Two-dimensional material assisted-growth strategy: new insights and opportunities.

The exploration and synthesis of novel materials are integral to scientific and technological progress. Since the prediction and synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) materials, it is expected to play an important role in the application of industrialization and the information age, resulting from its excellent physical and chemical properties. Currently, researchers have effectively utilized a range of material synthesis techniques, including mechanical exfoliation, redox reactions, chemical vapor deposition, and chemical vapor transport, to fabricate two-dimensional materials. However, despite their rapid development, the widespread industrial application of 2D materials faces challenges due to demanding synthesis requirements and high costs. To address these challenges, assisted growth techniques such as salt-assisted, gas-assisted, organic-assisted, and template-assisted growth have emerged as promising approaches. Herein, this study gives a summary of important developments in recent years in the assisted growth synthesis of 2D materials. Additionally, it highlights the current difficulties and possible benefits of the assisted-growth approach for 2D materials. It also highlights novel avenues of development and presents opportunities for new lines of investigation.

ZnGeSe2 monolayer: water-splitting photocatalyst with ultrahigh solar conversion efficiency.

Hydrogen production through solar water-splitting offers a clean and renewable solution to tackle the ongoing issues of energy scarcity and environmental pollution. Here, the solar water-splitting performance of the ZnGeSe2 monolayer was explored via first-principles calculations. Our calculated results reveal that the ZnGeSe2 monolayer embodies stable configurations and semiconducting properties with direct bandgaps ranging from 1.23 to 1.60 eV under the biaxial strain from -1% to +2%. The generated holes and electrons of the ZnGeSe2 monolayer are separately distributed because of the intrinsic dipole. The calculated band edges of the ZnGeSe2 monolayer are demonstrated to be favorable for solar water-splitting. Additionally, the ZnGeSe2 monolayer exhibits strong optical absorption in the whole visible region. The hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions can be accomplished without cocatalysts. Of particular significance, the solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency of the ZnGeSe2 monolayer reaches up to 32%, far exceeding the economic value (10%). In light of these hallmarks, the ZnGeSe2 monolayer is demonstrated as an excellent water-splitting photocatalyst.

Diterpenoid alkaloids from two species of Delphinium.

Four new compounds (1-4) were isolated from the whole plants of two species of Delphinium, including two C20-diterpenoid alkaloids, umbrodines A and B (1 and 2), and a dibenzoxazepinone, umbrolide A (3) from Delphinium umbrosum Hand.-Mazz. and a C20-diterpenoid alkaloid, kingiadine (4) from Delphinium kingianum Bruhl. ex Huth. Ten known diterpenoid alkaloids were also isolated. Their structures were elucidated via HR-ESIMS, IR, and NMR data. Lycoctonine (11) and delectinine (12) exhibited appreciable cardiac activity. Furthermore, 11 and 12 showed cardioprotective effects against doxorubicin-induced toxicity in H9c2 cells, with the maximum protection rates of 61.63% and 51.18%, respectively.

The Diagnostic Role of Neurophysiological Tests for Premature Ejaculation: A Prospective Multicenter Study.

PURPOSE: Premature ejaculation (PE) is one of the most common male sexual dysfunctions. Local anesthetics (LAs) and dapoxetine are frequently used to treat PE; however, previous studies show variable efficacy. This study aims to determine the efficacy of LAs and dapoxetine using a novel classification based on neurophysiological tests. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This multicenter cohort study enrolled adult men (568) with an intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT) ≤2 minutes. Patients were divided into 4 groups according to the results of neurophysiological tests and assigned different treatments for 12 weeks: 1) penile sensory hyperexcitability type (Sens)-LAs; 2) penile sympathetic hyperexcitability type (Symp)-dapoxetine; 3) mixed type (Mixed)-both LAs and dapoxetine; 4) normal type (Norm)-both LAs and dapoxetine. Self-estimated IELT and patient-reported outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: The total percentage of men achieving IELT >2 minutes and ≥5 minutes after treatment were 82.7% and 76.7%, respectively. For men with abnormal results of neurophysiological tests, 401 (86.6%) had improved IELT >2 minutes after the 12-week treatment course, in which 375 (81.0%) achieved IELT ≥5 minutes. All patient-reported outcome measures improved in each group after 12 weeks of treatment, with greater improvements among those with abnormal neurophysiological tests. CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of LAs and dapoxetine increased in PE patients with abnormal results of neurophysiological tests. This novel classification of PE using neurophysiological tests could help guide and improve efficacy of PE therapies.

