A low density refractory high entropy alloy of composition TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 was prepared by vacuum arc melting. Due to the formation of a single-phase BCC structure with uniform element distribution ...and a gradient passive film with a high concentration of passivating elements, the TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 high entropy alloy (HEA) exhibits low corrosion current density (10−7~10−8 A cm−2), high breakdown potential (1.8–1.9 VSCE) and excellent repassivation ability in 3.5 wt% NaCl and 1M HCl solutions. The properties were compared with HEAs, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) and traditional alloys reported in literatures. The results show that TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 possesses the most outstanding corrosion resistance in chloride environment.
•Single phase structure TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 HEA surpasses conventional corrosion resistant alloys in chloride solution.•The enrichment of Cr3+, Al3+ and Ti4+ in the passive film makes it stable.•Nb5+ promotes the formation of Ti4+ and improves the corrosion resistance of the alloy in NaCl solution.•The corrosion mechanism of TiCrVNb0.5Al0.5 high entropy alloy is evaluated.
Copper ferrites are emerging transition metal oxides that have potential applications in energy storage devices. However, it still lacks in-depth designing of copper ferrites based anode ...architectures with enhanced electroactivity for lithium-ion batteries. Here, we report a facile synthesis technology of copper ferrites anchored on reduced graphene oxide (CuFeO
@rGO and Cu/CuFe
O
@rGO) as the high-performance electrodes. In the resulting configuration, reduced graphene offers continuous conductive channels for electron/ion transfer and high specific surface area to accommodate the volume expansion of copper ferrites. Consequently, the sheet-on-sheet CuFeO
@rGO electrode exhibits a high reversible capacity (587 mAh g
after 100 cycles at 200 mA g
). In particular, Cu/CuFe
O
@rGO hybrid, which combines the advantages of nano-copper and reduced graphene, manifests a significant enhancement in lithium storage properties. It reveals superior rate capability (723 mAh g
at 800 mA g
; 560 mAh g
at 3200 mA g
) and robust cycling capability (1102 mAh g
after 250 cycles at 800 mA g
). This unique structure design provides a strategy for the development of multivalent metal oxides in lithium storage device applications.
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) chirp waveforms are an attractive candidate to be a dual-function signal scheme for the joint radar and communication systems. OFDM chirp signals can ...not only be employed to transmit communication data through classic phase modulation, but also can perform radar detection by applying linear frequency modulation for subcarriers. However, the performance of the OFDM chirp communication system under the phase noise environment still remains uninvestigated. This paper tries to discuss the influence of phase noise on OFDM chirp communication systems and proposes effective phase noise estimation and compensation methods. We find that the phase noise effect on OFDM chirp communication systems consists of a common phase error (CPE) and an inter-carrier interference (ICI). If not compensated, the performance of the dual-function systems can be seriously degraded. In particular, an exact expression for the signal-plus-interference to noise ratio (SINR) for the OFDM chirp communication system is derived and some critical parameters are analyzed to exhibit the phase noise effects on system performance. Moreover, two low-complexity estimation approaches, maximum likelihood (ML) and linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE), as well as two compensation approaches, the de-correlation and cancellation algorithms, are respectively utilized to eliminate the phase noise impairment. Finally, the phase noise effects and the effectiveness of the compensation approach are verified by extensive numerical results.
Highlights • Propofol inhibits cervical cancer cells viability. • Propofol increases the inhibitory effect of cisplatin to cervical cancer cells growth. • Propofol enhances the anti-tumor effect of ...cisplatin through EGFR/JAK2/STAT3 pathway.
Exploitation of the oxidation behaviour in an environmentally sensitive semiconductor is significant to modulate its electronic properties and develop unique applications. Here, we demonstrate a ...native oxidation-inspired InSe field-effect transistor as an artificial synapse in device level that benefits from the boosted charge trapping under ambient conditions. A thin InO
layer is confirmed under the InSe channel, which can serve as an effective charge trapping layer for information storage. The dynamic characteristic measurement is further performed to reveal the corresponding uniform charge trapping and releasing process, which coincides with its surface-effect-governed carrier fluctuations. As a result, the oxide-decorated InSe device exhibits nonvolatile memory characteristics with flexible programming/erasing operations. Furthermore, an InSe-based artificial synapse is implemented to emulate the essential synaptic functions. The pattern recognition capability of the designed artificial neural network is believed to provide an excellent paradigm for ultra-sensitive van der Waals materials to develop electric-modulated neuromorphic computation architectures.
Reliable energy modules and higher-sensitivity, higher-density, lower-powered sensing systems are constantly required to develop wearable electronics and the Internet of Things technology. As an ...emerging technology, triboelectric nanogenerators have been potentially guiding the landscape of sustainable power units and energy-efficient sensors. However, the existing triboelectric series is primarily populated by polymers and rubbers, limiting triboelectric sensing plasticity to some extent owing to their stiff surface electronic structures. To enrich the current triboelectric group, we explore the triboelectric properties of the topological insulator nanofilm by Kelvin probe force microscopy and reveal its relatively positive electrification charging performance. Both the larger surface potential difference and the conductive surface states of the nanofilms synergistically improve the charge transfer behavior between the selected triboelectric media, endowing the topological insulator-based triboelectric nanogenerator with considerable output performance. Besides serving as a wearable power source, the ultra-compact device array demonstrates innovative system-level sensing capabilities, including precise monitoring of dynamic objects and real-time signal control at the human-machine interface. This work fills the blank between topological quantum matters and triboelectric nanogenerators and, more importantly, exploits the significant potential of topological insulator nanofilms for self-powered flexible/wearable electronics and scalable sensing technologies.
