Enhancing Ion Selectivity of Nanofiltration Membranes via Heterogeneous Charge Distribution.

Nanofiltration technology holds significant potential for precisely separating monovalent and multivalent ions, such as lithium (Li) and magnesium (Mg) ions, during lithium extraction from salt lakes. This study bridges a crucial gap in understanding the impact of the membrane spatial charge distribution on ion-selective separation. We developed two types of mixed-charge membranes with similar pore sizes but distinct longitudinal and horizontal distributions of oppositely charged domains.

Telomerase-related advances in hepatocellular carcinoma: A bibliometric and visual analysis.

Background: As a critical early event in hepatocellular carcinogenesis, telomerase activation might be a promising and critical biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, and its function in the genesis and treatment of HCC has gained much attention over the past two decades.

Aim: To perform a bibliometric analysis to systematically assess the current state of research on HCC-related telomerase.

Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection and PubMed were systematically searched to retrieve publications pertaining to HCC/telomerase limited to "articles" and "reviews" published in English.

Autophagy and biotransformation affect sorafenib resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma.

As sorafenib is a first-line drug for treating advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, sorafenib resistance has historically attracted attention. However, most of this attention has been focused on a series of mechanisms related to drug resistance arising after sorafenib treatment. In this study, we used proteomic techniques to explore the potential mechanisms by which pretreatment factors affect sorafenib resistance.

Broadband photonic-assisted microwave receiver with high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection.

A broadband photonic-assisted microwave receiver with high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. At the input of the microwave receiver, a microwave signal is injected into an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), which functions as a local oscillator (LO) to generate a low-phase noise LO signal as well as a photonic-assisted mixer to down-convert the input microwave signal to the intermediate frequency (IF). A microwave photonic filter (MPF), realized by the joint operation of a phase modulator (PM) in the OEO and a Fabry-Perot laser diode (FPLD), is used as a narrowband filter to select the IF signal.

Environmental estrogens shape disease susceptibility.

Along with industrialization, the environment is flooded with endocrine-disrupting chemicals, among which substances with estrogenic effects have attracted widespread attention in medical research. In terms of molecular mechanism, environmental estrogens can cause endocrine and metabolic disorders; interfere with multiple carcinogenic pathways; and lead to neurobehavioral disorders, reproductive toxicity, and multi- or trans-generational phenotypic abnormalities. However, many of the results from molecular and animal experiments were not supported by epidemiology, which may be related to the existence of a window of sensitivity to environmental estrogen exposure over the human life course, where the consequences of exposure vary greatly from other times.

Microwave frequency measurement using a silicon integrated microring resonator.

Photonics-assisted instantaneous frequency measurement of a microwave signal using a silicon integrated microring resonator (MRR) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The frequency of a microwave signal has a unique relationship with the power ratio between the two microwave signals at the outputs of two microwave photonic filters (MPF) with complementary frequency responses. The key device to implement the MPFs is a silicon integrated MMR, which is employed to convert a phase-modulated optical signal to an intensity-modulated optical signal by placing two optical carriers at the complementary slopes of the MRR.

Parity-time-symmetric optoelectronic oscillator based on higher-order optical modulation.

An optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) for single-frequency microwave generation, enabled by broken parity time (PT) symmetry based on higher-order modulation using a Mach-Zehnder modulator, is proposed and demonstrated. Instead of using two physically separated mutually coupled loops with balanced gain and loss, the PT symmetry is realized using a single physical loop to implement two equivalent loops with the gain loop formed by the beating between the optical carrier and the ±1-order sidebands and the loss loop formed by the beating between the ±1-order sidebands and the ±2-order sidebands at a photodetector. The gain and loss coefficients are made identical in magnitude by controlling the incident light power to the modulator and the modulator bias voltage.

Targeting tumor vascularization: promising strategies for vascular normalization.

Tumor recurrence after the clinical cure of tumor often results from the presence of an abnormal microenvironment, including an aberrant vasculature. The tumor microenvironment is rich in pro-angiogenic factors but lacks pro-maturation factors. Pro-angiogenic conditions in the tumor microenvironment, such as hypoxia, are double-edged swords, promoting both the repair of normal tissues and the development of an abnormal blood vessel network.

Circular RNA ITCH suppresses metastasis of gastric cancer via regulating miR-199a-5p/Klotho axis.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are considered as a new regulatory factor in growth, metastasis and therapeutic resistance of human cancers. But the clinical significance and underlying mechanism of circular RNA ITCH (circ-ITCH) in gastric cancer (GC) remain unknown. In the present study, we found that circ-ITCH was down-regulated in GC cell lines, GC tissues and their serum-derived exosomes.

Performance analysis of a LDPC coded OAM-based UCA FSO system exploring linear equalization with channel estimation over atmospheric turbulence: comment.

In a previously published paper [Opt. Express26(17), 22182 (2018)], the performance of a LDPC coded OAM-based UCA FSO system exploring linear equalization with channel estimation over atmospheric turbulence has been analyzed. We find that some concepts and descriptions in [Opt.

Linearized fiber-optic link with a high spurious free dynamic range over a wide frequency range.

An all-optical linearized fiber-optic link is presented. It solves the problem in most reported structures where a high spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) can only be obtained in a limited frequency range. The link only involves a laser, an optical modulator, and a photodetector.

Broadband high dynamic range fiber optic link based on a dual-polarization modulator.

This paper presents a simple, linearized fiber-optic link that is capable of realizing a high spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) at different input RF signal frequencies without the need of readjusting system parameters. The link is based on a commercial dual-polarization modulator followed by a linear polarizer. The third-order nonlinearity at the third-order intermodulation distortion frequency can be cancelled by designing the angle of the linear polarizer.