Control of leaf development in the water fern Ceratopteris richardii by the auxin efflux transporter CrPINMa in the CRISPR/Cas9 analysis.

BACKGROUND: PIN-FORMED genes (PINs) are crucial in plant development as they determine the directionality of auxin flow. They are present in almost all land plants and even in green algae. However, their role in fern development has not yet been determined. This study aims to investigate the function of CrPINMa in the quasi-model water fern Ceratopteris richardii. RESULTS: CrPINMa possessed a long central hydrophilic loop and characteristic motifs within it, which indicated that it belonged to the canonical rather than the non-canonical PINs. CrPINMa was positioned in the lineage leading to Arabidopsis PIN6 but not that to its PIN1, and it had undergone numerous gene duplications. CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing had been performed in ferns for the first time, producing diverse mutations including local frameshifts for CrPINMa. Plants possessing disrupted CrPINMa exhibited retarded leaf emergence and reduced leaf size though they could survive and reproduce at the same time. CrPINMa transcripts were distributed in the shoot apical meristem, leaf primordia and their vasculature. Finally, CrPINMa proteins were localized to the plasma membrane rather than other cell parts. CONCLUSIONS: CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing is feasible in ferns, and that PINs can play a role in fern leaf development.

Scalable Dual In Situ Synthesis of Polyester Nanocomposites for High-Energy Storage.

Incorporating ultralow loading of nanoparticles into polymers has realized increases in dielectric constant and breakdown strength for excellent energy storage. However, there are still a series of tough issues to be dealt with, such as organic solvent uses, which face enormous challenges in scalable preparation. Here, a new strategy of dual in situ synthesis is proposed, namely polymerization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) synchronizes with growth of calcium borate nanoparticles, making polyester nanocomposites from monomers directly. Importantly, this route is free of organic solvents and surface modification of nanoparticles, which is readily accessible to scalable synthesis of polyester nanocomposites. Meanwhile, uniform dispersion of as ultralow as 0.1 wt% nanoparticles and intense bonding at interfaces have been observed. Furthermore, the PET-based nanocomposite displays obvious increases in both dielectric constant and breakdown strength as compared to the neat PET. Its maximum discharged energy density reaches 15 J cm-3 at 690 MV m-1 and power density attains 218 MW cm-3 under 150 Ω resistance at 300 MV m-1, which is far superior to the current dielectric polymers that can be produced at large scales. This work presents a scalable, safe, low-cost, and environment-friendly route toward polymer nanocomposites with superior capacitive performance.

Systems Analysis of Immunity to Influenza Vaccination across Multiple Years and in Diverse Populations Reveals Shared Molecular Signatures.

Systems approaches have been used to describe molecular signatures driving immunity to influenza vaccination in humans. Whether such signatures are similar across multiple seasons and in diverse populations is unknown. We applied systems approaches to study immune responses in young, elderly, and diabetic subjects vaccinated with the seasonal influenza vaccine across five consecutive seasons. Signatures of innate immunity and plasmablasts correlated with and predicted influenza antibody titers at 1 month after vaccination with >80% accuracy across multiple seasons but were not associated with the longevity of the response. Baseline signatures of lymphocyte and monocyte inflammation were positively and negatively correlated, respectively, with antibody responses at 1 month. Finally, integrative analysis of microRNAs and transcriptomic profiling revealed potential regulators of vaccine immunity. These results identify shared vaccine-induced signatures across multiple seasons and in diverse populations and might help guide the development of next-generation vaccines that provide persistent immunity against influenza.

