A Wooden Carbon-Based Photocatalyst for Water Treatment.

Due to a large number of harmful chemicals flowing into the water source in production and life, the water quality deteriorates, and the use value of water is reduced or lost. Biochar has a strong physical adsorption effect, but it can only separate pollutants from water and cannot eliminate pollutants fundamentally. Photocatalytic degradation technology using photocatalysts uses chemical methods to degrade or mineralize organic pollutants, but it is difficult to recover and reuse. Woody biomass has the advantages of huge reserves, convenient access and a low price. Processing woody biomass into biochar and then combining it with photocatalysts has played a complementary role. In this paper, the shortcomings of a photocatalyst and biochar in water treatment are introduced, respectively, and the advantages of a woody biochar-based photocatalyst made by combining them are summarized. The preparation and assembly methods of the woody biochar-based photocatalyst starting from the preparation of biochar are listed, and the water treatment efficiency of the woody biochar-based photocatalyst using different photocatalysts is listed. Finally, the future development of the woody biochar-based photocatalyst is summarized and prospected.

Isoliquiritigenin attenuates neuroinflammation after subarachnoid hemorrhage through inhibition of NF-κB-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

Neuroinflammation contributes to neurological dysfunction in the patients who suffer from subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Isoliquiritigenin (ISL) is a bioactive component extracted from Genus Glycyrrhiza. This work is to investigate whether ISL ameliorates neuroinflammation after SAH. In this study, intravascular perforation of male Sprague-Dawley rats was used to establish a SAH model. ISL was administered by intraperitoneal injection 6 h after SAH in rats. The mortality, SAH grade, neurological score, brain water content, and blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability were examined at 24 h after the treatment. Expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, Iba-1, and MPO were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Besides, the expression levels of NF-κB p65 and NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, IL-1ß, and IL-18 were analyzed by western blot. The experimental data suggested that ISL treatment could ameliorate neurological impairment, attenuate brain edema, and ameliorate BBB injury after SAH in rats. ISL treatment repressed the expression of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6, and meanwhile inhibited the expression of Iba-1 and MPO. ISL also repressed NF-κB p65 expression as well as the transport from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. In addition, ISL significantly suppressed the expression levels of NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3), ASC, caspase-1, IL-1ß, and IL-18. These findings suggest that ISL inactivates NLRP3 pathway by inhibiting NF-κB p65 translocation, thereby repressing the neuroinflammation after SAH, and it is a potential drug for the treatment of SAH.

Life in biophotovoltaics systems.

As the most suitable potential clean energy power generation technology, biophotovoltaics (BPV) not only inherits the advantages of traditional photovoltaics, such as safety, reliability and no noise, but also solves the disadvantages of high pollution and high energy consumption in the manufacturing process, providing new functions of self-repair and natural degradation. The basic idea of BPV is to collect light energy and generate electric energy by using photosynthetic autotrophs or their parts, and the core is how these biological materials can quickly and low-loss transfer electrons to the anode through mediators after absorbing light energy and generating electrons. In this mini-review, we summarized the biological materials widely used in BPV at present, mainly cyanobacteria, green algae, biological combinations (using multiple microorganisms in the same BPV system) and isolated products (purified thylakoids, chloroplasts, photosystem I, photosystem II), introduced how researchers overcome the shortcomings of low photocurrent output of BPV, pointed out the limitations that affected the development of BPV' biological materials, and put forward reasonable assumptions accordingly.

Advances in Sol-Gel-Based Superhydrophobic Coatings for Wood: A Review.

As the focus of architecture, furniture, and other fields, wood has attracted extensive attention for its many advantages, such as environmental friendliness and excellent mechanical properties. Inspired by the wetting model of natural lotus leaves, researchers prepared superhydrophobic coatings with strong mechanical properties and good durability on the modified wood surface. The prepared superhydrophobic coating has achieved functions such as oil-water separation and self-cleaning. At present, some methods such as the sol-gel method, the etching method, graft copolymerization, and the layer-by-layer self-assembly method can be used to prepare superhydrophobic surfaces, which are widely used in biology, the textile industry, national defense, the military industry, and many other fields. However, most methods for preparing superhydrophobic coatings on wood surfaces are limited by reaction conditions and process control, with low coating preparation efficiency and insufficiently fine nanostructures. The sol-gel process is suitable for large-scale industrial production due to its simple preparation method, easy process control, and low cost. In this paper, the research progress on wood superhydrophobic coatings is summarized. Taking the sol-gel method with silicide as an example, the preparation methods of superhydrophobic coatings on wood surfaces under different acid-base catalysis processes are discussed in detail. The latest progress in the preparation of superhydrophobic coatings by the sol-gel method at home and abroad is reviewed, and the future development of superhydrophobic surfaces is prospected.

