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The sediment microbial fuel cell (SMFC) sensors using cathode as sensing element exhibited attractive prospects for online and in‐situ monitoring. However, the sensing performance of SMFC sensors to different types of contaminants was seldom reported. In this study, SMFCs were constructed in stimulated wetland to sense five types of contaminants, including oxidative heavy metals (Cu2+ and Cr6+), non‐oxidative heavy metals (Ni2+ and Zn2+), salt (NaCl), acid (HCl), and alkali (NaOH). The addition of Cu2+, Cr6+ or H+ triggered voltage peaks whereas the voltage dropped immediately following the addition of OH−. The addition of Ni2+ and Zn2+ did not trigger any obvious peaks. The NaCl solutions caused slight voltage peaks which were not increased with increasing concentrations. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) illustrated the reduction of Cu2+ and Cr6+ to elemental Cu and Cr3+ on the cathodic surface, indicating the contaminants that promote or inhibit electron consumption on cathode would cause voltage peaks or drops. The addition of heavy metals, OH− and NaCl significantly increased Simpson's diversity whereas Cu2+, Cr6+ and OH− significantly decreased the abundance of exoelectrogenic bacteria‐associated genera in the top‐layer soil. However, the influence of the contaminants on the abundance and diversity was attenuated in the middle and bottom layers, indicating that the exoelectrogenic bacteria could to some extent withstand these contaminants and guarantee the operation of the SMFC sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Near‐infrared (NIR) to visible upconversion devices (UCDs) provide a viable and cost‐effective way for NIR visualization and pixel‐less imaging techniques. An excellent electrical connection between the NIR detection unit and the visible emission unit in the UCD is one of the prerequisites for achieving efficient upconversion performance. In this study, a low temperature‐ and solution‐processed nickel oxide (NiOx) interconnecting layer (ICL) with high hole mobility and favorable energy levels is demonstrated to decouple the trade‐off between photosignal and photonoise in the UCDs. The use of such a NiOx ICL suppresses intrinsic visible emission in the dark (photonoise) but enhances visible light output under NIR illumination (photosignal) by triggering an efficient charge injection in the UCDs. As a result, a hybrid UCD monolithically integrating an organic NIR photodetector and a visible quantum dot light‐emitting diode via the NiOx ICL achieves excellent performance, exhibiting an ultralow turn‐on voltage as low as 1.6 V, a high luminance close to 6.3 × 103 cd m−2, a wide operation voltage window up to 7.4 V, and a high contrast ratio reaching 5 × 104. The resulting UCD is also used for imaging demonstrations showing clear visible images of the NIR targets, which paves the way for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of quantum nonlocality, lying at the heart of quantum information science and technologies, is physically counter‐intuitive and mathematically elusive. Here, a hyper‐entanglement‐assisted ghost imaging system is designed to visualize the evidence of Hardy's paradox by capturing the purely nonlocal photonic events with a spatially resolved intensified charge‐coupled device (ICCD) camera. In the two‐photon polarization‐spatial‐mode hyper‐entangled state, spatial entanglement conveys the ghost images while polarization entanglement encodes the imaging channels in the logical structure of Hardy's nonlocality proof. Then whether the single ghost image of a skull‐shape object is observed or not can be a direct yet intuitive signature to support or defy quantum mechanics. Moreover, the degree of the violation of locality can be characterized by the contrast‐to‐noise ratio of ghost images macroscopically, and the nonlocal behavior of violating the locality microscopically at the single‐pixel level with a reasonable confidence level of 75% is also achieved. The proposed strategy not only sheds new light on the fundamental issue of quantum mechanics, but also holds promise for developing hyper‐entanglement‐based quantum imaging technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible inorganic functional materials have received extensive attention in recent years due to their unique properties and potential application prospects. Among various flexible materials, ceramic fiber membranes have great application prospects due to their functional original structure. Unlike other materials, such as one‐dimensional flexible ice, two‐dimensional BaTiO3, and three‐dimensional α‐Ag2S, ceramic fiber membranes are high‐performance materials with a functional unit structure. In the field of electrospinning, electrospinning technology can effectively control the microstructure of ceramic fibers, allowing for multileveled structure design, such as ordered electrospinning technology and disordered electrospinning