Whole-cycle management of women with epilepsy of child-bearing age: ontology construction and application.

BACKGROUND: The effective management of epilepsy in women of child-bearing age necessitates a concerted effort from multidisciplinary teams. Nevertheless, there exists an inadequacy in the seamless exchange of knowledge among healthcare providers within this context. Consequently, it is imperative to enhance the availability of informatics resources and the development of decision support tools to address this issue comprehensively. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The development of the Women with Epilepsy of Child-Bearing Age Ontology (WWECA) adhered to established ontology construction principles. The ontology's scope and universal terminology were initially established by the development team and subsequently subjected to external evaluation through a rapid Delphi consensus exercise involving domain experts. Additional entities and attribute annotation data were sourced from authoritative guideline documents and specialized terminology databases within the respective field. Furthermore, the ontology has played a pivotal role in steering the creation of an online question-and-answer system, which is actively employed and assessed by a diverse group of multidisciplinary healthcare providers. RESULTS: WWECA successfully integrated a total of 609 entities encompassing various facets related to the diagnosis and medication for women of child-bearing age afflicted with epilepsy. The ontology exhibited a maximum depth of 8 within its hierarchical structure. Each of these entities featured three fundamental attributes, namely Chinese labels, definitions, and synonyms. The evaluation of WWECA involved 35 experts from 10 different hospitals across China, resulting in a favorable consensus among the experts. Furthermore, the ontology-driven online question and answer system underwent evaluation by a panel of 10 experts, including neurologists, obstetricians, and gynecologists. This evaluation yielded an average rating of 4.2, signifying a positive reception and endorsement of the system's utility and effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Our ontology and the associated online question and answer system hold the potential to serve as a scalable assistant for healthcare providers engaged in the management of women with epilepsy (WWE). In the future, this developmental framework has the potential for broader application in the context of long-term management of more intricate chronic health conditions.

Green manure increases peanut production by shaping the rhizosphere bacterial community and regulating soil metabolites under continuous peanut production systems.

BACKGROUND: Green manure (GM) is a crop commonly grown during fallow periods, which has been applied in agriculture as a strategy to regulate nutrient cycling, improve organic matter, and enhance soil microbial biodiversity, but to date, few studies have examined the effects of GM treatments on rhizosphere soil bacterial community and soil metabolites from continuous cropping peanut field. RESULTS: In this study, we found that the abundances of several functionally significant bacterial groups containing Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and genus Sphingomonas, which are associated with nitrogen cycling, were dramatically increased in GM-applied soils. Consistent with the bacterial community results, metabolomics analysis revealed a strong perturbation of nitrogen- or carbon-related metabolisms in GM-applied soils. The substantially up-regulated beneficial metabolites including sucrose, adenine, lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), malic acid, and betaines in GM-applied soils may contribute to overcome continuous cropping obstacle. In contrast to peanut continuous cropping, planting winter wheat and oilseed rape in winter fallow period under continuous spring peanut production systems evidently improved the soil quality, concomitantly with raised peanut pod yield by 32.93% and 25.20%, in the 2020 season, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: GMs application is an effective strategy to overcome continuous cropping obstacle under continuous peanut production systems by improving nutrient cycling, soil metabolites, and rhizobacterial properties.

Comprehensive Transcriptome and Metabolome Analyses Reveal Primary Molecular Regulation Pathways Involved in Peanut under Water and Nitrogen Co-Limitation.

The yield and quality of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), an oil crop planted worldwide, are often limited by drought stress (DS) and nitrogen (N) deficiency. To investigate the molecular mechanism by which peanut counteracts DS and N deficiency, we conducted comprehensive transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of peanut leaves. Herein, 829 known differentially accumulated metabolites, 324 differentially expressed transcription factors, and 5294 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified under different water and N conditions. The transcriptome analysis demonstrated that drought-related DEGs were predominantly expressed in "glycolysis/gluconeogenesis" and "glycerolipid metabolism", while N-deficiency-related DEGs were mainly expressed in starch and sucrose metabolism, as well as in the biosynthesis of amino acid pathways. The biosynthesis, transport, and catabolism of secondary metabolites accounted for a large proportion of the 1317 DEGs present in water and N co-limitation. Metabolomic analysis showed that the metabolic accumulation of these pathways was significantly dependent on the stress conditions. Additionally, the roles of metabolites and genes in these pathways, such as the biosynthesis of amino acids and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis under different stress conditions, were discussed. The results demonstrated that different genes, metabolic pathways, and metabolites were related to DS and N deficiency. Thus, this study elucidates the metabolic pathways and functional genes that can be used for the improvement of peanut resistance to abiotic stress.

