Molecular Prevalence, Genetic Diversity, and Tissue Tropism of Bartonella Species in Small Mammals from Yunnan Province, China.

Bartonella is an intracellular parasitic zoonotic pathogen that can infect animals and cause a variety of human diseases. This study investigates Bartonella prevalence in small mammals in Yunnan Province, China, focusing on tissue tropism. A total of 333 small mammals were sampled from thirteen species, three orders, four families, and four genera in Heqing and Gongshan Counties. Conventional PCR and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) were utilized for detection and quantification, followed by bioinformatic analysis of obtained DNA sequences. Results show a 31.5% detection rate, varying across species. Notably, Apodemus chevrieri, Eothenomys eleusis, Niviventer fulvescens, Rattus tanezumi, Episoriculus leucops, Anourosorex squamipes, and Ochotona Thibetana exhibited infection rates of 44.4%, 27.7%, 100.0%, 6.3%, 60.0%, 23.5%, and 22.2%, respectively. Genetic analysis identified thirty, ten, and five strains based on ssrA, rpoB, and gltA genes, with nucleotide identities ranging from 92.1% to 100.0%. Bartonella strains were assigned to B. grahamii, B. rochalimae, B. sendai, B. koshimizu, B. phoceensis, B. taylorii, and a new species identified in Episoriculus leucops (GS136). Analysis of the different tissues naturally infected by Bartonella species revealed varied copy numbers across different tissues, with the highest load in spleen tissue. These findings underscore Bartonella's diverse species and host range in Yunnan Province, highlighting the presence of extensive tissue tropism in Bartonella species naturally infecting small mammalian tissues.

Mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes as a therapeutic target for cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are currently the leading cause of death worldwide. In 2022, the CVDs contributed to 19.8 million deaths globally, accounting for one-third of all global deaths. With an aging population and changing lifestyles, CVDs pose a major threat to human health. Mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membranes (MAMs) are communication platforms between cellular organelles and regulate cellular physiological functions, including apoptosis, autophagy, and programmed necrosis. Further research has shown that MAMs play a critical role in the pathogenesis of CVDs, including myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury, heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, and coronary atherosclerosis. This suggests that MAMs could be an important therapeutic target for managing CVDs. The goal of this study is to summarize the protein complex of MAMs, discuss its role in the pathological mechanisms of CVDs in terms of its functions such as Ca2+ transport, apoptotic signaling, and lipid metabolism, and suggest the possibility of MAMs as a potential therapeutic approach.

Deterministic positioning and alignment of a single-molecule exciton in plasmonic nanodimer for strong coupling.

Experimental realization of strong coupling between a single exciton and plasmons remains challenging as it requires deterministic positioning of the single exciton and alignment of its dipole moment with the plasmonic fields. This study aims to combine the host-guest chemistry approach with the cucurbit[7]uril-mediated active self-assembly to precisely integrate a single methylene blue molecule in an Au nanodimer at the deterministic position (gap center of the nanodimer) with the maximum electric field (EFmax) and perfectly align its transition dipole moment with the EFmax, yielding a large spectral Rabi splitting of 116 meV for a single-molecule exciton-matching the analytical model and numerical simulations. Statistical analysis of vibrational spectroscopy and dark-field scattering spectra confirm the realization of the single exciton strong coupling at room temperature. Our work may suggest an approach for achieving the strong coupling between a deterministic single exciton and plasmons, contributing to the development of room-temperature single-qubit quantum devices.

Can irisin be developed as the molecular evolutionary clock based on the origin and functions?

Irisin, a myokine identified in 2012, has garnered research interest for its capacity to induce browning of adipocytes and improve metabolic parameters. As such, the potential therapeutic applications of this exercise-induced peptide continue to be explored. Though present across diverse animal species, sequence analysis has revealed subtle variation in the irisin protein. In this review, we consider the effects of irisin on disease states in light of its molecular evolution. We summarize current evidence for irisin's influence on pathologies and discuss how sequence changes may inform development of irisin-based therapies. Furthermore, we propose that the phylogenetic variations in irisin could potentially be leveraged as a molecular clock to elucidate evolutionary relationships.