[Non-invasive chromosome screening for male infertility patients with severe oligo-astheno-teratozoospermia].

Objective: To explore the value of non-invasive embryo chromosome screening (NICS) in improving the outcomes of clinical pregnancy after assisted reproduction in men with severe oligo-astheno-teratozoospermia (OAT). METHODS: We randomly selected 170 cases of assisted reproduction due to severe OAT from January 2017 to December 2020, 85 undergoing NICS treatmentand the other 85 receiving intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). We made comparisons between the two groups in the female age, body mass index (BMI), anti-Müllerian hormone level (AMH), basal antral follicle count (AFC), infertility duration, male age, sperm concentration, percentages of progressively motile sperm (PMS) and morphologically normal sperm (MNS), sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI), numbers of oocytes retrieved and high-quality blastocysts, and rates of normal fertilization, clinical pregnancy and abortion. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in the female age, female BMI, AMH, AFC, infertility duration, male age, sperm concentration, percentages of PMS and MNS, sperm DFI, numbers of oocytes retrieved and high-quality blastocysts, or normal fertilization rate (P > 0.05). The rate of definite diagnosis was 88.24%, and that of embryo chromosome euploidy was 48.56% in the NICS group. The rate of clinical pregnancy after selected euploid embryo transfer was significantly higher in the NICS than in the ICSI group (66.28% vs 51.09%, P < 0.05), while that of abortion remarkably lower in the former than in the latter (12.28% vs 29.79%, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For male infertility patients with severe OAT, NICS technology can improve the rate of clinical pregnancy and reduce the risk of abortion.

Spermatogenesis improved by suppressing the high level of endogenous gonadotropins in idiopathic non-obstructive azoospermia: a case control pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Elevated plasma gonadotropins were associated with desensitization of Sertoli and Leydig cells in the male testis. Testis spermatogenesis ability would be improved via inhibiting high endogenous gonadotropin in patients with severe oligozoospermia. Whether it would be beneficial for non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) patients was still unclear. METHODS: Goserelin, a gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHα) was used to suppress endogenous gonadotropin levels (gonadotropin reset) in the NOA patients, improving the sensitization of the Sertoli and Leydig cells. Then human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) were injected to stimulate them to ameliorate the ability of testicular spermatogenesis. The main outcome measure was the existence of spermatozoa in the semen or by testicular sperm extraction (TESE). Elevation of inhibin B and/or ameliorative expression pattern of ZO-1 was the secondary objective. RESULTS: A total of 35 NOA men who failed to retrieve sperm via TESE were enrolled. Among these, 10 patients without treatment were selected as control group and secondary TESE was performed 6 months later. Of the 25 treated men, inhibin B was elevated in 11 patients in the first 4 weeks (Response group), while only 5 patients had constant increase in the following 20 weeks (Response group 2). Of the 5 men, 2 men acquired sperm (Response group 2B), while 3 failed (Response group 2A). Immunofluorescence of mouse vasa homologue (MVH) and ZO-1 showed that both positive MVH signals and ZO-1 expression were significantly increased in the Response group 2, but only Response group 2B showed ameliorative ZO-1 distribution. CONCLUSIONS: Gonadotropin reset, a new therapeutic protocol with GnRHα, was able to improve the ability of testicular spermatogenesis in the NOA patients through restoring the sensitivity of Sertoli and Leydig cells, which were reflected by elevated inhibin B and ameliorative ZO-1 expression and distribution. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02544191 .

Relationship Between Amyloid Precursor Protein in Seminal Plasma and Abnormal Penile Sympathetic Skin Response in Lifelong Premature Ejaculation.

