Self-assembly of noble metal nanoparticles into sub-100 nm colloidosomes with collective optical and catalytic properties.

Self-assembly at the nanoscale represents a powerful tool for creating materials with new structures and intriguing collective properties. Here, we report a novel strategy to synthesize nanoscale colloidosomes of noble metals by assembling primary metal nanoparticles at the interface of emulsion droplets formed by their capping agent. This strategy produces noble metal colloidosomes of unprecedentedly small sizes (<100 nm) in high yield and uniformity, which is highly desirable for practical applications. In addition, it enables the high tunability of the composition, producing a diversity of monometallic and bimetallic alloy colloidosomes. The colloidosomes exhibit interesting collective properties that are different from those of individual colloidal nanoparticles. Specifically, we demonstrate Au colloidosomes with well-controlled interparticle plasmon coupling and Au-Pd alloy colloidosomes with superior electrocatalytic performance, both thanks to the special structural features that arise from the assembly. We believe this strategy provides a general platform for producing a rich class of miniature colloidosomes that may have fascinating collective properties for a broad range of applications

Agenda 21.

A Agenda 21 Brasileira é um processo e, ao mesmo tempo, instrumento de planejamento participativo para o desenvolvimento sustentável e que tem como eixo central a sustentabilidade, compatibilizando a conservação ambiental, a justiça social e o crescimento econômico. O documento e resultado de uma vasta consulta a população brasileira, sendo construída a partir das diretrizes da Agenda 21 global. Trata-se, portanto, de um instrumento fundamental para a construção da democracia ativa e da cidadania participativa no pais. A primeira fase foi a construção da Agenda 21 Brasileira. Esse processo, que se deu de 1996 a 2002, foi coordenado pela Comissão de Politicas de Desenvolvimento Sustentável e da Agenda 21 Nacional - CPDS e teve o envolvimento de cerca de 40.000 pessoas de todo o Brasil. O documento Agenda 21 Brasileira foi concluído em 2002. A partir de 2003, a Agenda 21 Brasileira não somente entrou na fase de implementação assistida pela CPDS, como também foi elevada a condição de Programa do Plano Plurianual, PPA 2004-2007, pelo atual governo. Como programa, ela adquire mais foça politica e institucional, passando a ser instrumento fundamental para a construção do Brasil Sustentável, estando coadunada com as diretrizes da politica ambiental do Governo-transversalidade, desenvolvimento sustentável, fortalecimento do Sistema e participação social, adotando referenciais importantes como a Carta da Terra. Portanto, a Agenda 21, que tem provado ser um guia eficiente para processos de união da sociedade, compreensão dos conceitos de cidadania e de sua aplicação, e hoje um dos grandes instrumentos de formação de politicas públicas no Brasil.Agenda 21 Brazilian is a process and, at the same time, instrument of participative planning for the sustainable development and that it has as central axle the sustentabilidade, compatibizando the ambient conservation, social justice and the economic growth. The document is resulted of a vast one consults the Brazilian population, being constructed from the lines of direction of global Agenda 21. It is treated, therefore, of a basic instrument for the construction of the active democracy and the participative citizenship in the Country. The first phase was the construction of Agenda 21 Brazilian. This process, that if gave of 1996 the 2002, was co-ordinated by the Commission of Politics of Sustainable Development and the National Agenda 21 - CPDS and had the envolvement of about 40.000 people of all Brazil. The document Agenda 21 Brazilian was concluded in 2002. From 2003, Agenda 21 Brazilian not only entered in the phase of implementation attended for the CPDS, as also condition of Program of the Puritanical Plan was raised a, PPA 2004-2007, for the current government. As program, it it acquires more force institutional politics and, starting to be basic instrument for the construction of Sustainable Brazil, being coadunate with the lines of direction of the ambient politics of the Government-transversaldade, sustainable development, fortalecimento of the System and social participation, adopting referenciais important as the Letter of the Land. Therefore, Agenda 21, that it has proven being an efficient guide for processes of union of the society, understanding of the concepts of citizenship and its application, is today one of the great instruments of formation of public politics in Brazi