Differential expression and co-localization of transcriptional factors during callus transition to differentiation for shoot organogenesis in the water fern Ceratopteris richardii.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In flowering plants, regeneration can be achieved by a variety of approaches, and different sets of transcriptional factors are involved in these processes. However, regeneration in taxa other than flowering plants remains a mystery. Ceratopteris richardii is a representative fern capable of both direct and indirect organogenesis, and we aimed to investigate the genetics underlying the transition from callus proliferation to differentiation. METHODS: Morphological and histological analyses were used to determine the type of regeneration involved. RNA sequencing and differential gene expression were used to investigate how the callus switches from proliferation to differentiation. Phylogenetic analysis and RNA in situ hybridization were used to understand whether transcriptional factors are involved in this transition. KEY RESULTS: The callus formed on nascent leaves and subsequently developed the shoot pro-meristem and shoot meristem, thus completing indirect de novo shoot organogenesis in C. richardii. Genes were differentially expressed during the callus transition from proliferation to differentiation, indicating a role for photosynthesis, stimulus response and transmembrane signalling in this transition and the involvement of almost all cell layers that make up the callus. Transcriptional factors were either downregulated or upregulated, which were generally in many-to-many orthology with genes known to be involved in callus development in flowering plants, suggesting that the genetics of fern callus development are both conserved and divergent. Among them, an STM-like, a PLT-like and an ethylene- and salt-inducible ERF gene3-like gene were expressed simultaneously in the vasculature but not in the other parts of the callus, indicating that the vasculature played a role in the callus transition from proliferation to differentiation. CONCLUSIONS: Indirect de novo shoot organogenesis could occur in ferns, and the callus transition from proliferation to differentiation required physiological changes, differential expression of transcriptional factors and involvement of the vasculature.

Genome-Wide Association Study in Acute Tubulointerstitial Nephritis.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Polymorphisms of HLA genes may confer susceptibility to acute tubulointerstitial nephritis (ATIN), but small sample sizes and candidate gene design have hindered their investigation. The first genome-wide association study of ATIN identified two significant loci, risk haplotype DRB1*14-DQA1*0101-DQB1*0503 (DR14 serotype) and protective haplotype DRB1*1501-DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602 (DR15 serotype), with amino acid position 60 in the peptide-binding groove P10 of HLA-DR ß 1 key. Risk alleles were shared among different causes of ATIN and HLA genotypes associated with kidney injury and immune therapy response. HLA alleles showed the strongest association. The findings suggest that a genetically conferred risk of immune dysregulation is part of the pathogenesis of ATIN. BACKGROUND: Acute tubulointerstitial nephritis (ATIN) is a rare immune-related disease, accounting for approximately 10% of patients with unexplained AKI. Previous elucidation of the relationship between genetic factors that contribute to its pathogenesis was hampered because of small sample sizes and candidate gene design. METHODS: We undertook the first two-stage genome-wide association study and meta-analysis involving 544 kidney biopsy-defined patients with ATIN and 2346 controls of Chinese ancestry. We conducted statistical fine-mapping analysis, provided functional annotations of significant variants, estimated single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability, and checked genotype and subphenotype correlations. RESULTS: Two genome-wide significant loci, rs35087390 of HLA-DQA1 ( P =3.01×10 -39 ) on 6p21.32 and rs2417771 of PLEKHA5 on 12p12.3 ( P =2.14×10 -8 ), emerged from the analysis. HLA imputation using two reference panels suggested that HLA-DRB1*14 mainly drives the HLA risk association . HLA-DRB1 residue 60 belonging to pocket P10 was the key amino acid position. The SNP-based heritability estimates with and without the HLA locus were 20.43% and 10.35%, respectively. Different clinical subphenotypes (drug-related or tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis syndrome) seemed to share the same risk alleles. However, the HLA risk genotype was associated with disease severity and response rate to immunosuppressive therapy. CONCLUSIONS: We identified two candidate genome regions associated with susceptibility to ATIN. The findings suggest that a genetically conferred risk of immune dysregulation is involved in the pathogenesis of ATIN.

