Fully Transparent and Distortion-Free Monotonically Stretchable Substrate by Nanostructure Alignment.

Stretchable devices, garnering increasing attention as next-generation form factors, have a crucial problem in that vertical contraction occurs during stretching, causing image distortion of stretchable displays and discomfort in skin-attached devices. Previous structural strategies to mitigate vertical contraction, such as auxetic reentrants and wrinkles, suffer from the drawback that their structure becomes visible during stretching. In this study, this issue is addressed by unidirectionally aligning nanoscopic cylinders within block copolymer elastomer films.

Predicting prognosis prior to the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab on unresectable HCC: Analysis and comparison of tumor heterogeneity at CT and Gd-EOB-DTPA hepatobiliary MR imaging.

Since 2007, the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab, comprising an immune checkpoint inhibitor and a molecularly targeted agent, has become the first-line treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Predicting prognosis prior to systemic chemotherapy remains a critical concern. This study included 84 advanced HCC patients who underwent enhanced computed tomography (CT) and Gd-EOB-DTPA magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before the systemic therapy were included.

Integrative transcriptomic and genomic analyses unveil the IFI16 variants and expression as MASLD progression markers.

Background And Aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) encompasses a broad and continuous spectrum of liver diseases ranging from fatty liver to steatohepatitis. The intricate interactions of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors in the development and progression of MASLD remain elusive. Here, we aimed to achieve an integrative understanding of the genomic and transcriptomic alterations throughout the progression of MASLD.

Identification of signature gene set as highly accurate determination of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease progression.

Background/aims: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is characterized by fat accumulation in the liver. MASLD encompasses both steatosis and MASH. Since MASH can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer, steatosis and MASH must be distinguished during patient treatment.

Hierarchically Interpenetrated and Reentrant Microcellular Frameworks for Stretchable Lithium Metal Batteries.

With the rapid development of human-friendly wearable devices, energy storage components are required to have skin-like stretchability or free-form to fit closer and more comfortably to the human body. This study introduces a hierarchically interpenetrated reentrant microcellular structure combined with 2D cellular graphene/MXene/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and 3D cellular melamine foam. This composite structure works as a stretchable framework of lithium metal composite electrodes to provide stretchability for lithium metal electrodes, which are promising as next-generation energy storage systems.

High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors Achieved by Optimizing Structural and Energetic Ordering of Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Polymers.

For optimizing steady-state performance in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs), both molecular design and structural alignment approaches must work in tandem to minimize energetic and microstructural disorders in polymeric mixed ionic-electronic conductor films. Herein, a series of poly(diketopyrrolopyrrole)s bearing various lengths of aliphatic-glycol hybrid side chains (PDPP-mEG; m = 2-5) is developed to achieve high-performance p-type OECTs. PDPP-4EG polymer with the optimized length of side chains exhibits excellent crystallinity owing to enhanced lamellar and backbone interactions.

A Mediator-Free Multi-Ply Biofuel Cell Using an Interfacial Assembly between Hydrophilic Enzymes and Hydrophobic Conductive Oxide Nanoparticles with Pointed Apexes.

Biofuel cells (BFCs) based on enzymatic electrodes hold great promise as power sources for biomedical devices. However, their practical use is hindered by low electron transfer efficiency and poor operational stability of enzymatic electrodes. Here, a novel mediator-free multi-ply BFC that overcomes these limitations and exhibits both substantially high-power output and long-term operational stability is presented.

Carbon Nanocluster-Mediated Nanoblending Assembly for Binder-Free Energy Storage Electrodes with High Capacities and Enhanced Charge Transfer Kinetics.

The effective spatial distribution and arrangement of electrochemically active and conductive components within metal oxide nanoparticle (MO NP)-based electrodes significantly impact their energy storage performance. Unfortunately, conventional electrode preparation processes have much difficulty addressing this issue. Herein, this work demonstrates that a unique nanoblending assembly based on favorable and direct interfacial interactions between high-energy MO NPs and interface-modified carbon nanoclusters (CNs) notably enhances the capacities and charge transfer kinetics of binder-free electrodes in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs).

The feasibility of early response evaluation using superb microvascular imaging one day after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of early Superb microvascular imaging (SMI) for prediction of the effect of HCC treatment after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).

