Quantum networks play an extremely important role in quantum information science, with application to quantum communication, computation, metrology, and fundamental tests. One of the key challenges ...for implementing a quantum network is to distribute entangled flying qubits to spatially separated nodes, at which quantum interfaces or transducers map the entanglement onto stationary qubits. The stationary qubits at the separated nodes constitute quantum memories realized in matter while the flying qubits constitute quantum channels realized in photons. Dedicated efforts around the world for more than 20 years have resulted in both major theoretical and experimental progress toward entangling quantum nodes and ultimately building a global quantum network. Here, the development of quantum networks and the experimental progress over the past two decades leading to the current state of the art for generating entanglement of quantum nodes based on various physical systems such as single atoms, cold atomic ensembles, trapped ions, diamonds with nitrogen‐vacancy centers, and solid‐state host doped with rare‐earth ions are reviewed. Along the way, the merits are discussed and the potential of each of these systems toward realizing a quantum network is compared.
Quantum networks linking multiple remote quantum nodes consist of quantum memories served as stationary quantum nodes and flying photonic qubits served as quantum channels. This review summarizes and discusses the state of the art and future challenges for constructing quantum networks in various physical systems like single neutral atoms, cold atomic ensembles, trapped ions, NV centers, and rare‐earth‐ion doped solids.
Thermal nanofluids, the engineered fluids with dispersed functional nanoparticles, have exhibited extraordinary thermophysical properties and added functionalities, and thus have enabled a broad ...range of important applications. The poor dispersion stability of thermal nanofluids, however, has been considered as a longexisting issue that limits their further development and practical application. This review overviews the recent efforts and progresses in improving the dispersion stability of thermal nanofluids such as mechanistic understanding of dispersion behavior of nanofluids, examples of both water-based and oil-based nanofluids,strategies to stabilize nanofluids, and characterization techniques for dispersion behavior of nanofluids. Finally,on-going research needs, and possible solutions to research challenges and future research directions in exploring stably dispersed thermal nanofluids are discussed.
The urgent needs for water protection are not only developing the highly efficient wastewater treatment technologies but also designing the eco-friendly materials. In this work, the eco-friendly ...composite fibers composed of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), poly(D-lactide) (PDLA) and maghemite nanoparticles γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were fabricated through electrospinning technology. Through regulating the processing parameters and introducing additional annealing treatment, nanoscale porous structure and the stereocomplex crystallites (SCs) are simultaneously constructed in the composite electrospun fibers. Physicochemical performances measurements exhibited that the fiber membranes had excellent lipophilicity, good mechanical performances, and high hydrolysis resistance, and all of which endowed the fiber membranes with high oil adsorption capacities, and the maximum oil adsorption capacities achieved 148.9 g/g at 23 °C and 114.8 g/g at 60 °C. Further results showed that the fiber membranes had good oil/water separation ability. The gravity-driven oil flux was 6824.4 L/m2h2, and the water rejection ratio was nearly 100% during separating oil/water mixture. Specifically, the fiber membranes showed good stability during the cycling measurements. It is evidently confirmed that the composite PLLA-based fiber membranes with porous structure and SCs can be used in wastewater treatment, especially in some rigorous circumstances.
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•Composite PLA electrospun porous fibers were fabricated.•The stereocomplex crystallites (SCs) were constructed in the fibers.•The composite fibers exhibited good physicochemical performances.•High oil adsorption and oil/water separation performances were achieved.
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•Novel composite membranes based on electrospun PLA fibers have been fabricated.•They have amphipathic feature, tunable wettability and photothermal conversion.•Excellent oil/water ...separation ability is achieved for the composite membranes.•The composite membranes can remove oil and dye in one-time oil/water separation.
