The Role of MRI in Debunking the Fallacy of "Mild" Traumatic Brain Injury.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a prevalent yet often overlooked public health concern due to the absence of detectable abnormalities on CT or conventional MRI scans. Approximately 18.3%-31.

4-octyl itaconate-functionalized dextran-polyethylene glycol hydrogel prevents postoperative peritoneal adhesion via regulating macrophage function and mesothelial differentiation.

Hydrogel barrier is considered to be a promising strategy to prevent postoperative peritoneal adhesion (PPA) formation. However, a simple physical barrier alone might not satisfactorily prevent adhesion. Herein, four-octyl itaconate (4-OI), a cell-permeable itaconate derivative with antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties, was encapsulated into micelles and then loaded into the dextran-polyethylene glycol hydrogel via the Schiff's base reaction between the aldehyde group of oxidized dextran and the amino group of four-arm polyethylene glycol amine (4-arm-PEG-NH).

Single-quantum sodium MRI at 3 T for separation of mono- and bi-T sodium signals.

Sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is highly sensitive to cellular ionic balance due to tenfold difference in sodium concentration across membranes, actively maintained by the sodium-potassium (Na-K) pump. Disruptions in this pump or membrane integrity, as seen in neurological disorders like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, bipolar disease, and mild traumatic brain injury, lead to increased intracellular sodium. However, this cellular-level alteration is often masked by the dominant extracellular sodium signal, making it challenging to distinguish sodium populations with mono- vs.

Single-Quantum Sodium MRI at 3T for the Separation of Mono- and Bi-T2 Sodium Signals.

Sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is highly sensitive to cellular ionic balance due to tenfold difference in sodium concentration across membranes, actively maintained by the sodium-potassium (Na-K) pump. Disruptions in this pump or membrane integrity, as seen in neurological disorders like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, bipolar disease, and mild traumatic brain injury, lead to increased intracellular sodium. However, this cellular-level alteration is often masked by the dominant extracellular sodium signal, making it challenging to distinguish sodium populations with mono- vs.

Fast segmentation and multiplexing imaging of organelles in live cells.

Studying organelles' interactome at system level requires simultaneous observation of subcellular compartments and tracking their dynamics. Conventional multicolor approaches rely on specific fluorescence labeling, where the number of resolvable colors is far less than the types of organelles. Here, we use a lipid-specific dye to stain all the membrane-associated organelles and spinning-disk microscopes with an extended resolution of ~143 nm for high spatiotemporal acquisition.

High-Elastic Flame-Retardant Polyacrylate-Based Gel Polymer Electrolyte by Dual-Phase Fluorination for Highly Stable Lithium-Metal Batteries.

Lithium-metal batteries (LMBs) are emerging as promising energy storage devices due to their exceptional energy densities. However, uncontrolled lithium dendrite growth and the flammability of liquid electrolytes heavily hinder their widespread applications. To circumvent such issues, we develop a dual-phase fluorinated gel polymer electrolyte (TF-GPE), composed of a fluorinated framework polymerized by 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl acrylate and a fluorinated solvent with fluoroethylene carbonate.

Energy Band Alignment and Defect Synergistic Regulation Enable Air-Solution-Processed Kesterite Solar Cells With the Lowest V Deficit.

The major challenge in preparing high-performance CuZnSn(S,Se) solar cells is the large open circuit voltage deficit (V-def). A new strategy utilizing the synergistic substitution of Ag and In dual cations has been proposed to simultaneously address the problems of undesirable interface band alignment and high-density detrimental bulk defects, obtaining decreased carrier recombination rate and increased minority carrier lifetime. The shorter In-S/Se bonds move the CBM higher by generating stronger repulsive force than the Sn-S/Se bonds, thus adjusting the interface band alignment.

Virtual parameter calibration of pod pepper seeds based on discrete element simulation.