technology, which can effectively control the functional primitive structure. However, the mechanical behavior of these structures is still poorly understood. In this groundbreaking study, we investigated the functional original structure of CaTiO3:Eu3+ electrospinning fiber membranes from the bottom‐up and explored the effect of grain diameter ratio on mechanical behavior and studied the effect of Eu3+ ions on the luminescent properties of CaTiO3 functional fiber membranes. By controlling the electrospinning parameters and avoiding inherent mechanical property differences between the microcrystals, we realized the stress concentration design from the perspective of functional element structure. Our results show that the stress concentration design at the bottom of the multileveled structure significantly affects the overall mechanical behavior. This work proposes a new method to control the mechanical properties of inorganic functional ceramic fiber membranes through functional element structure design and provides the first bottom‐ordered regulation method, offering a new dimension for future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cryptococcosis and talaromycosis are known as 'neglected epidemics' due to their high case fatality rates and low concern. Clinically, the skin lesions of the two fungal diseases are similar and easily misdiagnosed. Therefore, this study aims to develop an algorithm to identify cryptococcosis/talaromycosis skin lesions. Methods: Skin images of tararomiasis and cryptococcosis were collected from published articles and augmented using the Python Imaging Library (PIL). Then, five deep artificial intelligence models, VGG19, MobileNet, InceptionV3, Incept ResNetV2 and DenseNet201, were developed based on the collected datasets using transfer learning technology. Finally, the performance of the models was evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, accuracy, AUC and ROC curve. Results: In total, 159 articles (79 for cryptococcosis and 80 for talaromycosis), including 101 cryptococcosis skin lesion images and 133 talaromycosis skin lesion images, were collected for further mode construction. Five methods showed good performance for prediction but did not yield satisfactory results for all cases. Among them, DenseNet201 performed best in the validation set, followed by InceptionV3. However, InceptionV3 showed the highest sensitivity, accuracy, F1 score and AUC values in the training set, followed by DenseNet201. The specificity of DenseNet201 in the training set is better than that of InceptionV3. Conclusions: DenseNet201 and InceptionV3 are equivalent to the optimal model in these conditions and can be used in clinical settings as decision support tools for the identification and classification of skin lesions of cryptococcus/talaromycosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐dimensional frequency entanglement is an enabling resource in quantum technology due to its high information capacity and error resilience. A concise yet efficient method for precisely quantifying its dimensionality remains an open challenge, owing to the difficulties for performing required superposition measurements in energy‐time domains, and the complexity associated with full quantum state tomography that scales unfavorably with dimensions. With the assistance of Hong–Ou–Mandel experiment that performs a Fourier transform between the entangled photons in terms of joint spectral intensities and the quantum interference in terms of biphoton temporal coincidences, the concept of Shannon dimensionality as a fast quantifier of bipartite continuous frequency entanglement is unlocked. This quantitative technique reveals the complete distribution of frequency entanglement but without suffering from any limitation of modal capacity of the detection geometry. These results may significantly facilitate the use of quantum interference for characterizing the high‐dimensional entanglement nature by avoiding some stringent conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organic phototransistors (OPTs) featuring built‐in amplification afford ultrahigh photoresponse. However, the response speed is usually slow in disordered OPTs, limited by the charge trapping/recombination process caused by inherent trap sites. This work studies the relationship between the photoinduced charge carrier dynamics and photoresponse characteristics in a near‐infrared (NIR) light‐sensitive OPT. It is found that the introduction of a small amount of electron acceptor into a p‐type polymer, forming a donor:acceptor bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ), in the OPT channel can dramatically improve the overall response speed of the detector. This is because the exciton dissociation and charge separation at the donor/acceptor interface not only improves the photoresponse but also reduces the minority charge trapping. Less charge trapping/recombination is essential to achieve a fast response in OPTs. As a