CsA promotes trophoblast invasion accompanied by changes in leukaemic inhibitory factor and fibroblast growth factor in peri-implantation blastocysts.

During the early stages of human pregnancy, successful implantation of embryonic trophoblast cells into the endometrium depends on good communication between trophoblast cells and the endometrium. Abnormal trophoblast cell function can cause embryo implantation failure. In this study, we added cyclosporine A (CsA) to the culture medium to observe the effect of CsA on embryonic trophoblast cells and the related mechanism. We observed that CsA promoted the migration and invasion of embryonic trophoblast cells. CsA promoted the expression of leukaemic inhibitory factor (LIF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF). In addition, CsA promoted the secretion and volume increase in vesicles in the CsA-treated group compared with the control group. Therefore, CsA may promote the adhesion and invasion of trophoblast cells through LIF and FGF and promote the vesicle dynamic process, which is conducive to embryo implantation.

RNAi-Mediated Suppression of OsBBTI5 Promotes Salt Stress Tolerance in Rice.

This study explores the impact of RNAi in terms of selectively inhibiting the expression of the OsBBTI5 gene, with the primary objective of uncovering its involvement in the molecular mechanisms associated with salt tolerance in rice. OsBBTI5, belonging to the Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI) family gene, is known for its involvement in plant stress responses. The gene was successfully cloned from rice, exhibiting transcriptional self-activation in yeast. A yeast two-hybrid assay confirmed its specific binding to OsAPX2 (an ascorbate peroxidase gene). Transgenic OsBBTI5-RNAi plants displayed insensitivity to varying concentrations of 24-epibrassinolide in the brassinosteroid sensitivity assay. However, they showed reduced root and plant height at high concentrations (10 and 100 µM) of GA3 immersion. Enzyme activity assays revealed increased peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) content under 40-60 mM NaCl. Transcriptomic analysis indicated a significant upregulation of photosynthesis-related genes in transgenic plants under salt stress compared to the wild type. Notably, this study provides novel insights, suggesting that the BBI gene is part of the BR signaling pathway, and that OsBBTI5 potentially enhances stress tolerance in transgenic plants through interaction with the salt stress-related gene OsAPX2.

Polarization-modulated broadband achromatic bifunctional metasurface in the visible light.

Achromatic bifunctional metasurface is of great significance in optical path miniaturization among advanced integrated optical systems. However, the reported achromatic metalenses mostly utilize a phase compensate scheme, which uses geometric phase to realize the functionality and uses transmission phase to compensate the chromatic aberration. In the phase compensation scheme, all the modulation freedoms of a nanofin are driven at the same time. This makes most of the broadband achromatic metalenses restricted to realizing single function. Also, the phase compensate scheme is always addressed with circularly polarized (CP) incidence, leading to a limitation in efficiency and optical path miniaturization. Moreover, for a bifunctional or multifunctional achromatic metalens, not all the nanofins will work at the same time. Owing to this, achromatic metalenses using a phase compensate scheme are usually of low focusing efficiencies. To this end, based on the pure transmission phase in the x-/y- axis provided by the birefringent nanofins structure, we proposed an all-dielectric polarization-modulated broadband achromatic bifunctional metalens (BABM) in the visible light. Applying two independent phases on one metalens at the same time, the proposed BABM realizes achromatism in a bifunctional metasurface. Releasing the freedom of nanofin's angular orientation, the proposed BABM breaks the dependence on CP incidence. As an achromatic bifunctional metalens, all the nanofins on the proposed BABM can work at the same time. Simulation results show that the designed BABM is capable of achromatically focusing the incident beam to a single focal spot and an optical vortex (OV) under the illumination of x- and y-polarization, respectively. In the designed waveband 500 nm (green) to 630 nm (red), the focal planes stay unchanged at the sampled wavelengths. Simulation results prove that the proposed metalens not only realized bifunctional achromatically, but also breaks the dependence of CP incidence. The proposed metalens has a numerical aperture of 0.34 and efficiencies of 33.6% and 34.6%. The proposed metalens has advantages of being flexible, single layer, convenient in manufacturing, and optical path miniaturization friendly, and will open a new page in advanced integrated optical systems.

