Realizing the growing number of possible or hypothesized metastable crystalline materials is extremely challenging. There is no rigorous metric to identify which compounds can or cannot be synthesized. We present a thermodynamic upper limit on the energy scale, above which the laboratory synthesis of a polymorph is highly unlikely. The limit is defined on the basis of the amorphous state, and we validate its utility by effectively classifying more than 700 polymorphs in 41 common inorganic material systems in the Materials Project for synthesizability. The amorphous limit is highly chemistry-dependent and is found to be in complete agreement with our knowledge of existing polymorphs in these 41 systems, whether made by the nature or in a laboratory. Quantifying the limits of metastability for realizable compounds, the approach is expected to find major applications in materials discovery.

Structure-specific synthesis processes are of key importance to the growth of polymorphic functional compounds such as TiO2, where material properties strongly depend on structure as well as chemistry. The robust growth of the brookite polymorph of TiO2, a promising photocatalyst, has been difficult in both powder and thin-film forms due to the disparity of reported synthesis techniques, their highly specific nature, and lack of mechanistic understanding. In this work, we report the growth of high-fraction (~95%) brookite thin films prepared by annealing amorphous titania precursor films deposited by pulsed laser deposition. We characterize the crystallization process, eliminating the previously suggested roles of substrate templating and Na helper ions in driving brookite formation. Instead, we link phase selection directly to film thickness, offering a novel, generalizable route to brookite growth that does not rely on the presence of extraneous elements or particular lattice-matched substrates. In addition to providing a new synthesis route to brookite thin films, our results take a step towards resolving the problem of phase selection in TiO2 growth, contributing to the further development of this promising functional material.

The space of metastable materials offers promising new design opportunities for next-generation technological materials, such as complex oxides, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, steels, and beyond. Although metastable phases are ubiquitous in both nature and technology, only a heuristic understanding of their underlying thermodynamics exists. We report a large-scale data-mining study of the Materials Project, a high-throughput database of density functional theory-calculated energetics of Inorganic Crystal Structure Database structures, to explicitly quantify the thermodynamic scale of metastability for 29,902 observed inorganic crystalline phases. We reveal the influence of chemistry and composition on the accessible thermodynamic range of crystalline metastability for polymorphic and phase-separating compounds, yielding new physical insights that can guide the design of novel metastable materials. We further assert that not all low-energy metastable compounds can necessarily be synthesized, and propose a principle of 'remnant metastability'-that observable metastable crystalline phases are generally remnants of thermodynamic conditions where they were once the lowest free-energy phase.

Materials discovery has become significantly facilitated and accelerated by high-throughput ab-initio computations. This ability to rapidly design interesting novel compounds has displaced the materials innovation bottleneck to the development of synthesis routes for the desired material. As there is no a fundamental theory for materials synthesis, one might attempt a data-driven approach for predicting inorganic materials synthesis, but this is impeded by the lack of a comprehensive database containing synthesis processes. To overcome this limitation, we have generated a dataset of "codified recipes" for solid-state synthesis automatically extracted from scientific publications. The dataset consists of 19,488 synthesis entries retrieved from 53,538 solid-state synthesis paragraphs by using text mining and natural language processing approaches. Every entry contains information about target material, starting compounds, operations used and their conditions, as well as the balanced chemical equation of the synthesis reaction. The dataset is publicly available and can be used for data mining of various aspects of inorganic materials synthesis.

Perovskite oxides can host various anion-vacancy orders, which greatly change their properties, but the order pattern is still difficult to manipulate. Separately, lattice strain between thin film oxides and a substrate induces improved functions and novel states of matter, while little attention has been paid to changes in chemical composition. Here we combine these two aspects to achieve strain-induced creation and switching of anion-vacancy patterns in perovskite films. Epitaxial SrVO3 films are topochemically converted to anion-deficient oxynitrides by ammonia treatment, where the direction or periodicity of defect planes is altered depending on the substrate employed, unlike the known change in crystal orientation. First-principles calculations verified its biaxial strain effect. Like oxide heterostructures, the oxynitride has a superlattice of insulating and metallic blocks. Given the abundance of perovskite families, this study provides new opportunities to design superlattices by chemically modifying simple perovskite oxides with tunable anion-vacancy patterns through epitaxial lattice strain.