Effectiveness of a Teach-Back Education Program on Perioperative Pain in Patients With Lung Cancer: An Intervention Study Using Behavior Change Wheel.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of a teach-back educational intervention using Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) framework on perioperative pain among patients with lung cancer. METHODS: A prospective quasi-experimental study was conducted in 88 patients with lung cancer from a tertiary hospital in China. According to the order of admission, they were allocated to either control group or intervention group, with 44 patients in each group. Patients in the control group received routine nursing care, while patients in the intervention group were given a teach-back education program based on BCW framework. The visual analog scale (VAS) was adopted to evaluate patients' pain on the day of surgery (T0), 1 (T1), 2 (T2), and 3 (T3) days after surgery. We also recorded the use of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), the length of hospital stay, and the degree of patients' satisfaction. RESULTS: Rest pain, pain when coughing, and pain during activity that patients in the intervention group experienced were significantly less severe than those in the control group on T0 and T1. The pain when coughing in the intervention group was also significantly milder on T2 and T3. In addition, the number of self-control time, use duration, and total dose of PCA were significantly lower in the intervention group. Moreover, patients' satisfaction of nursing service was significantly higher in the intervention group. CONCLUSION: A teach-back education program based on BCW framework was effective in pain management among the perioperative patients with lung cancer. This study demonstrates the application of teach-back method and the BCW in the development of patient education intervention to mitigate perioperative pain.

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OBJECTIVES: To investigate the risk factors for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in twin preterm infants with a gestational age of <34 weeks, and to provide a basis for early identification of BPD in twin preterm infants in clinical practice. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed for the twin preterm infants with a gestational age of <34 weeks who were admitted to 22 hospitals nationwide from January 2018 to December 2020. According to their conditions, they were divided into group A (both twins had BPD), group B (only one twin had BPD), and group C (neither twin had BPD). The risk factors for BPD in twin preterm infants were analyzed. Further analysis was conducted on group B to investigate the postnatal risk factors for BPD within twins. RESULTS: A total of 904 pairs of twins with a gestational age of <34 weeks were included in this study. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that compared with group C, birth weight discordance of >25% between the twins was an independent risk factor for BPD in one of the twins (OR=3.370, 95%CI: 1.500-7.568, P<0.05), and high gestational age at birth was a protective factor against BPD (P<0.05). The conditional logistic regression analysis of group B showed that small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth was an independent risk factor for BPD in individual twins (OR=5.017, 95%CI: 1.040-24.190, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The development of BPD in twin preterm infants is associated with gestational age, birth weight discordance between the twins, and SGA birth.

Long non-coding RNAs as epigenetic mediator and predictor of glioma progression, invasiveness, and prognosis.

Gliomas are aggressive brain tumors with high mortality rate. Over the past several years, non-coding RNAs, specifically the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), have emerged as biomarkers of considerable interest. Emerging data reveals distinct patterns of expressions of several lncRNAs in the glioma tissues, relative to their expression in normal brains. This has led to the speculation for putative exploitation of lncRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers as well as biomarkers for targeted therapy. With a focus on lncRNAs that have shown promise as epigenetic biomarkers in the proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis in various glioma models, we discuss several such lncRNAs. The data from cell line / animal model-based studies as well as analysis from human patient samples is presented for the most up-to-date information on the topic. Overall, the information provided herein makes a compelling case for further evaluation of lncRNAs in clinical settings.

Bradykinin-(1-9) mitigates autophagy through upregulating PI3K/Akt in rats with myocardial infarction.

The cardioprotective mechanisms of bradykinin-(1-9) in myocardial infarction were unclear. We investigated the effect of bradykinin-(1-9) on cardiac function, fibrosis, and autophagy induced by myocardial infarction and identified the mechanisms involved. To investigate the cardioprotective effect of bradykinin-(1-9), various doses of bradykinin-(1-9), its B2 receptor blocker HOE140, or their combination were administered to rats via subcutaneous osmotic minipump implantation before myocardial infarction. After 2 days, myocardial infarction was induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery. After 2 weeks, echocardiographic measurements and euthanasia were performed. Bradykinin-(1-9) treatment attenuated left ventricular dysfunction, fibrosis, and autophagy in rats with myocardial infarction, which was partially reversed by HOE140 administration. Moreover, the downregulatory effect of bradykinin-(1-9) on autophagy was partially reversed by combination with the PI3K inhibitor LY294002. Thus, bradykinin-(1-9) inhibits myocardial infarction-induced cardiomyocyte autophagy by upregulating the PI3K/Akt pathway.

