The goal of this study was to elucidate the functional role of Nox4 during acute kidney injury (AKI). NADPH oxidases are a major source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the kidney in normal and ...pathological conditions. Among NADPH oxidase isoforms, NADPH oxidase4 (Nox4) is highly expressed in the kidney and has an important role in kidney diseases, such as diabetic nephropathy and renal carcinoma. We previously found that Nox4 expression significantly increased in the toxic AKI model. However, its functional role and mechanism of action in AKI are still unknown. We scavenged ROS with apocynin in vitro and in vivo and found it attenuated cisplatin-triggered renal function decline. It also alleviated programmed cell death and renal inflammation, indicating a critical role for ROS in mediating AKI. Nox4 protein and mRNA levels were substantially upregulated by cisplatin in vivo and in vitro. Nox4 knockdown alleviated cisplatin-induced cell death and inflammatory response, while Nox4 overexpression aggravated them. Moreover, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC)-mediated inhibition of ROS suppressed cell injury led by Nox4 overexpression, indicating Nox4-mediated ROS generation may be the key mediator in cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Mechanistically, excessive expression of Nox4 induced programmed cell death, especially RIP-mediated necroptosis. Finally, we tested whether Nox4 is a potential therapeutic target using an AKI mouse model by injecting a lentivirus-packaged Nox4 shRNA plasmid through tail vein. Disruption of Nox4 led to renal function recovery, kidney damage relief and reduced inflammation. We conclude that Nox4 aggravates cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity by promoting ROS-mediated programmed cell death and inflammation. Thus Nox4 may serve as a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of AKI.
Epidermal electronics have been attracting considerable attention due to their various potential applications in human‐computer interaction and health monitoring. However, because of the lack of a ...self‐adhesive and stable interconnect method between epidermal electronic sensors and rigid circuit boards, there remain difficulties in detecting body signals accurately by epidermal electronic sensors in daily life. Here, a 3D helical on‐skin interconnect is first introduced for epidermal electronics sensors. Inspired by the structure of the accordion lantern, the interconnect is composed of two electrospinning polyurethane (PU) fiber films and a helical metal fiber. The helical metal fiber acts as a stable conductor with stretchability, and the PU fiber film with polydimethylsiloxane provides a self‐adhesive substrate. Mechanical simulations and tests prove that the proposed interconnect can laminate conformally and unobtrusively onto human skin with excellent electrical stability (less than 0.5% electrical resistance change upon 100% elongation). Furthermore, based on the proposed interconnect, an all‐in‐one sensor‐interconnect design is presented, which endows the epidermal electronic systems with anti‐motion interference capability. A gesture identification wristband system realized by a single all‐in‐one strain sensor is demonstrated. Besides, a wireless on‐skin system that accurately monitors dynamic 12‐lead electrocardiographic is successfully built using all‐in‐one electrodes.
In the study of epidermal electronic sensors, the lack of a suitable signal interconnection method is a major impediment to system‐level application demonstrations. Here, inspired by the structure of the accordion lantern, a 3D helical on‐skin interconnect is first introduced, which provides a self‐adhesive and stable interconnect method for epidermal electronic sensors in practical application.
In utero exposure to phthalates may have adverse effects on pregnant women and their offsprings. Therefore, the exposure level of these substances among individuals, particularly among sensitive ...population, is of concern. The objective of the present study is to characterize urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites at multiple time points during pregnancy in Chinese women. A total of 3455 pregnant women were included from Ma'anshan Birth Cohort in China. Spot urine samples in the morning (8:00–10:00) and questionnaires were obtained at three separate visits (approximately in 10, 26, and 34 gestational weeks). Seven phthalate metabolites from urine samples were analyzed, including monomethyl phthalate (MMP), monoethyl phthalate (MEP), monobutyl phthalate (MBP), mono benzyl phthalate (MBzP), mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP), mono (2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP) and mono (2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP). Geometric means of concentrations were ranged from 0.05 to 41.0ng/mL for all the metabolites mentioned above. No individual exposure level was above the 95th percentiles for all the seven phthalates. On the three separate visits, 0.5%, 0.9% and 1.2% of the participants had coexposure to above the 75th percentiles for all metabolites. Taken these visits together, a total of 29 urine samples had concentrations above the 95th percentiles, while 3.0%–5.6% of urine levels were above 75th percentiles for at least one specific phthalate metabolite. We observed moderate intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranging from 0.44 to 0.56 for MBzP, MEHP and MEP, and lower ICCs, from 0.28 to 0.32, for MMP, MBP, MEOHP and MEHHP. Sampling season was associated with concentrations of all phthalate metabolites, showing heavier exposure was more likely to occur during summer. In summary, phthalate exposure is prevalent in Chinese pregnant women. However, throughout pregnancy coexposure to multiple phthalates at the upper percentile of exposure is infrequent. Mild to moderate temporal stability indicates that a single measurement in spot urine collected in the morning (8:00–10:00) seems not enough to describe throughout pregnancy phthalate exposure. Urinary levels vary by sampling seasons, which should be taken into consideration in future analyses.
