Alternative battery systems based on the chemistry of sodium are being considered to offer sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Herein, a simple and new method is demonstrated to enable nickel ...hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) Prussian blue analogues (PBA) nanocrystals to be an excellent host for sodium ion storage by functionalization with redox guest molecule. The method is achieved by using NiHCF PBA powders infiltrated with the 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinododimethane (TCNQ) solution. Experimental and ab initio calculations results suggest that TCNQ molecule bridging with Fe atoms in NiHCF Prussian blue analogue leads to electronic coupling between TCNQ molecules and NiHCF open-framework, which functions as an electrical highway for electron motion and conductivity enhancement. Combining the merits including high electronic conductivity, open framework structure, nanocrystal, and interconnected mesopores, the NiHCF/TCNQ shows high specific capacity, fast kinetics and good cycling stability, delivering a high specific capacity of 35 mAh g–1 after 2000 cycles, corresponding a capacity loss of 0.035% decay per cycle.
The safety and feasibility of laparoscopic versus open liver resection (LLR vs. OLR) associated lymphadenectomy for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) are still controversial. The aim of the ...present study was to compare short and long-term outcomes. We reviewed data on 43 consecutive patients who underwent curative liver resection with associated lymphadenectomy for ICC. The short-term outcomes including postoperative morbidity and mortality, and the long-term outcomes including overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were compared. The median survival, 1- and 3-year OS in LLR and OLR groups were 22.5 months, 76.9% and 47.1%, and 12.1 months, 43.1% and 20.0%, respectively. The median survival, 1- and 3-year RFS in LLR and OLR groups were 10.3 months, 27.8% and 0%, and 8.1 months, 24.0% and 4.0%, respectively. The results showed that LLR obviously reduced intraoperative blood loss (median, 375 vs. 500ml, p = 0.016) and postoperative hospital stay (median, 6 vs. 9 days, p = 0.016). Moreover, there was no significant difference in short-term outcomes including postoperative morbidity (including wound infection, bile leakage, liver failure and pneumonia) and mortality within 30 days, and long-term outcomes including OS and RFS between LLR and OLR. (all p > 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that CA19-9 level, TNM stage, and tumor differentiation were independent risk factors for OS and RFS. LLR for ICC is safety and feasibility compared with OLR. The advantage of LLR was to reduce intraoperative blood loss and postoperative hospital stay.
Abstract
A new stochastic resonance method that is based on a fast artificial fish swarm algorithm has been proposed in an effort to address the adaptive parameter-induced stochastic resonance for ...weak signal detection’s slow convergence time. The target evaluation function for the system is the output signal-to-noise ratio. The method of scale transformation and amplitude compression is used to pre-process the high frequency and large parameter signals. To achieve fast adaptive detection that applies to weak communication signals, the stochastic resonance system’s characteristics are used to constrain the optimization iteration rules.According to the simulation results, the fast artificial fish swarm method has significantly better optimization efficiency and achieves the same optimization results as the basic artificial fish swarm algorithm while reducing convergence time by 74.89%.
The concept of synthetic lethality has great potential for anticancer therapy as a new strategy to specifically kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells. To further understand the potential ...molecular interactions and gene characteristics involved in synthetic lethality, we performed a comprehensive analysis of predicted cancer‐specific genetic interactions. Many genes were identified as cancer‐associated genes that contributed to multiple biological processes and pathways, and the gene features were not random, indicating their potential roles in human carcinogenesis. Some relevant genes detected in multiple cancers were prone to be enriched in specific biological progresses and pathways, especially processes associated with DNA damage, chromosome‐related functions and cancer pathways. These findings strongly implicated potential roles for these genes in cancer pathophysiology and functional relationships, as well as applications for future anticancer drug discovery. Further experimental validation indicated that the synthetic lethal interaction of APC and GFER may provide a potential anticancer strategy for patients with APC‐mutant colon cancer. These results will contribute to further exploration of synthetic lethal interactions and broader application of the concept of synthetic lethality in anticancer therapeutics.
