DWARF AND LOW-TILLERING 2 functions in brassinosteroid signaling and controls plant architecture and grain size in rice.

Brassinosteroids (BRs) are a class of steroid phytohormones that control various aspects of plant growth and development. Several transcriptional factors (TFs) have been suggested to play roles in BR signaling. However, their possible relationship remains largely unknown. Here, we identified a rice mutant dwarf and low-tillering 2 (dlt2) with altered plant architecture, increased grain width, and reduced BR sensitivity. DLT2 encodes a GIBBERELLIN INSENSITIVE (GAI)-REPRESSOR OF GAI (RGA)-SCARECROW (GRAS) TF that is mainly localized in the nucleus and has weak transcriptional activity. Our further genetic and biochemical analyses indicate that DLT2 interacts with two BR-signaling-related TFs, DLT and BRASSINAZOLE-RESISTANT 1, and probably modulates their transcriptional activity. These findings imply that DLT2 is implicated in a potentially transcriptional complex that mediates BR signaling and rice development and suggests that DLT2 could be a potential target for improving rice architecture and grain morphology. This work also sheds light on the role of rice GRAS members in regulating numerous developmental processes.

Microfluidic Continuous Synthesis of Size- and Facet-Controlled Porous Bi2O3 Nanospheres for Efficient CO2 to Formate Catalysis.

Bismuth-based catalysts are effective in converting carbon dioxide into formate via electrocatalysis. Precise control of the morphology, size, and facets of bismuth-based catalysts is crucial for achieving high selectivity and activity. In this work, an efficient, large-scale continuous production strategy is developed for achieving a porous nanospheres Bi2O3-FDCA material. First-principles simulations conducted in advance indicate that the Bi2O3 (111)/(200) facets help reduce the overpotential for formate production in electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction reaction (ECO2RR). Subsequently, using microfluidic technology and molecular control to precisely adjust the amount of 2, 5-furandicarboxylic acid, nanomaterials rich in (111)/(200) facets are successfully synthesized. Additionally, the morphology of the porous nanospheres significantly increases the adsorption capacity and active sites for carbon dioxide. These synergistic effects allow the porous Bi2O3-FDCA nanospheres to stably operate for 90 h in a flow cell at a current density of ≈250 mA cm- 2, with an average Faradaic efficiency for formate exceeding 90%. The approach of theoretically guided microfluidic technology for the large-scale synthesis of finely structured, efficient bismuth-based materials for ECO2RR may provide valuable references for the chemical engineering of intelligent nanocatalysts.

Hydrogenation of CO2 to Light Olefins over ZnZrOx /SSZ-13.

Converting CO2 to olefins is an ideal route to achieve carbon neutrality. However, selective hydrogenation to light olefins, especially single-component olefin, while reducing CH4 formation remains a great challenge. Herein, we developed ZnZrOx /SSZ-13 tandem catalyst for the highly selective hydrogenation of CO2 to light olefins. This catalyst shows C2 = -C4 = and propylene selectivity up to 89.4 % and 52 %, respectively, while CH4 is suppressed down to 2 %, and there is no obvious deactivation. It is demonstrated that the isolated moderate Brønsted acid sites (BAS) of SSZ-13 promotes the rapid conversion of intermediate species derived from ZnZrOx , thereby enhancing the kinetic coupling of the reactions and inhibit the formation of alkanes and improve the light olefins selectivity. Besides, the weaker BAS of SSZ-13 promote the conversion of intermediates into aromatics with 4-6 methyl groups, which is conducive to the aromatics cycle. Accordingly, more propene can be obtained by elevating the Si/Al ratio of SSZ-13. This provides an efficient strategy for CO2 hydrogenation to light olefins with high selectivity.

Visual and Rapid Detection of Nerve Agent Mimics in Gas and Solution Phase by a Simple Fluorescent Probe.

