The Inhibiting Effect of GB-2, (+)-Catechin, Theaflavin, and Theaflavin 3-Gallate on Interaction between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 EG.5.1 and HV.1 Variants.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, continues to pose significant global health challenges. The results demonstrated that GB-2 at 200 µg/mL effectively increased the population of 293T-ACE2 cells with low RBD binding for both SARS-CoV-2 Omicron EG.5.1 and HV.1 variants by dual-color flow cytometry, indicating its ability to inhibit virus attachment. Further investigation revealed that (+)-catechin at 25 and 50 µg/mL did not significantly alter the ACE2-RBD interaction for the EG.5.1 variant. In contrast, theaflavin showed inhibitory effects at both 25 and 50 µg/mL for EG.5.1, while only the higher concentration was effective for HV.1. Notably, theaflavin 3-gallate exhibited a potent inhibition of ACE2-RBD binding for both variants at both concentrations tested. Molecular docking studies provided insight into the binding mechanisms of theaflavin and theaflavin 3-gallate with the RBD of EG.5.1 and HV.1 variants. Both compounds showed favorable docking scores, with theaflavin 3-gallate demonstrating slightly lower scores (-8 kcal/mol) compared to theaflavin (-7 kcal/mol) for both variants. These results suggest stable interactions between the compounds and key residues in the RBD, potentially explaining their inhibitory effects on virus attachment. In conclusion, GB-2, theaflavin, and theaflavin 3-gallate demonstrate significant potential as inhibitors of the ACE2-RBD interaction in Omicron variants, highlighting their therapeutic promise against COVID-19. However, these findings are primarily based on computational and in vitro studies, necessitating further in vivo research and clinical trials to confirm their efficacy and safety in humans.

The ATTO 565 Dye and Its Applications in Microscopy.

ATTO 565, a Rhodamine-type dye, has garnered significant attention due to its remarkable optical properties, such as a high fluorescence quantum yield, and the fact that it is a relatively stable structure and has low biotoxicity. ATTO 565 has found extensive applications in combination with microscopy technology. In this review, the chemical and optical properties of ATTO 565 are introduced, along with the principles behind them. The functionality of ATTO 565 in confocal microscopy, stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, single-molecule tracking (SMT) techniques, two-photon excitation-stimulated emission depletion microscopy (TPE-STED) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is discussed. These studies demonstrate that ATTO 565 plays a crucial role in areas such as biological imaging and single-molecule localization, thus warranting further in-depth investigations. Finally, we present some prospects and concepts for the future applications of ATTO 565 in the fields of biocompatibility and metal ion detection. This review does not include theoretical calculations for the ATTO 565 molecule.

Impact of diatomit on the transport behavior of unmodified and carboxyl-modified nanoplastics in saturated porous media.

Due to the extensive use of plastic products and unreasonable disposal, nanoplastics contamination has become one of the important environmental problems that mankind must face. The composition and structure of porous media can determine the complexity and diversity of the transport behavior of nanoplastics. In this study, the influence of diatomite (DIA) on the nanoplastics transport in porous media is investigated by column experiments combined with XDLVO interaction energy and transport model. Results suggest that the recovery rates of unmodified polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) and carboxyl-modified polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs-COOH) in the porous media containing DIA decreases compared with that in the pure quartz sand (QS), and the BTCs showed a "blocking" pattern. The presence of DIA inhibits the transport of both PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH, but the inhibition is not significant. This may be because the presence of DIA provides more favorable deposition sites for PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH to some extent. However, since DIA itself carries a certain negative charge, this can only play a role in compressing the double electric layer for PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH with the same negative charge, and cannot destabilize them. The migration capacity of PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH is strongest in the DIA-QS porous media at pH = 7, and is weak at pH = 9 and pH = 5. The inhibition of migration at pH = 9 can be attributed to the dissolution of the DIA surface under alkaline conditions and the formation of pore and defect structures, which provide more deposition sites for PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH. The presence of humic acid (HA) leads to an increase in the mobility of PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH, and the mobility is enhanced with HA concentration. The mobility of PSNPs and PSNPs-COOH in DIA-QS decreases with ionic valence and ionic strength, and PSNPs-COOH is more significantly inhibited compared to PSNPs.

