Herein, we have theoretically investigated the sensing performance—including enormous increase in the sensitivity and figure of merit (FOM)—of a magneto-optical surface plasmon resonance (MOSPR) sensor, which is based on the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (T-MOKE) in a ferromagnet coupled with a noble-metal grating. Specifically, we propose to use a CoFeB magnetic slab covered by a subwavelength, periodic gold grating configured as a magnetoplasmonic heterostructure. In such a device, sharp, Fano-like T-MOKE signals of high amplitude can be achieved due to the surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) excited in the presence of the gold grating, especially after optimizing the grating period. Tiny changes in the refractive index of an analyte surrounding the MOSPR sensor can be measured by analyzing the shift in the angle of incidence of the resonance positions of the T-MOKE signals. By calculating these resonance positions, we have demonstrated that it is possible to achieve a considerable sensitivity of 105° RIU−1 and a FOM as high as ∼102. Such a MOSPR sensing system can be exploited in biosensors with high detection limits.

consuming dedusting device is therefore inevitable. [2] Urea rotary steel-band chilling granulation can partly alleviate the serious dust problem at the expense of the spherical appearance and moisture resistance of the particles, although a small amount of dust emission will still occur during production while unloading the products. [3] Our previous studies proposed a new dust-free large urea granulation (DLUG) process based on the super-repellency effect of the urea melt on a superhydrophobic surface. [4] A single urea melt droplet (UMD) forms a spherical shape spontaneously owing to its surface tension and easily achieves rolling-spheronization granulation after solidification. During this process, no dust is theoretically generated if no collisions occur. However, this hypothesis cannot be realized because the collisions between UMDs and urea solid particles are unavoidable if continuous production is required. Therefore, preventing UMDs from breaking into tiny particles or coalescing into oversized granules, thereby eliminating possible dust generation during a collision, is necessary for the practicality of the DLUG process. In addition, some unexpected occurrences have been observed during a lengthy operation, including surface adhesion of the urea, destroying the superhydrophobicity and resulting in a tailing of the urea granules and a decreased sphericity. Further improving UMD strengthen and decreasing the destructive effect of urea melt on superhydrophobic surface are necessary aspects for enhancing applicability of DLUG process.To overcome the above problems, liquid marble can be applied during the DLUG process. Liquid marble is obtained by covering the liquid droplet surface with non-wetting nanoscale or microscale particles as a type of "armor," [5] providing attractive properties similar to those of solid elastic granules. A high contact angle (CA) on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces is realized, [6,7] which is helpful for maintaining perfect sphericity under static conditions and exhibiting a low rolling friction under dynamic conditions. [8] Most notably, liquid marbles can endure an elastic deformation of ≈30%. Within Urea melt droplets (UMDs) spontaneously spheronize and form large urea granules after condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces without dust generation. However, they break and coalesce when colliding with each other; moreover, they adhere to the surface and form tails when rolling. These problems limit the practicality of the process using UMDs for large urea granulation directly. Urea melt marbles (UMMs) are introduced to overcome these drawbacks by enwrapping UMDs with superhydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) powder, thus enhancing the elasticity and maintaining the sphericity. A premixing-melting process is developed to obtain UMMs and lower the PTFE powder consumption to half of that required in the traditional liquid marble preparation. The best determined elasticity modulus of UMMs reaches 44.9 ± 3.6 Pa, and the sphericity is 0.9992. No adhering or tailing...

The wetting behavior of polar high-temperature melt on superhydrophobic surfaces is rarely studied, although water wetting process under normal temperature has been widely investigated. In this work, molten urea was considered as the typical polar melt substance, and its wetting behavior and solidifying process on a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-coated superhydrophobic stainless steel surface (PSSSS) were investigated. The results confirm the super-repellency of PSSSS on molten urea droplets with a static angle of over 155° and a rolling angle of 3.5 ± 1°, which is consistent with the Cassie–Baxter state. Such a superurea-melt-phobic state is ascribed to the high roughness of the PTFE-coated surface and high cohesive energy density difference between the urea and PTFE. The solidification process of the urea melt on PSSSS occurred from the outside to inside in 44 s at 18 °C to form a compact urea granule of large size and high mechanical strength. This occurrence provides a feasible and promising granulation strategy to produce qualified large urea granules using a green, simple, and cost-effective process.

BackgroundBiliary tract cancer (BTC) is an uncommon but highly lethal malignancy with poor clinical outcomes. To promote the development of precision medicine for BTC, uncovering its genomic profile becomes particularly important. However, studies on the genomic feature of Chinese BTC patients remain insufficient.MethodsA total of 382 Chinese patients with BTC were enrolled in this study, including 71 with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), 194 with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC), and 117 with gallbladder carcinoma (GBC). Genetic testing was performed by utilizing the next-generation sequencing (NGS) of 499 cancer-related genes and the results were compared to those of Western BTC patients (MSKCC cohorts).ResultsThe most prevalent genes were TP53 (51.6%), ARID1A (25.9%), KMT2C (24.6%), NCOR1 (17%), SMAD4 (15.2%), KRAS (14.9%), KMT2D (14.9%), ATM (14.1%), and APC (13.9%) in Chinese BTC patients. TP53, SMAD4, and APC were more prevalent in GBC, ECC, and ICC, respectively. In addition, 10.5% of Chinese BTC patients harbored pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) germline alterations in 41 genes, which were mainly related to DNA damage repair (DDR). Additionally, the genomic features of Chinese and Western BTC tumors were similar, with the exception of the notable difference in the prevalence of TP53, KRAS, IDH1, KMT2C, and SMAD4. Notably, Chinese BTC patients had high prevalence (57.1%) of actionable alterations, especially for those with ECC, and half (192/382) of them had somatic DDR alterations, with the prevalence of deleterious ones being significantly higher than their Western counterparts. Twenty-three percent of patients had a higher tumor mutational burden (TMB-H, over 10 mutations/MB), and TMB was significantly higher in those with deleterious DDR alterations and/or microsatellite instability-high. The most common mutational signature in BTC patients was Signature 1, and interestingly, Signatures 1, 4, and 26 were significantly associated with higher TMB level, but not with the survival of patients who had received immunotherapy in pan-cancer.ConclusionOur study elaborated the distinct germline and somatic genomic characteristics of Chinese BTC patients and identified clinically actionable alterations, highlighting the possibility for the development and application of precision medicine.

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