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The continuous preparation scheme EPO-Poly-indol-nido-carborane (E-P-INDOLCAB), L100-55-Poly-indol-nido-carborane (L-P-INDOLCAB), RS-Poly-indol-nido-carborane (S-P-INDOLCAB), and RL-Poly-indol-nido-carborane (R-P-INDOLCAB) were used to prepare the four types of acrylic resin-coated nido-carborane indole fluorescent polymers. After testing their spectral properties and the fluorescence stability curve trend at various acidic pH values (3.4 and 5.5, respectively), L-P-INDOLCAB and S-P-INDOLCAB were determined to be the best polymers. The stable states of the two polymers and the dispersion of the nanoparticles on the system’s surface during Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) test are shown by the zeta potentials of −23 and −42 mV. The dispersion of nanoparticles on the system’s surface and the stable condition of the two polymers were examined using zeta potential and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can also confirm these findings, showing that the acrylic resin securely encases the interior to form an eyeball. Both polymers’ biocompatibility with HELA cells was enhanced in cell imaging, closely enclosing the target cells. The two complexes displayed strong inhibitory effects on PC-3 and HeLa cells when the concentration was 20 ug/mL, as validated by subsequent cell proliferation toxicity studies.

Abstract Metastable endoperoxides with beta‐amyloid fibrils targeting benzothiazole moieties were designed and synthesized. Singlet oxygen released from these endoperoxides by thermal cycloreversion reaction was shown to cause significant structural changes on the amyloid assemblies. Most importantly, the cytotoxicity of the beta‐amyloid fibrils on the PC12 cells were significantly reduced in the presence of endoperoxides. This observation, coupled with the fact that neither external oxygen, nor light is needed for this transformation, is very promising.

Atomically dispersed single-atom catalysts (SACs) have been extensively studied over the past decade because of their high atom utilization efficiencies and specific selectivities. Although numerous strategies have been proposed to obtain SACs with high densities and stabilities, the transformation mechanism that occurs during the reaction is still unclear. This review summarizes the structural evolution of SACs in the preparation process and reaction with various electron microscopy techniques at atomic scale under environmental conditions. Current state-of-the-art environmental electron microscopy studies on SACs mainly focus on porous carbons, metals or metal oxides, and some specific composite materials. The dynamic evolution of SACs under various reaction conditions is also investigated in this study. Finally, we highlight the challenges and drawbacks of the current studies and the prospects for the future exploration of SACs with environmental strategies.

Xylocarpin H, a limonoid from the Xylocarpin granatum, exhibits significant biological activities, including antioxidant, antiviral, analgesic, hypnotic, antimalarial, and antidepressant effects, demonstrating considerable potential for drug development. However, few studies have been reported to identify and classify active metabolites responsible for such excellent biological activities. In this study, we utilized ultra high-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC–Q–TOF–MS/MS) coupled with multiple data postprocessing techniques to rapidly identify in vivo and in vitro metabolites of xylocarpin H. Consequently, a total of 32 metabolites (23 in phase I and 9 in phase II) of xylocarpin H were detected both in rat feces, urine, bile, blood, intestinal flora, and rat and human liver microsomes. The metabolic pathways of xylocarpin H mainly involve hydrolysis, oxidation, reduction, addition, glucose conjugation, glucuronide conjugation, and sulfate conjugation. The metabolite M15 of xylocarpin H was synthesized by ester hydrolysis and its structure was determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This study elucidates the metabolic pathways of xylocarpin H and provides insights into the origin of its pharmacological activity.

The development of cost‐effective and stable electrocatalysts that can replace the prevailing Pt‐based and Ir‐based catalysts for water splitting remains a formidable challenge. The electrocatalytic performance of a catalyst depends on its chemical composition and environment during catalysis. Herein, a Ru–Mo composite is used as an example to highlight the significance of tailoring the chemical environments of the active‐sites. This customization enhances the cathodic and anodic reactions involved in water splitting, ultimately leading to an improved full reaction efficiency. Specifically, the chemically reduced state of Ru–Mo demonstrates promising hydrogen evolution activity and exhibits low overpotentials of 48 and 34 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 in acidic and alkaline electrolytes, respectively. The chemically oxidized state of Ru–Mo, derived from the same precursor, demonstrates proficient oxygen evolution activity and exhibits low overpotentials of 260 and 270 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in acidic and alkaline electrolytes, respectively. Additionally, in both cases, the Ru–Mo composites exhibit significantly improved stability under typical water‐splitting conditions. Despite the close chemical compositions of these two catalysts, they show poor performance in the counter electrode reactions, demonstrating the importance of establishing a suitable chemical environment for efficient electrocatalysis.

The structures and properties of hydrophobic association polymers can be controlled using micelles. In this work, we synthesize a reactive hydrophobic surfactant monomer, KS-3, from oleic acid, N,N-dimethylpropylenediamine, and allyl chloride. A strong synergistic effect between KS-3 and cocamidopropyl betaine in aqueous solution enhances the hydrophilic dispersibility of KS-3, thereby transforming spherical micelles into cylindrical micelles. KS-3 was grafted onto a polyacrylamide chain via aqueous free-radical polymerization to obtain RES, a hydrophobic association polymer. Structural analysis revealed that the RES polymers assembled in wormlike micelles were more tightly arranged than those assembled in spherical micelles, resulting in a compact network structure in water, smooth surface, and high thermal stability. Rheological tests revealed that the synthesized polymers with wormlike and spherical micelles exhibited shear-thinning properties along with different structural strengths and viscoelasticities. Therefore, controlling the micellar state can effectively regulate the polymer properties. The polymers obtained through wormlike micelle polymerization have potential applications in fields with high demands, such as drug release, water purification, and oilfield development.

