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This study introduces newly discovered chrysin derivatives that show potential as candidate molecules for treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Compound 4b, among the synthesized compounds, displayed significant inhibitory effects on monocyte adhesion to colon epithelium induced by TNF-α, with an IC50 value of 4.71 μM. Further mechanistic studies demonstrated that 4b inhibits the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and downregulates the expression of ICAM-1 and MCP-1, key molecules involved in monocyte-epithelial adhesion, as well as the transcriptional activity of NF-κB. In vivo experiments have shown that compound 4b exhibits a dose-dependent inhibition of 2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis in rats, thereby validating its effectiveness as a colitis inhibitor in animal models. These results indicate that 4b shows considerable promise as a therapeutic agent for managing IBD.

Curved grid stiffeners, compared to straight stiffeners, offer greater flexibility in adjusting the force transmission paths and give better structural performance. In this paper, a level-set-based density method is employed to generate layouts of curved grid stiffeners so that the critical buckling load factor (BLF) of the stiffened structures is improved. During the optimization process, volume constraint is incorporated to control material utilization, and gradient constraints are employed to maintain uniformity in the width of the stiffeners. Finally, the proposed method is demonstrated through several numerical examples.

Aconitine (AC), which is the primary bioactive diterpene alkaloid derived from Aconitum L plants, have attracted considerable interest due to its unique structural feature. Additionally, AC demonstrates a range of biological activities, such as its ability to enhance cardiac function, inhibit tumor growth, reduce inflammation, and provide analgesic effects. However, the structure-activity relationships of AC are remain unclear. A clear understanding of these relationships is indeed critical in developing effective biomedical applications with AC. In line with these challenges, this paper summarized the structural characteristics of AC and relevant functional and bioactive properties and the structure-activity relationships presented in biomedical applications. The primary temporal scope of this review was established as the period spanning from 2010 to 2023. Subsequently, the objective of this review was to provide a comprehensive understanding of the specific action mechanism of AC, while also exploring potential novel applications of AC derivatives in the biomedical field, drawing upon their structural characteristics. In conclusion, this review has provided a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and prospects associated with AC in the elucidation of structure-bioactivity relationships. Furthermore, the importance of exploring modern biotechnology approaches to enhance the potential biomedical applications of AC has been emphasized.

Peony seed oil, known for its high nutritional value and low production yield, has become a crucial component in high-quality health products. Consequently, enhancing the extraction efficiency of peony seed oil has become an industry objective. Pulse electric field (PEF) technology, as a non-thermal extraction method, has shown promising advancements in improving plant oil yield by enhancing cell permeability. In this study, we designed a static parallel plate PEF treatment unit to process peony seed particles. By manipulating pulse voltage parameters, we investigated the effects of particle size and PEF strength on the oil yield. We also analyzed and evaluated tocopherol in the oil before and after treatment. The results demonstrated that PEF significantly increased the oil yield. Both treated and control groups exhibited gradually increased oil yields with decreasing particle size until reaching saturation at a certain particle size. Increasing voltage frequency did not have a significant impact on the oil yield; however, increasing voltage amplitude resulted in an optimal point for maximum oil yield. Analysis of oil composition indicated that PEF appropriately increased tocopherol content. These findings provide a foundation for further optimization of PEF parameters to assist in extracting peony seed oil and facilitate its industrial application.

In clinical practice, colon cancer is a prevalent malignant tumor of the digestive system, characterized by a complex and progressive process involving multiple genes and molecular pathways. Historically, research efforts have primarily focused on investigating individual genes; however, our current study aims to explore the collective impact of multiple genes on colon cancer and to identify potential therapeutic targets associated with these genes. For this research, we acquired the gene expression profiles and RNA sequencing data of colon cancer from TCGA. Subsequently, we conducted differential gene expression analysis using R, followed by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses. To construct a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network, we selected survival-related genes using the log-rank test and single-factor Cox regression analysis. Additionally, we performed LASSO regression analysis, immune infiltration analysis, mutation analysis, and cMAP analysis, as well as an investigation into ferroptosis. Our differential expression and survival analyses identified 47 hub genes, and subsequent LASSO regression analysis refined the focus to 23 key genes. These genes are closely linked to cancer metastasis, proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle regulation, signal transduction, cancer microenvironment, immunotherapy, and neurodevelopment. Overall, the hub genes discovered in our study are pivotal in colon cancer and are anticipated to serve as important biological markers for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Colorectal cancer (CRC), a prevalent malignant tumor of the digestive system, ranks as the third and second in global incidence and mortality, respectively, in 2020, with 1.93 million new cases (≈10% of all cancers). There are 940,000 deaths (≈9.4% of all cancers), and the incidence of CRC in younger patients (under 50 years of age) has become a new trend. The pathogenesis of CRC is primarily attributed to a series of genetic and epigenetic abnormalities within normal colonic epithelial cells, coupled with the reshaping of the tumor microenvironment in the surrounding stroma. This process leads to the transformation of colorectal adenomas into invasive adenocarcinomas. Although genetic changes are known to be the primary driving force in the occurrence and progression of CRC, recent research indicates that epigenetic regulation serves as a crucial molecular marker in cancer, playing a significant role in the pathological and physiological control of interactions between genetics and the environment. This review discusses the current global epidemiology of CRC, its risk factors, and preventive treatment strategies. The current study explores the latest advancements in the epigenetic regulation of CRC, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). These developments hold potential as screening tools, prognostic biomarkers, and therapeutic targets for CRC.

