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Material reinforcement commonly exists in a contradiction between strength and toughness enhancement. Herein, a reinforced strategy through self-assembly is proposed for alginate fibers. Sodium alginate (SA) microstructures with regulated secondary structures are assembled in acidic and ethanol as reinforcing units for alginate fibers. Acidity increases the flexibility of the helix and contributes to enhanced extendibility. Ethanol is responsible for formation of a stiff β-sheet, which enhances the modulus and strength. The structurally engineered SA assembly exhibits robust mechanical compatibility, and thus reinforced alginate fibers possess an improved tensile strength of 2.1 times, a prolonged elongation of 1.5 times, and an enhanced toughness of 3.0 times compared with SA fibers without reinforcement. The reinforcement through self-assembly provides an understanding of strengthening and toughening mechanism based on secondary structures. Due to a similar modulus with bones, reinforced alginate fibers exhibit good efficacy in accelerating bone regeneration in vivo.

Nanovaccine-based immunotherapy has been considered as a major pillar to stimulate the host immune system to recognize and eradicate tumor cells as well as establish a long-term immune memory to prevent tumor relapse and metastasis. However, the weak specificity and low cross-presentation of antigens, as well as the immunosuppressive microenvironments of tumor tissues, are still the major obstacles on exerting the therapeutic performance of tumor nanovaccines sufficiently. Herein, we design and construct cytosine guanine dinucleotide (CpG) oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN)-loaded aluminum hydroxyphosphate nanoparticles covered by Fe-Shikonin metal-phenolic networks (MPNs) (Alum-CpG@Fe-Shikonin NPs) as personalized in situnanovaccines for antitumor immunity. Upon internalization by tumor cells, the shell of Fe-Shikonin MPNs will disassemble into Fe2+and Shikonin to elicit the immunogenic cell death of tumor cells through ferroptosis and necroptosis. Then, dying tumor cell-released autologous tumor cell lysates will be absorbed by Alum NPs and codelivered with CpG ODN to professional antigen-presenting cells temporally and spatially to activate multistep cascade antitumor immune responses, including dendritic cell maturation, antigen cross-presentation, natural killer cell and cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltrations, and tumor-associated macrophage repolarization. Benefiting from the synergistic effects of Alum NPs, CpG ODN, and Fe-Shikonin MPNs, our Alum-CpG@Fe-Shikonin NPs exhibit drastic cytotoxicity and accurate selectivity on eradicating primary tumor, strong abscopal effect on inhibiting distant tumor, and a long-term immune memory effect on preventing tumor metastasis and recurrence. Because our report provides a feasible strategy to in situmake full use of autologous tumor cell lysates, which present an entire spectrum of the patient’s personal epitopes without complicated ex vivoprocesses, such as extraction, purification, and sequencing, it may promote the development of personalized nanovaccines for antitumor immunity.

The fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) locus consistently associates with higher body mass index (BMI) across diverse ancestral groups. However, previous small studies of people of Polynesian ancestries have failed to replicate the association. In this study, we used Bayesian meta-analysis to test rs9939609, the most replicated FTOvariant, for association with BMI with a large sample (n= 6095) of Aotearoa New Zealanders of Polynesian (Māori and Pacific) ancestry and of Samoan people living in the Independent State of Samoa and in American Samoa. We did not observe statistically significant association within each separate Polynesian subgroup. Bayesian meta-analysis of the Aotearoa New Zealand Polynesian and Samoan samples resulted in a posterior mean effect size estimate of +0.21 kg/m2, with a 95% credible interval [+0.03 kg/m2, +0.39 kg/m2]. While the Bayes Factor (BF) of 0.77 weakly favors the null, the BF = 1.4 Bayesian support interval is [+0.04, +0.20]. These results suggest that rs9939609 in FTOmay have a similar effect on mean BMI in people of Polynesian ancestries as previously observed in other ancestral groups.

It is widely accepted that concentration polarization in liquid electrolytes promotes whisker growth during metal deposition, and therefore, high salt concentration is favored. Here, we report unexpected opposite behaviors in solid polymer electrolytes: concentration polarization can induce phase transformation in a polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte, forming a new PEO-rich but salt-/plasticizer-poor phase at the lithium/electrolyte interface, as unveiled by stimulated Raman scattering microscopy. The new phase has a significantly higher Young’s modulus (∼1–3 GPa) than a bulk polymer electrolyte (<1 MPa). We hereby propose a design rule for PEO electrolytes: their compositions should be near the boundary between single-phase and two-phase regions in the phase diagram so that the applied current can induce the formation of a mechanically rigid PEO-rich phase to suppress lithium whiskers. LiFePO4/PEO/Li cells with concentration-polarization-induced phase transformation can be reversibly cycled 100 times, while cells without such transformation fail within 10 cycles, demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy.