Materials And Methods: A total of 96 HCCs (70 patients) treated with TACE between September 2021 and May 2022 were included in this study. SMI, Color Doppler imaging (CDI), and Power Doppler imaging (PDI) were performed the day after TACE for evaluation of intratumoral vascularity of the lesion using an Aplio500 ultrasound scanner (Toshiba Medical Systems, Corporation, Tochigi, Japan).

Sequentially Coated Wavy Nanowire Composite Transparent Electrode for Stretchable Solar Cells.

Recent advances in fabricating stretchable and transparent electrodes have led to various techniques for establishing next-generation form-factor optoelectronic devices. Wavy Ag nanowire networks with large curvature radii are promising platforms as stretchable and transparent electrodes due to their high electrical conductivity and stretchability even at very high transparency. However, there are disadvantages such as intrinsic nonregular conductivity, large surface roughness, and nanowire oxidation in air.

Ciliated Foregut Cyst and Accessory Spleen in the Pancreas: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Ciliated foregut cyst is a relatively rare disease; thus, most reports are in the form of case studies. This benign cyst is usually found in the mediastinum and account for approximately 20% of all mediastinal masses. However, it is rarely found in the hepatobiliary and peripancreatic regions.

Two-Dimensional Peptide Assembly Arene-Perfluoroarene Interactions for Proliferation and Differentiation of Myoblasts.

Supramolecular assembly based on aromatic interactions can provide well-defined nanostructures with an understanding of intermolecular interactions at the molecular level. The peptide assembly a supramolecular approach can overcome the inherent limitations of bioactive peptides, such as proteolytic degradations and rapid internalizations into the cytosol. Although extensive research has been carried out on supramolecular peptide materials with a two-dimensional (2D) structure, more needs to be reported on biological activity studies using well-defined 2D peptide materials.

Phase Separation-Controlled Assembly of Hierarchically Porous Aramid Nanofiber Films for High-speed Lithium-Metal Batteries.

The growth of lithium (Li) dendrites reduces the lifespan of Li-metal batteries and causes safety issues. Herein, hierarchically porous aramid nanofiber separators capable of effectively suppressing the Li dendrite growth while maintaining highly stable cycle performances at high charge/discharge rates are reported. A two-step solvent exchange process combined with reprotonation-mediated self-assembly is utilized to control the bimodal porous structure of the separators.

High-performance electrified hydrogel actuators based on wrinkled nanomembrane electrodes for untethered insect-scale soft aquabots.

Hydrogels have diverse chemical properties and can exhibit reversibly large mechanical deformations in response to external stimuli; these characteristics suggest that hydrogels are promising materials for soft robots. However, reported actuators based on hydrogels generally suffer from slow response speed and/or poor controllability due to intrinsic material limitations and electrode fabrication technologies. Here, we report a hydrogel actuator that operates at low voltages (<3 volts) with high performance (strain > 50%, energy density > 7 × 10 joules per cubic meter, and power density > 3 × 10 watts per cubic meter), surpassing existing hydrogel actuators and other types of electroactive soft actuators.

Fibril-Type Textile Electrodes Enabling Extremely High Areal Capacity through Pseudocapacitive Electroplating onto Chalcogenide Nanoparticle-Encapsulated Fibrils.

Effective incorporation of conductive and energy storage materials into 3D porous textiles plays a pivotal role in developing and designing high-performance energy storage devices. Here, a fibril-type textile pseudocapacitor electrode with outstanding capacity, good rate capability, and excellent mechanical stability through controlled interfacial interaction-induced electroplating is reported. First, tetraoctylammonium bromide-stabilized copper sulfide nanoparticles (TOABr-CuS NPs) are uniformly assembled onto cotton textiles.

Anisotropic Alignment of Bacterial Nanocellulose Ionogels for Unconventionally High Combination of Stiffness and Damping.

Ionogels are emerging materials for advanced electrochemical devices; however, their mechanical instability to external stresses has raised concerns about their safety. This study reports aligned bacterial nanocellulose (BC) ionogel films swelled with the model ionic liquid (IL) of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMImBF) for an unprecedented combination of high stiffness and high energy dissipation without significant loss of ionic conductivity. The aligned BC ionogel films are prepared through wet-state stretching methods, followed by drying and swelling by ILs.

Discovery of Dual-Functional Amorphous Titanium Suboxide to Promote Polysulfide Adsorption and Regulate Sulfide Growth in Li-S Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are promising as next-generation energy storage systems. Adsorbents for sulfide species are favorably applied to the cathode, but this substrate often results in a surface-passivating lithium sulfide(Li S) film with a strong adsorption of Li S. Here, an amorphous titanium suboxide (a-TiOx) is presented that strongly adsorbs lithium polysulfides (Li S , x < 6) but relatively weakly adsorbs to Li S.