The roles and mechanism of STIM1 in tumorigenesis and metastasis.

STIM1 (stromal interaction molecule 1) is one of the key components of the store operated Ca2+ entry channel (SOCE), which is located on the endoplasmic reticulum membrane and highly expressed in most kinds of tumors. STIM1 promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis by modulating the formation of invadopodia, promoting angiogenesis, mediating inflammatory response, altering the cytoskeleton and cell dynamics. However, the roles and mechanism of STIM1 in different tumors have not been fully elucidated. In this review, we summarize the latest progress and mechanisms of STIM1 in tumorigenesis and metastasis, thereby providing insights and references for the study on STIM1 in the field of cancer biology in the future.

Maize/peanut intercropping improves nutrient uptake of side-row maize and system microbial community diversity.

BACKGROUND: Intercropping, a diversified planting pattern, increases land use efficiency and farmland ecological diversity. We explored the changes in soil physicochemical properties, nutrient uptake and utilization, and microbial community composition in wide-strip intercropping of maize and peanut. RESULTS: The results from three treatments, sole maize, sole peanut and intercropping of maize and peanut, showed that intercropped maize had a marginal advantage and that the nutrient content of roots, stems and grains in side-row maize was better than that in the middle row of intercropped maize and sole maize. The yield of intercropped maize was higher than that of sole cropping. The interaction between crops significantly increased soil peroxidase activity, and significantly decreased protease and dehydrogenase activities in intercropped maize and intercropped peanut. The diversity and richness of bacteria and fungi decreased in intercropped maize rhizosphere soil, whereas the richness of fungi increased intercropped peanut. RB41, Candidatus-udaeobacter, Stropharia, Fusarium and Penicillium were positively correlated with soil peroxidase activity, and negatively correlated with soil protease and dehydrogenase activities. In addition, intercropping enriched the functional diversity of the bacterial community and reduced pathogenic fungi. CONCLUSION: Intercropping changed the composition and diversity of the bacterial and fungal communities in rhizosphere soil, enriched beneficial microbes, increased the nitrogen content of intercropped maize and provided a scientific basis for promoting intercropping in northeastern China.

Mild blurry vision as the initial presentation of central nervous system relapses of acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Leukemia relapses after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can sometimes occur from the central nervous system prior to relapse from the bone marrow, and manifestations varied. CASE REPORT: We present a case of mild blurry vision as the initial symptom of central nervous system relapse of adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A 30-year-old man presented with a 1 week history of painless visual loss in both eyes. At that time there were no headaches or other systemic features. The neurological examination was without positive findings except bilateral optic nerve edema. He had a history of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which had been in clinical remission post-transplant for 1 year. Lumbar puncture revealed relapsed disease within the central nervous system, confirmed with cerebrospinal fluid leukemic blasts. CONCLUSIONS: It highlights the need for ophthalmologists to be aware of the possibility of central nervous system involvement in patients with the setting of leukemia when visual symptoms as the initial manifestation.

Measuring fluence distribution of intense short laser based on the radiochromic effect.

This Letter demonstrates a novel, to the best of our knowledge, method to measure the fluence distribution of an intense short laser pulse based on the radiochromic effect. We discovered that an intense short laser pulse can induce the color reaction with a radiochromic film (RCF). Further, the net optical density of an irradiated RCF is proportional to the fluence of the incident laser pulse in a large range (${2 {-} 120}\;{{{\rm mJ}/{\rm cm}}^2}$). This method supports a large detection area up to near square-meter scale by splicing multi-pieces of RCFs (${8} \times 10\;{{\rm inch}^2}$ each). The spatial resolution reaches as high as 60 lines/mm. It offers a thin-film (${\sim}{100}\;{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}}$ thick), flexible, vacuum-compatible solution to intense short laser measurements, especially to laser facilities above petawatt, with beam sizes up to near square-meter scale, e.g., extreme light infrastructure.