Context Overuse of N fertiliser in vegetable cropping systems is known to release of nitric and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere in China. Optimisation of N fertilisation regimes has the potential to mitigate NO and N2 O emissions from these N-rich systems. Aims We investigated the effects of different N fertilisation regimes on NO and N2 O emissions, and vegetable yields, with particular efforts to estimate annual direct emission factors of NO and N2 O under different N fertilisation regimes in greenhouse vegetable fields. Methods Annual NO and N2 O fluxes were taken simultaneously using the static chamber-based method from a greenhouse vegetable system in south-east China with four N fertiliser treatments: (1) no N fertiliser (control); (2) chemical N fertiliser application (CF); (3) organic N fertiliser application (OF); and (4) organic-chemical mixed N fertiliser application (MF). Key results N fertilisers significantly increased NO and N2 O emissions. Direct emission factors of N fertiliser for NO and N2 O were the largest for MF, with an average of 0.99% and 0.67%, respectively. Vegetable yields were only significantly enhanced under OF treatment. Conclusions Relative to the use of chemical N fertiliser, the application of organic-chemical mixed N fertiliser showed not to be effective for mitigating NO and N2 O emissions. Instead, sole application of organic N fertiliser was a viable option to enhance vegetable yields but without increasing NO and N2 O emissions in greenhouse vegetable systems. Implications Substituting the use of chemical N fertiliser with organic N fertiliser input could benefitvegetable production but without stimulating NO and N2 O emissions from vegetable cropping systems in sub-tropical China.

Increasing tropospheric concentrations of ozone (e[O3]) and carbon dioxide (e[CO2]) profoundly perturb terrestrial ecosystem functions through carbon and nitrogen cycles, affecting beneficial services such as their capacity to combat climate change and provide food. However, the interactive effects of e[O3] and e[CO2] on these functions and services remain unclear. Here, we synthesize the results of 810 studies (9,109 observations), spanning boreal to tropical regions around the world, and show that e[O3] significantly decreases global net primary productivity and food production as well as the capacity of ecosystems to store carbon and nitrogen, which are stimulated by e[CO2]. More importantly, simultaneous increases in [CO2] and [O3] negate or even overcompensate the negative effects of e[O3] on ecosystem functions and carbon and nitrogen cycles. Therefore, the negative effects of e[O3] on terrestrial ecosystems would be overestimated if e[CO2] impacts are not considered, stressing the need for evaluating terrestrial carbon and nitrogen feedbacks to concurrent changes in global atmospheric composition.

The clinical treatment of bone defects includes allogeneic bone transplantation and autologous bone transplantation. However, they all have their own limitations, and the scope of application is limited. In recent years, bone tissue engineering scaffolds based on a variety of materials have been well developed and achieved good bone regeneration ability. However, most scaffold materials always face problems such as high biotoxicity, leading to inflammation and poor bioactivity, which limits the bone regeneration effect and prolongs the bone regeneration time. In our work, we prepared hydroxyapatite, erythropoietin (EPO), and osteogenic growth peptide (OGP) codoped type-I collagen (Col I) polypeptide nanofiber membranes (NFMs) by electrostatic spinning. In cell experiments, the composite NFMs had low cytotoxicity and promoted osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and alkaline phosphatase staining confirmed the high expression of osteogenic genes, and alizarin red S staining directly confirmed the appearance of calcium nodules. In animal experiments, the loaded hydroxyapatite formed multiple independent mineralization centers in the defect center. Under the promotion of Col I, EPO, and OGP, the bone continued to grow along the mineralization centers as well as inward the defect edge, and the bone defect completely regenerated in about two months. The hematological and histological analyses proved the safety of the experiments. This kind of design to promote bone regeneration by simulating bone composition, introducing mineralization center and signal molecules, can shorten repair time, improve repair effect, and has good practical prospects in the future.