Long non-coding RNAs play an important role in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC), while many CRC-related lncRNAs have not yet been identified.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), the key regulator of gene expression, and N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification play a significant role in tumour progression. However, regulation of m6A-modified mRNAs by miRNAs in colorectal cancer (CRC), and its effect on progression of CRC, remains to be investigated.

The development of a materials synthesis route is usually based on heuristics and experience. A possible new approach would be to apply data-driven approaches to learn the patterns of synthesis from past experience and use them to predict the syntheses of novel materials. However, this route is impeded by the lack of a large-scale database of synthesis formulations. In this work, we applied advanced machine learning and natural language processing techniques to construct a dataset of 35,675 solution-based synthesis procedures extracted from the scientific literature. Each procedure contains essential synthesis information including the precursors and target materials, their quantities, and the synthesis actions and corresponding attributes. Every procedure is also augmented with the reaction formula. Through this work, we are making freely available the first large dataset of solution-based inorganic materials synthesis procedures.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of low‑dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)‑induced brain injury, and to explore the mechanism of phosphoinositide 3‑kinase (PI3K)/Akt/forkhead box protein (Fox)O1 signaling pathway. Male Sprague‑Dawley rats were divided into control group (control), ischemia/reperfusion surgery group (I/R) and low‑dose LPS treatment group (LPS). An I/R model was established and the hemodynamic parameters were recorded at the end of I/R injury. The brain tissues were observed by hematoxylin and eosin staining, immunohistochemistry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl‑transferase‑mediated dUTP nick end labeling staining. Microglia were treated with LPS following hypoxia/reoxygenation. The cellular viability was detected by 3‑(4,5‑dimethylthiazol‑2‑yl)‑2,5‑diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The apoptotic rate of microglia was detected using AnnexinV/propidium iodide staining. The expression of B‑cell lymphoma (Bcl)‑2, Bcl‑2‑associated X (Bax), and caspase‑3 were detected by western blot analysis and reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Akt, phosphorylated (p)‑Akt, FoxO1 and p‑FoxO1 expression were detected by western blotting. It was previously reported that, following I/R injury, neuronal cells were disorderly and brain injury markers (neuron‑specific enolase and S100 β), inflammatory cytokines [interleukin (IL)‑1β, IL‑6 and tumor necrosis factor‑α] levels were significantly upregulated. In the present study, the expression levels of Bax, caspase‑3 Akt and p‑Akt were significantly higher, while that of Bcl‑2, FoxO1 and p‑FoxO1 were significantly lower in the I/R group. LPS treatment significantly increased the viability of neuronal cells and decreased the rate of neuronal cell apoptosis. Following the addition of PI3K signaling pathway inhibitor LY294002 to microglia, LPS reduced the levels of activated Akt, increased the downstream regulatory gene phosphorylation of FoxO1 and reduced microglia apoptosis. It was concluded that LPS can alleviate I/R‑induced brain injury, inhibit neuronal cells apoptosis and protect neuronal cells via the PI3K/Akt/FoxO1 signaling pathway.

To screen for common target genes in intracranial aneurysms (IA) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), construct a common transcriptional regulatory network to predict clusters of candidate genes involved in the pathogenesis of T2DM and IA, and identify the common neurovascular markers and pathways in T2DM causing IA. Microarray datasets (GSE55650, GSE25462, GSE26969, GSE75436, and GSE13353) from the GEO database were analyzed in this research. Screening of the IA and the T2DM datasets yielded a total of 126 DEGs, among which 78 were upregulated and 138 were downregulated. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that these DEGs were enriched for a total of 68 GO pathways, including extracellular matrix composition, coagulation regulation, hemostasis regulation, and collagen fiber composition pathways. We also constructed transcriptional regulatory networks, and identified key transcription factors involved in both the conditions. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that ARNTL2 and STAT1 were significantly associated with the development of T2DM and IA, acting as the common neurovascular markers for both the diseases. In cellular experiments, hyperglycemic microenvironments exhibited upregulated STAT1 expression. STAT1 may be involved in the pathogenesis of IA in T2DM patients. Being the common neurovascular markers, STAT1 may acts as novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of IA and T2DM.