Cancer is the leading cause of death in China and depicting the cancer pattern of China would provide basic knowhows on how to tackle it more effectively. In this study we have reviewed several ...reports of cancer burden, including the Global cancer statistics 2018 and Cancer statistics in China, 2015, along with the GLOBCAN 2018 online database, to investigate the differences of cancer patterns between China, the United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). An estimated 4.3 million new cancer cases and 2.9 million new cancer deaths occurred in China in 2018. Compared to the USA and UK, China has lower cancer incidence but a 30% and 40% higher cancer mortality than the UK and USA, among which 36.4% of the cancer‐related deaths were from the digestive tract cancers (stomach, liver, and esophagus cancer) and have relatively poorer prognoses. In comparison, the digestive cancer deaths only took up ≤ 5% of the total cancer deaths in either USA or UK. Other reasons for the higher mortality in China may be the low rate of early‐stage cancers at diagnosis and non‐uniformed clinical cancer treatment strategies performed by different regions. China is undergoing the cancer transition stage where the cancer spectrum is changing from developing country to developed country, with a rapidly increase cancer burden of colorectal, prostate, female breast cancers in addition to a high occurrence of infection‐related and digestive cancers. The incidence of westernized lifestyle‐related cancers in China (i.e. colorectal cancer, prostate, bladder cancer) has risen but the incidence of the digestive cancers has decreased from 2000 to 2011. An estimated 40% of the risk factors can be attributed to environmental and lifestyle factors either in China or other developed countries. Tobacco smoking is the single most important carcinogenic risk factor in China, contributing to ~ 24.5% of cancers in males. Chronic infection is another important preventable cancer contributor which is responsible for ~ 17% of cancers. Comprehensive prevention and control strategies in China should include effective tobacco‐control policy, recommendations for healthier lifestyles, along with enlarging the coverage of effective screening, educating, and vaccination programs to better sensitize greater awareness control to the general public.
An Fe–N‐decorated hybrid material of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown in situ from porous carbon microblocks is designed and constructed. This material successfully combines the desirable merits for ...oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), such as highly active Fe–N species, good conductivity, large pore size, and sufficient surface area. These structural advantages give this low‐priced material an outstanding catalytic performance for ORR closely comparable with Pt/C of the same quantity.
In this recapitulation, China’s policies towards simultaneously achieving carbon neutrality and enhancing national energy security are reviewed. Without considering the vital energy safety, ...formulating climate policies toward carbon neutrality would be like a snow-covered Alp in a desolate desert. Because China's energy consumption has been greater than its domestic energy production in the recent decade, importing foreign energy safely and timely has become a top priority. Thereby, China has deepened its connection with Russian, Iran, Pakistan, Myanmar, and Central Asian countries for energy cooperation, thus reshaping its roadmap towards CO2 emission reductions. Meanwhile, adjusting to strategical necessities and understanding future trends, China has proactively participated in the Arctic affairs to explore new resource frontier and sphere of influence. Also, China has boosted the developments of renewable energy, inclusive of wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, geothermal, and wave/tidal to rationalize energy structure and increase the capacity of energy production. From 2009–2021, the cumulative installed electricity-generating capacity of renewable energy in China had increased from 874 to 2374 million kW and the yearly power generation from 3697 to 8537 billion kW·h. With the enforcement of constructions of energy infrastructure under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has steadily promoted the internationalization of its currency, Renminbi (RMB).
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non‐coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at a post‐transcriptional level via either the degradation or translational repression of a target mRNA. They play an ...irreplaceable role in angiogenesis by regulating the proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, migration and tube formation of angiogenesis‐related cells, which are indispensable for multitudinous physiological and pathological processes, especially for the occurrence and development of vascular diseases. Imbalance between the regulation of miRNAs and angiogenesis may cause many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, aneurysm, Kawasaki disease, aortic dissection, phlebothrombosis and diabetic microvascular complication. Therefore, it is important to explore the essential role of miRNAs in angiogenesis, which might help to uncover new and effective therapeutic strategies for vascular diseases. This review focuses on the interactions between miRNAs and angiogenesis, and miRNA‐based biomarkers in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of angiogenesis‐related diseases, providing an update on the understanding of the clinical value of miRNAs in targeting angiogenesis.