Boosting Output Performance of Sliding Mode Triboelectric Nanogenerator by Shielding Layer and Shrouded-Tribo-Area Optimized Ternary Electrification Layered Architecture.

Sliding mode triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) is effective for low-frequency mechanical energy harvesting owing to their more efficient mechanical energy extraction capability and easy packaging. Ternary electrification layered (TEL) architecture is proven useful for improving the output performance of S-TENG. However, the bottleneck of electric output is the air breakdown on the interface of tribo-layers, which seriously restricts its further improvement. Herein, a strategy is adopted by designing a shielding layer to prevent air breakdown on the central surface of tribo-layers. And the negative effects of air breakdown on the edge of sliding layer are averted by increasing the shrouded area of tribo-layers on slider. Output charge of this shielding-layer and shrouded-tribo-area optimized ternary electrification layered triboelectric nanogenerator (SS-TEL-TENG) achieves 3.59-fold enhancement of traditional S-TENG and 1.76-fold enhancement of TEL-TENG. Furthermore, even at a very low speed of 30 rpm, output charge, current, and average power of the rotation-type SS-TEL-TENG reach 4.15 µC, 74.9 µA, and 25.4 mW (2.05 W m-2 Hz-1 ), respectively. With such high-power output, 4248 LEDs can be lighted brightly by SS-TEL-TENG directly. The high-performance SS-TEL-TENG demonstrated in this work will have great applications for powering ubiquitous sensor network in the Internet of Things (IoT).

Systems biology of vaccination for seasonal influenza in humans.

Here we have used a systems biology approach to study innate and adaptive responses to vaccination against influenza in humans during three consecutive influenza seasons. We studied healthy adults vaccinated with trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (TIV) or live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). TIV induced higher antibody titers and more plasmablasts than LAIV did. In subjects vaccinated with TIV, early molecular signatures correlated with and could be used to accurately predict later antibody titers in two independent trials. Notably, expression of the kinase CaMKIV at day 3 was inversely correlated with later antibody titers. Vaccination of CaMKIV-deficient mice with TIV induced enhanced antigen-specific antibody titers, which demonstrated an unappreciated role for CaMKIV in the regulation of antibody responses. Thus, systems approaches can be used to predict immunogenicity and provide new mechanistic insights about vaccines.

Evaluation of immunogenicity of gene-deleted and subunit vaccines constructed against the emerging pseudorabies virus variants.

BACKGROUND: Pseudorabies (PR) (also called Aujeszky's disease, AD) is a serious infectious disease affecting pigs and other animals worldwide. The emergence of variant strains of pseudorabies virus (PRV) since 2011 has led to PR outbreaks in China and a vaccine that antigenically more closely matches these PRV variants could represent an added value to control these infections. METHODS: The objective of this study was to develop new live attenuated and subunit vaccines against PRV variant strains. Genomic alterations of vaccine strains were based on the highly virulent SD-2017 mutant strain and gene-deleted strains SD-2017ΔgE/gI and SD-2017ΔgE/gI/TK, which constructed using homologous recombination technology. PRV gB-DCpep (Dendritic cells targeting peptide) and PorB (the outer membrane pore proteins of N. meningitidis) proteins containing gp67 protein secretion signal peptide were expressed using the baculovirus system for the preparation of subunit vaccines. We used experimental animal rabbits to test immunogenicity to evaluate the effect of the newly constructed PR vaccines. RESULTS: Compared with the PRV-gB subunit vaccine and SD-2017ΔgE/gI inactivated vaccines, rabbits (n = 10) that were intramuscularly vaccinated with SD-2017ΔgE/gI/TK live attenuated vaccine and PRV-gB + PorB subunit vaccine showed significantly higher anti-PRV-specific antibodies as well as neutralizing antibodies and IFN-γ levels in serum. In addition, the SD-2017ΔgE/gI/TK live attenuated vaccine and PRV-gB + PorB subunit vaccine protected (90-100%) rabbits against homologous infection by the PRV variant strain. No obvious pathological damage was observed in these vaccinated rabbits. CONCLUSIONS: The SD-2017ΔgE/gI/TK live attenuated vaccine provided 100% protection against PRV variant challenge. Interestingly, the subunit vaccines with gB protein linked to DCpep and PorB protein as adjuvant may also be a promising and effective PRV variant vaccine candidate.

