Mechanistic Insights and Technical Challenges in Sulfur-Based Batteries: A Comprehensive / Monitoring Toolbox.

Batteries based on sulfur cathodes offer a promising energy storage solution due to their potential for high performance, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. However, commercial viability is challenged by issues such as polysulfide migration, volume changes, uneven phase nucleation, limited ion transport, and sluggish sulfur redox kinetics. Addressing these challenges requires insights into the structural, morphological, and chemical evolution of phases, the associated volume changes and internal stresses, and ion and polysulfide diffusion within the battery.

On-Off Switching of Singlet Self-Trapped Exciton Emission Endows Antimony-Doped Indium Halides with Excitation-Wavelength-Dependent Luminescence.

Excitation-wavelength-dependent (Ex-De) emitters are a fascinating category of luminescent materials whose emission properties vary with the wavelength of the light used for excitation. Antimony (Sb)-doped indium (In)-based metal halides are efficient light emitters; however, the peak fluorescence emission of most Sb-activated In-halide remains independent of the excitation wavelength. Here, the study introduces a new Sb-doped In-halide cluster, (BDPA)InCl:Sb (BDPA = CHN, benzyldimethylphenylammonium), which demonstrates efficient Ex-De emission originating from the on-off switchable fluorescence behavior of singlet self-trapped exciton (STE) in 5-coordinate Sb dopant.

Full-length circRNA sequencing method using low-input RNAs and profiling of circRNAs in MPTP-PD mice on a nanopore platform.

Considering the importance of accurate information of full-length (FL) transcripts in functional analysis, researchers prefer to develop new sequencing methods based on third-generation sequencing (TGS) rather than short-read sequencing. Several FL circRNA sequencing strategies have been developed. However, the current methods are inapplicable to low-biomass samples, since a large amount of total RNAs are acquired for circRNA enrichment before library preparation.

Bioinformatics advances in eccDNA identification and analysis.

Extrachromosomal circular DNAs (eccDNAs) are a unique class of chromosome-originating circular DNA molecules, which are closely linked to oncogene amplification. Due to recent technological advances, particularly in high-throughput sequencing technology, bioinformatics methods based on sequencing data have become primary approaches for eccDNA identification and functional analysis. Currently, eccDNA-relevant databases incorporate previously identified eccDNA and provide thorough functional annotations and predictions, thereby serving as a valuable resource for eccDNA research.

Exosome-drug conjugates delivery: a promising strategy for ameliorating the pharmacokinetic profile of artesunate.

Artesunate (ATS) is considered the most widely employed artemisnin derivative in the treatment of malaria. However, poor solubility and low bioavailability of ATS limit its further clinical application. Herein, we developed a new strategy based on the exosome (exo) - drug conjugation (EDC) using the milk-derived exosomes for ATS delivery.

Ab Initio Self-Trapped Excitons.

We propose a new formalism and an effective computational framework to study self-trapped excitons (STEs) in insulators and semiconductors from first principles. Using the many-body Bethe-Salpeter equation in combination with perturbation theory, we are able to obtain the mode- and momentum-resolved exciton-phonon coupling matrix element in a perturbative scheme and explicitly solve the real space localization of the electron (hole), as well as the lattice distortion. Further, this method allows us to compute the STE potential energy surface and evaluate the STE formation energy and Stokes shift.

Solution Synthesis and Light-Emitting Applications of One-Dimensional Lead-Free Cerium(III) Metal Halides.

Combining rare earth elements with the halide perovskite structure offers valuable insights into designing nonlead (Pb) luminescent materials. However, most of these compositions tend to form zero-dimensional (0D) networks of metal-halide polyhedra, with higher-dimensional (1D, 2D, and 3D) structures receiving relatively less exploration. Herein, we present synthesis and optical properties of CsCeCl·3HO, characterized by its unique 1D crystal structure.

Tracking Lattice Distortion Induced by Defects and Framework Tin in Beta Zeotypes.

The use of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) coupled with lattice parameter refinement is used to investigate the crystal structure of Sn-Beta materials. A newly developed semiempirical PXRD model with a reduced tetragonal unit cell is applied to obtain the characteristic crystallographic features. There is a robust correlation between lattice parameters and the concentration of tin and defects for materials prepared via hydrothermal (HT) and postsynthetic (PT) methods.

Human induced pluripotent stem cell/embryonic stem cell-derived pyramidal neuronal precursors show safety and efficacy in a rat spinal cord injury model.

Nerve regeneration and circuit reconstruction remain a challenge following spinal cord injury (SCI). Corticospinal pyramidal neurons possess strong axon projection ability. In this study, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were differentiated into pyramidal neuronal precursors (PNPs) by addition of small molecule dorsomorphin into the culture.

Ecotoxicity of hexavalent chromium [Cr (VI)] in soil presents predominate threats to agricultural production with the increase of soil Cr contamination.

The relative severity between chromium (Cr)-mediated ecotoxicity and its bioaccumulation has rarely been compared and evaluated. This study employed pot incubation experiments to simulate the soil environment with increased Cr pollution and study their effects on the growth of crops, including pepper, lettuce, wheat, and rice. Results showed that increasing total Cr presented ascendant ecotoxicity in upland soils when pH > 7.