Nanoflower-like FeVNi3S2-xas efficient electrocatalyst for alkaline oxygen evolution reaction.

The development of low cost efficient catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still a obstacle to realize the commercialization of electrocatalytic water splitting. Herein, interface engineering and heteroatom doping is adopted to synthesize iron and vanadium doped nickel sulfide on nickel foam via hydrothermal method followed by hydrogen treatment to create sulfur defects. The optimized nanoflower-like FeVNi3S2-x/NF is an efficient OER electrocatalyst that outperforms many of the reported transition metals catalysts. Benefiting from abundant sulfur defects and the synergistic effect of heteroatom doping, FeVNi3S2-x/NF exhibits an ultralow overpotential of 230 mV to reach a current density of 100 mA cm-2, a rapid reaction kinetics with a small Tafel slope of 46.6 mV dec-1, and a stable long-term durability in 1 M KOH. Experimental results and characterizations confirm that sulfur vacancies together with the synergistic effect from multiple heteroatom doping can effectively regulate the electronic structure, resulting in increased electrical conductivity and electrochemically active surface area, thus enhancing OER performance. Furthermore,in situRaman spectroscopy reveals that, the reconstitution amorphous nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) on the catalyst surface is responsible for catalyzing the OER reaction. This work represents a promising methodology to synthesize low-cost and highly active OER electrocatalysts.

Perfect vortex beam with polarization-rotated functionality based on single-layer geometric-phase metasurface.

Perfect vortex (PV) beam has seen significant advances in fields like particle manipulation, optical tweezers, and particle trapping, due to the fact that its ring radius is independent of the topological charge. Although geometric-phase metasurfaces have been proposed to generate PV beams, it always relies on circularly or elliptically polarized incident light, which hinders the miniaturization of compact optical devices. Here, using orthogonal decomposition of polarization vectors (ODPV), we proposed a geometric-phase metasurface, which breaks the dependence of circular polarization, to generate PV beam. In the design of the metasurface, we introduced PV phase profiles corresponding to the left-handed circularly polarized (LCP) component and the right-handed circularly polarized (RCP) component into the metasurface based on the principle of ODPV. We further determined the rotation angle of each nanostructure of the metasurface by calculating the argument of the composite vector of LCP and RCP in the transmission field. Simulation results show that the proposed geometric-phase metasurface can generate the PV beam upon the illumination of a linearly polarized incident. Moreover, the PV beam with polarization-rotated functionality is achieved by setting the polarization rotation angle. Furthermore, dual PV beams with orthogonal polarization states is realized at the same time by superimposing two sets of phase profiles on a single metasurface. It is also demonstrated that the PV beam parameters, such as ring radius and/or topological charge, can be set on demand in the metasurface design. The proposed metasurface has the exceptional advantage of high fabrication tolerance and is optical path miniaturization friendly, and will open a new avenue in advanced compact and integrated optical systems.

Broadband achromatic longitudinal bifocal metalens in the visible range based on a single nanofin unit cell.

Metasurfaces provide a remarkable platform to manipulate over phase, amplitude, and polarization flexibly and precisely. Bifocal metalens draws great research interest due to its ability of converging wavefronts to different focal positions horizontally and longitudinally. However, as wavelength of incident light changes, chromatic aberration will cause the focal lengths reliance on the incident wavelength, which will affect the performance of metasurface, especially for longitudinal bifocal metalens. In this work, a broadband achromatic longitudinal bifocal metalens (BALBM) based on single nanofin unit cell is demonstrated. Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase is used to converge the incident light. Cross commixed sequence distribution (CCSD) is introduced to control the positions of focal points FLand FRwhen left-handed circularly polarized (LCP) and right-handed circularly polarized (RCP) incident. Propagation phase is used to compensate the phase difference caused by chromatic aberration. Simulation results show that in the continuous wavelength range from 500 nm to 700 nm, the focal point shifts caused by chromatic dispersion are reduced 81% for FL and 83% for FR, respectively. The focal length variations are stabilized to 6.21% for FLand 4.8% for FRcomparing with the focal lengths at the initial wavelength 500 nm. The proposed BALBM brings advances to bifocal metasurfaces in versatile application areas including machine vision, optical computed tomography and microimaging.

Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Molecular Regularity Mechanism Underlying Stem Bulblet Formation in Oriental Lily 'Siberia'; Functional Characterization of the LoLOB18 Gene.

The formation of underground stem bulblets in lilies is a complex biological process which is key in their micropropagation. Generally, it involves a stem-to-bulblet transition; however, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. It is important to understand the regulatory mechanism of bulblet formation for the reproductive efficiency of Lilium. In this study, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of underground stem bulblet formation under different conditions regarding the gravity point angle of the stem, i.e., vertical (control), horizontal, and slanting. The horizontal and slanting group displayed better formation of bulblets in terms of quality and quantity compared with the control group. A transcriptome analysis revealed that sucrose and starch were key energy sources for bulblet formation, auxin and cytokinin likely promoted bulblet formation, and gibberellin inhibited bulblet formation. Based on transcriptome analysis, we identified the LoLOB18 gene, a homolog to AtLOB18, which has been proven to be related to embryogenic development. We established the stem bud growth tissue culture system of Lilium and silenced the LoLOb18 gene using the VIGS system. The results showed that the bulblet induction was reduced with down-regulation of LoLOb18, indicating the involvement of LoLOb18 in stem bulblet formation in lilies. Our research lays a solid foundation for further molecular studies on stem bulblet formation of lilies.

Silencing GmBIR1 in Soybean Results in Activated Defense Responses.

Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are a large group of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and play a critical role in recognizing pathogens, transducing defense signals, and mediating the activation of immune defense responses. Although extensively studied in the model plant Arabidopsis, studies of RLKs in crops, including soybean, are limited. When a BAK1-interacting receptor-like kinase (BIR1) homolog (referred to as GmBIR1 hereafter) was silenced by the BPMV (Bean pod mottle virus)-induced gene silencing (BPMV-VIGS), it resulted in phenotypes that were reminiscent of constitutively activated defense responses, including a significantly stunted stature with observable cell death on the leaves of the silenced plants. In addition, both SA and H2O2 were over-accumulated in the leaves of the GmBIR1-silenced plants. Consistent with this autoimmune phenotype, GmBIR1-silenced plants exhibited significantly enhanced resistance to both Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea (Psg) and Soybean mosaic virus (SMV), two different types of pathogens, compared to the vector control plants. Together, our results indicated that GmBIR1 is a negative regulator of immunity in soybean and the function of BIR1 homologs is conserved in different plant species.

Snell-like and Fresnel-like formulas of the dual-phase-gradient metasurface.

By patterning the metasurface of two phase gradients that are both space-orthogonal and polarization-orthogonal, we derived the three-dimensional (3D) Snell-like formula and the Fresnel-like formula of the proposed metasurface. Theoretically, the dual-phase-gradient metasurface resembles biaxial-like birefringence, i.e., decomposing any homogeneously polarized incident beam into two anomalously refracted beams whose polarizations vary as the incident beam. According to the Fresnel-like formula, the relative intensity between the two anomalously refracted beams not only depends on the incidence angle and the polarization ellipticity of the incident beam being similar to the biaxial crystals, but it also depends on the polarization ellipticity orientation even for a given incident polarization, which is an unique property absent in the biaxial crystals. All the theoretical analyses were numerically demonstrated. The 3D Snell-like and Fresnel-like formulas will make the design of functional devices based on the dual-phase-gradient metasurface much easier.

The MAPK Kinase Kinase GmMEKK1 Regulates Cell Death and Defense Responses.

