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Foundational cushion plants can re-organize community structures and sustain a prominent proportion of alpine biodiversity, but they are sensitive to climate change. The loss of cushion species can have broad consequences for associated biota. The potential plant community changes with the population dynamics of cushion plants remain, however, unclear. Using eight plant communities along a climatic and community successional gradient, we assessed cushion population dynamics, the underlying ecological constraints and hence associated plant community changes in alpine communities dominated by the foundational cushion plant Arenaria polytrichoides. The population dynamics of Arenariaare attributed to ecological constraints at a series of life history stages. Reproductive functions are constrained by increasing associated beneficiary plants; subsequent seedling establishment is constrained by temperature, water and light availability, extreme climate events, and interspecific competition; strong competitive exclusion may accelerate mortality and degeneration of cushion populations. Along with cushion dynamics, species composition, abundance and community structure gradually change. Once cushion plants completely degenerate, previously cushion-dominated communities shift to relatively stable communities that are overwhelmingly dominated by sedges. Climate warming may accelerate the degeneration process of A. polytrichoides. Degeneration of this foundational cushion plant will possibly induce massive changes in alpine plant communities and hence ecosystem functions in alpine ecosystems. The assessment of the population dynamics of foundation species is critical for an effective conservation of alpine biodiversity.

The biological activities of nanoparticles (NPs), which include endocytosis by macrophages and subsequent intracellular degradation and/or release, transfer to other cells, or translocation across tissue barriers, highly depend on their fate in living organisms. Yet, translocation across barriers, especially the distal “barrier-crossing” trafficking of NPs, is still unclear. The exosome (Exo) plays a crucial role in intercellular communication and biological barrier trafficking. Here, we report that ZnCdSe@ZnS quantum dots (QDs), as a representation of NPs in biomedical applications, could cross the blood-brain barrier and approach the mouse brain via active Exo encapsulation. By employing multiple techniques, we demonstrated that QDs were internalized by macrophages (J774A.1) and tumor cells (HeLa) and then released to the extracellular environment along with Exo. Exo encapsulation facilitates the distal barrier-crossing trafficking of QDs in vivo, while Exo biogenesis inhibitor GW4869 suppressed the QDs enriched in the brains of mice with a 4T1-Luc breast cancer xenograft. Interestingly, Exo heterogeneity affects the distal trafficking of enveloped QDs. Exo derived from tumorous HeLa cells, not macrophages, that were enriched in functional proteins with cell adhesion, cell migration, axon guidance, and cell motility, showed a better capacity for the remote trafficking of QDs. This study proposes Exo as a vehicle to deliver exogenous NPs to translocate across the distal barrier and provides further information for biomedical application and the risk assessment of NPs.

Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures with ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity provide a promising avenue to miniaturize the device size, increase computational power, and reduce energy consumption. However, the direct synthesis of such eye-catching heterostructures has yet to be realized up to now. Here, we design a two-step chemical vapor deposition strategy to growth of Cr2S3/WS2vertical heterostructures with atomically sharp and clean interfaces on sapphire. The interlayer charge transfer and periodic moiré superlattice result in the emergence of room-temperature ferroelectricity in atomically thin Cr2S3/WS2vertical heterostructures. In parallel, long-range ferromagnetic order is discovered in 2D Cr2S3via the magneto-optical Kerr effect technique with the Curie temperature approaching 170 K. The charge distribution variation induced by the moiré superlattice changes the ferromagnetic coupling strength and enhances the Curie temperature. The coexistence of ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism in 2D Cr2S3/WS2vertical heterostructures provides a cornerstone for the further design of logic-in-memory devices to build new computing architectures.

The increasing nanoparticle (NP) applications in the biomedical field have become an emerging concern regarding human health. NP exposure may play a role in the accelerating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression; however, the etiology of this disorder is complex and remains largely unclear. Here, we identified that intravenous injection of silica NPs (SiNPs) caused the blood–brain barrier breakdown via downregulating tight junction-related gene expressions. Meanwhile, SiNPs upregulate the transport receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) that govern the β-amyloid (Aβ) influx to the brain; however, low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) that controls the efflux of Aβ from the brain was not affected. Consequently, an increase in Aβ burden in the brain of SiNP-challenged APP/PS1 mice was found. Intriguingly, plasma apolipoprotein E (ApoE) adsorbed on the surface of SiNPs partially relieves this effect. Using ApoE knockout (ApoE–/–) mice, we confirmed that SiNPs covered with serum without ApoE showed further elevated AD symptoms. Together, this study offered a compilation of data to support the potential risk factors of NP exposure and AD pathology.