•A novel water-proof hybrid wind energy harvester is proposed.•The optimized magnetic arrangement is utilized to reduce the resistance torque.•A coupled dynamic model is developed and experimentally ...validated.•The hybrid harvester is flexible for practical applications as well as higher power.•The mechanical durability under the rainfall condition is experimentally validated.
Small-scale wind energy harvesting can be a potential way to yield endless electrical energy for small and micro mechanical systems, which has gained extensive interest from both the academia and industry. The environmental adaptability and reliability of the harvester are key issues that cannot be ignored in practical applications. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel water-proof hybrid wind energy harvester (WP-HWH) using magnetic coupling and force amplification mechanisms. Using a symmetrical opposite magnetic arrangement, the resistance torque is reduced as much as possible and the effective magnetic force is enhanced, which is beneficial to harvest energy at low wind speeds. The magnetic force can be further amplified and applied to the piezoelectric layer more evenly, thereby achieving higher power density and better reliability. The key components of the energy harvester can be packaged easily owing to the non-contact magnetic coupling mechanism. Thus, it can operate effectively in a harsh environment, such as rainfall. A theoretical model is developed to characterize the WP-HWH. Both simulations and experiments are performed to validate the design and analysis of the WP-HWH. The experimental results indicate that combining the advantages of piezoelectric energy harvester and electromagnetic energy harvester, the WP-HWH has enhanced flexibility for practical applications as well as an outpower. Additionally, under rainfall, the WP-HWH can operate continuously for more than 100,000 cycles and saturates at 3157.7 μW at a wind speed of 7.0 m/s, implying good mechanical durability.
Background
Climate change, largely triggered by human-induced greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions, seems unstoppable. There was a strong rebound of anthropogenic emissions of CO
2, the preponderant GHG ...in terms of contribution to global warming, around the world after the COVID-19 lockdown. Also, there is still no widely accepted international treaty on curbing the anthropogenic emissions of CH
4 and N
2O, the second and third predominant GHG, respectively, so far. Thereby,
prima facie, in respect to mitigating climate change, currently, humans have no aces up their sleeves. It seems that current temperature rise is not high enough to take alarm until the occurrence of tipping point.
Policy
Climate-related international treaties, such as 2016 Paris agreement, are compromises among conflicting geopolitical pressures. However, currently, the climate treaties show little mandatory binding force on the signatories who are able to violate and then get off scot-free, thus may end up like a nostrum. Throughout the European history, I find that the only way, if at all, to achieve the peace or obedience of a treaty is
via balancing powers, embodied in Bismarck's
Realpolitik of Germany and Richelieu's
Raison d'état of France. Similarly, the Chinese history in East Asia proved the significance of unadulterated ideological neutrality and Darwinian adaptability in the kaleidoscope of evolving circumstances in maintaining order and enforcement of international treaties through balancing the power of rivalries to constrain ever-recurring challengers for equilibrium.
Recommendations
A successful policy needs to make a thorough analysis of all relevant factors to form a long-term strategic notion. Then, statesmen need to distill an array of nebulous, always contradictory options into a tenacious, controllable direction. Thereby, I suggest that, for better curbing global warming, climate agreements or climate club be incorporated into an overall geopolitical framework among the international communities.
Wireless power transfer provides a safe and robust way for powering biomedical implants, where high efficiency is of great importance. A new wireless power transfer technique using optimal resonant ...load transformation is presented with significantly improved efficiency at the cost of only one additional chip inductor component. The optimal resonant load condition for the maximized power transfer efficiency is explained. The proposed technique is implemented using printed spiral coils with discrete surface mount components at 13.56 MHz power carrier frequency. With an implantable coil having an area of 25 mm × 10 mm and a thickness of 0.5 mm, the power transfer efficiency of 58% is achieved in the tissue environment at 10-mm distance from the external coil. Compared to previous works, the power efficiency is much higher and the structure is compact with planar integration, easy to tune, and suitable for batch production, as well as biocompatible owing to no incorporation of ferromagnetic core.