In hydrogen evolution reaction, inefficient mass transfer caused by bubble adhesion on electrode, bubble dispersion in electrolyte and slow H2 diffusion, has greatly impeded the reaction process. Existing techniques can only resolve bubble adhesion or bubble dispersion problems. Strategy that simultaneously solve bubble adhesion, bubble dispersion and poor hydrogen diffusion problems is rarely reported. Recently, an article reported a new electrode with special wettability design, which can efficiently promote bubble transfer and dissolved H2 diffusion. This design can simultaneously solve above mentioned three mass transfer issues and improve electrode efficiency. We summarize the remaining challenges of this work and outlook potential approaches to promote mass transfer in gas-evolution reactions.

To investigate the energy partitioning up to the fourth oscillation of a millimeter-scale spherical cavitation bubble induced by laser, we used nanosecond laser pulses to generate highly spherical cavitation bubbles and shadowgraphs to measure the radius-time curve. Using the extended Gilmore model and considering the continuous condensation of the vapor in the bubble, the time evolution of the bubble radius, bubble wall velocity, and pressure in the bubble is calculated till the 4th oscillation. Using Kirkwood-Bethe hypothesis, the evolution of velocity and pressure of shock wave at the optical breakdown, the first and second collapses are calculated. The shock wave energy at the breakdown and bubble collapse is directly calculated by numerical method. We found the simulated radius-time curve fits well with experimental data for the first four oscillations. The energy partition at the breakdown is the same as that in previous studies, the ratio of shock wave energy to bubble energy is about 2:1. In the first collapse and the second collapse, the ratio of shock wave energy to bubble energy is 14.54:1 and 2.81:1 respectively. In the third and fourth collapses, the ratio is less, namely than 1.5:1 and 0.42:1 respectively. The formation mechanism of the shock wave at the collapse is analyzed. The breakdown shock wave is mainly driven by the expansion of the supercritical liquid resulting from the thermalization of the energy of the free electrons in the plasma, and the collapse shock wave is mainly driven by the compressed liquid around the bubble.

In recent years, organic fluorescent probes with tumor microenvironment (TME)-responsive fluorescence turn-on properties have been increasingly used in imaging-guided tumor resection due to their higher signal-to-noise ratio for tumor imaging compared to non-responsive fluorescent probes. However, although researchers have developed many organic fluorescent nanoprobes responsive to pH, GSH, and other TME, few probes that respond to high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the TME have been reported in imaging-guided surgery applications. In this work, we prepared Amplex® Red (ADHP) with excellent ROS response performance as an ROS-responsive nanoprobe and studied its application in image-guided tumor resection for the first time. To confirm whether the nanoprobe can be used as an effective biological indicator to distinguish tumor sites, we first detected 4T1 cells with the ADHP nanoprobe, demonstrating that the probe can utilize ROS in tumor cells for responsive real-time imaging. Furthermore, we conducted fluorescence imaging in vivo in 4T1 tumor-bearing mice, and the ADHP probe can rapidly oxidize to form resorufin in response to ROS, which can effectively reduce the background fluorescence signal compared with the single resorufin probe. Finally, we successfully carried out image-guided surgery of 4T1 abdominal tumors under the guidance of fluorescence signals. This work provides a new idea for developing more TME-responsive fluorescent probes and exploring their application in image-guided surgery.

Redox imbalance can trigger cell dysfunction and damage and plays a vital role in the origin and progression of many diseases. Maintaining the balance between oxidants and antioxidants in vivo is a complicated and arduous task, leading to ongoing research into the construction of redox nanomaterials. Nanodrug platforms with redox characteristics can not only reduce the adverse effects of oxidative stress on tissues by removing excess oxidants from the body but also have multienzyme-like activity, which can play a cytotoxic role in tumor tissues through the catalytic oxidation of their substrates to produce harmful reactive oxygen species such as hydroxyl radicals. In this review, various redox nanomaterials currently used in disease therapy are discussed, emphasizing the treatment methods and their applications in tumors and other human tissues. Finally, the limitations of the current clinical application of redox nanomaterials are considered.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions are highly variable due to the complex interaction of climatic and ecological factors. Here, we obtained in-situ annual N2O emission flux data from almost 180 peer-papers to evaluate the dominant drivers of N2O emissions from forests and unfertilized grasslands at a global scale. The average value of N2O emission fluxes from forest (1.389 kg Nha-1yr-1) is almost twice as large as that from grassland (0.675 kg Nha-1yr-1). Soil texture and climate are the primary drivers of global forest and grassland annual N2O emissions. However, the best predictors varied according to land use and region. Soil clay content was the best predictor for N2O emissions from forest soils, especially in moist or wet regions, while soil sand content predicted N2O emissions from dry or moist grasslands in temperate and tropical regions best. Air temperature was important for N2O emission from forest, while precipitation was more efficient in grassland. This study provides an overall understanding of the relationship between natural N2O emissions and climatic and environmental variables. Moreover, the identification of principle factors for different regions will reduce the uncertainty range of N2O flux estimates, and help to identify region specific climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

In this work, TiO2 was selected as an additive to the Sm0.2Ce0.8O2-δ (SDC) electrolyte and its influence on the electrolyte properties were investigated. The tetrabutyl titanate hydrolysis product was introduced into the SDC samples as a source of TiO2. The lattice contraction of SDC was observed by XRD when the smaller ionic radius Ti4+ (0.605Å) were substituted for Ce4+ (0.97 Å). XRD analysis shows that the doping content of the TiO2 in SDC should be limited to 1 wt% to maintain the single-phase cubic fluorite structure of the SDC and avoid impurity phases. SEM characterizations suggest that the addition of TiO2 significantly promoted the grain growth and the sintering activity, especially when doping with 0.5 wt% of TiO2. The electrochemical measurements reveal that the addition of TiO2 had little effect on the conductivity of SDC samples, which was 0.0306 S cm−1 at 700°C. This study shows that 0.5 wt% TiO2 doping can effectively improve the sintering activity without reducing the SDC performance.