As part of the field of DNA methylation identification, this study tackles the challenge of enhancing recognition performance by introducing a specialized deep learning framework called DeepPGD. DNA methylation, a crucial biological modification, plays a vital role in gene expression analyses, cellular differentiation, and the study of disease progression. However, accurately and efficiently identifying DNA methylation sites remains a pivotal concern in the field of bioinformatics. The issue addressed in this paper is the presence of methylation in DNA, which is a binary classification problem. To address this, our research aimed to develop a deep learning algorithm capable of more precisely identifying these sites. The DeepPGD framework combined a dual residual structure involving Temporal convolutional networks (TCNs) and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) networks to effectively extract intricate DNA structural and sequence features. Additionally, to meet the practical requirements of DNA methylation identification, extensive experiments were conducted across a variety of biological species. The experimental results highlighted DeepPGD’s exceptional performance across multiple evaluation metrics, including accuracy, Matthews’ correlation coefficient (MCC), and the area under the curve (AUC). In comparison to other algorithms in the same domain, DeepPGD demonstrated superior classification and predictive capabilities across various biological species datasets. This significant advancement in algorithmic prowess not only offers substantial technical support, but also holds potential for research and practical implementation within the DNA methylation identification domain. Moreover, the DeepPGD framework shows potential for application in genomics research, biomedicine, and disease diagnostics, among other fields.

Oxidative stress has been identified as a major factor in the development and progression of pain and psychiatric disorders, but the underlying biomarkers and molecular signaling pathways remain unclear. This study aims to identify oxidative stress-related biomarkers and signaling pathways in pain–depression comorbidity. Integrated bioinformatics analyses were applied to identify key genes by comparing pain–depression comorbidity-related genes and oxidative stress-related genes. A total of 580 differentially expressed genes and 35 differentially expressed oxidative stress-related genes (DEOSGs) were identified. By using a weighted gene co-expression network analysis and a protein–protein interaction network, 43 key genes and 5 hub genes were screened out, respectively. DEOSGs were enriched in biological processes and signaling pathways related to oxidative stress and inflammation. The five hub genes, RNF24, MGAM, FOS, and TKT, were deemed potential diagnostic and prognostic markers for patients with pain–depression comorbidity. These genes may serve as valuable targets for further research and may aid in the development of early diagnosis, prevention strategies, and pharmacotherapy tools for this particular patient population.

Cinnamomi ramulus (CR, Guizhi in Chinese) and Zingiberis rhizoma recens (ZRR, Shengjiang in Chinese) are couplet medicines (drug pairs or drug combinations) in traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. They contain a high amount of volatile oils which endow them with unique flavors and pharmacological activities. Extraction methods have a great influence on the extraction efficiency and composition of volatile oils. Firstly, the volatile oils of CR and ZRR were extracted by steam distillation (SD) and analyzed by GC-MS to obtain their chemical profiles. In total, 35 and 55 compounds were identified in the volatile oils of CR and ZRR, respectively. In order to find a suitable extraction method for the couplet medicine CR-ZRR, subsequently, steam distillation (SD), azeotropic distillation (AD) and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) were applied to extract the volatile oils from CR-ZRR. The average extraction yields by SD, AD and SFE were 0.573%, 0.62% and 2.135%, respectively. The chemical composition of the volatile oils was then analyzed by GC-MS. In total, 73, 59 and 71 compounds were identified from the extracts obtained by SD, AD and SFE, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) and OPLS-DA showed that citral, (E)-cinnamaldehyde dimethyl acetal, zingiberene, cinnamaldehyde and β-sesquiphellandrene were the main contributors to distinguish the volatile oils that were obtained by different processes. Considering the chemical diversity and the total content of the main bioactive components of the volatiles oils, SD was more suitable for CR-ZRR volatile oil extraction. This study provides a basis for elucidating the chemical composition and suitable extraction method for the volatile oils of CR-ZRR.

Resonance is commonly used for in situ measurement of the dynamic elastic modulus to evaluate the strength of concrete samples. Many researchers are also exploring the application of this convenient measurement technology for safety monitoring. Nevertheless, the presence of cracks and variations in curing conditions within samples can impact the resonance frequency range, potentially leading to potential inaccuracies in measurements. In order to improve the measurement accuracy of resonance frequency, this study introduces the Generalized S-Transform (GST) algorithm for measuring the dynamic elastic modulus, which utilizes its high time-frequency resolution to scan the power peak-point in non-stationary and transient excitation signals to determine the resonance frequency. For concrete materials with lower consistency, the experimental results verify the high accuracy of this algorithm in measuring resonance frequency compared with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This provides a reference for using the algorithm to measure the dynamic elastic modulus in civil engineering applications, such as buildings and bridges.

A small molecule disulfide unit technology platform based on dynamic thiol exchange chemistry at the cell membrane has the potential for drug delivery. However, the alteration of the CSSC dihedral angle of the disulfide unit caused by diverse substituents directly affects the effectiveness of this technology platform as well as its own chemical stability. The highly stable open-loop relaxed type disulfide unit plays a limited role in drug delivery due to its low dihedral angle. Here, we have built a novel disulfide unit starship based on the 3,4,5-trihydroxyphenyl skeleton through trigonometric bundling. The intracellular delivery results showed that the trigonometric bundling of the disulfide unit starship effectively promoted cellular uptake without any toxicity, which is far more than 100 times more active than that of equipment with a single disulfide unit in particular. Then, the significant reduction in cell uptake capacity (73–93%) using thiol erasers proves that the trigonometric bundling of the disulfide starship is an endocytosis-independent internalization mechanism via a dynamic covalent disulfide exchange mediated by thiols on the cell surface. Furthermore, analysis of the molecular dynamics simulations demonstrated that trigonometric bundling of the disulfide starship can significantly change the membrane curvature while pushing lipid molecules in multiple directions, resulting in a significant distortion in the membrane structure and excellent membrane permeation performance. In conclusion, the starship system we built fully compensates for the inefficiency deficiencies induced by poor dihedral angles.