Chemical nerve agents are highly toxic organophosphorus compounds that are easy to obtain and can be utilized by terrorists to threaten homeland security and human safety. Those organophosphorus nerve agents contain nucleophilic ability that can react with acetylcholinesterase leading to muscular paralysis and human death. Therefore, there is great importance to explore a reliable and simple method to detect chemical nerve agents. Herein, the o-phenylenediamine-linked dansyl chloride as a colorimetric and fluorescent probe has been prepared to detect specific chemical nerve agent stimulants in the solution and vapor phase. The o-phenylenediamine unit serves as a detection site that can react with diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP) in a rapid response within 2 min. A satisfied relationship line was obtained between fluorescent intensity and the concentration of DCP in the range of 0-90 µM. In the optimized conditions, we conducted the fluorescent titration to measure the limits of detection (0.082 µM) with the fluorescent enhancement up to 18-fold. Fluorescence titration and NMR studies were also conducted to explore the detection mechanism, indicating that the formation of phosphate ester causes the intensity of fluorescent change during the PET process. Finally, probe 1 coated with the paper test is utilized to detect DCP vapor and solution by the naked eye. We expect that this probe may give some admiration to design the small molecule organic probe and applied in the selectivity detection of chemical nerve agents.

A ubiquitin-specific protease functions in regulating cell death and immune responses in rice.

Ubiquitin-specific proteases (UBPs) process deubiquitination in eukaryotic organisms and are widely involved in plant development and responses to environmental stress. However, their role in cell death and plant immunity remains largely unknown. Here, we identified a rice lesion mimic mutant (LMM) and cloned its causative gene, LMM22. Both dysfunction and overexpression of LMM22 gave rise to the hypersensitive response-like cell death, reactive oxygen species bursts, and activated defence responses. LMM22 encodes an active UBP that is localised to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and displays a constitutive expression pattern in rice. LMM22 interacts with SPOTTED LEAF 35 (SPL35), a coupling of ubiquitin conjugation to ER degradation domain-containing protein that is known to participate in ubiquitination and the regulation of cell death and disease response in rice. Additional analyses suggest that LMM22 can positively regulate and stabilise the abundance of SPL35 protein likely through its deubiquitination activity. These data therefore improve our understanding of the function of UBP in rice innate immune responses by demonstrating that LMM22 functions as a critical regulator of SPL35 in cell death and disease resistance.

RNA helicase DHX15 exemplifies a unique dependency in acute leukemia.

RNA-binding proteins (RBP) have emerged as essential regulators that control gene expression and modulate multiple cancer traits. T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive hematologic malignancy derived from transformation of T-cell progenitors that normally undergo discrete steps of differentiation in the thymus. The implications of essential RBP during T-cell neoplastic transformation remain largely unclear. Systematic evaluation of RBP identifies RNA helicase DHX15, which facilitates the disassembly of the spliceosome and release of lariat introns, as a T-ALL dependency factor. Functional analysis using multiple murine T-ALL models demonstrates the essential importance of DHX15 in tumor cell survival and leukemogenesis. Moreover, single-cell transcriptomics reveals that DHX15 depletion in T-cell progenitors hinders burst proliferation during the transition from doublenegative to double-positive cells (CD4-CD8- to CD4+CD8+). Mechanistically, abrogation of DHX15 perturbs RNA splicing and leads to diminished levels of SLC7A6 and SLC38A5 transcripts due to intron retention, thereby suppressing glutamine import and mTORC1 activity. We further propose a DHX15 signature modulator drug ciclopirox and demonstrate that it has prominent anti-T-ALL efficacy. Collectively, our data highlight the functional contribution of DHX15 to leukemogenesis through regulation of established oncogenic pathways. These findings also suggest a promising therapeutic approach, i.e., splicing perturbation by targeting spliceosome disassembly, may achieve considerable anti-tumor efficacy.

Nonacid Carbon Materials as Catalysts for Monoethanolamine Energy-Efficient Regeneration.

In the CO2 capture process, solid acid catalysts have been widely adopted to decrease energy consumption in the amine regeneration process owing to abundant acid sites. However, acid sites unavoidably degenerate in the basic amine solution. To address the challenge, nonacid carbon materials including carbon molecular sieves, porous carbon, carbon nanotubes, and graphene are first proposed to catalyze amine regeneration. It is found that carbon materials can significantly increase the CO2 desorption amount by 47.1-72.3% and reduce energy consumption by 32-42%. In 20 stability experiments, CO2 loading was stable with the max difference value of 0.01 mol CO2/mol monoethanolamine (MEA), and no obvious increase in the relative heat duty (the maximum difference is 4%) occurred. The stability of carbon materials is superior to excellent solid acid catalysts, and the desorption performance is comparable. According to the results of theoretical calculation and experimental characterization, the electron-transfer mechanism of nonacid carbon materials is proposed, which is not only beneficial for MEA regeneration but also the probable reason for the stable catalytic activity. Owing to the excellent catalytic performance of carbon nanotube (CNT) in the HCO3- decomposition, nonacid carbon materials are quite promising to enhance the desorption performance of novel blend amines, which will further reduce the cost of carbon capture in the industry. This study provides a new strategy to develop stable catalysts used for amine energy-efficient regeneration.

