic rainbow trapping metasurface with a tiny area as small as 0.002 mm2. This unique feature of the spatial manipulation of efficiently coupled rainbow plasmonic resonances reveals a new platform for miniaturized on-chip spectroscopic analysis with a spectral resolution of 0.032 nm in wavelength shift. Using this low-setting 4× microscope imaging system, we demonstrate a biosensing resolution of 1.92 × 109 exosomes per milliliter for A549-derived exosomes and distinguish between patient samples and healthy controls using exosomal epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression values, thereby demonstrating a new on-chip sensing system for personalized accurate bio/chemical sensing applications.

Sustainable and Inexpensive Polydimethylsiloxane Sponges for Daytime Radiative Cooling.

Radiative cooling is an emerging cooling technology that can passively release heat to the environment. To obtain a subambient cooling effect during the daytime, chemically engineered structural materials are widely explored to simultaneously reject sunlight and preserve strong thermal emission. However, many previously reported fabrication processes involve hazardous chemicals, which can hinder a material's ability to be mass produced. In order to eliminate the hazardous chemicals used in the fabrication of previous works, this article reports a white polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sponge fabricated by a sustainable process using microsugar templates. By substituting the chemicals for sugar, the manufacturing procedure produces zero toxic waste and can also be endlessly recycled via methods widely used in the sugar industry. The obtained porous PDMS exhibits strong visible scattering and thermal emission, resulting in an efficient temperature reduction of 4.6 °C and cooling power of 43 W m-2 under direct solar irradiation. In addition, due to the air-filled voids within the PDMS sponge, its thermal conductivity remains low at 0.06 W (m K)-1 . This unique combination of radiative cooling and thermal insulation properties can efficiently suppress the heat exchange with the solar-heated rooftop or the environment, representing a promising future for new energy-efficient building envelope material.

Microfiber from textile dyeing and printing wastewater of a typical industrial park in China: Occurrence, removal and release.

Microfibers (MFs) are fibrous micro particles of longitude <5 mm, including natural fibers and fibrous microplastics. Microplastic pollution has become a world issue. As the major section of fiber production and processing, textile industry is an important potential source of microfibers, while receiving limited attention. To better understand the source and fate of textile microfibers, in this study, a typical textile industrial park in China is selected as the studying site. Microfibers in textile wastewater from typical textile mills and centralized wastewater treatments plants (WWTPs) of the park, and microfibers in nearby surface water were identified and characterized. The main results showed that the microfiber concentration in textile printing and dyeing wastewater could reach as high as 54,100 MFs/L. Although the removal efficiencies of microfibers by existing wastewater treatment processes can be over 85%, the average microfiber concentration in the effluents from the centralized WWTPs of the industrial park still reached 537.5 MFs/L, releasing 430 billion microfiber items per day. Microfiber release from textile wastewater is considerably higher than that from municipal sewage treatment plants, making it a significant contributor to microfibers in natural water bodies. Small-sized and colored microfibers increased in proportion in the treated effluents. Given the complex textile wastewater constituents, the potential negative environmental impacts of textile microfibers may be intensified by the enhanced adsorption and transfer of textile pollutants through these microfibers.

Matrix-transmitted paratensile signaling enables myofibroblast-fibroblast cross talk in fibrosis expansion.

While the concept of intercellular mechanical communication has been revealed, the mechanistic insights have been poorly evidenced in the context of myofibroblast-fibroblast interaction during fibrosis expansion. Here we report and systematically investigate the mechanical force-mediated myofibroblast-fibroblast cross talk via the fibrous matrix, which we termed paratensile signaling. Paratensile signaling enables instantaneous and long-range mechanotransduction via collagen fibers (less than 1 s over 70 µm) to activate a single fibroblast, which is intracellularly mediated by DDR2 and integrin signaling pathways in a calcium-dependent manner through the mechanosensitive Piezo1 ion channel. By correlating in vitro fibroblast foci growth models with mathematical modeling, we demonstrate that the single-cell-level spatiotemporal feature of paratensile signaling can be applied to elucidate the tissue-level fibrosis expansion and that blocking paratensile signaling can effectively attenuate the fibroblast to myofibroblast transition at the border of fibrotic and normal tissue. Our comprehensive investigation of paratensile signaling in fibrosis expansion broadens the understanding of cellular dynamics during fibrogenesis and inspires antifibrotic intervention strategies targeting paratensile signaling.