Opsins are a class of transmembrane proteins encoded by opsin genes, and they play a variety of functional roles. Short wavelength-sensitive opsin 2 (sws2), one of the five classes of visual opsin genes, mainly senses blue light. Previous research has indicated that sws2 is essential for melanocyte formation in fish; however, its specific role in skin color differentiation remains to be elucidated. Here, we identified the sws2 gene in a prized reef-dwelling fish, Plectropomus leopardus. The full-length P. leopardus sws2 gene encodes a protein consisting of 351 amino acids, and exhibits substantial homology with other fish species. The expression of the sws2 gene was widespread across P. leopardus tissues, with high expression in eye and skin tissues. Through immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization analyses, we discovered that the sws2 gene was primarily localized in the rod and cone cells of the retina, and epidermal cells of the skin. Furthermore, dsRNA interference was used for sws2 gene knockdown in living P. leopardus to elucidate its function in skin color differentiation. Black-color-related genes, melanin contents, and tyrosinase activity in the skin significantly decreased after sws2 knockdown (p < 0.05), but red-color-related genes and carotenoid and lutein contents significantly increased (p < 0.05). Retinoic acid injection produced the opposite results. Our results suggested that the sws2 gene influences P. leopardus skin color regulation by affecting vitamin synthesis and melanin-related gene expression levels. This study establishes a foundation for elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which sws2 regulates melanocyte formation in fish skin.

Herein, a green biocatalytic approach using lipase as a catalyst has been developed for the synthesis of 3-selanyl-isoflavones through the selenylation/cyclization of 2-hydroxyphenyl enaminones and diphenyl di-selenide under mild conditions. The environmentally friendly method reached high yields of 87–95% in a short time at 30 °C, with 17 examples of 3-selanyl-isoflavones successfully prepared. Furthermore, we have investigated the possible mechanisms underlying this reaction.

In the current context of rapid Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing technology development, the Single Packet Authorization (SPA) protocol faces increasing challenges, such as security threats from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. To address these issues, we propose the Advanced Network-Hiding Access Control (AHAC) framework, designed to enhance security by reducing network environment exposure and providing secure access methods. AHAC introduces an independent control surface as the access proxy service and combines it with a noise generation mechanism for encrypted access schemes, replacing the traditional RSA signature method used in SPA protocols. This framework significantly improves system security, reduces computational costs, and enhances key verification efficiency. The AHAC framework addresses several limitations inherent in SPA: users need to know the IP address of resources in advance, exposing the resource address to potential attacks; SPA’s one-way authentication mechanism is insufficient for multi-level authentication in dynamic environments; deploying the knocking module and protected resources on the same host can lead to resource exhaustion and service unavailability under heavy loads; and SPA often uses high-overhead encryption algorithms like RSA2048. To counter these limitations, AHAC separates the Port Knocking module from the access control module, supports mutual authentication, and implements an extensible two-way communication mechanism. It also employs ECC and ECDH algorithms, enhancing security while reducing computational costs. We conducted extensive experiments to validate AHAC’s performance, high availability, extensibility, and compatibility. The experiments compared AHAC with traditional SPA in terms of time cost and performance.

With the gradual emphasis on health by people, the research on the pathogenesis of endemic diseases has become increasingly in-depth. Through analyzing the environmental selenium characteristics and conducting a comparative study in typical areas of Chinese loess and black soil in this paper, it is concluded that the environmental selenium in the two regions has different characteristics. The soil in the loess area has the characteristics of high alkalinity, low selenium, and relatively high selenium availability, and the crops are selenium-deficient, while the soil in the black soil area has the characteristics of high organic matter, low selenium availability, and relatively high selenium in crops. The research concluded that the environmental occurrence mechanism of Keshan disease in the loess area and the black soil area is different. Keshan disease can be induced in both low-selenium and sufficient-selenium environments, and environmental selenium should be one of the inducing factors of Keshan disease. This research provides a reference for predicting the areas where Keshan disease occurs and for disease prevention, and it can also serve in the prevention and control of endemic diseases.

In the field of perovskite optoelectronics, developing hole-transporting materials (HTMs) on the spiro[fluorene-9,9′-xanthene] (SFX) platform is one of the current research focuses. The SFX inherits the merits of spirobifluorene in terms of the configuration and property, but it is more easily derivatized and regulated by virtue of its binary structure. In this work, we design and synthesize four isomeric SFX-based HTMs, namely m-SFX-mF, p-SFX-mF, m-SFX-oF, and p-SFX-oF, through varying the positions of fluorination on the peripheral aniline units and their substitutions on the SFX core, and the optoelectronic performance of the resulting HTMs is evaluated in both perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) by the vacuum thermal evaporating hole-transporting layers (HTLs). The HTM p-SFX-oF exhibits an improved power conversion efficiency of 15.21% in an inverted PSC using CH3NH3PbI3 as an absorber, benefiting from the deep HOMO level and good HTL/perovskite interface contact. Meanwhile, the HTM m-SFX-mF provides a maximum external quantum efficiency of 3.15% in CsPb(Br/Cl)3-based PeLEDs, which is attributed to its perched HOMO level and shrunken band-gap for facilitating charge carrier injection and then exciton combination. Through elucidating the synergistic position effect of fluorination on aniline units and their substitutions on the SFX core, this work lays the foundation for developing low-cost and efficient HTMs in the future.

Abstract The photothermal conversion capacity of pristine organic phase change materials (PCMs) is inherently insufficient in solar energy utilization. To upgrade their photothermal conversion capacity, we developed bimetallic zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) derived Co/N co‐doped flower‐like carbon (Co/N‐FLC)‐based composite PCMs toward solar energy harvesting. 3D interconnected carbon framework with low interfacial thermal resistance, abundant carbon defects and high content of nitrogen doping, excellent localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of Co nanoparticles, and light absorber Co3ZnC in Co/N‐FLC synergistically upgrade the photothermal capacity of (polyethylene glycol) PEG@Co/N‐FLC composite PCMs with an ultrahigh photothermal conversion efficiency of 94.8% under 0.16 W/cm2. Uniformly anchored Co and Co3ZnC nanoparticles in carbon framework guarantee excellent photon capture ability. Bridging carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 2D carbon nanosheets further accelerate the rapid transport of phonons by constructing cross‐connected heat transfer paths. Additionally, PEG@Co/N‐FLC exhibits a thermal energy storage density of 100.69 J/g and excellent thermal stability and durable reliability. Therefore, PEG@Co/N‐FLC composite PCMs are promising candidates to accelerate the efficient utilization of solar energy.

The purpose of this study is to develop an accurate and efficient assay for the detection of pyrethroid residues and degradation in barley and soil in the Qinghai Plateau region. A sensitive and selective method was developed for the determination of pyrethrin residues in highland barley (kernel, stem, and root) and soil in the Qinghai Plateau by liquid chromatography (LC-MS/MS). Multi-residue analysis of pyrethrin in samples involves simple extraction with acetonitrile, salt-out with NaCl, MgSO4 absorption of water, cleaning with GCB and PSA, respectively, followed by separation with XR-ODS II column, and multi-reaction detection mode detection using a positive mode electrospray ionization source (ESI + ). The results showed that the 6 different components of pyrethrin had a good detection effect in the concentration range of 0.01 ∼ 1.0 mg/L, and the correlation coefficient was greater than 0.9990. The limits of quantitation of each component on each substrate were 0.01 ∼ 0.05 mg/kg, the average daily recoveries were 87.58 ∼ 95.44 %, and the relative standard deviations were 0.4 ∼ 3.8 %. The half-life of pyrethrin in barley grains, stems and soil was 0.77 ∼ 2.57 d. In soil and highland barley, the maximum dose of pyrethrin and twice the maximum dose of pyrethrin were applied, and the final residue 7 days after treatment was less than 0.2 mg/kg. The degradation behavior of pyrethrin in soil at three test sites showed that organic carbon and pH were important factors affecting the degradation of pyrethrin, and the effect of pH on the degradation of six pyrethrin components was greater than that of organic carbon. These studies provide theoretical basis for environmental safety evaluation caused by pyrethrin use in the Qinghai Plateau.

Abstract Sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) work similarly to lithium‐ion batteries, but they cost less and are safer. However, the battery has some shortcomings, such as low energy density and poor stability, which hinder its development and application. The development of electrode materials with low cost and high‐performance characteristics is a hot and difficult point in the research of SIBs. In this paper, the existing sodium ion cathode and anode materials are systematically reviewed. Firstly, the electrochemical structures and properties of various cathode and anode materials were introduced, and the limitations of cathode and anode materials of SIBs were analyzed. Based this, the current modification methods were summarized, such as surface coating of materials, doping of heteroatoms and metal elements to improve the electrochemical performance. In this paper, the research progress and modification measures of SIBs are summarized and prospected. It is helpful to further improve its comprehensive performance and lay a foundation for the future application of cathode and anode materials for SIBs.

In recent years, there has been growing scientific interest in balancing the bioactivity and cytotoxicity of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) for more comprehensive research and application. In this study, we focused on t-DPH1, a representative member of the dermaseptin family, as a template. We synthesized five analogues were synthesised to to assess the impact of three conserved features of the dermaseptin family (1. the tryptophan residue at 3rd position, 2. the consensus motif at mid-region, and 3. C-terminal amidation) on the bioactivity of t-DPH1 and their potential to reduce cytotoxicity. Our results demonstrated that analogues lacking an amino group at the C-terminus, specifically t-DPH1-NH2, exhibited potent antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae). Furthermore, t-DPH1-NH2 retained its robust antiproliferative activity against the human non-small lung cancer cell line H157. Regarding cytotoxicity, t-DPH1-NH2 displayed lower levels of haemolytic activity and cytotoxicity against two normal cell lines. Notably, we employed C. elegans as an in vivo model to assess the cytotoxicity of peptides, and the results revealed no induction of in vivo toxicity by t-DPH1-NH2. Collectively, t-DPH1-NH2 provides valuable insights for further investigation as promising bioactive peptide templates in the development of antibiotic and anticancer prototype drugs. The modifications implemented based on the conserved structure of the peptide family offer a new direction for reducing the cytotoxicity of peptides.

The deactivation of active sites caused by high-temperature sintering and the deposition of a large amount of carbon are the main difficulties in the reforming of methane using Ni-based catalysts. La, as a promoter, has an ameliorating effect on the defects of Ni-based catalysts. In this article, the mechanism of action of Ni-based catalysts with the introduction of the rare-earth metal additive La was reviewed, and the effects of La on the methane-reforming performance of Ni-based catalysts were examined. The physical properties, alkalinity, and activity of Ni-based catalysts can be enhanced by the use of the auxiliary agent La, which promotes the conversion of CH4 and CO2 as well as the selectivity towards H2 and CO formation in the reforming of methane. The reason why the Ni-based catalysts could maintain long-term stability in the presence of La was discussed. Furthermore, the current state of research on the introduction of different amounts of La in the reforming of methane at home and abroad was analyzed. It was found that 2–5 wt.% La is the most optimal quantity for improving the catalyst activity and stability, as well as the CO2 chemisorption. The limitations and directions for future research in the reforming of methane were discussed.

In the original publication, there was a mistake in Figure 3 as published [...]

The immobilization of enzymes is an important strategy to improve their stability and reusability. Enzyme immobilization technology has broad application prospects in biotechnology, biochemistry, environmental remediation, and other fields. In this study, composites of chitosan (CS) and sodium alginate (SA) with Cu2+ forming a double-network crosslinked structure of hydrogels were prepared and used for the immobilization of laccase. Fourier infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy tests revealed that laccase molecules were immobilized on the composite hydrogel surface by a covalent bonding method. Compared to free laccase, the pH, temperature, and storage stability of the immobilized laccase were markedly improved. In addition, the immobilized laccase could be easily separated from the reaction system and reused, and it maintained 81.6% of its initial viability after six cycles of use. Bisphenol A (BPA) in polluted water was efficiently degraded using immobilized laccase, and the factors affecting the degradation efficiency were analyzed. Under the optimal conditions, the BPA removal was greater than 82%, and the addition of a small amount of ABTS had a significant effect on BPA degradation, with a removal rate of up to 99.1%. Experimental results indicated that immobilized laccases had enormous potential in actual industrial applications.

For the Jiawula lead–zinc deposit, as easily accessible resources become depleted, mines are becoming deeper to replenish ore reserves. Identifying large, continuous, and high-grade ore bodies in deep areas has become a daunting problem. Moreover, separating lead–zinc-bearing complex ore bodies from waste material and extracting them from associated minerals are also difficult. Thus, pioneering exploratory strategies and technological methodologies are required to make breakthroughs in mineral discovery. Based on extensive-scale structural lithofacies mapping, this paper uses short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectroscopy technology to investigate hydrothermal alteration minerals in the mining area. It has identified a total of 16 hydroxyl-bearing alteration minerals, including chlorite, muscovite, illite, calcite, ankerite, kaolinite, and smectite. These minerals establish zoning characteristics around the ore bodies and on their flanks. They comprise a segmented assemblage that follows the pattern of comb-textured quartz–illite–chlorite–carbonate → muscovite–illite–chlorite–ankerite → illite–smectite–chlorite → chlorite–kaolinite–calcite. Deep-zone illitization with a lower Al–OH absorbance peak wavelength (1.1) and chloritization with higher Fe–OH absorbance peak wavelengths (>2254) and higher crystallinity indices (>3.0) are indicators of potential hydrothermal centers in the deeper regions. By finding hydrothermal centers and connecting their spatial distribution with existing ore bodies, a pertinent relationship between diabase + andesite, Fe-chlorite + illite, and high-grade mineralization has been established. They correspond well with the lithology-alteration mineralization. This research provides a basis for predicting the positioning of concealed ore bodies deep inside a mine or at the periphery.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and smokers have a higher incidence of intestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the transcriptomic changes in the lungs and intestines, and the fecal microbial composition after cigarette smoke exposure. Mice were exposed to cigarette smoke and their lung and ileum tissues were analyzed by RNA sequencing. The top 15 differentially expressed genes were investigated in publicly available gene expression datasets of COPD and Crohn’s disease (CD) patients. The murine microbiota composition was determined by 16S rRNA sequencing. Increased expression of MMP12, GPNMB, CTSK, CD68, SPP1, CCL22, and ITGAX was found in the lungs of cigarette smoke-exposed mice and COPD patients. Changes in the intestinal expression of CD79B, PAX5, and FCRLA were observed in the ileum of cigarette smoke-exposed mice and CD patients. Furthermore, inflammatory cytokine profiles and adhesion molecules in both the lungs and intestines of cigarette smoke-exposed mice were profoundly changed. An altered intestinal microbiota composition and a reduction in bacterial diversity was observed in cigarette smoke-exposed mice. Altered gene expression in the murine lung was detected after cigarette smoke exposure, which might simulate COPD-like alterations. The transcriptomic changes in the intestine of cigarette smoke-exposed mice had some similarities with those of CD patients and were associated with changes in the intestinal microbiome. Future research could benefit from investigating the specific mechanisms underlying the observed gene expression changes due to cigarette smoke exposure, focusing on identifying potential therapeutic targets for COPD and CD.