In this study, a nanocrystalline layer composed primarily of martensite phase was prepared on the surface of 304 stainless steel. Furthermore, the martensite phase content in the nanocrystalline layer was adjusted by heat treatment at 500 °C and 550 °C, respectively, and the cavitation erosion resistance of the nanocrystalline layer before and after heat treatment was investigated. The results showed that the nanocrystalline layer before and after heat treatment exhibited excellent erosion resistance, with cumulative mass loss of approximately 1/7, 1/5, and 1/3 that of the traditional 304 stainless steel, respectively. The nanocrystalline layer could significantly inhibit the growth of cavitation pits due to the high density of grain boundaries. However, due to the decrease in hardness of the nanocrystalline layer after heat treatment, the propagation speed of cavitation cracks was accelerated, and the cavitation erosion performance of the nanocrystalline layer showed a downward trend.

Two-dimensional nanomaterials hold great promise as electrode materials for the construction of excellent electrochemical energy storage and transformation apparatuses. In the study, metallic layered cobalt sulfide was, firstly, applied to the area of energy storage as a supercapacitor electrode. By a facile and scalable method for cathodic electrochemical exfoliation, metallic layered cobalt sulfide bulk can be exfoliated into high-quality and few-layered nanosheets with size distributions in the micrometer scale range and thickness in the order of several nanometers. With a two-dimensional thin sheet structure of metallic cobalt sulfide nanosheets, not only was a larger active surface area created, but also, the insertion/extraction of ions in the procedure of charge and discharge were enhanced. The exfoliated cobalt sulfide was applied as a supercapacitor electrode with obvious improvement compared with the original sample, and the specific capacitance increased from 307 F∙g−1 to 450 F∙g−1 at the current density of 1 A∙g−1. The capacitance retention rate of exfoliated cobalt sulfide enlarged to 84.7% from the original 81.9% of unexfoliated samples while the current density multiplied by 5 times. Moreover, a button-type asymmetric supercapacitor assembled using exfoliated cobalt sulfide as the positive electrode exhibits a maximum specific energy of 9.4 Wh∙kg−1 at the specific power of 1520 W∙kg−1.

Tumor-targeting peptide–drug conjugates (PDCs) have become a focus of research in recent years. However, due to the instability of peptides and their short in vivo effective half-life, they have limited clinical application. Herein, we propose a new DOX PDC based on a homodimer HER-2-targeting peptide and acid-sensitive hydrazone bond, which could enhance the anti-tumor effect of DOX and reduce systemic toxicities. The PDC could accurately deliver DOX into HER2-positive SKBR-3 cells, with it showing 2.9 times higher cellular uptake than free DOX and enhanced cytotoxicity with respect to IC50 of 140 nM (vs. 410 nM for free DOX). In vitro assays showed that the PDC had high cellular internalization efficiency and cytotoxicity. In vivo anti-tumor experiments indicated that the PDC could significantly inhibit the growth of HER2-positive breast cancer xenografts in mice and reduce the side effects of DOX. In summary, we constructed a novel PDC molecule targeting HER2-positive tumors, which may overcome some deficiencies of DOX in breast cancer therapy.

Lithium-sulfur batteries with high theoretical energy density and cheap cost can meet people’s need for efficient energy storage, and have become a focus of the research on lithium-ion batteries. However, owing to their poor conductivity and “shuttle effect”, lithium-sulfur batteries are difficult to commercialize. In order to solve this problem, herein a polyhedral hollow structure of cobalt selenide (CoSe2) was synthesized by a simple one-step carbonization and selenization method using metal-organic bone MOFs (ZIF-67) as template and precursor. CoSe2 is coated with conductive polymer polypyrrole (PPy) to settle the matter of poor electroconductibility of the composite and limit the outflow of polysulfide compounds. The prepared CoSe2@PPy-S composite cathode shows reversible capacities of 341 mAh g−1 at 3 C, and good cycle stability with a small capacity attenuation rate of 0.072% per cycle. The structure of CoSe2 can have certain adsorption and conversion effects on polysulfide compounds, increase the conductivity after coating PPy, and further enhance the electrochemical property of lithium-sulfur cathode material.

Rifampicin is a first-line anti-tuberculosis drug. However, in August 2020, the presence of 1-methyl-4-nitrosopiperazine (MNP), a nitrosamine impurity, was detected by the United Stated Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) in rifampicin capsules. Consequently, the development of efficient methods for the detection of MNP is an important objective. In this study, the MNP present in rifampicin capsules was detected using LC-MS/MS. A total of 27 batches from nine manufacturers in the Chinese market were tested, with MNP (0.33–2.36 ppm) being detected in all samples at levels exceeding the maximum acceptable intake limit of 0.16 ppm initially set by the FDA. However, after considering the associated benefits and risks, the FDA-approved limit was revised to 5 ppm; hence, all the samples examined herein exhibited MNP levels well below the required limit. Furthermore, the results of forced degradation experiments suggest that MNP is formed by the thermal degradation of rifampicin.