INTRODUCTION: Hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system can play an important role in lifelong premature ejaculation (PE). Our previous study found that amyloid precursor protein (APP) levels in seminal plasma of patients with PE were clearly increased. Amyloid-ß (Aß) is derived from APP. Excessive Aß, especially Aß42, can cause neuronal dysfunction. AIM: To determine whether APP and Aß42 are associated with an abnormal penile sympathetic skin response (PSSR). METHODS: From November 2015 to April 2016, 24 patients with lifelong PE (mean age = 29.2 ± 5.3) with self-estimated intravaginal ejaculatory latency time no longer than 2 minutes and 10 control subjects (mean age = 28.0 ± 5.5) were enrolled consecutively from andrology clinics. PSSR was measured in patients with lifelong PE. APP and Aß42 levels in seminal plasma were determined. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PSSR in patients with lifelong PE and APP and Aß42 levels in all subjects. RESULTS: Patients with PE presented 1.5-fold higher levels of APP (P = .004) than control subjects. Seminal plasma protein concentration (C) in the PE group was lower than that in the control group (P = .007). APP divided by C (APP/C) was 2.0-fold higher (P < .001) in the PE group. Aß42 level was not different between the PE and control groups, but Aß42 divided by C (Aß42/C) was significantly higher in the PE group (P < .001). No differences in APP and APP/C were found between patients with PE in the abnormal and normal PSSR groups. The abnormal PSSR group presented significantly higher Aß42 (P = .007) and Aß42/C (P < .001) levels. The latency of PSSR was negatively correlated with Aß42/C (r = -0.436; P = .033). CONCLUSION: These results showed that patients with lifelong PE had higher APP and Aß42 levels in seminal plasma. Abnormal PSSR was related to a higher Aß42 level. Drugs that decrease Aß could be treatment of PE.

[Effects of pneumoperitoneum preconditioning on endothelial progenitor cells and renal protective mechanism in rats].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the pneumoperitoneum-mediated renoprotective effects of preconditioning, mobilizing and homing of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in rats. METHODS: A total of 40 rats were randomized by a numerical table into 5 groups of gasless (C), pneumoperitoneum injury (Pp), long-term pneumoperitoneum preconditioning (P-L), mid-term pneumoperitoneum preconditioning (P-M) and short-term pneumoperitoneum preconditioning (P-S). C group had a pneumoperitoneum pressure of 0 mmHg; Pp group 15 mmHg, time 60 min; P-L, P-M, P-S groups were deflated and deflated preconditioning before pneumoperitoneum, then the same as Pp group, P-L group: inflation time was 25 min, gas discharge time 10 min; P-M group: 15 min, 10 min; P-S group: 5 min, 10 min. At 24 h post-operation, the animals were sacrificed by destroying cervical spine. And the specimens of venous blood and kidneys were harvested. Also the extent of renal injury, the homing of EPCs, the proliferation and angiogenesis of renal endothelial cell and the expression of angiogenic growth factor were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with Pp group, P-L, P-M and P-S groups exhibited significant improvements in renal function, morphology and histological score (1.88 ± 0.35, 1.63 ± 0.52, 1.75 ± 0.46 vs 2.38 ± 0.52, all P < 0.05). The histological scores of P-M and P-S groups improved significantly versus P-L group (both P < 0.05). P-M and P-S groups showed no significant difference in histological score (P > 0.05). The number of EPCs in kidneys increased in P-L, P-M and P-S groups versus Pp group (2.18% ± 0.14%, 2.87% ± 0.29%, 2.90% ± 0.24% vs 1.73% ± 0.19%, all P < 0.05). The EPCs numbers of P-M and P-S groups were more than that of P-L group (both P < 0.05). And no significant difference existed between P-M and P-S groups (P > 0.05). Compared with Pp group, EPCs of P-L, P-M and P-S groups markedly increased in kidneys. No significant difference existed between P-M and P-S groups, but P-L group was the lowest. Also there was an up-regulated expression of stromal cell derived factor 1-α in pretreated kidneys versus Pp group (all P < 0.05). And P-M and P-S groups increased markedly. CONCLUSIONS: Pneumoperitoneum-mediated preconditioning protects against kidney injury by promoting EPC homing and enhancing endothelial cell and vascular proliferations. And short and medium-term preconditioning protocols are more effective for protecting kidneys.

