Graphene-based thin film supercapacitor with graphene oxide as dielectric spacer

Thin film supercapacitors are produced by using electrochemically exfoliated graphene (G) and wet-chemically produced graphene oxide (GO). Either G/GO/G stacked film or sole GO film are sandwiched by two Au films to make devices, where GO is the dielectric spacer. The addition of graphene film for charge storage can increase the capacitance about two times, compared to the simple Au electrode. It is found that the GO film has very high dielectric constant, accounting for the high capacitance of these devices. AC measurements reveal that the relative permittivity of GO is in the order of 104 within the frequency range of 0.1–70 Hz

The functional role of microRNAs in laryngeal carcinoma

MicroRNAs are a class of non-coding, small RNAs, which modulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Numerous studies have showed microRNAs are involved in the pathogenesis of laryngeal cancer through regulating tumor-related genes such as oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. In this review, we summarize recent progress on the function of microRNAs in laryngeal cancer. We focus on potential use of microRNAs in laryngeal cancer diagnosis and prognosis

Mesenchymal stem cell derived extracellular vesicles loaded thermosensitive chitosan-based hydrogel alleviates allergic rhinitis in mouse model

Allergic rhinitis (AR) has gained an increasing prevalence over the years, a more effective and safe treatment strategy need to be carried out. Mesenchymal stem cell derived extracellular vesicles (MSC-EVs) show great therapeutic potential for AR, however, their low bioavailability through currently available delivery methods inhibits the process of clinical application. In the present study, an injectable thermosensitive chitosan based hydrogel was developed as an intranasal delivery platform for bone marrow-derived MSC-EVs (BMSC-EVs) and BMSC-EVs were proved to be effective in treating AR animal models for the first time. Our results showed that the BMSC-EVs loaded thermosensitive chitosan based hydrogel (BMSC-EVs@CHI hydrogel) could be prepared easily by ion-crosslinking and its gelation properties were suitable for intranasal administration. In vitro studies demonstrated that the BMSC-EVs@CHI hydrogel could achieve sustained release of BMSC-EVs mainly by degradation control and preserve the therapeutic functions of BMSC-EVs. An in vivo experiment revealed that the BMSC-EVs@CHI hydrogel could enhance the efficacy of BMSC-EVs for AR alleviation. This study provides a suitable delivery platform for BMSC-EVs-based AR therapy

Multiwavelength Dissipative-Soliton Generation in Yb-Fiber Laser Using Graphene-Deposited Fiber-Taper

We propose and demonstrate multiwavelength dissipative soliton (DS) generation in an all-normal-dispersion ytterbium-doped fiber laser based on a graphene-deposited tapered fiber (GDTF) device. Due to the interaction of the graphene with the evanescent field on the taper, the GDTF device possesses the characteristics of both saturable absorption and polarizing effect. Therefore, this device not only initiates the mode-locking operation based on the saturable absorption, but also induces both the special spectral filtering and nonlinear polarization evolution for shaping pulses into DSs. Simultaneous triple-wavelength DS operation around 1035 nm is thus achieved with a pulse energy of 6.4 nJ and pulse duration of 74.6 ps. Moreover, the DS operation is very stable with an RF signal-to-noise ratio of 62.5 dB.National Natural Science Foundation of China [61107038, 61177044

Next-Generation Sequencing Characterizes the Landscape of Somatic Mutations and Pathways in Metastatic Bile Tract Carcinoma

Purpose. Tumor metastasis remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in biliary tract cancer. The etiology and mechanism of bile tract carcinoma metastasis are unclear. Methods. The primary tumor and blood samples of 14 patients with biliary tract cancer were collected, followed by nucleic acid extraction and library construction. Target sequencing with 556 panel genes and WES were performed to detect the hot spot genes variations. Bioinformatics was used to comprehensively analyze the sequencing data of these samples, including the differences of tumor mutation burden and signaling pathways. Results. The results showed that the mutation frequency of TP53 gene was the highest and the mutations of CTNNB1, EPHA7, ARID2, and PIK3CA were only found in metastatic samples. The TMB mean values of metastatic and non-metastatic groups were 12.97 and 10.38 mutations per Mb, respectively. There were significant differences in the enrichment pathways of cellular components between the tumor metastasis and non-metastatic samples. Conclusions. We identified multiple pathway differences, which helps us better understand metastatic biliary tumors and design clinical therapy for personalized medicine

Synthesis of TiO₂ Nanoparticles on Plasma-Treated Carbon Nanotubes and Its Application in Photoanodes of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted much interest because of their special physicochemical properties. Herein, O₂ plasma-treated CNTs (denoted as PS-CNTs) are incorporated within a TiO₂ matrix (denoted as PS-CNTs/TiO₂) as photoanodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The PS-CNTs/TiO₂ composites provide more uniform holes and rough surface over the photoanode and also provide a greater degree of dye adsorption and lower levels of charge recombination, as compared to either chemical modified CNTs/TiO₂ (denoted as CM-CNTs/TiO₂) or TiO₂ alone. The high dispersion of TiO₂ on PS-CNTs can improve the electron conduction paths, leads to high electron transfer efficiency, and thereby results in the high performance of the DSSC devices. Herein, the PS-CNTs/TiO₂-based working photoanode demonstrates a conversion efficiency of 6.34% in DSSCs, which is ∼75% higher than that of conventional TiO₂-based devices

Multiwavelength dissipative-soliton generation in Yb-fiber laser using graphene-deposited fiber-taper

We propose and demonstrate multiwavelength dissipative soliton (DS) generation in an all-normal-dispersion ytterbium-doped fiber laser based on a graphene-deposited tapered fiber (GDTF) device. Due to the interaction of the graphene with the evanescent field on the taper, the GDTF device possesses the characteristics of both saturable absorption and polarizing effect. Therefore, this device not only initiates the mode-locking operation based on the saturable absorption, but also induces both the special spectral filtering and nonlinear polarization evolution for shaping pulses into DSs. Simultaneous triple-wavelength DS operation around 1035 nm is thus achieved with a pulse energy of 6.4 nJ and pulse duration of 74.6 ps. Moreover, the DS operation is very stable with an RF signal-to-noise ratio of 62.5 dB. 漏 1989-2012 IEEE