The inflammatory microenvironment has been shown to play important roles in various stages of tumor development including initiation, growth, and metastasis. The inflammasome is a critical innate ...immune pathway for the production of active IL-1β, a potent inflammatory cytokine. Although inflammasomes are essential for host defense against pathogens and contribute to autoimmune diseases, their role in tumor progression remains controversial. Here, our results demonstrate that the inflammasome and IL-1β pathway promoted tumor growth and metastasis in animal and human breast cancer models. We found that tumor progression was associated with the activation of inflammasome and elevated levels of IL-1β at primary and metastatic sites. Mice deficient for inflammasome components exhibited significantly reduced tumor growth and lung metastasis. Furthermore, inflammasome activation promoted the infiltration of myeloid cells such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) into tumor microenvironments. Importantly, blocking IL-1R with IL-1R antagonist (IL-Ra) inhibited tumor growth and metastasis accompanied by decreased myeloid cell accumulation. Our results suggest that targeting the inflammasome/IL-1 pathway in tumor microenvironments may provide a novel approach for the treatment of cancer.
The limitation of seismic resolution makes the interpretation of fault end locations based on seismic data unclear, and often can only be predicted qualitatively by human, which makes the combination ...relationship of breakpoints near or below seismic resolution unclear. The breakpoint combination rate is generally low, which affects the development injection and recovery relationship and remaining oil distribution.
The development of a straightforward strategy to obtain enantioenriched silicon‐stereogenic benzosiloles remains a challenging yet appealing synthesis venture due to their potential future ...application in chiral electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this context, all of the existing methods rely on Rh‐catalyzed systems and are somewhat limited in scope. Herein, we disclose the first Ni0‐catalyzed ring expansion process that enables the preparation of benzosiloles possessing tetraorganosilicon stereocenters in excellent yields and enantioselectivities. The presented catalysis strategy is further applied to the asymmetric synthesis of silicon‐stereogenic bis‐silicon‐bridged π‐extended systems. Preliminary studies reveal that such compounds exhibit fluorescence emission, Cotton effects and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) activity.
We disclosed a state‐of‐the‐art strategy for the asymmetric synthesis of enantioenriched silicon‐stereogenic benzosiloles in excellent yields and enantioselectivities enabled by a Ni0/chiral PR3‐catalyst system. Moreover, preliminary studies on the chiroptical properties of silicon‐stereogenic bis‐silicon‐bridged π‐extended systems, which were synthesized by the presented catalysis strategy, are also described.
Metastability-engineering, e.g., transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP), can enhance the ductility of alloys, however it often comes at the expense of relatively low yield strength. Here, using a ...metastable Ti-1Al-8.5Mo-2.8Cr-2.7Zr (wt.%) alloy as a model material, we fabricate a heterogeneous laminated structure decorated by multiple-morphological α-nanoprecipitates. The hard α nanoprecipitate in our alloy acts not only as a strengthener to the material, but also as a local stress raiser to activate TRIP in the soft matrix for great uniform elongation and as a promoter to trigger interfacial delamination toughening for superior fracture resistance. By elaborately manipulating the activation sequence of lamellar-thickness-dependent deformation mechanisms in Ti-1Al-8.5Mo-2.8Cr-2.7Zr alloys, the yield strength of the present submicron-laminated alloy is twice that of equiaxed-coarse grained alloys with the same composition, yet without sacrificing the large uniform elongation. The desired mechanical properties enabled by this strategy combining the laminated metastable structure and trifunctional nanoprecipitates provide new insights into designing ultra-strong and ductile materials with great toughness.
Topographical patterns endow material surfaces with unique and intriguing physical and chemical properties. Spontaneously formed wrinkling has been harnessed to generate surface topography for ...various functionalities. Despite promising applications in biomedical devices and robot engineering, the friction behavior of wrinkling on curved surfaces remains unclear. Herein, wrinkled surfaces are induced by sputtering metals on soft polymer microspheres. The wrinkle morphologies and length scales can be controlled precisely by tailoring the microsphere radius (substrate curvature) and film thickness. The wrinkled surfaces exhibit controlled friction property, depending on the wrinkling patterns and length scales. An increase in friction force with increasing surface roughness is generally found for dimple patterns and labyrinth patterns. The dimple patterns show the lowest friction due to strong curvature constraint. The herringbone patterns exhibit apparent friction anisotropy with respect to topographic orientation. These results will guide future design of wrinkled surfaces for friction by harnessing substrate curvature.