Comprehensive effects of salt stress and peanut cultivars on the rhizosphere bacterial community diversity of peanut.

Plant rhizosphere bacterial communities are central to plant growth and stress tolerance, which differ across cultivars and external environments. The goal of this study was to assess the comprehensive effects of salt stress and peanut cultivars on rhizosphere bacterial community diversity. In this study, we investigated the effects of salt stress on peanut morphology and pod yield and the associated rhizosphere bacterial diversity using statistical analysis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, respectively. Statistical analysis exhibited that salt stress indeed affected peanut growth and pod yield, and various peanut cultivars showed divergences. Taxonomic analysis showed that the bacterial community predominantly consisted of phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Cyanobacteria in peanut rhizosphere soils. Among these bacteria, numbers of beneficial bacteria Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria increased, especially in the salt-resistant cultivars, while that of Acidobacteria decreased after salt treatment. Nitrogen-fixing bacterium Rhizobium closely related to peanut nodulation was significantly improved in rhizosphere soils of salt-resistant cultivars after salt treatment. Metabolic function prediction showed that the percentages of reads categorized to signaling transduction and inorganic ion transport and metabolism were higher in the salt-treated soils, which may be conducive to peanut survival and salt tolerance to some extent. The study is, therefore, crucially important to develop the foundation for improving the salt tolerance of various peanut cultivars via modifying the soil bacterial community.

Discovery, identification, and functional characterization of long noncoding RNAs in Arachis hypogaea L.

BACKGROUND: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are typically > 200 nt in length, are involved in numerous biological processes. Studies on lncRNAs in the cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) largely remain unknown. RESULTS: A genome-wide scan of the peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) transcriptome identified 1442 lncRNAs, which were encoded by loci distributed over every chromosome. Long intergenic noncoding RNAs accounted for 85.58% of these lncRNAs. Additionally, 189 lncRNAs were differentially abundant in the root, leaf, or seed. Generally, lncRNAs showed lower expression levels, tighter tissue-specific expression, and less splicing than mRNAs. Approximately 44.17% of the lncRNAs with an exon/intron structure were alternatively spliced; this rate was slightly lower than the splicing rate of mRNA. Transcription at the start site event was the alternative splicing (AS) event with the highest frequency (28.05%) in peanut lncRNAs, whereas the occurrence rate (30.19%) of intron retention event was the highest in mRNAs. AS changed the target gene profiles of lncRNAs and increased the diversity and flexibility of lncRNAs, which may be important for lncRNAs to execute their functions. Additionally, a substantial number of the peanut AS isoforms generated from protein-encoding genes appeared to be noncoding because they were truncated transcripts; such isoforms can be legitimately regarded as a class of lncRNAs. The predicted target genes of the lncRNAs were involved in a wide range of biological processes. Furthermore, expression pattern of several selected lncRNAs and their target genes were examined under salt stress, results showed that all of them could respond to salt stress in different manners. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided a resource of candidate lncRNAs and expression patterns across tissues, and whether these lncRNAs are functional will be further investigated in our subsequent experiments.

Influence of salt stress on the rhizosphere soil bacterial community structure and growth performance of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.).

Soil salinity is regarded as severe environmental stress that can change the composition of rhizosphere soil bacterial community and import a plethora of harms to crop plants. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between salt stress and root microbial communities in groundnuts. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of salt stress on groundnut growth performance and rhizosphere microbial community structure. Statistical analysis exhibited that salt stress indeed affected groundnut growth and pod yield. Further taxonomic analysis showed that the bacterial community predominantly consisted of phyla Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Saccharibacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, and Cyanobacteria. Among these bacteria, numbers of Cyanobacteria and Acidobacteria mainly increased, while that of Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi decreased after salt treatment via taxonomic and qPCR analysis. Moreover, Sphingomonas and Microcoleus as the predominant genera in salt-treated rhizosphere soils might enhance salt tolerance as plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria. Metagenomic profiling showed that series of sequences related to signaling transduction, posttranslational modification, and chaperones were enriched in the salt-treated soils, which may have implications for plant survival and salt tolerance. These data will help us better understand the symbiotic relationship between the dominant microbial community and groundnuts and form the foundation for further improvement of salt tolerance of groundnuts via modification of soil microbial community.

