Research into organic light emitters employing multiple resonance-induced thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials is presently attracting a great deal of attention due to the ...potential for efficient deep-blue emission. However, the origins and mechanisms of successful TADF are unclear, as many MR-TADF materials do not show TADF behaviour in solution, but only as particular pure solids. Here, an investigation into a well-known MR-TADF material, DABNA-1, together with other new MR materials (9H-quinolino3,2,1-klphenothiazin-9-one (QPO) and 9H-quinolino-3,2,1-kl-phenothiazin-9-one 5,5-dioxide (QP3O)), yields new insights regarding the origin of TADF. Although a material system may support the concept of MR, inefficiency in both forward and reverse intersystem crossings forbids TADF unless a suitable host material allows an exciplex-like host–emitter interaction that boosts TADF. This boosted-TADF mechanism can be generalized to any fluorescence dye that lacks TADF in the photoluminescence measurement but has a thermally accessible S1–T1 energy gap, opening the way to high-performance organic light-emitting diodes.This study reveals the importance of host–guest interactions for effective multiple-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence in organic light emitters.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) play important roles in the tumorigenesis and progression of cancers. However, the clinical significance of lncRNAs and their regulatory mechanisms in nasopharyngeal ...carcinogenesis (NPC) are largely unknown. Here, based on a microarray analysis, we identified 384 dysregulated lncRNAs, of which,
was one of the most upregulated lncRNAs in NPC.
significantly associated with poor survival in NPC. N(6)-Methyladenosine (m6A) was highly enriched within
and enhanced its RNA stability.
functioned as an oncogenic lncRNA that promoted NPC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, tumor growth, and metastasis. Mechanistically,
functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for sponging miR-590-3p and miR-1275, leading to the upregulation of their target
(
), and the activation of FAK/PI3K/Akt signaling to promote NPC cell proliferation and invasion. In summary, our study reveals a potential ceRNA regulatory pathway in which
modulates
expression by binding to miR-590-3p and miR-1275, ultimately promoting tumorigenesis and metastasis in NPC. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings demonstrate the clinical significance of the lncRNA
in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and the regulatory mechanism involved in NPC development and progression, providing a novel prognostic indicator and promising therapeutic target.
A self‐powered and sustainable traffic monitoring system is highly required for future urban development. Herein, self‐healable piezoresistive sensors and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are ...constructed by in situ polymerization of polyvinyl alcohol‐polyacrylamide double network hydrogel in the presence of sodium alginate and tannic acid‐modified cellulose nanocrystals (denoted as PPC) for all‐weather self‐powered intelligent traffic monitoring applications. Because of hydrogen bonding and boron ester bonding, the resultant PPC‐based strain sensor can rapidly self‐heal and restore its sensing ability within 1 min with a self‐healing efficiency of 97.4%. Based on piezoresistive effect, the ions in sodium alginate endow the PPC‐based strain sensor with a relatively high gauge factor of 8.39, which can monitor the motion and fatigue of drivers. Based on triboelectrification effect, the PPC‐based TENG sensor can detect instantaneous vehicle speed, judge traffic accident liability, evaluate vehicle weight, and alert the driver to prevent accidents caused by drowsy driving. After partially replacing water in the PPC with glycerin, the resulting PPC‐based TENG sensor exhibits stable performance at temperatures ranging from ‐30 to 40 °C, ensuring its all‐weather monitoring ability. The all‐weather and self‐powered intelligent traffic monitoring system is promising for ensuring the security of future cities.
An intelligent traffic system is constructed by in situ polymerization of polyvinyl alcohol‐polyacrylamide double network hydrogel dispersion of sodium alginate and tannic acid‐modified cellulose nanocrystals, which can not only innovatively realize the functions of detecting instantaneous vehicle speed, judging traffic accident liability, and inspecting vehicle weight, but also monitor the driver state to prevent accidents caused by drowsy driving.
Conventional temperature-pressure bifunctional sensors based on thermoresistive and piezoresistive effects could not meet the growing demand for detecting multiple signals due to their intractable ...signal-coupling problems. It is imperative to develop new approaches to detect multiple stimuli with single devices without complex decoupling processes. Herein, integrated temperature and pressure dual-mode sensors are fabricated by decorating elastic polydopamine-modified PDMS (PDA@PDMS) foam with thermoelectric PEDOT:PSS/carbon nanotube (CNT) components. The resultant PEDOT:PSS/CNT@PDA@PDMS (PCPP) sensor exhibits an accurate temperature sensing capability with an ultrahigh Seebeck coefficient of 40.5 μV K
−1
and an ultralow detectable temperature of 0.05 K. Thanks to the elastic and porous PDMS foam and the thermoelectric PEDOT:PSS/CNT components, the PCPP sensor can detect both static and dynamic pressures with high sensitivity, fast response time, a wide detection range, and excellent durability. Notably, under the simultaneous stimulation of both temperature and pressure, the dual-mode PCPP sensor can convert these two stimuli to independent voltage and resistance signals on the basis of thermoelectric and piezoresistive effects. Meanwhile, the thermoelectric effect endows the sensor with human energy harvesting capacity by exploiting the temperature gradients between human skin and the environment. All these characteristics make the dual-mode PCPP sensor promising for wearable electronic skin applications.
