The development of photodetectors (PDs) with broadband and narrowband dual-mode responses is indispensable for covering spectral range, adapting to complex environmental monitoring and expanding multi-scenario applications, such as optical communication, imaging and biosensing. However, the PDs capable of highly sensitive dual-mode responses in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) to near-infrared (NIR) region still remains a challenge. Herein, we designed and synthesized Cs2NaErxYb1-xCl6 (x = 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.15, 0.3, 0.6) double perovskite nanocrystals (DPNCs) through thermal injection method. We experimentally demonstrated that the Er3 + doping can facilitates the generation of more self-trapped excitons (STEs) and intensified the energy transfer from STEs to the dopant Er3+, thereafter to realize the efficient down-shifting emissions. The Cs2NaEr0.15Yb0.85Cl6 DPNCs coupled with Si PDs exhibited great broadband photoresponse from NUV-NIR (300-1100 nm) and narrowband photoresponse at 1550 nm with similar to 20 nm full width at half maxima. Our PDs show good stability, and good performance with the specific sdetectivity of similar to 1.0 x 10(10) Jones at 1550 nm. This work provides an effective strategy to solve the problems of difficult integration and complex structure of traditional dual-mode PDs, and opens new chance for efficient photodetection in advanced integrated optical communication systems.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are critical in the tumor microenvironment (TME) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Major vault protein (MVP) mediates multidrug resistance, cell growth and development, and viral immunity. However, the relationship between MVP and TAMs polarization has not been clarified in HCC. We found that MVP significantly increased M2-TAMs infiltration levels in tumor tissues of HCC patients. MVP promoted HCC proliferation, metastasis, and invasion by regulating M2 polarization in vivo and in vitro. Mechanistically, MVP associated with signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) and enhanced STAT6 phosphorylation. STAT6 translocated from the cytosol to the nucleus and regulated M2 macrophage-associated gene transcription. These findings suggest that MVP modulates the macrophage M2 transcriptional program, revealing its potential role in the TAMs of TME.

Interleukin (IL)-6 has anti- and pro-inflammatory functions, controlled by IL-6 classic and trans-signaling, respectively. Differences in the downstream signaling mechanism between IL-6 classic and trans-signaling have not been identified. Here, we report that IL-6 activates glycolysis to regulate the inflammatory response. IL-6 regulates glucose metabolism by forming a complex containing signal-transducing activators of transcription 3 (STAT3), hexokinase 2 (HK2), and voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1). The IL-6 classic signaling directs glucose flux to oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos), while IL-6 trans-signaling directs glucose flux to anaerobic glycolysis. Classic IL-6 signaling promotes STAT3 translocation into mitochondria to interact with pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase-1 (PDK1), leading to pyruvate dehydrogenase α (PDHA) dissociation from PDK1. As a result, PDHA is dephosphorylated, and STAT3 is phosphorylated at Ser727. By contrast, IL-6 trans-signaling promotes the interaction of sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), leading to the dissociation of STAT3 from SIRT2. As a result, LDHA is deacetylated, and STAT3 is acetylated and phosphorylated at Tyr705. IL-6 classic signaling promotes the differentiation of regulatory T cells via the PDK1/STAT3/PDHA axis, whereas IL-6 trans-signaling promotes the differentiation of Th17 cells via the SIRT2/STAT3/LDHA axis. Conclusion: IL-6 classic signaling generates anti-inflammatory functions by shifting energy metabolism to OxPhos, while IL-6 trans-signaling generates pro-inflammatory functions by shifting energy metabolism to anaerobic glycolysis.

Industrial experiments are carried out to investigate the precipitation and growth of AlN in Fe–23Mn–2Al–0.08 V steel with nitrogen content up to 80–92 ppm. AlN inclusions can be precipitated before solidification. The morphologies of AlN are mainly divided into hexagonal and needle‐like shapes. With the cooling rate decreasing from 36.66 to 0.71 K s−1, the equivalent diameters of typical AlN increase from 7.56 to 24.20 μm, and the total amount decreases from 203.01 to 60.00 mm−2. The relationship between the cooling rate and the number density is obtained: . The element segregation analyzed by electronic probe microanalyzer shows that aluminum concentration is low in interdendritic regions but high in dendrites. Aluminum segregation is very weak, and there is almost no nitrogen segregation. Thermodynamic calculation shows that AlN can precipitate before solidification with the nitrogen content higher than 58 ppm. The predicted results of AlN growth by kinetic analysis method can well reveal the growth trend. The nitrogen content (≥58 ppm) has a negligible effect on the size of AlN when the cooling rates are 3.02 and 0.71 K s−1, while the cooling rate has a significant effect on the size of AlN.