Anthocyanins in metabolites of purple corn.

Purple corn (Zea mays L.) is a special variety of corn, rich in a large amount of anthocyanins and other functional phytochemicals, and has always ranked high in the economic benefits of the corn industry. However, most studies on the stability of agronomic traits and the interaction between genotype and environment in cereal crops focus on yield. In order to further study the accumulation and stability of special anthocyanins in the growth process of purple corn, this review starts with the elucidation of anthocyanins in purple corn, the biosynthesis process and the gene regulation mechanism behind them, points out the influence of anthocyanin metabolism on anthocyanin metabolism, and introduces the influence of environmental factors on anthocyanin accumulation in detail, so as to promote the multi-field production of purple corn, encourage the development of color corn industry and provide new opportunities for corn breeders and growers.

Construction of a dual fluorescent reporter system for tracing horizontal transfer of mcr-1-carrying plasmid / 中华预防医学杂志

The green fluorescent reporter gene was inserted into the gene interval of polymyxin resistant mcr-1-carrying plasmid (pSH13G841) by homologous recombination of suicide plasmid. At the same time, E. coli J53 with red fluorescent reporter gene was constructed. Using the ability of spontaneous conjugation of drug resistant plasmid (pSH13G841), pSH13G841-GFP plasmid was transferred into J53 RFP bacteria to construct a double fluorescent labeled donor bacterium. The two light-emitting systems could stably and spontaneously express fluorescence without mutual interference. The dual fluorescence report system constructed can be used for visual tracing horizontal transfer of mcr-1-carrying plasmid, the subsequent model can study the colonization, transfer and prognosis of drug-resistant bacteria/drug-resistant genes mcr-1 by using mouse in vivo imaging technology.

Three-Dimensional Honeycomb-Like Carbon as Sulfur Host for Sodium-Sulfur Batteries without the Shuttle Effect.

Sodium-sulfur batteries operating at ambient temperature are being extensively studied because of the high theoretical capacity and abundant resources, yet the long-chain polysulfides' shuttle effect causes poor cycling performance of Na-S batteries. We report an annealing/etching method to converse low-cost wheat bran to a 3D honeycomb-like carbon with abundant micropores (WBMC), which is smaller than S8 molecular size (∼0.7 nm). Thus, the microporous structure could only fill small molecular sulfur (S2-4). The micropores made sulfur a one-step reaction without the shuttle effect due to the formed short-chain polysulfides being insoluble. The WBMC@S exhibits an excellent initial capacity (1413 mAh g-1) at 0.2 C, outstanding cycling performance (822 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C), and high rate performance (483 mAh g-1 at 3.0 C). The electrochemical performance proves that the steric confinement of micropores effectively terminates the shuttle effect.

Biology and nature: Bionic superhydrophobic surface and principle.

Nature is the source of human design inspiration. In order to adapt to the environment better, creatures in nature have formed various morphological structures during billions of years of evolution, among which the superhydrophobic characteristics of some animal and plant surface structures have attracted wide attention. At present, the preparation methods of bionic superhydrophobic surface based on the microstructure of animal and plant body surface include vapor deposition, etching modification, sol-gel method, template method, electrostatic spinning method and electrostatic spraying method, etc., which have been used in medical care, military industry, shipping, textile and other fields. Based on nature, this paper expounds the development history of superhydrophobic principle, summarizes the structure and wettability of superhydrophobic surfaces in nature, and introduces the characteristics differences and applications of different superhydrophobic surfaces in detail. Finally, the challenge of bionic superhydrophobic surface is discussed, and the future development direction of this field is prospected.

Comparison and Optimization: Research on the Structure of the PET Bottle Bottom Based on the Finite Element Method.

