ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
November 2024
High-entropy borides (HEBs), as a category of high-entropy materials, exhibit remarkable thermal stability, a broad compositional range, and finely tuned electronic structures, leading to an excellent functional performance. Despite these advantages, their application in photothermal materials has rarely been reported. Herein, we employ a HEB target with multiple transition-metal elements to develop solar selective absorption coatings (SSACs) with simple and scalable bilayer structures for photothermal applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe brainstem is a hub for sensorimotor integration, which mediates crucial innate behaviors. This brain region is characterized by a rich population of GABAergic inhibitory neurons, required for the proper expression of these innate behaviors. However, what roles these inhibitory neurons play in innate behaviors and how they function are still not fully understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh-entropy (HE) materials, celebrated for their extraordinary chemical and physical properties, have garnered increasing attention for their broad applications across diverse disciplines. The expansive compositional range of these materials allows for nuanced tuning of their properties and innovative structural designs. Recent advances have been centered on their versatile photothermal conversion capabilities, effective across the full solar spectrum (300-2500 nm).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensory cortices modulate innate behaviors through corticofugal projections targeting phylogenetically-old brainstem nuclei. However, the principles behind the functional connectivity of these projections remain poorly understood. Here, we show that in mice visual cortical neurons projecting to the optic-tract and dorsal-terminal nuclei (NOT-DTN) possess distinct response properties and anatomical connectivity, supporting the adaption of an essential innate eye movement, the optokinetic reflex (OKR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGPR101 is an orphan G protein-coupled receptor actively participating in energy homeostasis. Here we report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of GPR101 constitutively coupled to Gs heterotrimer, which reveals unique features of GPR101, including the interaction of extracellular loop 2 within the 7TM bundle, a hydrophobic chain packing-mediated activation mechanism and the structural basis of disease-related mutants. Importantly, a side pocket is identified in GPR101 that facilitates in silico screening to identify four small-molecule agonists, including AA-14.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastric cancer stem cells (GCSCs) contribute to the refractory features of gastric cancer (GC) and are responsible for metastasis, relapse, and drug resistance. The key factors drive GCSC function and affect the clinical outcome of GC patients remain poorly understood. PRSS23 is a novel serine protease that is significantly up-regulated in several types of cancers and cancer stem cells, and related to tumor progression and drug resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe optokinetic reflex (OKR) is an essential innate eye movement that is triggered by the global motion of the visual environment and serves to stabilize retinal images. Due to its importance and robustness, the OKR has been used to study visual-motor learning and to evaluate the visual functions of mice with different genetic backgrounds, ages, and drug treatments. Here, we introduce a procedure for evaluating OKR responses of head-fixed mice with high accuracy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the latest geophysical survey crossing the Ninety East Ridge of the Indian Ocean, a new method was employed to perform proportional double seismic source excitation and synchronously receive signals from the sea surface and the seabed. The two seismic sources used for excitation were two sets of gun arrays with different energies and dominant frequencies, a G gun array and a Bolt gun array. The G gun array consisted of 3 G.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSolar and radiative warming are smart approaches to maintaining the human body at a metabolically comfortable temperature in both indoor and outdoor scenarios. Nevertheless, existing warming textiles are ineffective in frigid climates because the solar absorption of selective absorbing coating is significantly reduced when coated on rough textile surface. Herein, for the first time, high-entropy nitrides based spectrally selective film (SSF) is introduced on common cotton through a one-step magnetron sputtering method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHarvesting solar energy to enhance thermoelectric generator efficiency is a highly effective strategy. However, it is a grand challenge but essential to increase solar-thermal conversion efficiency. A spectrally selective absorber, which is capable of boosting solar absorptance (α) while suppressing thermal emittance (ε), shows great potential to elevate the solar-thermal conversion efficiency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to investigate the effects of hypoxia on RhoA/Rho-kinase (ROCK) signaling pathway and autophagy in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs), and to explore the underlying mechanism of Umbelliferone (Umb) in ameliorating chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. PASMCs were cultured from Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats and randomly divided into control group, hypoxia group, hypoxia + Umb intervention group and normoxia + Umb intervention group. Alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and LC3 were assessed by immunofluorescence staining.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUbiquitin ligases control the degradation of core clock proteins to govern the speed and resetting properties of the circadian pacemaker. However, few studies have addressed their potential to regulate other cellular events within clock neurons beyond clock protein turnover. Here, we report that the ubiquitin ligase, UBR4/POE, strengthens the central pacemaker by facilitating neuropeptide trafficking in clock neurons and promoting network synchrony.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeveloping advanced materials with a high-entropy concept is one of the hot trends in materials science. The configurational entropy of high-entropy materials can be tuned by introducing different atomic species, which can also impart a result in excellent physical and chemical properties. In this work, we synthesized a solid-solution oxide (Cu, Mn, Fe, Cr)O by a simple and scalable solid-phase synthesis method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistone variants are crucial regulators of chromatin structure and gene transcription, yet their functions within the brain remain largely unexplored. Here, we show that the H2A histone variant H2A.Z is essential for neuronal survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although total or subtotal colectomy for slow-transit constipation (STC) has been proven to be a definite treatment, the associated defecation function and quality of life (QOL) are rarely studied.
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of surgery for STC regarding defecation function and QOL.
Methods: From March 2013 to September 2017, 30 patients undergoing surgery for STC in our department were analyzed.
Introduction: Central airway stenosis is a life-threating requiring immediate medical intervention. There are several options for treating central airway stenosis, including rigid bronchoscopy, bronchoscopic high-power laser therapy, high-frequency electric needle knife, and balloon-expanding stents. However, interventional techniques may be unavailable in an emergent situation or at smaller local hospitals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe exquisite intricacies of neural circuits are fundamental to an animal's diverse and complex repertoire of sensory and motor functions. The ability to precisely map neural circuits and to selectively manipulate neural activity is critical to understanding brain function and has, therefore been a long-standing goal for neuroscientists. The recent development of optogenetic tools, combined with transgenic mouse lines, has endowed us with unprecedented spatiotemporal precision in circuit analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Investigation of the role of sedation during colonoscopy is meaningful as the advantages of colonoscopy performing with sedation are still controversial.
Methods: Medical records of patients who underwent colonoscopy in our institution were retrospectively analyzed. The sedation rate, adenoma detection rate (ADR), polyp detection rate (PDR), cecal intubation rate (CIR), iatrogenic colonic perforation rate (ICP) were calculated.
Front Mol Neurosci
February 2020
Canine adenovirus-2 (CAV) is a canine pathogen that has been used in a variety of applications, from vaccines against more infectious strains of CAV to treatments for neurological disorders. With recent engineering, CAV has become a natural choice for neuroscientists dissecting the connectivity and function of brain circuits. Specifically, as a reliable genetic vector with minimal immunogenic and cytotoxic reactivity, CAV has been used for the retrograde transduction of various types of projection neurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe WRKY transcription factor superfamily is known to participate in plant growth and stress response. However, the role of this family in wheat ( L.) is largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the primary auditory cortex (A1) of rats, refinement of excitatory input to layer (L)4 neurons contributes to the sharpening of their frequency selectivity during postnatal development. L4 neurons receive both feedforward thalamocortical and recurrent intracortical inputs, but how potential developmental changes of each component can account for the sharpening of excitatory input tuning remains unclear. By combining whole-cell recording and pharmacological silencing of cortical spiking in young rats of both sexes, we examined developmental changes at three hierarchical stages: output of auditory thalamic neurons, thalamocortical input and recurrent excitatory input to an A1 L4 neuron.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF