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Mechanochemistry has been studied for some time, but research on the reactivity of charges exchanged by contact-electrification (CE) during mechanical stimulation remains scarce. Here, we demonstrate that electrons transferred during the CE between pristine dielectric powders and water can be utilized to directly catalyze reactions without the use of conventional catalysts. Specifically, frequent CE at Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) - water interface induces electron-exchanges, thus forming reactive oxygen species for the degradation of an aqueous methyl orange solution. Contact-electro-catalysis, by conjunction of CE, mechanochemistry and catalysis, has been proposed as a general mechanism, which has been demonstrated to be effective for various dielectric materials, such as Teflon, Nylon-6,6 and rubber. This original catalytic principle not only expands the range of catalytic materials, but also enables us to envisage catalytic processes through mechano-induced contact-electrification. Contact electro catalysis (CEC) was proposed as a novel catalytic principle that uses electron transfers during contact electrification to accelerate chemical reactions. Here the authors show even catalytically inert pristine polymers can catalyze the degradation of organic pollutant.

The high-quality development path of ecological priority and green energy efficiency should be unswervingly followed. Therefore, exploring the ecological and environmental level (EEL) is an urgent and essential matter for sustainable development. This research aims to estimate how the eco-environmental damage compensation system (EDCS) affects the EEL in China. The framework is based on panel data collected from 284 cities at the prefecture level in China. The Differences-in-Differences (DID) method is employed to examine the influence and spillover effect. Findings provide evidence that the EDCS significantly improves the EEL. Therefore, this study primarily examines whether and how the EDCS impacts the EEL. Further, the ecological environment level of resource-based cities is drastically different from that of non-resource-based cities under the impact of the EDCS. Mechanistic analyses demonstrate that the EDCS is conducive to upgrading of industrial structure and technological innovation, which in turn promotes regional EEL. Based on the findings of the analyses, it can be argued that policymakers and market participants should work together to address environmental issues, combining top-down and bottom-up approaches. Ultimately, efficient markets and responsive governments work together. The policy should form a dynamic adjustment mechanism for different resource cities to realize the purpose of emissions reduction and enhance the EEL.

Ball milling is a representative mechanochemical strategy that uses the mechanical agitation-induced effects, defects, or extreme conditions to activate substrates. Here, we demonstrate that ball grinding could bring about contact-electro-catalysis (CEC) by using inert and conventional triboelectric materials. Exemplified by a liquid-assisted-grinding setup involving polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced, despite PTFE being generally considered as catalytically inert. The formation of ROS occurs with various polymers, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polypropylene (PP), and the amount of generated ROS aligns well with the polymers’ contact-electrification abilities. It is suggested that mechanical collision not only maximizes the overlap in electron wave functions across the interface, but also excites phonons that provide the energy for electron transition. We expect the utilization of triboelectric materials and their derived CEC could lead to a field of ball milling-assisted mechanochemistry using any universal triboelectric materials under mild conditions. Through contact-electro-catalysis (CEC), reactive oxygen species can be produced by chemically inert triboelectric materials in ball milling, enabling mechanoredox reactions with a broad selection of abundant triboelectric materials

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are an important part of tumor microenvironment (TME) and play a key role in TME, participating in the process of tumor occurrence, growth, invasion, and metastasis. Among them, metastasis to tumor tissue is the key step of malignant development of tumor. In this paper, the latest progress in the role of TAMs in the formation of tumor microenvironment is summarized. It is particularly noteworthy that cell and animal experiments show that TAMs can provide a favorable microenvironment for the occurrence and development of tumors. At the same time, clinical pathological experiments show that the accumulation of TAMs in tumor is related to poor clinical efficacy. Finally, this paper discusses the feasibility of TAMs-targeted therapy as a new indirect cancer therapy. This paper provides a theoretical basis for finding a potentially effective macrophage-targeted tumor therapy.

Congenital auditory impairment is a prevalent anomaly observed in approximately 2–3 per 1,000 infants. The consequences associated with hearing loss among children encompass the decline of verbal communication, linguistic skills, educational progress, social integration, cognitive aptitude, and overall well-being. Approaches to reversing or preventing genetic hearing loss are limited. Patients with mild and moderate hearing loss can only use hearing aids, while those with severe hearing loss can only acquire speech and language through cochlear implants. Both environmental and genetic factors contribute to the occurrence of congenital hearing loss, and advancements in our understanding of the pathophysiology and molecular mechanisms underlying hearing loss, coupled with recent progress in genetic testing techniques, will facilitate the development of innovative approaches for treatment and screening. In this paper, the latest research progress in genetic etiology of non-syndromic deafness in children with the highest incidence is summarized in order to provide help for personalized diagnosis and treatment of deafness in children.

Background Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening and heterogeneous disorder leading to lung injury. To date, effective therapies for ARDS remain limited. Sepsis is a frequent inducer of ARDS. However, the precise mechanisms underlying sepsis-induced ARDS remain unclear. Methods Here RNA methylation was detected by methylated RNA immunoprecipitation (MeRIP), RNA stability was determined by RNA decay assay while RNA antisense purification (RAP) was used to identify RNA-protein interaction. Besides, co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) was utilized to detect protein-protein interaction. Moreover, mice were injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to establish sepsis-induced ARDS model in vivo. Results This study revealed that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) aggravated lung injury through suppressing angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in sepsis-induced ARDS models in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, NEAT1 declined ACE2 mRNA stability through heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2/B1 (hnRNPA2B1) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated alveolar type II epithelial cells (AT-II cells). Besides, NEAT1 destabilized ACE2 mRNA depending on RNA methylation by forming methylated NEAT1/hnRNPA2B1/ ACE2 mRNA complex in LPS-treated AT-II cells. Moreover, lin-28 homolog A (LIN28A) improved NEAT1 stability whereas insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) augmented NEAT1 destabilization by associating with LIN28A to disrupt the combination of LIN28A and NEAT1 in LPS-treated AT-II cells. Nevertheless, hnRNPA2B1 increased NEAT1 stability by blocking the interaction between LIN28A and IGF2BP3 in LPS-treated AT-II cells. Conclusions These findings uncover mechanisms of sepsis-triggering ARDS and provide promising therapeutic targets for sepsis-induced ARDS.

Contact-electro-catalysis (CEC) has emerged as a sustainable and effective strategy for promoting chemical reactions. While polymers are the mostly used CEC catalysts, their limited contact-electrification (CE) performance at high temperatures limits the application of CEC in some environment. Here, we engineer fluorinated functional groups onto a series of oxides (SiO 2 Al 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 and MgO) for enhancing their CE abilities. The fluorinated SiO 2 (F-SiO 2 ), for example, exhibits comparable CEC efficiency to that of polymers at room temperatures, and, more importantly, superior performance at elevated temperatures up to 180 °C. This should be mainly ascribed to the thermal stability of F-SiO 2 and the facilitated electron transfer enabled by fluorinated functional groups. The practicability of F-SiO 2 is verified by CEC-leaching of ternary cathodes of spent lithium-ion battery at 70 °C, with leaching efficiencies for all elements exceeding 90% within 300 min. Given the fluorination-based improvement is feasible for various oxides, we expect this strategy could not only enrich the spectrum of effective CEC catalysts, but also render a general approach for more efficient CEC process in a broad temperature window. A generalized approach is proposed for enhancing contact-electro-catalysis (CEC) in a broader temperature window (up to 180 °C). Its feasibility is verified by CEC-leaching of spent LIB cathodes, with >90% leaching efficiency for all elements in 5 h.

Propofol is a commonly used drug for the induction and maintenance of anesthesia. Previous studies have reported that propofol is involved in the progression of numerous human cancer types, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the underlying molecular mechanisms in HCC are yet to be elucidated. The present study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism of propofol in HCC development. MTT assay, flow cytometry analysis and Transwell assays were conducted to examine cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion, respectively. Western blotting was also performed to determine the protein expression levels of Bcl-2 and cleaved-caspase 3. An in vivo experiment was performed to assess the effect of propofol on tumor growth. Moreover, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was conducted to measure the mRNA expression levels of HOMEOBOX A11 (HOXA11) antisense RNA (HOXA11-AS) and microRNA (miR)-4458. Dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays were performed to evaluate the target relationship between HOXA11-AS and miR-4458. It was demonstrated that propofol inhibited HCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and promoted cell apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, propofol could suppress tumor growth in vivo. Propofol suppressed the expression of HOXA11-AS in HCC cells, while HOXA11-AS overexpression reversed the inhibitory effect of propofol treatment on cell progression in HCC. In addition, miR-4458 was identified as a target of HOXA11-AS, and miR-4458 inhibition reversed the effect of HOXA11-AS knockdown on HCC cell progression. The results also indicated that propofol promoted the expression of miR-4458, while HOXA11-AS restored this effect in HCC. Thus, it was suggested that propofol suppressed cell progression by modulating the HOXA11-AS/miR-4458 axis in HCC.

Environmental deterioration, especially water pollution, is widely dispersed and could affect the quality of people’s life at large. Though the sewage treatment plants are constructed to meet the demands of cities, distributed treatment units are still in request for the supplementary of centralized purification beyond the range of plants. Electrochemical degradation can reduce organic pollution to some degree, but it has to be powered. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a newly-invented technology for low-frequency mechanical energy harvesting. Here, by integrating a rotary TENG (R-TENG) as electric power source with an electrochemical cell containing a modified graphite felt cathode for hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) along with hydroxyl radical (•OH) generation by Fenton reaction and a platinum sheet anode for active chlorine generation, a self-powered electrochemical system (SPECS) was constructed. Under the driven of mechanical energy or wind flow, such SPECS can efficiently degrade dyes after power management in neutral condition without any O 2 aeration. This work not only provides a guideline for optimizing self-powered electrochemical reaction, but also displays a strategy based on the conversion from distributed mechanical energy to chemical energy for environmental remediation.

Ammonia synthesis using low-power consumption and eco-friendly methods has attracted increasing attention. Here, based on the Tesla turbine triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), we designed a simple and effective self-powered ammonia synthesis system by N 2 discharge. Under the driving of the simulated waste gas, the Tesla turbine TENG showed high rotation speed and high output. In addition, the performance of two Tesla turbine TENGs with different gas path connections was systematically investigated and discussed. A controllable series-parallel connection with the control of gas supply time was also proposed. Taking advantage of the intrinsic high voltage, corona discharge in a N 2 atmosphere was simply realized by a Tesla turbine TENG. With the flow of N 2 , the generated high-energy plasma can immediately react with water molecules to directly produce ammonia. The self-powered system achieved a yield of 2.14 μg h −1 (0.126 μmol h −1 ) under ambient conditions, showing great potential for large-scale synthesis.