Promoted photocatalytic N2 fixation to ammonia over floatable TiO2/Bi/Carbon cloth through relay pathway.

The floatable photocatalyst at N2-water interface allows the adequate supply of N2 reactant and the utilization of photothermal energy for photocatalytic N2 fixation, however, the presence of non-volatile NO3- product poses a challenge to the stability as it easily covers the catalytic active sites. Herein, a floatable TiO2/Bi/CC (Carbon cloth) photocatalyst was designed, in which the non-volatile NO3- can be transformed to the volatile NH3 via the newly synergistic relay photocatalysis pathway (N2 â†’ NO3- â†’ NH3) between TiO2 (N2 â†’ NO3-) and Bi (NO3- â†’ NH3). Attractively, the spontaneous NO3- â†’ NO2- step occurs on Bi component to promote the relay pathway performing. Therefore, TiO2/Bi/CC system displays better long-term stability than TiO2/CC, and moreover, it achieves a higher NH3 yield of 8.28 mmol L-1 h-1 g-1 (i.e. 4.14 mmol h-1 m-2) than that 1.46 mmol L-1 h-1 g-1 for TiO2/Bi powder. Importantly, the N2 fixation products by TiO2/Bi/CC effectively promote lettuce growth and enhance lettuce nutrient contents, which further validates the feasibility of this system in large-scale application of crop cultivation.

The Accumulation of Phenyllactic Acid Impairs Host Glutamine Metabolism and Inhibits African Swine Fever Virus Replication: A Novel Target for the Development of Anti-ASFV Drugs.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and hemorrhagic disease caused by infection with the African swine fever virus (ASFV), resulting in a mortality rate of up to 100%. Currently, there are no effective treatments and commercially available vaccines for ASF. Therefore, it is crucial to identify biochemicals derived from host cells that can impede ASFV replication, with the aim of preventing and controlling ASF. The ASFV is an acellular organism that promotes self-replication by hijacking the metabolic machinery and biochemical resources of host cells. ASFV specifically alters the utilization of glucose and glutamine, which are the primary metabolic sources in mammalian cells. This study aimed to investigate the impact of glucose and glutamine metabolic dynamics on the rate of ASFV replication. Our findings demonstrate that ASFV infection favors using glutamine as a metabolic fuel to facilitate self-replication. ASFV replication can be substantially inhibited by blocking glutamine metabolism. The metabolomics analysis of the host cell after late-stage ASFV infection revealed a significant disruption of normal glutamine metabolic pathways due to the abundant expression of PLA (phenyllactic acid). Pretreatment with PLA also inhibited ASFV proliferation and glutamine consumption following infection. The metabolomic analysis also showed that PLA pretreatment greatly slowed down the metabolism of amino acids and nucleotides that depend on glutamine. The depletion of these building blocks directly hindered the replication of ASFV by decreasing the biosynthetic precursors produced during the replication of ASFV's progeny virus. These findings provide valuable insight into the possibility of pursuing the development of antiviral drugs against ASFV that selectively target metabolic pathways.