A comprehensive analysis of predicted cancer‐specific synthetic lethal genetic interactions shows that involved genes are prone to be cancer‐associated genes that contribute to multiple biological processes and pathways. Some relevant genes are easily enriched in specific biological progresses and pathways. These findings highlight the molecular features underlying synthetic lethality and contribute to the broadening of its potential applications in anticancer therapeutics.
Crystal phase engineering is an important strategy for designing noble‐metal‐based catalysts with optimized activity and stability. From the thermodynamic point of view, it remains a great challenge ...to synthesize unconventional phases of noble metals. Here, a new class of Pd‐based nanostructure with unconventional rhombohedral Pd20Sb7 phase is successfully synthesized. Benefiting from the high proportion of the unique exposed Pd20Sb7 (003) surface, Pd20Sb7 rhombohedra display much enhanced ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) and oxygen reduction reaction performance compared with commercial Pd/C. Moreover, Pd20Sb7 rhombohedra are also demonstrated as an effective air cathode in non‐aqueous Li–air batteries with an overpotential of only 0.24 V. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the unique exposed facets of Pd20Sb7 rhombohedra can not only reduce the excessive adsorption of CH3CO* to CH3COOH on Pd for promoting EOR process, but also weaken CO binding and CO poisoning. This work provides a new class of unconventional intermetallic nanomaterials with enhanced electrocatalytic activity.
Pd20Sb7 rhombohedra with exposed (003) facets are successfully prepared and applied as highly efficient trifunctional catalysts. The specific ordered arrangement of Pd and Sb atoms on the Pd20Sb7(003) facet not only lowers the oxygen binding energy to an optimal value for the oxygen reduction reaction, but also reduces CO binding for superior resistance to CO poisoning during the ethanol oxidation reaction.
Memory drove a critical process of feeding habit transformation in Chinese perch when they re-trained to eat dead prey fish. To investigate the regulatory mechanism of cAMP-response element-binding ...protein (CREB) signaling pathway on the memory of Chinese perch during feeding habit transformation, the phosphorylation levels of upstream signal proteins of CREB between the control group (trained once) and the experimental group (trained twice) were measured. The results illustrated that the re-training was correlated to phosphorylation of extracellular regulated protein kinase (ERK1/2) and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), and dephosphorylation of protein kinase A (PKA) of Chinese perch. Inhibition of ERK1/2-CREB pathway decreased the mRNA levels of memory-related genes ((fos-related antigen 2 (
fra2
), CCAAT enhancer-binding protein delta (
c/ebpb
), immediate-early gene zif268 (
zif268
), proto-oncogenes c-fos (
c-fox
) and synaptotagmin-IV (
sytIV
)) and mRNA levels of appetite-related genes (agouti-related peptide (
agrp
) and
ghrelin
), and activation of PP1-CREB pathway increased the phosphorylated levels of CREB, the mRNA levels of memory-related genes (
fra2
,
c/ebpb
,
zif268
, and
c-fox
), and the mRNA levels of appetite-related genes (pro-opiomelanocortin (
pomc
) and
leptin
) in primary brain cells of Chinese perch. The memory in Chinese perch feeding habit transformation was associated with the ERK1/2-CREB and PP1-CREB pathways, which could regulate the transcription of memory-related genes and appetite-related genes.
Cubic Cu2O micro/nanocrystals were successfully synthesized by liquid-phase reduction using copper salt of CuSO4 or CuCl2·2H2O, and glucose or ascorbic acid as reducing agent, respectively. The ...activity of the catalysts was evaluated by light-off curves of CO self-sustained catalytic combustion via temperature-programmed oxidation of CO (CO-TPO), with the results showing the activity of catalysts following the order of Cu2O–Cl-GLU > Cu2O–S-GLU > Cu2O–S-AA > Cu2O–Cl-AA, (Cl denotes CuCl2·2H2O, GLU denotes glucose, S denotes CuSO4 and AA denotes ascorbic acid, respectively), corresponding to the ignition temperature of 109 °C, 122 °C, 137 °C and 186 °C, respectively. The crystal structure, elemental valence, morphology and redox property of the prepared catalysts were analyzed by using various characterization techniques. Combined with in situ infrared spectrum, the CO self-sustained catalytic combustion over Cu2O catalysts mainly follows the Mars-van-Krevelen (M-v-K) mechanism: the adsorbed and activated CO reacts with lattice oxygen to yield CO2 and oxygen vacancy, and then the oxygen vacancy can be replenished by gaseous oxygen. Combined with catalytic performance of high-concentration CO, it is found that the catalysts prepared using glucose as reducing agent are more angular compared with ascorbic acid. The Cu2O–Cl-GLU synthesized with glucose and CuCl2·2H2O exhibits the best catalytic activity among all the catalysts tested, attributing to its more obvious edge and rough crystal surface. The unique structure of Cu2O–Cl-GLU leads to the high exposure rate and coordination unsaturation of atoms on the cubic Cu2O micro/nanocrystals that can improve the ability of activating gaseous O2 and low temperature reducibility, and consequently facilitating the catalytic activity.