Spectrally tunable humic acid-based carbon dots: a simple platform for metronidazole and ornidazole sensing in multiple real samples.

Humic acid-based carbon dots (HACDs) have excellent properties and are widely used in environmental detection, bioimaging, and optoelectronic materials. Herein, we investigated the structure-activity relationship between the morphology and optical properties of HACDs, and reported on a novel strategy for metronidazole (MNZ) and ornidazole (ONZ) sensing in multiple real samples. It was found that the average particle size decreased from 3.28 to 2.44 nm, optimal emission wavelength was blue-shifted from 500 to 440 nm, and the quantum yield (QY) improved from 5 to 23% with the temperature increasing from 110 to 400 °C. Under the oxidation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4), the UV-vis spectra of HACD aqueous solution showed time-dependent behavior, and the fluorescence emission of HACDs achieved spectrally tunable multi-color luminescence in the temporal dimension. The surface of HACDs contained a large number of hydroxyl (-OH) and carboxyl (-COOH) fluorophores, resulting in excellent pH sensing. Meanwhile, the synthesized HACDs revealed sensitive response to MNZ and ONZ with the limit of detection (LOD) of 60 nM and 50 nM in aqueous solutions, which had also been successfully applied in various actual samples such as lake water, honey, eggs, and milk with satisfactory results because of the inner filter effect (IFE). Our research is advantageous to enhance the potential applications of HACDs in advanced analytical systems.

Defect-Guided Synthesis of Hierarchical Sn-B-Beta Zeolite with Highly Exposed Sn Sites.

Selectively anchoring active centers on the external surface for forming highly exposed acid sites is a highly desirable but challenging task in zeolite catalyst synthesis. Herein, a defect-guided etching-regrowth strategy is rationally designed for facilely positioning Sn Lewis acid sites on the outer surface of the Sn-B-Beta while fabricating a bifunctional hierarchical structure. The synthesis was conducted by hydrothermal treatment of the as-made B-Beta (uncalcined), which has intrinsic defects of the BEA structure, with Sn source and basic organic structure directing agent (SDA). Under a moderate SDA concentration, with blocked micropore channels, such SDA-triggered etching-regrowth will proceed along the defect defined pathway, which ensures Sn selectively anchored on the external surface. Moreover, this methodology has exclusively introduced tetrahedrally coordinated framework Sn with open Sn sites as the predominated species. Mono- and disaccharide isomerizations in ethanol over different Sn-Beta catalysts proved the prominent advantages of the hierarchical structure with highly exposed and synergetic acid sites.

Synthesis of substituted 2H-chromenes catalyzed by lipase immobilized on magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotubes.

Porcine pancreas lipase (PPL) was immobilized on magnetic multiwalled carbon nanotubes successfully for the synthesis of substituted 2H-chromenes. The catalytic activity of immobilized PPL was much higher than that of free PPL. Effects of reaction medium, temperature, and enzyme dosage were also investigated. Under optimum reaction conditions (acetylacetone (1 mmol), salicylaldehyde (1 equivalent), methanol (10 equivalent), and immobilized PPL (protein content: 30 mg; 65 °C; DMF 5 mL; 5 H), the immobilized PPL showed an excellent catalytic performance on the synthesis of substituted 2H-chromenes. Moreover, the immobilized PPL exhibited satisfactory thermostability, operational simplicity, and reusability in this reaction.

Inhibition of Grass Carp Reovirus Infection by DNA Aptamers against S10 Protein.

Grass Carp reovirus (GCRV) is one of the most pathogenic agents among aquareovirus isolates and has the ability to cause a severe epidemic outbreak of hemorrhagic disease, thus resulting in both a high mortality rate during the culture of Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella and an enormous economic loss. Aptamers have been demonstrated to have strong promising applications in antiviral drug development. In the present study, a complementary DNA fragment encoding the S10 gene of GCRV was cloned. The S10 protein was expressed and purified. Aptamers for S10 protein were selected by the method of selective evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX), and their characteristics and antiviral actions were examined. All targeting-selected aptamers formed a similar structure, forming a 5-7 base loop at the terminus. The results show that the aptamers could inhibit the GCRV infection. The most significant inhibitory effect was obsereved when the aptamers were added to the cell culture for 1 h before the cells were infected by GCRV. Our data showed that these novel molecular agents could be considered suitable candidates for anti-GCRV therapy. Received August 23, 2016; accepted February 5, 2017.