Employees’ feedback-seeking behavior is an important way to develop and maintain self-awareness and interpersonal acuity, reduce uncertainty, boost creativity and improve innovative behavior and performance. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the new normal, supervisor feedback and employees feedback-seeking has an increasingly important impact on team creativity and team innovation performance.In the practice of organizational management, there is frequently a “feedback vacuum” between managers and employees. There is increasing research on feedback-seeking behavior in the field of OBHRM. This paper is the first to evaluate the impact of work meaning and positive attributions on workers’ feedback-seeking behavior, and the cross-level effects of supervisor development feedback including variable valence. The paper analyzes supervisor-employee paired data from 158 supervisors and 659 employees using multi-source, multi-temporal data to draw the following conclusions: (1) Positive supervisor development feedback has a significant cross-level positive effect on employee feedback-seeking behavior, whereas negative supervisor development feedback does not affect employee feedback-seeking behavior; (2) Work meaningfulness mediates the cross-level relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and employees’ feedback-seeking behaviors, whereas negative supervisor development feedback and employees’ feedback-seeking behaviors do not; (3) Positive attributions positively moderate the relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; while positively moderating the relationship between negative supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; (4) Positive attributions have a moderating effect on supervisor development feedback that influences the indirect relationship to feedback-seeking behavior by work meaningfulness.

Gold nanorods (AuNRs) are potentially useful in tumor theranostics, but the poor stability, high toxicity, and rapid removal by the immune system seriously limit their theranostic applications. In our study, we demonstrate the fabrication of Cu(II)-doped polydopamine-coated AuNR (AuNR@CuPDA), which significantly improves the potentials in tumor theranostics. Besides the improvement of physiological stability and biocompatibility, the PDA shell increases the photothermal performance and prolongs the blood circulation time of AuNRs. The half-life of AuNRs during blood circulation increases from 0.7 to 4.5 h after PDA coating, and the injected dose per gram of tumor tissue is 4.6% ID g–1for AuNR@CuPDA. In addition to computer tomography imaging, the loading of Cu(II) in PDA shell endows AuNR@CuPDA with magnetic resonance imaging function. Cu(II) doped in PDA shell also exhibits chemotherapeutic behavior, and the tumor inhibitor rate is 31.2%. Further combining 808 nm laser-driven photothermal therapy, tumors were completely ablated, and no recurrence was observed. Liver and renal functions tests and histological analysis of major organs confirm that AuNR@CuPDA is in good safety.

Water-saving irrigation strategies can successfully alleviate methane emissions from rice fields, but significantly stimulate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions because of variations in soil oxygen level and redox potential. However, the relationship linking soil N2O emissions to nitrogen (N) functional genes during various fertilization treatments in water-saving paddy fields has rarely been investigated. Furthermore, the mitigation potential of organic fertilizer substitution on N2O emissions and the microbial mechanism in rice fields must be further elucidated. Our study examined how soil N2O emissions were affected by related functional microorganisms [ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), nirS, nirKand nosZ] to various fertilization treatments in a rice field in southeast China over two years. In this study, three fertilization regimes were applied to rice cultivation: a no nitrogen (N) (Control), an inorganic N (Ni), and an inorganic N with partial N substitution with organic manure (Ni+No). Over two rice-growing seasons, cumulative N2O emissions averaged 0.47, 4.62 and 4.08 kg ha−1for the Control, Niand Ni+Notreatments, respectively. In comparison to the Nitreatment, the Ni+Nofertilization regime considerably reduced soil N2O emissions by 11.6% while maintaining rice yield, with a lower N2O emission factor from fertilizer N (EF) of 0.95%. Nitrogen fertilization considerably raised the AOB, nirS, nirKand nosZgene abundances, in comparison to the Control treatment. Moreover, the substitution of organic manure for inorganic N fertilizer significantly decreased AOB and nirSgene abundances and increased nosZgene abundance. The AOB responded to N fertilization more sensitively than the AOA. Total N2O emissions significantly correlated positively with AOB and nirSgene abundances while having a negative correlation with nosZgene abundance and the nosZ/nirSratio across N-fertilized plots. In summary, we conclude that organic manure substitution for inorganic N fertilizer decreased soil N2O emissions primarily by changing the soil NO3−-N, pH and DOC levels, thus inhibiting the activities of ammonia oxidation in nitrification and nitrite reduction in denitrification, and strengthening N2O reduction in denitrification from water-saving rice paddies.

Al/steel dissimilar welds were obtained by friction stir lap welding (FSLW) with an Al interlayer, which was fabricated by friction surfacing (FS). In present study, the tool pin was totally plunged into the Al plate and interlayer without stirring steel, which avoided the tool wear. The Al plate and interlayer were remarkably intermixed as pin length increased. A diffusion layer, instead of the intermetallic layer, was found at the Al/steel interface, indicating the enhanced atomic migration and related interfacial bonding. The maximum failure load of the joints of 2.8kN was reached when the 2.5mm pin tool was used. The heterogeneous microstructure, which was caused by the intermixing, was responsible for the fracture, according to the fracture profiles. Necking and dimples were depicted from the fractographies, indicating that the joints were failed by plastic fracture.