The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage bottle is one of the most common beverage packages in the world, but the bottom of the PET bottle tends to crack due to excessive stress. In this paper, through numerical simulation and finite element analysis, the mechanical properties of four typical geometric models of bottle bottom are studied, and it is determined that "claw flap bottle bottom (CF-bottom)" has the best structure. Then, the shapes of four bottle bottom structures are fine-tuned by using the automatic optimization method. Under the premise of the same material quality, the surface maximum principal stress, the overall maximum principal stress, and the total elastic strain energy of the bottle bottom are reduced by 46.39-71.81%, 38.16-71.50%, and 38.56-61.38%, respectively, while the deformation displacement is also reduced by 0.63 mm-3.43 mm. In contrast to other papers, this paper dispenses with the manual adjustment of various variables, instead adopting automatic shape optimization to obtain a more accurate model. The percentage of maximum principal stress reduction is remarkable, which provides a feasible theoretical guidance for the structural optimization of PET bottle bottom in the production process.

Biomimetic superhydrophobic metal/nonmetal surface manufactured by etching methods: A mini review.

As an emerging fringe science, bionics integrates the understanding of nature, imitation of nature, and surpassing nature in one aspect, and it organically combines the synergistic complementarity of function and structure-function integrated materials which is of great scientific interest. By imitating the microstructure of a natural biological surface, the bionic superhydrophobic surface prepared by human beings has the properties of self-cleaning, anti-icing, water collection, anti-corrosion and oil-water separation, and the preparation research methods are increasing. The preparation methods of superhydrophobic surface include vapor deposition, etching modification, sol-gel, template, electrostatic spinning, and electrostatic spraying, which can be applied to fields such as medical care, military industry, ship industry, and textile. The etching modification method can directly modify the substrate, so there is no need to worry about the adhesion between the coating and the substrate. The most obvious advantage of this method is that the obtained superhydrophobic surface is integrated with the substrate and has good stability and corrosion resistance. In this article, the different preparation methods of bionic superhydrophobic materials were summarized, especially the etching modification methods, we discussed the detailed classification, advantages, and disadvantages of these methods, and the future development direction of the field was prospected.

Advances in Polyethylene Terephthalate Beverage Bottle Optimization: A Mini Review.

Compared with other materials, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has high transparency, excellent physical and mechanical properties in a wide temperature range and good hygiene and safety, so it is widely used in the packaging industry, especially in the packaging of beverages and foods. The optimization of PET bottles is mainly reflected in three aspects: material optimization, structure optimization and process optimization, among which there is much research on material optimization and process optimization, but there is no complete overview on structure optimization. A summary of structural optimization is necessary. Aiming at structural optimization, the finite element method is a useful supplement to the beverage packaging industry. By combining the computer-aided design technology and using finite element software for finite element simulation, researchers can replace the experimental test in the pre-research design stage, predict the effect and save cost. This review summarizes the development of PET bottles for beverage packaging, summarizes various optimization methods for preventing stress cracking in beverage packaging, and especially focuses on comparing and evaluating the effects of several optimization methods for packaging structure. Finally, the future development of all kinds of optimization based on structural optimization in the field of beverage packaging is comprehensively discussed, including personalized design, the combination of various methods and the introduction of actual impact factor calculation.

Computer Simulation of Polyethylene Terephthalate Carbonated Beverage Bottle Bottom Structure Based on Manual-Automatic Double-Adjustment Optimization.

PET bottlesare often used as airtight containers for filling carbonated drinks. Because carbonated drinks contain large volumes of CO2 gas, the container needs to bear a tremendous pressure from the inside of the bottle.If the stress exceeds the bearing limit, the material will show the phenomenon of local cracking and liquid overflow.For the structural design, the method of manual adjustment before automatic adjustment was adopted. First, through manual optimization, the initial optimal parameter combination was as follows:the inner diameter of the bottle bottom was 17 mm, the dip angle of the valley bottom was 81°, the deepest part of the valley bottom was 25 mm, and the outer diameter was 27 mm. Comsol software was used for automatic optimization. Compared with the original bottle bottom, the total maximum principal stress and total elastic strain energy in the bottle bottom after manual-automatic double optimization decreased by 69.4% and 40.0%, respectively, and the displacement caused by deformation decreased by 0.60 mm (74.1%). The extremely high reduction ratio was caused by manual-automatic double optimization.

Drug discovery of sclerostin inhibitors

Sclerostin, a protein secreted from osteocytes, negatively regulates the WNT signaling pathway by binding to the LRP5/6 co-receptors and further inhibits bone formation and promotes bone resorption. Sclerostin contributes to musculoskeletal system-related diseases, making it a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of WNT-related bone diseases. Additionally, emerging evidence indicates that sclerostin contributes to the development of cancers, obesity, and diabetes, suggesting that it may be a promising therapeutic target for these diseases. Notably, cardiovascular diseases are related to the protective role of sclerostin. In this review, we summarize three distinct types of inhibitors targeting sclerostin, monoclonal antibodies, aptamers, and small-molecule inhibitors, from which monoclonal antibodies have been developed. As the first-in-class sclerostin inhibitor approved by the U.S. FDA, the monoclonal antibody romosozumab has demonstrated excellent effectiveness in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis; however, it conferred high cardiovascular risk in clinical trials. Furthermore, romosozumab could only be administered by injection, which may cause compliance issues for patients who prefer oral therapy. Considering these above safety and compliance concerns, we therefore present relevant discussion and offer perspectives on the development of next-generation sclerostin inhibitors by following several ways, such as concomitant medication, artificial intelligence-based strategy, druggable modification, and bispecific inhibitors strategy.

Deciphering Potential Correlations between New Biomarkers and Pattern Classification in Chinese Medicine by Bioinformatics: Two Examples of Rheumatoid Arthritis / 中国结合医学杂志

Biological complexity and the need for personalized medicine means that biomarker development has become increasingly challenging. Thus, new paradigms for research need to be created that bring together a different classifier of individuals. One potential solution is collaboration between biomarker development and Chinese medicine pattern classification. In this article, two examples of rheumatoid arthritis are discussed, including a new biomarker candidate casein kinase 2 interacting protein 1 (CKIP-1) and a micro RNA 214. The authors obtained a "snapshot" of pattern classification with disease in biomarker identification. Bioinformatics analyses revealed underlying biological functions of two biomarker candidates, in varying degrees, are correlated with Chinese medicine pattern of rheumatoid arthritis. The authors' initial attempt can provide a new window for studying the win-win potential correlation between the biomarkers and pattern classification in Chinese medicine.

Advances in metabolic engineering of non-conventional yeasts / 生物工程学报

Over the past 30 years, Yarrowia lipolytica, Kluyveromyces, Pichia, Candida, Hansenula and other non-conventional yeasts have attracted wide attention because of their desirable phenotypes, such as rapid growth, capability of utilizing multiple substrates, and stress tolerance. A variety of synthetic biology tools are being developed for exploitation of their unique phenotypes, making them potential cell factories for the production of recombinant proteins and renewable bio-based chemicals. This review summarizes the gene editing tools and the metabolic engineering strategies recently developed for non-conventional yeasts. Moreover, the challenges and future perspectives for developing non-conventional yeasts into efficient cell factories for the production of useful products through metabolic engineering are discussed.

Achievements of occupational health under the leadership of CPC / 环境与职业医学

Since its founding 100 years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has attached great importance to the occupational health of workers, and closely linked the safeguard of occupational safety and health of workers with the missions of leading the people to stand up, get rich, and become strong. Based on this, the achievements of occupational health work made under the leadership of the CPC since the new democratic revolution, socialist revolution and construction, the new period of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, and socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era were summarized, so as to provide reference for understanding the legacy of China's occupational health undertaking, and innovating to create the future.