CaMKII and CaV3.2 T-type calcium channel mediate Connexin-43-dependent inflammation by activating astrocytes in vincristine-induced neuropathic pain.

Vincristine (VCR), an alkaloid isolated from vinca, is a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug. However, VCR therapy can lead to dose-dependent peripheral neurotoxicity, mainly manifesting as neuropathic pain, which is one of the dominant reasons for limiting its utility. Experimentally, we discovered that VCR-induced neuropathic pain (VINP) was accompanied by astrocyte activation; the upregulation of phospho-CaMKII (p-CaMKII), CaV3.2, and Connexin-43 (Cx43) expression; and the production and release of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in the spinal cord. Similar situations were also observed in astrocyte cultures. Interestingly, these alterations were all reversed by intrathecal injection of KN-93 (a CaMKII inhibitor) or L-Ascorbic acid (a CaV3.2 inhibitor). In addition, KN-93 and L-Ascorbic acid inhibited the increase in [Ca2+]i associated with astrocyte activation. We also verified that knocking down or inhibiting Cx43 level via intrathecal injection of Cx43 siRNA or Gap27 (a Cx43 mimetic peptide) relieved pain hypersensitivity and reduced the release of inflammatory factors; however, they did not affect astrocyte activation or p-CaMKII and CaV3.2 expression. Besides, the overexpression of Cx43 through the transfection of the Cx43 plasmid did not affect p-CaMKII and CaV3.2 expressions in vitro. Therefore, CaMKII and CaV3.2 may activate astrocytes by increasing [Ca2+]i, thereby mediating Cx43-dependent inflammation in VINP. Moreover, we demonstrated that the CaMKII signalling pathway was involved in VCR-induced inflammation, apoptosis, and mitochondrial damage. Collectively, our findings show a novel mechanism by which CaMKII and CaV3.2 mediate Cx43-dependent inflammation by activating astrocytes in neuropathic pain induced by VCR.

Light-Driven Electron Uptake from Nonfermentative Organic Matter to Expedite Nitrogen Dissimilation by Chemolithotrophic Anammox Consortia.

Nonphotosynthetic microorganisms are typically unable to directly utilize light energy, but light might change the metabolic pathway of these bacteria indirectly by forming intermediates such as reactive oxygen species (ROS). This work investigated the role of light on nitrogen conversion by anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) consortia. The results showed that high intensity light (>20000 lx) caused ca. 50% inhibition of anammox activity, and total ROS reached 167% at 60,000 lx. Surprisingly, 200 lx light was found to induce unexpected promotion of the nitrogen conversion rate, and ultraviolet light (<420 nm) was identified as the main contributor. Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses revealed that the gene encoding cytochrome c peroxidase was highly expressed only under 200 lx light. 15N isotope tracing, gene abundance quantification, and external H2O2 addition experiments showed that photoinduced trace H2O2 triggered cytochrome c peroxidase expression to take up electrons from extracellular nonfermentative organics to synthesize NADH and ATP, thereby expediting nitrogen dissimulation of anammox consortia. External supplying reduced humic acid into a low-intensity light exposure system would result in a maximal 1.7-fold increase in the nitrogen conversion rate. These interesting findings may provide insight into the niche differentiation and widespread nature of anammox bacteria in natural ecotopes.

A NIR Fluorescent Probe Benzopyrylium Perchlorate-based for Visual Sensing and Imaging of SO2 Derivatives in Living Cells.