As an eco-friendly material, the wide application of polylactide (PLA) in wastewater treatment is favorable for eliminating the possible second-pollution induced by the common membrane materials. However, the application of PLA is also greatly restricted by the hydrophobicity and inert surface of PLA-based materials. In this work, the electrospun PLA fiber film with stereocomplex crystallites (SC-PLA) was prepared through electrospinning, then the successive decorations of self-polymerization of polydopamine (PDA) and PDA-assisted MXene deposition were carried out. The physicochemical performances such as wettability, mechanical properties, and photothermal conversion ability were intensively researched. Then, the oil/water separation ability and the organic pollutants removal effect of the composite membranes were systematically researched. The results show that the composite membrane is amphiphilic, which results in the membrane exhibiting high fluxes and excellent oil/water separation performance in the separation process of different types of emulsions, and oil/water separation efficiency can be further enhanced under light irradiation. Specifically, the maximum adsorption capacity of the composite membrane for methylene blue (MB) reached 434.8 mg/g, and the composite membrane can also simultaneously remove oil and MB from the emulsified solution in the one-time separation process. This work demonstrates that the PLA-based composite membranes have potential application in sewage purification and can be the alternative for the next generation membrane separation material.
Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease. An imbalance between the production and clearance of Aβ (amyloid beta) is considered to be actively involved in AD pathogenesis. ...Macroautophagy/autophagy is a major cellular pathway leading to the removal of aggregated proteins, and upregulation of autophagy represents a plausible therapeutic strategy to combat overproduction of neurotoxic Aβ. PPARA/PPARα (peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha) is a transcription factor that regulates genes involved in fatty acid metabolism and activates hepatic autophagy. We hypothesized that PPARA regulates autophagy in the nervous system and PPARA-mediated autophagy affects AD. We found that pharmacological activation of PPARA by the PPARA agonists gemfibrozil and Wy14643 induces autophagy in human microglia (HM) cells and U251 human glioma cells stably expressing the human APP (amyloid beta precursor protein) mutant (APP-p.M671L) and this effect is PPARA-dependent. Administration of PPARA agonists decreases amyloid pathology and reverses memory deficits and anxiety symptoms in APP-PSEN1ΔE9 mice. There is a reduced level of soluble Aβ and insoluble Aβ in hippocampus and cortex tissues from APP-PSEN1ΔE9 mice after treatment with either gemfibrozil or Wy14643, which promoted the recruitment of microglia and astrocytes to the vicinity of Aβ plaques and enhanced autophagosome biogenesis. These results indicated that PPARA is an important factor regulating autophagy in the clearance of Aβ and suggested gemfibrozil be assessed as a possible treatment for AD.
Abbreviation: Aβ: amyloid beta; ACTB: actin beta; ADAM10: ADAM metallopeptidase domain 10; AD: Alzheimer disease; AIF1/IBA1: allograft inflammatory factor 1; ANOVA: analysis of variance; APOE: apolipoprotein E; APP: amyloid beta precursor protein; APP-PSEN1ΔE9: APPswe/PSEN1dE9; BAFA1: bafilomycin A
1
; BDNF: brain derived neurotrophic factor; BECN1: beclin 1; CD68: CD68 molecule; CREB1: cAMP responsive element binding protein 1; DAPI: 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; DLG4/PSD-95: discs large MAGUK scaffold protein 4; DMSO: dimethyl sulfoxide; ELISA: enzyme linked immunosorbent assay; FDA: U.S. Food and Drug Administration; FKBP5: FK506 binding protein 5; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; gemfibrozil: 5-(2,5-dimethylphenoxy)-2,2-dimethylpentanoic acid; GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein; GLI2/THP1: GLI family zinc finger 2; HM: human microglia; IL6: interleukin 6; LAMP1: lysosomal associated membrane protein 1; MAP1LC3B/LC3B: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; NC: negative control; OQ: opposite quadrant; PPARA/PPARα, peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha; PSEN1/PS1: presenilin 1; SEM: standard error of the mean; SQSTM1: sequestosome 1; SYP: synaptophysin; TFEB: transcription factor EB; TNF/TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor; TQ: target quadrant; WT: wild type; Wy14643: 2-4-chloro-6-(2,3-dimethylanilino)pyrimidin-2-ylsulfanylacetic acid
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•Tubular hollow PLA fibers with porous structure in the tube wall were fabricated.•The stereocomplex crystallites (SCs) were constructed in the tube wall.•The fibrous membranes ...exhibited good physicochemical performances.•The fibrous membranes exhibited excellent oil adsorption ability.•Excellent oil/water separation ability under different conditions was achieved.