The massive production of plastics causes the ubiquitous existence of microplastics (MPs) in the biota, therefore, posing exposure risks and potential health concerns to human beings. However, the exact mechanisms of MPs-induced toxicities and abnormalities are largely unknown. In this study, we developed a mouse model of gavage polystyrene microplastics (PS MPs) for 30 days. We found that PS MPs can damage the intestinal barrier, accumulate in the liver tissue, and cause injury. The liver and intestine are both highly associated with bile acid (BA) metabolism. Indeed, we found that PS MPs dysregulate BA synthesis and efflux-related gene expression in the liver, causing cholestasis. Tandemly, PS MPs alter the ratio of primary to secondary BA in the feces by affecting the composition of the intestinal flora. At last, PS MPs alter mice’s fecal BA profile, which affects normal BA metabolism. Taken together, the present study provides robust data on the mechanism of toxicity of MPs causing the disturbance of BA metabolism via a 4-step gut-liver loop.

Aim: 4-Hydroxybenzaldehyde (4-HBd) is used for the treatment of headaches, dizziness, and convulsions. The objective of this study was to characterize the pharmacokinetics of 4-HBd in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) rats by microdialysis technology with high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD) and ultra-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). Methods: Microdialysis was used to collect blood, feces, and urine of normal and CIRI model rats. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined using HPLC-DAD and 4-HBd metabolites were determined using UPLC-MS. Results: After gavage of 4-HBd in normal and middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) rats, it was widely distributed to all tissues (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, and brain) in both the equilibrium and elimination phases, and the distribution pattern was basically the same; the highest concentration was found in the brain. The absolute bioavailability of 4-HBd was 5.33%; however, after intragastric administration in normal and MCAO/R rats, fecal and urinary excretion of 4-HBd accounted for 0.02% and 0.01% and for 0.01% and 0.03% of the dosage, respectively. Furthermore, 4-HBd was rapidly metabolized into 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HBA) after administration in both the control and MCAO/R groups. Compared with the control, the peak time of 4-HBd plasma concentration in the MCAO/R rats decreased from 10.67 min to 8.83 min, the area under the concentration-time curve decreased significantly, and the half-life increased from 31.81 min to 78.85 min. Conclusions: The rapid absorption and low absolute bioavailability of 4-HBd by gavage in rats are followed by rapid and wide distribution to various tissues and organs, including the brain. The prototype drug is excreted in the feces and urine in low amounts, and it is metabolized to 4-HBA in large amounts in vivo; the pathological state of the MCAO/R model mainly affects its absorption degree and metabolism rate.

Central Asia, especially the Tian‐Shan and Pamir‐Alay, is a biodiversity hotspot for Hedysarum(Fabaceae) with a high number of endemic species. However, to date, studies of the genus Hedysarumbased on molecular data have included only a few species distributed in this region. To fill this gap, we analysed 110 Hedysarumspecies, 36 of which were from the Tian‐Shan and Pamir‐Alay Mountains of Central Asia. We performed phylogenetic analyses, divergence time estimates, and biogeographic analyses using both the internal transcribed spacers of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA ITS) and three plastid DNA (cpDNA) sequences (trnL‐trnF, matK, psbA‐trnH). Our phylogenetic analysis grouped the species of Hedysaruminto three sections: H.sect. Hedysarum, sect. Multicaulia, and sect. Stracheya, which are largely consistent with previous phylogenetic classifications. Accordingly, most of the Central Asian species we studied (28 spp.) were placed in H. subsect. Criniferawithin H. sect. Multicaulia. Our divergence time and biogeographic analyses indicate that Hedysarumlikely originated in West Asia and/or East Asia during the Early Miocene or Middle Miocene and subsequently dispersed to adjacent areas of Eurasia, as well as North America via the Bering Land Bridge. The likely area of origin for H. sect. Multicauliais West Asia, while East Asia appears to be the center of origin for H.sect. Hedysarumand sect. Stracheya. In addition, we suggest that the rapid radiation of the species of H. subsect. Criniferaoccurred in the Tian‐Shan and Pamir‐Alay Mountains, as well as the Turkish‐Iranian Plateau, and that geological and climatic changes were the main causes of speciation in Hedysarum.

