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Background Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK cell therapy has shown remarkable clinical efficacy and safety in the treatment of hematological malignancies. However, this efficacy was limited in solid tumors owing to hostile tumor microenvironment (TME). Radiotherapy is commonly used for solid tumors and proved to improve the TME. Therefore, the combination with radiotherapy would be a potential strategy to improve therapeutic efficacy of CAR-NK cells for solid tumors. Methods Glypican-3 (GPC3) was used as a target antigen of CAR-NK cell for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To promote migration towards HCC, CXCR2-armed CAR-NK92 cells targeting GPC3 were first developed, and their cytotoxic and migration activities towards HCC cells were evaluated. Next, the effects of irradiation on the anti-tumor activity of CAR-NK92 cells were assessed in vitro and in HCC-bearing NCG mice. Lastly, to demonstrate the potential mechanism mediating the sensitized effect of irradiation on CAR-NK cells, the differential gene expression profiles induced by irradiation were analyzed and the expression of some important ligands for the NK-cell activating receptors were further determined by qRT-PCR and flow cytometry. Results In this study, we developed CXCR2-armed GPC3-targeting CAR-NK92 cells that exhibited specific and potent killing activity against HCC cells and the enhanced migration towards HCC cells. Pretreating HCC cells with irradiation enhanced in vitro anti-HCC effect and migration activity of CXCR2-armed CAR-NK92 cells. We further found that only high-dose (8 Gy) but not low-dose (2 Gy) irradiation in one fraction could significantly enhanced in vivo anti-HCC activity of CXCR2-armed CAR-NK92 cells. Irradiation with 8 Gy significantly up-regulated the expression of NK cell-activating ligands on HCC cells. Conclusions Our results indicate the evidence that irradiation could efficiently enhance the anti-tumor effect of CAR-NK cells in solid tumor model. The combination with radiotherapy would be an attractive strategy to improve therapeutic efficacy of CAR-NK cells for solid tumors.

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Objectives: Non-subungual glomus tumors (NSGTs) are rare neoplasms arising outside the nail bed, typically presenting with disproportionate pain. Surgical excision usually achieves complete relief. Delayed or incorrect diagnosis of glomus tumors may also result in incomplete excision, which is the major cause of recurrence. Ultrasound is a well-recognized tool for preoperative evaluation, but the rarity of NSGTs complicates differentiation from angioleiomyomas (ALMs) and hemangiomas, which have alternative managements. This study aimed to establish an ultrasound diagnostic model and scoring system for NSGTs. Methods: A total of 58 NSGTs, 68 ALMs, and 67 hemangiomas confirmed pathologically between January 2014 and March 2025 were analyzed. Clinical and ultrasonographic features were evaluated, and significant variables were incorporated into a scoring time using the binary logistic regression. A total of 11 NSGTs, 10 ALMs, and 10 hemangiomas (April–August 2025) were used to validate the diagnostic performance of the scoring system. Results: Four independent predictors were identified: pain, upper extremity location, diameter < 10 mm, and vascular stalk sign (p < 0.05). The model differentiated NSGTs from ALMs and hemangiomas, yielding an AUC of 0.91, with sensitivity of 75.86% and specificity of 90.37%. The overall accuracy was 86.01%. Conclusions: Ultrasound proves valuable in diagnosing NSGTs. A logistic regression model based on pain, location, size, and vascular stalk sign shows high diagnostic performance and clinical utility in distinguishing NSGTs from other superficial soft tissue tumors.

To prepare nanoscale ultrasound contrast agents (Nano-UCAs) and examine the role of their surface charge in complement activation and phagocytosis. We analyzed serum proteins present in the corona formed on Nano-UCAs and evaluated two important protein markers of complement activation (C3 and SC5b-9). The effect of surface charge on phagocytosis was further assessed using THP-1 macrophages. When Nano-UCAs were incubated with human serum, they were opsonized by various blood proteins, especially C3. Highly charged Nano-UCAs, whether positive or negative, were favorably opsonized by complement proteins and phagocytized by macrophages. Charged Nano-UCAs show a higher tendency to activated complement system, and are efficiently engulfed by macrophages. The present results provide meaningful insights into the role of the surface charge of nanoparticles in the activation of the innate immune system, which is important not only for the design of targeted Nano-UCAs, but also for the effectiveness and safety of other theranostic agents.

The world economy has witnessed a rise use of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties in recent years. Using a computable partial equilibrium model, this article simulates the economic and welfare impacts of the US's AD/CV duties on photovoltaic (PV) products imported from China and Taiwan China in 2015. The result shows that the AD/CV duties have significant trade destruction and trade diversion effects, relatively moderate trade deflection and depression effects. In the context of globalization, the AD/CV duties have limited remedial effect on the US PV industry, but the United States bears the biggest welfare loss for its AD/CV duties.

Financial support from National Science Foundation for Distinguished Youth （Grant No.70925006）, National Natural Sciences Fund Program （Grant No.71103059）, Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Program of the Ministry of Education （Grant No. 10YJC7902930）, is gratefully acknowledged. Authors highly appreciate the comments of anonymous reviewers and take sole responsibility for this paper.

This paper examines how Chinese RMB appreciation affects China and its competitor’s exports to the third market at industry level. We develop a two-country competition model to analyze the trade destruction effect and trade diversion effect of RMB appreciation. The theoretical analysis shows that the appreciation of RMB has negative impacts on China’s exports and positive impacts on its competitor’s exports. We then empirically test how the appreciation of RMB to the US dollar affects China’s and India’s textiles and apparel exports to the US from 1995Q1 to 2008Q4. The empirical results show that an 1% appreciation of RMB to US dollar will reduce China’s exports of textiles & apparel to the U.S. by 2.63% and raise the India’s exports of textiles & apparel to the U.S. by 2.71%.

Purpose - Based on the American antidumping cases against China, the purpose of this paper is to construct an early warning model for Chinese exports.Design methodology approach - In order to overcome the drawbacks of the existing early warning models for antidumping, first, the authors screen out six most relevant indices that play a key role in US textile corporations' decision of antidumping petition against China from 2002 to 2006, then design a early warning system for antidumping petition based on panel data logit model.Findings - The regression result indicates that unemployment ratio and import-penetration ratio significantly influence the antidumping filing decisions; when the other invariables keep the same, with the market share of China textile goods increasing by 1 per cent point, the odds ratio of antidumping petitions against China textiles increases by about 3.7 per cent.Originality value - As far as the authors are aware there is no definite research yet about early warning system of antidumping events, and this paper aims to specifically address this issue.

With the ever-growing demand for a greater number of pixels, next-generation displays have challenging requirements for resolution as well as colour gamut. Here, to meet this need, quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) with an ultrahigh pixel resolution of 9,072–25,400 pixels per inch are realized via transfer printing combined with the Langmuir–Blodgett film technology. To reduce the leakage current of the devices, a honeycomb-patterned layer of wide-bandgap quantum dots is embedded between the light-emitting quantum-dot pixels as a non-emitting charge barrier layer. Red and green QLEDs are demonstrated. Notably, the red devices achieve a brightness of up to 262,400 cd m−2 at an applied voltage of 8 V and a peak external quantum efficiency of 14.72%. This work provides a promising way for achieving ultrahigh-resolution QLED devices with high performance.The demonstration of high-resolution quantum-dot light-emitting diodes by transfer printing could prove useful for next-generation displays.

Background Rubus is the largest genus of the family Rosaceae and is valued as medicinal, edible, and ornamental plants. Here, we sequenced and assembled eight chloroplast (cp) genomes of Rubus from the Dabie Mountains in Central China. Fifty-one Rubus species were comparatively analyzed for the cp genomes including the eight newly discovered genomes and forty-three previously reported in GenBank database (NCBI). Results The eight newly obtained cp genomes had the same quadripartite structure as the other cp genomes in Rubus . The length of the eight plastomes ranged from 155,546 bp to 156,321 bp with similar GC content (37.0 to 37.3%). The results indicated 133–134 genes were annotated for the Rubus plastomes, which contained 88 or 89 protein coding genes (PCGs), 37 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and eight ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs). Among them, 16 (or 18) of the genes were duplicated in the IR region. Structural comparative analysis results showed that the gene content and order were relatively preserved. Nucleotide variability analysis identified nine hotspot regions for genomic divergence and multiple simple sequences repeats (SSRs), which may be used as markers for genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic relationships were highly supported within the family Rosaceae, as evidenced by sub-clade taxa cp genome sequences. Conclusion Thus, the whole plastome may be used as a super-marker in phylogenetic studies of this genus.