Search Results (521)

Biocompatible thin films are essential for advancing biomedical devices, as they enhance integration with biological tissues, improve device longevity, and reduce complications. The rapid evolution of both medical needs and materials science has led to a diverse array of deposition techniques, each offering unique advantages and challenges for tailoring surface properties without compromising the bulk characteristics of implants and sensors. While laser-based methods—such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE)—are renowned for their precision, ability to preserve complex material stoichiometry, and suitability for low-temperature processing, the broader landscape includes several other important approaches. Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) techniques, including magnetron sputtering and pulsed electron deposition, are widely used for their ability to create uniform, adherent coatings with controlled thickness and composition, making them suitable for both hard and soft biomedical substrates. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and its plasma-enhanced variant (PECVD) offer conformal coatings and excellent control over film chemistry, which is particularly valuable for functional polymer and ceramic films. Other methods, such as sol–gel processing, ion beam deposition, and electrophoretic deposition, provide additional flexibility in terms of coating composition, adhesion, and processing temperature, allowing for the fabrication of films with tailored mechanical, chemical, and biological properties. Despite these advances, the field faces ongoing challenges in optimizing film properties for specific clinical applications, ensuring reproducibility, and scaling up production for widespread use. The necessity of this review lies in its comprehensive comparison of laser-based techniques with alternative deposition methods, providing critical insights into their respective strengths, limitations, and suitability for different biomedical scenarios. By synthesizing recent developments and highlighting current gaps, this review aims to guide researchers and clinicians in selecting the most appropriate thin-film deposition strategies to meet the evolving demands of next-generation biomedical devices. Full article

Tin oxide thin films were deposited by the pulsed laser ablation of a metallic Sn target at different oxygen partial pressures, ranging from 10 to 40 mTorr. Langmuir plasma probe diagnostics were performed to evaluate the effect of pressure on mean kinetic energy and density of Sn ions. It was observed that the mean kinetic energy decreased from 34 to 11 eV while the ion density decreased from 10 to 1.5 × 10¹³ cm⁻³ with increasing pressure. The films exhibited enhanced optical transmittance, increasing from 10% for the sample grown at 10 mTorr to 70% for the film deposited at 40 mTorr. Furthermore, higher deposition pressures led to wider band gap values, increasing from 1.6 to 3.9 eV for direct transitions and from 2.2 to 3.2 eV for indirect transitions with increasing oxygen pressure. These trends are consistent with progressive oxidation and partial transparency characteristic of semiconducting tin oxides. Structural characterization, based on X-ray diffraction, revealed predominantly metallic Sn diffraction peaks across the entire oxygen pressure range. However, despite this structural signature, the films exhibited optical and electronic properties characteristic of tin oxides. This apparent discrepancy suggests the coexistence of metallic nanoparticles embedded within an amorphous or nanocrystalline SnO₂/SnO_x matrix. These findings provide insights into the non-equilibrium oxidation dynamics of tin and the formation of metastable SnO_x phases during pulsed laser deposition. Full article

The escalation of thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries presents severe safety hazards that necessitate advanced monitoring protocols to ensure early warning of potential failures. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is released during preliminary decomposition well before catastrophic failure occurs, thereby providing a strategic advantage for early-stage warning. Consequently, identifying materials with high-selective CO₂ recognition is an essential prerequisite for developing reliable sensing platforms. This study integrates Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations with Random Forest (RF) models to systematically screen 1470 MOFs from the CoRE-MOF 2019 database. The screening process evaluates selective CO₂ recognition under multicomponent competitive adsorption conditions involving CO₂, C₂H₄, and O₂. The performance evaluation is based on working capacity, selectivity, and the trade-off between working capacity and selectivity (TSN). The RF model achieves high predictive accuracy, with tested R² exceeding 0.92 on the test samples. Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) interpretability analysis identifies Q⁰_st(CO₂), Q⁰_st(C₂H₄), WEPA, K_H(C₂H₄), and ETR as key performance drivers. The results indicate that CO₂ selectivity is constrained by the binding strength of competing C₂H₄. Optimal materials tend to have hard Lewis acid centers and polar inorganic clusters to minimize non-specific π-interactions with interfering species. Top-performing MOFs require balanced structural features, concentrating in moderate surface areas (965–1975 m²/g), narrow pore windows (PLD ≈ 4–7 Å, LCD ≈ 5.5–9.6 Å), high void fractions above 0.6, and low densities below 1.3 g/cm³. AJOTEY emerges as the optimal candidate with a TSN of 6.43 mol/kg, combining substantial working capacity (4.57 mol/kg) with strong selectivity (25.52). These results will accelerate the discovery of sensing materials and provide a practical pathway for MOF-based CO₂ sensor development to enhance lithium-ion battery safety. Full article