In this work, two Cu–Al–Mn shape memory alloys (SMAs), Cu-12.5Al–3Mn and Cu-12.5Al–3Mn–1Ni, were prepared by wire arc melting deposition, and their shape recovery rates, ultimate recoverable strains, additive manufacturing microstructures, memory recovery behaviors, and phase transition properties were comparatively investigated. Meanwhile, the mechanism of Ni in these two alloys was discussed by combining the differences in phase composition of the two alloys. Results showed that the shape recovery rate of Cu-12.5Al–3Mn alloy decreased linearly with increasing pre-strain, from 91.23% at 4% pre-strain to 62.41% at 10% pre-strain, and its ultimate recoverable strain was approximately 7%; while the shape recovery rate of Cu-12.5Al–3Mn–1Ni SMA was 100% at 4%–8% pre-strain, and remained at 96.57% until the pre-strain was increased to 10%, i.e., the recoverable strain was more than 9%. In addition, the phase change temperature of the alloy with Ni addition decreased compared to that of the alloy without Ni addition, especially the temperature hysteresis was narrower. The results indicate the formation of a new κ phase after adding Ni to the alloy. The pinning effect of this new phase significantly improves the order of martensite within the alloy. Moreover, Ni also induces the transformation of the alloy, inhibiting the precipitation of the brittle phase γ2 and leading to a marked increase in the shape memory recovery rate and the recoverable strain of the additively fabricated Cu–Al–Mn alloy. Note that Ni transforms the alloy from hyper-eutectoid components to eutectoid components. Moreover, after adding Ni, the thermoelastic martensite phase transition temperature and temperature hysteresis decreased together with its eutectoid temperature, which made the additive manufacturing Cu–Al–Mn SMA exhibit an explosive response behavior.

Graphical abstract:

Current fully supervised facial landmark detection methods have progressed rapidly and achieved remarkable performance. However, they still suffer when coping with faces under large poses and heavy occlusions for inaccurate facial shape constraints and insufficient labeled training samples. In this article, we propose a semisupervised framework, that is, a self-calibrated pose attention network (SCPAN) to achieve more robust and precise facial landmark detection in challenging scenarios. To be specific, a boundary-aware landmark intensity (BALI) field is proposed to model more effective facial shape constraints by fusing boundary and landmark intensity field information. Moreover, a self-calibrated pose attention (SCPA) model is designed to provide a self-learned objective function that enforces intermediate supervision without label information by introducing a self-calibrated mechanism and a pose attention mask. We show that by integrating the BALI fields and SCPA model into a novel SCPAN, more facial prior knowledge can be learned and the detection accuracy and robustness of our method for faces with large poses and heavy occlusions have been improved. The experimental results obtained for challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods in the literature.

Recently, the U-shaped networks have been widely explored in remote sensing image dehazing and obtained promising performance. However, most of the existing dehazing methods based on U-shaped framework lack the reconstruction constraints of haze areas, which is particularly important to restore haze-free images. Moreover, their encoding and decoding layers cannot effectively fuse multiscale features, resulting in deviations in the color and texture of the dehazing image. To address these issues, in this article, we propose a partial Siamese with multiscale bi-codec dehazing network (PSMB-Net), which is mainly composed of a partial Siamese framework (PSF) and a multiscale bi-codec information fusion (MBIF) module. Specifically, the PSF is proposed to create dehazing prior information to guide the network to build Siamese constraints and achieve improved dehazing results. Furthermore, we design an MBIF module which can enhance feature extraction (FE), and the multiscale information is used to improve the reconstruction ability of the network for the color and texture of the dehazing image. Experimental results on challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of our PSMB-Net over state-of-the-art image dehazing methods. The source code is available at https://github.com/thislzm/PSMB-Net.