Manure application rather than biochar amendment increased acidic soil respiration.Biochar application promoted soil C sequestration in the tea plantation.Manure application stimulated CO2emissions by altering ecological clusters’ abundance.Gemmatimonadetesmight be the dominant hosts for C-cycling genes.

Enhancement of permeability and the retention effect is one of the main pathways for the accumulation of nanomaterials in tumor sites, but poor cellular internalization and rapid clearance of nanomaterials always hamper the efficacy of imaging diagnosis and treatment. With the consideration of both high tumor accumulation and cellular internalization, positively charged nanomaterials can adhere to the tumor cell membrane by an electrostatic force, which is conducive to cellular internalization, but they are easily recognized and cleared during blood circulation. However, negatively charged nanomaterials show an enhanced stealth-like effect and possess a long blood circulation time, which is conducive to tumor accumulation. Therefore, in this work, on the basis of the shielding effect of citrate ions to positive charge and the protonation under an acidic tumor microenvironment, pH-sensitive sodium citrate-modified polyaniline nanoshuttles (NSs) with negative charge during blood circulation but positive charge in tumor sites are designed. With this hierarchical targeting strategy, the blood circulation half-life increases from 4.35 to 7.33 h, and the retention rate of NSs in tumors increases from 5.29 to 8.57% ID/g. Because the retention rate of NSs is increased, the magnetic resonance imaging resolution and signal intensity are significantly improved. A synergistic treatment of tumors is further achieved by means of photothermal therapy with laser irradiation and chemotherapy via heat-stimulated drug release.

Rivers are of increasing concern as sources of atmospheric methane (CH4), while estimates of global CH4emissions from rivers are poorly constrained due to a lack of representative measurements in tropical and subtropical latitudes. Measurements of complete CH4flux components from subtropical rivers draining agricultural watersheds are particularly important since these rivers are subject to large organic and nutrient loads. Two-year measurements of CH4fluxes were taken to assess the magnitude of CH4emissions from the Lixiahe River (a tributary of the Grand Canal) draining a subtropical rice paddy watershed in China. Over the two-year period, annual CH4emissions averaged 29.52 mmol m–2d–1, amounting to 10.78 mol m–2yr–1, making the river a strong source of atmospheric CH4. The CH4emissions from rivers during the rice-growing season (June–October) accounted for approximately 70% of the annual total, with flux rates at 1–2 orders of magnitude greater than those for rice paddies in this area. Ebullition contributed to 44–56% of the overall CH4emissions from the rivers and dominated the emission pathways during the summer months. Our data highlight that rivers draining agricultural watersheds may constitute a larger component of anthropogenic CH4emissions than is currently documented in China.

Chemotherapy is one of the most common and effective ways for the clinical treatment of tumors, but tumor cells develop resistance toward drugs after a long period of chemotherapy. Interestingly, the gene expression of resistant cells usually generates increased sialic acid and raises the negative potential of the cell membranes, which is potentially useful to design novel theranostic models. In this work, we demonstrate multidrug resistant tumors-aimed theranostics by the virtue of the strong electrostatic attraction between resistant cells and nanomaterials. Human oral epithelial carcinoma vincristine-resistant tumor (KBV) and human oral epithelial carcinoma tumor (KB) were employed and compared as the tumor models. Polyethylene glycol-coated and Cu(ii) and vincristine codoped polyaniline nanoshuttles (VCR-PEG-CuPani NSs), which possessed multifunctions, positive charges, and blood circulation half-life of 6.26 ± 0.16 h, were employed as the nanomaterials for performing the tumor theranostics. Because of the stronger electrostatic attraction with KBV than that with KB, VCR-PEG-CuPani NSs showed higher enrichment of 8.05 ± 0.39% ID g−1for KBV and a lower value of 6.02 ± 0.22% ID g−1for KB. The higher accumulation of VCR-PEG-CuPani NSs in KBV tumors further improved the efficacy of tumor theranostics, such as those using magnetic resonance imaging, chemotherapy, and photothermal therapy.

Bladder cancer is a common urinary tract tumor in clinic, and its morbidity and mortality are always high. Surgical treatment is operator dependent, residual tumor cells often lead to tumor recurrence, and chemotherapy after surgery causes high side effects. So, it is urgent to develop new methods for the theranostics of bladder cancer. Among them, functional nanomaterials have shown good application in tumor theranostics, but they are rarely used in bladder cancer. In our work, we demonstrate the fabrication of folate-modified vincristine-loaded polydopamine-coated Fe3O4superparticles (Fe3O4@PDA-VCR-FA SPs), and applied them in the theranostics of bladder cancer. The PDA shell not only improves the colloidal stability and biocompatibility, but also enhances the photothermal effect and prolongs the blood circulation half-life. The half-life of Fe3O4@PDA-VCR-FA SPs in blood is calculated as 2.83 h, and the tumor retention rate is 5.96 %ID g−1, these data are significantly higher than those before folic acid modification. The superparamagnetism of Fe3O4and loading of vincristine endow Fe3O4@PDA-VCR-FA SPs with magnetic resonance imaging and chemotherapy capabilities. Further by employing NIR laser-triggered photothermal therapy, bladder tumors were ablated completely, and no recurrence was observed. Blood and histological tests of the major organs confirm that Fe3O4@PDA-VCR-FA SPs show good biosafety.

The cubic phase WO3−xwith two-dimensional nanosheet structure is prepared at a relative low temperature through thermal decomposition method. The starting material and decomposition environment are the key factors to obtain the cubic phase WO3−x. The cubic crystal structure is stabilized by the large amounts of oxygen vacancies. The dark blue cubic WO3−xexhibits electrocatalysis performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic solution (an overpotential −294 mV at the current density of 10 mA/cm2). The cubic phase WO3−xshows good photothermal stability with eminent photothermal conversion effect (photothermal conversion efficiency is 48.7% at 808 nm).

Cancer multimodal treatment by combining the effects of different theranostics agents can efficiently improve treatment efficacy and reduce side effects. In this work, we demonstrate the theranostics nanodevices on the basis of Cu2+-loaded polydopamine nanoparticles (CuPDA NPs), which are able to offer magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided thermochemotherapy (TCT). Systematical studies reveal that after Cu2+ions loading, the molar extinction coefficient of PDA NPs is greatly enhanced by 4 times, thus improving the performance in photothermal therapy. Despite Cu2+ions being toxic, the release of Cu2+is mainly stimulated in acidic environment. Once the NPs deposit in the slightly acidic tumor microenvironment (pH ≈ 6.5–6.8), the release rate boosts ∼30%, which effectively avoids the systematic toxicity during chemotherapy. Meanwhile, due to the increment of the electron–proton dipole–dipole interaction correlation time τC, the spin–lattice relaxation time (T1) for PDA NPs is found to be shortened by Cu2+loading, which boosts the longitudinal relaxivity (r1). Hence, CuPDA NPs can be used as T1-weighted contrast agent in MRI. In addition, due to the naturally existing DA in the human body with stealth effect, CuPDA NPs have an outstanding tumor retention rate as high as 8.2% ID/g. Further in vitro and in vivo tests indicate that CuPDA NPs possess long blood circulation time, good photothermal and physiological stability, and biocompatibility, which are potential nanodevices for MRI-guided TCT with minimal side effects.

In this work, we report the transfer-free measurement of carrier dynamics and transport of direct chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown graphene on glass with the aid of ultrafast transient absorption microscopy (TAM) and demonstrate the use of such graphene glass for high-performance touch panel applications. The 4.5 in.-sized graphene glass was produced by an optimized CVD procedure, which can readily serve as transparent conducting electrode (TCE) without further treatment. The graphene glass exhibited an intriguing optical transmittance and electrical conductance concurrently, presenting a sheet resistance of 370–510 Ω·sq–1at a transmittance of 82%, much improved from our previous achievements. Moreover, direct measurement of graphene carrier dynamics and transport by TAM revealed the similar biexponential decay behavior to that of CVD graphene grown on Cu, along with a carrier mobility as high as 4820 cm2·V–1·s–1. Such large-area, highly uniform, transparent conducting graphene glass was assembled to integrate resistive touch panels that demonstrated a high device performance. Briefly, this work aims to present the great feasibility of good quality graphene glass toward scalable and practical TCE applications.

