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Using phage display technology, 810A was developed as a novel peptide, which binds to the C-terminal domain of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF). The present study investigated whether this peptide could neutralize CTGF and block its biological activity as a specific strategy to treat pulmonary fibrosis in vitro and in vivo. Human bronchial epithelial (16HBE) cells were treated with CTGF to evaluate the anti-CTGF capability of 810A using MTT testing, cell migration assays, and Western blotting. The action of 810A in mouse models of bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis was evaluated according to leukocyte counts in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), hydroxyproline content, and pathological analysis. Treatment with 810A resulted in inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and increases in transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) and α-Smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) caused by CTGF treatment in vitro. In vivo, 810A significantly alleviated fibrosis in the pulmonary index. Inflammation was inhibited, as inferred by the reduced number of leukocytes in BALF. Pathophysiological analysis indicated that hydroxyproline content, alveolar enlargement, interstitial inflammatory infiltration, and collagen deposition were reduced. Collectively, these data suggest that 810A may potentially be a CTGF-specific, small-molecule antagonist, providing a new method for prevention and treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.

Catalytic oxidation can efficiently eliminate nitrogen-containing volatile organic compounds (NVOCs) and suppress the generation of toxic NOx in order to avoid secondary pollution. In this study, mesoporous SiO2-confined LaMnO3 perovskite nanoparticles with high dispersion were successfully prepared by a citric acid-assisted deposition method (LMO/SiO2-SD) and tested for the oxidation of n-butylamine. The method utilized the synergistic effect of abundant active hydroxyl groups existing on the SiO2 gel surface and citric acid, rendering the metal ions more uniformly scattered on the SiO2 surface. Strikingly, the LMO/SiO2-SD sample exhibited the optimum catalytic performance (T90 at 246 °C) and the highest N2 selectivity, which was mainly ascribed to its abundant surface acid sites, superior low-temperature reducibility and higher ratio of surface Mn4+ species. The apparent activation energy (Ea) for n-butylamine oxidation over LMO/SiO2-SD sample was 29.0 kJ mol−1. Furthermore, the reaction mechanism of n-butylamine oxidation was investigated by in situ FITR and a reasonable reaction route for n-butylamine oxidation over the LMO/SiO2-SD sample was proposed.

A new substrate composing of Ag nanoflowers on graphene@Cu net (AgNFs/G@Cu) was fabricated on the flexible woven copper net. Graphene, an ideal 2D plane, provides better dispersion of regular electrodeposited AgNFs arrays. Graphene nanogap was used to enhance the EM coupling between AgNFs and metal Cu substrate. Regular AgNFs arrays offer denser “hotspots”, which further enhance the EM coupling. High sensitivity (rhodamine 6G (R6G): 10−14 M, crystal violet (CV): 10−12 M) and good homogeneity are realized in our experiment and proved by the COMSOL simulation. Cu net, remarkable flexibility and practicality, allows for a close contact to the sample surface by swabbing. Malachite green (MG) as low as 10−11 M on the surface of the marine fish can be detected. This work may offer novel and practical SERS applications in the areas of pesticide residue, food security and biotechnology.

Hypoviruses are positive-sense single-stranded RNA mycovirus that infect filamentous fungi. However, hypoviruses have not been reported in Bipolaris oryzae, an important phytopathogenic fungus in water bamboo and rice. Here, we report the characterization of a novel hypovirus, tentatively named "Bipolaris oryzae hypovirus 1" (BoHV1), isolated from strain ES35 of B. oryzae infecting water bamboo. The complete genome of BoHV1 consists of 13,596 nucleotides and a poly(A) tail at the 3' end. BoHV1 has single open reading frame (ORF) and encodes a putative polyprotein (4,218 amino acids) containing four potential conserved domains for a papain-like protease, a protein of unknown function (DUF3525), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), and helicase. Phylogenetic analysis of the polyprotein, RdRp, and helicase domains suggested that BoHV1 belongs to the genus Hypovirus within the family Hypoviridae. This is the first report of the presence of a hypovirus in the phytopathogenic fungus B. oryzae.