With the continuous improvement of surface water environmental quality in China, sediment has gradually become the focus of research on internal pollution in reservoirs. To investigate the forms, distribution, and migration patterns of phosphorus in karst canyon reservoir sediments, we employed an improved sequential graded extraction method to determine phosphorus content in the sediments of the Wanfeng Reservoir. We studied the spatial distribution characteristics and release risk of phosphorus form in the sediments. The results showed that the total phosphorus (TP) content ranged from 79.37 to 438.04 mg·kg−1, while inorganic phosphorus (IP) content ranged from 77.32 to 424.64 mg·kg−1. Iron–aluminum-bound inorganic phosphorus (Fe/Al-Pi) accounted for 36.41% and was found to be the dominant form of IP. Organic phosphorus (OP) content ranged from 1.84 to 13.59 mg·kg−1, with weakly adsorbed organic phosphorus (H2O-Po) being the dominant form of OP. Potentially active inorganic phosphorus (NaHCO3-Pi) showed a highly significant positive correlation (p < 0.01) with Fe/Al-Pi, residual phosphorus (Res-P), and TP. This indicates that potentially active phosphorus (NaHCO3-P) is a significant potential source of phosphorus (P) in the reservoir. Biologically active phosphorus (BAP) content ranged from 66.97 to 201.46 mg·kg−1, with BAP/TP ratios ranging from 55.6% to 59.6%. The risk of phosphorus release from Wanfeng Reservoir sediments is high. The release of various forms of phosphorus from sediments is one of the important factors leading to the deterioration of water quality in the reservoir area in the future. To effectively manage water ecology in karst canyon reservoirs, it is essential to reduce the risk of endogenous phosphorus release.

The intrusion of foreign objects on airport runways during aircraft takeoff and landing poses a significant safety threat to air transportation. Small-scale Foreign Object Debris (FOD) cannot be ruled out on time by traditional manual inspection, and there is also a potential risk of secondary foreign body intrusion. A deep-learning-based intelligent detection method is proposed to solve the problem of low accuracy and low efficiency of small-scale FOD detection. Firstly, a dual light camera system is utilized for the collection of FOD data. It generates a dual light FOD dataset containing both infrared and visible light images. Subsequently, a multi-attention mechanism and a bidirectional feature pyramid are integrated into the baseline network YOLOv5. This integration prioritizes the extraction of foreign object features and boosts the network’s ability to distinguish FOD from complex backgrounds. Additionally, it enhances the fusion of higher-level features to improve the representation of multi-scale objects. To ensure fast and accurate localization and recognition of targets, the Complete-IoU (CIoU) loss function is used to optimize the bounding boxes’ positions. The experimental results indicate that the proposed model achieves a detection speed of 36.3 frame/s, satisfying real-time detection requirements. The model also attains an average accuracy of 91.1%, which is 7.4% higher than the baseline network. Consequently, this paper verifies the effectiveness and practical utility of our algorithm for the detection of small-scale FOD targets.

Salinization of cultivated soils may result in either high salt levels or alkaline conditions, both of which stress crops and reduce performance. We sampled genotypes included in the Northeast China soybean germplasm population (NECSGP) to identify possible genes that affect tolerance to alkaline soil conditions. In this study, 361 soybean accessions collected in Northeast China were tested under 220 mM NaHCO3:Na2CO3 = 9:1 (pH = 9.8) to evaluate the alkali-tolerance (ATI) at the seedling stage in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, China. The restricted two-stage multi-locus model genome-wide association study (RTM-GWAS) with gene–allele sequences as markers (6503 GASMs) based on simplified genome resequencing (RAD-sequencing) was accomplished. From this analysis, 132 main effect candidate genes with 359 alleles and 35 Gene × Environment genes with 103 alleles were identified, explaining 90.93% and 2.80% of the seedling alkali-tolerance phenotypic variation, respectively. Genetic variability of ATI in NECSGP was observed primarily within subpopulations, especially in ecoregion B, from which 80% of ATI-tolerant accessions were screened out. The biological functions of 132 candidate genes were classified into eight functional categories (defense response, substance transport, regulation, metabolism-related, substance synthesis, biological process, plant development, and unknown function). From the ATI gene–allele system, six key genes–alleles were identified as starting points for further study on understanding the ATI gene network.

Abstract Drug discovery for a protein target is a laborious and costly process. Deep learning (DL) methods have been applied to drug discovery and successfully generated novel molecular structures, and they can substantially reduce development time and costs. However, most of them rely on prior knowledge, either by drawing on the structure and properties of known molecules to generate similar candidate molecules or extracting information on the binding sites of protein pockets to obtain molecules that can bind to them. In this paper, DeepTarget, an end-to-end DL model, was proposed to generate novel molecules solely relying on the amino acid sequence of the target protein to reduce the heavy reliance on prior knowledge. DeepTarget includes three modules: Amino Acid Sequence Embedding (AASE), Structural Feature Inference (SFI), and Molecule Generation (MG). AASE generates embeddings from the amino acid sequence of the target protein. SFI inferences the potential structural features of the synthesized molecule, and MG seeks to construct the eventual molecule. The validity of the generated molecules was demonstrated by a benchmark platform of molecular generation models. The interaction between the generated molecules and the target proteins was also verified on the basis of two metrics, drug–target affinity and molecular docking. The results of the experiments indicated the efficacy of the model for direct molecule generation solely conditioned on amino acid sequence.

Abstract Through‐space interaction (TSI) has been proven to play an important role in the newly emerging clusteroluminescence (CL) phenomenon. However, it is still a big challenge to manipulate the TSI at the molecular level due to the unclear relationship between the non‐conjugated structure and TSI properties. Herein, the TSI in diphenylmethane is manipulated by breaking its symmetric structures and changing the isolated subunits. Finally, the CL wavelength and efficiency of diphenylmethane are successfully regulated at the aggregate state.