In this study, we mainly focus on the structural morphology and inter-atomic bonding state of tribofilms resulting from a highly-hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) film in order to ascertain the underlying mechanisms for its superlubric behavior (i.e., less than 0.01 friction coefficient). Specifically, we achieved superlubricity (i.e., friction coefficients of down to 0.003) with this film in dry nitrogen and argon atmospheres especially when the tribo-pair is made of an a-C:H coated Si disk sliding against an a-C:H coated steel ball, while the a-C:H coated disk against uncoated ball does not provide superlubricity. We also found that the state of superlubricity is more stable in argon than in nitrogen and the formation of a smooth and uniformly-thick carbonaceous tribofilm appears to be one of the key factors for the realization of such superlubricity. Besides, the interfacial morphology of sliding test pairs and the atomic-scale bond structure of the carbon-based tribofilms also play an important role in the observed superlubric behavior of a-C:H films. Using Raman spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy, we have compared the structural differences of the tribofilms produced on bare and a-C:H coated steel balls. For the a-C:H coated ball as mating material which provided superlow friction in argon, structural morphology of the tribofilm was similar or comparable to that of the original a-C:H coating; while for the bare steel ball, the sp2-bonded C fraction in the tribofilm increased and a fingerprint-like nanocrystalline structure was detected by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). We also calculated the shear stresses for different tribofilms, and established a relationship between the magnitude of the shear stresses and the extent of sp3-sp2phase transformation.

Iron oxide (Fe3O4), polydopamine (PDA), and in particular their composites are examples of the safest nanomaterials for developing multifunctional nanodevices to perform noninvasive tumor diagnosis and therapy. However, the structures and performances of Fe3O4–PDA nanocomposites should be further perfected to enhance the theranostic efficiency. In this work, we demonstrate the fabrication of PDA-capped Fe3O4(Fe3O4@PDA) superparticles (SPs) employing preassembled Fe3O4nanoparticles (NPs) as the cores. Owing to the collective effect of preassembled Fe3O4NPs, the superparamagnetism and photothermal performance of Fe3O4@PDA SPs are greatly enhanced, thus producing nanodevices with improved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided photothermal efficiency. Systematical studies reveal that the molar extinction coefficient of the as-assembled Fe3O4SPs is 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of individual Fe3O4NPs. Also due to the high aggregation degree of Fe3O4NPs, the T2-weighted MRI contrast is greatly enhanced for the SPs with r2relaxivity of 230.5 mM–1s–1, which is ∼2.5 times larger than that of individual Fe3O4NPs. The photothermal stability, physiological stability, and biocompatibility, as well as the photothermal performance of Fe3O4SPs, are further improved by enveloping with PDA shell.

Exotic plant invasions may alter ecosystem carbon processes, especially when native plants are displaced by plants of a different functional group. Forb invasions into grasslands are common, yet little is known about how they impact carbon cycling. We conducted a field study over 2 years from April 2010 to March 2012 in China to examine changes in soil respiration (Rsoil) following invasion of exotic perennial forb species (Alternanthera philoxeroidesor Solidago canadensis) into an annual grassland dominated by a native annual graminoid (Eragrostis pilosa). Measurements of Rsoilwere taken once a week in stands of the native annual graminoid or one of the forb species using static chamber-gas chromatograph method. Aboveground litterfall of each of the three focal species was collected biweekly and litter decomposition rates were measured in a 6-month litterbag experiment. The monthly average and annual cumulative Rsoilincreased following invasion by either forb species. The increases in cumulative Rsoilwere smaller with invasion of Solidago(36%) than Alternanthera(65%). Both invasive forbs were associated with higher litter quantity and quality (e.g.,C:N ratio) than the native annual graminoid. Compared to the native annual graminoid, the invasive forbs Alternanthera(155%) and Solidago(361%) produced larger amounts of more rapidly decomposing litter, with the litter decay constant kbeing 3.8, 2.0 and 1.0 for Alternanthera, Solidagoand Eragrostis, respectively. Functional groups of the invasive plants and the native plants they replaced appear to be useful predictors of directions of changes in Rsoil, but the magnitude of changes in Rsoilseems to be sensitive to variations in invader functional traits.

Electron transition materials on the basis of transition metal ions usually possess higher photothermal transduction efficiency but lower extinction ability, which have not been considered as efficient photothermal agents for therapeutic applications. In this work, we demonstrate a facile and feasible approach for enhancing 808 nm photothermal conversion effect of d orbits transition Cu(II) ions by forming Cu-carboxylate complexes. The coordination with carboxylate groups greatly enlarges the splitting energy gap of Cu(II) and the capability of electron transition, thus enhancing the extinction ability in near-infrared region. The cupreous complexes are further loaded in biocompatible and biodegradable polymer nanoparticles (NPs) of chitosan to temporarily lower the toxicity, which allows the photothermal therapy of human oral epithelial carcinoma (KB) cells in vitro and KB tumors in vivo. Animal experiments indicate the photothermal tumor inhibition rate of 100%. In addition, the gradual degradation of chitosan NPs leads to the release of cupreous complexes, thus exhibiting additional chemotherapeutic behavior in KB tumor treatment. Onefold chemotherapy experiments indicate the tumor inhibition rate of 93.1%. The combination of photothermal therapy and chemotherapy of cupreous complex-loaded chitosan NPs indicates the possibility of inhibiting tumor recurrence.