Recently, biological materials have attracted more and more attentions on preparing the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrate with the conspicuous SERS performance. Herein, we demonstrate a simply facile and inexpensive approach to fabricate a novel natural SERS substrate based on graphene oxide-Ag nanoparticles-Mytilus coruscus (GO-AgNPs-M.c.). The surface-enhanced resonance Raman spectroscopy (SERRS) signals of the Rhodamine 6G (R6G) on the GO-AgNPs-M.c. hybrids exhibit the much better SERRS performances in terms of the sensitivity, the signal reproducibility and the antioxidant stability than that on the AgNPs-M.c. one. The well electric field enhancement contribution is likewise confirmed in theory via the COMSOL software. Moreover, the successful detection of trace malachite green (MG) and methylene blue (MB) indicates the well feasibility for multi-molecules detection on the GO-AgNPs-M.c. hybrids. Thus, this inexpensive and high-efficiency natural SERS substrate have great potential for the considerable biochemical SERS applications and broaden the way for preparing multiple SERS platforms derived from other natural materials.

The three-dimensional (3D) MoS 2 decorated with Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) hybrids (3D MoS 2 -Au NPs) for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing was demonstrated in this paper. SEM, Raman spectroscopy, TEM, SAED, EDX and XRD were performed to characterize 3D MoS 2 -Au NPs hybrids. Rhodamine 6G (R6G), fluorescein and gallic acid molecules were used as the probe for the SERS detection of the 3D MoS 2 -Au NPs hybrids. In addition, we modeled the enhancement of the electric field of MoS 2 -Au NPs hybrids using Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) analysis, which can further give assistance to the mechanism understanding of the SERS activity.

By combining the excellent surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) activity of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs), the well-separated pyramid arrays of the pyramidal silicon (PSi) and unique physical/chemical properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), the MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate shows high performance in terms of sensitivity, uniformity, reproducibility and stability. By using rhodamine 6G (R6G) as probe molecule, the SERS results indicate that the MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate is superior to the AgNPs@PSi, AgA@PSi (the second annealing of the AgNPs@PSi) and the MoS2@AgNPs@flat-Si substrate. The MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate also shows the reasonable linear response between the Raman intensity and R6G concentration. The maximum deviations of SERS intensities from 20 positions on a same MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate and 10 MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrates in different batches are less than 7.6% and 9%, respectively, revealing the excellent uniformity and reproducibility of the substrate. Besides, the SERS substrate has a good stability, the Raman intensity of the MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate only drop by 15% in a month. The corresponding experimental and theoretical results suggest that our proposed MoS2@AgNPs@PSi substrate is expected to offer a new and practical way to accelerate the development of label-free SERS detection.

We report a three-dimensional (3D) SERS substrate with different numbers of silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) layers using multilayer graphene oxide (GO) as a spacer. The SERS performance of the 3D nanostructure was investigated and it was found that the SERS effect increased as the number of Ag NP layers increased, and showed almost no change for more than four layers. We found that the SERS performance of the 3D nanostructures can be mainly attributed to the topmost hot spots which are closely related to the Ag NP layers in the 3D nanostructure. Furthermore, we explored 3D nanostructures with different Ag NP layers using the finite difference time domain method (FDTD). The 3D SERS substrates also exhibit excellent detection capability. The limit of detection (LOD) was calculated down to 10−15 M for R6G and 10−12 M for CV. In addition, the reproducibility of the 3D SERS substrate was attributed obviously to the increasing number of Ag NP layers. Based on these promising results, the highly sensitive detection of molecules such as malachite green was demonstrated for food safety inspection.

Passively Q-switched mode-locked dual-wavelength Nd:GYSGG laser using graphene oxide saturable absorber is demonstrated. The output spectrum peaked at 1057.28 nm and 1060.23 nm with wavelength spacing of 3 nm has been measured. At the pump power of 5 W, the maximum average output power of 0.189 W was obtained with the optical conversion efficiency of 3.79%. The mode-locked pulse inside the Q-switched envelope has a repetition rate of 100 MHz and its pulse width is estimated to be about 441 ps. In addition, a simple way to fabricate few layers graphene oxide saturable absorbers has been reported.

A homogeneous titanium oxide device is fabricated by Molecular Beam Epitaxy and the excellent memristive behavior could be observed. The resistance ratio between high resistance state and low resistance state increases as the thickness of titanium oxide or the oxygen content reduces. The forming voltage is lower than the previous report. Based on the experimental results, we suggest a double-interface conductive filament model and calculate the current–voltage curve of the device in agreement with experimental measurements. The result indicates that the forming voltage of the device will rise with increasing of the chemical potential differences across the two interfaces. In other words, the switching voltage could be adjusted by selecting a proper electrode and oxide materials.