Influence of Salt Stress on Growth of Spermosphere Bacterial Communities in Different Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Cultivars.

BACKGROUND: Exposure of seeds to high salinity can cause reduced germination and poor seedling establishment. Improving the salt tolerance of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) seeds during germination is an important breeding goal of the peanut industry. Bacterial communities in the spermosphere soils may be of special importance to seed germination under salt stress, whereas extant results in oilseed crop peanut are scarce. METHODS: Here, bacterial communities colonizing peanut seeds with salt stress were characterized using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. RESULTS: Peanut spermosphere was composed of four dominant genera: Bacillus, Massilia, Pseudarthrobacter, and Sphingomonas. Comparisons of bacterial community structure revealed that the beneficial bacteria (Bacillus), which can produce specific phosphatases to sequentially mineralize organic phosphorus into inorganic phosphorus, occurred in relatively higher abundance in salt-treated spermosphere soils. Further soil enzyme activity assays showed that phosphatase activity increased in salt-treated spermosphere soils, which may be associated with the shift of Bacillus. CONCLUSION: This study will form the foundation for future improvement of salt tolerance of peanuts at the seed germination stage via modification of the soil microbes.

Novel mutations of RPGR in Chinese families with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa.

BACKGROUND: RP (retinitis pigmentosa) is a group of hereditary retinal degenerative diseases. XLRP is a relatively severe subtype of RP. Thus, it is necessary to identify genes and mutations in patients who present with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa. METHODS: Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood. The coding regions and intron-exon boundaries of the retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator (RPGR) and RP2 genes were amplified by PCR and then sequenced directly. Ophthalmic examinations were performed to identify affected individuals from two families and to characterize the phenotype of the disease. RESULTS: Mutation screening demonstrated two novel nonsense mutations (c.1541C > G; p.S514X and c.2833G > T; p.E945X) in the RPGR gene. The clinical manifestation of family 1 with mutations in exon 13 was mild. Genotype-phenotype correlation analysis suggested that patients with mutations close to the downstream region of ORF15 in family 2 manifested an early loss of cone function. Family 2 carried a nonsense mutation in ORF15 that appeared to have a semi-dominant pattern of inheritance. All male patients and two female carriers in family 2 manifested pathological myopia (PM), indicating that there may be a distinctive X-linked genotype-phenotype correlation between RP and PM. CONCLUSIONS: We identified two novel mutations of the RPGR gene, which broadens the spectrum of RPGR mutations and the phenotypic spectrum of the disease in Chinese families.

Effect of Drought Stress and Developmental Stages on Microbial Community Structure and Diversity in Peanut Rhizosphere Soil.

BACKGROUND: Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), an important oilseed and food legume, is widely cultivated in the semi-arid tropics. Drought is the major stress in this region which limits productivity. Microbial communities in the rhizosphere are of special importance to stress tolerance. However, relatively little is known about the relationship between drought and microbial communities in peanuts. METHOD: In this study, deep sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was performed to characterize the microbial community structure of drought-treated and untreated peanuts. RESULTS: Taxonomic analysis showed that Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Saccharibacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria and Cyanobacteria were the dominant phyla in the peanut rhizosphere. Comparisons of microbial community structure of peanuts revealed that the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria dramatically increased in the seedling and podding stages in drought-treated soil, while that of Cyanobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes increased in the flowering stage in drought-treated rhizospheres. Metagenomic profiling indicated that sequences related to metabolism, signaling transduction, defense mechanism and basic vital activity were enriched in the drought-treated rhizosphere, which may have implications for plant survival and drought tolerance. CONCLUSION: This microbial communities study will form the foundation for future improvement of drought tolerance of peanuts via modification of the soil microbes.

Correction to: Fine mapping of powdery mildew resistance gene Pm4e in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Unfortunately, the style of the units was incorrectly published ("cm" instead of "cM") throughout the original article.