A new hybridization of berberine and benzimidazoles was performed to produce 13-(benzimidazolylmethyl)berberines (BMB) as potentially broad-spectrum antibacterial agents with the hope of confronting multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in the livestock industry. Some of the newly prepared hybrids showed obvious antibacterial effects against tested strains. Particularly, 13-((1-octyl-benzimidazolyl)methyl)berberine 6f(OBMB-6f) was found to be the most promising compound that not only exerted a strong activity (MIC = 0.25–2 μg/mL) and low cytotoxicity but also possessed a fast bactericidal capacity and low propensity to develop resistance toward Staphylococcus aureusand Escherichia colieven after 26 serial passages. Moreover, OBMB-6fdisplayed the ability to prevent bacterial biofilm formation at low and high temperatures. The mechanistic exploration revealed that OBMB-6fcould significantly disintegrate bacterial membranes, markedly facilitate intracellular ROS generation, and efficiently intercalate into DNA. These results provided a profound insight into BMB against multidrug-resistant bacterial infections in the livestock industry.

The Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 type II heterojunction is successfully designed by a facile hydrothermal method firstly, and the visible light photocatalytic hydrogen production rate of Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 is increased to 18.84 μmol g−1 h−1, which is about 67.3 times and 37.7 times higher than that of H-TiO 2 and B-C 3 N 4. [Display omitted] • Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 type II heterostructure was designed and proved firstly. • The loading of cocatalyst Bi and its SPR effect can increase the transfer and separation rate of photogenerated carriers. • Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 exhibited good hydrogen production rate under visible light. Herein, a ternary Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 type II heterostructure is successfully designed and prepared via metal Bi as cocatalyst for photocatalytic H 2 generation. As expected, under λ > 300 nm light, the highest photocatalytic hydrogen production rate (HPR) of Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 is up to 223.08 μmol g−1 h−1. Excitingly, under visible light (λ > 400 nm), the highest HPR of Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 is increased to 18.84 μmol g−1 h−1, which is about 67.3 times, 37.7 times and 6.8 times as high as that of H-TiO 2 , B-C 3 N 4 and H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 under the same conditions, respectively. Moreover, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and transient photocurrent tests manifest that the interface resistance of Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 composite decreases and the photocurrent density increases after loading metal Bi. These results indicate that loading metal Bi as cocatalyst (providing more electron trapping sites) is beneficial to improve photocatalytic activity in the type II heterostructure composite. And the electron transfer directions (B-C 3 N 4 → H-TiO 2 → Bi or B-C 3 N 4 → Bi) are proved by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy test. Therefore, the Bi@H-TiO 2 /B-C 3 N 4 photocatalyst with strong visible light absorption is expected to be a promising candidate in photocatalytic fields under visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water pollution is a global challenge endangering people’s health. In this work, an ultra-efficient photodegradation system of Rhodamine B (RhB) has been established using a graphitic carbon nitride nanosheet (CNNS) as the semiconductor photocatalyst, from which energy is harvested on both the conduction band and valence band by formic acid and hydrogen peroxide, respectively. The optimized FA/H2O2/CNNS system increases the apparent photodegradation rate of RhB by 25 folds, from 0.0198 to 0.4975 min–1. Through a comprehensive investigation with reactive oxygen species scavengers, electron paramagnetic resonance, high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, etc., an oxidative mechanism for RhB photodegradation has been proposed, which combines enhanced charge carrier migration and synergistic generation of multiple radicals. Comparable performance improvements have also been observed for similar systems with different semiconductors, suggesting that such a catalytic system could afford a general approach to enhance semiconductor–catalyzed photodegradation.

The MoO3–Bi2O3binary oxides with higher ion potential difference, lower interaction parameters and lower melting points were selected as the high temperature lubricants for NiAl-based coating to further improve the tribological properties in wide temperature range. The friction and wear performance at low and medium temperatures (400–600 °C) is significantly improved compared to previous works. The NiAl-nanostructured MoO3/Bi2O3composite coatings were fabricated via atmospheric plasma spraying (APS). The impact of the ratio of the MoO3/Bi2O3binary oxides on the mechanical and tribological properties at high temperatures was investigated. The results show that the friction coefficients and wear rates of composite coating with a MoO3:Bi2O3ratio of 1:1 were significantly reduced from room temperature to 800 °C compare with our previous work, where, the friction coefficient and wear rate were reduced to lower than 0.22 and 2.8 × 10−5 mm3·(N·m)-1at 400–800 °C. The decrease of friction coefficient at room temperature is due to the lower melting points of MoO3and Bi2O3than that of other oxides. While above 400 °C, the improved friction and wear performance was attributed to the formation of new easy-to-shear ternary oxides as NiMoO4, Bi2Mo3O12and Bi2MoO6on the worn surfaces through tribo–chemical reactions, which works synergistically to reduce the friction coefficients and wear rate.