MAPK signaling pathways play critical roles in plant immunity. Here, we silenced multiple genes encoding MAPKs using virus-induced gene silencing mediated by Bean pod mottle virus to identify MAPK genes involved in soybean (Glycine max) immunity. Surprisingly, a strong hypersensitive response (HR) cell death was observed when soybean MAPK KINASE KINASE1 (GmMEKK1), a homolog of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) MEKK1, was silenced. The HR was accompanied by the overaccumulation of defense signaling molecules, salicylic acid (SA) and hydrogen peroxide. Genes involved in primary metabolism, translation/transcription, photosynthesis, and growth/development were down-regulated in GmMEKK1-silenced plants, while the expression of defense-related genes was activated. Accordingly, GmMEKK1-silenced plants were more resistant to downy mildew (Peronospora manshurica) and Soybean mosaic virus compared with control plants. Silencing GmMEKK1 reduced the activation of GmMPK6 but enhanced the activation of GmMPK3 in response to flg22 peptide. Unlike Arabidopsis MPK4, GmMPK4 was not activated by either flg22 or SA. Interestingly, transient overexpression of GmMEKK1 in Nicotiana benthamiana also induced HR. Our results indicate that GmMEKK1 plays both positive and negative roles in immunity and appears to differentially activate downstream MPKs by promoting GmMPK6 activation but suppressing GmMPK3 activation in response to flg22. The involvement of GmMPK4 kinase activity in cell death and in flg22- or SA-triggered defense responses in soybean requires further investigation.

Dielectric longitudinal bifocal metalens with adjustable intensity and high focusing efficiency.

Metalens recently attracts enormous attention due to its microscale figure and versatile functionalities. With the combination of geometric phase and propagation phase, we first wrote the phase equation of bifocal metalens that can high efficiently focus incidence into one or two foci in tandem along longitudinal direction, depending on the polarization of incidence. More importantly, the relative intensity of the two foci can be modulated conveniently by changing the ellipticity of incidence, which is different from previous bifocal metalenses need to be repatterned for each kind of relative intensity [Opt. Express23, 29855 (2015)]. Besides, the focusing efficiency of the proposed metalens is as high as 72%, and the separate distance between those two foci can be designed at will, which may find itself significant applications in optical tomography technique, optical data storage, and so on.

Dielectric longitudinal bifocal metalens with adjustable intensity and high focusing efficiency: erratum.

A number of erratums are presented to correct the inadvertent typing mistakes in our paper.

Dispersion engineering in unidirectional excitation of the surface wave of photonic crystal.

The discovery of transverse spin angular momentum (SAM) of evanescent and guided modes presents a novel spin-orbit interaction (SOI), i.e., transverse SOI, to affect and control the intensity distribution and propagation path of light. In this Letter, we first theoretically verify the transverse SAM property of the surface wave of a photonic crystal (PhC) slab. Then we realize the polarization-controllable unidirectional excitation of such (forward) surface wave by means of transverse SOI. Furthermore, taking advantage of dispersion engineering of PhC, we design another PhC slab capable of sustaining a backward surface wave and find that, compared to a forward surface wave, the backward surface wave is related to inverse unidirectional excitation with incident of a circularly polarized beam. In other words, dispersion engineering of PhC provides another route to control the excitation direction of surface modes. The combination of dispersion engineering and transverse SOI will facilitate the design of functional devices based on PhC in the field of nanophotonics and nanoplasmonics.

Right- and left-handed rules on the transverse spin angular momentum of a surface wave of photonic crystal.

By investigating the surface wave of photonic crystal, we put forward two sets of rules: the right-handed screw rule, judging the transverse spin angular momentum (SAM) directions according to the propagation direction of the surface wave; and the left-handed rule, judging the excitation direction of the surface wave in accordance to the SAM direction of incident circularly polarized light and the relative position of the dipole-like scatterer with respect to the interface where the surface wave propagates. Both right- and left-handed rules apply to the interface consisting of opposite-sign-permittivity materials. With the help of these two sets of rules, it is convenient to judge the direction of the transverse SAM and the excited surface wave, which facilitate the application involving transverse SAM of the surface wave.

Disturbance rejection of offshore drilling platforms: An equivalent-input-disturbance-based dynamic positioning control method.