The unadjusted and creatinine-adjusted concentrations of urinary phthalate metabolites. Display omitted
•Phthalate exposure is prevalent in Chinese pregnant women.•Coexposure to multiple phthalates at high-doses is infrequent among Chinese pregnant women.•Throughout pregnancy exposure to one specific phthalate at high-dose is infrequent.•Exposure to phthalates during pregnancy is mild to moderate temporal stability.•Urinary levels of all the phthalate metabolites vary by sampling seasons.
Abstract
High‐performance thin‐film transistors (TFTs) integrated circuits (ICs) have become increasingly necessary to meet the emerging demands such as healthcare, edge computing, and the Internet ...of Things, etc. This article aims to point out the potential development trends and bottlenecks of TFT ICs, enhancing their performance in terms of electronic performance, stability, consistency, CMOS design, and manufacturing capability. Basic device structures and overall metrics of TFT ICs are explored, as well as their superiority compared to silicon‐based ultrathin chips. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon, low‐temperature polycrystalline silicon, and amorphous oxide semiconductors are widely used in displays due to their ability to be deposited on large areas at low processing temperatures and low cost, and are validated in many prototypes for TFT ICs. Their conduction mechanisms, process flows, performance evaluation, and recent advances are comprehensively viewed. In addition, the potential of emerging low‐dimensional materials as next‐generation channel materials is discussed, along with their limitations and progress in this field. Finally, the major challenges in manufacturing high‐performance TFT ICs and future perspectives are summarized.
Conductive bridge random access memory (CBRAM) has been concentrated recently for its ultrasmall size, low power consumption, synaptic characteristics, and application in neuromorphic computing. ...However, the accuracy of the CBRAM array-based neural network is not high enough due to the low linearity, limited ON/OFF ratio, and the number of states. The original illustration and the optimization methods are still paucity. In this work, the origin of the characteristics of CBRAM has been revealed from the filament distribution of the devices, which inspires us to design an inserted graphene structure of CBRAM and preset seeds leading to high linearity (0.995), ON/OFF ratio (26.4), and the number of states (63). The Monte Carlo simulation results reveal that the CBRAM with more seeds can promote a larger number of potential advantage path (PAP) conducing better characteristics. Moreover, the PAP can be modulated by the number of preset seeds. Finally, a handwritten recognition neural network has been realized by using a 1T-1R array, and high recognition accuracy (92%) has been obtained, which shows that devices with higher PAP can eventually promote higher recognition accuracy.
Biological synapses are the operational connection of the neurons for signal transmission in neuromorphic networks and hardware implementation combined with electrospun 1D nanofibers have realized ...its functionality for complicated computing tasks in basic three‐terminal field‐effect transistors with gate‐controlled channel conductance. However, it still lacks the fundamental understanding that how the technological parameters influence the signal intensity of the information processing in the neural systems for the nanofiber‐based synaptic transistors. Here, by tuning the electrospinning parameters and introducing the channel surface doping, an electrospun ZnO nanofiber‐based transistor with tunable plasticity is presented to emulate the changing synaptic functions. The underlying mechanism of influence of carrier concentration and mobility on the device's electrical and synaptic performance is revealed as well. Short‐term plasticity behaviors including paired‐pulse facilitation, spike duration‐dependent plasticity, and dynamic filtering are tuned in this fiber‐based device. Furthermore, Perovskite‐doped devices with ultralow energy consumption down to ≈0.2554 fJ and their handwritten recognition application show the great potential of synaptic transistors based on a 1D nanostructure active layer for building next‐generation neuromorphic networks.
