The construction of controlled biomacromolecular assemblies has become a thriving area of supramolecular chemistry. In this context, cucurbiturils (CBs), a class of macrocyclic receptors having ...robust skeletons, hydrophobic cavities, and carbonyl‐laced portals, have been drawn into the limelight because of their advantageous molecular recognition characteristics with a variety of biomacromolecules, including peptides, nucleic acids, and proteins. In this minireview, we focus on the impressive advances in CB‐based biomacromolecular assemblies, such as in biosensors and assays, the regulation of biochemical reactions, and the treatment of serious diseases. CB‐promoted subcellular bioimaging has also been demonstrated in different organelles. The case studies presented herein demonstrate the numerous applications, from fundamental research to translational applications, of diverse CB‐based supra/biomacromolecular architectures.
This minireview highlights the recent progress in and emerging applications of cucurbituril‐based biomacromolecular assemblies with peptides, nucleic acids, and proteins. This rapidly developing area involves precise control over intermolecular communication at multidimensional levels and holds great promise for the creation of innovative biomaterials and therapeutic methods.
Multigene panel testing of breast cancer predisposition genes have been extensively conducted in Europe and America, which is relatively rare in Asia however. In this study, we assessed the frequency ...of germline mutations in 40 cancer predisposition genes, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, among a large cohort of Chinese patients with high hereditary risk of BC. From 2015 to 2016, consecutive BC patients from 26 centers of China with high hereditary risk were recruited (n = 937). Clinical information was collected and next‐generation sequencing (NGS) was performed using blood samples of participants to identify germline mutations. In total, we acquired 223 patients with putative germline mutations, including 159 in BRCA1/2, 61 in 15 other BC susceptibility genes and 3 in both BRCA1/2 and non‐BRCA1/2 gene. Major mutant non‐BRCA1/2 genes were TP53 (n = 18), PALB2 (n = 11), CHEK2 (n = 6), ATM (n = 6) and BARD1 (n = 5). No factors predicted pathologic mutations in non‐BRCA1/2 genes when treated as a whole. TP53 mutations were associated with HER‐2 positive BC and younger age at diagnosis; and CHEK2 and PALB2 mutations were enriched in patients with luminal BC. Among high hereditary risk Chinese BC patients, 23.8% contained germline mutations, including 6.8% in non‐BRCA1/2 genes. TP53 and PALB2 had a relatively high mutation rate (1.9 and 1.2%). Although no factors predicted for detrimental mutations in non‐BRCA1/2 genes, some clinical features were associated with mutations of several particular genes.
What's new?
The prevalence of mutations in breast cancer predisposition genesare not well investigated in Asia. We assessed germline mutations of 40 cancer susceptibility genes in 937 consecutive selected breast cancer patients from 26 centers of China, and discovered 23.8% of participates carried the pathogenic mutation, including 6.8% with mutations in non‐BRCA1/2 genes, while TP53 and PALB2 had a relatively high mutation rates (1.9% and 1.2%).There was no factors predicted for detrimental mutations in non‐BRCA1/2 genes when treated as a whole.
A major component of the Mohr-Coulomb (M-C) criterion is that the failure of the material is independent of the intermediate principal stress σ2 along the potential planes of sliding. To account for ...the effect of σ2, a linear relationship between the octahedral shear stress τoct and the mean stress σm,2 on the plane of failure (called the Mogi-Coulomb criterion) is widely used to represent rock failure in polyaxial compression (PXC) in practice. In this research, a linear relationship between the equivalent stress σe (or τoct) and major principal stress σ1 (or minor principal stress σ3) is proposed, which has a similar expression as the Mogi-Coulomb criterion. The relationship between the proposed failure criteria and M-C criterion is like the relationship between the Tresca and Von-Mises criteria. The material parameters can be related to the M-C strength parameters, and can be easily obtained from conventional triaxial tests. The proposed criteria are numerically calibrated against triaxial compression (TXC) and PXC data sets using three different methods. Sensitivity of the range of TXC stress data employed for fitting on the prediction results in PXC are further discussed. Comparisons of two proposed criteria with the Mogi-Coulomb criterion for rocks in PXC demonstrate that one new criterion with convex failure envelope gives the best performance for seven rock types and provides an acceptable modelling for the rest of rock types. Another new criterion and the Mogi-Coulomb criterion result in large prediction error for three (or two) rock types though they can give best performance for some rock types.
•Two simple 3D Mohr-Coulomb(M-C) criteria are proposed for intact rocks.•Two new criteria have very similar expression as the Mogi-Coulomb criterion.•Material parameters can be related to the M-C or Mogi-Coulomb strength parameters.•One new criterion with convex and smooth cross sections can reduce to the Rankine and Druker-Prager criteria.•Comparisons of new criteria with the Mogi-Coulomb criterion are made using polyaxial compression tests of fourteen rock types.