Offshore drilling platforms are exposed to wind, waves, currents, and other unknown disturbances. Accurately estimating and rejecting these disturbances is the key to ensuring reliable station-keeping of the platforms. In this study, a novel dynamic positioning method using an improved equivalent-input-disturbance (EID) approach is proposed for offshore drilling platforms. An improved EID estimator is employed to estimate and suppress unknown disturbances, significantly enhancing the disturbance-rejection performance of the dynamic positioning system. The input channels are decoupled through linear transformation, and the parameter tuning process of the observer and controller is optimized, thus improving system performance. The bounded-input bounded-output stability of the closed-loop system is proved. This study provides insights into the design of dynamic positioning systems for offshore drilling platforms.

Deep optimization design of 2D repetitive control systems with saturating actuators: An adaptive multi-population PSO algorithm.

This paper presents an optimization design method for a two-dimensional (2D) modified repetitive control system (MRCS) with an anti-windup compensator. Using lifting technology, a 2D hybrid model of the MRCS considering actuator saturation is established to describe the control and learning of the repetitive control. A linear-matrix-inequality (LMI)-based sufficient condition is derived to ensure the stability of the MRCS. Two tuning parameters, the selection of which is critical to the system design, are used in the LMI to adjust the control and learning, and hence the reference-tracking performance. A new cost function, developed through time domain analysis, directly evaluates the control performance of the system without calculating control errors, thus reducing the optimization time. Based on this cost function, an adaptive multi-population particle swarm optimization algorithm is presented to select an optimal pair of tuning parameters in which multiple populations cooperatively search in non-intersecting search intervals. An anti-windup term is added between the low-pass filter and the time delay in the modified repetitive controller to mitigate the undesirable effect of actuator saturation on system performance and stability. Simulations and experiments on the speed control of a rotation control system demonstrate the validity of the approach.

Cyclosporin A Promotes Invasion and Migration of Extravillous Trophoblast Cells Derived from Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Human Embryonic Stem Cells.

Extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cells play an essential role in the maternal-fetal interaction. Although abnormal development and function of EVT cells, including impaired migration and invasion capability, are believed to be etiologically linked to severe pregnancy disorders including pre-eclampsia, the associated molecular mechanisms are not clear due to the lack of an appropriate cell model in vitro. Cyclosporin A (CsA) is a macrolide immunosuppressant and also used in clinic to improve pregnancy outcomes. However, whether CsA has any effects on the function of EVT cells has not been well investigated. In this study, we induced differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into EVT cells (hiPSC-EVT and hESC-EVT cells, respectively) by Y27632, neuregulin-1 (NRG1), A83-01, and matrigel, and collected these derived EVT cells by flow cytometry for sorting cells positive for double human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) and Cytokeratin7 (KRT7), both of which are EVT markers. We then investigated the effects of CsA on the invasion and migration of these derived EVT cells. We found that the hiPSC-EVT and hESC-EVT cells expressed high levels of the EVT markers such as KRT7, integrin alpha 5 (ITGA5), and HLA-G but low levels of OCT4, a stem cell marker, and that CsA significantly promoted the invasion and migration of hiPSC-EVT and hESC-EVT cells compared with HTR-8/SVneo cells. These results represent a possible cell model for studying the function of EVT cells and mechanism of pregnancy-related disorders associated with EVT. In addition, CsA may be used to treat pregnancy complications in clinic associated with deficient EVT function.

Isolation and Functional Characterization of a Green-Tissue Promoter in Japonica Rice (Oryza sativa subsp. Japonica).

Plant promoters play a vital role in the initiation and regulation of gene transcription. In this study, a rice protein/gene of unknown expression, named Os8GSX7, was gained from a rice T-DNA capture line. The semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that the gene was only expressed in root, glume, and flower, but not in stem, leaf, embryo, and endosperm of japonica rice. The GUS activity analysis of the GSX7R promoter showed that it was a reverse green tissue expression promoter, except in endosperm. The forward promoter of GSX7 cannot normally drive the expression of the foreign GUS gene, while the reverse promoter of GSX7 is a green tissue-specific expression promoter, which can drive the expression of the foreign GUS gene. The region from -2097 to -1543 bp was the key region for controlling the green tissue-specific expression. The regulatory sequences with different lengths from the 2097 bp reverse sequence from the upstream region of the Os8GSX7 were fused with the GUS reporter gene and stably expressed in rice. Furthermore, transgenic rice plants carrying Cry1Ab encoding Bacillus thuringiensis endotoxin, regulated by GSX7R, were resistant to yellow stem borer. The analysis suggested that 10 light responsive elements of tissue-specific expression were found, including ACE, Box4, CAT-box, G-Box, G-box, GATA motif, GC motif, I-box, Sp1, and chs-unit1 M1. In addition, the results of 5' and 3' deletions further speculated that ACE and I-box may be the key elements for determining the green tissue-specific expression of GSX7R promoter.