Major latex proteins, or MLPs, are crucial to plants’ capacity to grow, develop, and endure biotic and abiotic stresses. The MLP gene family has been found in numerous plants, but little is known about its role in Populus simonii × P. nigra. This study discovered and assessed 43 PtMLP genes that were unevenly dispersed throughout 12 chromosomes in terms of their physicochemical characteristics, gene structure, conserved motifs, and protein localization. Based on their phylogeny and protein structural characteristics, three separate subclasses of PtMLP family were identified. Segmental and tandem duplication were found to be essential variables in the expansion of the PtMLP genes. The involvement of the PtMLP genes in growth and development, as well as in the responses to different hormones and stresses, was demonstrated by cis-regulatory element prediction. The PtMLP genes showed varying expression patterns in various tissues and under different conditions (cold, salt, and drought stress), as demonstrated in RNA-Seq databases, suggesting that PsnMLP may have different functions. Following the further investigation of the genes demonstrating notable variations in expression before and after the application of three stresses, PsnMLP5 was identified as a candidate gene. Subsequent studies revealed that PsnMLP5 could be induced by ABA treatment. This study paves the way for further investigations into the MLP genes’ functional mechanisms in response to abiotic stressors, as well as the ways in which they can be utilized in poplar breeding for improved stress tolerance.

Arsenic (As) is of widespread concern, as its elevated contents in soil and water have a serious impact on the ecological environment and human health. Soils in karst regions are characterized by a high geochemical background of As. However, the bioavailability of As in paddy soils and the potential risk of As transfer from the soil to rice remain unclear. In this study, 305 paired soil–rice samples were collected from karst regions in Guangxi, China, in order to examine the controlling variables and As bioavailability in the soil–rice system. According to this study, the karst region’s paddy soil had higher As concentrations than the non-karst region’s paddy soil. The As concentration in the rice grains was low, with only 0.62% of the rice samples exceeding the permissible value of inorganic As (0.2 mg/kg). Arsenic in the karstic paddy soils existed mainly in the residual fraction, while the water-soluble and exchangeable fractions, which are readily absorbed by rice, accounted for a relatively small proportion. The high content but low bioavailability of As in the karstic paddy soil was mostly attributed to the abundant Fe–Mn nodules, which contributed 64.45% of the As content in the soil. Within the Fe–Mn nodules, As was primarily bound to Fe-(oxyhydr)oxides, which could be released into the paddy soil under certain reduction conditions via the reductive dissolution of Fe-(oxyhydr)oxides. Under the natural pH conditions of the karstic paddy soil (pH 4.9–8.38), the leaching of As was almost negligible, and As could be steadily retained within the Fe–Mn nodules. However, extremely acidic or alkaline conditions promoted the release of As from the Fe–Mn nodules.

The middle segment of the Kalawenguquan fault has been active since the Holocene, with a maximum credible earthquake magnitude of MS 7.5. We established two source models based on empirical relationships, as well as geological, geomorphological, and seismic characteristics. Taking into account the uncertainties of simulation parameters, we adopted the stochastic finite-fault method to calculate all combinations of a multi-scheme simulation. The effects of different source models, initial rupture points, and site locations on the prediction of ground motion parameters were analyzed. The results indicate that when a site is located on a smaller asperity and is a certain distance from the largest asperity, the simulation results are higher. For different sites, when the initial rupture point is located near the smaller rather than the larger asperity, the acceleration response spectra are higher. Our results show that the relationships between the initial rupture points, asperities, and sites have a significant impact on the simulation results. Therefore, our study highlights the relevance of determining the initial rupture point and source model to obtain a reasonable evaluation for near-field strong ground motion simulations at major infrastructures.

The utilization and development of biomass resources is an efficient solution to mitigate the fossil energy crisis. Based on the advantages of mild reaction conditions, rapid reaction, and high conversion, the synthesis of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) by the electrocatalytic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMFOR) has attracted considerable attention. This review will summarize the recent advances of HMFOR to FDCA, including the reaction pathway and mechanism, as well as the catalytic performance of various heterogeneous electrocatalysts. The challenges and prospects for HMFOR are also focused on. Finally, it is expected that this work may provide guidance for the design of high-efficiency electrocatalysts and thereby accelerate the industrialization process of biomass utilization.

To address the issue of ineffective injection resulting from the consistent channeling of injected water through highly permeable channels in ultra-deep, high-temperature, high-salinity, and strongly heterogeneous reservoirs during the production process, a gel particle profile control agent suitable for high-temperature and high-salinity conditions was chosen. With the help of the glass etching visual microscopic model and the heterogeneous long core model, the formation mechanism of a water flooding channeling path and the distribution law of the remaining oil were explored, the microscopic profile control mechanism of the different parameters was clarified, and the profile control effect of macroscopic core displacement was analyzed. The research shows that the formation mechanism of a water flooding channeling path is dominated by the distribution law of the permeability section and the connection mode between different penetration zones. The remaining oil types after water flooding are mainly contiguous block, parallel throats, and multi-branch clusters. The profile control effect of gel particles on reservoir vertical heterogeneity is better than that of reservoir lateral heterogeneity. It was found that 10 wt% submicron particles with a median diameter of 600 nm play a good role in profiling and plugging pores of 5–20 μm. In addition, 10 wt% micron-sized particles with a median diameter of 2.63 μm mainly play a strong plugging role in the pores of 20–30 μm, and 5 wt% micron-sized particles with a median diameter of 2.63 μm mainly form a weak plugging effect on the pores of 10–20 μm. The overall profile control effect of 10 wt% submicro particles is the best, and changes in concentration parameters have a more significant effect on the profile control effect. In the macroscopic core profile control, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) can reach 16%, and the gel particles show plugging, deformation migration, and re-plugging. The research results provide theoretical guidance for tapping the potential of the remaining oil in strong heterogeneous reservoirs. To date, the gel particles have been applied in the Tahe oilfield and have produced an obvious profile control effect; the oil production has risen to the highest value of 26.4 t/d, and the comprehensive water content has fallen to the lowest percentage of 32.1%.