Objective: To establish a method for the determination of the chemical structure of vancomycin hydrochloride.Methods: Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry were conducted to analyze the chemical structure of vancomycin hydrochloride.Results: In this study, the target compound (1) was identified as (Sα)-(3S, 6R, 7R, 22R, 23S, 26S, 36R, 38αR)-44-[[2-O-(3-amino-2, 3, 6-trideoxy-3-C-methyl-α-L-lyso-hexopyranosyl)-β-D-glucopyranosyl] oxy]-3-(carbamoylmethyl)-10, 19-dichloro-7, 22, 28, 30, 32-pentahydroxy-6-[[(2R)-4-methyl-2-(methylamino) pentanoyl] amino]-2, 5, 24, 38, 39-pentaoxo-2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 23, 24, 25, 26, 36, 37, 38, 38α-tetradecahydro-22H-8, 11: 18, 21-dietheno-23, 36-(iminomethano)-13, 16: 31, 35-dimetheno-1H, 13H-[1, 6, 9] oxadiazacyclohexadecino [4, 5-m] [10, 2, 16]-benzoxadiazacyclotetracosine-26-carboxylic acid hydrochloride.Conclusion: The method used in this study is accurate and can be used for the production and structural elucidation of vancomycin hydrochloride.

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have been considered as promising candidates to fabricate ultimately scaled field-effect transistors (FETs), due to the atomically thin thickness and high carrier mobility. However, the performance of FETs based on 2D semiconductors has been limited by extrinsic factors, including high contact resistance, strong interfacial scattering, and unintentional doping. Among these challenges, contact resistance is a dominant issue, and important progress has been made in recent years. In this review, the Schottky–Mott model is introduced to show the ideal Schottky barrier, and we further discuss the contribution of the Fermi-level pinning effect to the high contact resistance in 2D semiconductor devices. In 2D FETs, Fermi-level pinning is attributed to the high-energy metal deposition process, which would damage the lattice of atomically thin 2D semiconductors and induce the pinning of the metal Fermi level. Then, two contact structures and the strategies to fabricate low-contact-resistance short-channel 2D FETs are introduced. Finally, our review provides practical guidelines for the realization of high-performance 2D-semiconductors-based FETs with low contact resistance and discusses the outlook of this field.

Absolute orientation estimation is one of the key steps in computer vision, and n 2D–3D point correspondences can be used to obtain the absolute orientation, which is known as the perspective-n-point problem (PnP). The lowest number of point correspondences is three if there is no other information, and the corresponding algorithm is called the P3P solver. In practice, the real scene may consist of some geometric information, e.g., the vanishing point. When scenes contain parallel lines, they intersect at vanishing points. Hence, to reduce the number of point correspondences and increase the computational speed, we proposed a fast and simple method for absolute orientation estimation using a single vanishing point. First, the inertial measurement unit (IMU) was used to obtain the rotation of the camera around the Y-axis (i.e., roll angle), which could simplify the orientation estimation. Then, one vanishing point was used to estimate the coarse orientation because it contained direction information in both the camera frame and world frame. Finally, our proposed method used a non-linear optimization algorithm for solution refining. The experimental results show that compared with several state-of-the-art orientation estimation solvers, our proposed method had a better performance regarding numerical stability, noise sensitivity, and computational speed in synthetic data and real images.

Recently, flexible sensors have gained significant attention due to their potential applications in soft robotics and biomimetic intelligent devices. However, the successful production of favorable flexible sensors integrated with high flexibility, sensitivity and excellent environment adaptability toward multiple external stimuli is still an enormous challenge. Herein, a lightweight polymeric porous sponge capable of detecting an external magnetic field and strain excitations is proposed by assembling a sodium alginate/chitosan (SA/CHI) porous sponge with micron carbonyl iron and nanoscale Fe3O4 magnetic particles (MPs). Based on the double network structure, the SA/CHI sponge possesses preferable mechanical strength and hydrophilicity, demonstrating its high flexibility and deformability. More importantly, the electrical response of the SA/CHI sponge sensors can display remarkable variation under external magnetic and mechanical stimuli due to their superior magnetic characteristics and electrical conductivity. Meanwhile, their sensing properties can maintain relatively stable recoverability and repeatability towards the periodic excitations and releases. Additionally, a potential mechanism is provided to investigate their stimuli-sensitive behavior. It is highly dependent on the microstructure variations in MPs and conductive multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) networks. Due to its exceptional magnetic controllability and appropriate electrical sensitivity, the proposed sensor shows high potential in wearable multi-sensing electronics and intelligent transport devices.

Currently, there are only a limited number of Japanese-Chinese bilingual corpora of a sufficient amount that can be used as training data for neural machine translation (NMT). In particular, there are few corpora that include spoken language such as daily conversation. In this research, we attempt to construct a Japanese-Chinese bilingual corpus of a certain scale by crawling the subtitle data of movies and TV series from the websites. We calculated the BLEU scores of the constructed WCC-JC (Web Crawled Corpus—Japanese and Chinese) and the other compared corpora. We also manually evaluated the translation results using the translation model trained on the WCC-JC to confirm the quality and effectiveness.

Femtosecond laser filament-generated plasma can generate electromagnetic pulses (EMPs). These pulses may reduce the instrument’s precision, and, hence, influence the accuracy of the experimental results. They may even cause widespread disruption by disabling of the electronic control systems or distribution networks of power plants. This study investigated the characteristics of EMPs generated from the interaction of filament-generated plasmas with a solid target in air. In this study, ultrafast laser filamentation was used to produce plasma, which was focused on a 3 mm-thick aluminum (Al) alloy target for interaction, and the spatial distribution and main contributors of the EMPs were systematically and extensively studied. The results showed that the EMPs generated from ultrafast laser filament interaction with the Al alloy target had the following characteristics: the EMP energy generated from laser filament interaction with solid targets is tens of times higher than that generated only from the femtosecond laser filament; the maximum EMP signals appeared at a 20°–80°detection angle. The relationship between the energy of EMPs and the width and energy of the laser pulses is presented and discussed. These findings are beneficial for gaining insight into the EMP generation mechanism, spatial distribution, and transmission, and for providing more information for the design of EMPs’ shielding.