We demonstrate the use of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-based saturable absorber to develop a passively Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser. The few-layer MoS2 saturable absorber was prepared by mixing MoS2 with alcohol and then evaporating the mixture on a substrate. Using an MoS2 saturable absorber, stable Q-switching operation was achieved with a laser pulse width of 327 ns and a repetition rate of 5 kHz under a pump power of 2.23 W. Due to the simple manufacturing process and high saturated absorption characteristics, MoS2 seems to be a suitable material as a saturable absorber for solid-state lasers.

A confined synthesis strategy is demonstrated for the fabrication of core–shell magnetic mesoporous carbon microspheres by solvent evaporation induced self-assembly of ethanolic solutions of precursors (containing resol as carbon source, Pluronic F127 as a structure directing agent) in the cavity of presynthesized 3-dimensional ordered macroporous silica materials with each macropore filled with a magnetite particle. The obtained magnetic mesoporous carbon (Fe3O4@FDU-15) microspheres possess uniform diameter of ∼460 nm, ultralarge mesopores of 13.8 nm, high surface area of ∼403 m2/g, and strong magnetization (20.7 emu/g). Sub-4 nm gold nanoparticles are loaded in the porous shell of the magnetic microspheres, resulting in a novel Fe3O4@FDU-15/Au nanocatalyst with an excellent performance in catalyzing the epoxidation of styrene with high conversion (72%) and selectivity (85%) toward styrene oxide in 12 h and a good magnetic field-assisted recyclability.

Highly ordered mesoporous carbon/silica nanocomposites and dual-mesoporous silicas with a 3D cubic structure were successfully synthesized through a facile tricomponent coassembly approach by using the lab-made diblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene as a template. The mesoporous silicas exhibit a high surface area and uniform bimodal mesopores. The bimodal mesopores can be tuned by simply changing the ratio of carbon/silica precursors and the pyrolysis temperature in N2. Gold nanoparticles were successfully loaded in the primary large mesopores for use as a heterogeneous nanacatalyst, which exhibits excellent performance in the epoxidation of styrene, demonstrating their potential for catalyst support.

wherein the surfactantmicelles are encapsulated in the frameworks of the othercomponents as the consolidated phases. Particularly, Davisand co-workers have firstly suggested a “silicate rod assem-bly” route, where randomly ordered surfactant/silicate com-posite nanorods can spontaneously pack into a long-rangeordered hexagonal arrangement.

We design a novel nano-gap electrode to measure the current of DNA molecule, by which the current–voltage characteristics of individual native DNA, Ag-DNA and Ni-DNA molecules are obtained, respectively. The results show that the voltage gap of Ag- and Ni-DNA is higher than that of native DNA, and the conductance is lower than native DNA in neutral environment. The structure transition from B- to Z-DNA is observed in the presence of high concentrations of nickel ions and Ag-DNA appears chaos state by STM image and U-V spectra characterization. But in alkaline environment, the conductance of Ni-DNA rises and the voltage gap decreases with the increasing of nickel ion concentration denotes that the conductive ability of Ni-DNA is higher than that of native DNA.

Passively Q-switched mode-locking performance of Nd:GdTaO4 crystal using molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a saturable absorber at 1066 nm was demonstrated for the first time. The MoS2 saturable absorber was prepared simply by transferring the MoS2 suspension onto a quartz substrate. By inserting the MoS2 saturable absorber into the Nd:GdTaO4 laser, stable Q-switched modelocked operation can be achieved. At the pump power of 4 W, the maximum average output power of 0.156 W was obtained with the optical conversion efficiency of 3.9%.

The performance of a diode end-pumped passively Q-switched dual-wavelength Nd:GYSGG laser operating at 1057.28 and 1060.65 nm with graphene oxide as the saturable absorber was demonstrated. The maximum dual-wavelength average output power of 521 mW was achieved under the absorbed pump power of 5.4 W, corresponding to the optical-to-optical conversion and slope efficiency of 9.8% and 21%, respectively. The minimum pulse width was 115 ns with a pulse repetition rate of 338 kHz.