Endogenous sulfur dioxide (SO2), as a gas signal molecule, has a certain physiological functions. Understanding the role of endogenous SO2 in human physiology and pathology is of great significance to the biological characteristics of SO2,which bring challenges to develop fluorescent probes with excellent performance. Herein, we rationally designed and constructed a novel near-infrared bioprobe benzaldehyde-benzopyrylium (BBp) by employing the nucleophilic addition benzopyrylium perchlorate fluorophore and benzaldehyde moiety by means of C = C/C = O group that serves as both fluorescence reporting unit. Probe BBp exhibit excellent sensing performance with fluorescent "On - Off"rapid response (100 s) and long-wavelength emission (670 nm). With the treatment of HSO3-, the color of BBp solution obviously varies from purple to colorless, and the fluorescent color varies from red to colorless. By the fluorescence and colorimetric changes, probe BBp was capable of sensitive determination HSO3- with low limits of detection (LOD) of 0.43 µM, realizing visual quantitative monitoring SO2 derivative levels. Due to the low phototoxicity and good biocompatibility, it was successfully applied to monitor SO2 derivatives and fluorescence imaging in HepG2 and HeLa living cells. Hopefully, this work supplies a new strategy for designing NIR fluorescent probes for quantitative determination SO2 derivatives in biological samples.

Static and Dynamic Plantar Pressure Distribution in 94 Patients with Different Stages of Unilateral Knee Osteoarthritis Using the Footscan® Platform System: An Observational Study.

BACKGROUND Plantar pressure analysis is widely used in the study of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The present study aimed to investigate the static and dynamic plantar pressure distribution in patients with different stages of unilateral KOA using the Footscan® platform system. MATERIAL AND METHODS We recruited 94 patients aged 61.75±7.23 years old with different stages of unilateral KOA for static and dynamic analysis using the Footscan® platform system. The static pressure (%) of the left, right, anterior, posterior, and the pelvic rotation (°) was assessed. The peak pressure (PP, kPa) was investigated in 10 areas of the foot: medial heel (MH), lateral heel (LH), midfoot (MF), first to fifth metatarsals (M1-M5), hallux (T1), and toes 2-5 (T2-5). The correlation between KOA stages and plantar pressure distributions was investigated. RESULTS The results revealed that static pressure on the unaffected side and pelvic rotation were positively correlated with KOA stages. In addition, there was a positive correlation between KOA stages and PP of M5, MF, and LH zones on the affected side and PP of M2, M3, and M4 zones on the unaffected side, and a negative correlation between KOA stages and PP of T1 and T2-5 zones on the affected side. CONCLUSIONS With the progression of KOA, static plantar pressure tends to distributed on the unaffected side, and the dynamic plantar pressure tends to be distributed laterally on both feet. The plantar pressure distributions in unilateral KOA patients are abnormal and are closely related to the severity of KOA.

A New Method for Erosion Prediction of 90° Elbow Based on Non-Axisymmetric Ultrasonic-Guided Wave and the PSO-LSSVM Algorithm.

The non-axisymmetric exciting guided wave can detect the thinning section of the elbow, and the time domain energy value of the signal collected at the outer arch position of the receiving end displays a downward trend as the remaining thickness of the erosion area decreases. To address the difficulty in detecting the erosion degree of the elbow with high accuracy, this paper uses the linear frequency modulation (LFM) signal to excite a non-axisymmetric guided wave that propagates in the 90° elbow and collects signals through four PZT receivers. To predict the erosion degree, the corresponding relationship between the energy value of the four signals after fractional Fourier filtering and the degree of elbow erosion is established through the particle swarm optimization (PSO)-least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithm. The results show that the method proposed has an average accuracy rate of 98.1864%, 94.7167%, 99.119%, and 99.9593% for predicting the erosion degree of four elbow samples, and 94.0039%. and 81.2976% for two new erosion degrees, which are higher than the nonlinear regression model, LSSVM algorithm, and BP neural network algorithm. This study has guiding significance for real-time monitoring of elbow erosion.