He-Jie-Shen-Shi Decoction as an Adjuvant Therapy on Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Retrospective Cohort and Potential Mechanistic Study

Combination therapy using Western and traditional Chinese medicines has shown notable effects on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The He-Jie-Shen-Shi decoction (HJSS), composed of Bupleurum chinense DC., Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, Pinellia ternata (Thunb.) Makino, Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. ex DC., and nine other herbs, has been used to treat severe COVID-19 in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacies of HJSS combination therapy and Western monotherapy against severe COVID-19 and to study the potential action mechanism of HJSS. From February 2020 to March 2020, 81 patients with severe COVID-19 in Wuhan Tongji Hospital were selected for retrospective cohort study. Network pharmacology was conducted to predict the possible mechanism of HJSS on COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Targets of active components in HJSS were screened using the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) and PharmMapper databases. The targets of COVID-19 and ARDS were obtained from GeneCards and Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man databases. The key targets of HJSS in COVID-19 and ARDS were obtained based on the protein–protein interaction network (PPI). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis (KEGG) was conducted to predict the pathways related to the targets of HJSS in COVID-19 and ARDS. A “herb-ingredient-target-pathway” network was established using Cytoscape 3.2.7. Results showed that the duration of the negative conversion time of nucleic acid was shorter in patients who received HJSS combination therapy. HJSS combination therapy also relieved fever in patients with severe COVID-19. Network pharmacology analysis identified interleukin (IL) 6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA), catalase (CAT), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) 1, tumor protein p53 (TP53), CC-chemokine ligand (CCL2), MAPK3, prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2), and IL1B as the key targets of HJSS in COVID-19-related ARDS. KEGG analysis suggested that HJSS improved COVID-19-related ARDS by regulating hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1, NOD-like receptor, TNF, T cell receptor, sphingolipid, PI3K-Akt, toll-like receptor, VEGF, FoxO, and MAPK signaling pathways. In conclusion, HJSS can be used as an adjuvant therapy on severe COVID-19. The therapeutic mechanisms may be involved in inhibiting viral replication, inflammatory response, and oxidative stress and alleviating lung injury. Further studies are required to confirm its clinical efficacies and action mechanisms

Real-Time Segmentation Method of Lightweight Network For Finger Vein Using Embedded Terminal Technique

Because the existing finger vein segmentation networks are too large and not suitable for implementation in mobile terminals, the reduction of the parameters of the lightweight network leads to the reduction of the segmentation index, and the long-running time of deep network on hardware platforms; this paper proposes a lightweight real-time segmentation method for finger veins based on embedded terminal technique. In the preprocessing stage of the algorithm, the data is greatly expanded by randomly selecting the center to obtain sub-blocks on each image of the training set. The network first uses deep separable convolution to greatly reduce the U-Net parameters of a basic network and introduces an attention module to reorder the features to improve network performance, followed by a preliminary lightweight network Dinty-NetV1. Second, the Ghost module is added to the deep separable convolution, and the feature map of the network part is obtained through a cheap operation so that the network is further compressed to obtain Dinty-NetV2. After adding channel shuffle, all the characteristic channels are evenly shuffled and reorganized to obtain Dinty-NetV3. Finally, a study of the filter norm yields the distribution characteristics of the finger vein picture features. By using the geometric median pruning method, the network models for each stage of the algorithm proposed in this paper achieved better segmentation performance and shorter split time after pruning. The overall Dinty-NetV3 model size is only less than 9% of the U-Net and Mult-Adds is less than 2% of the U-Net with the same structure. After testing on two-finger vein datasets SDU-FV and MMCUBV-6000, we confirm that the performance of Dinty-NetV3 surpasses all previously proposed classic compression model algorithms and it is not inferior to more complex and huge networks such as U-Net, DU-Net, and R2U-Net. The proposed algorithm has advantages in terms of time needed to train the network, and we verify its universality using NVIDIA's full range of embedded terminals

Expert Consensus on Microtransplant for Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Elderly Patients -Report From the International Microtransplant Interest Group