MAVS is an adapter protein involved in RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) signaling in mitochondria, peroxisomes, and mitochondria-associated ER membranes (MAMs). However, the role of MAVS in glucose metabolism and RLR signaling cross-regulation and how these signaling pathways are coordinated among these organelles have not been defined. This study reports that RLR action drives a switch from glycolysis to the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HBP) through MAVS. We show that peroxisomal MAVS is responsible for glucose flux shift into PPP and type III interferon (IFN) expression, whereas MAMs-located MAVS is responsible for glucose flux shift into HBP and type I IFN expression. Mechanistically, peroxisomal MAVS interacts with G6PD and the MAVS signalosome forms at peroxisomes by recruiting TNF receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) and interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1). By contrast, MAMs-located MAVS interact with glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate transaminase, and the MAVS signalosome forms at MAMs by recruiting TRAF6 and TRAF2. Our findings suggest that MAVS mediates the interaction of RLR signaling and glucose metabolism.

Protein/polysaccharide complexes have been widely used to fabricate Pickering emulsions, yet their linear and nonlinear rheological behaviors have received little attention. In this work, two interfacial assembly strategies of layer-by-layer (LBL) and directly mixed (DM) were employed to create zein (2%, 1%, w/v)/xanthan gum (XG) (0.8%, 0.4%, 0.2%, w/v) complex Pickering emulsions (oil phase: aqueous phase = 1:2). Both small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) and large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) behaviors were investigated. Results showed that regardless of interfacial assembly strategies, emulsions exhibited relatively smaller droplet size, but had higher viscosity and storage modulus (SAOS test) with XG concentrations at 0.8% (w/v). The steady shear test showed LBL emulsions had superior viscosity, with a minor difference between DM and LBL emulsions in the linear SAOS test. Both interfacial assembly strategies resulted in emulsions exhibiting a hysteresis loop and a thixotropic recovery rate above 85%. The Elastic/Viscous Lissajous plots revealed that the elasticity and stiffness were affected by interfacial assembly strategies. LBL emulsions showed a more pronounced secondary loop, accompanied by a greater thixotropic restructuring time scale. The micromorphology contributed to the diverse linear and nonlinear behaviors, with the zein-XG complex mixed layer coating the oil droplets in DM emulsions and XG being added to a previously zein-emulsified emulsion to form a multilayer in LBL emulsions. In addition, emulsions showed a well-distributed nature, with no oil-off phenomena observed during centrifugal, salt, and thermal treatments. Results illustrated the effect of interfacial assembly strategies on the linear/nonlinear rheological behavior of Pickering emulsion. Our study might be helpful in preparing Pickering emulsion as edible ink for 3D printing and as a fat replacer.

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common complication in the late stage of malignant tumors. The appearance of MPE indicates that the primary tumor has spread to the pleura or progressed to an advanced stage. The survival time of the patients will be significantly shortened, with a median survival of only a few months. There are a variety of traditional treatments, and their advantages and disadvantages are relatively clear. There are still many problems that cannot be solved by traditional methods in clinical work. The most common one is intrapleural perfusion therapy with chemotherapy drugs, but it has a large side effect of chemotherapy. At present, with the development of medical technology, there are a variety of treatment methods, and many innovative, significant and valuable treatment methods have emerged, which also bring hope for the treatment of refractory and recurrent MPE patients. Several clinical trials had confirmed that drug-carrying microparticles has less adverse reactions and obvious curative effect. However, there is still a long way to go to completely control and cure MPE, and the organic combination of clinical work and scientific research results is needed to bring dawn to refractory MPE patients.

Recently, studies on the interactions between zein and polyphenols have attracted an increasing attention. This study investigated the interaction mechanisms, and structural changes of the interaction between ferulic acid (FA) and zein under different pH conditions. Results indicated the interaction of FA with zein altered the secondary structure of zein and induced the conversion of α-helix and β-sheet based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. Molecular docking results revealed the binding stability of zein with FA under alkaline condition (pH 9) was stronger than that under acidic and neutral conditions. Structural changes resulted in reduced surface hydrophobicity and -SH content, increased antioxidant activity of zein after pH alteration. Results demonstrated the change of pH was the vital factor affecting the binding affinity of zein to FA. This study might provide insight for the future studies about food proteins physicochemical stability and nutriceuticals bioavailability in vitro or in vivo.

Dislocations profoundly impact the mechanical behavior of materials. High dislocation density induced strengthening is easily achieved in metallic materials, but it is a challenge in ceramics. Here, we highlight the dislocation engineering of an ultrahigh-temperature ceramic, hafnium carbide (HfC), by high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) consolidation. The microstructure and temperature-dependent high-pressure consolidation behaviors were systematically investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Our results reveal that pressure-induced intergranular strains promote the generation of high-density dislocations in multiple orientations near grain boundaries and finally enhance the hardness and oxidation resistance of the HfC ceramic. These findings elucidate that dislocation strengthening can be achieved in ultra-high-temperature ceramic HfC, which offers crucial insights for the design and synthesis of advanced ceramic materials.