result, the rise and fall time are improved from 1.3 and 3.5 s for the polymer‐only‐based NIR OPTs to 16 and 119 ms for the organic BHJ‐based NIR OPTs, making it suitable for use in medically relevant photoplethysmography applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Normal early erythropoiesis depends on the precise regulation of protein expression and phosphorylation modification. Dysregulation of protein levels or modification contributes to erythroid disorders. To date, the dynamics of protein phosphorylation profiling across human erythroid development is not fully understood. Here, we characterized quantitative proteomic and phosphoproteomic profiling by tandem mass‐tagging technology. We systemically built phospho‐expression profiling and expression clusters of 11 414 phosphopeptides for human early erythropoiesis. The standardization methods for multitier integrative analyses revealed multiple functional modules of phosphoproteins (e.g., regulation of the G2/M transition) and active phosphorylated signalling (e.g., cell cycle‐related pathways). Our further analysis revealed that CDK family members were the main kinases that phosphorylate substrates in erythroid progenitors and identified that CDK9 played an important role in the proliferation of erythroid progenitors. Collectively, our phosphoproteomic profiling, integrative network analysis and functional studies define landscapes of the phosphoproteome and reveal signalling pathways that are involved in human early erythropoiesis. This study will serve as a valuable resource for further investigations of phosphatase and kinase functions in human erythropoiesis and erythroid‐related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red blood cells (RBCs) generated ex vivo have the potential to be used for transfusion. Human embryonic stem cells (ES) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) possess unlimited self‐renewal capacity and are the preferred cell sources to be used for ex vivo RBC generation. However, their applications are hindered by the facts that the expansion of ES/iPS‐derived erythroid cells is limited and the enucleation of ES/iPS‐derived erythroblasts is low compared to that derived from cord blood (CB) or peripheral blood (PB). To address this, we sought to investigate the underlying mechanisms by comparing the in vitro erythropoiesis profiles of CB CD34+ and ES CD34+ cells. We found that the limited expansion of ES CD34+ cell‐derived erythroid cells was associated with defective cell cycle of erythroid progenitors. In exploring the cellular and molecular mechanisms for the impaired enucleation of ES CD34+ cell‐derived orthochromatic erythroblasts (ES‐ortho), we found the chromatin of ES‐ortho was less condensed than that of CB CD34+ cell‐derived orthochromatic erythroblasts (CB‐ortho). At the molecular level, both RNA‐seq and ATAC‐seq analyses revealed that pathways involved in chromatin modification were down‐regulated in ES‐ortho. Additionally, the expression levels of molecules known to play important role in chromatin condensation or/and enucleation were significantly lower in ES‐ortho compared to that in CB‐ortho. Together, our findings have uncovered mechanisms for the limited expansion and impaired enucleation of ES CD34+ cell‐derived erythroid cells and may help to improve ex vivo RBC production from stem cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visual perception of a moving target is not always true. Wheels turning rapidly, for instance, may look like rotating inversely. This phenomenon is known as the wagon‐wheel effect (WWE) and it is caused by the undersampling of visual information. Here, an analogous manifestation of the WWE concept is described in the scenario of light–matter interactions, by showing that the dynamic response of a particle, to an optical trap scanned at different rates, can be diametrically opposed. Further, such behaviors are modulated by the particle dimensions, which can be exploited for particle size selection. The results uncover a distinct paradigm of nontrivial optical manipulation and expand the bidirectional optical sorting range of dielectric particles to the sub‐200 nm scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum‐correlation‐based ghost imaging, also termed quantum ghost imaging, has found applications as diverse as the fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and low‐light‐level imaging. In any previous schemes, however, only biphoton spatial entanglement is utilized, whereas other degrees of freedom of the photons have not yet been explored. Here we break this barrier to present a multichannel parallel ghost imaging system, by exploiting hyperentanglement where photon pairs are simultaneously entangled in polarization, color, and spatial mode. In the experiment, polarization and color entanglements provide 2× 2 independent channels via simultaneous polarization and color multiplexing, while an optical isolator with a delay line is constructed to