High throughput scaffold-based 3D micro-tumor array for efficient drug screening and chemosensitivity testing.

Oncology drug development is greatly hampered by inefficient drug screening using 2D culture. Herein, we present ready-to-use micro-scaffolds in 384-well format to generate uniform 3D micro-tumor array (3D-MTA, CV < 0.15) that predicts in vivo drug responses more accurately than 2D monolayer. 3D-MTA generated from both cell lines and primary cells achieved high screen quality (Z' > 0.5), and were compatible with standard high throughput and high content instruments. Doxorubicin identified by 3D-MTA and 2D successfully inhibited tumor growth in mice bearing lung cancer cell line (H226) xenografts, but not gemcitabine and vinorelbine, which were selected solely by 2D. Resistance towards targeted therapy was modeled on 3D-MTA, which elicited SK-BR-3 to express higher proliferation-related genes in response to gefitinb, as compared to 2D. Screening of 56 MAPK inhibitors identified pisamertib to synergistically improve cytotoxicity effect in combination with gefitinib. Primary tumor cells derived from patient-derived xenografts further attested concordance of drug response in 3D-MTA with in vivo response. 3D-MTA was further extended to realize chemosensitivity testing using patient-derived cells. Overall, 3D-MTA demonstrated strong potential to accelerate drug discovery and improve cancer treatment by providing efficient drug screening.

Analysis of lateral neck lymph node reoperation in papillary thyroid carcinoma / 中国实用外科杂志

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical characteristics,and discuss the prevention of lateral neck lymph node reoperation.METHODS: The clinical data of 31 cases of lateral neck lymph node reoperation performed between January2013 and December 2017 in the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University were analyed retrospectively.RESULTS: All 31 patients accepted 1 to 3 times lateral neck lymph node dissection,but the extent of lymph node dissection was not described enough clear in 17 cases. Twenty-four of 31 cases were found within 12 months from last operation to abnormal lymph nodes. In imaging diagnosis,the rate of metastasis in level Ⅳ was 58.1%,level Ⅱ(outside the outer edge of internal jugular vein)was 41.9%,trigonum caroticum and level Ⅲ(outside the outer edge of internal jugular vein)were 22.6%,lymph node between sternocleidomastoid and sternohyoid muscle(LNSS)was 12.9%. In pathology after surgery the rate of metastasis at levels Ⅱ,Ⅲ,Ⅳ,Ⅴb,LNSS was 64.0%,81.8%,68.4%,8.3%,13.6% respectively.CONCLUSION: The imaging assessment has significant effects on lateral neck lymph node dissection,within standardized procedure in surgery,which should help reduce the reoperation caused by human factor.

Cold Vapor Generation beyond the Input Solar Energy Limit.

100% efficiency is the ultimate goal for all energy harvesting and conversion applications. However, no energy conversion process is reported to reach this ideal limit before. Here, an example with near perfect energy conversion efficiency in the process of solar vapor generation below room temperature is reported. Remarkably, when the operational temperature of the system is below that of the surroundings (i.e., under low density solar illumination), the total vapor generation rate is higher than the upper limit that can be produced by the input solar energy because of extra energy taken from the warmer environment. Experimental results are provided to validate this intriguing strategy under 1 sun illumination. The best measured rate is ≈2.20 kg m-2 h-1 under 1 sun illumination, well beyond its corresponding upper limit of 1.68 kg m-2 h-1 and is even faster than the one reported by other systems under 2 sun illumination.

Optimization of preparing a high yield and high cationic degree starch graft copolymer as environmentally friendly flocculant: Through response surface methodology.

To pursuit effective and environmentally friendly flocculant, a bio-copolymer was prepared by starch grafting with acrylamide (AM) and dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride (DMDAAC) through an initiator system KMnO4/HIO4. The initiation and grafting reaction were optimized by the Response Surface Methodology. In the initiation reaction, the optimum condition was KMnO4 at 0.28 mmol, HIO4 at 0.25 mmol, and the temperature at 67.64 °C, when the highest copolymer yield of 13.43 g was obtained from 4 g raw starch. In the grafting reaction, the optimum condition was the temperature at 68.71 °C, (AM + DMDAAC)/starch anhydroglucose units molar ratio at 2 and the AM / (AM + DMDAAC) molar ratio at 0.34, when the copolymer had the maximum cationic degree of 1.54 meq/g. The optimized preparing method had a high grafting efficiency of 97.12 ±â€¯0.14% and high raw material utilization. The flocculation ability of the optimized graft copolymer was also tested. The result showed the graft starch was effective to remove reactive dyes and disperse dyes from wastewater. The dye removal efficiency of the graft starch was nearly 10% higher than polyacrylamide. Therefore, through the optimization of initiation and grafting reaction, the graft starch was a promising environmentally friendly flocculant.