Glucose metabolism and innate immunity evolved side-by-side. It is unclear if and how the two systems interact with each other during hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections and, if so, which mechanisms are involved. Here, we report that HBV activates glycolysis to impede retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I)-induced interferon production. We demonstrate that HBV sequesters MAVS from RIG-I by forming a ternary complex including hexokinase (HK). Using a series of pharmacological and genetic approaches, we provide in vitro and in vivo evidence indicating that HBV suppresses RLR signaling via lactate dehydrogenase-A-dependent lactate production. Lactate directly binds MAVS preventing its aggregation and mitochondrial localization during HBV infection. Therefore, we show that HK2 and glycolysis-derived lactate have important functions in the immune escape of HBV and that energy metabolism regulates innate immunity during HBV infection.

IAV regulates inflammatory signaling via glucose metabolism.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS:Major vault protein (MVP) is up-regulated during infections with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Here, we found that MVP deficiency inhibited hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development induced by diethylnitrosamine, hepatitis B X protein, and HCV core.APPROACH AND RESULTS:Forced MVP expression was sufficient to induce HCC in mice. Mechanistic studies demonstrate that the ubiquitin ligase human double minute 2 (HDM2) forms mutual exclusive complexes either with interferon regulatory factor 2 (IRF2) or with p53. In the presence of MVP, HDM2 is liberated from IRF2, leading to the ubiquitination of the tumor suppressor p53. Mouse xenograft models showed that HBV and HCV promote carcinogenesis through MVP induction, resulting in a loss of p53 mediated by HDM2. Analyses of clinical samples from chronic hepatitis B, liver cirrhosis, and HCC revealed that MVP up-regulation correlates with several hallmarks of malignancy and associates with poor overall survival.CONCLUSIONS:Taken together, through the sequestration of IRF2, MVP promotes an HDM2-dependent loss of p53 that promotes HCC development.

Two series of Ge 0.8 Sn 0.2 samples were grown on Ge buffered Si substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to investigate the influence of growth temperature and film thickness towards the evolution of surface morphology. A novel phenomena was observed that the Ge 0.8 Sn 0.2 film was segregated and relaxed by the formation of GeSn stripes on the film. Under specific growth condition, the stripes can cover nearly the whole surface. XRD, TEM, AFM, PL and TEM results indicated that the stripes are high quality single crystalline GeSn with Sn content around 5%. The formation of GeSn stripes proposes an effective strategy to fabricate high crystalline quality GeSn stripe on Si, where the Ge 0.8 Sn 0.2 film serves as precursor and the segregated Sn works as catalyst droplets. This technique has great potential for future optoelectronic and microelectronic applications.

We have performed in situ Raman scattering and synchrotron angle-dispersive X-ray diffraction (ADXRD) investigations to explore high-pressure behaviors of azodicarbonamide (C2N4O2H4, ADC) to 21.6 and 23.8 GPa, respectively. ADC exhibits the representative two-dimensional (2D) hydrogen-bonded networks, and is the most hugely used foaming agent in industry both under ambient and high pressures. Careful identification of external modes and indexation of Bragg diffraction peaks under different pressures demonstrate ADC crystal remains the P2(1)/c symmetry in this study. The bulk modulus (B-0) and its pressure derivative (B-0') are determined to be 13.2(7) GPa and 8.2(2) by fitting the isothermal third Vinet equation of state (EOS). The conformation change of ADC molecule has been observed at 12.7 GPa. And this is evidenced by the splitting of skeleton atoms vibrations and the discontinuous evolutions with respect to hydrogen bond donor (NH) vibrations. First principle calculation reveals the observed confirmation change arises from the discontinuous variation of the torsion angel between H2NC =O and CN = NC skeleton groups. Hirshfeld surface analysis indicated that the extensive hydrogen bonds within 2D networks dominate the intermolecular close contacts even under high pressures. The intermolecular interaction energy calculation also implies that the energy between neighboring molecules in the 2D layer dominates the networks stability, whereas the energy between neighboring molecules in the second nearest adjacent layer is the primary factor for crystal instability. The cooperativity of the molecular flexibility and directional hydrogen bonds is responsible for structural stability under high pressures.