Graphene-based sensors and biosensors are attractive candidates for chemical and biological threat detection due to their high surface sensitivity, rapid transduction, and low-power operation, yet real-world deployment remains constrained by cross-sensitivity, interface instability in biosensing, and limited validation under operational conditions. This review consolidates key requirements for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) detection and proposes a structured roadmap to guide the transition from laboratory demonstrations to field-relevant sensing systems. The roadmap is explicitly modular and non-linear, integrating (i) qualitative research planning and gap analysis, (ii) computational screening via molecular docking as a hypothesis-generation tool with well-defined limitations, (iii) graphene electrode fabrication and functionalization using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) to enable tunable thickness/defect engineering and strong interface control, (iv) multiscale characterization combining laboratory methods with in situ/portable diagnostics, and (v) field-oriented performance evaluation focused on response time, stability, selectivity against industrial interferents, and false-positive/false-negative behavior. Iterative feedback loops connect all modules, enabling progressive refinement of material processing, recognition chemistry, and device architecture. By framing success in terms of technology-maturity progression and operational metrics, this roadmap provides a practical, defense-relevant framework for developing deployable graphene-based CBRN sensing platforms. Full article

Background/Objectives: Kidney proximal tubules reabsorb up to 70% of water and solutes from the glomerular ultrafiltrate, a Ca²⁺-modulated process essential for homeostasis. The plasma membrane Ca²⁺-ATPase (PMCA) in basolateral membranes (BLMs) plays a pivotal role in maintaining intracellular calcium homeostasis and regulating calcium reabsorption. Methods: Here, we investigated the regulatory influence of two key bioactive lipids, diacylglycerol (DG) and phosphatidic acid (PA), on PMCA activity from pig kidney, accompanied by lipidomic assays and transcriptomic data analyses. Results: Biochemical assays revealed dose- and time-dependent inhibition of PMCA by DG, fully reversed by Calphostin C, implicating PKC activation. Conversely, PA significantly stimulated PMCA activity, demonstrating an opposite regulatory effect. Our targeted lipidomics identified multiple DG species in HK-2 cells, suggesting substrate diversity. Analysis of transcriptomic data for hypoxic versus normoxic HK-2 cells revealed dramatic coordinated regulation of DG/PA metabolism genes, with upregulation of DG-producing enzymes (PLCB1, PLDs) and downregulation of DG-consuming kinases (DGKs), predicting enhanced DG accumulation under metabolic stress. ATP2B4 (PMCA4) upregulation indicated compensatory transcriptional responses. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that DG inhibits BLM-associated PMCA via classic and/or atypical PKC-dependent phosphorylation while PA exerts opposing stimulatory effects. Both transcriptional remodeling and post-translational modifications regulate this axis. These findings highlight the DG–Diacylglycerol Kinase–PA axis as a dynamic modulator of Ca²⁺ signaling in the kidney that responds to metabolic stress. Full article

