Highly flexible stacked and in‐plane all‐solid‐state supercapacitors are fabricated on 3D hierarchical GeSe2 nanostructures with high performance, and, when configured as a self‐powered photodetector ...nanosystem, can be used to power CdSe nanowire photodetectors.
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a common clinical degenerative disease of the spine. A series of factors, such as inflammation, oxidative stress and mechanical stress, promote degradation ...of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the intervertebral discs (IVD), leading to dysfunction and structural destruction of the IVD. Nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) transcription factor has long been regarded as a pathogenic factor of IDD. Therefore, NF‐κB may be an ideal therapeutic target for IDD. As NF‐κB is a multifunctional functional transcription factor with roles in a variety of biological processes, a comprehensive understanding of the function and regulatory mechanism of NF‐κB in IDD pathology will be useful for the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for IDD, which can prevent the progression of IDD and reduce potential risks. This review discusses the role of the NF‐κB signalling pathway in the nucleus pulposus (NP) in the process of IDD to understand pathological NP degeneration further and provide potential therapeutic targets that may interfere with NF‐κB signalling for IDD therapy.
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a common clinical degenerative disease of the spine. A series of factors, such as inflammation, oxidative stress, and mechanical stress, promote degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the intervertebral discs (IVD), leading to dysfunction and structural destruction of the IVD. Nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) transcription factor has long been regarded as the pathogenic factor of IDD. Therefore, NF‐κB may be an ideal therapeutic target for IDD. As NF‐κB is a multifunctional functional transcription factor with roles in a variety of biological processes, a comprehensive understanding of the function and regulatory mechanism of NF‐κB in IDD pathology will be useful for the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for IDD, which can prevent the progression of IDD and reduce potential risks. This review discusses the role of the NF‐κB signalling pathway in the nucleus pulposus (NP) in the process of IDD to understand pathological NP degeneration further and provide potential therapeutic targets that may interfere with NF‐κB signalling for IDD therapy.
Auxin is well known to stimulate coleoptile elongation and rapid seedling growth in the air. However, its role in regulating rice germination and seedling establishment under submergence is largely ...unknown. Previous studies revealed that excessive levels of indole‐3‐acetic acid(IAA) frequently cause the inhibition of plant growth and development. In this study, the high‐level accumulation of endogenous IAA is observed under dark submergence, stimulating rice coleoptile elongation but limiting the root and primary leaf growth during anaerobic germination (AG). We found that oxygen and light can reduce IAA levels, promote the seedling establishment and enhance rice AG tolerance. miRNA microarray profiling and RNA gel blot analysis results show that the expression of miR167 is negatively regulated by submergence; it subsequently modulates the accumulation of free IAA through the miR167‐ARF‐GH3 pathway. The OsGH3‐8 encodes an IAA‐amido synthetase that functions to prevent free IAA accumulation. Reduced miR167 levels or overexpressing OsGH3‐8 increase auxin metabolism, reduce endogenous levels of free IAA and enhance rice AG tolerance. Our studies reveal that poor seed germination and seedling growth inhibition resulting from excessive IAA accumulation would cause intolerance to submergence in rice, suggesting that a certain threshold level of auxin is essential for rice AG tolerance.
Summary statement
Excessive auxin accumulation negatively affects rice AG. Conversely, oxygen and light significantly reduce IAA levels, promote the seedling establishment during AG, and submergence‐repressed miR167 reduces IAA levels through miR167‐ARF‐GH3 pathway and enhances AG tolerance.
A high configurational entropy, achieved through a proper design of compositions, can minimize the Gibbs free energy and stabilize the quasi‐equilibrium phases in a solid‐solution form. This leads to ...the development of high‐entropy materials with unique structural characteristics and excellent performance, which otherwise could not be achieved through conventional pathways. This work develops a high‐entropy nonlinear dielectric system, based on the expansion of lead magnesium niobate–lead titanate. A dense and uniform distribution of nano‐polar regions is observed in the samples owing to the addition of Ba, Hf, and Zr ions, which lead to enhanced performance of nonlinear dielectrics. The fact that no structural phase transformation is detected up to 250 °C, and no noticeable change or a steep drop in structural and electrical characteristics is observed at high temperatures suggests a robust thermal stability of the dielectric systems developed. With these advantages, these materials hold vast potential for applications such as dielectric energy storage, dielectric tunability, and electrocaloric effect. Thus, this work offers a new high‐entropy configuration with elemental modulation, with enhanced dielectric material features.
This work creates a high‐entropy nonlinear dielectric system based on the expansion of lead magnesium niobate–lead titanate with the additive Ba, Hf, and Zr ions. The structural phase transformation is not detected up to 250 °C, accompanied by excellent thermal stability at high temperatures on the structural and electrical characteristics. With these advantages, these materials hold vast potential applications.
Background and aims
Nicotine is a highly addictive substance in tobacco products that dysregulates several neurotransmitters in the brain and impairs executive function. Non‐invasive brain ...stimulation (NIBS) methods such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are promising treatments for nicotine dependence. We investigated the efficacy and acceptability of NIBS in managing smoking cessation through a systematic review and network meta‐analysis (NMA).
Methods
We conducted a systematic review to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that investigated the efficacy of NIBS for smoking cessation. All pairwise meta‐analyses and NMA procedures were conducted using random‐effects and frequentist models. The co‐primary outcomes were (1) the change in number of cigarettes smoked per day (change in frequency of smoking) in patients with nicotine dependence after NIBS and (2) acceptability (the dropout rate). The effect sizes for co‐primary outcomes of change in frequency of smoking and acceptability were assessed according to standardized mean difference (SMD) and odds ratio, respectively.
