In this paper, three methods to improve the sensitivity of flexible capacitive pressure sensors are mainly reviewed, including (1) constructing microstructure of the dielectrics or electrodes, (2) ...adding conductive fillers to polymer elastomer to generate a composite dielectric, (3) introducing micro-holes into the dielectric layer.
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•The main factors affecting the capacitance are dielectric constant and distance of electrode during compression.•Microstructure and porous materials mainly enhance the capacitance change by reducing the Young's modulus.•The composite dielectric improve the sensitivity by increasing the relative dielectric constant.
Flexible pressure sensors have played a great role in acquiring information from human and automatics because of their wide use in electronic skin, soft robot, human-machine interaction and so on. Among a variety of flexible pressure sensors, capacitive pressure sensor has many advantages like simple structure, insensitive to temperature and humidity, low power consumption, etc. It is easy to fabricate such kind of pressure sensor, nevertheless, how to improve its sensitivity to broaden the high effective application has been a hotspot issue in recent years. In this paper, a large amount of research outputs on sensitivity improvement have been reviewed for flexible capacitive pressure sensor, including the aspects from introduction of performance evaluation indicators, working principle, generally used materials and capacitor structures to the methods of how to improve the sensitivity of capacitive pressure sensors. Then, the effective ways to obtain high sensitivity of pressure sensors have been compared and the development trend of flexible capacitive pressure sensor is prospected. This paper aims to provide references for the further research on the efficient fabrication of flexible capacitive pressure sensors and effective usage of such sensors in high sensitivity requirements of application areas.
We present a system to automatically generate natural language descriptions from images. This system consists of two parts. The first part, content planning, smooths the output of computer ...vision-based detection and recognition algorithms with statistics mined from large pools of visually descriptive text to determine the best content words to use to describe an image. The second step, surface realization, chooses words to construct natural language sentences based on the predicted content and general statistics from natural language. We present multiple approaches for the surface realization step and evaluate each using automatic measures of similarity to human generated reference descriptions. We also collect forced choice human evaluations between descriptions from the proposed generation system and descriptions from competing approaches. The proposed system is very effective at producing relevant sentences for images. It also generates descriptions that are notably more true to the specific image content than previous work.
•Copper species of Cu/SiO2 catalysts were tuned by hydrolysis precipitation method.•Higher dispersion of copper species and large ratio of Cu+/(Cu++Cu0) were obtained.•Superior catalytic performance ...was achieved for the hydrogenation of DMO to EG.•Cu+ plays key role in DMO hydrogenation on the as-prepared copper-based catalyst.
The chemoselective synthesis of ethylene glycol (EG) from the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) derived from syngas is an attractive technology in the modern chemical industry. This work reported a novel hydrolysis precipitation (HP) method to efficiently tune the active copper species of Cu/SiO2 catalysts for DMO hydrogenation. Characterization techniques such as N2 physical adsorption, X-ray diffraction, H2 temperature programmed reduction, N2O titration, Fourier-transform infrared spectra, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to reveal the origin of the catalytic performances. Compared to the ammonia evaporation (AE) method, the HP method presented remarkable higher dispersion of copper species and large ratio of Cu+/(Cu++Cu0) on the catalyst surface, resulting in a superior catalytic performance in the hydrogenation of DMO to EG. Moreover, the amount of Cu0 and Cu+ sites on catalyst surface is dramatically affected by copper loading, and the catalyst with 30% copper showed the highest catalytic activity with a space time yield of 1.74gEG/(gcat·h) at 463K. Meanwhile, the positive correlation between Cu+ surface area and space time yield of EG suggests that the amount Cu+ is the key factor for hydrogenation of DMO to EG on the as-prepared Cu/SiO2 catalyst. The formation of more Cu+ species in the catalyst would enhance the activation of CO group in DMO and significantly improve the catalytic performances in DMO hydrogenation.
Cell-cell communication via ligand-receptor signaling is a fundamental feature of complex organs. Despite this, the global landscape of intercellular signaling in mammalian liver has not been ...elucidated. Here we perform single-cell RNA sequencing on non-parenchymal cells isolated from healthy and NASH mouse livers. Secretome gene analysis revealed a highly connected network of intrahepatic signaling and disruption of vascular signaling in NASH. We uncovered the emergence of NASH-associated macrophages (NAMs), which are marked by high expression of triggering receptors expressed on myeloid cells 2 (Trem2), as a feature of mouse and human NASH that is linked to disease severity and highly responsive to pharmacological and dietary interventions. Finally, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) serve as a hub of intrahepatic signaling via HSC-derived stellakines and their responsiveness to vasoactive hormones. These results provide unprecedented insights into the landscape of intercellular crosstalk and reprogramming of liver cells in health and disease.