An increasing amount of evidence indicates that Baicalin (Bai, a natural glycosyloxyflavone compound) exhibits an antiviral effect against avian viruses. However, it remains unclear if the antiviral effect of Bai against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) is exerted indirectly by modulating respiratory tract microbiota and/or their metabolites. In this study, we investigated the protection efficacy of Bai in protecting cell cultures and broilers from IBV infection and assessed modulation of respiratory tract microbiota and metabolites during infection. Bai was administered orally to broilers by being mixed in with drinking water for seven days. Ultimately, broilers were challenged with live IBV. The results showed that Bai treatment reduced respiratory tract symptoms, improved weight gain, slowed histopathological damage, reduced virus loads and decreased pro-inflammation cytokines production. Western blot analysis demonstrated that Bai treatment significantly inhibited Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) and nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) expression both in cell culture and cells of the trachea. Bai treatment reversed respiratory tract microbiota dysbiosis, as shown by 16S rDNA sequencing in the group of broilers inoculated with IBV. Indeed, we observed a decrease in Proteobacteria abundance and an increase in Firmicutes abundance. Metabolomics results suggest that the pentose phosphate pathway, amino acid and nicotinamide metabolism are linked to the protection conferred by Bai against IBV infection. In conclusion, these results indicated that further assessment of anti-IBV strategies based on Bai would likely result in the development of antiviral molecule(s) which can be administered by being mixed with feed or water.

The search for target antigens for CAR-T cell therapy against multiple myeloma defined the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) as an interesting candidate. Several studies with BCMA-directed CAR-T cell therapy showed promising results. Second-generation point-of-care BCMA.CAR-T cells were manufactured to be of a GMP (good manufacturing practice) standard using the CliniMACS Prodigy® device. Cytokine release in BCMA.CAR-T cells after stimulation with BCMA positive versus negative myeloma cell lines, U266/HL60, was assessed via intracellular staining and flow cytometry. The short-term cytotoxic potency of CAR-T cells was evaluated by chromium-51 release, while the long-term potency used co-culture (3 days/round) at effector/target cell ratios of 1:1 and 1:4. To evaluate the activation and exhaustion of CAR-T cells, exhaustion markers were assessed via flow cytometry. Stability was tested through a comparison of these evaluations at different timepoints: d0 as well as d + 14, d + 90 and d + 365 of cryopreservation. As results, (1) Killing efficiency of U266 cells correlated with the dose of CAR-T cells in a classical 4 h chromium-release assay. There was no significant difference after cryopreservation on different timepoints. (2) In terms of endurance of BCMA.CAR-T cell function, BCMA.CAR-T cells kept their ability to kill all tumor cells over six rounds of co-culture. (3) BCMA.CAR-T cells released high amounts of cytokines upon stimulation with tumor cells. There was no significant difference in cytokine release after cryopreservation. According to the results, BCMA.CAR-T cells manufactured under GMP conditions exerted robust and specific killing of target tumor cells with a high release of cytokines. Even after 1 year of cryopreservation, cytotoxic functions were maintained at the same level. This gives clinicians sufficient time to adjust the timepoint of BCMA.CAR-T cell application to the patient’s course of the underlying disease.

Amyloidosis involves the deposition of misfolded proteins. Even though it is caused by different pathogenic mechanisms, in aggregate, it shares similar features. Here, we tested and confirmed a hypothesis that an amyloid antibody can be engineered by a few mutations to target a different species. Amyloid light chain (AL) and β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) are two therapeutic targets that are implicated in amyloid light chain amyloidosis and Alzheimer’s disease, respectively. Though crenezumab, an anti-Aβ antibody, is currently unsuccessful, we chose it as a model to computationally design and prepare crenezumab variants, aiming to discover a novel antibody with high affinity to AL fibrils and to establish a technology platform for repurposing amyloid monoclonal antibodies. We successfully re-engineered crenezumab to bind both Aβ42 oligomers and AL fibrils with high binding affinities. It is capable of reversing Aβ42-oligomers-induced cytotoxicity, decreasing the formation of AL fibrils, and alleviating AL-fibrils-induced cytotoxicity in vitro. Our research demonstrated that an amyloid antibody could be engineered by a few mutations to bind new amyloid sequences, providing an efficient way to reposition a therapeutic antibody to target different amyloid diseases.

Disulfides, as fundamental scaffolds, are widely present in peptides, natural products, and pharmaceutical molecules. However, traditional synthesis of disulfides often involves the utilization of toxic reagents or environmentally unfriendly reaction conditions. In this work, a green and efficient method was developed for synthesizing pyrrole disulfides using β-ketothioamides and ethyl cyanoacetate as substrates, with lipase serving as a catalyst. Under the optimal conditions (β-Ketothioamides (1 mmol), ethyl cyanoacetate (1 mmol), PPL (200 U), and EtOH (5 mL)), lipase leads to the formation of pyrrole disulfides in yields of up to 88% at 40 °C. The related mechanism is also speculated in this paper. This approach not only presents a new application of lipase in enzyme catalytic promiscuity, but also offers a significant advancement in the synthetic pathway for pyrrole disulfides and aligns with the current mainstream research direction of green chemistry, contributing to the further development of environmentally friendly biocatalytic processes.