The electron density profile on a plasma surface has a decisive influence on the mechanism and characteristics of the plasma high-order harmonic generation. When the pre-pulse has a similar spatial and temporal distribution as the main laser pulse, the plasma surface on the target will expand to form a convex profile of the similar size as the focal spot of the main pulse. We experimentally observed that the divergence of the harmonics generated by the relativistic laser light incident on a silica target has a saddle-shaped structure. The two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation with convex plasma surfaces explains the experimental results very well and infers a 0.12λL plasma scale length around the center of the convex profile. Further, we qualitatively explained that the asymmetry of the saddle-shaped harmonic divergence is caused by oblique incidence.

Acoustic holography is an essential tool for controlling sound waves, generating highly complex and customizable sound fields, and enabling the visualization of sound fields. Based on acoustic sieve metasurfaces (ASMs), this paper proposes a theoretical design approach for zero-thickness broadband holograms. The ASM is a zero-thickness rigid screen with a large number of small holes that allow sound waves to pass through and produce the desired real image in the target plane. The hole arrangement rules are determined using a genetic algorithm and the Rayleigh–Sommerfeld theory. Because the wave from a hole has no extra phase or amplitude modulation, the intractable modulation dispersion can be physically avoided, allowing the proposed ASM-based hologram to potentially function in any frequency band as long as the condition of paraxial approximation is satisfied. Using a numerical simulation based on the combination of the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM), this research achieves broadband holographic imaging with a good effect. The proposed theoretical zero-thickness broadband hologram may provide new possibilities for acoustic holography applications.

Blue-luminescence materials are needed in urgency. Recently, zero-dimensional (0D) organic metal halides have attractive much attention due to unique structure and excellent optical properties. However, realizing blue emission with near-UV-visible light excitation in 0D organic metal halides is still a great challenge due to their generally large Stokes shifts. Here, we reported a new (0D) organic metal halides (TPA)2PbBr4 single crystal (TPA+ = tetrapropylammonium cation), in which the isolated [PbBr4]2− tetrahedral clusters are surrounded by organic ligand of TPA+, forming a 0D framework. Upon photoexcitation, (TPA)2PbBr4 exhibits a blue emission peaking at 437 nm with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 50 nm and a relatively small Stokes shift of 53 nm. Combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations and spectral analysis, it is found that the observed blue emission in (TPA)2PbBr4 comes from the combination of free excitons (FEs) and self-trapped exciton (STE), and a small Stokes shift of this compound are caused by the small structure distortion of [PbBr4]2− cluster in the excited state confined by TPA molecules, in which the multi-phonon effect take action. Our results not only clarify the important role of excited state structure distortion in regulating the STEs formation and emission, but also focus on 0D metal halides with bright blue emission under the near-UV-visible light excitation.

In this study, two isomeric impurities were identified in cefotiam hydrochloride injection preparation and were characterized. Column-switching HPLC-MS and NMR techniques were used to identify the impurity 1 as the Δ3(4) isomers of cefotiam. Using software-based calculations, it was predicted that neither of the isomeric impurities was embryotoxic. This study provides a reference for the production, storage, and quality control of cefotiam and related cephalosporin antibiotics.

A series of multifunctional compounds (MFCs) 1a–1d based on 1,8-naphthalimide moiety were designed and synthesized. Due to the good fluorescence property and nucleic acid binding ability of 1,8-naphthalimide, these MFCs were applied in Cu2+ ion recognition, lysosome staining as well as RNA delivery. It was found that these MFCs exhibited highly selective fluorescence turn-off for Cu2+ in aqueous solution. The fluorescence emission of 1a−1d was quenched by a factor of 116-, 20-, 12-, and 14-fold in the presence of Cu2+ ions, respectively. Most importantly, 1a-Cu and 1b-Cu could be used as imaging reagents for detection of lysosome in live human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) using fluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the RNA delivery ability of 1a−1d, cellular uptake experiments were performed in HeLa, HepG2, U2Os, and MC3T3-E1 cell lines. The results showed that all the materials could deliver Cy5-labled RNA into the targeted cells. Among them, compound 1d modified with long hydrophobic chain exhibited the best RNA delivery efficiency in the four tested cell lines, and the performance was far better than lipofectamine 2000 and 25 kDa PEI, indicating the potential application in non-viral vectors.

As an important component that constitutes all the cells and tissues of the human body, protein is involved in most of the biological processes. Inspired by natural protein systems, considerable efforts covering many discipline fields were made to design artificial protein assemblies and put them into application in recent decades. The rapid development of structural DNA nanotechnology offers significant means for protein assemblies and promotes their application. Owing to the programmability, addressability and accurate recognition ability of DNA, many protein assemblies with unprecedented structures and improved functions have been successfully fabricated, consequently creating many brand-new researching fields. In this review, we briefly introduced the DNA-based protein assemblies, and highlighted the limitations in application process and corresponding strategies in four aspects, including biological catalysis, protein detection, biomedicine treatment and other applications.