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•Heterogeneity and plasticity of non-parenchymal cells in healthy and NASH liver•Landscape of intrahepatic ligand-receptor signaling at single-cell resolution•Emergence of Trem2+ NASH-associated macrophages (NAMs) in mouse and human NASH•Stellakine secretion and contractile response to vasoactive hormones by HSCs
This work illustrates the heterogeneity of liver non-parenchymal cells (NPCs) and their reprogramming during NASH pathogenesis. Using single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis, the authors mapped the landscape of the intrahepatic ligand-receptor signaling network and revealed two fundamental aspects of HSC biology: stellakine secretion and contractile response to vasoactive hormones. Hepatic vascular dysfunction and emergence of Trem2+ NASH-associated macrophages (NAMs) are two conserved features of mouse and human NASH.
Malignant melanoma is a rare disease in Asia, and knowledge on its characteristics and clinical outcome in Asian patients is limited. The purpose of this observational study was to determine the ...clinical presentation and outcome of patients with melanoma in China.
A database was prospectively established for the purpose of this analysis. The elements of the database included basic demographic data of patients and prognosticators previously reported in literature, as well as follow-up data including clinical outcome after treatment. Medical record of all patients with pathologically diagnosed malignant melanoma consulted in our center since 2006 were retrieved and reviewed. No patient was excluded in this study. Statistical analyses including survival and multivariate analyses of factors associated with survival were respectively performed by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard model.
A total of 522 consecutive and nonselected cases were evaluated. There were 218 cases (41.8%) of acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM), 118 (22.6%) of mucosal melanoma (MCM), 103 (19.7%) of nodular melanoma (NM), 33 (6.3%) of superficial spreading melanoma (SSM), and others were Lentigo maligna melanoma or unclassifiable disease. The proportion of patients with clinical stage I, II, III, and IV diseases were 6.1%, 55.9%, 25.1%, and 12.8%, respectively. Among the 357 cases of cutaneous melanoma, 234 patients (65.5%) had ulceration.The 5-year overall survival rate of all 522 patients was 41.6%, and the median survival time was 3.92 years (95% CI, 3.282 to 4.558). Five-year survival rates of patients with stage I, II, III, and IV diseases were 94.1%, 44.0%, 38.4% and 4.6% respectively (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that clinical stage and the ulceration were two significant prognosticators for OS. In addition, extent of surgery and use of adjuvant therapy were significant prognosticators for DFS in patients with non-metastatic disease after definitive treatment. Pathological subtype was not a significant prognostic factor to predict wither OS or DFS.
Prognoses of patients with malignant melanoma diagnosed in China were suboptimal, and most patients were diagnosed with locally advanced disease (i.e., stage II or above). ALM and MCM are the two most commonly diagnosed pathological subtypes. Clinical staging and presence of ulceration was significantly associated with clinical outcome in terms of OS, while treatment strategy including extent of surgery and use of adjuvant therapy were significant predictors of DFS.
Brown and beige/brite fats generate heat via uncoupled respiration to defend against cold. The total mass and activity of thermogenic adipose tissues are also tightly linked to systemic energy and ...nutrient homeostasis. Despite originating from distinct progenitors, brown and beige adipocytes acquire remarkably similar molecular and metabolic characteristics during differentiation through the action of a network of transcription factors and cofactors. How this regulatory network interfaces with long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), an emerging class of developmental regulators, remains largely unexplored. Here, we globally profiled lncRNA gene expression during thermogenic adipocyte formation and identified Brown fat lncRNA 1 (Blnc1) as a nuclear lncRNA that promotes brown and beige adipocyte differentiation and function. Blnc1 forms a ribonucleoprotein complex with transcription factor EBF2 to stimulate the thermogenic gene program. Further, Blnc1 itself is a target of EBF2, thereby forming a feedforward regulatory loop to drive adipogenesis toward thermogenic phenotype.
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•Blnc1 is a highly regulated lncRNA during thermogenic adipocyte development•Blnc1 drives the thermogenic gene program in brown and beige adipocytes•Blnc1 forms a ribonucleoprotein transcriptional complex with EBF2•Blnc1 and EBF2 are assembled into a feedforward regulatory loop
Brown and beige fat generate heat via uncoupled respiration. Zhao et al. globally profiled long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and identified brown fat lncRNA 1 (Blnc1) as a nuclear lncRNA that promotes brown and beige adipocyte differentiation by forming a feedforward regulatory loop with EBF2 to drive adipogenesis toward a thermogenic phenotype.
Pyroptosis is a new programmed cell death discovered in recent years. Pyroptosis plays an important role in various diseases. Nevertheless, there are few bibliometric analysis systematically studies ...this field. We aimed to visualize the research hotspots and trends of pyroptosis using a bibliometric analysis to help understand the future development of basic and clinical research.