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is widely used for functional film fabrication, but traditional nanosecond-laser-induced thermal effects and interface roughness severely limit the quality of multilayer structures. To address this critical challenge, a picosecond pulsed laser with collinear pulse train output was adopted for TiO₂/ZnO multilayer preparation, achieving dual advantages of thermal diffusion suppression and roughness reduction. A systematic investigation was conducted on the properties of TiO₂ and ZnO films, establishing a “constant-deposition-rate multi-pulse regulation” strategy that yielded low roughness (4.43 nm for TiO₂, 3.27 nm for ZnO) and optimized refractive index matching. Through 500 °C oxygen annealing, TiO₂’s refractive index was enhanced to 2.6, forming a large refractive index difference (Δn = 0.77) with ZnO (~1.83) for efficient photonic band gap (PBG) regulation. Integral annealing was identified as the optimal post-treatment, enabling the four-layer TiO₂/ZnO multilayer to reach a maximum reflectance of 75% with excellent structural uniformity. The multifunctional applications of the multilayers exhibit excellent ability in photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and fluorescence enhancement of CdSe quantum dots (QDs). This work pioneers a high-quality PLD-based multilayer fabrication route and opens new avenues for its application in environmental remediation and optoelectronic devices. Full article

The wnt gene family encodes a group of highly conserved secreted glycoproteins that play essential roles in vertebrate development, including tissue patterning, cell differentiation, and gonadal regulation. However, the genomic organization, evolutionary dynamics, and functional roles of Wnt signaling components in flatfish remain poorly understood. In this study, we performed a comprehensive genome-wide identification, evolutionary characterization, expression profiling, and functional analysis of wnt genes in Cynoglossus semilaevis, a flatfish species exhibiting ZW/ZZ sex determination and temperature-induced sex reversal. A total of 20 wnt genes were identified and classified into 13 subfamilies, displaying conserved structural organization and phylogenetic relationships consistent with other teleosts. Chromosomal mapping revealed lineage-specific WNT clusters, including a unique wnt3–wnt7b–wnt5b–wnt16 block, as well as syntenic associations with reproduction-related genes (e.g., adipor2, sema3a, nape-pld, erc2, lamb2), suggesting coordinated genomic regulation. Tissue transcriptome analysis demonstrated strong sex- and tissue-biased expression patterns, with wnt5a predominantly expressed in ovaries and wnt5b specifically upregulated in pseudo-male testes. Functional assays revealed that knockdown of wnt5a or wnt5b induced testis-specific genes (sox9b, tesk1) and suppressed ovarian markers (foxl2, cyp19a1a), indicating antagonistic regulatory roles in gonadal fate determination. Promoter analysis identified yy1a as a selective repressor of wnt5b, but not wnt5a, providing a mechanistic basis for paralog divergence. Furthermore, pull-down combined with LC–MS/MS analysis showed that WNT5b interacts with proteins enriched in ribosome biogenesis and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, suggesting a role in translational regulation and protein turnover during spermatogenesis. Together, these findings establish WNT5 signaling—particularly wnt5b—as a key driver of testicular development in C. semilaevis and provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying sex differentiation and sex reversal in flatfish. Full article

Thiazides are among the most efficacious and commonly used drugs for the treatment of hypertension. The nanomolar stabilizer N3SA binds specifically to the recently discovered thiazide-binding site of the membrane target NAPE-PLD, showing sustained arterial blood pressure-lowering effects and vasodilation in spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHRs). To further support the relation between stabilizers anchored to NAPE-PLD and their beneficial effects on hypertension, we selected compound analogues of N3SA with chemical modifications at the three target-interacting sulfonic groups, including the drug Suramin. Each compound was injected i.v in an adult SHR (systolic blood pressure of 217 ± 5 mmHg) to evaluate the frequency components contribution to cerebral and peripheral arteriolar vasomotion. We visualized the pial and rectus femoral muscle microcirculation by Epi-illumination, measuring changes in the rhythmic arteriolar diameter. Findings showed that the minor structural differences in compounds correlated with the contribution of the six different frequency components affecting the arterial tone, as well as their vasodilatory effects, in both cerebral and femoral muscle arterioles. These results provide evidence that the spectra analysis of the regulation mechanisms of vascular tone and arterial blood pressure can accurately reflect the structure–activity correlations of different analogues of an antihypertensive compound. Full article

Reducing the sonic boom intensity and increasing the cruise lift-to-drag ratio are pivotal technologies for the successful development of supersonic civil aircraft. To address the limitation that sonic boom research primarily focuses on characteristics directly beneath the flight track, a full-carpet sonic boom and aerodynamic characteristics prediction software (AERO-BOOM) was independently developed. This software is based on the Panel Method, Modified Linearized Theory, the Waveform Parameter Method, and the Stevens Perceived Noise Evaluation Method. AERO-BOOM can efficiently assess the lift-to-drag ratio and the full-carpet sonic boom characteristics of supersonic civil aircraft. Building upon this software, a Multidisciplinary Optimization design platform for full-carpet sonic boom and aerodynamic characteristics of supersonic civil aircraft was established, utilizing an in-house hybrid surrogate-aided differential evolution optimization algorithm. For a supersonic civil aircraft, both fuselage optimization and overall aircraft optimization were conducted. The optimization objectives were the lift-to-drag ratio and the full-carpet sonic boom loudness (FBL). The optimization results demonstrate that fuselage optimization (e.g., employing a downward-cambered nose) increased the lift-to-drag ratio by 0.26 and reduced the FBL by 0.62 PLdB. Furthermore, the overall aircraft optimization (involving modifications to the wing planform and increasing the tail sweep angle) yielded a 1.51 increase in the lift-to-drag ratio and a 1.09 PLdB reduction in the FBL. Full article

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) is one of the most severe congenital heart defects; however, prenatal diagnosis remains suboptimal. A normal fetal heart has a junction between the pulmonary venous (PV) and left atrium (LA). In contrast, no junctions are observed in patients with TAPVC. In the present study, we attempted to visualize and detect fetal PV-LA connections using artificial intelligence (AI) trained on the fetal cardiac ultrasound videos of 100 normal cases and six TAPVC cases. The PV-LA aggregate area was segmented using the following three-dimensional (3D) segmentation models: SegResNet, Swin UNETR, MedNeXt, and SegFormer3D. The Dice coefficient and 95% Hausdorff distance were used to evaluate segmentation performance. The mean values of the shortest PV-LA distance (PLD) and major axis angle (PLA) in each video were calculated. These methods demonstrated sufficient performance in visualizing and detecting the PV-LA connection. In terms of TAPVC screening performance, MedNeXt-PLD and SegResNet-PLA achieved mean area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values of 0.844 and 0.840, respectively. Overall, this study shows that our approach can support unskilled examiners in capturing the PV-LA connection and has the potential to improve the prenatal detection rate of TAPVC. Full article

Background/Objectives: This pilot study investigates the feasibility of using patient-derived microtumors (PDMs) to assess chemotherapy response in epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods: Fresh tissue from 10 patients was used to develop PDMs, which were then tested against carboplatin/paclitaxel, carboplatin/docetaxel, and carboplatin/pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD). Of the 10 PDMs, 3 were obtained from primary debulking surgery (PDS), and 7 were obtained at the time of interval debulking surgery following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results: When looking at PDMs derived from tissue collected at the time of PDS, we found that 100% of PDMs demonstrated a full response to carboplatin/PLD, while 30% showed a full response to all regimens, all of which were derived from high-grade serous carcinoma during PDS. The remaining PDMs showed moderate responses to carbo/taxol and carbo/doce. Conclusions: This study suggests that PDMs can be used to assess the efficacy of chemotherapy regimens, as a hypothesis-generating step toward future predictive validation. Full article

Background: Pesticide toxicity to insects is an important adverse effect with a potentially large ecological impact when considering the effect on beneficial insects, as pollinators. The assessment of this endpoint is necessary to avoid applying ecologically dangerous pesticides. Aim of the study: Assessment of the availability of the Monte Carlo method for the development of a model for toxicity (pLD50) towards bees and other pollinators. In addition, the index of ideality of correlation is examined as a possibility to increase the statistical quality of quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSARs) for the toxicity of pesticides to pollinators. Main results and novelty: models with good performance on the toxic effect of pesticides towards different pollinators, wrapping acute and chronic effects, using the Monte Carlo method for QSAR analysis. Full article