The exploitation of new methods to control material structure has historically been dominating the material science. The bottom-up self-assembly strategy by taking atom/molecule/ensembles in nanoscale as building blocks and crystallization as a driving force bring hope for material fabrication. DNA-grafted nanoparticle has emerged as a “programmable atom equivalent” and was employed for the assembly of hierarchically ordered three-dimensional superlattice with novel properties and studying the unknown assembly mechanism due to its programmability and versatility in the binding capabilities. In this review, we highlight the assembly strategies and rules of DNA-grafted three-dimensional superlattice, dynamic assembly by different driving factors, and discuss their future applications.

The basic/helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factor (TF) plays an important role for plant growth, development, and stress responses. Previously, proteomics of NaCl treated sugar beet leaves revealed that a bHLH TF, BvbHLH93, was significantly increased under salt stress. The BvbHLH93 protein localized in the nucleus and exhibited activation activity. The expression of BvbHLH93 was significantly up-regulated in roots and leaves by salt stress, and the highest expression level in roots and leaves was 24 and 48 h after salt stress, respectively. Furthermore, constitutive expression of BvbHLH93 conferred enhanced salt tolerance in Arabidopsis, as indicated by longer roots and higher content of chlorophyll than wild type. Additionally, the ectopic expression lines accumulated less Na+ and MDA, but more K+ than the WT. Overexpression of the BvBHLH93 enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes by positively regulating the expression of antioxidant genes SOD and POD. Compared to WT, the overexpression plants also had low expression levels of RbohD and RbohF, which are involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. These results suggest that BvbHLH93 plays a key role in enhancing salt stress tolerance by enhancing antioxidant enzymes and decreasing ROS generation.

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is widely used in various fields both in daily life and industry owing to its excellent photoelectric properties and its induced superwettability. Over the past several decades, various methods have been reported to improve the wettability of TiO2 and plenty of practical applications have been developed. The TiO2-derived materials with different morphologies display a variety of functions including photocatalysis, self-cleaning, oil-water separation, etc. Herein, various functions and applications of TiO2 with superwettability are summarized and described in different sections. First, a brief introduction about the discovery of photoelectrodes made of TiO2 is revealed. The ultra-fast spreading behaviors on TiO2 are shown in the part of ultra-fast spreading with superwettability. The part of controllable wettability introduces the controllable wettability of TiO2-derived materials and their related applications. Recent developments of interfacial photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical reactions with TiO2 are presented in the part of interfacial photocatalysis and photoelectrochemical reactions. The part of nanochannels for ion rectification describes ion transportation in nanochannels based on TiO2-derived materials. In the final section, a brief conclusion and a future outlook based on the superwettability of TiO2 are shown.

Herein, we aimed to develop a strategy for evaluating the consistency of pharmaceutically important crystallization processes in real time, focusing on two typical cases of polymorphism. Theoretical analysis using a combination of 13C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy with other polymorphism analysis techniques identified a number of marker signals, the changes of which revealed the presence of two or more structural orientations (lattices and/or molecular conformations) in both cefazolin sodium pentahydrate (α-CEZ-Na) and cephathiamidine (CETD). The proportions of these forms were shown to be batch-dependent and were defined as critical quality attributes (CQAs) to evaluate process consistency. Subsequently, real-time analysis by chemometrics-assisted near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) was used to obtain useful information corresponding to CQAs. The pretreated spectra of representative samples were transformed by first derivative and vector normalization methods and used to calculate standard deviations at each wavelength and thus detect significant differences. As a result, vibrational responses of H2O, CH3, and CH2 moieties (at 5,280, 4,431, and 4,339 cm−1, respectively) were shown to be sensitive to the CQAs of α-CEZ-Na, which allowed us to establish a highly accurate discrimination model. Moreover, signals of H2O, CONH, and COOH moieties (at 5,211, 5,284, and 5,369 cm−1, respectively) played the same role in the case of CETD, as confirmed by theoretical results. Thus, we established a technique for the rapid evaluation of crystallization process consistency and deepened our understanding of crystallization behavior by using NIR in combination with polymorphism analysis techniques.

Herein, we synthesize the Ni-doped Mo2C catalysts by a one-pot preparation method to illuminate the effect of the number of carbon atoms in Mo2C lattice on CO hydrogenation to mixed alcohol. The Ni doping inhibits the agglomeration of Mo2C crystals into large particles and the surface carbon deposition, which increase the active surface area. In addition, the interaction between Ni and Mo increases the electron cloud density of Mo species and promotes the non-dissociative adsorption and insertion of CO. Especially, our results indicate that with the increase of the nickel content, the number of carbon atoms in Mo2C lattice on the surface of the catalyst shows a volcano type variation. The low carbon content induces the formation of coordination unsaturated molybdenum species which exhibit the higher catalytic activity and mixed alcohol selectivity than other molybdenum species. Among the catalysts, the MC-Ni-1.5 catalyst with Ni/Mo molar ratio of 1.5:8.5, which has the largest amount of coordination unsaturated molybdenum species, shows the highest space-time yield of mixed alcohols, which is three times higher than that of the Mo2C catalyst.

The estimation of shear wave velocity is very important in ultrasonic shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI). Since the stability and accuracy of ultrasonic testing equipment have been greatly improved, in order to further improve the accuracy of shear wave velocity estimation and increase the quality of shear wave elasticity maps, we propose a novel real-time curve tracing (RTCT) technique to accurately reconstruct the motion trace of shear wave fronts. Based on the curve fitting of each frame shear wave, the propagation velocity of two-dimensional shear waves can be estimated. In this paper, shear wave velocity estimation and shear wave image reconstruction are implemented for homogeneous regions and stiff spherical inclusion regions with different elasticity, respectively. The experimental result shows that the proposed shear wave velocity estimation method based on the real-time curve tracing method has advantages in accuracy and anti-noise performance. Moreover, by eliminating artifacts of shear wave videos, the velocity map acquired can restore the shape of inclusions better. The real-time curve tracing method can provide a new idea for the estimation of shear wave velocity and elastic parameters.