The deletion of an extra six nucleotides in the 5' -untranslated region of the nucleoprotein gene of Newcastle disease virus NA-1 decreases virulence.

BACKGROUND: The virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain NA-1 (genotype VII) was isolated from an epizootic involving a flock of geese in Jilin Province, Northeast China, in 1999. Compared with the classical NDV strains, which have a genome size of 15,186 bp, the more recently isolated NDV strains, including that involved in the goose outbreak, have an extra six nucleotides in the 5'-untranslated region (UTR) of the nucleoprotein (NP) gene. This extra sequence, TCCCAC, is highly conserved and has been found in multiple NDV strains, including ZJ-1, WF00G, JSG0210, and NA-1. In the current study, an infectious clone from strain NA-1 was isolated and designated rNA-1. Subsequently, strain rNA-1 was mutated to delete the six-nucleotide insertion, producing strain rNA-1(-). Virulence of the recombinant virus was then assayed in chickens and geese. RESULTS: The recombinant virus rNA-1(-) showed similar biological characteristics to the parental NA-1 strain in DF-1 chicken fibroblast cells. However, the virulence of rNA-1(-) in 9-day-old embryonated chicken eggs and 1-day-old specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens was decreased compared with the rNA-1 control. Furthermore, the virulence of the recombinant strain was slightly decreased in 1-day-old SPF chickens when compared with that in 1-day-old geese. CONCLUSION: Following deletion of six nucleotides in the 5'-UTR of the NP gene of NDV strain NA-1, the virulence of the rNA-1(-) recombinant strain was decreased in both chickens and geese. However, rNA-1(-) was more virulent in chickens than geese, as seen by the higher intracerebral pathogenicity index value.

Single and Multiobjective Shutdown Optimization of a Multistage Continuous Crystallizer.

This study presents the first model-based optimal shutdown procedure of a multistage continuous crystallization process which aims at the maximization of on-spec production and minimization of the shutdown time. The cooling antisolvent crystallization of Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) in a three-stage continuous crystallizer was used as a case study. To address the optimal shutdown problem, several single optimization scenarios were considered to assess the impact of the degrees of freedom, discretization schemes, and optimization settings such as the constraints. The proposed optimal shutdown procedures showed that significant amounts of on-spec crystals can be produced both at fixed and variable shutdown times. Most importantly, the optimal shutdown procedures can match the steady-state productivity, based on the shutdown to steady-state productivity ratio (STSPR) which can easily reach 100%. Moreover, the residual shutdown material, considered as waste, can be dramatically reduced by >80% compared to the current standard shutdown procedures. Given the conflicting nature of the maximization of on-spec production and minimization of the shutdown time, multiobjective optimization of the shutdown operation was also addressed to identify the set of Pareto optimal solutions. Finally, a multicriteria decision-aiding method, based on multiattribute utility theory, was proposed to rank the Pareto optimal solutions to support the decision-making and help identify a suitable and feasible single optimal shutdown solution.

Heart-brain interaction in cardiogenic dementia: pathophysiology and therapeutic potential.

Diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular and neurologic diseases primarily focus on the heart and brain, respectively. An increasing number of preclinical and clinical studies have confirmed a causal relationship between heart and brain diseases. Cardiogenic dementia is a cognitive impairment caused by heart dysfunction and has received increasing research attention. The prevention and treatment of cardiogenic dementia are essential to improve the quality of life, particularly in the elderly and aging population. This study describes the changes in cognitive function associated with coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and heart valve disease. An updated understanding of the two known pathogenic mechanisms of cardiogenic dementia is presented and discussed. One is a cascade of events caused by cerebral hypoperfusion due to long-term reduction of cardiac output after heart disease, and the other is cognitive impairment regardless of the changes in cerebral blood flow after cardiac injury. Furthermore, potential medications for the prevention and treatment of cardiogenic dementia are reviewed, with particular attention to multicomponent herbal medicines.

Synergistic Catalysis of SO42-/TiO2-CNT for the CO2 Desorption Process with Low Energy Consumption.