Establishment and verification of novel TNM staging system for lung mucinous adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Lung adenocarcinoma is a high-mortality rate cancer. Within this category, Lung mucinous adenocarcinoma (LMAC) is a rare and distinct subtype of lung adenocarcinoma necessitating further investigation. The study was launched to compare the difference of survival features between LMAC and lung non-mucinous adenocarcinoma (LNMAC) and to investigate the significance and demand for developing a new staging system tailored to LMAC. METHODS: This retrospective study assessed the suitableness of the current staging system for LMAC. It compared the overall survival (OS) between LMAC and LNMAC from 2004 to 2020 (LNMAC: 160,387; LMAC: 6,341) and instituted a novel classification framework for LMAC based on US population. Verification group consisting of patients from two Chinese medical centers from 2010 to 2018 (n = 392) was set to ascertain the applicability of this novel system. The primary endpoint was OS. To minimize the bias, propensity score match (PSM) was employed. Survival analysis and Log-rank test were executed to explore the survival features of LMAC. RESULTS: The results indicated that the existed staging system was not suitable for LMAC. Patients diagnosed with LMAC exhibited a superior OS compared to those with LNMAC in stage IA2 (P < 0.0001), IA3 (P < 0.0001), IB (P = 0.0062), IIA (P = 0.0090), IIB (P = 0.0005). In contrast, a worse OS in stage IVA (P = 0.0103) was found in LMAC patients. The novel classification system proposed for LMAC proved to be highly applicable and demonstrated substantial efficacy, as confirmed by the verification group. CONCLUSION: The newly established classification system was more effective for LMAC, but it necessitates large-scale verification to confirm its applicability and reliability.

From graphite of used lithium-ion batteries to holey graphite coated by carbon with enhanced lithium storage capability.

The efficient recycling of waste graphite anode from used lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has attracted considerable concerns mainly owing to the environment protection and reutilization of resources. Herein, we reported a rational and facile strategy for the synthesis of holey graphite coated by carbon (hG0.01@C0.10) through the separation, purification and creation of holey structures of waste graphite by using NaOH and carbon-coating by using phenolic resin. The holey structures facilitate the hG0.01@C0.10 with the quick penetration of electrolytes and rapid diffusion of Li+. The carbon coating is more favorable for hG0.01@C0.10 with improved electronic conductivity and less alleviated volume during the cycles. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of holey structures and carbon coating, the hG0.01@C0.10 as anode for LIBs displays a high reversible capacity of 377.6 mAh g-1 at 0.5 C and superior rate capabilities (e.g., 348.0 and 274.7 mAh g-1 at 1 and 2 C, respectively) and maintains a high reversible capacity of 278.7 mAh g-1 at 1 C after 300 cycles with an initial capacity retention of 80.0 %.

A Protective Layer of UIO-66/Reduced Graphene Oxide to Stabilize Zinc-Metal Anodes toward High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion batteries with a Zn anode hold great promise as promising candidates for advanced energy storage systems. The construction of protective layer coatings on Zn anode is an effective way to suppress the growth of Zn dendrites and water-induced side reactions. Herein, we reported a series of UIO-66 materials with different concentrations of reduced graphene oxide (rG) coated onto the surface of Zn foil (Zn@UIO-66/rGx; x = 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2). Benefiting from the synergistic effect of UIO-66 and rG, symmetric cells with Zn@UIO-66/rGx (x = 0.1) electrodes exhibit excellent reversibility (e.g., long cycling life over 1100 h at 1 mA cm-2/1 mAh cm-2) and superior rate capability (e.g., over 1100 and 400 h at 5 mA cm-2/2.5 mAh cm-2 and 10 mA cm-2/5 mAh cm-2, respectively). When the Zn@UIO-66/rG0.1 anode was paired with the NaV3O8·1.5H2O (NVO) cathode, the Zn@UIO-66/rG0.1||NVO cell also delivered a high reversible capacity of 189.9 mAh g-1 with an initial capacity retention of 61.3% after 500 cycles at 1 A g-1, compared to the bare Zn||NVO cell with only 92 cycles.

Effect of nutrition-based prehabilitation on the postoperative outcomes of patients with esophagogastric cancer undergoing surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses have primarily focused on the effects of exercise-based prehabilitation on postoperative outcomes and ignored the role of nutritional intervention. In this study, we filled this gap by investigating the effect of nutrition-based prehabilitation on the postoperative outcomes of patients who underwent esophagectomy and gastrectomy. METHODS: Five electronic databases, namely, PubMed, the Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, and CINAHL, were searched. Adults diagnosed with esophagogastric cancer who were scheduled to undergo surgery and had undergone uni- or multimodal prehabilitation, with at least a week of mandatory nutritional intervention, were included. Forest plots were used to extract and visualize the data from the included studies. The occurrence of any postoperative complication was considered the primary endpoint. RESULTS: Eight studies met the eligibility criteria, with five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and three cohort studies. In total, 661 patients were included. Any prehabilitation, that is, unimodal (only nutrition) and multimodal prehabilitation, collectively decreased the risk of any postoperative complication by 23% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.66-0.90). A similar effect was exclusively observed for multimodal prehabilitation (risk ratio [RR] = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.66-0.93); however, it was not significant for unimodal prehabilitation. Any prehabilitation significantly decreased the length of hospital stay (LOS) (weighted mean difference = -0.77, 95% CI = -1.46 to -0.09). CONCLUSIONS: Nutrition-based prehabilitation, particularly multimodal prehabilitation, confers protective effects against postoperative complications after esophagectomy and gastrectomy. Our findings suggest that prehabilitation slightly decreases LOS; however, the finding is not clinically significant. Therefore, additional rigorous RCTs are warranted for further substantiation.

A structured course of disease dataset with contact tracing information in Taiwan for COVID-19 modelling.

The COVID-19 pandemic has flooded open databases with population-level data. However, individual-level structured data, such as the course of disease and contact tracing information, is almost non-existent in open databases. Publish a structured and cleaned COVID-19 dataset with the course of disease and contact tracing information for easy benchmarking of COVID-19 models. We gathered data from Taiwanese open databases and daily news reports. The outcome is a structured quantitative dataset encompassing the course of the disease of Taiwanese individuals, alongside their contact tracing information. Our dataset comprises 579 confirmed cases covering the period from January 21, to November 9, 2020, when the original SARS-CoV-2 virus was most prevalent in Taiwan. The data include features such as travel history, age, gender, symptoms, contact types between cases, date of symptoms onset, confirmed, critically ill, recovered, and dead. We also include the daily summary data at population-level from January 21, 2020, to May 23, 2022. Our data can help enhance epidemiological modelling.

Iron, Tungsten Dual-Doped Nickel Sulfide as Efficient Bifunctional Catalyst for Overall Water Splitting.

Developing low-cost and highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a challenging problem in electrochemical overall water splitting. Here, iron, tungsten dual-doped nickel sulfide catalyst (Fe/W-Ni3S2) is synthesized on the nickel foam, and it exhibits excellent OER and HER performance. As a result, the water electrolyze based on Fe/W-Ni3S2 bifunctional catalyst illustrates 10 mA cm-2 at 1.69 V (without iR-compensation) and highly durable overall water splitting over 100 h tested under 500 mA cm-2. Experimental results and DFT calculations indicate that the synergistic interaction between Fe doping and Ni vacancy induced by W leaching during the in situ oxidation process can maximize exposed OER active sites on the reconstructed NiOOH species for accelerating OER kinetics, while the Fe/W dual-doping optimizes the electronic structure of Fe/W-Ni3S2 and the binding strength of intermediates for boosting HER. This study unlocks the different promoting mechanisms of incorporating Fe and W for boosting the OER and HER activity of Ni3S2 for water splitting, which provides significant guidance for designing high-performance bifunctional catalysts for overall water splitting.

Causal associations between human gut microbiota and osteomyelitis: a Mendelian randomization study.

Background: Recent studies have emphasized the role of gut microbiota in the onset and progression of osteomyelitis. However, the exact types of gut microbiota and their mechanisms of action remain unclear. Additionally, there is a lack of theoretical support for treatments that improve osteomyelitis by altering the gut microbiota. Methods: In our study, we utilized the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis to date from the MiBioGen consortium, involving 13,400 participants. The GWAS data for osteomyelitis were sourced from the UK Biobank, which included 4,836 osteomyelitis cases and 486,484 controls. We employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework for a detailed investigation into the causal relationship between gut microbiota and osteomyelitis. Our methods included inverse variance weighting, MR-Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode approaches. Additionally, we applied Cochran's Q statistic to assess the heterogeneity of the instrumental variable. Results: At the class level, Bacilli and Bacteroidia were positively correlated with the risk of osteomyelitis. At the order level, only Bacteroidales showed a positive association with osteomyelitis. At the genus level, an increased abundance of Butyricimonas, Coprococcus3, and Tyzzerella3 was positively associated with the risk of osteomyelitis, whereas Lachnospira was negatively associated. Sensitivity analyses showed no evidence of heterogeneity or pleiotropy. Conclusion: This study reveals that classes Bacilli and Bacteroidia, order Bacteroidales, and genera Butyricimonas, Coprococcus3, and Tyzzerella3 are implicated in increasing the risk of osteomyelitis, while the genus Lachnospira is associated with a reduced risk. Future investigations are warranted to elucidate the precise mechanisms through which these specific bacterial groups influence the pathophysiology of osteomyelitis.

The Effect and Mechanism of Astragalus Polysaccharides on T Cells and Macrophages in Inhibiting Prostate Cancer.

BACKGROUND: The impact and underlying mechanisms of astragalus polysaccharide (APS) on prostate cancer, particularly its role in immunomodulation, remain inadequately elucidated. METHODS: This study employed the XTT assay for assessing proliferation in prostate cancer cells and macrophages. T cell proliferation was determined using the Carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester labeling assay. APS's effect on T cells and macrophages was scrutinized via flow cytometry, Western blot analysis, ELISA, quantitative PCR and cytokine membrane arrays. The effect of APS on interaction between PD-L1 and PD-1 was investigated by the PD-L1/PD-1 homogeneous assay. Additionally, the impact of conditioned medium from T cells and macrophages on PC-3 cell migration was explored through migration assays. RESULTS: It was observed that APS at concentrations of 1 and 5 mg/mL enhanced the proliferation of CD8+ T cells. At a concentration of 5 mg/mL, APS activated both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, attenuated PD-L1 expression in prostate cancer cells stimulated with interferon gamma (IFN-γ) or oxaliplatin, and moderately decreased the population of PD-1+ CD4+ and PD-1+ CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, APS at this concentration impeded the interaction between PD-L1 and PD-1, inhibited the promotion of prostate cancer migration mediated by RAW 264.7 cells, THP-1 cells, CD4+ T cells, and CD8+ T cells, and initiated apoptosis in prostate cancer cells treated with conditioned medium from APS (5 mg/mL)-treated CD8+ T cells, RAW 264.7 cells, or THP-1 cells. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate a potential role of 5 mg/mL APS in modulating the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway and influencing the immune response, encompassing T cells and macrophages. Consequently, further in vivo research is recommended to assess the efficacy of APS.

Ideal adaptive control in biological systems: an analysis of P -invariance and dynamical compensation properties.