Mechanotransduction-modulated fibrotic microniches reveal the contribution of angiogenesis in liver fibrosis.

The role of pathological angiogenesis on liver fibrogenesis is still unknown. Here, we developed fibrotic microniches (FµNs) that recapitulate the interaction of liver sinusoid endothelial cells (LSECs) and hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). We investigated how the mechanical properties of their substrates affect the formation of capillary-like structures and how they relate to the progression of angiogenesis during liver fibrosis. Differences in cell response in the FµNs were synonymous of the early and late stages of liver fibrosis. The stiffness of the early-stage FµNs was significantly elevated due to condensation of collagen fibrils induced by angiogenesis, and led to activation of HSCs by LSECs. We utilized these FµNs to understand the response to anti-angiogenic drugs, and it was evident that these drugs were effective only for early-stage liver fibrosis in vitro and in an in vivo mouse model of liver fibrosis. Late-stage liver fibrosis was not reversed following treatment with anti-angiogenic drugs but rather with inhibitors of collagen condensation. Our work reveals stage-specific angiogenesis-induced liver fibrogenesis via a previously unrevealed mechanotransduction mechanism which may offer precise intervention strategies targeting stage-specific disease progression.

3D Microtissues for Injectable Regenerative Therapy and High-throughput Drug Screening.

To upgrade traditional 2D cell culture to 3D cell culture, we have integrated microfabrication with cryogelation technology to produce macroporous microscale cryogels (microcryogels), which can be loaded with a variety of cell types to form 3D microtissues. Herein, we present the protocol to fabricate versatile 3D microtissues and their applications in regenerative therapy and drug screening. Size and shape-controllable microcryogels can be fabricated on an array chip, which can be harvested off-chip as individual cell-loaded carriers for injectable regenerative therapy or be further assembled on-chip into 3D microtissue arrays for high-throughput drug screening. Due to the high elastic nature of these microscale cryogels, the 3D microtissues exhibit great injectability for minimally invasive cell therapy by protecting cells from mechanical shear force during injection. This ensures enhanced cell survival and therapeutic effect in the mouse limb ischemia model. Meanwhile, assembly of 3D microtissue arrays in a standard 384-multi-well format facilitates the use of common laboratory facilities and equipment, enabling high-throughput drug screening on this versatile 3D cell culture platform.

Biomechanically primed liver microtumor array as a high-throughput mechanopharmacological screening platform for stroma-reprogrammed combinatorial therapy.

Recent breakthrough in stroma-reprogrammed combinatorial therapy (SRCT) for pancreatic tumor opens a new route for improving conventional chemotherapeutic efficacy, which utilizes VDR ligand to reprogram activated stromal cells in stiffened microenvironment, leading to reduced 'barrier effects' and increased tissue-infiltration of the chemotherapy drug. As a novel therapeutic strategy and mechanism of action, the progress of SRCT relies on tailored in vitro drug assessment platforms to further optimize its efficacy and extend to applications in other tumor types. Here, a high-throughput mechanopharmacological drug screening platform for SRCT was established based on biomechanically primed hepatic stromal stellate cells to recapitulate state-specific liver microtumors with barrier effects. Fifteen generic chemotherapy drugs co-administered with VDR ligand were screened to obtain optimal SRCT formulations (e.g. carboplatin + calcipotriol), which efficacy was successfully verified in xenograft tumor models. Overall, this platform provides a powerful tool for discovery and optimization of tissue-specific SRCT and realizes 'mechanopharmacology' to translate insights of stromal mechanobiology to pharmaceutical applications.

[Heavy metal pollution characteristics and ecological risk analysis for soil in Phyllostachys praecox stands of Lin'an].