We report the characterisation of nine novel low molecular weight glutenin subunit (LMW-GS) genes from two Pseudoroegneriaspecies, Pd. spicataand Pd. strigosa. We found that all nine LMW-GS genes possess the same primary structure shared by other published LMW-GS. Five genes encode LMW-i type subunits, three encode LMW-m type subunits and one encodes a peptide similar to B-3 hordeins of Hordeum chilense. No LMW-s type subunit genes were found in Pseudoroegneria. One subunit, PSt24-LMW-2, contains six conserved cysteine residues, and the other eight subunits all contain eight cysteine residues. We show that one cysteine residue is located in the signal peptide of PSt24-LMW-1, suggesting a mature peptide containing only seven cysteine residues. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the LMW-GS genes from the St genome cluster together and suggests a distant relationship with LMW-GS of the A and B genomes of wheat. Slippage/unequal crossing over and illegitimate recombination are effective mechanisms for enriching variations of seed storage proteins.

Ferroptosis provides an innovative theoretical basis and method for tumor therapy but is limited by the low efficiency of conventional iron delivery systems. Herein, an efficient supramolecular iron delivery system (SIDS) is demonstrated upon the hydrolysis of FeCl3, condensation of amino acids, and self-assembly of iron-containing components. The as-assembled SIDS possesses a shuttle-like core/shell structure with β-FeOOH as the core and Fe3+/polyamino acid coordinated networks as shells. The iron content of SIDS is up to 42 wt %, which is greatly higher than that of ferritin. The iron-containing protein-mimic structure and shuttle-like morphology of SIDS facilitate tumor accumulation and cell internalization. Once exposed to the tumor microenvironment with overexpressed glutathione (GSH), the SIDS will disassemble, accompanied by the depletion of GSH and the release of Fe2+, leading to dual amplified ferroptosis. Primary studies indicate that SIDS exhibits outstanding antitumor efficacy on bladder cancer.

Most of the antitumor chemotherapeutic drugs execute the therapeutic performance upon eliciting tumor cell apoptosis, which may cause chemoresistance of tumors. Design of novel drugs to eradicate apoptosis‐resistant tumors via non‐apoptotic cell death pathways is promising for improving the long‐term chemotherapeutic efficacy. Herein, a Fe(III)‐Shikonin metal‐polyphenol‐coordinated supramolecular nanomedicine for combined therapy of tumor via ferroptosis and necroptosis is designed. The construction of the nanomedicine based on the coordinated self‐assembly between Fe3+and Shikonin not only overcomes the shortcomings of Shikonin including its low bioavailability and high toxicity toward normal tissues, but also integrates the theranostics functions of Fe ions. Under the exposure of the high concentration of glutathione (GSH) in tumor cells, the as‐prepared nanomedicine will disassemble into Fe2+and Shikonin, followed by stimulating the tumor cell death through ferroptosis and necroptosis. In addition, benefiting from the stealth effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and the targeting ability of cyclo(Arg‐Gly‐Asp‐d‐Phe‐Lys) (cRGD) to αvβ3‐integrin, NH2‐PEG‐cRGD‐modified nanomedicine exhibits a GSH‐responsive therapy toward 4T1 tumor in vivo and self‐enhanced longitudinal relaxation (T1)‐weighted imaging property. Since the self‐assembly of natural Shikonin and human body‐necessary Fe element is facile and feasible, the work may provide a promising supramolecular nanomedicine for next‐generation chemotherapeutic applications. A Fe(III)‐Shikonin supramolecular nanomedicine based on the coordinated self‐assembly between Fe3+and Shikonin and further modification with NH2‐PEG‐cRGD is designed. Under the exposure of the high concentration of GSH in tumor cells, the as‐prepared nanomedicine will disassemble into Fe2+and Shikonin, following by stimulating the tumor cell death through ferroptosis and necroptosis.