ensure that spatial entanglement conveys the ghost image in parallel. The method can offer a pathway for high‐capacity quantum image processing and transmission in future quantum network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U2AF1 (U2AF35) is the small subunit of the U2 auxiliary factor (U2AF) that constitutes the U2 snRNP (small nuclear ribonucleoproteins) of the spliceosome. Here, we examined the function of U2AF1 in human erythropoiesis. First, we examined the expression of U2AF1 during in vitro human erythropoiesis and showed that U2AF1 was highly expressed in the erythroid progenitor burst‐forming‐unit erythroid (BFU‐E) cell stage. A colony assay revealed that U2AF1 knockdown cells failed to form BFU‐E and colony‐forming‐unit erythroid (CFU‐E) colonies. Our results further showed that knockdown of U2AF1 significantly inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in erythropoiesis. Additionally, knockdown of U2AF1 also delayed terminal erythroid differentiation. To explore the molecular basis of the impaired function of erythroid development, RNA‐seq was performed and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis results showed that several biological pathways, including the p53 signalling pathway, MAPK signalling pathway and haematopoietic cell lineage, were involved, with the p53 signalling pathway showing the greatest involvement. Western blot analysis revealed an increase in the protein levels of downstream targets of p53 following U2AF1 knockdown. The data further showed that depletion of U2AF1 altered alternatively spliced apoptosis‐associated gene transcripts in CFU‐E cells. Our findings elucidate the role of U2AF1 in human erythropoiesis and reveal the underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mian‐Lue‐Ning area, bounded by the Hanjiang fault zone in the south and the Mian‐Lue suture in the north, is one of the most important polymetallic mineralization concentration regions in the Qinling orogenic belt. The Xujiagou copper deposit is representative in this area with chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite as the main ore minerals, subordinate sphalerite, and pyrite. However, the source of the ore‐forming materials and the genesis of the Xujiagou copper deposit are still in a controversy due to the lack of detailed study on the mineral composition. In this study, the electron probe micro‐analyzer (EPMA) analysis shows that the pyrrhotite in the Xujiagou copper deposit is mostly monoclinic pyrrhotite of low‐temperature phase, indicating that the metallogenic temperature should be below 304 °C. The percent of FeS molecules in sphalerite is 8.16–12.1%, indicating that the metallogenic temperature is 230–258 °C, which is mesothermal mineralization. The in situ Pb isotope composition of chalcopyrite (206Pb/204Pb = 19.087–20.861; 207Pb/204Pb = 15.533–16.062; 208Pb/204Pb = 38.121–39.391) and pyrrhotite (206Pb/204Pb = 20.241–20.664; 207Pb/204Pb = 15.7–15.996; 208Pb/204Pb = 38.659–39.372) in the Xujiagou copper deposit was analysed by fLA‐MC‐ICPMS, and it indicates that the ore‐forming materials were mainly sourced from the upper crust. Moreover, the contents and ratios of Co and Ni in pyrrhotite (Ni: 500–1600 ppm, Co < 630 ppm, Co/Ni = 0.03–1.71) suggest that the ore‐forming material of the Xujiagou copper deposit could be extracted from the spilite of the Guojiagou Formation, and the ore minerals inherited the geochemical characteristics of the spilite. Combined with previous studies of the Tongchang copper deposit in the Mian‐Lue‐Ning area, it is proposed that the Xujiagou and Tongchang copper deposits have similar ore‐forming materials source and evolution processes, and their formations may be related to the breakup event of the Rodinia supercontinent. However, the relatively lower 207Pb/204Pb and 206Pb/204Pb ratios of the Tongchang chalcopyrite and pyrite than those of the Xujiagou chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite indicate that the Tongchang copper deposit suffered more intense influence of the lower crust materials due to the emplacement of the Tongchang diorite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlamydiae are Gram-negative bacteria, which replicate exclusively in the infected host cells. Infection of the host cells by Chlamydiae stimulates the innate immune system leading to an inflammatory response, which is manifested not only by secretion of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β from monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells, but also possibly by cell death mediated by Caspase-1 pyroptosis. RIP3 is a molecular switch that determines the development of necrosis or inflammation. However, the involvement of RIP3 in inflammasome activation by Chlamydia muridarum infection has not been clarified. Here, we assessed the role of RIP3 in synergy with Caspase-1 in the induction of IL-1β production in BMDM after either LPS/ATP or Chlamydia muridarum stimulation. The possibility of pyroptosis