Mycoviruses have been detected in all major groups of filamentous fungi, and their study represents an important branch of virology. Here, we characterized a novel double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) mycovirus, S clerotinia s clerotiorum m ega b irna v irus 1 (SsMBV1), in an apparently hypovirulent strain (SX466) of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum . Two similarly sized dsRNA segments (L1- and L2-dsRNA), the genome of SsMBV1, are packaged in rigid spherical particles purified from strain SX466. The full-length cDNA sequence of L1-dsRNA/SsMBV1 comprises two large open reading frames (ORF1 and ORF2), which encode a putative coat protein and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of the RdRp domain clearly indicates that SsMBV1 is related to Rosellinia necatrix megabirnavirus 1 (RnMBV1). L2-dsRNA/SsMBV1 comprises two nonoverlapping ORFs (ORFA and ORFB) encoding two hypothetical proteins with unknown functions. The 5′-terminal regions of L1- and L2-dsRNA/SsMBV1 share strictly conserved sequences and form stable stem-loop structures. Although L2-dsRNA/SsMBV1 is dispensable for replication, genome packaging, and pathogenicity of SsMBV1, it enhances transcript accumulation of L1-dsRNA/SsMBV1 and stability of virus-like particles (VLPs). Interestingly, a conserved papain-like protease domain similar to a multifunctional protein (p29) of Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 was detected in the ORFA-encoded protein of L2-dsRNA/SsMBV1. Phylogenetic analysis based on the protease domain suggests that horizontal gene transfer may have occurred from a single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) virus (hypovirus) to a dsRNA virus, SsMBV1. Our results reveal that SsMBV1 has a slight impact on the fundamental biological characteristics of its host regardless of the presence or absence of L2-dsRNA/SsMBV1. IMPORTANCE Mycoviruses are widespread in all major fungal groups, and they possess diverse genomes of mostly ssRNA and dsRNA and, recently, circular ssDNA. Here, we have characterized a novel dsRNA virus ( Sclerotinia sclerotiorum megabirnavirus 1 [SsMBV1]) that was isolated from an apparently hypovirulent strain, SX466, of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum . Although SsMBV1 is phylogenetically related to RnMBV1, SsMBV1 is markedly distinct from other reported megabirnaviruses with two features of VLPs and conserved domains. Our results convincingly showed that SsMBV1 is viable in the absence of L2-dsRNA/SsMBV1 (a potential large satellite-like RNA or genuine genomic virus component). More interestingly, we detected a conserved papain-like protease domain that commonly exists in ssRNA viruses, including members of the families Potyviridae and Hypoviridae . Phylogenetic analysis based on the protease domain suggests that horizontal gene transfer might have occurred from an ssRNA virus to a dsRNA virus, which may provide new insights into the evolutionary history of dsRNA and ssRNA viruses.

A novel Smith–Purcell (SP) free-electron laser (FEL) with axial-symmetrical structure is proposed. The distribution of the high frequency field in the resonator is analyzed and the operating frequency and output power are also studied by the use of particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation method. Results indicate that coherent radiation with output peak power up to 58 MW at millimeter wavelengths can be generated by using relativistic electron beams of moderate energy.

We experimentally demonstrated a laser diode-pumped Q-switched Nd:GdTaO4 crystal laser at 1066 nm using a multilayer graphene oxide as the saturable absorber (GOSA). The GOSA is fabricated by transferring the liquid-phase-exfoliated GO nanosheets onto a K9 glass substrate. When the GOSA was inserted into the plano–plano laser cavity, a stable Q-switched laser operation is achieved with a maximum average output power of 0.382 W and repetition rate of 362 kHz. The shortest pulse duration is 194 ns and the single pulse energy is about 1.05 μJ.

Two different approaches, the conventional solvent evaporation induced self-assembly (EISA) and the novel solvent evaporation induced aggregating assembly (EIAA), were employed to synthesize ordered mesoporous silicas (OMSs), respectively, by using amphiphilic diblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) as the template, with an aim to systematically investigate the difference of the two approaches and their effect on the textural properties of the obtained porous materials. The mesoporous silicas synthesized via the two methods possess face centered cubic (fcc) mesostructure, large pore size and high surface area. However, compared with the OMSs with a film-like morphology from EISA, the OMSs from the EIAA have a particle-like morphology, thinner pore wall and higher surface area, which is favorable for their applications. More importantly, the novel EIAA process is more versatile and can be used to synthesize ordered mesoporous silicas and silica-based nanostructured materials with different morphologies. By introducing ethanol as the additive in the EIAA system, unique mesoporous silica spheres with a diameter of 1–5 μm, large pore size (∼16.8 nm), huge window size (∼8.9 nm), and high surface area (∼482 m2 g−1) can be synthesized. Through increasing the content of water, uniform silica hollow spheres (20–40 nm in diameter) and silica nanotubes (diameter ∼30 nm) can be obtained by using templates with higher and lower molecular weight, respectively.