A temperature and pressure dual-mode sensor is fabricated by coating thermoelectric PEDOT:PSS/CNT on PDA-modified PDMS foams for human heat harvesting and E-skin. It can measure temperature and pressure changes without complex decoupling processes.
The skin microbiome plays important roles in the pathogenesis and development of acne. We aimed to investigate the facial skin microbiome of acne and microbiome differences related to different ...grades of acne. Skin swabs from nine healthy controls and 67 acne patients were collected, and the skin microbiomes were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Compared with healthy controls, acne patients harbored significantly altered skin microbiomes. The skin microbiomes of patients with grade 1-3 acne were similar, but patients with grade 4 acne showed a significantly different skin microbiome compared with grade 1-3 acne, including increased alpha diversity and increased proportions of four Gram-negative bacteria (Faecalibacterium, Klebsiella, Odoribacter and Bacteroides). In conclusion, acne patients harbored an altered skin microbiome, and more significant dysbiosis was found in patients with grade 4 acne (severe acne). Our findings may provide evidence for the pathogenic mechanisms of acne and microbial-based strategies to avoid and treat acne, especially grade 4 acne.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has wide application and important functions in curing many diseases, but a great number of herb residues are usually generated after its manufacture and usage. ...Without proper and timely treatment, these traditional Chinese medicinal herb (TCMH) residues will cause some environmental pollution. In addition to treatment, bioresources utilization of TCMH residues is also important for its great potential as a suitable feedstock for the production of energy, materials, and chemicals. In this situation, advanced and well-designed solid waste management is important to make the TCM industry environmentally friendly and economically attractive. In this review article, the recent progress focusing on various methods for TCMH residues treatment and bioresources utilization are introduced in detail. In particular, the technologies for thermochemical conversion and biochemical conversion of TCMH residues are mainly focused on in order to show how to fulfill effective and efficient bioresources utilization. Besides, some other technologies which are suitable for the treatment and bioresources utilization of TCMH residues are presented as well. Finally, some industrial prospects are given from the economic, operational, and environmental aspects for the further development of treatment and bioresources utilization of TCMH residues. Overall, this work can provide some systematical and comprehensive information for the development of technologies that help sustainably manage the herb residues generated in the TCM industry.
Display omitted
•Sources of traditional Chinese medicinal herb residues are introduced.•Both solid wastes treatment and bioresources utilization are focused on.•Energy, materials, and chemicals production are presented respectively.•Thermochemical and biochemical technologies are summarized respectively.•Prospect for industrial application is discussed in detail.
Background
The current study was performed to investigate whether circulating cell‐free Epstein‐Barr virus DNA (cfEBV DNA) would be useful for posttreatment surveillance in patients with ...nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
Methods
The authors identified a total of 1984 nondisseminated NPC patients from an institutional big‐data research platform. Blood samples were collected within 3 months of the completion of radiotherapy and every 3 to 12 months thereafter for cfEBV DNA analysis. Patients were followed until disease recurrence was detected or for a median of 60 months. Diagnostic performance was assessed by calculating the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy based on the clinical detection of disease recurrence by conventional surveillance modalities (imaging scans and pathological examination).
Results
During follow‐up, a total of 767 patients (38.7%) had detectable cfEBV DNA. The recurrence rate among these patients was 63.8% (489 of 767 patients), which was significantly higher than that in patients with undetectable cfEBV DNA (8.6%; 105 of 1217 patients). cfEBV DNA sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 68.8%, 80.0%, and 78.2%, respectively, for local recurrence; 80.2%, 80.0%, and 85.9%, respectively, for regional recurrence; and 91.1%, 80.0%, and 92.8%, respectively, for distant metastasis. cfEBV DNA was found to have higher sensitivity for the detection of extrapulmonary metastases (94.9%‐96.5%) compared with pulmonary metastases (78.4%). It is interesting to note that among the patients with disease recurrence with detectable cfEBV DNA, positive cfEBV DNA results preceded radiological and/or clinical evidence of disease recurrence by a median of 2.3 months (interquartile range, 0.1‐9.5 months). In addition, of the 278 cfEBV DNA‐positive patients who did not develop disease recurrence, 227 (81.7%) had transiently positive cfEBV DNA that fell to undetectable levels during long‐term monitoring.