In this letter, a wearable all-textile metasurface antenna (MSA) for 5 GHz wireless body area network (WBAN) applications is proposed. All the components of the proposed MSA are made of the comfort ...textile materials. A metasurface with high permittivity values is placed right above a wide-bandwidth planar inverted-F antenna to realize size miniaturization and gain enhancement. The proposed MSA has a profile of 4 mm (0.07λ0) and occupies an area of 42 mm × 28 mm (0.77λ0 × 0.51λ0). Moreover, this antenna realizes a measured peak gain of 6.70 dBi, an average efficiency of 77%, and an operating band from 4.96 to 5.90 GHz that covers the 5 GHz WBAN band. In addition, the on-body studies show that the MSA is suitable for wearable applications.
2D materials hold great potential for designing novel electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, 2D material can only absorb limited incident light. As a representative 2D semiconductor, ...monolayer MoS2 can only absorb up to 10% of the incident light in the visible, which is not sufficient to achieve a high optical‐to‐electrical conversion efficiency. To overcome this shortcoming, a “gap‐mode” plasmon‐enhanced monolayer MoS2 fluorescent emitter and photodetector is designed by squeezing the light‐field into Ag shell‐isolated nanoparticles–Au film gap, where the confined electromagnetic field can interact with monolayer MoS2. With this gap‐mode plasmon‐enhanced configuration, a 110‐fold enhancement of photoluminescence intensity is achieved, exceeding values reached by other plasmon‐enhanced MoS2 fluorescent emitters. In addition, a gap‐mode plasmon‐enhanced monolayer MoS2 photodetector with an 880% enhancement in photocurrent and a responsivity of 287.5 A W−1 is demonstrated, exceeding previously reported plasmon‐enhanced monolayer MoS2 photodetectors.
By dropping Ag shell‐isolated nanoparticles onto Al2O3‐covered Au film, the gap‐mode plasmonic structure with a gap thickness of 7 nm can form naturally. By integrating monolayer MoS2 into this plasmonic structure, 110‐fold photoluminescence and 880% photocurrent enhancement are achieved. This work shows that the gap‐mode plasmonic structures have huge potential for realizing high‐performance 2D‐material‐based optoelectronic devices.
Cadmium (Cd) is a ubiquitously distributed environmental pollutant that is highly toxic to liver. Trehalose (Tr), a novel autophagy activator, has been shown to exert cytoprotective effect in ...numerous pathological processes. However, it is yet to be established whether Tr affords protection against Cd-induced hepatotoxicity. Here, we aimed to investigate the protective effect of Tr on Cd-induced hepatic injury in rats. First, Cd-elevated serum hepatic enzymes and liver pathological changes were significantly ameliorated by Tr treatment. Also, Tr remarkably improved Cd-mediated oxidative stress and antioxidant status in serum, indicating its anti-oxidant action for the whole body. Cd-stimulated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) nuclear translocation and subsequent elevated expression of Nrf2-downstream targets in rat liver were significantly inhibited by Tr treatment. Simultaneously, Cd-elevated protein levels of hepatic antioxidant enzymes were markedly downregulated by administration with Tr. Moreover, Cd-induced autophagy inhibition in liver tissues was noticeably restored by Tr, evidenced by immunohistochemical analysis and immunoblot assays. Additionally, Tr treatment significantly mitigated Cd-induced apoptosis in hepatic tissues via inhibiting caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway. In conclusion, these observations demonstrate that Tr treatment alleviates Cd-induced liver injury by blocking Nrf2 pathway, restoring autophagy and inhibiting apoptosis.
Cadmium-induced oxidative stress is intimately related to the activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway (nuclear translocation), which contributes to autophagy inhibition and apoptosis in rat liver. Trehalose alleviates cadmium-induced oxidative stress and Nrf2 pathway activation, thereby restoring autophagy and inhibiting apoptosis to prevent cadmium-induced hepatotoxicity. Display omitted
•Trehalose protects against cadmium-induced liver injury via its anti-oxidative activity.•Nrf2 is the abbreviation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2.•Trehalose inhibits cadmium-activated Nrf2 signaling pathway in rat liver•Trehalose attenuates cadmium-induced apoptosis in rat liver.•Trehalose restores cadmium-induced autophagy inhibition in rat liver.
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