Enzyme‐Responsive Drug Release In article number 2101926, Yi Liu, Pengfei Ge, Hao Zhang, and co‐workers construct a Fe(III)‐Shikonin metal‐polyphenol‐coordinated supramolecular nanomedicine for combined therapy of tumors. The as‐prepared nanomedicine will disassemble into Fe2+and Shikonin in response to the high concentration of glutathione in tumor cells, followed by the up‐regulation of the intracellular reactive oxygen species level and the depletion of the intracellular glutathione level, resulting in the tumor cell death via ferroptosis and necroptosis.

Ferroptosis has been considered as a promising pathway to overcome apoptosis-induced tumor chemoresistance. However, the antitumor efficacy of ferroptosis-inducing agents is still limited because of the complexity and diversity of tumor microenvironments. Herein, we demonstrate a triple ferroptosis amplification strategy for tumor therapy by associating iron-based nanocarriers, ferroptosis molecular drugs, and H2O2-producing enzymes. Fe(III)-Shikonin (FeShik) metal-polyphenol-coordinated networks are employed to load a ferroptosis inducer of sorafenib (SRF) inside and glucose oxidase (GOx) outside, thus producing SRF@FeShik-GOx supramolecular nanomedicines (SNs). After delivering into glutathione (GSH)-overexpressed tumor cells, FeShik will disassemble and release Fe2+to induce cell death via ferroptosis. At the same time, GOx executes its catalytic activity to produce an acid environment and plenty of H2O2for stimulating •OH generation via the Fenton reaction. Moreover, SRF will suppress the biosynthesis of GSH by inhibiting system Xc–, further deactivating the enzymatic activity of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Up-regulation of the oxidative stress level and down-regulation of GPX4 expression can dramatically accelerate the accumulation of lethal lipid peroxides, leading to ferroptosis amplification of tumor cells. The current strategy that utilizes ferroptosis-inducing agents as both nanocarriers and cargoes provides a pathway to enhance the efficacy of ferroptosis-based tumor therapy.

Clinically, the surgical treatment of bladder cancer often faces the problem of tumor recurrence, and the surgical treatment combined with postoperative chemotherapy to inhibit tumor recurrence also faces high toxicity and side effects. Therefore, the need for innovative bladder cancer treatments is urgent. For the past few years, with the development of nano science and technology, imaging-guided therapy using nanomaterials with both imaging and therapy functions has shown great advantages and can not only identify the locations of the tumors but also exhibit biodistributions of nanomaterials in the tumors, significantly improving the accuracy and efficacy of treatment. In this work, we synthesized Fe(III)-doped polyaminopyrrole nanoparticles (FePPy-NH2NPs). With low cytotoxicity and a blood circulation half-life of 7.59 h, high levels of FePPy-NH2NPs accumulated in bladder tumors, with an accumulation rate of up to 5.07%ID/g. The coordination of Fe(III) and the amino group in the structure can be used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), whereas absorption in the near-infrared region can be applied to photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and photothermal therapy (PTT). MRI and PAI accurately identified the location of the tumor, and based on the imaging data, laser irradiation was employed accurately. With a high photothermal conversion efficiency of 44.3%, the bladder tumor was completely resected without recurrence. Hematological analysis and histopathological analysis jointly confirmed the high level of safety of the experiment.

We report a hybrid, quantum dot (QD)-based, organic light-emitting diode architecture using a noninverted structure with the QDs sandwiched between hole transporting layers (HTLs) outperforming the reference device structure implemented in conventional noninverted architecture by over five folds and suppressing the blue emission that is otherwise observed in the conventional structure because of the excess electrons leaking towards the HTL. It is predicted in the new device structure that 97.44% of the exciton formation takes place in the QD layer, while 2.56% of the excitons form in the HTL. It is found that the enhancement in the external quantum efficiency is mainly due to the stronger confinement of exciton formation to the QDs.

A novel compound, 5,7,14,16‐tetraphenyl‐8:9,12:13‐bisbenzo‐hexatwistacene (TBH), has been successfully synthesized through a retro‐Diels–Alder reaction. Single‐crystal structure analysis indicated that TBHhas a twisted configuration with a torsion angle of 27.34°. The HOMO–LUMO gap of TBHcalculated from the difference between the half‐wave redox potentials (E1/2ox=+0.40 eV and E1/2red=−1.78 eV) is 2.18 eV, which is in good agreement with the band gap (2.19 eV) derived from the UV/Vis absorption data. In addition, organic light‐emitting devices using TBHas emitter have been fabricated. The results revealed that TBHis a promising red light‐emitting candidate for applications in organic light‐emitting diodes.