Manipulating materials at the atomic scale is one of the goals of the development of chemistry and materials science, as it provides the possibility to customize material properties; however, it still remains a huge challenge. Using DNA self-assembly, materials can be controlled at the nano scale to achieve atomic- or nano-scaled fabrication. The programmability and addressability of DNA molecules can be applied to realize the self-assembly of materials from the bottom-up, which is called DNA nanotechnology. DNA nanotechnology does not focus on the biological functions of DNA molecules, but combines them into motifs, and then assembles these motifs to form ordered two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) lattices. These lattices can serve as general templates to regulate the assembly of guest materials. In this review, we introduce three typical DNA self-assembly strategies in this field and highlight the significant progress of each. We also review the application of DNA self-assembly and propose perspectives in this field.

The bone microenvironment is an ideal fertile soil for both primary and secondary tumors to seed. The occurrence and development of osteosarcoma, as a primary bone tumor, is closely related to the bone microenvironment. Especially, the metastasis of osteosarcoma is the remaining challenge of therapy and poor prognosis. Increasing evidence focuses on the relationship between the bone microenvironment and osteosarcoma metastasis. Many elements exist in the bone microenvironment, such as acids, hypoxia, and chemokines, which have been verified to affect the progression and malignance of osteosarcoma through various signaling pathways. We thoroughly summarized all these regulators in the bone microenvironment and the transmission cascades, accordingly, attempting to furnish hints for inhibiting osteosarcoma metastasis via the amelioration of the bone microenvironment. In addition, analysis of the cross-talk between the bone microenvironment and osteosarcoma will help us to deeply understand the development of osteosarcoma. The cellular and molecular protagonists presented in the bone microenvironment promoting osteosarcoma metastasis will accelerate the exploration of novel therapeutic strategies towards osteosarcoma.

Deinococcus radiodurans is a polyextremophilic bacterium well known for its extreme resistance to irradiation, oxidative stress, and other damaging conditions. Many small noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in D. radiodurans have been identified by deep sequencing analysis and computational predictions. However, the precise roles of ncRNAs and their target genes in the oxidative stress response have not been investigated. Here, we report the identification and characterization of a novel ncRNA named OsiR (for oxidative stress-induced ncRNA). Oxidative stress tolerance analysis showed that deleting osiR significantly decreased viability, total antioxidant capacity, and catalase activity in D. radiodurans under oxidative stress conditions. Comparative phenotypic and qRT-PCR analyses of an osiR mutant identify a role of OsiR in regulating the expression of the catalase gene katE2. Microscale thermophoresis and genetic complementation showed that a 21-nt sequence in the stem–loop structure of OsiR (204–244 nt) directly base pairs with its counterpart in the coding region of katE2 mRNA (843–866 nt) via a 19 nt region. In addition, deletion of katE2 caused a significant reduction of catalase activity and oxidative stress tolerance similar to that observed in an osiR mutant. Our results show that OsiR positively regulates oxidative stress tolerance in D. radiodurans by increasing the mRNA stability and translation efficiency of katE2. This work provides a new regulatory pathway mediated by ncRNA for the oxidative stress response that most likely contributes to the extreme tolerances of D. radiodurans.

Microgravity induces a number of significant physiological changes in the cardiovascular, nervous, immune systems, as well as the bone tissue of astronauts. Changes in cell adhesion properties are one aspect affected during long-term spaceflights in mammalian cells. Cellular adhesion behaviors can be divided into cell–cell and cell–matrix adhesion. These behaviors trigger cell–cell recognition, conjugation, migration, cytoskeletal rearrangement, and signal transduction. Cellular adhesion molecule (CAM) is a general term for macromolecules that mediate the contact and binding between cells or between cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). In this review, we summarize the four major classes of adhesion molecules that regulate cell adhesion, including integrins, immunoglobulin superfamily (Ig-SF), cadherins, and selectin. Moreover, we discuss the effects of spaceflight and simulated microgravity on the adhesion of endothelial cells, immune cells, tumor cells, stem cells, osteoblasts, muscle cells, and other types of cells. Further studies on the effects of microgravity on cell adhesion and the corresponding physiological behaviors may help increase the safety and improve the health of astronauts in space.

Background: Irisin, a novel exercise-induced myokine, was shown to mediate beneficial effects of exercise in osteoporosis. Microgravity is a major threat to bone homeostasis of astronauts during long-term spaceflight, which results in decreased bone formation. Methods: The hind-limb unloading mice model and a random position machine are respectively used to simulate microgravity in vivo and in vitro. Results: We demonstrate that not only are bone formation and osteoblast differentiation decreased, but the expression of fibronectin type III domain-containing 5 (Fdnc5; irisin precursor) is also downregulated under simulated microgravity. Moreover, a lower dose of recombinant irisin (r-irisin) (1 nM) promotes osteogenic marker gene (alkaline phosphatase (Alp), collagen type 1 alpha-1(ColIα1)) expressions, ALP activity, and calcium deposition in primary osteoblasts, with no significant effect on osteoblast proliferation. Furthermore, r-irisin could recover the decrease in osteoblast differentiation induced by simulated microgravity. We also find that r-irisin increases β-catenin expression and partly neutralizes the decrease in β-catenin expression induced by simulated microgravity. In addition, β-catenin overexpression could also in part attenuate osteoblast differentiation reduction induced by simulated microgravity. Conclusions: The present study is the first to show that r-irisin positively regulates osteoblast differentiation under simulated microgravity through increasing β-catenin expression, which may reveal a novel mechanism, and it provides a prevention strategy for bone loss and muscle atrophy induced by microgravity.