There have been a number of attempts at developing three-dimensional Hoek-Brown (3D HB) failure criteria with non-circular cross sections to include the effect of the intermediate principal stress ...for rocks, which is neglected in the classical HB criterion. Those existing 3D HB criteria predict the same strength as the classical HB criterion in triaxial extension (TXE) and triaxial compression (TXC). This paper presents a new failure criterion for rocks and concrete based on a unified expression of the 3D HB failure criteria, which can account for the strength difference between TXE and TXC. The failure cone of the new criterion is convex and smooth everywhere and the deviatoric cross-section of the failure cone can cover various shapes from a curved triangle as the lower bound to a circle as the upper bound. The deviatoric plane locus is controlled by a shape factor k, which can be easily identified from TXE tests. The proposed failure criterion has been validated by biaxial compression tests of concrete, TXC/TXE tests of intact rocks and concrete as well as polyaxial compression (PXC) tests of intact rocks, jointed rock masses and concrete. Results show that the new 3D criterion with an empirical parameter k=−0.99 performs well in characterizing the rock and concrete strength in PXC in the absence of TXE test data. The application of the new criterion to cross-anisotropic rock in PXC is also discussed to show the fabric effect on the rock failure.
•A new failure criterion for rocks and concrete is proposed.•The new criterion can consider the strength difference in triaxial extension and compression.•Material parameters can be easily identified from conventional triaxial tests.•The convex and smooth cross section can cover various shapes with lower and upper bounds.•The new criterion can be also used for rock masses and cross-anisotropic rock.
The rapid development of topological photonics and acoustics calls for accurate understanding of band topology in classical waves, which is not yet achieved in many situations. Here, we present the ...Wilson-loop approach for exact numerical calculation of the topological invariants for several photonic/sonic crystals. We demonstrate that these topological photonic/sonic crystals are topological crystalline insulators with fragile topology, a feature which has been ignored in previous studies. We further discuss the bulk-edge correspondence in these systems with emphasis on symmetry broken on the edges.
Display omitted
•Biochars are potential sustainable precursors for activated carbon production.•Physical activation and chemical activation are applied in the production process.•Production ...parameters affect the properties of resultant activated carbon.•Multiple applications in environmental protection and energy storage are reviewed.•Future perspectives about biochar activation and applications are highlighted.
There is a growing interest of the scientific community on production of activated carbon using biochar as potential sustainable precursors pyrolyzed from biomass wastes. Physical activation and chemical activation are the main methods applied in the activation process. These methods could have significantly beneficial effects on biochar chemical/physical properties, which make it suitable for multiple applications including water pollution treatment, CO2 capture, and energy storage. The feedstock with different compositions, pyrolysis conditions and activation parameters of biochar have significant influences on the properties of resultant activated carbon. Compared with traditional activated carbon, activated biochar appears to be a new potential cost-effective and environmentally-friendly carbon materials with great application prospect in many fields. This review not only summarizes information from the current analysis of activated biochar and their multiple applications for further optimization and understanding, but also offers new directions for development of activated biochar.
The aim of this study was to develop a noninvasive serological diagnostic approach in identifying and evaluating a panel of candidate autoantibodies to tumor‐associated antigens (TAAs) based on ...protein microarray technology for early detection of ovarian cancer (OC). Protein microarray based on 154 proteins encoded by 138 cancer driver genes was used to screen candidate anti‐TAA autoantibodies in a discovery cohort containing 17 OC and 27 normal controls (NC). Indirect enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the content of candidate anti‐TAA autoantibodies in sera from 140 subjects in the training cohort. Differential anti‐TAA autoantibodies were further validated in the validation cohort with 328 subjects. Subsequently, 112 sera from the patients with ovarian benign diseases with 104 OC sera and 104 NC sera together were recruited to identify the specificity of representative autoantibodies to OC among ovarian diseases. Five TAAs (GNAS, NPM1, FUBP1, p53, and KRAS) were screened out in the discovery phase, in which four of them presented higher levels in OC than controls (P < .05) in the training cohort, which was consistent with the result in the subsequent validation cohort. An optimized panel of three anti‐TAA (GNAS, p53, and NPM1) autoantibodies was identified to have relatively high sensitivity (51.2%), specificity (86.0%), and accuracy (68.6%), respectively. This panel can identify 51% of OC patients with CA125 negative. This study supports our assumption that anti‐TAA autoantibodies can be considered as potential diagnostic biomarkers for detection of OC; especially a panel of three anti‐TAA autoantibodies could be a good tool in immunodiagnosis of OC.
We developed a noninvasive serological diagnostic approach of ovarian cancer (OC). Autoantibodies can be considered as potential biomarkers for the detection of OC. A panel of three anti‐TAA (GNAS, p53, and NPM1) autoantibodies was identified.
Beyond the scope of Hermitian physics, non-Hermiticity fundamentally changes the topological band theory, leading to interesting phenomena, e.g., non-Hermitian skin effect, as confirmed in ...one-dimensional systems. However, in higher dimensions, these effects remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate the spin-polarized, higher-order non-Hermitian skin effect in two-dimensional acoustic higher-order topological insulators. We find that non-Hermiticity drives wave localizations toward opposite edges upon different spin polarizations. More interestingly, for finite systems with both edges and corners, the higher-order non-Hermitian skin effect leads to wave localizations toward two opposite corners for all the bulk, edge and corner states in a spin-dependent manner. We further show that such a skin effect enables rich wave manipulation by configuring the non-Hermiticity. Our study reveals the intriguing interplay between higher-order topology and non-Hermiticity, which is further enriched by the pseudospin degree of freedom, unveiling a horizon in the study of non-Hermitian physics.
PDF