Study on Synthesizing Isobornyl Acetate/Isoborneol from Camphene Using α-Hydroxyl Carboxylic Acid Composite Catalyst.

This study examined the preparation of isobornyl acetate/isoborneol from camphene using an α-hydroxyl carboxylic acid (HCA) composite catalyst. Through the study of the influencing factors, it was found that HCA and boric acid exhibited significant synergistic catalysis. Under optimal conditions, when tartaric acid-boric acid was used as the catalyst, the conversion of camphene and the gas chromatography (GC) content and selectivity of isobornyl acetate were 92.9%, 88.5%, and 95.3%, respectively. With the increase in the ratio of water to acetic acid, the GC content and selectivity of isobornol in the product increased, but the conversion of camphene decreased. The yield of isobornol was increased by adding ethyl acetate or titanium sulfate/zirconium sulfate to form a ternary composite catalyst. When a ternary complex of titanium sulfate, tartaric acid, and boric acid was used as the catalyst, the GC content of isobornol in the product reached 55.6%. Under solvent-free conditions, mandelic acid-boric acid could catalyze the hydration reaction of camphene, the GC content of isoborneol in the product reached 26.1%, and the selectivity of isoborneol was 55.9%. The HCA-boric acid composite catalyst can use aqueous acetic acid as a raw material, which is also beneficial for the reuse of the catalyst.

Synthesis of Low-Cost and High-Performance Dual-Atom Doped Carbon-Based Materials with a Simple Green Route as Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are promising alternatives to replace lithium-ion batteries as future energy storage batteries because of their abundant sodium resources, low cost, and high charging efficiency. In order to match the high energy capacity and density, designing an atomically doped carbonous material as the anode is presently one of the important strategies to commercialize SIBs. In this work, we report the preparation of high-performance dual-atom-doped carbon (C) materials using low-cost corn starch and thiourea (CH4N2S) as the precursors. The electronegativity and radii of the doped atoms and C are different, which can vary the embedding properties of sodium ions (Na+) into/on C. As sulfur (S) can effectively expand the layer spacing, it provides more channels for embedding and de-embedding Na+. The synergistic effect of N and S co-doping can remarkably boost the performance of SIBs. The capacity is preserved at 400 mAh g -1 after 200 cycles at 500 mA g-1; more notably, the initial Coulombic efficiency is 81%. Even at a high rate of high current of 10 A g-1, the cell capacity can still reach 170 mAh g-1. More importantly, after 3000 cycles at 1 A g-1, the capacity decay is less than 0.003% per cycle, which demonstrates its excellent electrochemical performance. These results indicate that high-performance carbon materials can be prepared using low-cost corn starch and thiourea.

ART1 and putrescine contribute to rice aluminum resistance via OsMYB30 in cell wall modification.

Cell wall is the first physical barrier to aluminum (Al) toxicity. Modification of cell wall properties to change its binding capacity to Al is one of the major strategies for plant Al resistance; nevertheless, how it is regulated in rice remains largely unknown. In this study, we show that exogenous application of putrescines (Put) could significantly restore the Al resistance of art1, a rice mutant lacking the central regulator Al RESISTANCE TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR 1 (ART1), and reduce its Al accumulation particularly in the cell wall of root tips. Based on RNA-sequencing, yeast-one-hybrid and electrophoresis mobility shift assays, we identified an R2R3 MYB transcription factor OsMYB30 as the novel target in both ART1-dependent and Put-promoted Al resistance. Furthermore, transient dual-luciferase assay showed that ART1 directly inhibited the expression of OsMYB30, and in turn repressed Os4CL5-dependent 4-coumaric acid accumulation, hence reducing the Al-binding capacity of cell wall and enhancing Al resistance. Additionally, Put repressed OsMYB30 expression by eliminating Al-induced H2 O2 accumulation, while exogenous H2 O2 promoted OsMYB30 expression. We concluded that ART1 confers Put-promoted Al resistance via repression of OsMYB30-regulated modification of cell wall properties in rice.