Janus membranes show great promise toward various applications and are undergoing a fast‐paced development in materials science. The asymmetric surface engineering on surface wettability, layer ...thickness, and pore structure enables Janus membranes with superiority in mass transport over conventional membranes. This review aims to provide an overview on the role of asymmetric surface engineering in membrane fabrication, structure control, and property tuning. The relationship between asymmetric surface engineering and performance optimization of Janus membranes is then elucidated based on an understanding of the underlying mass transport mechanism for target applications. Finally, current challenges in this field are highlighted, hopefully inspiring more researches to address the controllability and tunability of surface engineering for Janus membranes in future.
Janus membranes show great promise toward various applications in materials science via surface engineering. A review of the influcence of asymmetric surface engineering on the membrane fabrication, structure tuning, and performane regulation is provided based on an understanding of the underlying mass transport principle. Finally, current challenges regarding the performance optimization of Janus membranes through controllable surface engineering are highlighted.
Abstract
Solar‐driven evaporation process brings exciting opportunities to recover clean water and resources in a sustainable way from diverse sources like seawater and wastewater. Separation ...membranes, as a vital material in many environmental and energy applications, can contribute significantly to this process owing to their structural features. However, the unique roles of membranes in solar evaporator construction and process design are seldom recognized and not summarized yet from scientific principles and application demands, which forms the motivation of this review. Herein, the roles of membranes in different processes based on solar‐driven evaporation are focused and the design principles of membrane materials and devices to meet the requirements of these applications are discussed. Fabrication strategies for photothermal membranes are introduced primarily, followed by a discussion on how to design membrane materials, devices, and processes to pursue optimal performance and realize advanced functions accompanied by evaporation. Furthermore, the future of this field is forecast with both challenges and opportunities.
Salt scaling poses a significant obstacle to the practical implementation of solar‐driven evaporation for desalination. Attempts to mitigate scaling by enhancing mass transfer often lead to a ...compromise in evaporation efficiency due to associated heat loss. In the present work, a novel seesaw evaporator with a Janus structure to harness scaling for periodic self‐descaling is reported. The seesaw evaporators are facilely fabricated by delignifying balsa wood and subsequently single‐sided spray‐coating it with soot and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This unique Janus structure enables the evaporator to float on the brine while ensuring an ample supply of solution for evaporation. During evaporation, salt ions are transported directionally toward the cocked end of the evaporator to form scaling, triggering the seesaw evaporator to flip once a threshold is reached. The accumulated salts re‐dissolve back into the solution. By adjusting the tilt angle, the evaporator can achieve an impressive evaporation rate of up to 2.65 kg m−2 h−1 when evaporating an 8 wt.% NaCl solution. Remarkably, these evaporators maintain a stable evaporation rate during prolonged 120 h operation and produce ≈3.93–6.35 L m⁻2·day⁻¹ of freshwater from simulated brines when assembled into an evaporation device.
A Janus seesaw evaporator to leverage scaling for periodic self‐descaling is presented. Salt ions migrate toward the tilted end and the formed scaling triggers the evaporator to flip for scaling dissolution. The evaporator achieves an evaporation rate of up to 2.65 kg m−2 h−1 in an 8 wt.% NaCl solution and can maintain a stable evaporation rate over 120 h operation.
Designing nanocomposite hydrogels with oriented nanosheets has emerged as a promising toolkit to achieve preferential performances that go beyond their disordered counterparts. Although current ...fabrication strategies via electric/magnetic force fields have made remarkable achievements, they necessitate special properties of nanosheets and suffer from an inferior orientation degree of nanosheets. Herein, a facile and universal approach is discovered to elaborate MXene‐based nanocomposite hydrogels with highly oriented, heterogeneous architecture by virtue of supergravity to replace conventional force fields. The key to such architecture is to leverage bidirectional, force‐tunable attributes of supergravity containing coupled orthogonal shear and centrifugal force field for steering high‐efficient movement, pre‐orientation, and stacking of MXene nanosheets in the bottom. Such a synergetic effect allows for yielding heterogeneous nanocomposite hydrogels with a high‐orientation MXene‐rich layer (orientation degree, f = 0.83) and a polymer‐rich layer. The authors demonstrate that MXene‐based nanocomposite hydrogels leverage their high‐orientation, heterogeneous architecture to deliver an extraordinary electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of 55.2 dB at 12.4 GHz yet using a super‐low MXene of 0.3 wt%, surpassing most hydrogels‐based electromagnetic shielding materials. This versatile supergravity‐steered strategy can be further extended to arbitrary nanosheets including MoS2, GO, and C3N4, offering a paradigm in the development of oriented nanocomposites.
A novel supergravity‐steered approach is designed to manipulate the assembly of arbitrary nanosheets from MXene to MoS2, GO, and C3N4 for fabricating oriented nanocomposite hydrogels with heterogeneous architecture. The resultant MXene‐based nanocomposite hydrogels showcase an extraordinary electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI SE) of 55.2 dB yet using a super‐low MXene of 0.3 wt%, surpassing most hydrogels‐based electromagnetic shielding materials.