BACKGROUND: Dynamical compensation (DC) provides robustness to parameter fluctuations. As an example, DC enables control of the functional mass of endocrine or neuronal tissue essential for controlling blood glucose by insulin through a nonlinear feedback loop. Researchers have shown that DC is related to the structural unidentifiability and the P -invariance property. The P -invariance property is a sufficient and necessary condition for the DC property. DC has been seen in systems with at least three dimensions. In this article, we discuss DC and P -invariance from an adaptive control perspective. An adaptive controller automatically adjusts its parameters to optimise performance, maintain stability, and deal with uncertainties in a system. RESULTS: We initiate our analysis by introducing a simplified two-dimensional dynamical model with DC, fostering experimentation and understanding of the system's behavior. We explore the system's behavior with time-varying input and disturbance signals, with a focus on illustrating the system's P -invariance properties in phase portraits and step-like response graphs. CONCLUSIONS: We show that DC can be seen as a case of ideal adaptive control since the system is invariant to the compensated parameter.

Taiwan ended third COVID-19 community outbreak as forecasted.

Accurate forecasting of community outbreaks is crucial for governments to allocate healthcare resources correctly and implement suitable non-pharmaceutical interventions. Additionally, companies must address critical questions about stock and staff management. Society's key concern is when businesses and organizations can resume normal operations. Between December 31st 2019 and 2021, Taiwan experienced three separate COVID-19 community outbreaks with significant time intervals in between, suggesting that each outbreak eventually came to an end. We identified the ratio of the 7-day average of local & unknown confirmed to suspected cases as the key control variable and forecasted the end of the third outbreak by the exponential model. We forecasted the end of the third outbreak on Aug. 16th with threshold ratios of 1.2 · 10 - 4 . The real observations crossed the threshold on Aug. 27th, eleven days later than forecasted, with the last case of the third outbreak confirmed and quarantined on Sept. 20th. This demonstrated the accuracy of the proposed forecasting method in predicting the end of a local outbreak. Furthermore, we highlight that the ratio reflects the effectiveness of contact tracing. Effective contact tracing together with testing and isolation of infected individuals is crucial for ending community outbreaks.

Effect of early enteral nutrition on short-term outcomes and survival in patients in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit: An inverse probability weighted retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES: The merits of early enteral nutrition (EEN) in patients in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit (CTICU) remain unclear. This retrospective study aimed to address this issue. METHODS: We analyzed data from the MIMIC IV v2.0 database, including patients with a CTICU stay of ≥4 d. Patients were divided into early and delayed enteral nutrition (EN) groups. Differences in baseline data were corrected using an inverse probability weighting (IPW) approach. Generalized linear models (GLMs) were used to compare trends over time between groups, and survival effects were evaluated with weighted logistic and Cox regression, supplemented by weighted Kaplan-Meier curves. Subgroup analysis facilitated the exploration of potential interactions. RESULTS: The study included 720 CTICU patients. Following IPW, all baseline variables were balanced. EEN led to shorter hospital and CTICU stays, lower incidence of respiratory and blood infections, and reduced total insulin usage in the first week of CTICU admission, albeit with an increased total gastric residual volume. Mortality risk between the groups did not significantly differ at 28 d or at 1 y. Excessive early energy and protein intake elevated the risk of 28-d mortality, but the relationship may not be linear. Overweight patients or those with fewer comorbidities had a higher mortality risk with EEN. CONCLUSIONS: EEN may improve short-term outcomes in CTICU patients without a clear survival benefit. Early high caloric and protein intake could lead to adverse outcomes, suggesting a careful evaluation for initiating EN in specific patients.

Site-specific metal-support interaction to switch the activity of Ir single atoms for oxygen evolution reaction.

