A range of novel two-dimensional materials have been actively explored for More Moore and More-than-Moore device applications because of their ability to form van der Waals heterostructures with unique electronic properties. However, most of the reported electronic devices exhibit insufficient control of multifunctional operations. Here, we leverage the band-structure alignment properties of narrow-bandgap black phosphorus and large-bandgap molybdenum disulfide to realize vertical heterostructures with an ultrahigh rectifying ratio approaching 10 and on-off ratio up to 10. Furthermore, we design and fabricate tunable multivalue inverters, in which the output logic state and window of the mid-logic can be controlled by specific pairs of channel length and, most importantly, by the electric field, which shifts the band-structure alignment across the heterojunction. Finally, high gains over 150 are achieved in the inverters with optimized device geometries, showing great potential for future logic applications.

An array of black-phosphorus photodetectors with channel lengths down to 100 nm is fabricated, and temperature-dependent photodetection measurements from 300 K down to 20 K are carried out. The devices show high photoresponse in a broadband spectral range with a record-high photoresponsivity of 4.3 × 10(6) A W(-1) at 300 K for the 100 nm device.

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Lung cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease. Cancer cells and cells within the tumor microenvironment together determine disease progression, as well as response to or escape from treatment. To map the cell type-specific transcriptome landscape of cancer cells and their tumor microenvironment in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we analyze 42 tissue biopsy samples from stage III/IV NSCLC patients by single cell RNA sequencing and present the large scale, single cell resolution profiles of advanced NSCLCs. In addition to cell types described in previous single cell studies of early stage lung cancer, we are able to identify rare cell types in tumors such as follicular dendritic cells and T helper 17 cells. Tumors from different patients display large heterogeneity in cellular composition, chromosomal structure, developmental trajectory, intercellular signaling network and phenotype dominance. Our study also reveals a correlation of tumor heterogeneity with tumor associated neutrophils, which might help to shed light on their function in NSCLC.

The lack of response to treatment in most lung cancer patients suggests the value of broadening the benefit of anti–PD-1/PD-L1 monotherapy. Judicious dosing of antiangiogenic agents such as apatinib (VEGFR2-TKI) can modulate the tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment, which contributes to resistance to anti–PD-1/PD-L1 treatment. We therefore hypothesized that inhibiting angiogenesis could enhance the therapeutic efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade. Here, using a syngeneic lung cancer mouse model, we demonstrated that low-dose apatinib alleviated hypoxia, increased infiltration of CD8+ T cells, reduced recruitment of tumor-associated macrophages in tumor and decreased TGFβ amounts in both tumor and serum. Combining low-dose apatinib with anti–PD-L1 significantly retarded tumor growth, reduced the number of metastases, and prolonged survival in mouse models. Anticancer activity was evident after coadministration of low-dose apatinib and anti–PD-1 in a small cohort of patients with pretreated advanced non–small cell lung cancer. Overall, our work shows the rationale for the treatment of lung cancer with a combination of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade and low-dose apatinib.

Summary1. Plant functional traits, in particular specific leaf area (SLA), wood density and seed mass, are often good predictors of individual tree growth rates within communities. Individuals and species with high SLA, low wood density and small seeds tend to have faster growth rates. 3. We tested these alternative hypotheses using data on 27 352 juvenile trees, representing 278 species from 27 sites on all forested continents, and extensive functional trait data, 38% of which were obtained at the same sites at which growth was assessed. Data on potential evapotranspiration (PET), which summarizes the joint ecological effects of temperature and precipitation, were obtained from a global data base. 4. We estimated size-standardized relative height growth rates (SGR) for all species, then related them to functional traits and PET using mixed-effect models for the fastest growing species and for all species together. 5. Both the mean and 95th percentile SGR were more strongly associated with functional traits than with PET. PET was unrelated to SGR at the global scale. SGR increased with increasing SLA and decreased with increasing wood density and seed mass, but these traits explained only 3.1% of the variation in SGR. SGR-trait relationships were consistently weak across families and biogeographic zones, and over a range of tree statures. Thus, the most widely studied functional traits in plant ecology were poor predictors of tree growth over large scales. 6. Synthesis. We conclude that these functional traits alone may be unsuitable for predicting growth of trees over broad scales. Determining the functional traits that predict vital rates under specific environmental conditions may generate more insight than a monolithic global relationship can offer.

Conventionally fractionated radiotherapy in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibody shows a synergistic antitumor immunity in NSCLC. Furthermore, PD-L1 expression may be a significant clinical predictive factor for treatment response to radiotherapy in NSCLC.

SRY-related HMG-box gene 2 (SOX2) is one of the key regulatory genes that maintain the pluripotency and self-renewal properties in embryonic stem cells. Here we used immunohistochemistry to analyze the expression of SOX2 in human prostate tissues and found it contributed to tumorigenesis and correlated with histologic grade and Gleason score. We further investigated SOX2's function in cell growth and apoptosis process by using a human prostate cancer cell line DU145 with SOX2 overexpression or down-regulation. Cell cycle assay revealed that SOX2 promoted cell growth and increased the percentage of cells in S phase. In vitro and in vivo xenograft experiments in NOD/SCID mice further demonstrated that SOX2 increased the apoptosis-resistant properties of DU145 cells with decreased function of store-operated Ca(2+) entry and reduced expression of Orai1 at both mRNA and protein levels, suggesting a potential mechanism that contributes to the anti-apoptotic property of SOX2. To our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate SOX2's function in tumorigenesis and apoptosis of human prostate cancer and to elucidate its regulatory effect on the activity of store-operated Ca(2+) channels. Our results support the concept that SOX2 has the potential to be a significant marker to evaluate the progression of prostate cancer and serve as a potentially useful target for prostate cancer therapy.