An electrospun ZnO nanofiber‐based transistor with tunable plasticity is fabricated by changing the technological parameters and the underlying mechanism of influence of carrier concentration and mobility on the device is revealed. Ultralow energy consumption and handwritten recognition application with high accuracy are realized in the perovskite‐doped devices to lay the foundation for next‐generation neuromorphic networks.
In this paper, single crystals (SCs) of the Cs 2 AgBiBr 6 double perovskite were grown using the method of crystallization from a supersaturated solution. It was shown that the natural crystal growth ...surface of the perovskite with perfect crystal quality is along the (111) plane by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) analyses. The fabricated high-sensitivity X-ray detector based on the Cs 2 AgBiBr 6 SCs with vertical structure achieved detection sensitivity up to 316 μCGyair -1 cm -2 under bias voltage of 18 V. Furthermore, the frequency noise characteristics of the device under different posttreatment processes were systematically analyzed, which indicated that the combination of thermal annealing and isopropanol rinsing can suppress field-driven ion migration and surface conduction channel, thereby increasing the resistivity of the perovskite material and reducing the noise current of the device. Our results revealed that the Cs 2 AgBiBr 6 SCs-based Xray detector with high sensitivity and low cost has a great potential for application in manufacturing lead-free and stable radiation detection electronics in the future.
A recent progress in new emerging two-dimensional (2D) materials has provided promising opportunity for gas sensing in ultra-low detectable concentration. In this work, we have demonstrated a ...flexible NO
2
gas sensor with porous structure graphene on polyethylene terephthalate substrates operating at room temperature. The gas sensor exhibited good performance with response of 1.2% and a fast response time within 30 s after exposure to 50 × 10
−9
NO
2
gas. As porous structure of graphene increased the surface area, the sensor showed high sensitivity of ppb level for NO
2
detection. Au nanoparticles were decorated on the surface of the porous structure graphene skeleton, resulting in an incensement of response compared with pristine graphene. Au nanoparticles-decorated graphene exhibits not only better sensitivity (1.5–1.6 times larger than pristine graphene) for NO
2
gas detection, but also fast response. The sensor was found to be robust and sensitive under the cycling bending test, which could also be ascribed to the merits of graphene. This porous structure graphene-based gas sensor is expected to enable a simple and inexpensive flexible gas sensing platform.
Graphic Abstract
In this paper, a high-performance large-scale flexible heater based on graphene and silver particles is described. The graphene-based heater can be integrated into various systems without having to ...be too selective about the substrate used. When silver particles are mixed with graphene, the sheet resistance is greatly reduced to 158.7 sq
1
. A time-dependent temperature profile under an applied voltage of 18 V exhibits a steady-state temperature of up to 220 C within 5 s. The high steady-state temperature and ultrafast response time are superior to those of most of the existing heaters. The infrared pictures show a uniform temperature distribution whether the graphene-based heater is flat or curved. Therefore, with the advantages of a low driving voltage, high steady-state temperature, ultrafast response and excellent flexibility, the graphene-based heater is expected to be a promising potential candidate for various wearable heating applications.
A graphene-based flexible heater with low driving voltage and ultrafast response time.
Quality control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the basis of clinical efficacy. Due to the complexity of TCM, it is difficult to unify the quality control, and hinders the further ...implementation of the quality standardization of TCM. As a new concept, quality-marker (Q-marker) plays a powerful role in promoting the standardization of quality control system of TCM.
The present review aims to provide reference and scientific basis for further development of Q-marker and assist standardization of quality control of TCM.
Extensive search of various documents and electronic databases such as Pubmed, Royal Society of Chemistry, Science Direct, Springer, Web of Science, and Wiley, etc., were used to search scientific contributions. Other online academic libraries, e.g. Google Scholars, Scopus and national pharmacology literature were also been employed to learn more relevant information about Q-marker.
Q-markers play vital role in promoting the standardization of quality control of TCM. The factors that affect the quality of TCM, the advantages and disadvantages of the analytical techniques commonly used in Q-marker research were reviewed, as well as the systematic research strategies, which were verified by practices.
The proposal of Q-marker not only provided a new perspective to break through the bottleneck of current quality control, but also can be used in the evaluation of pharmacological efficiency, therapeutic discovery, toxicology, etc. In addition, the Q-marker analysis strategies summarized in this paper is helpful to standardize the quality control of TCM and promote the internationalization of TCM.
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