Cycle path diagram of CO oxidation reaction (a) and schematic diagram of CO oxidation reaction on Cu2O (b). Display omitted
•Effects of reducing agent on catalytic properties is greater than that of copper salt.•High concentration CO can achieve self-sustained catalytic combustion on obtained Cu2O.•Glucose enhances unsaturation of Cu atoms contributing to high activity.•Chemically adsorbed oxygen on Cu2O surface promotes CO ignition.
Emerging evidences indicated that the dysbiosis of microbiota was related to the onset of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Bacteroides fragilis (B. fragilis) ATCC 25285, a human commensal, was ...discovered to improve inflammatory diseases. However, whether B. fragilis (ATCC 25285) has the beneficial effects on the treatment of lupus nephritis has still remained elusive. In the present study, oral treatment with B. fragilis (ATCC 25285) ameliorated the activity of MRL/lpr mice, including decreased levels of autoantibodies and symptoms of lupus nephritis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that treatment with B. fragilis (ATCC 25285) could promote CD1d expression in B cells by Est-1 pathway, while inhibit CD86 expression via SHP-2 signaling pathway to repair the immune response of B cells in MRL/lpr mice. In addition, our findings revealed a possible role of treatment with B. fragilis (ATCC 25285) in relieving intestinal inflammation in MRL/lpr mice. Meanwhile, it was uncovered that B. fragilis (ATCC 25285) restored the Th17/Treg balance in MRL/lpr mice that was consistent with the role of B. fragilis in other autoimmune diseases. Overall, the current study may highlight the potential application of B. fragilis (ATCC 25285) to treat manifestations of SLE in high-risk individuals.
•Temperature facilitated Sr and Ba uptake into otoliths.•Salinity promoted Sr uptake but reduced Ba uptake into otoliths.•Environmental effect on otolith elemental uptake were species- and ...element-specific.•Sr and Ba were able to trace environmental histories of flounder at early life stages.
Using otolith microchemistry as a natural proxy to retrospectively trace the environmental histories of fish is based on the principle that the relationships between otolith elemental incorporation and environmental factors are well understood. In the present study, nine treatments using temperature (16, 19 and 22 ℃) and salinity (22, 26 and 31) as categorical variables in an orthogonal design were established to investigate the relative and interactive effects of temperature and salinity on strontium (88Sr) and barium (138Ba) incorporation into otoliths of flounder Paralichthys olivaceus from larval to juvenile stages (15–93 days post hatching). The results indicated that temperature facilitated the Sr and Ba incorporation into otoliths, while salinity promoted the Sr incorporation but inhibited the Ba incorporation into otoliths of flounder at early life stages. The partition coefficient of Sr was positively related to salinity and temperature, while an opposite salinity effect was found on the partition coefficient of Ba. The partition coefficient of Sr or Ba was not significantly correlated with the somatic growth or otolith precipitation that was promoted by temperature. These findings suggested that the efficiency of elemental incorporation into otoliths from ambient water showed unique responses to temperature or salinity changes, depending on elements and environmental effects. The results in our study did not consistently agree with all previous studies, in which temperature or salinity effects on otolith incorporation of both elements were commonly diverse and species-specific. Nonetheless, this study indicated that Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca ratios in otoliths could provide knowledge for understanding the environmental history of the flounder at early life stages.
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