Background: Ultrasound (US) has a high sensitivity in detecting monosodium urate (MSU) deposition in gout patients. However, the value of US in predicting gout flares has been reported only in a few monocentric studies.Objective: To investigate the association between gout flares in the previous year and US-detected MSU burden using two different US scores.Design: A retrospective study.Methods: Patients with gout were consecutively recruited to undergo musculoskeletal US examinations of their knees, ankles, and feet. The score derived from Outcome Measure in Rheumatology (hereinafter referred to as MSU score) and musculoskeletal US features-based (hereinafter referred to as MSKF score) were used to quantify the MSU burden of gout. Odds ratios for frequent gout flares were calculated.Results: We enrolled 1894 patients with gout (mean age: 45 years; gout duration: 5 years; males: 96.1%), experiencing a median of three flares over the past year. Of these, 428 (22.6%) patients reported frequent (⩾7) gout flares. The MSU and MSKF median scores were 6 and 9, respectively. For each five-point increase in MSU and MSKF score, the odds ratio of frequent gout flares increased 1.13-fold and 1.24-fold, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) for the MSU and MSKF score was 0.635 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.604–0.665] and 0.688 (95% CI: 0.659–0.718), respectively, (AUC difference 0.054, pvalue for AUC difference < 0.001).Conclusion: The MSU and MSKF scores were significantly associated with the number of gout flares in the previous year. The MSKF score outperformed the MSU score in terms of frequent gout flare discrimination.

It is of great significance to enhance mass transfer and improve active surface area in cathodes for zinc–air batteries (ZABs), which promote oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) efficiency and power outputs. Nature has endowed some tissues with special structures to have efficient mass transfer properties and high active surface area. As an important mass transfer part of trees, xylem contains massive long and partially aligned channels, which provides numerous “passageway” and high active surface area for plants to facilitate the efficient transport of oxygen and inorganic salts. The multi-channel structures give an important insight to develop high efficient air cathode. Herein, 3D-printed bio-inspired multi-channel cathodes (BMCs), inspired by xylem structures, have been developed for high-performance ZABs via 3D printing. Channels of bionic cathode contribute to forming a continuous supply of oxygen from air. As a result, massive tri-phase boundary regions, where ORR happens, are formed inside of cathode. Moreover, the 3D-printed metal-based framework can facilitate electron transfer during ORR process. Benefiting from the multi-channel framework, the assembled ZABs with BMC-600 show excellent electrochemical performances in terms of the high power density of 170.1 mW cm−2and a high open-circuit voltage of 1.51 V. Therefore, BMCs provide a potential alternative as promising cathode for metal–air batteries.

Conjugated polymer dots (Pdots) are often used as excellent fluorescent probes in the biomedical field. In the process of preparing Pdots, the rapid change of the solvent polarity will result in a messy and defective stacking of the polymer chains in the particle, and these stacking defects of the polymer chains may weaken its luminescence properties. Here, we try to optimize the stacking of the conjugated polymer chains by the thermal annealing treatment. After the low temperature thermal treatment, the fluorescence intensity of Pdots can be enhanced by about 11%–29%, and Pdots maintain their original stability and biosafety. We used transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and single particle fluorescence imaging to reveal the possible mechanism of the chain stacking optimization process, that is, the thermal annealing process of Pdots is the competition between internal chain rearrangement in the particle and particle aggregation. The luminescence-enhanced Pdots exhibit good cellular imaging performance. These results prove that it is feasible to extend the thermal annealing treatment from planar polymer devices to polymer nanoparticles. It provides the possibility to realize stable and complex biological imaging applications using Pdots with a simple molecular structure, and a mature improvement scheme for the mass preparation of Pdots.

Natural berberine-hybridized benzimidazoles as potential antibacterial agents were constructed to treat Staphylococcus aureusinfection in the livestock industry. Bioassay showed that some new berberine-benzimidazole hybrids exhibited potent antibacterial efficacies, especially, the 2,4-dichlorobenzyl derivative 7dnot only showed strong activity against S. aureusATCC 29213 with the MIC value of 0.006 mM but also effectively eradicated bacterial biofilm and exhibited low toxicity toward mammalian cells. The drug combination experiments showed that compound 7dtogether with norfloxacin could enhance the antibacterial efficacy. Moreover, the 2,4-dichlorobenzyl derivative 7ddid not show obvious propensity to develop bacterial resistance. Preliminary mechanism studies revealed that the active molecule 7dcould damage the membrane integrity, stimulate ROS generation, and bind with DNA as well as S. aureussortase A, thus exerting powerful antibacterial ability. In light of these facts, berberine-benzimidazole hybrid 7dshowed a large potentiality as a new bactericide for treating S. aureusin the livestock industry.

