Based on a liquid metal (eutectic alloy with 90 wt% gallium and 10 wt% indium) anode, a soft, highly elastic, discharge‐current‐controllable, cable‐shaped liquid metal–air battery operated at 25 °C, with effective reactions of Ga − 3e− → Ga3+ and O2 + 2H2O + 4e− → 4OH− is presented. In the liquid metal electrode, indium is used not only to inhibit the corrosion of gallium in the alkaline electrolyte but also to maintain the liquid state of the anode at room temperature. Thus, the liquid anode can be easily injected into (or extracted from) the battery cavity, leading to an easily renewable anode. In addition, the cable‐shaped battery shows a pressure‐responsive discharge current, owing to the soft, deformable battery body. Due to the liquid anode and flexible carbon fiber‐based cathode, the battery is highly flexible (bending radius < 1 mm) and easily recovers from any degree of bending without electrochemical performance impairment. With its elastic polyacrylic acid‐based gel electrolyte, the battery shows high elasticity, stretching by up to 100% (from 12 to 24 cm), excellent shape recovery from stretched states, and a discharge performance retention of 98.87%. Moreover, this paper provides the possibility to develop a deformable battery based on the liquid metal material.

The vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) is a promising technology for lots of applications. To solve the membrane fouling and wetting problems, in this paper, a novel ZnO nanorods 1 H,1 H,2 H,2 H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PDTS) modified poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane with a micro/nanoscale hierarchical structure and a superhydrophobic surface has been prepared and applied to the VMD process for distilling highly salty water, for the first time. Among these, a pyrolysis-adhesion method is created to obtain the ZnO seeds and fasten them on the PVDF substrate firmly. The novel modified membrane shows a stable superhydrophobic surface with a water contact angle of 152°, easy cleaning property, excellent thermal and mechanical stability, because of the Cassie's state caused by pocketing much air in the hydrophobized ZnO nanorods, the low surface energy of PDTS coating, and the strong adhesion between ZnO nanorods and PVDF membrane, which has built an ideal structure for VMD application. After 8 h VMD of 200 g L NaCl solution, compared to the virgin PVDF membrane, the novel membrane shows a similar permeate flux but a much higher quality permeated liquid because of its unique antifouling and antiwetting caused by the several microns gap between the feed and the membrane. Due to its easy cleaning property, the novel membrane also exhibits an excellent reusability.

Glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) regulates numerous signaling pathways that control a wide range of cellular processes, including cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and metabolism. We report a novel function of GSK3β: It interacts with the inhibitor-of-apoptosis protein (IAP) survivin to modulate its expression, thus regulating apoptosis in human lung cancer cells. A coimmunoprecipitation assay revealed that GSK3β can bind survivin. Activation of GSK3β induced translocation of survivin from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, resulting in G1 cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis, as well as sensitization to the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin. In contrast, inactivation of GSK3β, either by transfection of a dominant-negative mutant inhibitor DN-GSK3β or with selective inhibitor LiCl, increased cytoplasmic survivin expression, leading to cell cycle progression and resistance to apoptosis. These results identify a pro-apoptotic role for GSK3β in cancer cells, through its modulation of survivin in subcellular redistribution. This new role suggests that there is a potential for pharmacologic activation of GSK3β to enhance treatment of cancer patients, including those with resistance.

A novel flexible fiber-shaped zinc–polyaniline battery (FZPB) is proposed to enhance the electrochemical performance, mass loading, and stability of polyaniline cathodes. To this end, electron-cyclotron-resonance oxygen plasma-modified carbon fibers are employed. During plasma treatment, on the carbon-fiber surface, O2 + plasma breaks the C–C, C–H, and C–N bonds to form C radicals, while the O2 molecules are broken down to reactive oxygen species (O+, O2+, O2 +, and O2 2+). The C radicals and the reactive oxygen species are combined to homogeneously form oxygen functional groups, such as −OH, −COOH, and −CO. The surface area and total pore volume of the treated carbon fibers increase as the plasma attacks. During electrodeposition, aniline interacts with the oxygen functional groups to form N–O and N–H bonds and π–π stacking, resulting in a homogeneous and high-loading polyaniline structure and improved adhesion between polyaniline and carbon fibers. In an FZPB, the cathode with plasma-treated carbon fibers and a polyaniline loading of 0.158 mg mgCF –1 (i.e., 2.36 mg cmCF –1) exhibits a capacity retention of 95.39% after 200 cycles at 100 mA g–1 and a discharge capacity of 83.96 mA h g–1 at such a high current density of 2000 mA g–1, which are ∼1.67 and 1.24 times those of the pristine carbon-fiber-based one, respectively. Furthermore, the FZPB exhibits high flexibility with a capacity retention of 86.4% after bending to a radius of 2.5 mm for 100 cycles as a wearable energy device.