A new prospect in cancer therapy: targeting cancer stem cells to eradicate cancer

According to the cancer stem cell theory, cancers can be initiated by cancer stem cells. This makes cancer stem cells prime targets for therapeutic intervention. Eradicating cancer stem cells by efficient targeting agents may have the potential to cure cancer. In this review, we summarize recent breakthroughs that have improved our understanding of cancer stem cells, and we discuss the therapeutic strategy of targeting cancer stem cells, a promising future direction for cancer stem cell research.

Printing practice for the fabrication of flexible and stretchable electronics

Recently, flexible and stretchable electronics have experienced tremendous surge due to their promised applications in fields such as wearable electronics, portable energy devices, flexible display, and human-skin sensors. In order to fabricate flexible and stretchable electronics, a high-throughput, cost-saving, and eco-friendly manufacturing technology is required. Printing, which is an additive patterning process, can meet those requirements. In this article, printing fabrication is compared with conventional lithography process. Practices at the author's group utilizing printing for the fabrication of flexible thin-film transistors, flexible hybrid circuits and stretchable systems are presented, which has proven that printing can indeed be a viable method to fabricate flexible and stretchable electronics.

Printed stretchable circuit on soft elastic substrate for wearable application

In this paper, a flexible and stretchable circuit has been fabricated by the printing method based on Ag NWs/PDMS composite. The randomly oriented Ag NWs were buried in PDMS to form a conductive and stretchable electrode. Stable conductivity was achieved with a large range of tensile strain（0-50%） after the initial stretching/releasing cycle. The stable electrical response is due to the buckling of the Ag NWs/PDMS composite layer. Furthermore, printed stretchable circuits integrated with commercial ICs have been demonstrated for wearable applications.

Effects of Ce^(3+) energy level structure on absorption and luminescence properties of Ce-doped YAlO_3,Y_3Al_5O_(12),and LaAlO_3 single crystals

We investigate the spectra and scintillation properties of Ce：YAlO3, Ce：Y3Al5O12, and Ce：LaAlO3. For Ce：YAlO3, the excitation spectrum is very similar with the absorption spectrum; for Ce： Y3Al5O12 and Ce：LaAlO3, the excitation spectra are different from the absorption spectra. Further, Ce：YAlO33 has better scintillation performance than Ce： Y3Al5O12; whereas Ce：LaAlO3 has not demonstrated scintillation performance to date. We also provide reasonable explanations for these experimental phenomena from the viewpoint of energy level structure.

High yield fabrication of semiconducting thin-film field-effect transistors based on chemically functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes

Here we report a simple and scalable method to fabricate high performance thin-film field-effect transistors(FETs) with high yield based on chemically functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes(SWNTs) by organic radical initiators.The UV-Vis-NIR spectra,Raman spectra and electrical characterization demonstrated that metallic species in CoMoCat 65 and HiPco SWNTs could be effectively eliminated after reaction with some organic radical initiators.The effects of the substrate properties on the electrical properties of FET devices were investigated,and the results showed that the electrical properties of FET devices fabricated on high hydrophobic substrates were better than those on low hydrophobic substrates.Furthermore,it was found that FET devices based on 1,1'-azobis(cyanocyclohexane)(ACN)-modified CoMoCat 65 SWNTs exhibited more excellent electrical performance with effective mobility of ～11.8 cm2/Vs and on/off ratio of ～2×105 as compared with benzoyl peroxide(BPO)-modified CoMoCat 65 SWNTs and lauoryl peroxideand(LPO)-modified HiPco SWNTs,likely due to the introduction of the electron-withdrawing groups(CN group) on the SWNT surface.This method does not require nontrivial reaction conditions or complicated purification after reaction,therefore promising low-cost production of high-performance devices for macroelectronics.

Mn^(2+)-doped ZrO_(2)@PDA nanocomposite for multimodal imaging-guided chemo-photothermal combination therapy

Developing low toxicity and multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform is the key for precise cancer diagnosis and treatment.Herein,an inorganic-organic hybrid nanocomposite is designed by modifying zirconium dioxide(ZrO_(2)) with polydopamine(PDA) followed by doping Mn^(2+) ions and functionalizing with Tween 20(Tween-ZrO_(2)@PDA-Mn2+) for multimodal imaging and chemo-photothermal combination therapy.The as-prepared nanocomposite exhibits good biocompatibility in vitro and in vivo.Specifically,it can be employed as a multifunctional platform not only for computed tomography(CT)imaging and T1-weighted magnetic resonance(MR) imaging,but also for efficient chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin hydrochloride(DOX) loading.Importantly,because of the pronounced photothermal conversion performance and controllable DOX release ability triggered by the near-infrared(NIR)irradiation and acidic pH,the synergistic effect between photothermal the rapy and chemotherapy results in an enhanced cancer treatment efficacy in vivo.Our work provides a high-performance inorganicorganic hybrid nanotheranostic platform for chemo-photothermal cancer therapy guided by CT and MR imaging.

Synthesis and red electroluminescence of a dimesityl-functionalized bistetracene

A novel dimesityl-decorated bistetracene derivative 8,16-dimesityltetraceno[2,1,12,11-opqra]tetracene（DMTA） has been synthesized and characterized. Its single crystal analysis demonstrates that the parent bistetracene backbone is almost in a plane without any intermolecular 7 r-stacking interaction. DMTA exhibited the low-energy absorption at 560/607 nm and emission spectra at 617/663 nm, respectively.The fabricated device based on DMTA doping into 2,6-bis（3-（9 H-carbazol-9-yl）phenyl）pyridine（1 %） as an emitter present a maximum brightness of 632 cd/m^2 at 14.7 V with the CIE coordinate of（0.623,0.349）.