Results
Twelve RCTs with 710 participants (mean age: 44.2 years, 31.2% female) were included. Compared with the sham control, 10‐Hz rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was associated with the largest changes in smoking frequency SMD = −1.22, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = −1.77 to −0.66. The 2‐mA bifrontal tDCS (SMD = −0.97, 95% CI = −1.32 to −0.62) and 10‐Hz deep rTMS over the bilateral DLPFC with cue provocation (SMD = −0.77, 95% CI = −1.20 to −0.34) were associated with a significantly larger decrease in smoking frequency versus the sham. None of the investigated NIBSs was associated with dropout rates significantly different from those of the sham control groups.
Conclusion
Prefrontal non‐invasive brain stimulation interventions appear to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked with good acceptability.
The compound 6‐azaindole undergoes self‐assembly by formation of N(1)−H⋅⋅⋅N(6) hydrogen bonds (H bonds), forming a cyclic, triply H‐bonded trimer. The formation phenomenon is visualized by scanning ...tunneling microscopy. Remarkably, the H‐bonded trimer undergoes excited‐state triple proton transfer (ESTPT), resulting in a proton‐transfer tautomer emission maximized at 435 nm (325 nm of the normal emission) in cyclohexane. Computational approaches affirm the thermodynamically favorable H‐bonded trimer formation and the associated ESTPT reaction. Thus, nearly half a century after Michael Kasha discovered the double H‐bonded dimer of 7‐azaindole and its associated excited‐state double‐proton‐transfer reaction, the triply H‐bonded trimer formation of 6‐azaindole and its ESTPT reaction are demonstrated.
Trinity Roots: 6‐azaindole undergoes self‐assembly by formation of N(1)−H⋅⋅⋅N(6) hydrogen bonds (H bonds), to form a cyclic, triply H‐bonded trimer. The H‐bonded trimer undergoes excited‐state triple proton transfer (ESTPT), resulting in a proton‐transfer tautomer emission maximized at 435 nm.
Abstract
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have reached an impressive efficiency over 23%. One of its promising characteristics is the low-cost solution printability, especially for flexible solar cells. ...However, printing large area uniform electron transport layers on rough and soft plastic substrates without hysteresis is still a great challenge. Herein, we demonstrate slot-die printed high quality tin oxide films for high efficiency flexible PSCs. The inherent hysteresis induced by the tin oxide layer is suppressed using a universal potassium interfacial passivation strategy regardless of fabricating methods. Results show that the potassium cations, not the anions, facilitate the growth of perovskite grains, passivate the interface, and contribute to the enhanced efficiency and stability. The small size flexible PSCs achieve a high efficiency of 17.18% and large size (5 × 6 cm
2
) flexible modules obtain an efficiency over 15%. This passivation strategy has shown great promise for pursuing high performance large area flexible PSCs.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been identified as a significant genetic biomarker in disease, cancer and evolution. Mitochondria function as modulators for regulating cellular metabolism. In the ...clinic, mtDNA variations (mutations/single nucleotide polymorphisms) and dysregulation of mitochondria-encoded genes are associated with survival outcomes among cancer patients. On the other hand, nuclear-encoded genes have been found to regulate mitochondria-encoded gene expression, in turn regulating mitochondrial homeostasis. These observations suggest that the crosstalk between the nuclear genome and mitochondrial genome is important for cellular function. Therefore, this review summarizes the significant mechanisms and functional roles of mtDNA variations (DNA level) and mtDNA-encoded genes (RNA and protein levels) in cancers and discusses new mechanisms of crosstalk between mtDNA and the nuclear genome.
Purpose
3D pulse sequences enable high‐resolution acquisition with a high SNR and ideal slice profiles, which, however, is particularly difficult for diffusion MRI (dMRI) due to the additional phase ...errors from diffusion encoding.
Methods
We proposed a twin navigator‐based 3D diffusion‐weighted gradient spin‐echo (GRASE) sequence to correct the phase errors between shots and between odd and even spin echoes for human whole‐brain acquisition. We then compared the SNR of 3D GRASE and 2D simultaneous multi‐slice EPI within the same acquisition time. We further tested the performance of 2D versus 3D acquisition at equivalent SNR on fiber tracking and microstructural mapping, using the diffusion tensor and high‐order fiber orientation density–based metrics.
Results
The proposed twin navigator approach removed multi‐shot phase errors to some extent in the whole brain dMRI, and the 2D navigator performed better than the 1D navigator. Comparisons of SNR between the 2D simultaneous multi‐slice EPI and 3D GRASE sequences demonstrated that the SNR of the GRASE sequence was 1.4–1.5‐fold higher than the EPI sequence at an equivalent scan time. More importantly, we found a significantly higher fiber cross‐section in the cerebrospinal tract, as well as richer subcortical fibers (U‐fibers) using the 3D GRASE sequence compared to 2D EPI.
Conclusion
The twin navigator‐based 3D diffusion‐weighted‐GRASE sequence minimized the multishot phase error and effectively improved the SNR for whole‐brain dMRI acquisition. We found differences in fiber tracking and microstructural mapping between 2D and 3D acquisitions, possibly due to the different slice profiles.
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