Expansion of Islet-Resident Macrophages Leads to Inflammation Affecting β Cell Proliferation and Function in Obesity

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Inhibition of the adenosinergic pathway: the indispensable part of oncological therapy in the future

Purinergic Signalling - In recent years, immunotherapy has produced many unexpected breakthroughs in oncological therapy; however, it still has many deficiencies. For example, the number of...     

MXene‐Contacted Silicon Solar Cells with 11.5% Efficiency

MXene, a new class of 2D materials, has gained significant attention owing to its attractive electrical conductivity, tunable work function, and metallic nature for wide range of applications. Herein, delaminated few layered Ti₃C₂T_x MXene contacted Si solar cells with a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ≈11.5% under AM1.5G illumination are demonstrated. The formation of an Ohmic junction of the metallic MXene to n⁺‐Si surface efficiently extracts the photogenerated electrons from n⁺np⁺‐Si, decreases the contact resistance, and suppresses the charge carrier recombination, giving rise to excellent open‐circuit voltage and short‐circuit current density. The rapid thermal annealing process further improves the electrical contact between Ti₃C₂T_x MXene and n⁺‐Si surface by reducing sheet resistance, increasing electrical conductivity, and decreasing cell series resistance, thus leading to a remarkable improvement in fill factor and overall PCE. The work demonstrated here can be extended to other MXene compositions as potential electrodes for developing highly performing solar cells.     

Uniform High Ionic Conducting Lithium Sulfide Protection Layer for Stable Lithium Metal Anode

Artificial solid‐electrolyte interphase (SEI) is one of the key approaches in addressing the low reversibility and dendritic growth problems of lithium metal anode, yet its current effect is still insufficient due to insufficient stability. Here, a new principle of “simultaneous high ionic conductivity and homogeneity” is proposed for stabilizing SEI and lithium metal anodes. Fabricated by a facile, environmentally friendly, and low‐cost lithium solid‐sulfur vapor reaction at elevated temperature, a designed lithium sulfide protective layer successfully maintains its protection function during cycling, which is confirmed by both simulations and experiments. Stable dendrite‐free cycling of lithium metal anode is realized even at a high areal capacity of 5 mAh cm^?2, and prototype Li–Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ cell with limited lithium also achieves 900 stable cycles. These findings give new insight into the ideal SEI composition and structure and provide new design strategies for stable lithium metal batteries.     

Synergistic Engineering of Defects and Architecture in Binary Metal Chalcogenide toward Fast and Reliable Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have great promise to support the next‐generation energy storage if their sluggish redox kinetics and polysulfide shuttling can be addressed. The rational design of sulfur electrodes plays key roles in tacking these problems and achieving high‐efficiency sulfur electrochemistry. Herein, a synergetic defect and architecture engineering strategy to design highly disordered spinel Ni–Co oxide double‐shelled microspheres (NCO‐HS), which consist of defective spinel NiCo₂O_4–x (x = 0.9 if all nickel is Ni²⁺ and cobalt is Co^2.13+), as the multifunctional sulfur host material is reported. The in situ constructed cation and anion defects endow the NCO‐HS with significantly enhanced electronic conductivity and superior polysulfide adsorbability. Meanwhile, the delicate nanoconstruction offers abundant active interfaces and reduced ion diffusion pathways for efficient Li–S chemistry. Attributed to these synergistic features, the sulfur composite electrode achieves excellent rate performance up to 5 C, remarkable cycling stability over 800 cycles and good areal capacity of 6.3 mAh cm^?2 under high sulfur loading. This proposed strategy based on synergy engineering could also inform material engineering in related energy storage and conversion fields.     

Nanosheets‐Assembled CuSe Crystal Pillar as a Stable and High‐Power Anode for Sodium‐Ion and Potassium‐Ion Batteries

Thanks to low costs and the abundance of the resources, sodium‐ion (SIBs) and potassium‐ion batteries (PIBs) have emerged as leading candidates for next‐generation energy storage devices. So far, only few materials can serve as the host for both Na⁺ and K⁺ ions. Herein, a cubic phase CuSe with crystal‐pillar‐like morphology (CPL‐CuSe) assembled by the nanosheets are synthesized and its dual functionality in SIBs and PIBs is comprehensively studied. The electrochemical measurements demonstrate that CPL‐CuSe enables fast Na⁺ and K⁺ storage as well as the sufficiently long duration. Specifically, the anode delivers a specific capacity of 295 mA h g^?1 at current density of 10 A g^?1 in SIBs, while 280 mA h g^?1 at 5 A g^?1 in PIBs, as well as the high capacity retention of nearly 100% over 1200 cycles and 340 cycles, respectively. Remarkably, CPL‐CuSe exhibits a high initial coulombic efficiency of 91.0% (SIBs) and 92.4% (PIBs), superior to most existing selenide anodes. A combination of in situ X‐ray diffraction and ex situ transmission electron microscopy tests fundamentally reveal the structural transition and phase evolution of CuSe, which shows a reversible conversion reaction for both cells, while the intermediate products are different due to the sluggish K⁺ insertion reaction.     

联合检测血清糖类抗原标志物在女性绝经前后卵巢浆液性癌诊断中的价值

目的:探讨联合检测血清糖类抗原标志物在女性绝经前后卵巢浆液性癌诊断中的价值。方法:采用回顾性研究方法,选择2016年8月到至2018年2月在我院肿瘤科进行检测的绝经前后卵巢浆液性癌患者60例(癌变组)与绝经前后健康体检者60例(健康对照组),检测其血清癌胚抗原(carcino-embryonic antigen,CEA)、人附睾蛋白4(human epididymis protein 4,HE4)和糖链抗原125(carbohydrate antigen 125,CA125)的水平,并分析其与患者的临床病理特征与随访预后的相关性。结果:癌变组血清CEA、HE4、CA125水平及阳性表达率都均显著高于健康对照组(P0.05)。在癌变组60例患者中,随着病理分期增加、分化程度的减少、淋巴结转移与死亡情况的发生,血清CEA、HE4、CA125的阳性表达率显著升高,对比差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。同时在120例人群中,联合诊断为卵巢浆液性癌者54例,联合诊断的敏感性与特异性分别为90.0%和100.0%。结论:绝经前后女性卵巢浆液性癌患者血清糖类抗原标志物-CEA、HE4、CA12水平均呈现高表达,可能作为绝经前后女性卵巢浆液性癌诊断与预后预测的参考指标。     

A behavioral paradigm to study the persistence of reward memory extinction in Drosophila

<正>Drosophila has been proven to be a powerful animal model to study genetic mechanisms underlying different behaviors and diseases (Sokolowski,2001;Bier,2005).Extinction is a process that repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus without reinforcement results in decreased conditioned responses (Bouton,2004) and receives increasing attention for treating its related diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction