Evolution of complex chemical mixtures reveals combinatorial compression and population synchronicity
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Bicomponent nano- and microfiber aerogels for effective management of junctional hemorrhage
Managing junctional hemorrhage is challenging due to ineffective existing techniques, with the groin being the most common site, accounting for approximately 19.2% of potentially survivable field deaths. Here, we report a bicomponent nano- and microfiber aerogel (NMA) for injection into deep, narrow junctional wounds to effectively halt bleeding. The aerogel comprises intertwined poly(lactic acid) nanofibers and poly(ε-caprolactone) microfibers, with mechanical properties tunable through crosslinking. Optimized aerogels demonstrate improved resilience, toughness, and elasticity, enabling rapid re-expansion upon blood contact. They demonstrate superior blood absorption and clotting efficacy compared to commercial products (i.e., QuikClot® Combat Gauze and XStat®). Most importantly, in a lethal swine junctional wound model (Yorkshire swine, both male and female, n = 5), aerogel treatment achieved immediate hemostasis, a 100% survival rate, no rebleeding, hemodynamic stability, and stable coagulation, hematologic, and arterial blood gas testing.
Reversibly thermosecreting and convertible lubricative oil-in-water mixtures using multiple hydrogen bonding interactions
Achieving homogeneous oil and water mixing requires thorough droplet dispersions of both liquids. An additional component, such as a surfactant, particle, solvent or ion is normally required to stabilize the small liquid droplets by providing sufficiently low interfacial tensions or strong repulsive forces. Here we show that very stable oil-in-water mixtures can be created even at very high oil volume fractions by building multiple, high-strength hydrogen bonding interactions between water and a biocompatible and biodegradable oil trimethylolpropane trioleate, which make the oil molecules at the contact interface behave as pseudo-surfactants with ultrahigh interfacial activity. The resultant oil microdroplets can be reversibly thermosecreted from the continuous aqueous phase and lead to controllable formation/dissociation and switchable lubrication of the binary liquid mixture owing to the inherent thermal responsiveness of the intermolecular hydrogen bonding. Interestingly, although water is uncovered to possess a relatively poor lubricity, the liquid mixture yields an optimized lubrication that is even exceedingly comparable to pure oil at a water volume fraction as high as 80%.
Immunogenicity of cell death and cancer immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors
While immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has revolutionized the clinical management of various malignancies, a large fraction of patients are refractory to ICIs employed as standalone therapeutics, necessitating the development of combinatorial treatment strategies. Immunogenic cell death (ICD) inducers have attracted considerable interest as combinatorial partners for ICIs, at least in part owing to their ability to initiate a tumor-targeting adaptive immune response. However, compared with either approach alone, combinatorial regimens involving ICD inducers and ICIs have not always shown superior clinical activity. Here, we discuss accumulating evidence on the therapeutic interactions between ICD inducers and immunotherapy with ICIs in oncological settings, identify key factors that may explain discrepancies between preclinical and clinical findings, and propose strategies that address existing challenges to increase the efficacy of these combinations in patients with cancer.
Optofluidic paper-based analytical device for discriminative detection of organic substances via digital color coding
Developing a portable yet affordable method for the discrimination of chemical substances with good sensitivity and selectivity is essential for on-site visual detection of unknown substances. Herein, we propose an optofluidic paper-based analytical device (PAD) that consists of a macromolecule-driven flow (MDF) gate and photonic crystal (PhC) coding units, enabling portable and scalable detection and discrimination of various organic chemical, mimicking the olfactory system. The MDF gate is designed for precise flow control of liquid analytes, which depends on intermolecular interactions between the polymer at the MDF gate and the liquid analytes. Subsequently, the PhC coding unit allows for visualizing the result obtained from the MDF gate and generating differential optical patterns. We fabricate an optofluidic PAD by integrating two coding units into a three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic paper within a 3D-printed cartridge. The optofluidic PADs clearly distinguish 11 organic chemicals with digital readout of pattern recognition from colorimetric signals. We believe that our optofluidic coding strategy mimicking the olfactory system opens up a wide range of potential applications in colorimetric monitoring of chemicals observed in environment.
Sub-minute synthesis and modulation of β/λ-MxTi3-xO5 ceramics towards accessible heat storage
Nearly 50% of global primary energy consumption is lost as low-temperature heat. λ-Ti3O5 holds promise for waste heat harvesting and reuse; however, achieving reversible phase transitions between its λ and β phases under accessible conditions remains a major challenge. Here, we proposed a simple laser method that incorporates element substitution for sub-minute synthesis (20–60 s) of λ-MxTi3-xO5 (M = Mg, Al, Sc, V, Cr, Mn, or Fe, 0.09 ≤ x ≤ 0.42). In particular, aluminum-substituted λ-AlxTi3-xO5 demonstrated the lowest energy barrier, with a transition pressure of 557 MPa and temperature of 363 K. Notably, compression of the (001) crystal plane could reduce the transition pressure to only 35–40 MPa, enabling the applicability of λ-AlxTi3-xO5 for wide applications in heat recovery and future lunar explorations.
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