The metal-support interactions (MSI) could greatly determine the electronic properties of single-atom catalysts, thus affecting the catalytic performance. However, the typical approach to regulating MSI usually suffers from interference of the variation of supports or sacrificing the stability of catalysts. Here, we effectively regulate the site-specific MSI of Ir single atoms anchored on Ni layered double hydroxide through an electrochemical deposition strategy. Cathodic deposition drives Ir atoms to locate at three-fold facial center cubic hollow sites with strong MSI, while anodic deposition drives Ir atoms to deposit onto oxygen vacancy sites with weak MSI. The mass activity and intrinsic activity of Ir single-atom catalysts with strong MSI towards oxygen evolution reaction are 19.5 and 5.2 times that with weak MSI, respectively. Mechanism study reveals that the strong MSI between Ir atoms and the support stimulates the activity of Ir sites by inducing the switch of active sites from Ni sites to Ir sites and optimizes the adsorption strength of intermediates, thereby enhancing the activity.

Induction of ferroptosis and apoptosis in endometrial cancer cells by dihydroisotanshinone I.

Danshen, also known as Salvia miltiorrhiza, is a medicinal herb used in traditional Chinese medicine. Its potential impact on endometrial cancer has not been thoroughly investigated. This study aimed to examine the effect of dihydroisotanshinone I (DT), a compound found in Danshen, on the viability of ARK1 and ARK2 endometrial cancer cells and its mechanisms. The results showed that 10 µM DT inhibited cell viability of ARK1 and ARK2 cells by inducing apoptosis and ferroptosis, which was achieved by blocking the expression of GPX4. In vivo experiments using a xenograft nude mouse model indicated that DT treatment significantly reduced tumor volume without causing any adverse effects. These findings suggest that DT may be a potential therapeutic agent for inhibiting endometrial cancer cell viability, but further research is needed to confirm these results.

Quantification of two-site kinetic transport parameters of polystyrene nanoplastics in porous media.

In this study, a combination of column experiments, interface chemistry theory and transport model with two-site kinetics was used to systematically investigate the effect of pH on the transport of polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) in porous media. The porous media containing quartz sand (QS) and three kinds of clay minerals (CMs)-kaolinite (KL), illite (IL) and montmorillonite (MT), was used in column experiments to simulate the porous media in the soil-groundwater systems. Experimental results showed that the inhibitory effect of CMs on the transport of PSNPs is weakened as pH increases. The two-dimensional (2D) surface of the DLVO interaction energy (2D-pH-DLVO) was built to calculate the interactions between PSNPs and CMs under different conditions of pH. Results suggested the inflection point of PSNP-QS, PSNP-KL, PSNP-IL and PSNP-MT are 2.42, 3.30, 2.84 and 3.69, respectively. Most importantly, there was a significant correlation between the two-site kinetic parameters related to PSNPs transport and the DLVO energy barrier (DB). The contributions of the interactions of PSNPs-PSNPs and PSNPs-minerals were determined for PSNPs transport in porous media. The critical values of pH related to the migration ability of PSNPs in porous media could be determined by a combination of column experiments, 2D-pH-DLVO and PSNPs transport model. The critical values of pH were 2.95-3.01, 3.22-3.51, 2.98-3.02, 3.31-3.33 for the migration ability of PSNPs in QS, QS + KL, QS + IL and QS + MT porous media, respectively. The stronger migration ability of PSNPs under high pH conditions is attributed to the enhanced deprotonation of the media surface and increased negative surface charge, which increases the electrostatic repulsion between PSNPs and porous media (QS, CMs). Moreover, the agglomeration of PSNPs usually is weaker and the average particle size of agglomerates is smaller under the condition of high pH, thus leading to the stronger migration ability of PSNPs under high pH conditions.

The anti-SARS-CoV-2 effect and mechanism of Chiehyuan herbal oral protection solution.