and necroptosis interplays and the role of RIP3 in IL-1β production during Chlamydia muridarum infection in BMDM was investigated as well. The data indicated that RIP3 is involved in NLRP3 inflammasome activation in LPS/ATP-stimulated BMDMs but not in Chlamydia muridarum infection. Pyroptosis occurred in BMDM after LPS/ATP stimulation or Chlamydia muridarum infection. Moreover, the results also illuminated the important role of the Caspase-1-mediated pyroptosis process which does not involve RIP3. Taken together, these observations may help shed new light on details in inflammatory signaling pathways activated by Chlamydia muridarum infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This method unlocks the concept of Shannon dimensionality for characterizing the high-dimensional entanglement nature by avoiding some stringent conditions. Fast quantifier of high-dimensional entanglement is an essential prerequisite for quantum technologies. Front Cover: Fast Quantifier of High-Dimensional Frequency Entanglement through Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference (Adv. [Extracted from the article]

Detecting the optical vortices of darkness hidden in an ultra-weak background is a difficult task. Here we report an experiment demonstrating that the optical vortices can be directly visualized and identified with a smaller number of photons. Our method is based on the extension of the spiral phase contrast technique to incorporate vortex phase plates (VPP) of high-order topological charges. In our experiment, we prepare optical vortex arrays of interesting structures such as Arabic numerals and the wings carrying various topological charges. By placing various VPP filters in the Fourier plane of a 4f imaging system, the embedded vortices of an incident ultra-weak light field can be visualized, revealing both their positions and topological charges. It is found that a higher order vortex generally requires a smaller number of photons to be detected. Our method may find potential application in the fields of astronomical optics and biosensing in an ultra-weak light environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of dual‐mode organic photodetectors (OPDs) greatly improves its functionality by enabling selective spectral detection. This study presents a unidirectional bias‐switchable dual‐mode OPD that leverages selective carrier extraction through the manipulation of light field distributions and non‐equilibrium transport dynamics. This dual‐mode OPD features a simple single‐layer structure, allowing for straightforward one‐sided light incidence and without the need for voltage polarity switching. By optimizing the blend of poly(4‐butyl‐phenyl‐diphenyl‐amine) and non‐fullerene acceptor Y6, the device achieves efficient single‐band detection of ultraviolet (UV) light at low bias and dual‐band detection of UV and near‐infrared light at high bias. This versatility not only streamlines device architecture but also facilitates secure optical communication and gesture simulation, making it a valuable tool for advancing organic optoelectronics. The proposed strategy demonstrates universal applicability, paving the way for enhanced security and functionality in digital communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red blood cells (RBCs) generated ex vivo have the potential to be used for transfusion. Human embryonic stem cells (ES) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) possess unlimited self-renewal capacity and are the preferred cell sources to be used for ex vivo RBC generation. However, their applications are hindered by the facts that the expansion of ES/iPS-derived erythroid cells is limited and the enucleation of ES/iPS-derived erythroblasts is low compared to that derived from cord blood (CB) or peripheral blood (PB). To address this, we sought to investigate the underlying mechanisms by comparing the in vitro erythropoiesis profiles of CB CD34 + and ES CD34 + cells. We found that the limited expansion of ES CD34 + cell-derived erythroid cells was associated with defective cell cycle of erythroid progenitors. In exploring the cellular and molecular mechanisms for the impaired enucleation of ES CD34 + cell-derived orthochromatic erythroblasts (ES-ortho), we found the chromatin of ES-ortho was less condensed than that of CB CD34 + cell-derived orthochromatic erythroblasts (CB-ortho). At the molecular level, both RNA-seq and ATAC-seq analyses revealed that pathways involved in chromatin modification were down-regulated in ES-ortho. Additionally, the expression levels of molecules known to play important role in chromatin condensation or/and enucleation were significantly lower in ES-ortho compared to that in CB-ortho. Together, our findings have uncovered mechanisms for the limited expansion and impaired enucleation of ES CD34 + cell-derived erythroid cells and may help to improve ex vivo RBC production from stem cells., (© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)