This review examines modern approaches to layer formation in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), focusing on traditional, thin-film, and additive manufacturing methods. A systematic comparison of technologies, including slip casting, screen printing, CVD, PLD, ALD, HiPIMS, inkjet, aerosol, and microextrusion printing, is provided. It is shown that traditional methods remain technologically robust but are limited in their capabilities for miniaturization and interfacial architecture design. Modern thin-film and additive approaches provide high spatial accuracy, improved ion-electron characteristics, and flexibility in the design of multilayer structures; however, they require addressing issues related to scalability, ink stability, interfacial compatibility, and reproducibility. Particular attention is paid to interfacial engineering methods, such as functionally graded layers, nanostructured infiltration, and temperature-controlled 3D printing. Key challenges are discussed, including thermal instability of materials, the limited gas impermeability of ultra-thin electrolytes, and degradation during long-term operation. Development prospects lie in the integration of hybrid methods, the digitalization of deposition processes, and the implementation of intelligent control of printing parameters. The presented analysis forms the basis for further research into the scalable and highly efficient production of next-generation SOFCs designed for low-temperature operation and long-term operation in future energy systems. Full article

Phospholipase D (PLD) genes play key roles in plant abiotic stress responses, but the systematic identification of the maize (Zea mays) PLD family and its cold tolerance mechanism remain unclear. Using 26 maize genomes (pangenome), we identified 21 ZmPLD members via Hidden Markov Model (HMM) search (Pfam domain PF00614), including five private genes—avoiding gene omission from single reference genomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed ZmPLD conservation with Arabidopsis and rice PLDs; Ka/Ks analysis revealed most ZmPLDs under purifying selection, while three genes (including ZmPLD15) had positive selection signals, suggesting roles in maize adaptive domestication. For ZmPLD15, five shared structural variations (SVs) were found in its promoter; some contained ERF/bHLH binding sites, and SVs in Region1/5 significantly regulated ZmPLD15 expression. Protein structure prediction and molecular docking showed conserved ZmPLD15 structure and substrate (1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) binding energy across germplasms. Transgenic maize (B73 background) overexpressing ZmPLD15 was generated. Cold stress (8–10 °C, 6 h) and recovery (24 h) on three-leaf seedlings showed transgenic plants had better leaf cell integrity than wild type (WT). Transgenic plants retained 45.8% net photosynthetic rate (Pn), 47.9% stomatal conductance (Gs), and 55.8% transpiration rate (Tr) versus 7.6%, 21.3%, 13.8% in WT; intercellular CO₂ concentration (Ci) was maintained properly. This confirms ZmPLD15 enhances maize cold tolerance by protecting photosynthetic systems, providing a framework for ZmPLD research and a key gene for cold-tolerant maize breeding. Full article

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic metabolic disorder with an estimated prevalence of over 422 million individuals affected globally. Since the advent of genomics, numerous studies have been conducted to elucidate T2D pathogenetic mechanisms and define genetic loci affecting T2D susceptibility. Transcriptomic studies, including bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, play an important role both in discerning molecular mechanisms of the disease and in identifying potential T2D biomarkers. In this study, we performed bulk RNA-seq of whole blood of nine T2D patients and nine control subjects and performed meta-analysis of these data with seven publicly available blood RNA-seq datasets of T2D patients. Our analysis showed that the changes in the gene expression between different studies show very low concordance; moreover, a substantial number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was identified in only three out of eight datasets, with only five DEGs—FBLN2, TPCN1, PC, SHANK1, and PLD4—identified in all three of those datasets. Nevertheless, cross-study meta-analysis identified a broad set of 2065 DEGs, including 713 genes that have not been identified in any of the source studies. These genes showed a significant enrichment of GO terms indicating neutrophil activation and proliferation and included several genes that have not been implicated in type 2 diabetes previously. Taken together, our study highlights challenges associated with biomarker discovery from blood transcriptomics in T2D and suggests novel genes that may be considered as such biomarkers. Full article