Mechanism of Huoxue Tongluo Decoction in treatment of erectile dysfunction caused by ischemic stroke based on network pharmacology / 中草药·英文版

Objective: To study the therapeutic effect of Huoxue Tongluo Decoction (HXTLD) on erectile dysfunction caused by ischemic stroke and identify the mechanisms involved. Methods: Network pharmacology was used to predict the key active ingredients and targets of HXTLD. Surgical methods were used to create a rat model of ischemic stroke. The rats were then given a suspension of HXTLD by ig administration. Erectile function was evaluated by Apomorphine (APO) induction. Real-time fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (Real-time PCR) and Western blotting were used to detect the expression of related mRNAs and proteins in rat penile corpus cavernous tissue and brain tissue. Hematoxylin & Eosin (HE) staining was used to investigate structural changes in the penile cavernous tissue. Results: Network pharmacology showed that tumor necrosis factor (TNF), nitric oxide synthase 3 (eNOS), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were the key targets of HXTLD in the treatment of erectile dysfunction caused by ischemic stroke. Experimental studies showed that HXTLD improved erectile dysfunction caused by ischemic stroke. HE results showed that HXTLD improved the structure of the corpus cavernosa. HXTLD also inhibited the expression of TNF and VEGF proteins in penile tissue (P < 0.05) and enhanced the expression of eNOS protein in penile tissue (P < 0.05). Conclusion: HXTLD improved the erectile function of rats with erectile dysfunction caused by ischemic stroke by regulating the mRNA and protein levels of TNF, eNOS and VEGF.

Coherent combination of two intracavity eigenmodes producing linearly polarized emission in an isotropic laser.

The behavior of directly linearly polarized emission was investigated in an isotropic Nd:YAG laser with a weakly anisotropic Fabry-Perot cavity. In order to explore the polarization mechanism, the intracavity eigenmodes were analyzed theoretically. A theoretical model was developed and shown to be suitable for describing the orientation-dependent beam profiles of the polarizer-specific features observed in experiments. This model indicates that the linear polarization emission results from the coherently combined state of intracavity eigenmodes as opposed to an intrinsic polarization state. The coherent combination is attributed to the frequency degeneracy and spontaneous phase locking of polarized eigenmodes. For the first time, the polarization coupling mechanism based on the coherent combination of eigenmodes in an isotropic solid-state laser was demonstrated. Moreover, this study also contributes an effective method to judge different types of linear polarization states.

Progress in 11ß-HSD1 inhibitors for the treatment of metabolic diseases: A comprehensive guide to their chemical structure diversity in drug development.

11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11ß-HSD1) is a key metabolic enzyme that catalyzing the intracellular conversion of inactive glucocorticoids to physiologically active ones. Work over the past decade has demonstrated the aberrant overexpression of 11ß-HSD1 contributed to the pathophysiological process of metabolic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndromes. The inhibition of 11ß-HSD1 represented an attractive therapeutic strategy for the treatment of metabolic diseases. Therefore, great efforts have been devoted to developing 11ß-HSD1 inhibitors based on the diverse molecular scaffolds. This review focused on the structural features of the most important 11ß-HSD1 inhibitors and categorized them into natural products derivatives and synthetic compounds. We also briefly discussed the optimization process, binding modes, structure-activity relationships (SAR) and biological evaluations of each inhibitor. Moreover, the challenges and directions for 11ß-HSD1 inhibitors were discussed, which might provide some useful clues to guide the future discovery of novel 11ß-HSD1 inhibitors.

Culture methods of inducing embryonic stem cells to differentiate into retinal pigment epithelial cells / 国际眼科杂志(Guoji Yanke Zazhi)

@#Retinal degenerative disease can lead to decreased vision, which is a blinding ophthalmopathy caused by irreversible damage or apoptosis of retinal pigment epithelium(RPE)cells or photoreceptor cells, often resulting in visual impairment or even blindness. Human embryonic stem cells(hESCs)are a kind of multi-directional differentiation cells. By appropriate methods, hESCs can be differentiated into various retinal cells. Since human PRE cells cannot be regenerated, studies have shown that the clinical treatment of retinopathy with stem cell derived RPE cell transplantation has practical prospects and has made a breakthrough in recent years. Due to the limitations of multiple factors, the selection of methods and the complexity of induction conditions, the efficiency of induced differentiation of RPE and the survival rate after transplantation vary greatly and are unstable. Therefore, the current researches should focus on how to integrate different culture methods, take advantages and eliminate disadvantages, so as to improve the directed differentiation efficiency of hESCs, as well as the number and quality of induced cells, thus reducing culture pollution and immune rejection and so on. Here, we will summarize the current examples of various culture methods and give a review from different perspectives.