An investigation was carried out in an attempt to reveal the characteristics of heavy metals contamination in the soils of Phyllostachys praecox forest in Lin' an. Based on the concentrations of Hg, As, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni, Co and Mn in 160 topsoil samples, the pollution status and ecological risks of heavy metals in the soils were assessed by single factor pollution index, Nemerow integrated pollution index and Hankanson potential ecological risk index. The spatial variability of heavy metal concentrations in the soils closely related to the distribution of traffic, industrial and livestock pollution sources. The average concentrations of Hg, As, Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni, Co and Mn in the soils were 0.16, 7.41, 34.36, 87.98, 103.98, 0.26, 59.12, 29.56, 11.44 and 350.26 mg · kg(-1), respectively. Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu concentrations were as 2.89, 1.70, 1.12 and 1.12 times as the background values of soil in Zhejiang Province, respectively. But their concentrations were all lower than the threshold values of the National Environmental Quality Standard for Soil (GB 15618-1995). The average single factor pollution index revealed that the level of heavy metal pollution in the soils was in order of Pb>Cd>Cu= Zn>Hg>As>Ni>Co>Cr>Mn. Pb pollution was of moderate level while Cd, Cu and Zn pollutions were slight. There was no soil pollution caused by the other heavy metals. However, the Nemerow integrated pollution index showed that all the 160 soil samples were contaminated by heavy metals to a certain extent. Among total 160 soil samples, slight pollution level, moderate pollution level and heavy pollution level accounted for 55.6%, 29.4% and 15.0%, respectively. The average single factor potential ecological risk index (Er(i)) implied that the potential ecological risk related to Cd reached moderate level, while the others were of slight level. Furthermore, Cd and Hg showed higher potential ecological risk indices which reached up to 256.82 and 187.33 respectively, indicating Cd and Hg had a strong ecological risk and therefore might pose the most serious ecological risk in the soils of P. praecox standsin Lin' an. In addition, the integrated factor potential ecological risk analysis suggested a slight risk to local ecosystem originated from heavy metal contamination in the soils of P. praecox stands in Lin'an.

Bi-content micro-collagen chip provides contractility-based biomechanical readout for phenotypic drug screening with expanded and profiled targets.

Phenotypic screening has regained momentum in the pharmaceutical industry owing to its success over target-based screening. Most phenotypic screening relies on nonspecific biochemical readouts regarding cellular viability, which hampers the discovery of novel drug mechanisms of action (MOAs). Here we present a Contractility-based bi-Content micro-Collagen Chip (3CChip), which establishes cellular contractility as a biomechanics-related phenotype for drug screening. Bi-content analysis of cell contractility (imaged by iPhone) and viability suggests that the label-free contractility-based analysis exhibits superior sensitivity to compounds targeting contractile elements (e.g. focal adhesion, cytoskeleton), resulting in a enlarged target pool for drug assessment. Six typical readout patterns of drug response are summarized according to the relative positions of the contraction/viability curves, and drug targets are profiled into three categories (biomechanical, biochemical and housekeeping) by 3CChip, which will benefit subsequent target identification. The simple-to-use and effective 3CChip offers a robust platform for micro-tissue-based functional screening and may lead to a new era of mechanism-informed phenotypic drug discovery.

Mast Quadrant-assisted minimally invasive modified transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion: single incision versus double incision / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>The concept of minimally invasive techniques is to make every effort to reduce tissue damage. Certainly, reducing skin incision is an important part of these techniques. This study aimed to investigate the clinical feasibility of Mast Quadrant-assisted modified transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) with a small single posterior median incision.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>During the period of March 2011 to March 2012, 34 patients with single-segment degenerative lumbar disease underwent the minimally invasive modified TLIF assisted by Mast Quadrant with a small single posterior median incision (single incision group). The cases in this group were compared to 37 patients with single-segment degenerative lumbar disease in the double incision group. The perioperative conditions of patients in these two groups were statistically analyzed and compared. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores, and sacrospinalis muscle damage evaluation indicators before operation and 3, 12 months postoperation were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A total of 31 and 35 cases in the single incision and double incision groups, respectively, completed at least 12 months of systemic follow-up. The differences in perioperative conditions between the two groups were not statistically significant. The incision length of the single incision group was significantly shorter than that of the double incision group (P < 0.01). The ODI and VAS scores of patients in both groups improved significantly at 3 and 12 months postoperation. However, these two indicators at 3 and 12 months postoperation and the sacrospinalis muscle damage evaluation indicators at 3 months postoperation did not differ significantly between the two groups (P ≥ 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Mast Quadrant-assisted modified TLIF with a small single posterior median incision has excellent clinical feasibility compared to minimally invasive TLIF with a double paramedian incision.</p>