Unsupervised underwater shipwreck detection in side-scan sonar images based on domain-adaptive techniques.

Underwater object detection based on side-scan sonar (SSS) suffers from a lack of finely annotated data. This study aims to avoid the laborious task of annotation by achieving unsupervised underwater object detection through domain-adaptive object detection (DAOD). In DAOD, there exists a conflict between feature transferability and discriminability, suppressing the detection performance.

Observation of phonon Stark effect.

Stark effect, the electric-field analogue of magnetic Zeeman effect, is one of the celebrated phenomena in modern physics and appealing for emergent applications in electronics, optoelectronics, as well as quantum technologies. While in condensed matter it has prospered only for excitons, whether other collective excitations can display Stark effect remains elusive. Here, we report the observation of phonon Stark effect in a two-dimensional quantum system of bilayer 2H-MoS.

The Impact of Blood Sample Processing on Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) Sequencing.

In gene quantification and expression analysis, issues with sample selection and processing can be serious, as they can easily introduce irrelevant variables and lead to ambiguous results. This study aims to investigate the extent and mechanism of the impact of sample selection and processing on ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing. RNA from PBMCs and blood samples was investigated in this study.

PLAU promotes cell proliferation and migration of head and neck cancer via STAT3 signaling pathway.

It was reported that within the head and neck cancer (HNC) cell line CAL21 the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cell proliferation were promoted by Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator (PLAU) proteinase through TNFRSF12A. Additionally, in this paper HNC cell lines refer to Fadu and Tu686. A novel PLAU-STAT3 axis was found to be involved in HNC cell line proliferation and metastasis.

Analysis of spinal muscular atrophy carrier screening results in 32,416 pregnant women and 7,231 prepregnant women.

Objectives: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive disease that is one of the most common in childhood neuromuscular disorders. Our screenings are more meaningful programs in preventing birth defects, providing a significant resource for healthcare professionals, genetic counselors, and policymakers involved in designing strategies to prevent and manage SMA.

Method: We screened 39,647 participants from 2020 to the present by quantitative real-time PCR, including 7,231 pre-pregnancy participants and 32,416 pregnancy participants, to detect the presence of SMN1 gene EX7 and EX8 deletion in the DNA samples provided by the subjects.

Sustainable cellulose foams for all-weather high-performance radiative cooling and building insulation.

Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) as a zero-energy-consumption cooling technique offers rich opportunities in reducing global energy consumption and mitigating CO emissions. Developing high-performance PDRC coolers with practical applicability based on sustainable materials is of great significance, but remains a big challenge. Herein, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and esterified cellulose (EC) extracted from sawdust were used as raw materials to construct foams by using a dual-crosslinking assisted-unidirectional freeze-drying strategy followed by hydrophobic surface modification.

Organoboron-thiophene-based polymer electrodes for high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

Polymer electrodes are drawing widespread attention to the future generation of lithium-ion battery materials. However, weak electrochemical performance of organic anode materials still exists, such as low capacity, low rate performance, and low cyclability. Herein, we successfully constructed a donor-acceptor thiophene-based polymer (PBT-1) by introducing an organoboron unit.

Osr1-mediated mesothelial transition of liver mesenchymal cells exacerbates fibrotic liver damage.

In chronic liver diseases, hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are induced to form the myofibroblasts responsible for scar formation, leading to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. Here, single-cell RNA sequencing with in vivo lineage tracing in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) model mice reveals a subpopulation of HSCs transitioning back to a state resembling their developmental precursors, mesothelial cells (MCs), after liver injury. These damage-associated intermediates between HSCs and MCs (DIHMs) can be traced with a dual recombinase system by labeling Krt19-expressing cells within prelabeled Pdgfrb HSCs, and DIHMs highly express inflammation- and fibrosis-associated genes.

Agarose amplification based sequencing characterization cell-free RNA in preimplantation spent embryo medium.

The cell-free RNA (cf-RNA) of spent embryo medium (SEM) has aroused a concern of academic and clinical researchers for its potential use in non-invasive embryo screening. However, comprehensive characterization of cf-RNA from SEM still presents significant technical challenges, primarily due to the limited volume of SEM. Hence, there is urgently need to a small input liquid volume and ultralow amount of cf-RNA library preparation method to unbiased cf-RNA sequencing from SEM.

Organoboron flank-substituted donor-acceptor polymer anode with ultra-long cycling stability for lithium ion batteries.

The tunable structure and other properties of organic materials suggest that they can potentially solve the shortcomings of traditional anodes such as graphite. We successfully introduced an organoboron unit into the thiophene-based polymer PBT-2 to construct a donor-acceptor polymer anode. The charge delocalization and LUMO energy level resulting from the unique structure of this material enabled good redox activity and a very stable electrochemical performance in electrochemical tests, with a reversible capacity of 262 mA h g at 0.

Chemically induced revitalization of damaged hepatocytes for regenerative liver repair.

In prolonged liver injury, hepatocytes undergo partial identity loss with decreased regenerative capacity, resulting in liver failure. Here, we identified a five compound (5C) combination that could restore hepatocyte identity and reverse the damage-associated phenotype (e.g.