To address the issue of high energy consumption associated with monoethanolamine (MEA) regeneration in the CO2 capture process, solid acid catalysts have been widely investigated due to their performance in accelerating carbamate decomposition. The recently discovered carbon nanotube (CNT) catalyst presents efficient catalytic activity for bicarbonate decomposition. In this paper, bifunctional catalysts SO42-/TiO2-CNT (STC) were prepared, which could simultaneously catalyze carbamate and bicarbonate decomposition, and outstanding catalytic performance has been exhibited. STC significantly increased the CO2 desorption amount by 82.3% and decreased the relative heat duty by 46% compared to the MEA-CO2 solution without catalysts. The excellent stability of STC was confirmed by 15 cyclic absorption-desorption experiments, showing good practical feasibility for decreasing energy consumption in an industrial CO2 capture process. Furthermore, associated with the results of experimental characterization and theoretical calculations, the synergistic catalysis of STC catalysts via proton and charge transfer was proposed. This work demonstrated the potential of STC catalysts in improving the efficiency of amine regeneration processes and reducing energy consumption, contributing to the design of more effective and economical catalysts for carbon capture.

Developing an Approach for Calculating Theoretical Minimum Hydrogen Consumption during Catalytic Hydrotreating of Diesel.

Identifying the unnecessary H2 consumption existing in diesel hydrotreating process and calculating theoretical minimum H2 consumption are extremely critical for reducing H2 consumption in consideration of carbon reduction and resource utilization improvement. In this work, chemical reactions happened during diesel hydrotreating were categorized into hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN), saturation of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs), saturation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), hydrogenation of olefins (HGO) and hydrocracking reactions (HCR). Then, in order to gain insights into where and how much H2 can be reduced, the ideal molecular compositions of the products were analyzed when theoretical minimum H2 was achieved for each type of reactions, which can give a genuine value of average relative molecular weight and average number of moles of H2 consumed per mole of reactants, leading to the establishment of method for calculating theoretical minimum H2 consumption. Additionally, the above method was used to calculate theoretical minimum H2 consumption of five diesel feedstocks with different properties to study the influence of content of S, N and PAHs in the feed on theoretical minimum H2 consumption. This method can provide guidance for experiments of H2 consumption reduction, and also help the refineries to save potential costs of H2.

Underwater Gesture Recognition Meta-Gloves for Marine Immersive Communication.

Rapid advancements in immersive communications and artificial intelligence have created a pressing demand for high-performance tactile sensing gloves capable of delivering high sensitivity and a wide sensing range. Unfortunately, existing tactile sensing gloves fall short in terms of user comfort and are ill-suited for underwater applications. To address these limitations, we propose a flexible hand gesture recognition glove (GRG) that contains high-performance micropillar tactile sensors (MPTSs) inspired by the flexible tube foot of a starfish. The as-prepared flexible sensors offer a wide working range (5 Pa to 450 kPa), superfast response time (23 ms), reliable repeatability (∼10000 cycles), and a low limit of detection. Furthermore, these MPTSs are waterproof, which makes them well-suited for underwater applications. By integrating the high-performance MPTSs with a machine learning algorithm, the proposed GRG system achieves intelligent recognition of 16 hand gestures under water, which significantly extends real-time and effective communication capabilities for divers. The GRG system holds tremendous potential for a wide range of applications in the field of underwater communications.

Multi-store collaborative delivery optimization based on Top-K order-split.

Regarding the fulfillment optimization of online retail orders, many researchers focus more on warehouse optimization and distribution center optimization. However, under the background of new retailing, traditional retailers carry out online services, forming an order fulfillment model with physical stores as front warehouses. Studies that focus on physical stores and consider both order splitting and store delivery are rare, which cannot meet the order optimization needs of traditional retailers. To this end, this study proposes a new problem called the "Multi-Store Collaborative Delivery Optimization (MCDO)", in which not only make the order-split plans for stores but also design the order-delivery routes for them, such that the order fulfillment cost is minimized. To solve the problem, a Top-K breadth-first search and a local search are integrated to construct a hybrid heuristic algorithm, named "Top-K Recommendation & Improved Local Search (TKILS)". This study optimizes the search efficiency of the breadth-first search by controlling the number of sub-orders and improving the initial solution of the local search using a greedy cost function. Then achieve the joint optimization of order-split and order-delivery by improving the local optimization operators. Finally, extensive experiments on synthetic and real datasets validate the effectiveness and applicability of the algorithm this study proposed.