Fine mapping of powdery mildew resistance gene Pm4e in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

MAIN CONCLUSION: Fine mapping of wheat powdery mildew-resistance gene Pm4e to a 0.19 cM interval with sequence-based markers provides the foundation for map-based cloning and marker-assisted selection with breeder-friendly markers. Powdery mildew caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici is a wheat foliar disease that poses a serious threat to global wheat production. Pm4 is a resistance gene locus that has played a key role in controlling this disease in wheat production and a few resistance alleles of this locus have been identified. We have previously mapped the Pm4e allele to a 6.7 cM interval on chromosome 2AL. In this study, Pm4e was delimited to a 0.19 cM interval flanked by Xwgrc763 and Xwgrc865, through employment of a larger segregating population, derived from the cross of resistant parent D29 with susceptible parent Yangmai 158 (Y158), and enrichment of the genetic interval with markers developed on Chinese Spring (C.S.) survey sequence. In this interval, Pm4e co-segregated with a few markers, some of which were either D29-dominant or Y158-dominant, implying great sequence variation in the interval between D29 and Y158. Most of these co-segregation markers could not differentiate the Pm4 alleles from each other. Survey of 55 wheat cultivars with four co-dominant markers showed that the Pm4e-co-segregating loci always co-exist. Annotation of the Pm4e interval-corresponding C.S. sequence revealed more than a dozen resistance gene analogs clustered in a 2.4 Mb region, although C.S. is susceptible to the Pm4e-avirulent isolate Bgt2. This study has established the foundation for map-based cloning of Pm4e. Moreover, some of the co-dominant markers developed in this study could help in marker-assisted transfer of Pm4e into elite cultivars.

IKBKE promotes glioblastoma progression by establishing the regulatory feedback loop of IKBKE/YAP1/miR-Let-7b/i.

Recently, we have demonstrated that IKBKE (inhibitor of nuclear factor kappa-B kinase subunit epsilon) is overexpressed in human glioblastoma and that inhibition of IKBKE remarkably suppresses the proliferative and invasive behaviour of glioblastoma cells. However, the specific pathogenic molecular mechanism remains to be elucidated. In this study, we verified that IKBKE promotes YAP1 expression via posttranslational modification and accelerates YAP1 translocation to the nucleus for the development of glioblastoma. We then determined that YAP1 negatively regulates miR-let-7b/i by overexpressing and silencing YAP1 expression. In addition, miR-let-7b/i feedback decreases the expression of IKBKE and YAP1 and suppresses the transportation of YAP1 located in the nucleus. Therefore, the regulatory feedback circuit of IKBKE↑→YAP1↑→miR-let-7b/i↓→IKBKE↑ dictates glioblastoma progression. Thus, we propose that blocking the circuit may be a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of glioblastoma.

[Diversity of microbial community structure in the spermosphere of saline-alkali soil in shandong area].

Objective: Three soil types in different salt contents were taken as the experiment objectives. We evaluated the effect of various saline alkali soil types on diversity of bacterial community structure in spermosphere soil during water absorption and germination of peanut seeds. Methods: The V3-V4 region of 16S ribosomal RNA genes was amplified using PCR, and the PCR products were then analyzed using Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology. Results: (1) The diversity of soil bacterial community in saline alkali soil was higher than that in non-saline alkali soil. Especially, the highest diversity was in spermosphere soil from Qingtuo. (2) The microflora structures in different soils were distinct at the class level. Soil bacteria in four samples were classified into six classes, including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Acidobacteria and Firmicutes. Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria groups were dominant in colonies. The analysis of whole samples colony structure showed that the difference of type and abundance at phylum and genus level during different adsorption time was most significant (P<0.05). (3) The analysis of beta diversity and phylogenetic distances of constructed phylogenetic trees revealed that the sequenced clones fell into two major groups within the domain bacteria. Conclusion: The diversity of bacteria community compositions in the high salt content soil was higher. There were obvious differences in microbial community structure of different soil types at class level, primarily in the Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The type and abundance of microbial colonies at both phylum and genus levels were affected by the seed germination time. However, there was no influence on the genetic distance between the samples from the same soil type.

Allicin affects immunoreactivity of osteosarcoma cells through lncRNA CBR3-AS1.

Objective: To analyze the effect of allicin on the immunoreactivity of osteosarcoma (OS) cells and further explore whether its mechanism is related to the long non-coding Ribonucleic Acid (lncRNA) CBR3-AS1/miR-145-5p/GRP78 axis, so as to provide clinical evidence. Methods: The human OS cell line Saos-2 was treated with allicin at 25, 50, and 100 µmol/L, respectively, to observe changes in cell biological behaviors. Subsequently, CBR3-AS1 abnormal expression vectors were constructed and transfected into Saos-2 to discuss their influence on OS. Furthermore, the regulatory relationship between allicin and the CBR3-AS1/miR-145-5p/GRP78 axis was validated by rescue experiments. Finally, a nude mice tumorigenesis experiment was carried out to analyze the effects of allicin and CBR3-AS1/miR-145-5p/GRP78 axis on the growth of living tumors. Alterations in T-lymphocyte subsets were also detected to assess the effect of allicin on OS immunoreactivity. Results: With the increase of allicin concentration, Saos-2 activity decreased and apoptosis increased (P < 0.05). In addition, the expression of CBR3-AS1 and GRP78 decreased after allicin intervention, while miR-145-5p increased (P < 0.05). Silencing CBR3-AS1 led to reduced Saos-2 activity, enhanced apoptosis, and activated mitophagy and endoplasmic reticulum stress (P < 0.05). In the rescue experiment, the effect of CBR3-AS1 on OS cells was reversed by silencing miR-145-5p, while the impact of miR-145-5p was reversed by GRP78. Finally, the tumorigenesis experiment in nude mice confirmed the regulatory effects of allicin and CBR3-AS1/miR-145-5p/GRP78 on tumor growth in vivo. Meanwhile, it was seen that allicin activated CD4+CD8+ in OS mice, confirming that allicin has the effect of activating OS immunoreactivity. Conclusions: Allicin activates OS immunoreactivity and induces apoptosis through the CBR3-AS1/miR-145-5p/GRP78 molecular axis.

A photothermal assisted zinc-air battery cathode based on pyroelectric and photocatalytic effect.

Zinc-air battery as one of the new generations of battery system, its theoretical specific energy is as high as 1086 Wh kg-1, specific capacity up to 820 mAh/g, and zinc has the advantages of environmental friendliness, resource abundance, low cost and good safety, so it has attracted much attention. However, due to its slow reaction kinetic process, zinc-air battery will produce a large charging overpotential usually up to 2 V, it is far beyond the theoretical voltage of 1.65 V, so reducing the overpotential of zinc-air batteries is extremely necessary, and the most common way to solve this problem is to use excellent catalyst cathode to improve the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution kinetics of zinc-air batteries. So we developed a new photothermal assisted zinc-air battery system with Hollow carbon nanosphere@poly (vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene)@CdS(HCN@PVTC@CdS) photocathode, the pyroelectric and photocatalysis effect can effectively promote the reaction kinetics and reduce the reaction overpotential. With the pyroelectric and photocatalysis synergistic effect, the zinc-air has displayed a high discharge potential of 1.33 V and a low charging potential of 1.5 V with good cycle stability. This multi-assist technology with built-in electric and light fields paves the way for the development of high-performance zinc-air batteries and other energy storage systems.

Mitigation of electromagnetic pulses interfering with Thomson parabola ion spectrometers at XG-III laser facility.

The Thomson parabola ion spectrometer is vulnerable to intense electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) generated by a high-power laser interacting with solid targets. A metal shielding cage with a circular aperture of 1 mm diameter is designed to mitigate EMPs induced by a picosecond laser irradiating a copper target in an experiment where additionally an 8-ns delayed nanosecond laser is incident into an aluminum target at the XG-III laser facility. The implementation of the shielding cage reduces the maximum EMP amplitude inside the cage to 5.2 kV/m, and the simulation results indicate that the cage effectively shields electromagnetic waves. However, the laser-accelerated relativistic electrons which escaped the target potential accumulate charge on the surface of the cage, which is responsible for the detected EMPs within the cage. To further alleviate EMPs, a lead wall and an absorbing material (ECCOSORB AN-94) were added before the cage, significantly blocking the propagation of electrons. These findings provide valuable insights into EMP generation in large-scale laser infrastructures and serve as a foundation for electromagnetic shielding design.