The articles and reviews regarding pyroptosis were culled from Web of Science Core Collection. Countries, institutions, authors, references and keywords in this field were visually analyzed by using CtieSpace and VOSviewer software.
A total of 2845 articles and reviews were included. The number of articles regarding pyroptosis significantly increased yearly. These publications mainly come from 70 countries led by China and the USA and 418 institutions. We identified 605 authors, among which Thirumaladevi Kanneganti had the most significant number of articles, and Shi JJ was co-cited most often.
was the journal with the most studies, and
was the most commonly cited journal. After analysis, the most common keywords are nod like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 inflammasome, apoptosis, cell death, gasdermin D, mechanism, caspase-1, and others are current and developing areas of study.
Research on the pyroptosis is flourishing. Cooperation and exchanges between countries and institutions must be strengthened in the future. The related pathway mechanism of pyroptosis, the relationship between pyroptosis and other types of programmed cell deaths as well as the role of pyroptosis in various diseases have been the focus of current research and developmental trends in the future research.
Hepatic lipogenesis is aberrantly induced in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) via activation of the LXR-SREBP1c pathway. To date, a number of protein factors impinging on the transcriptional ...activity of LXR and SREBP1c have been elucidated. However, whether this regulatory axis interfaces with long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) remains largely unexplored. Here we show that hepatic expression of the lncRNA Blnc1 is strongly elevated in obesity and NAFLD in mice. Blnc1 is required for the induction of SREBP1c and hepatic lipogenic genes in response to LXR activation. Liver-specific inactivation of Blnc1 abrogates high-fat diet-induced hepatic steatosis and insulin resistance and protects mice from diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Proteomic analysis of the Blnc1 ribonucleoprotein complex identified EDF1 as a component of the LXR transcriptional complex that acts in concert with Blnc1 to activate the lipogenic gene program. These findings illustrate a lncRNA transcriptional checkpoint that licenses excess hepatic lipogenesis to exacerbate insulin resistance and NAFLD.
Brown fat activates uncoupled respiration in response to cold temperature and contributes to systemic metabolic homeostasis. To date, the metabolic action of brown fat has been primarily attributed ...to its role in fuel oxidation and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1)-mediated thermogenesis. Whether brown fat engages other tissues through secreted factors remains largely unexplored. Here we show that neuregulin 4 (Nrg4), a member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) family of extracellular ligands, is highly expressed in adipose tissues, enriched in brown fat and markedly increased during brown adipocyte differentiation. Adipose tissue Nrg4 expression was reduced in rodent and human obesity. Gain- and loss-of-function studies in mice demonstrated that Nrg4 protects against diet-induced insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis through attenuating hepatic lipogenic signaling. Mechanistically, Nrg4 activates ErbB3 and ErbB4 signaling in hepatocytes and negatively regulates de novo lipogenesis mediated by LXR and SREBP1c in a cell-autonomous manner. These results establish Nrg4 as a brown fat-enriched endocrine factor with therapeutic potential for the treatment of obesity-associated disorders, including type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Melanomas harbor aberrations in the c-Kit gene. We tested the efficiency of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib in selected patients with metastatic melanoma harboring c-Kit mutations or ...amplifications.
Forty-three patients with metastatic melanoma harboring c-Kit aberrations were enrolled on this phase II trial. Each patient received a continuous dose of imatinib 400 mg/d unless intolerable toxicities or disease progression occurred. Fifteen patients who experienced progression of disease were allowed to escalate the dose to 800 mg/d.
Forty-three patients were eligible for evaluation, and the median follow-up time was 12.0 months. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 3.5 months, and the 6-month PFS rate was 36.6%. Rate of total disease control was 53.5%: 10 patients (23.3%; 95% CI, 10.2% to 36.4%) and 13 patients (30.2%; 95% CI, 16.0% to 44.4%) achieved partial response (PR) and stable disease (SD), respectively. Eighteen patients (41.9%) demonstrated regression of tumor mass. Notably, nine of the 10 PRs were observed in patients with mutations in exons 11 or 13. The 1-year overall survival (OS) rate was 51.0%. The median PFS and OS times for patients who had PR or SD versus disease progression were 9.0 months versus 1.5 months (P < .001) and 15.0 months versus 9.0 months (P = .036), respectively. Imatinib 400 mg/d was well tolerated, and only one of the 15 patients who received dose escalation to 800 mg/d achieved SD.
Imatinib demonstrated significant activity in patients with metastatic melanoma harboring genetic c-Kit aberrations, with an overall response rate of 23.3%. Escalation to 800 mg/d could not restore disease control.
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