The galectin 3 binding protein (LGALS3BP, also known as 90K) is a ubiquitous multifunctional secreted glycoprotein originally identified in cancer progression. It remains unclear how 90K functions in innate immunity during viral infections. In this study, we found that viral infections resulted in elevated levels of 90K. Further studies demonstrated that 90K expression suppressed virus replication by inducing IFN and pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Upon investigating the mechanisms behind this event, we found that 90K functions as a scaffold/adaptor protein to interact with TRAF6, TRAF3, TAK1 and TBK1. Furthermore, 90K enhanced TRAF6 and TRAF3 ubiquitination and served as a specific ubiquitination substrate of TRAF6, leading to transcription factor NF-κB, IRF3 and IRF7 translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Conclusions: 90K is a virus-induced protein capable of binding with the TRAF6 and TRAF3 complex, leading to IFN and pro-inflammatory production.

Ge1-xSnx with a tunable bandgap that covers full shortwave infrared (SWIR) from 1 to 2.6 mu m presents a new paradigm for silicon-based SWIR photodetection. However, low absorption and high surface recombination remain to be large limitations for realization of high performance photodetector. This work demonstrates GeSn-graphene heterostructure photo-detectors with high responsivity, photoconductive gain, and detectivity can effectively lessen the burdens. Compared with the pure GeSn photodetector, the introduction of graphene not only effectively solves the problem of serious surface states of the GeSn active layer, but achieves large enhancements in both photo-current and response speed, even under a relatively weak illumination, which indicates photogenerated carriers can be separated and transported in higher efficiency. At the same time, there is no recession in performance after a 4 month exposure in ambient environment. In addition, the heterostructure is integrated into a 20 x 20 pixel detector array with a size of 440 x 440 mu m(2) and an image of letter "E" is clearly obtained according to a mask measurement method. The compatibility with CMOS technique offers such photodetector new opportunities for application in SWIR optical communication and imaging, remote sensing, and biomedical.

Polyphenols have been known to have significant binding affinity for proteins, and the specific condition (such as pH) could affect the degree of binding, the formation of covalent bond, and non-covalent interaction. In this study, characteristics of binding quercetin (Q) to wheat gliadin (G) which is a strong food allergen, were studied from pH 2.0 to pH 9.0. The results showed that Q quenched the fluorescence intensity of G by dynamic and static quenching modes and the stoichiometry of binding was close to 1. Intermolecular binding distances were smaller than 8 nm. Thermodynamic parameters suggested that hydrophobic force took charge of the formation of complexes at pH 2.0-4.0, whereas hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces at pH 5.0-9.0. Analyses of the Fourier transform infrared and the Raman spectra along with synchronous fluorescence spectra revealed secondary and tertiary structural alterations and microenvironmental changed around protein fluorophores upon complexation with Q. The gauche-gauche-trans conformation increased at the expenses of the gauche-gauche-gauche conformation and the transition from beta-turn and random coil to alpha-helix and beta-sheet at pH 5.0 might decrease the allergenicity of G. These results provided new insights into G/Q interactions at different pH values, which may have potentials in decreasing allergen immunoreactivity. (c) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Some unusual phenomena besides near-infrared emission of Yb3+ ions have been observed in ytterbium-doped perovskite solid nanocrystals. A systematic study on doping kinetic and energy-transfer processes is presented. The observed unique dual-peak photoluminescence (PL) emission of perovskite nanocrystals in the visible region can be attributed to radiative recombination in the near-surface region and the interior region of the perovskite nanocrystals, respectively. Insightful studies based on dual-peak PL emission clarify the kinetic process of doping in perovskite nanocrystals. Once the dopant concentration of rare earth ions in the near-surface region is more than a certain value, the dopant ions start to immerse into the interior region of the host nanocrystals. The unusual excitation spectra of ytterbium-doped perovskite solid nanocrystals could be explained by the presence of two charge-transfer (CT) states at similar to 24 000 cm(-1) (CT1) and similar to 21 460 cm(-1) (CT2), and both of them could be observed in the near-surface region of the perovskite host. Furthermore, the lifetime of the near-infrared emission of Yb3+ ions through the CT2 is three orders faster than that through CT1 (in millisecond), which should be fixed on the surface of the perovskite nanocrystals. The results provide essential insights into the dynamic carrier behaviors and surface effects of all inorganic perovskite nanocrystals doped with rare earth ions for expanded functionality.

Normal-incidence p-i-n Ge/Si photodetectors were fabricated on SOI substrate by selective epitaxy. Thermal annealing and surface Si passivation were performed in situ to reduce the dark current. Bulk leakage current density and surface leakage density as low as 3.4 mA/cm 2 and 0.4 μA/cm are achieved under –1 V, respectively. The responsivity at wavelength of 1550 and 1310 nm are 0.27 and 0.59 A/W under zero-bias, respectively. The photodetector has a 3-dB bandwidth of 48 GHz at –3 V. Clear open eye diagrams at 40 Gbps are observed under zero-bias at a wavelength of 1550 nm.