[Index of microcirculatory resistance is associated with left ventricular remodeling in patients with acute anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing emergency primary percutaneous coronary intervention].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) is associated with left ventricular (LV) remodeling in acute anterior ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). METHODS: This was a single-center retrospective cohort study. The patients with first anterior STEMI who received PPCI from January 2014 to August 2017 in Peking University Third Hospital was enrolled. After PPCI, IMR was measured immediately by using pressure/temperature guidewire. The success rate of IMR measurement was 100%. Also we collected some related clinical data from the medical records and laboratory results. Infarct size [assessed as creatine kinase (CK) peak], echocardiography at baseline and 1 year follow-up were assessed. LV adverse remodeling (LVAR) was defined as ≥20% increase in LV end-diastolic volume (LVEDV). RESULTS: A total of forty-three patients were enrolled, with an average age of (58.7±12.4) years.The patients were divided into two groups as IMR ≤25 and IMR>25 by normal values recommended by previous literature. Compared with IMR ≤25 group, IMR>25 group had a higher percentage of initial thrombolysis in myocardial infraction (TIMI) grade 0 (95.7% vs. 65.0%, P=0.029), higher serum CK peak value [4 090 (383, 15 833)vs. 1 580 (396, 5 583), P=0.004]. The IMR>25 group suffered higher rates of ventricular aneurysm (30.4% vs. 5.0%, P=0.021). There was no difference in LVEDV [(111.0±18.8) mL vs. (115.0±23.6) mL, P=0.503] between the two groups 1 day after MI, but after 1 year, LVEDV in IMR>25 group was significantly higher than in IMR≤25 group [(141.5±33.7) mL vs. (115.9±27.9) mL, P=0.018]. The incidence of LVAR was more significant in IMR>25 group (47.4% vs. 11.8%, P=0.024). Binary Logistics regression showed that IMR [B=0.079, exp(B) (95%CI)=1.082 (1.018－1.149), P=0.011] and serum triglyceride level [B=1.610, exp(B) (95%CI)=5.005 (1.380－18.152), P=0.014] were the predictors of LVAR 1 year after MI. IMR had a good predictive value for LVAR 1 year after MI [area under the curve (AUC)=0.749, P=0.019], IMR>29 was a good cutoff value with sensitivity 81.8% and specificity 68.0%. CONCLUSION: Our study elaborates that immediate measurement of IMR after PPCI in patients with STEMI can reflect the microvascular function.And IMR could be used as a quantitative biomarker to predict LVAR after STEMI.

Clinical Application of Automatic Assessment of Scoliosis Cobb Angle Based on Deep Learning.

INTRODUCTION: A recently developed deep-learning-based automatic evaluation model provides reliable and efficient Cobb angle measurements for scoliosis diagnosis. However, few studies have explored its clinical application, and external validation is lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the value of automated assessment models in clinical practice by comparing deep-learning models with manual measurement methods. METHODS: The 481 spine radiographs from an open-source dataset were divided into training and validation sets, and 119 spine radiographs from a private dataset were used as the test set. The mean Cobb angle values assessed by three physicians in the hospital's PACS system served as the reference standard. The results of Seg4Reg, VFLDN, and manual measurement were statistically analyzed. The intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) and the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) were used to compare their reliability and correlation. The Bland-Altman method was used to compare their agreement. The Kappa statistic was used to compare the consistency of Cobb angles at different severity levels. RESULTS: The mean Cobb angle values measured were 35.89° ± 9.33° with Seg4Reg, 31.54° ± 9.78° with VFLDN, and 32.23° ± 9.28° with manual measurement. The ICCs for the reliability of Seg4Reg and VFLDN were 0.809 and 0.974, respectively. The PCC and MAD between Seg4Reg and manual measurements were 0.731 (p<0.001) and 6.51°, while those between VFLDN and manual measurements were 0.952 (p<0.001) and 2.36°. The Kappa statistic indicated VFLDN (k= 0.686, p< 0.001) was superior to Seg4Reg and manual measurements for Cobb angle severity classification. CONCLUSION: The deep-learning-based automatic scoliosis Cobb angle assessment model is feasible in clinical practice. Specifically, the keypoint-based VFLDN is more valuable in actual clinical work with higher accuracy, transparency, and interpretability.

An Investigation into the Stability Source of Collagen Fiber Modified Using Cr(III): An Adsorption Isotherm Study.

The enhanced hydrothermal stability of leather, imparted by little Cr(III), has traditionally been ascribed to strong coordinate bonds. However, this explanation falls short when considering that the heat-induced shrinking of collagen fiber is predominantly driven by rupturing weak H-bonds. This study explored the stability source via adsorption thermodynamics using collagen fiber as an adsorbent. Eleven isotherm models were fitted with the equilibrium dataset. Nine of these models aptly described Cr(III) adsorption based on the physical interpretations of model parameters and error functions. The adsorption equilibrium constants from six models could be transformed into dimensionless thermodynamic equilibrium constants. Based on the higher R2 of the van't Hoff equation, thermodynamic parameters (∆G°, ∆H°, ∆S°) from the Fritz-Shluender isotherm model revealed that the adsorption process typifies endothermic and spontaneous chemisorption, emphasizing entropy increase as the primary driver of Cr(III) bonding with collagen. Thus, the release of bound H2O from collagen is identified as the stability source of collagen fiber modified by Cr(III). This research not only clarifies the selection and applicability of the isotherm model in a specific aqueous system but also identifies entropy, rather than enthalpy, as the principal stability source of Cr-leather. These insights facilitate the development of novel methods to obtain stable collagen-based material.