Silencing GmFLS2 enhances the susceptibility of soybean to bacterial pathogen through attenuating the activation of GmMAPK signaling pathway.

The plasma membrane (PM)-localized receptor-like kinases (RLKs) play important roles in pathogen defense. One of the first cloned RLKs is the Arabidopsis receptor kinase FLAGELLIN SENSING 2 (FLS2), which specifically recognizes a conserved 22 amino acid N-terminal sequence of Pseudomonas syringae pv．tomato DC3000 (Pst) flagellin protein (flg22). Although extensively studied in Arabidopsis, the functions of RLKs in crop plants remain largely uninvestigated. To understand the roles of RLKs in soybean (Glycine max), GmFLS2 was silenced via virus induced gene silencing (VIGS) mediated by Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV). No significant morphological differences were observed between GmFLS2-silenced plants and the vector control plants. However, silencing GmFLS2 significantly enhanced the susceptibility of the soybean plants to Pseudomonas syringae pv．glycinea (Psg). Kinase activity assay showed that silencing GmFLS2 significantly reduced the phosphorylation level of GmMPK6 in response to flg22 treatment. However, reduced phosphorylation level of both GmMPK3 and GmMPK6 in response to Psg infection was observed in GmFLS2-silenced plants, implying that defense response is likely transduced through activation of the downstream GmMAPK signaling pathway upon recognition of bacterial pathogen by GmFLS2. The core peptides of flg22 from Pst and Psg were highly conserved and only 4 amino acid differences were seen at their N-termini. Interestingly, it appeared that the Psg-flg22 was more effective in activating soybean MAPKs than activating Arabidopsis MAPKs, and conversely, Pst-flg22 was more effective in activating Arabidopsis MAPKs than activating soybean MAPKs, suggesting that the cognate recognition is more potent than heterologous recognition in activating downstream signaling. Taken together, our results suggest that the function of FLS2 is conserved in immunity against bacteria pathogens across different plant species.

Polypyrrole/cadmium sulfide hollow fiber with high performance contaminant removal and photocatalytic activity fabricated by layer-by-layer deposition and fiber-sacrifice template approach.

A recyclable polypyrrole (PPy)/cadmium sulfide (CdS) hollow fiber photocatalyst was innovatively fabricated for solving the loss issue of the current powder-form photocatalyst in slurry system. Core-sheath structure CdS/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber was prepared via successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method on the surface of PAN fiber. PPy was further deposited on the CdS/PAN fiber by vapor deposition polymerization. After the removal of interior PAN template, PPy/CdS hollow fiber was yielded. The hollow structure of PPy/CdS hollow fiber was confirmed by morphology observation. The resulting PPy/CdS hollow fiber presents low energy band gaps of 1.9 eV, which accounts for enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity after PPy deposition. PPy/CdS hollow fiber shows good dye removal efficiency of 73.06 wt% (dosage of the product as low as 5 mg·10 mL-1), and praiseworthy H2 production rate up to 269.7 µmol·g-1·h-1. PPy/CdS hollow fiber maintained high and sustainable photocatalytic activity compared to CdS/PAN fiber after 8 cycles, indicating that PPy effectively improved the stability of CdS. Here, PPy plays key synergistic role in photocatalysis of PPy/CdS hollow fiber for the promotive and protective effects based on the actual photocatalytic performance and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) results. Compared with nano-sized photocatalysts, the fiber-formed PPy/CdS hollow fiber is highly bulky and easy to recycle. PPy/CdS hollow fiber has great potential for scale-up in industrial application because of its excellent grabbing ability and degradation to contaminants, and ease of disposal.