In order to achieve numerical optimization of the pod pepper seed sowing device, the contact parameters of pod pepper seeds were calibrated, with the angle of repose used as the response value. A set of discrete element method (DEM) models of pod pepper seeds was developed to simulate the formation of seed repose angles using reverse engineering reconstruction techniques. An eight-factor, three-level response surface experiment based on the Box-Behnken central combination test method was performed to study the effects of various factors on the angle of repose of seeds.

Zero-shot learning enables instant denoising and super-resolution in optical fluorescence microscopy.

Computational super-resolution methods, including conventional analytical algorithms and deep learning models, have substantially improved optical microscopy. Among them, supervised deep neural networks have demonstrated outstanding performance, however, demanding abundant high-quality training data, which are laborious and even impractical to acquire due to the high dynamics of living cells. Here, we develop zero-shot deconvolution networks (ZS-DeconvNet) that instantly enhance the resolution of microscope images by more than 1.

Unsupervised distribution-aware keypoints generation from 3D point clouds.

Keypoints extraction from 3D objects is a fundamental task in point cloud processing. The ideal keypoints should be an ordered and well-aligned set of points that effectively reflect the shape and structure of the object. To this end, this paper proposes an unsupervised 3D point cloud keypoints generation network with the consideration of the probability distribution of keypoints and spatial distribution among keypoints.

Spatial redundancy transformer for self-supervised fluorescence image denoising.

Fluorescence imaging with high signal-to-noise ratios has become the foundation of accurate visualization and analysis of biological phenomena. However, the inevitable noise poses a formidable challenge to imaging sensitivity. Here we provide the spatial redundancy denoising transformer (SRDTrans) to remove noise from fluorescence images in a self-supervised manner.

Wrap-like transfer printing for three-dimensional curvy electronics.

Three-dimensional (3D) curvy electronics has wide-ranging application in biomedical health care, soft machine, and high-density curved imager. Limited by material properties, complex procedures, and coverage ability of existing fabrication techniques, the development of high-performance 3D curvy electronics remains challenging. Here, we propose an automated wrap-like transfer printing prototype for fabricating 3D curvy electronics.

Real-time denoising enables high-sensitivity fluorescence time-lapse imaging beyond the shot-noise limit.

A fundamental challenge in fluorescence microscopy is the photon shot noise arising from the inevitable stochasticity of photon detection. Noise increases measurement uncertainty and limits imaging resolution, speed and sensitivity. To achieve high-sensitivity fluorescence imaging beyond the shot-noise limit, we present DeepCAD-RT, a self-supervised deep learning method for real-time noise suppression.

Enhancing adoptive T cell therapy for solid tumor with cell-surface anchored immune checkpoint inhibitor nanogels.

The efficacy of Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) for solid tumor is still mediocre. This is mainly because tumor cells can hijack ACT T cells' immune checkpoint pathways to exert immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 (aPD1) can counter the immunosuppression, but the synergizing effects of aPD1 to ACT was still not satisfactory.

Platelet Pharmacytes for the Hierarchical Amplification of Antitumor Immunity in Response to Self-Generated Immune Signals.

Systemic immunosuppression mediated by tumor-derived exosomes is an important cause for the resistance of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Herein, self-adaptive platelet (PLT) pharmacytes are engineered to mediate cascaded delivery of exosome-inhibiting siRNA and anti-PD-L1 (aPDL1) toward synergized antitumor immunity. In the pharmacytes, polycationic nanocomplexes (NCs) assembled from Rab27 siRNA (siRab) and a membrane-penetrating polypeptide are encapsulated inside the open canalicular system of PLTs, and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs)-responsive aPDL1 nanogels (NGs) are covalently backpacked on the PLT surface.

Polarized endosome dynamics engage cytoplasmic Par-3 that recruits dynein during asymmetric cell division.

In the developing embryos, the cortical polarity regulator Par-3 is critical for establishing Notch signaling asymmetry between daughter cells during asymmetric cell division (ACD). How cortically localized Par-3 establishes asymmetric Notch activity in the nucleus is not understood. Here, using in vivo time-lapse imaging of mitotic radial glia progenitors in the developing zebrafish forebrain, we uncover that during horizontal ACD along the anteroposterior embryonic axis, endosomes containing the Notch ligand DeltaD (Dld) move toward the cleavage plane and preferentially segregate into the posterior (subsequently basal) Notch daughter.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Based Strategies for Synergistic Cancer Therapy.

Immune checkpoint blockade therapy (ICBT) targeting checkpoints, such as, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein-4 (CTLA-4), programmed death-1 (PD-1), or programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), can yield durable immune response in various types of cancers and has gained constantly increasing research interests in recent years. However, the efficacy of ICBT alone is limited by low response rate and immune-related side effects. Emerging preclinical and clinical studies reveal that chemotherapy, radiotherapy, phototherapy, or other immunotherapies can reprogramm immunologically "cold" tumor microenvironment into a "hot" one, thus synergizing with ICBT.

High-dimensional super-resolution imaging reveals heterogeneity and dynamics of subcellular lipid membranes.

Lipid membranes are found in most intracellular organelles, and their heterogeneities play an essential role in regulating the organelles' biochemical functionalities. Here we report a Spectrum and Polarization Optical Tomography (SPOT) technique to study the subcellular lipidomics in live cells. Simply using one dye that universally stains the lipid membranes, SPOT can simultaneously resolve the membrane morphology, polarity, and phase from the three optical-dimensions of intensity, spectrum, and polarization, respectively.

Activity Prediction of Small Molecule Inhibitors for Antirheumatoid Arthritis Targets Based on Artificial Intelligence.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease, which is compared to "immortal cancer" in industry. Currently, SYK, BTK, and JAK are the three major targets of protein tyrosine kinase for this disease. According to existing research, marketed and research drugs for RA are mostly based on single target, which limits their efficacy.

Advances of super-resolution fluorescence polarization microscopy and its applications in life sciences.

Fluorescence polarization microscopy (FPM) analyzes both intensity and orientation of fluorescence dipole, and reflects the structural specificity of target molecules. It has become an important tool for studying protein organization, orientational order, and structural changes in cells. However, suffering from optical diffraction limit, conventional FPM has low orientation resolution and observation accuracy, as the polarization information is averaged by multiple fluorescent molecules within a diffraction-limited volume.

Discovery of Dual FGFR4 and EGFR Inhibitors by Machine Learning and Biological Evaluation.

Kinase inhibitors are widely used in antitumor research, but there are still many problems such as drug resistance and off-target toxicity. A more suitable solution is to design a multitarget inhibitor with certain selectivity. Herein, computational and experimental studies were applied to the discovery of dual inhibitors against FGFR4 and EGFR.

Enhanced reconstruction of structured illumination microscopy on a polarized specimen.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) requires polarization control to guarantee the high-contrast illumination pattern. However, this modulated polarization will induce artifacts in SIM when imaging fluorescent dipoles. Here we proposed the polarization weighted recombination of frequency components to reconstruct SIM data with suppressed artifacts and better resolving power.

Controlled Sputtering Pressure on High-Quality SbSe Thin Film for Substrate Configurated Solar Cells.

Magnetron sputtering has become an effective method in SbSe thin film photovoltaic. Research found that post-selenization treatments are essential to produce stoichiometric thin films with desired crystallinity and orientation for the sputtered SbSe. However, the influence of the sputtering process on SbSe device performance has rarely been explored.

In Silico Design and Analysis of a Kinase-Focused Combinatorial Library Considering Diversity and Quality.

A structurally diverse, high-quality, and kinase-focused database plays a critical role in finding hits or leads in kinase drug discovery. Here, we propose a workflow for designing a virtual kinase-focused combinatorial library using existing structures. Based on the analysis of known protein kinase inhibitors (PKIs), detailed fragment optimization, fragment selection, fragment linking, and a molecular filtering scheme were defined.