Rationale and design of a comparison of angiography-derived fractional flow reserve-guided and intravascular ultrasound-guided intervention strategy for clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease: a randomised controlled trial (FLAVOUR II).

INTRODUCTION: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) guided by coronary angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR) or intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has shown improved clinical outcomes compared with angiography-only-guided PCI. In patients with intermediate stenoses, FFR resulted in fewer coronary interventions and was non-inferior to IVUS with respect to clinical outcomes. However, whether this finding can be applied to angiography-derived FFR in significant coronary artery disease (CAD) remains unclear. METHOD AND ANALYSIS: The comparison of angiography-derived FFR-guided and IVUS-guided intervention strategies for clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease (FLAVOUR II) trial is a multicentre, prospective, randomised controlled trial. A total of 1872 patients with angiographically significant CAD (stenoses of at least 50% as estimated visually through angiography) in a major epicardial coronary artery will be randomised 1:1 to receive either angiography-derived FFR-guided or IVUS-guided PCI. Patients will be treated with second-generation drug-eluting stent according to the predefined criteria for revascularisation: angiography-derived FFR≤0.8 and minimal lumen area (MLA)≤3 mm2 or 3 mm270%. The primary endpoint is a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction and revascularisation at 12 months after randomisation. We will test the non-inferiority of the angiography-derived FFR-guided strategy compared with the IVUS-guided decision for PCI and the stent optimisation strategy.The FLAVOUR II trial will provide new insights into optimal evaluation and treatment strategies for patients with CAD. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: FLAVOUR II was approved by the institutional review board at each participating site (The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine Approval No: 2020LSYD410) and will be conducted in line with the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent would be obtained from each patient before their participation. The study results will be submitted to a scientific journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04397211.

Integrating biplane information and context for spine landmark detection.

Spine landmark detection is of great significance for spinal morphological parameter assessment and three-dimensional reconstruction of the human spine. This detection task generally involves locating spine landmarks in the anterior-posterior (AP) and lateral (LAT) X-rays of the spine. Recently, the two-stage methods for AP spine landmark detection achieve better performance. However, these methods perform poorly in LAT landmark detection because of poor detection accuracy of LAT vertebra due to occlusion. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new two-stage spine landmark detection method. In the first stage, this paper propose a biplane vertebra detection network for vertebra detection on AP and X-rays simultaneously. Then an epipolar module and a context enhancement module are proposed to assist LAT vertebra detection by using the biplane information and the context information of the vertebrae respectively. In the second stage, the landmarks can be obtained in the detected vertebrae area. Extensive experiment results conducted on a dataset containing 328 pairs of X-rays demonstrate that our method improves the vertebra and landmark detection accuracy.

Suppressed Auger recombination and enhanced emission of InP/ZnSe/ZnS quantum dots through inner shell manipulation.

Understanding the influence of the inner shell on fluorescence blinking and exciton dynamics is essential to promote the optical performances of InP-based quantum dots (QDs). Here, the fluorescence blinking, exciton dynamics, second-order correlation function g2(τ), and ultrafast carrier dynamics of InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs regulated by the inner ZnSe shell thickness varying from 2 to 7 monolayers (MLs) were systematically investigated. With an inner ZnSe shell thickness of 5 MLs, the photoluminescence quantum yield (PL QY) can reach 98% due to the suppressed blinking and increased probability of multiphoton emission. The exciton dynamics of InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs with different inner shells indicates that two decay components of neural excitons and charged trions are competitive to affect the photon emission behavior. The probability density distributions of the ON and OFF state duration in the blinking traces demonstrate an effective manipulation of the inner ZnSe shell in the non-radiative processes via defect passivation. Accordingly, the radiative recombination dominates the exciton deactivation and the non-radiative Auger recombination rate is remarkably reduced, leading to a QY close to unity and a high PL stability for InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs with 5 MLs of the ZnSe shell. These results provide insights into the photophysical mechanism of InP-based QDs and are significant for developing novel semiconductor PL core/shell QDs.

Size-Regulated Hole and Triplet Energy Transfer from CdSe Quantum Dots to Organic Acceptors for Enhancing Singlet Oxygen Generation.

Triplet energy transfer (TET) from semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) is an emerging strategy for sensitizing molecular triplets that have great potential in many applications. Here, CdSe QDs with varying sizes and 1-pyrenecarboxylic acid (PCA) are selected as the triplet donor and acceptor, respectively, to study the TET and charge transfer dynamics as well as enhanced singlet oxygen (1O2) generation properties. The results from static and transient spectroscopy measurements demonstrate that both the TET and hole transfer occur at the QDs-PCA interface. The observed significant drop in TET efficiency from 52 to 8% with increasing QD size results from the reduced TET driving force between the QDs and PCA, which is further confirmed by the more efficient sensitization of the anthracene derivative with a large TET driving force. In contrast, the hole transfer efficiency displays a small decrease with an increasing QD size due to a slight change in the hole driving force. The sensitized PCA triplets show a good ability of 1O2 generation, and the 1O2 formation rate increases 10-fold as the QD size decreases from 3.3 to 2.4 nm. These findings provide a profound understanding of the TET and hole transfer mechanism from QDs to molecules and are significant in designing efficient 1O2 generation systems based on semiconductor QDs and triplet molecules.

Organic carbon preservation in wetlands: Iron oxide protection vs. thermodynamic limitation.

The sequestration of organic carbon (OC) in wetland sediments is influenced by the presence of oxygen or lack thereof. The mechanisms of OC sequestration under redox fluctuations, particularly by the co-mediation of reactive iron (Fe) protection and thermodynamic limitation by the energetics of the OC itself, remain unclear. Over the past 26 years, a combination of field surveys and remote sensing images had revealed a strong decline in both natural and constructed wetland areas in Tianjin. This decline could be attributed to anthropogenic landfill practices and agricultural reclamation efforts, which may have significant impacts on the oxidation-reduction conditions for sedimentary OC. The Fe-bound OC (CBD extraction) decreased by 2 to 10-fold (from 8.3 to 10% to 0.7-4.5%) with increasing sediment depth at three sites with varying water depths (WD). The high-resolution spectro-microscopy analysis demonstrated that Fe (oxyhydr)oxides were colocalized with sedimentary OC. Corresponding to lower redox potential, the nominal oxidation state of C (NOSC), which corresponds to the energy content in OC, became more negative (energy content increased) with increasing sediment depth. Taken together, the preservation of sedimentary OC is contingent on the prevailing redox conditions: In environments where oxygen availability is high, reactive Fe provides protection for OC, while in anoxic environments, thermodynamic constraints (i.e., energetic constraints) limit the oxidation of OC.

Prediction of PM2.5 time series by seasonal trend decomposition-based dendritic neuron model.

The rapid industrial development in the human society has brought about the air pollution, which seriously affects human health. PM2.5 concentration is one of the main factors causing the air pollution. To accurately predict PM2.5 microns, we propose a dendritic neuron model (DNM) trained by an improved state-of-matter heuristic algorithm (DSMS) based on STL-LOESS, namely DS-DNM. Firstly, DS-DNM adopts STL-LOESS for the data preprocessing to obtain three characteristic quantities from original data: seasonal, trend, and residual components. Then, DNM trained by DSMS predicts the residual values. Finally, three sets of feature quantities are summed to obtain the predicted values. In the performance test experiments, five real-world PM2.5 concentration data are used to test DS-DNM. On the other hand, four training algorithms and seven prediction models were selected for comparison to verify the rationality of the training algorithms and the accuracy of the prediction models, respectively. The experimental results show that DS-DNM has the more competitive performance in PM2.5 concentration prediction problem.