Previously, we identified a highly conserved, γ-shaped RNA element (γRE) from satellite RNAs of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), and we determined γRE to be structurally required for satRNA survival and ...the inhibition of CMV replication. It remains unknown how γRE biologically functions. In this work, pull-down assays were used to screen candidates of host factors from
plants using biotin-labeled γRE as bait. Nine host factors were found to interact specifically with γRE. Then, all of these host factors were down-regulated individually in
plants via tobacco rattle virus-induced gene silencing and tested with infection by GFP-expressing CMV (CMV-gfp) and the isolate T1 of satRNA (sat-T1). Out of nine candidates, three host factors, namely histone H3, GTPase Ran3, and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A, were extremely important for infection by CMV-gfp and sat-T1. Moreover, we found that cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase 2 contributed to the replication of CMV and sat-T1, but also negatively regulated CMV 2b activity. Collectively, our work provides essential clues for uncovering the mechanism by which satRNAs inhibit CMV replication.
Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR‐TKIs) are effective in patients with non–small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring EGFR mutations. However, due to acquired ...resistance to EGFR‐TKIs, even patients on third‐generation osimertinib have a poor prognosis. Resistance mechanisms are still not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that the increased expression of MUSASHI‐2 (MSI2), an RNA‐binding protein, is a novel mechanism for resistance to EGFR‐TKIs. We found that after a long‐term exposure to gefitinib, the first‐generation EGFR‐TKI lung cancer cells harboring the EGFR‐TKI‐sensitive mutations became resistant to both gefitinib and osimertinib. Although other mutations in EGFR were not found, expression levels of Nanog, a stemness core protein, and activities of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) were increased, suggesting that cancer stem‐like properties were increased. Transcriptome analysis revealed that MSI2 was among the stemness‐related genes highly upregulated in EGFR‐TKI‐resistant cells. Knockdown of MSI2 reduced cancer stem‐like properties, including the expression levels of Nanog, a core stemness factor. We demonstrated that knockdown of MSI2 restored sensitivity to osimertinib or gefitinib in EGFR‐TKI‐resistant cells to levels similar to those of parental cells in vitro. An RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay revealed that antibodies against MSI2 were bound to Nanog mRNA, suggesting that MSI2 increases Nanog expression by binding to Nanog mRNA. Moreover, overexpression of MSI2 or Nanog conferred resistance to osimertinib or gefitinib in parental cells. Finally, MSI2 knockdown greatly increased the sensitivity to osimertinib in vivo. Collectively, our findings provide proof of principle that targeting the MSI2‐Nanog axis in combination with EGFR‐TKIs would effectively prevent the emergence of acquired resistance.
Osimertinib (AZD9291) is a third‐generation irreversible, oral EGFR‐TKI that is effective without serious adverse effects, however, similar to earlier generations of EGFR‐TKIs, acquired resistance to osimertinib remains a major challenge. We discovered MSI2 as a novel target to overcome resistance to EGFR‐TKIs including osimertinib. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that MSI2 confers cancer stem‐like properties in lung adenocarcinoma cells, leading to resistance to the EGFR‐TKIs.
Propofol and sevoflurane are two commonly used perioperative anesthetics. Some studies have found that these anesthetic drugs affect tumorigenesis. Previous studies have mostly focused on in vitro ...experiments, and the specimens collected were mainly peripheral body fluids, lacking direct evidence of the impact of anesthetic drugs on human tissues. This study aimed to elucidate the effects of propofol and sevoflurane on lung cancer using next-generation sequencing through an in vivo experiment.
Patients were randomly assigned to a group receiving either propofol or sevoflurane during surgery. Then, the patients' tumor and paired normal samples were collected and sequenced by next-generation sequencing. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) were analyzed by two statistical models, followed by cluster analysis, PCA, Gene Ontology, and KEGG pathway analysis. Candidate genes were confirmed by qRT-PCR.
The demographic data of the two study groups were not statistically significant. Through single-factor model analysis, 810 DEG in the propofol group and 508 DEG in the sevoflurane group were obtained. To better reflect the differential effects between propofol and sevoflurane while reducing the false-positive DEG, we used multifactor model analysis, which resulted in 124 DEG. In PCA and cluster analysis, four groups (propofol cancer group, propofol normal group, sevoflurane cancer group, sevoflurane normal group) were separated adequately, indicating the accuracy of the analysis. We chose seven significant pathways (cellular response to interleukin-1, chemokine-mediated signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, inflammatory response, immune response, and TNF signaling pathway) for downstream analysis. Based on the pathway analysis, three candidate genes (CXCR1, CXCL8, and TNFAIP3) were chosen, and their qRT-PCR results were consistent with the sequencing results.
Through RNA-seq analysis, the effects of propofol and sevoflurane during lung cancer resection were different, mainly in inflammatory-related pathways, which might be possibly by targeting CXCL8.
Trial registry number was ChiCTR1900026213 .
Faced with the increasingly complicated electromagnetic environment, the joint design of radar and communication system has been an effective solution to save spectrum resources and reduce the ...complexity of system hardware. By introducing index modulation, we design a joint radar-communication system based on the frequency diverse array (FDA) based multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar. Different from the conventional phased-array (PA) radar and MIMO radar array, the FDA-MIMO radar can generate range-angle-dependent beampattern, which enables the distinctive signal processing methods. In this paper, we proceed the investigation on performance analysis of the proposed joint system scheme by firstly establishing the three-dimension (3D) signal model for the radar subsystem, based on which the achievable radar resolution in range, angle and Doppler dimension can be estimated. Since the beampattern of FDA-MIMO radar is range-dependent, the joint system can achieve interference suppression against the false targets in radar mainlobe. For communication subsystem, a communication security enhancement approach is proposed, followed by the derivation of theoretical symbol error rate (SER) upper bound. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority compared with the other dual-function systems based on conventional multi-antenna arrays.