Forkhead box class O family member proteins (FoxOs) are evolutionarily conserved transcription factors for their highly conserved DNA-binding domain. In mammalian species, all the four FoxO members, FoxO1, FoxO3, FoxO4, and FoxO6, are expressed in different organs. In bone, the first three members are extensively expressed and more studied. Bone development, remodeling, and homeostasis are all regulated by multiple cell lineages, including osteoprogenitor cells, chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteocytes, osteoclast progenitors, osteoclasts, and the intercellular signaling among these bone cells. The disordered FoxOs function in these bone cells contribute to osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, or other bone diseases. Here, we review the current literature of FoxOs for their roles in bone cells, focusing on helping researchers to develop new therapeutic approaches and prevent or treat the related bone diseases.

Gene therapy is manipulation in/of gene expression in specific cells/tissue to treat diseases. This manipulation is carried out by introducing exogenous nucleic acids, such as DNA or RNA, into the cell. Because of their negative charge and considerable larger size, the delivery of these molecules, in general, should be mediated by gene vectors. Non-viral vectors, as promising delivery systems, have received considerable attention due to their low cytotoxicity and non-immunogenicity. As research continued, more and more functional non-viral vectors have emerged. They not only have the ability to deliver a gene into the cells but also have other functions, such as the performance of fluorescence imaging, which aids in monitoring their progress, targeted delivery, and biodegradation. Recently, many reviews related to non-viral vectors, such as polymers and cationic lipids, have been reported. However, there are few reviews regarding functional non-viral vectors. This review summarizes the common functional non-viral vectors developed in the last ten years and their potential applications in the future. The transfection efficiency and the transport mechanism of these materials were also discussed in detail. We hope that this review can help researchers design more new high-efficiency and low-toxicity multifunctional non-viral vectors, and further accelerate the progress of gene therapy.

Solid-state Nuclear magnetic resonance, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy were combined with theoretical calculation to investigate different crystal packings of α-cefazolin sodium obtained from three different vendors and conformational polymorphism was identified to exist in α-cefazolin sodium. Marginal differences observed among cefazolin sodium pentahydrate 1, 2, and 3 were speculated as being caused by the proportion of conformation 2.

Intracellular calcium homeostasis disorder and mitochondrial dysfunction are involved in many acute and chronic brain diseases, including ischemic brain injury. An imbalance in mitochondrial fission and fusion is one of the most important structural abnormalities found in a large number of mitochondrial dysfunction related diseases. Here, we investigated the effects of mitochondrial division inhibitor A (mdivi A) and mdivi B, two small molecule inhibitors of mitochondrial fission protein dunamin-related protein 1 (Drp-1), in neuronal injury induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in PC12 cells. We found that mdivi A and mdivi B inhibited OGD-induced neuronal injury through attenuating apoptotic cell death. These two inhibitors also preserved mitochondrial function, as evidenced by reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and cytochrome c release, as well as prevented loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Moreover, mdivi A and mdivi B significantly suppressed mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake, but had no effect on cytoplasmic Ca2+ after OGD injury. The results of calcium imaging and immunofluorescence staining showed that Drp-1 inhibitors attenuated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ release and prevented ER morphological changes induced by OGD. These results demonstrate that Drp-1 inhibitors protect against ischemic neuronal injury through inhibiting mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake from the ER store and attenuating mitochondrial dysfunction.

The mechanism of Pd-catalyzed, Friedel-Crafts intermolecular acylation of arenes to ketones was comprehensively investigated by using DFT calculations. The calculated results revealed that this transformation was composed of several key steps: C⁻I bond oxidative addition, CO insertion, reductive elimination and C⁻H bond functionalization. Of these steps, the last was found to be the rate⁻determining step, and it occurred much more easily with strongly electrophilic aroyl triflate compared to other resultant counterparts. In addition, our calculation provides a rationale for experimental findings that simple Pd salts exhibit superior catalytic abilities compared to phosphine-ligated Pd catalysts.

Skeletal systems provide support, movement, and protection to the human body. It can be affected by several life suffering bone disorders such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and bone cancers. It is not an easy job to treat bone disorders because of avascular cartilage regions. Treatment with non-specific drug delivery must utilize high doses of systemic administration, which may result in toxicities in non-skeletal tissues and low therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, in order to overcome such limitations, developments in targeted delivery systems are urgently needed. Although the idea of a general targeted delivery system using bone targeting moieties like bisphosphonates, tetracycline, and calcium phosphates emerged a few decades ago, identification of carrier systems like viral and non-viral vectors is a recent approach. Viral vectors have high transfection efficiency but are limited by inducing immunogenicity and oncogenicity. Although non-viral vectors possess low transfection efficiency they are comparatively safe. A number of non-viral vectors including cationic lipids, cationic polymers, and cationic peptides have been developed and used for targeted delivery of DNA, RNA, and drugs to bone tissues or cells with successful consequences. Here we mainly discuss such various non-viral delivery systems with respect to their mechanisms and applications in the specific targeting of bone tissues or cells. Moreover, we discuss possible therapeutic agents that can be delivered against various bone related disorders.