The wide application of biodegradable polymers in wastewater treatment is of great significance because it can greatly reduce the risk of secondary pollution during the employ of polymers. In this work, a coaxial electrospinning technology was applied to prepare the polylactide (PLA)-based fibers. The solution of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), poly(D-lactide) (PDLA) and γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was used to construct the tube wall, while the mineral oil was used as the core. As a result, the PLA fibers exhibited the tubular hollow structure with extensive pores on the tube wall after mineral oil was removed by solvents. The prepared PLA membrane exhibited superhydrophobicity and high porosity due to the special porous structure of the fibers. The maximum adsorption capacity toward castor oil was 219.5 g g−1, exhibiting excellent oil adsorption ability. In addition, the membrane showed high oil flux of 57324.8 L m-2h−1 and good oil/water separation ability. The gravity-driven separation flux of emulsion achieved 3401.4 L m-2h−1, and it still remained high level during separating acidic, alkaline and hypersaline emulsions. Besides, the high mechanical property of the membrane endowed it with excellent cycling stability. This work paves the way for the practical applications of environmentally friendly adsorption/separation membranes in oil/water cycling separation.
Preconcentration of biomolecules for detection on microfluidic platforms based on electrical kinetic trapping (EKT) through ion concentration polarization (ICP) has been well developed in the past ...decade. Biomolecules can be entrapped due to the equilibrium of forces between electro-osmosis and ICP when applying a voltage to the system. However, the voltage required to trigger ICP phenomena in microfluidics is normally 30–80 V DC, which is a barrier to ICP-based nanofluidic preconcentrators becoming portable point-of-care devices. In this study, we developed a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)-driven nanofluidic preconcentrating device that is able to trigger ICP and subsequently cause the EKT of the biomolecules without using a conventional electrical power source. The EKT and electrical characteristics of the TENG-based nanofluidic preconcentrator were studied. Furthermore, the TENG-based nanofluidic preconcentrator was integrated with a smartphone-enabled bead immunoassay to become a portable and highly sensitive biosensor. The preconcentration and trapping processes were developed, and the bead-immunoassay on a smartphone with/without preconcentration was demonstrated to determine the preconcentration factors.
Self-powered nanofluidic preconcentrator: Nanofluidic preconcentrator has been used for accumulating low-abundance biomolecules before detection. A triboelectric nanogenerator is used to trigger the preconcentration process. The self-powered nanofluidic preconcentrating device is also integrated with a bead-immunoassay and quantified using a smartphone, showing great potential as a sensitive portable biosensor. Display omitted
•Self-powered ICP-based preconcentration through a TENG-driven smartphone-enabled bead immunoassay has been demonstrated.•Preconcentration plug effects from both vertical contact-separation and rotary sliding mode TENG have been investigated.•The preconcentrating plug generated in 1 min by hand-clapping of TENG enabled a preconcentration factor of ~1000-fold.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by infiltration of immune cells in the synovium. However, the crosstalk of immune cells and synovial fibroblasts is still largely ...unknown. Here, global miRNA screening in plasma exosomes was carried out with a custom microarray (RA patients vs. healthy controls = 9:9). A total of 14 exosomal miRNAs were abnormally expressed in the RA patients. Then, downregulated expression of exosomal miR-204-5p was confirmed in both the replication (RA patients vs. healthy controls = 30:30) and validation groups (RA patients vs. healthy controls = 56:60). Similar to the findings obtained in humans, a decreased abundance of exosomal miR-204-5p was observed in mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Furthermore, Spearman correlation analysis indicated that plasma exosomal miR-204-5p expression was inversely correlated with disease parameters of RA patients, such as rheumatoid factor, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and C-reactive protein. In vitro, our data showed that human T lymphocytes released exosomes containing large amounts of miR-204-5p, which can be transferred into synovial fibroblasts, inhibiting cell proliferation. Overexpression of miR-204-5p in synovial fibroblasts suppressed synovial fibroblast activation by targeting genes related to cell proliferation and invasion. In vivo assays found that administration of lentiviruses expressing miR-204-5p markedly alleviated the disease progression of the mice with CIA. Collectively, this study identified a novel RA-associated plasma exosomal miRNA-204-5p that mediates the communication between immune cells and synovial fibroblasts and can be used as a potential biomarker for RA diagnosis and treatment.