Aim
To compare the pregnancy outcomes after day 5 blastocyst‐stage embryo transfers (BET) versus day 6 BET following vitrified‐warmed cycle and to evaluate whether the number of embryos transferred ...and the chromosomal status of embryo influence effect estimates.
Methods
A literature search (PubMed, Embase and MEDLINE) up to January 2019 was conducted to identify studies where women with day 6 BET were compared to women with day 5 BET. Only studies published in English language, on peer‐reviewed journal were considered eligible. The following subgroup analyses were performed: (i) number of embryos transferred and (ii) chromosomal status of embryo.
Results
From a total of 1956 articles identified, 23 observational studies were included in the meta‐analysis. We observed that day 6 BET were associated with lower implantation rate (risk ratio, RR: 1.17, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.10–1.24), clinical pregnancy rate (RR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.10–1.24), ongoing pregnancy rate (RR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.07–1.24) and live birth rate (RR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.11–1.33) than day 5 BET following vitrified‐warmed cycle. The subgroup analysis found that the superiority of day 5 BET compared with day 6 BET is influenced by the number of embryos transferred and chromosomal status of embryos.
Conclusion
Current evidence shows that day 5 BET is superior to day 6 BET following vitrified‐warmed cycle in clinical practice. Due to the overall low quality of available evidence, more larger and well‐conducted studies are needed to compare the pregnancy outcomes between day 5 and day 6 BET before drawing a clear conclusion.
Our recent studies have identified that the red nucleus (RN) dual-directionally modulates the development and maintenance of mononeuropathic pain through secreting proinflammatory and ...anti-inflammatory cytokines. Here, we further explored the action of red nucleus IL-33 in the early development of mononeuropathic pain.
In this study, male rats with spared nerve injury (SNI) were used as mononeuropathic pain model. Immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and behavioral testing were used to assess the expressions, cellular distributions, and actions of red nucleus IL-33 and its related downstream signaling molecules.
IL-33 and its receptor ST2 were constitutively expressed in the RN in naive rats. After SNI, both IL-33 and ST2 were upregulated significantly at 3 days and peaked at 1 week post-injury, especially in RN neurons, oligodendrocytes, and microglia. Blockade of red nucleus IL-33 with anti-IL-33 neutralizing antibody attenuated SNI-induced mononeuropathic pain, while intrarubral administration of exogenous IL-33 evoked mechanical hypersensitivity in naive rats. Red nucleus IL-33 generated an algesic effect in the early development of SNI-induced mononeuropathic pain through activating NF-κB, ERK, p38 MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3, suppression of NF-κB, ERK, p38 MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3 with corresponding inhibitors markedly attenuated SNI-induced mononeuropathic pain or IL-33-evoked mechanical hypersensitivity in naive rats. Red nucleus IL-33 contributed to SNI-induced mononeuropathic pain by stimulating TNF-α expression, which could be abolished by administration of inhibitors against ERK, p38 MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3, but not NF-κB.
These results suggest that red nucleus IL-33 facilitates the early development of mononeuropathic pain through activating NF-κB, ERK, p38 MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3. IL-33 mediates algesic effect partly by inducing TNF-α through activating ERK, p38 MAPK and JAK2/STAT3.
We previously reported that interleukin (IL)‐6 in the red nucleus (RN) is involved in the maintenance of neuropathic pain induced by spared nerve injury (SNI), and exerts a facilitatory effect via ...Janus‐activated kinase 2/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (JAK2/STAT3) and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) signal transduction pathways. The present study aimed at investigating the roles of tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) and IL‐1β in RN IL‐6‐mediated maintenance of neuropathic pain and related signal transduction pathways. Being similar to the elevation of RN IL‐6 three weeks after SNI, increased protein levels of both TNF‐α and IL‐1β were also observed in the contralateral RN three weeks after the nerve injury. The upregulations of TNF‐α and IL‐1β were closely correlative with IL‐6 and suppressed by intrarubral injection of a neutralizing antibody against IL‐6. Administration of either the JAK2 antagonist AG490 or the ERK antagonist PD98059 to the RN of rats with SNI remarkably increased the paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) and inhibited the up‐regulations of local TNF‐α and IL‐1β. Further experiments indicated that intrarubral injection of exogenous IL‐6 in naive rats apparently lowered the PWT of the contralateral hindpaw and boosted the local expressions of TNF‐α and IL‐1β. Pretreatment with AG490 could block IL‐6‐induced tactile hypersensitivity and suppress the up‐regulations of both TNF‐α and IL‐1β. However, injection of PD98059 in advance only inhibited the upregulation of IL‐1β, but not TNF‐α. These findings indicate that RN IL‐6 mediates the maintenance of neuropathic pain by inducing the productions of TNF‐α and IL‐1β. IL‐6 induces the expression of TNF‐α through the JAK2/STAT3 pathway, and the production of IL‐1β through the JAK2/STAT3 and ERK pathways.