The Chiehyuan herbal oral protection solution (GB-2) is a herbal mixture commonly utilized in Taiwan for combating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as per traditional Chinese medicine practices. This study assessed the clinical impact of GB-2 through prospective clinical trials. With twice-daily use for a week, GB-2 was shown to diminish the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in oral mucosal cells. Moreover, after two weeks of use, it could reduce transmembrane protease, serine 2 (TMRPSS2) expression in these cells. Additionally, in vitro experiments demonstrated that GB-2 lessened the entry efficiency of the Omicron, L452R-D614G, T478K-D614G, and L452R-T478K-D614G variants of the SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped lentivirus. It also impeded the interaction between ACE2 and the receptor-binding domain (RBD) presenting N501Y-K417N-E484A-G339D-Q493R-G496S-Q498R and L452R-T478K mutations. Glycyrrhizic acid, a major compound in GB-2, also hindered the entry of the Omicron variant (BA.1) of the SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped lentivirus by obstructing the binding between ACE2 and the RBD presenting the N501Y-K417N-E484A-G339D-Q493R-G496S-Q498R mutation. To sum up, these findings suggest that GB-2 can decrease ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression in oral mucosal cells. Both glycyrrhizic acid and GB-2 were found to reduce the entry efficiency of the Omicron variant (BA.1) of the SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped lentivirus and block the binding between ACE2 and the RBD with the N501Y-K417N-E484A-G339D-Q493R-G496S-Q498R mutation. This evidence implies that GB-2 might be a potential candidate for further study as a preventative measure against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The Spatial Distribution and Potential Risk Assessment of POPs in Farmland around a Typical E-Waste Dismantling Site.

Pollution from electronic-waste (E-waste) dismantling is of great concern. This study investigated the concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in 253 cropland soil samples around an abandoned E-waste dismantling site in Taizhou city, Zhejiang province in China, using an analytical method which simultaneously extracted, purified and determined the identity and quantity of the three types of persistent organic pollutants. Meanwhile, their spatial distributions, pollution characteristics, and risk assessments were further analyzed. Total PCBs in the test soils ranged from below method detection limits (ND) to 2985.25 µg kg-1 on a dry weight basis (d.w.), and the spatial distribution indicated a "hot spot" of PCBs pollution in the study area. The PAHs were detected in all samples with total concentrations ranging from 4.99 to 2723.06 µg kg-1 d.w. The distribution of PBDEs showed the pollution characteristics of "family-run workshops", with a total content range of ND ~ 899.34 µg kg-1 d.w., of which BDE209 was typically the dominant congener, accounting for 74.05% of the total PBDEs content in the test soils, with the highest content reaching 857.72 µg kg-1 d.w. Results showed that the ecological and lifetime carcinogenic risks of PCBs and PAHs were low in the study area, but the health risk caused by oral ingestion and dermal contact accounted for the highest proportion of the total exposure risks, while inhalation could be ignored. PBDEs in soils of the study area were a potential chronic non-carcinogenic risk, particularly for children. Therefore, in order to protect human health and environment, it is necessary to regulate the management of E-waste dismantling sites and pollution control.

An efficient electrolyte additive of 1,3,6-hexanetricarbonitrile for high performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries.

The growth of Zn dendrites and parasitic side reactions between electrode and electrolyte are major obstacles to the development of rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries. To address these critical issues, the use of nitrile organic compounds as electrolyte additives holds great promise. Herein, for the first time, we prepared a small volume concentration (x) of 1,3,6-Hexanetricarbonitrile (HTCN-x) as additives into zinc trifluoromethanesulphonate (Zn(OTF)2) electrolyte and studied their electrochemical properties in Zn||ZnxV2O5·nH2O (Zn||ZVO) cells. It was found that the strong interaction between H2O and HTCN could significantly reduce the population of solvated H2O outside the solvation sheath, leading to reduced side reactions in the aqueous Zn(OTF)2 electrolyte. Moreover, the HTCN additive also facilitates the formation of strong and stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film on the surface of the Zn anode, which effectively prevents the growth of Zn dendrites and the anode corrosion caused by the electrolyte. As a result, the HTCN-x (x = 0.3) electrolyte enabled the symmetrical Zn||Zn cell to cycle over 950 h at a current of 1 mA cm-2 with a limited capacity of 1 mAh cm-2. When the HTCN-0.3 electrolyte was used in Zn||ZVO cell, the cell delivered a high initial capacity of 355.6 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 and maintained a high capacity of 330.0 mAh g-1 at 1 A g-1 after 465 cycles.