The association between RASSF1A promoter methylation and prostate cancer: evidence from 19 published studies.

Ras-associated domain family 1A (RASSF1A) is a putative tumor suppressor gene located at 3p21.3, and the epigenetic inactivation of RASSF1A by hypermethylation of CpG islands within the promoter region has been observed in various cancer types, including prostate cancer (PCa). However, results from published studies on the association between RASSF1A promoter methylation and PCa risk are conflicting and inconclusive. Hence, we conducted a meta-analysis of 19 eligible studies with odds ratio (OR) and its corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) in order to investigate the strength of relationship of RASSF1A promoter methylation with PCa risk and its clinicopathological variables. Overall, the RASSF1A promoter methylation was significantly associated with PCa risk (OR = 9.58, 95% CI 5.64-16.88, P heterogeneity <0.001) and Gleason score (GS) (OR = 2.58, 95% CI 1.64-4.04, P(heterogeneity) = 0.019). In addition, subgroup analysis by testing material demonstrated the significant association between RASSF1A methylation and GS (OR = 3.09, 95% CI 1.92-4.97, P heterogeneity =0.042), PSA level (OR = 2.75, 95% CI 1.67-4.52, P(heterogeneity) = 0.639), and tumor stage (OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.05-2.87, P(heterogeneity) = 0.026) in tissue rather than urine samples. In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggested that RASSF1A promoter methylation was significantly associated with an increased risk for PCa; furthermore, the RASSF1A methylation status in tissue rather than urine was positively correlated with GS, serum PSA level, and tumor stage, which can be utilized for the early detection and prognosis prediction of PCa.

Suppression of the height deviation on metal bumps manufacturing by an ultrasonic vibration control.

On-demand droplet printing based on piezoelectric micro-jet device (PMJD) is considered a flexible and high-precision method to generate metal droplets directly for flip-chip bonding in industrial electronics. However, the quality of flip-chip bonding is closely related to the height deviation of the solidified droplets (the metal bumps), which is influenced by the complicated hydrodynamics of impacting and oscillation of the droplet with oxide film. Here, the numerical and experimental investigations are first conducted to study the effect of the liquid bridge and deposition parameters on the height deviation of the solidified droplets. The rapid oxidation of the liquid bridge and under-oscillation during the deposition process are the main reasons for height deviation. In addition, the undamped oscillation with high-speed impact and instantaneous solidification also deteriorates the height deviation. To this end, an oscillation control strategy based on ultrasonic-assisted metal droplet deposition (UAMDD) is proposed and verified to be a reliable regulation strategy to suppress the height deviation of the printed bumps. The effective regulating range of height deviation is studied experimentally by changing the ultrasonic vibration amplitude. Finally, a 10 × 10 array composed of 100 solidified metal droplets is printed with the UAMDD, which has the height deviation of 554 ± 6 µm. And the dimensionless height deviation (Δh/h) of solidified bumps is stayed below 2.1 %.

Prestrain Guided Yield of Large Single-Crystal Nickel Foils with High-Index Facets.

Single-crystal metal foils with high-index facets are currently being investigated owing to their potential application in the epitaxial growth of high-quality van der Waals film materials, electrochemical catalysis, gas sensing, and other fields. However, the controllable synthesis of large single-crystal metal foils with high-index facets remains a great challenge because high-index facets with high surface energy are not preferentially formed thermodynamically and kinetically. Herein, single-crystal nickel foils with a series of high-index facets are efficiently prepared by applying prestrain energy engineering technique, with the largest single-crystal foil exceeding 5×8 cm2 in size. In terms of thermodynamics, the internal mechanism of prestrain regulation on the formation of high-index facets is proposed. Molecular dynamics simulation is utilized to replicate and explain the phenomenon of multiple crystallographic orientations resulting from prestrain regulation. Additionally, large-sized and high-quality graphite films are successfully fabricated on single-crystal Ni(012) foils. Compared to the polycrystalline nickel, the graphite/single-crystal Ni(012) foil composites show more than five-fold increase in thermal conductivity, thereby showing great potential applications in thermal management. This study hence presents a novel approach for the preparation of single-crystal nickel foils with high-index facets, which is beneficial for the epitaxial growth of certain two-dimensional materials.