Despite the well‐known biogeographic pattern in the Northern Hemisphere of disjunct distributions in plants between eastern Asia and North America, many details regarding the evolution of the disjunction between lineages of tropical Asia and tropical America remain poorly understood. Berchemia(Rhamnaceae), comprising ca. 32 species, is distributed predominantly in tropical regions of east to southeast Asia and North America. However, the phylogeny and biogeography of this genus are still not clear. Furthermore, fossils of the genus have been found in Europe, making it an ideal group to understand the biogeographical story of tropical disjunction in the Northern Hemisphere. With two nuclear (ETS, ITS) and three plastid (petA‐psbJ, psbA‐trnH, trnL‐F) DNA regions, we first reconstructed the phylogeny of Berchemiawith Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood approaches. Our results indicated that Berchemia, excluding the African species B. discolorand B. zeyheri, which were placed into the reinstated Phyllogeiton, was well‐supported as monophyletic. Divergence times and ancestral areas were inferred using a Bayesian uncorrelated lognormal relaxed molecular clock model and Bayesian binary MCMC method, respectively. The core Berchemialikely originated in the Western Tethys during the middle Eocene, then formed the tropical Asia and tropical America disjunction during the Oligocene and further diversified in Asia from the early Miocene on. The formation and diversification of the core Berchemialikely resulted from a mixture of geologic events, such as the close of the Tethys Ocean, disappearance of the North Atlantic Land Bridges, uplift of the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau, and climatic events, such as the establishment and enhancement of Asian monsoons.

Solar energy has received extensive attention as a renewable and sufficient energy source. Herein, inspired by the Janus wettability of lotus leaves, we have constructed a bioinspired hydrophilic–hydrophobic Janus hybrid system of carbonized carrot powder (CC powder)-modified cotton cloth with Nafion coating on one side (cotton cloth-NCC) for highly efficient solar steam generation. In cotton cloth-NCC, CC powder functions as a light absorber to achieve high light absorption, whereas the hydrophilic cotton cloth ensures efficient water transport. Meanwhile, the coating of Nafion establishes a hydrophobic–hydrophilic Janus structure, which can not only modulate water supply but also prevent salt deposition even with the high-concentration salt solution. The cotton cloth-NCC has been further shaped into a waved structure (w-cotton cloth-NCC) to increase the water evaporation area and achieve high light absorption (95%). Under 1 sun irradiation, w-cotton cloth-NCC yields a pure water steam generation rate of 1.88 kg m–2h–1and a seawater evaporation rate of 1.52 kg m–2h–1. Furthermore, the w-cotton cloth-NCC also has a good purification effect on sewage: Escherichia colican be completely removed, and the removal rate of Rhodamine B reaches 98.3%. The simple approach presented here for the construction of a high-efficient, low-cost, environmentally sustainable, long-term stable hydrophobic–hydrophilic Janus solar steam evaporator holds great promise for application in both environmental purification and photothermal conversion.

Long noncoding RNAs have been implicated in many biological processes, but their roles in liver regeneration still need to be illustrated. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of LINC00265 as a pivotal regulator of hepatocyte proliferation during liver regeneration. It was found that LINC00265 is significantly upregulated in rat liver tissues at various time points after 2/3 liver resection. LINC00265 knockdown inhibited hepatocyte proliferation, induced cell apoptosis and led to G2/M phase cell cycle arrestment.In rats subjected to surgery, LINC00265 knockdown decreased liver/body weight ratio, attenuated improvement from liver damage and reduced Ki67 and PCNA expression. Luciferase reporter assays confirmed that miR-28-5p was a direct target of LINC00265, and inhibition of miR-28-5p abolished the effect of LINC00265 knockdown. In summary, LINC00265 might maintain hepatocyte proliferation by targeting miR-28-5p during liver regeneration and should be considered as a promising therapeutic option for hepatocyte regeneration after liver resection.Graphical AbstractLINC00265 supports hepatocyte proliferation during liver regeneration.