Curvature‐controlled wrinkling surfaces are fabricated on spherical metal/polymer systems by sputtering methods. The wrinkled surfaces exhibit controlled friction, depending on wrinkling patterns and length scales. The dimple patterns and labyrinth patterns show almost isotropic friction, while the herringbone patterns exhibit apparent friction anisotropy with respect to topographic orientation. This study provides a strategy to tune friction by harnessing substrate curvature.
When a textured ring rotates relatively against the other texture-free ring in a parallel thrust bearing, cavitation of liquid lubricant may occur in the divergent zones of the dimples or grooves on ...the textured surface due to local pressure drops. The Reynolds and Jakobsson–Floberg–Olsson (JFO) models are two widely used cavitation models in hydrodynamic lubrication theory, where the former lacks mass conservation while the latter enforces it. In order to investigate the applicability of the two models to the hydrodynamic lubrication analysis of parallel thrust bearings with surface textures, comparison between experiment and simulation results has been carried out on parallel thrust bearings in terms of cavitation zone morphology in a groove, friction coefficient, and bearing clearance. The results have shown that the observed cavitation morphology in steady state is more similar to the prediction from the JFO model than that from the Reynolds model.
Abstract
Due to the low thermal stability of crystallographic boundaries, the grain boundary engineering (GBE) manifests some limits to the fineness and types of microstructures achievable, while ...unique chemical boundary engineering (CBE) enables us to create a metallic material with an ultrafine hierarchically heterogeneous microstructure for enhancing the mechanical properties of materials. Here, using a low cost metastable Ti-2.8Cr-4.5Zr-5.2Al (wt.%) alloy as a model material, we create a high density of chemical boundaries (CBs) through the significant diffusion mismatch between Cr and Al alloying elements to architecture hierarchical nano-martensites with an average thickness of ~20 nm. For this metastable titanium alloy, the significantly enhanced yield strength originates from dense nano-martensitic interface strengthening, meanwhile the large ductility is attributed to the multi-stage strain hardening of hierarchical 3D α'/β lamellae assisted by equiaxed primary α (α
p
) nodules. The hierarchical nano-martensite engineering strategy confers our alloy a desired combination of strength and ductility, which can potentially be applied to many transformable alloys, and reveal a new target in microstructural design for ultrastrong-yet-ductile structural materials.
The topography evolution of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau provides a constraint for evaluating various geodynamic models of plateau formation. We reconstruct the Paleocene to Eocene paleoelevation ...of the Cenozoic Gonjo basin in the Qiangtang terrane, using oxygen and carbon stable isotopic results from pedogenic carbonates of the lower Ranmugou Formation. Lithofacies associations indicate that the lower Ranmugou Formation was deposited in alluvial fan and fluvial floodplain environments. U-Pb dating of volcanics within the middle Ranmugou Formation constrains the deposition of the lower Ranmugou Formation as prior to 43.2Ma. Paleoelevations are calculated using both a thermodynamic model and an empirical relationship. The empirical relationship of elevation-δ18O is determined from a series of modern water samples. Calculated paleoelevations indicate that the Gonjo basin attained a minimum average elevation of 2100–2500m in the early Eocene. Together with recent paleoaltimetry studies in the region, it can be concluded that the crust of southeastern Tibetan Plateau was already thickened by that time. The calculation is based on the section in northern Gonjo basin, where δ18O values of paleosol nodules appear to be unaltered, but we cannot rule out the possibility that δ18O values of the pedogenic carbonates had been partially reset. Our preliminary results favor tectonic models compatible with pre-Miocene uplift of the SE-central Tibetan Plateau.
•We report the δ18O values of pedogenic carbonates from three sections of the Gonjo basin.•We add more river samples δ18O values from Lancang River and update the empirical relationship between δ18O and elevation.•We present a minimum average elevation of 2100~2500 m for Gonjo basin in the early Eocene.•Our data support a high Qiangtang terrane near the modern-day elevation since 40Ma in central-southeast Tibet.
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