Association between interferon gamma +874 T>A polymorphism and acute renal allograft rejection: evidence from published studies.

Interferon gamma is involved in the acute rejection (AR) episodes of transplant recipients. However, results from published studies on the association of interferon gamma (IFNG) +874 T>A (rs2430561) polymorphism with AR of renal allograft are conflicting. To investigate the association between IFNG +874 T>A polymorphism with AR after renal transplantation, relevant studies were selected from PUBMED, EMBASE, Wanfang database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure until March 1st 2013. According the predesigned selection criteria, a total of 525 AR cases and 1,126 non-AR cases from 13 case-control studies were included to identify the strength of association with odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI). Overall, a significant correlation between IFNG +874 T>A polymorphism and susceptibility to AR was detected (T allele vs. A allele: OR = 1.19, 95 % CI 1.02-1.38; TT/AT vs. AA: OR = 1.36, 95 % CI 1.07-1.73; TT vs. AA: OR = 1.42, 95 % CI 1.05-1.93; AT vs. AA: OR = 1.30, 95 % CI 1.01-1.68). In addition, ethnicity subgroup analysis revealed that high produce genotype (TT/AT) was associated with an increased risk of AR for Caucasians (TT/AT vs. AA: OR = 1.56, 95 % CI 1.14-2.12; TT vs. AA: OR = 1.64, 95 % CI 1.18-2.26). Furthermore, donor source subgroup analysis observed an increased risk for patients undergoing cadaveric kidney transplantation (TT/AT vs. AA: OR = 1.90, 95 % CI 1.12-3.24; TA vs. AA: OR = 2.16, 95 % CI 1.24-3.74). In conclusion, this meta-analysis suggested that IFNG +874 T>A polymorphism was associated with AR of renal transplant recipients, especially among Caucasians and those receiving cadaveric renal allograft. Additional well-designed studies with large sample size are warranted to validate our conclusion.

Investigations into wetting and spreading behaviors of impacting metal droplet under ultrasonic vibration control.

Ultrasonic-assisted metal droplet deposition (UAMDD) is currently considered a promising technology in droplet-based 3D printing due to its capability to change the wetting and spreading behaviors at the droplet-substrate interface. However, the involved contact dynamics during impacting droplet deposition, particularly the complex physical interaction and metallurgical reaction of induced wetting-spreading-solidification by the external energy, remain unclear to date, which hinders the quantitative prediction and regulation of the microstructures and bonding property of the UAMDD bumps. Here, the wettability of the impacting metal droplet ejected by a piezoelectric micro-jet device (PMJD) on non-wetting and wetting ultrasonic vibration substrates is studied, and the corresponding spreading diameter, contact angle, and bonding strength are also discussed. For the non-wetting substrate, the wettability of the droplet can be significantly increased due to the extrusion of the vibration substrate and the momentum transfer layer at the droplet-substrate interface. And the wettability of the droplet on a wetting substrate is increased at a lower vibration amplitude, which is driven by the momentum transfer layer and the capillary waves at the liquid-vapor interface. Moreover, the effects of the ultrasonic amplitude on the droplet spreading are studied under the resonant frequency of 18.2-18.4 kHz. Compared to deposit droplets on a static substrate, such UAMDD has 31% and 2.1% increments in the spreading diameters for the non-wetting and wetting systems, and the corresponding adhesion tangential forces are increased by 3.85 and 5.59 times.

Construction of Rapid Extracellular Matrix-Deposited Small-Diameter Vascular Grafts Induced by Hypoxia in a Bioreactor.