Conclusions
Plasma cfEBV DNA in patients with NPC appears to be an early sign of tumor recurrence, especially extrapulmonary metastases.
Circulating cell‐free Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) DNA levels in the plasma can be useful for detecting tumor recurrence early after treatment in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, particularly those with extrapulmonary metastases. Positive circulating cell‐free EBV DNA can be detected at a median of 2.3 months before radiological or clinical evidence of disease recurrence is noted.
This paper aims to analyze the roof stability when the reclaimed working face passes through abandoned roadway. The mechanical model of main roof in abandoned roadway was established for the purpose ...of theoretical analyses. To ensure the stability of the abandoned roadway, the strength formula of backfill body was deduced. The optimum ratios among different compositions of the filling material were determined by experiment, while the viscosity, bleeding, hydration temperature and compressive strength of filling material were also studied. Test results indicated that the optimum ratio among coal ash, lime and compound activator is 80:15:5, and the ideal water cement ratio is 0.7:1. It was also found that no bleeding occurred, the rheological behavior of slurry presented shear thinning fluid and the hydration temperature of filling body was relatively stable which is mainly maintained at 40°C. The uniaxial compressive strength of filling material with 28 and 90 days curing were 3.35 and 6.62 MPa respectively. Under a confining pressure environment, the filling material presented an obviously plastic deformation. Field test showed that the filling rate was almost 100%, when working face passed through abandoned roadway, the surface of filled body was complete and no roof collapse was triggered. Therefore, a better bonding effect was proved for the filling body.
Bladder cancer (BCa) is an aggressive malignancy because of its distant metastasis and high recurrence rate. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) exert critical regulatory functions in cancer progression. ...However, the expression patterns and roles of circRNAs in BCa have not been well investigated. In this study, we first screened circRNA expression profiles using a circRNA microarray of paired BCa and normal tissues, and the expression of circST6GALNAC6 was confirmed by qRT-PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). MTT, colony formation and Transwell assays were performed to measure cell proliferation, migration and invasion. We investigated the regulatory effect of circST6GALNAC6 on miRNA and its target genes to explore the potential regulatory mechanisms of circST6GALNAC6 by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), MS2-tagged RNA affinity purification (MS2-TRAP), immunofluorescence (IF) and dual luciferase activity assays. A nude mouse xenograft model was used to examine the functions of circST6GALNAC6/STMN1 in tumour metastasis in vivo. We found that 881 circRNAs were significantly dysregulated in BCa tissues compared to normal tissues. circST6GALNAC6(hsa_circ_0088708) was downregulated in BCa tissues and cells. Overexpression of circST6GALNAC6 effectively inhibited the cell proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro and suppressed BCa metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, we showed that the SP1 transcription factor, which binds to the circST6GALNAC6 mRNA transcript, activates circST6GALNAC6 transcription. Next, we verified that circST6GALNAC6 serves as a sponge that directly binds miR-200a-3p to regulate stathmin (STMN1) expression. Furthermore, we found that STMN1 is involved in circST6GALNAC6/miR-200a-3p axis-regulated BCa EMT and metastasis. Thus, our findings indicate an important underlying mechanism in BCa metastasis by which SP1-induced circST6GALNAC6 sponges miR-200a-3p to promote STMN1/EMT signalling. This mechanism could provide pivotal potential prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for BCa.
Unisexual taxa are commonly considered short-lived as the absence of meiotic recombination is supposed to accumulate deleterious mutations and hinder the creation of genetic diversity. However, the ...gynogenetic gibel carp (Carassius gibelio) with high genetic diversity and wide ecological distribution has outlived its predicted extinction time of a strict unisexual reproduction population. Unlike other unisexual vertebrates, males associated with supernumerary microchromosomes have been observed in gibel carp, which provides a unique system to explore the rationales underlying male occurrence in unisexual lineage and evolution of unisexual reproduction. Here, we identified a massively expanded satellite DNA cluster on microchromosomes of hexaploid gibel carp via comparing with the ancestral tetraploid crucian carp (Carassius auratus). Based on the satellite cluster, we developed a method for single chromosomal fluorescence microdissection and isolated three male-specific microchromosomes in a male metaphase cell. Genomic anatomy revealed that these male-specific microchromosomes contained homologous sequences of autosomes and abundant repetitive elements. Significantly, several potential male-specific genes with transcriptional activity were identified, among which four and five genes displayed male-specific and male-biased expression in gonads, respectively, during the developmental period of sex determination. Therefore, the male-specific microchromosomes resembling common features of sex chromosomes may be the main driving force for male occurrence in gynogenetic gibel carp, which sheds new light on the evolution of unisexual reproduction.