Selective Anticancer Materials by Self-Assembly of Synthetic Amphiphiles Based on -Acetylneuraminic Acid.

-Acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac), one of the abundant types of sialic acid, is an emerging anticancer agent owing to its ability to target selectins in the plasma membrane of cancer cells. Considering the functionality of Neu5Ac, obtaining novel Neu5Ac-conjugated materials with a selective and an enhanced antitumor activity has remained a challenge. Herein, we report the supramolecular materials of three novel amphiphiles composed of Neu5Ac as a hydrophilic segment and pyrene or adamantane as a hydrophobic segment.

Intrinsically Stretchable and Printable Lithium-Ion Battery for Free-Form Configuration.

For next-generation wearable and implantable devices, energy storage devices should be soft and mechanically deformable and easily printable on any substrate or active devices. Herein, we introduce a fully stretchable lithium-ion battery system for free-form configurations in which all components, including electrodes, current collectors, separators, and encapsulants, are intrinsically stretchable and printable. The stretchable electrode acquires intrinsic stretchability and improved interfacial adhesion with the active materials a functionalized physically cross-linked organogel as a stretchable binder and separator.

Added value of enhanced CT on LR-3 and LR-4 observation of Gd-EOB-DTPA MRI for the diagnosis of HCC: are CT and MR washout features interchangeable?

Objective: To characterize the use of portal venous or delayed phase CT as an alternative to estimate washout for the non-invasive diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) on gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI in combination with other features.

Methods: This retrospective study included 226 observations ( = 162 patients) at high risk for HCC imaged with gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI and enhanced liver CT between March 2015 and March 2018. Two radiologists independently evaluated two sets of images and assigned the final Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) categories by consensus using gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI.

Chiral Magneto-Optical Properties of Supra-Assembled FeO Nanoparticles.

Research on the chiral magneto-optical properties of inorganic nanomaterials has enabled novel applications in advanced optical and electronic devices. However, the corresponding chiral magneto-optical responses have only been studied under strong magnetic fields of ≥1 T, which limits the wider application of these novel materials. In this paper, we report on the enhanced chiral magneto-optical activity of supra-assembled FeO magnetite nanoparticles in the visible range at weak magnetic fields of 1.

Chiral Plasmonic Nanowaves by Tilted Assembly of Unidirectionally Aligned Block Copolymers with Buckling-Induced Microwrinkles.

Chiral-structured nanoscale materials exhibit chiroptical properties with preferential absorptions of circularly polarized light. The distinctive optical responses of chiral materials have great potential for advanced optical and biomedical applications. However, the fabrication of three-dimensional structures with mirrored nanoscale geometry is still challenging.

A Layer-by-Layer Assembly Route to Electroplated Fibril-Based 3D Porous Current Collectors for Energy Storage Devices.

Electrical conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and large electroactive surface areas are the most important factors in determining the performance of various flexible electrodes in energy storage devices. Herein, a layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly-induced metal electrodeposition approach is introduced to prepare a variety of highly porous 3D-current collectors with high flexibility, metallic conductivity, and large surface area. In this study, a few metal nanoparticle (NP) layers are LbL-assembled onto insulating paper for the preparation of conductive paper.

Electronic effects of nano-confinement in functional organic and inorganic materials for optoelectronics.

When various optically and/or electronically active materials, such as conjugated polymers, perovskites, metals, and metal oxides, are confined at the nanoscale, they can exhibit unique nano-confined behavior that significantly differs from the behavior observed at the macroscale. Although controlled nano-confinement of functional materials can allow modulation of their electronic properties without the aid of any synthetic methodologies or additional chemical treatments, limited assembly approaches for nano-confinement and insufficient analytical tools for electronic characterization remain critical challenges in the development of novel optoelectronic materials and the investigation of their modulated properties. This review describes how the nano-confined features of organic and inorganic materials are related to the control and improvement of their optoelectronic properties.

Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor of the Pancreas: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs) are rare. They are characterized by myofibroblastic spindle cell proliferation with a varying degree of inflammatory cell infiltration. IMT can occur in any anatomic location but has been reported in the lung, mesentery, and omentum, mainly in children or young adults.