Cardiovascular disease has become one of the most globally prevalent diseases, and autologous or vascular graft transplantation has been the main treatment for the end stage of the disease. However, there are no commercialized small-diameter vascular graft (SDVG) products available. The design of SDVGs is promising in the future, and SDVG preparation using an in vitro bioreactor is a favorable method, but it faces the problem of long-term culture of >8 weeks. Herein, we used different oxygen (O2) concentrations and mechanical stimulation to induce greater secretion of extracellular matrix (ECM) from cells in vitro to rapidly prepare SDVGs. Culturing with 2% O2 significantly increased the production of the ECM components and growth factors of human dermal fibroblasts (hDFs). To accelerate the formation of ECM, hDFs were seeded on a polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold and cultured in a flow culture bioreactor with 2% O2 for only 3 weeks. After orthotopic transplantation in rat abdominal aorta, the cultured SDVGs (PCL-decellularized ECM) showed excellent endothelialization and smooth muscle regeneration. The vascular grafts cultured with hypoxia and mechanical stimulation could accelerate the reconstruction speed and obtain an improved therapeutic effect and thereby provide a new research direction for improving the production and supply of SDVGs.

Age-related elevation of O-GlcNAc causes meiotic arrest in male mice.

In recent years, the postponement of childbearing has become a critical social issue. Male fertility is negatively associated with age because of testis aging. Spermatogenesis is impaired with age, but the molecular mechanism remains unknown. The dynamic posttranslational modification O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc), which is a type of monosaccharide modification, has been shown to drive the process of aging in various systems, but it has not yet been investigated in the testis and male reproductive aging. Thus, this study aims to investigate the alteration of O-GlcNAc with aging and explore the role of O-GlcNAc in spermatogenesis. Here, we demonstrate that the decline in spermatogenesis in aged mice is associated with elevation of O-GlcNAc. O-GlcNAc is specifically localized in differentiating spermatogonia and spermatocytes, indicating its crucial role in meiotic initiation and progression. Mimicking the age-related elevation of O-GlcNAc in young mice by disabling O-GlcNAcase (OGA) using the chemical inhibitor Thiamet-G can recapitulate the impairment of spermatogenesis in aged mice. Mechanistically, the elevation of O-GlcNAc in the testis leads to meiotic pachytene arrest due to defects in synapsis and recombination. Furthermore, decreasing O-GlcNAc in aged testes using an O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) inhibitor can partially rescue the age-related impairment of spermatogenesis. Our results highlight that O-GlcNAc, as a novel posttranslational modification, participates in meiotic progression and drives the impairment of spermatogenesis during aging.

Numerical analysis, experimental verification and criterion establishment of non-magnetic microwave absorbing material.

Non-magnetic materials show a great potentiality in microwave absorption with the advantages of low-density, wideband, and thin thickness. Even so, it is still difficult to accurately analyze the connection between performance and parameters. To reveal what electromagnetic parameters could lead to excellent absorbing performance, we simplify and derive the formulae based on Transmission-Reflection-Line theory (TRL) and computer programs. Based on the relation of ε' and ε'', a criterion is established to decide what parameters have the possibility of absorbing performance. Using a new fitting method, the relationship between dielectric constant and absorber content is established. Further, an instruction derived from the relation between ε' and p is used to screen thicknesses. The optimum permittivity of ultra-low reflectivity and ultra-wide band is obtained by combining the numerical analysis results. To verify the accuracy and reliability of results and deductions, the permittivity of four prepared materials and fifty published papers are investigated.

Synthetic physical contact-remodeled rhizosphere microbiome for enhanced phytoremediation.

Phytoremediation is a prevalent strategy to treat environmental pollution caused by heavy metals and eutrophication-related pollutants. Although rhizosphere microbiome is critical for phytoremediation, it remains a great challenge to artificially remodel rhizosphere microbiome for enhancing multiple pollutant treatment. In this study, we designed a synthetic bacterium to strengthen physical contact between natural microbes and plant roots for remodeling the Eichhornia crassipes rhizosphere microbiome during phytoremediation. The synthetic bacterium EcCMC was constructed by introducing a surface-displayed synthetic protein CMC composed of two glucan-binding domains separated by the sequence of the fluorescent protein mCherry. This synthetic bacterium strongly bound glucans and recruited natural glucan-producing bacterial and fungal cells. Microbiome and metabolomic analysis revealed that EcCMC remarkably remodeled rhizosphere microbiome and increased stress response-related metabolites, leading to the increased activity of antioxidant enzymes involved in stress resistance. The remodeled microbiome further promoted plant growth, and enhanced accumulation of multiple pollutants into the plants, with the removal efficiency of the heavy metal cadmium, total organic matters, total nitrogen, total potassium, and total phosphorus reaching up to 98%, 80%, 97%, 93%, and 90%, respectively. This study sheds a novel light on remodeling of rhizosphere microbiome for enhanced phytoremediation of water and soil systems.

Event-Triggering Interaction Scheme for Discrete-Time Decentralized Optimization With Nonuniform Step Sizes.

In this article, we study the discrete-time decentralized optimization problems of multiagent systems by an event-triggering interaction scheme, in which each agent privately knows its local convex cost function, and collectively minimizes the total cost functions. The underlying interaction and the corresponding weight matrix are required to be undirected connected and doubly stochastic, respectively. To resolve this optimization problem collaboratively, we propose a decentralized event-triggering algorithm (DETA) that is based on the consensus theory and inexact gradient tracking technique. DETA involves each agent interacting with its neighboring agents only at some independent event-triggering sampling time instants. Under the assumptions that the global convex cost function is coercive and has Lipschitz continuous gradient, we prove that DETA steers all agents' states to an optimal solution even with nonuniform constant step sizes. Moreover, our analysis also shows that DETA converges at a rate of O(1/√t) if the step sizes are uniform and do not exceed some upper bounds. We illustrate the effectiveness of DETA on a canonical simple decentralized parameter estimation problem.

Memristor-Based Edge Computing of Blaze Block for Image Recognition.

In this article, a novel edge computing system is proposed for image recognition via memristor-based blaze block circuit, which includes a memristive convolutional neural network (MCNN) layer, two single-memristive blaze blocks (SMBBs), four double-memristive blaze blocks (DMBBs), a global Avg-pooling (GAP) layer, and a memristive full connected (MFC) layer. SMBBs and DMBBs mainly utilize the depthwise separable convolution neural network (DwCNN) that can be implemented with a much smaller memristor crossbar (MC). In the backward propagation, we use batch normalization (BN) layers to accelerate the convergence. In the forward propagation, this circuit combines DwCNN layers/CNN layers with nonseparate BN layers, which means that the required number of operational amplifiers is cut by half as long as the greatly reduced power consumption. A diode is added after the rectified linear unit (ReLU) layer to limit the output of the circuit below the threshold voltage Vt of the memristor; thus, the circuit is more stable. Experiments show that the proposed memristor-based circuit achieves an accuracy of 84.38% on the CIFAR-10 data set with advantages in computing resources, calculation time, and power consumption. Experiments also show that, when the number of multistate conductance is 28 and the quantization bit of the data is 8, the circuit can achieve its best balance between power consumption and production cost.

Engineered bacterium-binding protein promotes root recruitment of functional bacteria for enhanced cadmium removal from wastewater by phytoremediation.

Functional bacteria promote the efficiency of phytoremediation by enhancing plant growth and participating in decontamination. However, their activity is frequently compromised by the weakness of their interaction with plant roots. In this study, we designed the artificial protein LcGC composed of a bacterium-binding domain, a GFP fluorescence reporter, and a carbohydrate-binding domain to function as a physical contact between functional bacteria and plant roots. This protein was then expressed in an engineered yeast cell factory and extracted to assess its effect on rhizosphere microbiome composition, plant growth, and cadmium removal in a simulated phytoremediation system containing the remediation plant Lemna minor and the functional heavy metal-capturing bacteria Cupriavidus taiwanensis and Pseudomonas putida. LcGC efficiently bound bacterial cell wall components and glucan, endowing it high efficiency to bind both functional bacteria and plant roots. Scanning microscopy and microbiome analysis revealed that LcGC enhanced root recruitment and colonization of functional bacteria on the root surfaces. Furthermore, LcGC with the aid of single C. taiwanensis or of C. taiwanensis and P. putida in combination promoted plant growth, enhanced tolerance to cadmium-induced oxidative stress, and consequently improved cadmium-removing capacity of the plants, with the percent of cadmium removal reaching up to 91% for LcGC plus C. taiwanensis, and to 96% for LcGC plus C. taiwanensis and P. putida on day 7. This study provided a physical contact-based strategy to enhance the interaction between functional microbes and plant roots for efficient phytoremediation.