To study the epidemiological characteristics of atypical Kashin-Beck disease cases without characteristic hand lesions such as interphalangeal joint enlargement and brachydactyly and the ...characteristics of ankle joint lesions.
We investigated Kashin-Beck in the endemic villages in Heilongjiang Province. The patients were judged according to the "Diagnosis of Kashin-Beck Disease" (WS/T 207-2010). The severity of foot lesions was judged based on the changes of X-ray images. Residents of non-Kashin-Beck disease area were selected as normal controls in Jilin Province.
A total of 119 residents over 40 years old were surveyed in a natural village in the non-endemic area. A total of 1190 residents over 40 years old were surveyed in 38 endemic areas of Kashin-Beck disease. A total of 710 patients with Kashin-Beck disease were detected, including 245 patients with grade I, 175 patients with grade II, 25 patients with grade III, and 265 atypical patients. Among all investigated patients, 92.0% (653/710) had ankle joint changes, and it was 80.0% (196/245) in grade I patients and 95.4% (167/175) in grade II. Varying degrees of ankle joint changes were found in both grade III and atypical patients. The grade of Kashin-Beck disease was correlated with the degree of ankle joint change (P < 0.001), and the correlation coefficient r
= 0.376. Atypical Kashin-Beck disease patients in mild and severe endemic area of Kashin-Beck disease were younger than those with typical Kashin-Beck disease.
We found a correlation between the degree of ankle joint change and the grade of Kashin-Beck disease. The higher the grade of Kashin-Beck disease, the more serious the change of the ankle joint.
Excessive grinding heat might probably lead to unwanted heat damages of workpiece materials, most previous studies on grinding heat/temperature, however, assumed the wheel-workpiece contact zone as a ...moving band heat source, which might be not appropriate enough to capture the realistic situation in grinding. To address this, grinding temperature domain has been theoretically modeled in this paper by using a stochastically grain-discretised temperature model (SGDTM) with the consideration of grain-workpiece micro interactions (i.e. rubbing, ploughing and cutting), and the full 2D/3D temperature maps with highly-localised thermal information, even at the grain scale (i.e. with the thermal impacts induced by each individual grain), has been presented for the first time. To validate theoretical maps, a new methodological approach to capture 2D/3D temperature maps based on an array of sacrificial thermocouples have also been proposed. Experimental validation has indicated that the grinding temperature calculated by SGDTM showed a reasonable agreement with the experimental one in terms of both 1D temperature signals (i.e. the signals that are captured at a specific location within the grinding zone) and the 2D/3D temperature maps of the grinding zone, proving the feasibility and the accuracy of SGDTM. This study has also proved that, as expected, the heat fluxes are neither uniformly-distributed along the wheel width direction nor continuous along the workpiece feed direction. The proposed SGDTM and the temperature measurement technique are not only anticipated to be powerful to provide the basis for the prevention of grinding thermal damage (e.g. grinding burns, grinding annealing and rehardening), but also expected to be meaningful to enhance the existing understanding of grinding heat/temperature than using the common approach depending on the single thermocouple technique.
We previously reported that interleukin‐1β (IL‐1β) in the red nucleus (RN) is involved in pain modulation and exerts a facilitatory effect in the development of neuropathic pain. Here, we explored ...the actions of signaling pathways, including the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (JAK/STAT3), c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK), extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK), p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) and nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) pathways, on RN IL‐1β‐mediated pain modulation. After a single dose of recombinant rat IL‐1β (rrIL‐1β, 10 ng) injected into the RN in normal rats, a tactile allodynia was evoked in the contralateral but not ipsilateral hindpaw, commencing 75 min and peaking 120 min postinjection. Up‐regulated protein levels of phospho‐STAT3 (p‐STAT3) and p‐JNK were observed in the RN 120 min after rrIL‐1β injection, the increases of p‐STAT3 and p‐JNK were blocked by anti‐IL‐1β antibody. However, the expression levels of p‐ERK, p‐p38 MAPK, and NF‐κB in the RN were not affected by rrIL‐1β injection. RN neurons and astrocytes contributed to IL‐1β‐evoked up‐regulation of p‐STAT3 and p‐JNK. Further studies demonstrated that injection of the JAK2 antagonist AG490 or JNK antagonist SP600125 into the RN 30 min prior to the administration of rrIL‐1β could completely prevent IL‐1β‐evoked tactile allodynia, while injection of the ERK antagonist PD98059, p38 MAPK antagonist SB203580, or NF‐κB antagonist PDTC did not affect IL‐1β‐evoked tactile allodynia. In conclusion, our data provide additional evidence that RN IL‐1β is involved in pain modulation, and that it exerts a facilitatory effect by activating the JAK/STAT3 and JNK signaling pathways.
Red nucleus IL‐1β is involved in the modulation of pain, and that it exerts a facilitatory effect by activating the JAK/STAT3 and JNK signaling pathways.
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