A bibliometric analysis of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury from 2000 to 2023.

Background: Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (MIRI) refers to the more severe damage that occurs in the previously ischemic myocardium after a short-term interruption of myocardial blood supply followed by restoration of blood flow within a certain period of time. MIRI has become a major challenge affecting the therapeutic efficacy of cardiovascular surgery. Methods: A scientific literature search on MIRI-related papers published from 2000 to 2023 in the Web of Science Core Collection database was conducted. VOSviewer was used for bibliometric analysis to understand the scientific development and research hotspots in this field. Results: A total of 5,595 papers from 81 countries/regions, 3,840 research institutions, and 26,202 authors were included. China published the most papers, but the United States had the most significant influence. Harvard University was the leading research institution, and influential authors included Lefer David J., Hausenloy Derek J., Yellon Derek M., and others. All keywords can be divided into four different directions: risk factors, poor prognosis, mechanisms and cardioprotection. Conclusion: Research on MIRI is flourishing. It is necessary to conduct an in-depth investigation of the interaction between different mechanisms and multi-target therapy will be the focus and hotspot of MIRI research in the future.

Heterostructured Mo and Co-based phosphides as high-performance bifunctional electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.

Transitional metal phosphides are efficient and durable electrocatalysts for water splitting. In this work, Mo-CoP/Co2P/NF heterostructures are reported to exhibit bifunctional electrocatalyst properties in various electrolytes. The Co phosphides were found to be possessing a hydrogenase-like structure in these heterostructures with P as the proton-acceptor site and Co as the hydride-acceptor site, making them highly active during the HER process. Moreover, the electronic structure of Co ions could be modified, or the transfer of electrons could be accelerated due to the different valence states of Mo. Additionally, the Mo centers possessed superior adsorption properties toward hydrogen. Consequently, excellent performance for the electrocatalytic HER was exhibited by the Mo-CoP/Co2P/NF-300 heterostructure with small overpotentials of 86.6 mV and 48 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 in 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M H2SO4 solutions, respectively. Furthermore, it also exhibited efficient OER activity in an alkaline solution with a low overpotential of 245 mV at 30 mA cm-2. Post-analysis revealed the changes in the surface and the formation of Co oxyhydroxide during the OER process, and the formation of Co-P-O during the HER process. The high HER and OER performances are attributed to these transformations of morphologies and compositions. Consequently, a two-electrode electrolyzer based on Mo-CoP/Co2P/NF-300 required voltages of 1.59 V and 1.703 V at 20 mA cm-2 and 100 mA cm-2, respectively, and maintained long-term stability.

Ultrabright blue-light-emitting cesium bromide quantum dots for white LEDs.

Novel lead-free non-perovskite blue-emitting cesium bromine (CsBr) QDs have been prepared using a ligand-assisted re-precipitation method. A high photoluminescence quantum yield of over 92.0% makes the CsBr QDs an efficient color-conversion candidate for fabricating white-light-emitting diodes.

Graphitic N-doped biochar for superefficient uranium recycling from nuclear wastewater.

N-doped biochar (AL-N/BC) prepared by pyrolyzing lignin in various temperatures manifested superefficient performance for uranium (U) recycling from nuclear wastewater. The optimist AL-N/BC-700 showed higher adsorption capacity of 25,000 mg/g and faster kinetics of 4100 g·min-1·mg-1 than the most of reported adsorbents, and excellent adsorption-desorption capability (adsorption rate > 90 % and desorption rate > 70 % after 12 cycles). Moreover, the high applicability of AL-N/BC-700 was verified by its superefficient U(VI) adsorption performance in a broad working pH range, various water matrices, and high irradiation stability. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism discloses the significant role of graphitic N, rather than pyridinic N or pyrrolic N, for U(VI) adsorption. Overall, this work not only presents an applicable approach to alleviate the increasingly serious energy crisis via recycling U(VI) from nuclear wastewater, but also enriches the method of synthesizing N-doped materials for U(VI) adsorption.