To identify novel DNA methylation sites significant for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and comprehensively understand their underlying pathological mechanism.
We performed (1) genome-wide DNA methylation ...and mRNA expression profiling in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from RA patients and health controls; (2) correlation analysis and causal inference tests for DNA methylation and mRNA expression data; (3) differential methylation genes regulatory network construction; (4) validation tests of 10 differential methylation positions (DMPs) of interest and corresponding gene expressions; (5) correlation between
methylation and its mRNA expression level in Jurkat cells and T cells from patients with RA; (6) testing the pathological functions of
in Jurkat cells.
A total of 1046 DNA methylation positions were associated with RA. The identified DMPs have regulatory effects on mRNA expressions. Causal inference tests identified six DNA methylation-mRNA-RA regulatory chains (eg, cg00959259-PARP9-RA). The identified DMPs and genes formed an interferon-inducible gene interaction network (eg,
,
,
and
). Key DMPs and corresponding genes were validated their differences in additional samples. Methylation of PARP9 was correlated with mRNA level in Jurkat cells and T lymphocytes isolated from patients with RA. The
gene exerted significant effects on Jurkat cells (eg, cell cycle, cell proliferation, cell activation and expression of inflammatory factor IL-2).
This multistage study identified an interferon-inducible gene interaction network associated with RA and highlighted the importance of
gene in RA pathogenesis. The results enhanced our understanding of the important role of DNA methylation in pathology of RA.
The rapid growth of industrialization has resulted in the release of large quantities of pollutants into the environment, especially dyes and heavy metals, which are environmentally hazardous for ...humans and animals. It is considered as the most promising and environmentally friendly route to develop green materials by using the green modification method, which has no negative impact on the environment. In this work, the green material of polylactic acid (PLA) was used as the substrate material, and a novel modification method of polydopamine (PDA)-assisted polyethyleneimine (PEI) grafting was developed. The electrospun PLA fibers are mainly composed of stereocomplex crystallites, which were achieved via the electrospinning of poly(l-lactic acid) and poly(d-lactic acid). The water-soluble PEI was grafted onto the PDA-modified PLA fibers through the glutaraldehyde-assisted cross-linking reaction. The prepared composite fibers can be degraded, which is environmentally friendly and meets the requirements of sustainable development. The potential application of such PLA composite fibers in wastewater treatment was intensively evaluated. The results show that at appropriate fabrication conditions (PDA concentration of 3 g·L–1 and a PEI molecular weight of 70,000 g·mol–1), the composite fibers exhibit the maximum adsorption capacities of 612 and 398.41 mg·g–1 for methyl orange (MO) and hexavalent chromium Cr(VI), respectively. Simultaneously, about 64.79% of Cr(VI) adsorbed on the composite fibers was reduced to Cr(III). The above results show that the PLA composite fibers have a good development prospect in the field of wastewater treatment.
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