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miR-126, an endothelial-specific microRNA, is associated to vascular integrity and angiogenesis. It is well established that angiogenesis plays a critical role in burn wound healing. However, there was a lack of understanding of the mechanism by which miR-126 regulates angiogenesis during burn wound healing. HOX transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) is a well-characterized long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of cancer cells. Sciellin (SCEL), a precursor to the cornified envelope of human keratinocytes, has been shown to inhibit migration and invasion capabilities of colorectal cancer cells. In this study, a cohort of 20 burn wound tissues and paired adjacent normal tissues were collected. LncRNA and messenger RNA expression profiles were screened by microarray analysis in five pairs of samples with mostly increased miR-126 levels. miR-126 was highly expressed in burn wound tissues and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) exposed to heat stress, whereas HOTAIR and SCEL were down-regulated after thermal injury. Bioinformatic analysis, dual luciferase reporter assay, and quantitative real-time PCR were conducted to validate that HOTAIR and SCEL competitively bind to miR-126 to function as the competitive endogenous RNA. miR-126 promoted endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis, but suppressed apoptosis, while HOTAIR and SCEL exerted opposite effects in HUVECs. The biological functions were determined by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay, Annexin-V-FITC/PI (propidium iodide/fluorescein isothiocyanate) staining, transwell migration, and tube formation assays. Collectively, our study revealed that HOTAIR/miR-126/SCEL axis contributes to burn wound healing through mediating angiogenesis.

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Developing suitable electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage devices by biomorph assisted design has become a fascinating topic due to the fantastic properties derived from bio-architectures. Herein, zephyranthes-like Co 2 NiSe 4 arrays grown on butterfly wings derived three-dimensional (3D) carbon framework (Z-Co 2 NiSe 4 /BWC) is fabricated via hydrothermal assembly and further conversion method. Benefiting from its unique structure and multi-components, the obtained Z-Co 2 NiSe 4 /BWC electrode for supercapacitor delivers an excellent specific capacitance of 2,280 F•g −1 at 1 A•g −1 . Impressively, the constructed asymmetric supercapacitor using Co 2 NiSe 4 /BWC as positive electrode and activated butterfly wings carbon as negative electrode acquires a high energy density of 42.9 Wh•kg −1 at a power density of 800 W•kg −1 with robust stability of 94.6% capacitance retention at 10 A•g −1 after 5,000 cycles. Moreover, the Z-Co 2 NiSe 4 /BWC as anode for sodium-ion batteries exhibits a high specific capacity of 568 mAh•g −1 at 0.1 A•g −1 and high cycling stability (maintaining 80.1% of the second cycle after 100 cycles). The outstanding electrochemical performances are ascribed to that the synergistic effect of bimetallic selenides and N-doped carbon improves electrochemical activities and conductivity. One-dimensional (1D) nanoneedles grown on 3D porous framework increase the exposure of redox-active sites, endow adequate transmission channels of electrons/ions, and guarantee stability of the electrode during charge/discharge processes. This study will shed light on the avenue towards extending such nanohybrids to excellent energy storage applications.

Hard carbon anodes are the most promising candidates for sodium-ion batteries due to lower sodium-embedded platform and higher specific capacity. However, pure hard carbon carbons usually show very low initial coulombic efficiency, low electronic conductance, et al. Herein, hard carbon-soft carbon (HC-SC) composites composed of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) blooming on porous hard carbon, which were synthesized through thermal decomposition of zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite. This unique structure could greatly promote the sodium-ion diffusion and electron transport due to the increased electrode/ electrolyte contact area and enlarged pores. As expected, the HC-SC delivers a high capacity (306.8 mAh g À 1 at 500 mA g À 1), impressive cycling stability (256.8 mAh g À 1 after 1000 cycles) and enhanced rate performance (144.9 mAh g À 1 at 20 C), which are far superior to those of both individual hard carbon and soft carbon. This encouraging performance may benefit from the synergistic effect of the modified defect concentration and interlayer distance in hard carbon by soft carbon, as well as the unique hierarchical structure. This work provides an exemplary strategy to develop optimized carbon materials for sodium-ion batteries.

Exploring a general method for synthesizing 2D compounds with high accessible surface area and nano‐thickness as advanced electrocatalysts is essential yet challenging. Herein, a self‐assembly induced reverse micelle templating method followed by topochemical transformation is developed to synthesize a series of cobalt‐based compounds with varied anions and similar ultrathin 2D structures. Electrocatalytic behaviors for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are systematically investigated, which demonstrate enhanced performances of ultrathin 2D compounds than their agglomerated counterparts. Among them, 2D CoP is particularly prominent. The overpotential of 144 mV at 10 mA cm−2, together with superb stability, place it among the best single‐phase phosphide HER catalysts reported thus far. Theoretical calculation and experimental results demonstrate the favorable valence electronic structure with moderate hydrogen adsorbability and good intracrystalline conductivity, as well as the homogeneous ultrathin 2D configuration with sufficiently exposed active sites and shortened intracrystalline electron transport route, are the dominant reasons that 2D CoP exhibits optimal electrocatalytic activity for HER. This study presents a novel and extendable strategy for synthesizing various 2D metal‐based compounds with valuable insights into the modulation essence of advanced electrocatalysts.

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