Recent studies have shown that microtransplant (MST) could improve outcome of patients with elderly acute myeloid leukemia (EAML). To further standardize the MST therapy and improve outcomes in EAML patients, based on analysis of the literature on MST, especially MST with EAML from January 1st, 2011 to November 30th, 2022, the International Microtransplant Interest Group provides recommendations and considerations for MST in the treatment of EAML. Four major issues related to MST for treating EAML were addressed: therapeutic principle of MST (1), candidates for MST (2), induction chemotherapy regimens (3), and post-remission therapy based on MST (4). Others included donor screening, infusion of donor cells, laboratory examinations, and complications of treatment

Electrospun Biodegradable Poly(L-lactic acid) Nanofiber Membranes as Highly Porous Oil Sorbent Nanomaterials

Crude oil spills seriously harm the ocean environment and endanger the health of various animals and plants. In the present study, a totally biodegradable polymer, poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), was employed to fabricate highly porous oil absorbent nanofibrous materials by using a combination of electrospinning technique and subsequent acetone treatment. We systematically investigated how the electrospinning parameters affected formation of the porous structure of PLLA nanofibers and demonstrated that PLLA nanofibers with decreased and uniform diameter and improved porosity could be rapidly prepared by adjusting solution parameters and spinning parameters. We also demonstrated that the acetone treatment could obviously enhance the pore diameter and specific surface area of as-optimized electrospun PLLA nanofibers. The acetone treatment could also improve the hydrophobic property of as-treated PLLA nanofiber membranes. All these led to a significant increase in oil absorption performance. Through our research, it was found that the oil absorption of PLLA nanofiber membrane increased by more than double after being treated with acetone and the oil retention rate was also improved slightly

Ultrathin Broadband Germanium−Graphene Hybrid Photodetector with High Performance

Germanium-based photodetector is a key component in silicon based photonics because of its unique properties of response at telecommunication band and compatibility with CMOS techniques. However, the limitations of low quantum efficiency and high surface recombination in ultrathin germanium film, especially in the near-infrared range, put huge obstructions on the road toward applications. Nowadays, practical applications require more nanoscale devices with lower power consumption as well as higher responsivity and response speed. In this work, we first demonstrate a germanium–graphene hybrid structure photodetector that consists of an ultrathin 20 nm germanium layer and a monolayer graphene. The photodetector can achieve a broadband detection from ultraviolet to near-infrared range. A conductive gain of 155 and a responsivity of 66.2 A W^–1 are achieved, which is about 3 orders of magnitude higher than pure graphene photodetectors and about 4 times larger than pure germanium photodetectors. Such enhancement owes to effective generation, separation and transfer of photogenerated carriers at material interface. The photodetector based on germanium–-graphene hybrid structure presents a new paradigm for the realization of small but high performance device in the process of integration in silicon-based optical chips. And it offers new opportunities for imaging, sensing, and other optoelectronic field applications

A binder-free Si-based anode for Li-ion batteries

A binder-free anode for lithium ion batteries consisting of micro-sized silicon particles and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was prepared.</p

Defect-free high Sn-content GeSn on insulator grown by rapid melting growth

GeSn is an attractive semiconductor material for Si-based photonics. However, large lattice mismatch between GeSn and Si and the low solubility of Sn in Ge limit its development. In order to obtain high Sn-content GeSn on Si, it is normally grown at low temperature, which would lead to inevitable dislocations. Here, we reported a single-crystal defect-free graded GeSn on insulator (GSOI) stripes laterally grown by rapid melting growth (RMG). The Sn-content reaches to 14.2% at the end of the GSOI stripe. Transmission electron microscopy observation shows the GSOI stripe without stacking fault and dislocations. P-channel pseudo metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) and metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) Schottky junction photodetectors were fabricated on these GSOIs. Good transistor performance with a low field peak hole mobility of 402 cm(2)/Vs is obtained, which indicates a high-quality of this GSOI structure. Strong near-infrared and short-wave infrared optical absorption of the MSM photodetectors at 1550 nm and 2000 nm were observed. Owing to high Sn-content and defect-free, responsivity of 236 mA/[email protected] V is achieved at 1550 nm wavelength. In addition, responsivity reaches 154 mA/[email protected] V at 2000 nm with the optical absorption layer only 200 nm-thick, which is the highest value reported for GeSn junction photodetectors until now